Discernment: Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert: Chapter VI
This marks the beginning of a deep friendship between Boisil and Cuthbert. The friendship of hermits is not often explored, and we shall dig a bit deeper in a later piece.
In Bede’s account, the initial reference to Cuthbert is again scriptural “Behold the servant of the Lord”. In echoing the words of Jesus to Nathanael (“an Israelite in who there is no guile” (John 1:47)), Boisil is assuming the persona of Jesus (as prior of the monastery), and foresees in spirit “how great the man whom he saw was going to be in his manner of life”. Bede is guiding us again towards Cuthbert (and Boisil) as exemplars of Gospel virtue.
HOW, AS HE WAS COMING TO A MONASTERY, BOISIL, A HOLY MAN, BORE TESTIMONY TO HIM BY PROPHESYING IN SPIRIT
MEANWHILE this reverend servant of God, abandoning worldly things, hastens to submit to monastic discipline, having been excited by his heavenly vision to covet the joys of everlasting happiness, and invited by the food with which God had supplied him to encounter hunger and thirst in his service. He knew that the Church of Lindisfarne contained many holy men, by whose teaching and example he might be instructed, but he was moved by the great reputation of Boisil, a monk and priest of surpassing merit, to choose for himself an abode in the abbey of Melrose. And it happened by chance, that when he was arrived there, and had leaped from his horse, that he might enter the church to pray, he gave his horse and travelling spear to a servant, for he had not yet resigned the dress and habits of a layman.
Boisil was standing before the doors of the monastery, and saw him first. Foreseeing in spirit what an illustrious man the stranger would become, he made this single remark to the bystanders: ” Behold a servant of the Lord ! ” herein imitating Him who said of Nathaniel, when he approached Him, ” Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile ! ” I was told this by that veteran priest and servant of God, the pious Sigfrid, for he was standing by when Boisil said these words, and was at that time a youth studying the first rudiments of the monastic life in that same monastery, but now he is a man, perfect in the Lord, living in our monastery of Yarrow, and amid the last sighs of his fainting body thirsting for a happy entrance into another life. Boisil, without saying more, kindly received Cuthbert as he approached; and when he had heard the cause of his coming, namely, that he preferred the monastery to the world, he kept him near himself, for he was the prior of that same monastery.
Cuthbert embraced by Boisil at Melrose Abbey.
After a few days, when Eata, who was at that time priest and abbot of the monastery, but afterwards bishop of Lindisfarne, was come, Boisil told him about Cuthbert, how that he was a young man of a promising disposition, and obtained permission that he should receive the tonsure, and be enrolled among the brethren. When he had thus entered the monastery, he conformed himself to the rules of the place with the same zeal as the others, and indeed, sought to surpass them by observing stricter discipline; and in reading, working, watching, and praying, he fairly outdid them all. Like the mighty Samson of old, he carefully abstained from every drink which could intoxicate; but was not able to abstain equally from food, lest his body might be thereby rendered less able to work: for he was of a robust frame arid of unimpaired strength, and fit for any labour which he might be disposed to take in hand.
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Perhaps what is most useful about this chapter is the process of discernment which it unfolds. We have seen Cuthbert growing up, experiencing something of a conversion at quite a young age, and since that time as Bede records, “wholly given to the Lord”. As he reached young adulthood, Cuthbert begins to seek out the possibility of monastic life. The monastery of Lindesfarne was renowned for its learning and holiness, but Cuthbert chooses instead the much humbler abbey of Melrose, “learning beforehand of the fame of the sublime virtues of the monk and priest Boisil”.
So Cuthbert first discerns his vocation, and then researches the most suitable place for himself to commit to it. But it is not his decision to make.
When he arrives, Boisil greets him warmly – that must have felt both affirming and unnerving to a young man who, with both horse and spear, “had not yet put off his secular habit”. To reinforce the sense of a communal witness to Cuthbert’s arrival and welcome, Bede invokes the name of a witness: Sigfrith, who is still living in the Jarrow monastery with Bede. A living eyewitness!
But even Boisil’s (and implicitly Sigfrith’s) approval is not sufficient. Eata (Abbot of Lindesfarne) next arrives, and examines Cuthbert and considering him a suitable candidate, admits him to receive the tonsure, the habit, and to join the novitiate. The discernment of Cuthbert’s vocation is an active, engaging thing. Even when Cuthbert later wishes to live in greater solitude, he asks permission from the community, and his eventual removal further out to the Farne islands is clearly negotiated with his brothers and his superiors. In later life when he is called on by the discernment of the brothers to become their new Bishop of Lindesfarne, he responds willingly, if reluctantly.
Every vocation to the Consecrated Life is a process of ongoing discernment, both of the candidate/incumbent, and of their community. It is never, ultimately, an individual project. Canon 603 nominates the local diocese as the “community” with which the hermit is obligated to engage. The hermit promises obedience to God, but into the hands of the local bishop. The hermit must create and write the Rule of Life, but the bishop must approve it.
A couple of quotes for you: there is a commentary to Canon 603 which was made available in 2022 by the Congregation (now dicastery) for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life. You can link to it here: ponam_in_deserto_IFSB.pdf (odd translation – I think it is Google translated!) The The document title “Ponam in Deserto” (henceforward PiD) is translated into “The hermit life form in the particular Church”, and explores deeper some of the tradition and spirituality which underlies Canon 603 and offers guidance as to how it might best be implemented in a diocese.
On discernment it states: “Ecclesial recognition implies acceptance into the particular Church, through confirmation, direction and accompaniment by the diocesan bishop. It is a delicate process of discernment which postulates for its full realisation the ecclesial exercise of synodality, in which faithful and pastors, together, choose the steps of communion to be accomplished in the building up of the Kingdom of God, so that each may know the hope of their own vocation. The link with the pastor of the local Church takes on particular canonical value in the case of the public profession of the evangelical counsels.” TLF 12
The hermit does not discern alone. It is a personal and a Church project, not an individual one!
The Church recognises the lives of hermits … by the public profession in the hands of the diocesan bishop [of] the three evangelical counsels … and a proper program of living under the bishop’s direction. Canon 603
I’ve lived the life of a solitary for a good part of my life yet occasionally I still have dubiums.
This question has been running through my head for over 20 years or so. I ask myself: to what degree, is being ‘called’ a faculty that is given? To put in another way: Is faculty dispensed wholly by God? Or is it partly dispensed and dependant on the needs ands demands in the Body of the Church ie its clergy and its lay members?
I guess we all have our talents, yet I was never ‘called’ to be either a tinker, tailor or to join the army.
I’m embarrassed to ask this question, yet I believe that there is a mystical synergy at play between God Jesus Christ and the members of His church.
St. Benedict Joseph Labre is the patron saint of my hermitage.
As Sister O’Neal puts it, hermitage is a vocation ‘for the second-part or second-half of life’, ie, 35 yrs old, plus. I’m soon 50 and do better than a lot of my younger colleagues. Yet I’m still here discerning.
When I contemplate over this there is one thing that comes to mind like a crack of thunder: ‘So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. ‘But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked’ – Revelation 3:16.
I think I’ll need a chat with a priest. I think I really should.
Wishing you at Sr. Denton a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for simply being there.
PS: before I forget. Many years ago I was researching the use of ‘portable altars’ in western europe and comparing them to those used by the Oriental Orthodox congregations. Did you know St. Cuthbert used one? Apparently it was buried with him, and that is exactly how I came to find your first website. Lol! For so long I’ve been wanting to tell you that. I’m glad now I have.
God Bless You so much.
In Christ be blessed – All will be well.