Vita Sancti Cuthberti
The Vita Sancti Cuthberti (English: "Life of Saint Cuthbert") is a prose hagiography from early medieval Northumbria.
[2] The work is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert (Old English: Cuðberht), sometime Melrose monk, hermit of Farne and bishop of Lindisfarne who died on 20 March 687.
[6] The Anonymous Life was organised into four books; though this was not common in the literature of the day, it followed the organization of the metrical Vita Sancti Martini of Venantius Fortunatus, Gregory of Tours' De Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Dialogi of Gregory the Great (containing an account of the life of Benedict of Nursia).
[8] The Anonymous Life's biggest literary influence was the Christian Scriptures,[9] though it also borrowed some of the stories contained in Gregory's Dialogi, Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini and the Vita Sancti Antonii, Evagrius' Latin translation of Athanasius' biography of Anthony the Great.
[13] The posthumous miracles set after Cuthbert's translation in 698 make 699 the earliest possible date for a completed text.
[15] Heinrich Hahn in 1883 put a case for Herefrith, the abbot of Lindisfarne mentioned as a source by Bede in his own Vita of the saint.
[15] While offering Baldhelm and Cynemund (two other sources of Bede) as better candidates, Colgrave did not endorse either and declared that "it must always be a matter of conjecture".
[24] This manuscript contains works of saints Cyprian, Jerome, and Augustine, as well as hymn lyrics and music dedicated to Martin of Tours and Bertin of St Omer.
[24] Here the Anonymous Life forms part of a larger legendary copied in the 12th century, with fifty-seven surviving vitae covering saints with feast days in the first three months of the year (January, February and March).
[29] Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Latin 5289, written in the 14th century, contains the last extant version of the Anonymous Life.
[33] The Anonymous Life has been published four times in the modern era: The Bollandist version was based on St Omer 267 and Trier Public Library 1151.
[7] Chapters one and two of book i consist of the prologue and preface, with the author indicating that the work was commissioned by Bishop Eadfrith.
[38] Far to the south, a young Cuthbert is travelling during the winter and crosses the river Wear at Chester-le-Street, taking shelter in one of the empty summer dwellings; suffering from lack of food, his horse pulls down warm bread and meat from the roof of the dwelling (chapter six).
[39] Book i ends with the anonymous author making mention of several other miracles of Cuthbert's youth without going into detail: how God provided food for him in camp with his army against an enemy, how he saw the soul of a reeve taken up to the sky, his defeat of some demons, and his cure of the insane (chapter seven).
[42] Cuthbert, having been invited to the monastery of Coldingham by Abbess Æbbe, is followed by a cleric to the beach where he keeps one of his night-time vigils; the cleric sees two sea-animals emerge from the waves to clean and rub Cuthbert's feet; the author of the Anonymous Life was told this by a priest of Melrose called Plecgils (chapter three).
[43] In the following chapter Cuthbert and two brothers, having sailed to the land of the Picts, become hungry in the territory of the Niuduera (probably in eastern Fife)[44] waiting for the sea to calm in order to resume their voyage; their hunger is relieved however when three slices of prepared dolphin meat is found on the beach, enough to feed them for three days; the story was reported to the author by a priest named Tydi, still living as the work was authored (chapter four).
Having served as prior of Melrose for some time performing other miracles (omitted by the author), Cuthbert departs for Lindisfarne at the instigation of Bishop Eata; designing a monastic rule for the monks there, Cuthbert seeks a more solidary existence on the island of Farne, defeats the demons there and begins to build a residence (chapter one).
[56] Cuthbert becomes bishop of Lindisfarne at the beginning of book iv, accepting the position only with reluctance and continuing his monastic style of life (chapters one and two).
[69] A monk from the household of Bishop Willbrord, visiting Lindisfarne, was taken by serious illness but was cured after praying at Cuthbert's coffin (chapter sixteen).
[71] The author ends the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert declaring that he has omitted many other miracles in order to avoid overburdening his reader (chapter eighteen).
[75] Bede adds some details in his own accounts but, in the words of historian Antonia Gransden "most of his additions are verbal and hagiographical trimmings".
[77] The Anonymous Life suggests that Cuthbert began his career at Ripon, whereas Bede shows that it was in fact Melrose.
