St Cuthbert's House

The life of St Cuthbert is surprisingly well documented for a saint of the seventh century. Four “Lives” were written in the years following his death, when the discovery of his incorrupt body led to an upsurge in fervour for the cult of the saint, who had previously only been known as a local man of virtue, and a “miracle-worker”. The first “Life” written by an anonymous source just 11 years after his death, is short, pithy and full of local (Northumbrian) flavour. The responsibility was then passed to St Bede at the Monastery of Jarrow, to give a more ecclesial version of his life – his roles as prior, hermit and bishop are more fully emphasised, and Bede seasons his writings with frequent references to Holy Scripture. His intention is clearly to present Cuthbert as a model of Christ, and worthy of our attention and imitation.

The scribe of Durham chose to illustrate a number of the incidents from Bede’s “Life of Cuthbert”. There are 41 extant manuscripts. The book of manuscripts was initially presented (hung around his neck!) to William Fitzherbert, Archbishop of York, when he visited Durham Cathedral to celebrate his cousin, Hugh de Puiset, being installed as Bishop of Durham in 1153.

The manuscripts were eventually collected together again in the nineteenth century by a Master-collector, Henry Yates Thomson (1838-1928), who later donated them to the British Library, where they can be viewed. The Life of Cuthbert is the first British Library manuscript from the Yates Thompson collection to be made available on Digitised Manuscripts. You can find out more here: A Menagerie of Miracles: The Illustrated Life of St Cuthbert – Medieval manuscripts blog (typepad.co.uk)