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St Cuthbert

Cuthbert didn’t want to become a Bishop, but leadership was thrust upon him. He went on to become the one considered by many to be the greatest English saint. He travelled the region to preach, before spending nine years as a hermit on the island of Inner Farne. His monks fled with Cuthbert’s remains to escape the Vikings. After a time at Lindisfarne, Cuthbert’s body was moved to the mainland and eventually entombed at Durham where the magnificent Norman Cathedral was built over him.

Cuthbert, though perhaps not ethnically Celtic, was inspired to become a Monk at the time of the death of Aidan. He was trained in the Celtic tradition at Melrose Abby in Northumbria. Cuthbert was a man of prayer, spending those nine years living as a religious hermit on the small Island of Inner Farne near Lindisfarne. He had the Celtic Monks’ love of nature and animals, and is considered the first Conservationist: protecting and saving the Eider Duck from extinction. He held the Celtic view of what the role of Bishop should be: a Missionary Bishop in the tradition of St. Patrick, and an Evangelist like the Apostles. As Bishop of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert preached to the pagan Angles (early English) of Northumbria and northern England, bringing many to Christ. He finally returned to his beloved hermitage where he lived for only a year more, before going home to be with the Lord at the age of only 53.