By CHE, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
It’s not often that a king goes on his knees to beg a hermit to become a bishop. But this is what happened to Cuthbert in AD 685. A great synod of church leaders presided over by Archbishop Theodore, in the presence of King Ecgfrith, elected Cuthbert as the new Bishop of Lindisfarne. Official letters were sent out, but Cuthbert ignored the request. Finally, as Bede the church historian tells us, ‘The King himself and that most holy bishop, Trumwine, with numerous devout and influential personages sailed across, knelt down and adjured him by the Lord, and wept and pleaded with him, until at last he came forth, very tearful, from his beloved hiding-place and was taken to the synod.’ What was so special about a hermit living on a remote and desolate tiny island off the Northumbrian coast?
Cuthbert grew up near Melrose in Scotland, and as a young man he saw a vision one night of the soul of Aidan of Lindisfarne being taken to heaven. Waking up his shepherd friends on the hills, he excitedly told them God had called him to become a monk. He entered the old Melrose Abbey by the banks of the River Tweed. The prior of the abbey was Boisil, whom Bede says was ‘a priest of great virtues and prophetic spirit… who gave him instruction in the Scriptures and showed him an example of holy life.’ This good role model influenced Cuthbert and he went on to become one of the best loved saints of Northumbria and Scotland, being based as abbot of the community on Lindisfarne. In those years his reputation as a holy man spread far and wide resulting in ‘great numbers of people coming to him not just from Lindisfarne but even from the remote parts of Britain, attracted by his reputation for miracles… Spirits that were chilled with sadness he could warm back to hope again with a pious word. Those beset with worry he brought back to thoughts of the joys of heaven. He showed them that both good fortune and bad were transitory in this world. To men beset with temptation he would skilfully disclose all the wiles of the devil, explaining that a soul lacking in love for God and man is easily caught in the devil’s nets, while one who is strong in faith can, with God’s grace, brush them aside like so many spiders’ webs.’
Cuthbert experienced many miracles of God’s provision, of healings, prophecies, and deliverance of people bound by evil spirits. But his passion was being alone with God and his John’s Gospel on Inner Farne. It was from here that King Ecgfrith and the leaders begged him to come and be Bishop of Lindisfarne, a huge district in those days, which stretched from the island of Lindisfarne, right up to Edinburgh, where he is thought to have consecrated the first known church there. At last he got his wish and retired for a short while on Inner Farne where he died and was mourned for deeply by his fellow monks. His body was finally laid to rest in Durham Cathedral.