SAINTS IN THE CELTIC TRADITION

CELTIC TRADITION

ST CUTHBERT: MARCH 20

It is unlikely that St Patrick will cavil at the choice of the March issue of Reality to introduce a new series on Celtic saints! We begin with the story of Cuthbert, a greatly loved saint of mediaeval England. Although Ireland, England and Scotland all lay claim to his birthplace, it is curious that St Bede, the historian of the English people, omits any reference to his nationality. Canon John O’Hanlon, having thoroughly investigated, says that “the weight of evidence tends to establish the probable conclusion, that he was born in our country” (ie Ireland) and goes on to favour Leinster, particularly the Kells area of Co. Meath, as Cuthbert’s birthplace.

Bede’s first reference to our saint is as an eight-year-old child living in the care of a widow in Northumbria. In his second reference Cuthbert, now in his late teens, abandons his work as a shepherd on the Lammermoor Hills on the borders of Scotland and England in favour of entering religious life. He gets on his horse, travels to Melrose and seeks admittance to the community. The year is 651. As the name indicates, Melrose is a bare promontory (Maol Ros) where the River Tweed loops around three sides of a spit of high ground chosen by St Aidan of Lindisfarne as the site of his second monastery in Northumbria.

Here under abbot Eata, Cuthbert was trained in religious life along the traditional lines of Irish monasticism. During the particularly bad outbreak of the Yellow Plague in 664, Cuthbert was stricken. The monks prayed hard for him, spending whole nights in prayer. On hearing this Cuthbert exclaimed: “What am I doing in bed? It is impossible that God should shut his ears to such prayer. Give me my staff and sandals!”

Though a contemplative monk, Cuthbert was the missionary par excellence who spent the best years of his life on horseback or on foot in the Borders and throughout Northumbria. Kind to rich and poor, he would visit homes, drop in to see an old woman who had been mother to him in bygone days, preach, give nuns’ retreats, celebrate the sacraments, encourage people in prayer and comfort them in their trials, all the while living his ‘life in Christ’.

At the stormy Synod of Whitby in 664, St Colman, then bishop of Lindisfarne, had been publicly ridiculed and morale in his community was low. There was no better person than Cuthbert to undertake such a sensitive task. Eata, the Saxon abbot of Melrose, sent him to Lindisfarne. The ever-gentle Cuthbert worked daily miracles of healing. Around 676, he set up a hermitage for himself on a tidal island – St Cuthbert’s Island – a stone’s throw from the front door of the monastery. The spot proved altogether too convenient for people seeking him out, and in consequence he moved to the innermost of the Farne Islands.

His hopes for peace and quiet were dashed once more when Cuthbert was appointed bishop of Lindisfarne. For two years he fulfilled the office faithfully and then, finding his health failing, he retired once more to the Inner Farne hermitage where he gave up his spirit to the Lord on March 20, 687.

Cuthbert’s body was buried in Lindisfarne and, after many translations, it finally rested in Durham Cathedral from the 10th-16th century. In 1537, the agents of King Henry VIII rifled the shrine of Durham, at which time the saint’s body was removed to a secret location known only, it is said, to some members of the English Benedictines.

John J. Ó Ríordáin CSsR

Reality

Volume 88. No. 2 March 2022 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960

Published by The Irish Redemptorists, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org

(With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Editor Triona Doherty editor@redcoms.org Design & Layout

Tanika Design

Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Accounts Dearbhla Cooney accounts@redcoms.org Printed by

W&G Baird Printers, Belfast

Photo Credits

Shutterstock, Trócaire, Wikimedia Commons

REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS

Through a promoter (Ireland only) €20 or £18 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €25 or £20 UK £30 Europe €40 Rest of the world €50 Please send all payments to:

Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC

ADVERTISING

Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them. When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it on or recycle it. Thank you.

REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS

St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC

Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Email: sales@redcoms.org Web: www.redcoms.org

Promoters: We keep all of our promoters in our prayers and thank them for their loyal service in selling Reality. We remember in our prayers sick and deceased promoters and their families.