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
Introduction
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
St Cuthbert still commands a devotion in the north of England. Every year in the warmer months, pilgrim walkers take their shoes off to cross the tidal causeway from the mainland, south of Berwick, to Lindisfarne, following a rough path across the wet sands from post to post and passing the raised wooden refuge designed to shelter anyone caught out by the rising tides. When they arrive, they can visit the remains of the medieval priory, see a small exhibition about the monastery’s Anglo-Saxon foundation and enter the parish church built from a sandstone so pockmarked by the wind and salt that it has become a sort of honeycomb. Two monumental wood sculptures of Cuthbert by the contemporary sculptor Fenwick Lawson – the saint seated in meditation, in the ruined cloister, and his coffin borne by six bearers, in the parish church – extend the experience of sanctity into the present day. Artists and devotional writers are still making marks and forming representations of the saint, just as they always have done.
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- Information
- The Afterlife of St CuthbertPlace, Texts and Ascetic Tradition, 690–1500, pp. 1 - 11Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020