Book contents
- The Afterlife of St Cuthbert
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
- The Afterlife of St Cuthbert
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Blessings on Pregnant Seals: Constructing Cuthbert’s Asceticism in His Anonymous and Bedan vitae, and the Historia ecclesiastica, 690–740
- Chapter 2 Travels with My Coffin: The Dislocation and Defence of the Community of St Cuthbert in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 793–1050
- Chapter 3 The Bishop in the Rain: Celebrating the New Order in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio, Old English Durham and the Capitula de miraculis et translationibus sancti Cuthberti, 1066–1140
- Chapter 4 Expansions and Contractions of Saintly Space in Two Cuthbertine Miracle Collections: Reginald of Durham’s Libellus de admirandis, and De mirabilibus, 1150–1210
- Chapter 5 Godric of Finchale, Bartholomew of Farne and the ‘Irish’ Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti: Three Eremitic Responses to St Cuthbert, 1150–1210
- Chapter 6 Delimiting Sanctity in Two Meditations from Farne Island: The Exortacio ad contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210–1370
- Chapter 7 Vernacular Epitomes and Encyclopedias: Southern Legendaries and the Metrical Life of St Cuthbert, 1270–1500
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
Chapter 6 - Delimiting Sanctity in Two Meditations from Farne Island: The Exortacio ad contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210–1370
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2020
- The Afterlife of St Cuthbert
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
- The Afterlife of St Cuthbert
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Blessings on Pregnant Seals: Constructing Cuthbert’s Asceticism in His Anonymous and Bedan vitae, and the Historia ecclesiastica, 690–740
- Chapter 2 Travels with My Coffin: The Dislocation and Defence of the Community of St Cuthbert in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 793–1050
- Chapter 3 The Bishop in the Rain: Celebrating the New Order in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio, Old English Durham and the Capitula de miraculis et translationibus sancti Cuthberti, 1066–1140
- Chapter 4 Expansions and Contractions of Saintly Space in Two Cuthbertine Miracle Collections: Reginald of Durham’s Libellus de admirandis, and De mirabilibus, 1150–1210
- Chapter 5 Godric of Finchale, Bartholomew of Farne and the ‘Irish’ Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti: Three Eremitic Responses to St Cuthbert, 1150–1210
- Chapter 6 Delimiting Sanctity in Two Meditations from Farne Island: The Exortacio ad contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210–1370
- Chapter 7 Vernacular Epitomes and Encyclopedias: Southern Legendaries and the Metrical Life of St Cuthbert, 1270–1500
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
Summary
This chapter explores two texts produced in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: the Exortacio ad contemplacionem, and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne. It argues that the Exortacio retains thematic ties with the topographical interests of Geoffrey’s Vita Bartholomaei, but exchanges its earlier assertions of heroic presence for a contemporary stance of abjection and deprivation. There is no efficacious saint in this poem, only the unremitting hostility of the natural elements. By contrast, the Meditaciones disregards the physical environment altogether. Turning rapturously to Christ and his prophets and apostles in their bibical milieu, it advances Cuthbertine asceticism to previously unscaled heights, comprising one of the most overlooked landmarks in late medieval contemplative composition. Nonetheless, the text’s approach to the Anglo-Saxon saint who has given Farne its contemplative potential remains uneasy, and the chapter demonstrates that Cuthbert is substantially delimited in force in favour of a pantheon of biblical saints.
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- Information
- The Afterlife of St CuthbertPlace, Texts and Ascetic Tradition, 690–1500, pp. 139 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020