Att text: Richard Sharpe (1983) suggested that the Libellus de nativitate Sancti Cuthberti was written by Reginald of Durham, but this attribution has since been rejected. Later scholarship, especially Thomas Owen Clancy’s 2003 study, argues that the text is instead a composite of Scottish sources, is stylistically unlikely to be by Reginald, and was probably written in Scotland, though the exact place remains uncertain.

Sharpe, R. (1983) ‘Were the Irish annals known to a twelfth-century Northumbrian writer?’, Peritia, 2, pp. 137–139.
Clancy, T.O. (2003) ‘Magpie Hagiography in Twelfth-Century Scotland: The Case of Libellus de nativitate sancti Cuthberti’, in Cartwright, J. (ed.) Celtic Hagiography and Saints’ Cults. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 216–231.

Preface #

¹ For many years, as I privately turned over in my mind what I should commit to perpetual memory in writing for the honour of the venerable father Cuthbert, I burned with the more vehement spirit as I desired to learn things more exalted and worthy of relation. For the power of God had worked very many miracles on account of his illustrious merits in various regions, which no one had yet left set down in writing and commended to the memory of those to come. Investigating these diligently, and inquiring of them more carefully from those who had seen them and been present, I stored up in the treasury of my heart such things as were worthy, and proposed to weave them into certain little works. Of these I showed one to my friends, the little book being finished as best I could. Amid these literary labours a certain little quire fell into my hands, which set out the birth of blessed Cuthbert in the parts of Ireland, sprung from a royal and likewise noble seed, and showed plainly enough in what followed how he reached the shores of England. Meanwhile the blessed father Cuthbert, propitious to the prayers of our desire, as I believe, shone kindly upon us; for he sent us Bishop Eugenius of Harundel, a man of sacred reputation and life, born in Ireland, who by his testimony confirmed what we had previously learned about blessed Cuthbert’s birth, and revealed to us by his illustrious narration not a few other things of which we formerly knew nothing. For he asserted most truly that he was born in Ireland of royal seed, and expounded the names of the place and the city in which he was born more clearly than any other. Among other things which he related of our holy Cuthbert from early childhood, he said that King Muriadach was his father, who in those days had by his probity subjected the kingdom of all Ireland to his sway under the sceptre of monarchy, and of whose strength and power he had read much in their books; but that his mother was called Sabina, who, for the piety of her holiness and her wonderful life, is now held in the greatest veneration in that land, and is reckoned among the elect of God. So also her sacred relics are laid up in the more sacred places of the churches, and her memory is kept with yearly observance where she rests. The other things which he related of them we have inserted in fitting places in the history, since it is not fitting that we should be too diffuse in a little preface and too brief in the history itself. He testified, however, that the mother, leaving the boy in the bounds of the Scots, returned to her own country, and there, living religiously among them in a church, died in the habit of a holy nun. After his account and the truthful attestation of others — namely Archbishop Mathias, and Saint Malachy and Gilbert and Alan, bishops, and certain veteran priests of Ireland, and also monks, disciples of the holy Archbishop Malachy — we applied our hand the more confidently, and inserted their sayings and testimonies into the following little work, as the course of the history demands. Other things are fitted to their proper places, which we learned from others or found written in the books of the Scots. Relying on these testimonies, we devoutly offer the gifts of our labour to the gracious Confessor of the Lord, Cuthbert; whom we beseech with the eager devotion of a ready mind that he may deign to accept them, just as our desires in these things are eager and devoted to his honour.

Here ends the Preface.

Chapter One #

Here begins the little book on the birth of Saint Cuthbert.

¹ Cuthbert, the jewel of the sacred priests in Christ Jesus and the noble glory of confessors, is said to have been born of the royal stock of the Irish; and he was so reared from royal stock that he is deservedly proclaimed the flower and jewel of bishops. For, born of a royal father, he was likewise sprung from a king’s daughter. For thus it is read written in the most ancient annals of the Irish, to which the greater credence is given. There was in Ireland a noble king, of the very noble blood of the magnates, who by native royal dignity presided in majesty over all. For, descended from ancestral kings, he was by the laws of nature set over the kings of Ireland with sceptre-bearing power. He served the King of heaven continually by the merit of his character, and adorned the Christian faith, which he had received, with pious works. He held the kingdom gloriously for many days in the most noble city of the Irish, which at that time was called Lainestri, and adorned it daily, as far as he could, with the works of Christ.

Chapter Two #

¹ Another king, therefore, who held another kingdom nearby in those same parts of Ireland, envied him that happiness and glory, the instigator of wickedness urging him on; and what the sower of envy could not effect by his own cunning, he strove to accomplish by the shameless wickedness of his members; and he who had long since abandoned the state of eternal rest resolved to disturb the peace of the religious king with his deadly satellite. So the king who then disposed the kingdom in Connathe, which was nearby, hastened to attack his kingdom with guile and cunning. He lay in wait like a lion, devising hidden iniquity to destroy the innocent Christian king. He was indeed so fierce and ruthless that he was treacherous and hateful to all his neighbours, and the savagery of his iniquitous perversity armed the shamelessness of his foolish daring; so that he showed reverence neither to God nor to man in anything. Gathering, therefore, all the satellites and comrades of his wickedness, and whomsoever he could summon or hire, young and old alike, he went out by night with swords and clubs; and him whom he could not overcome in wakefulness he hastened to extinguish by suffocating him in nightly slumber; and him whom he did not presume to harass or attack in open warfare he was busy dishonouring or confounding by crafty and hidden treachery. From the city called Connathe, therefore, he set out under cover of night, that the peaceable king might be killed in the silence of repose. And so he secretly killed the Christian king as he slept, and left not one of his household army alive; he smothered his wife and sons at the throat, and wished to spare none of so noble a royal offspring except a most tender little girl, upon whom for shame he blushed to lay hands. Nothing, therefore, that drew the life of human seed did he leave at all, save only the little girl, to whom, shame alone preventing him, he granted life by sparing her.

Chapter Three #

¹ Let this not seem too rash to any of the faithful, however: that a just man should endure punishment by submitting to an unjust exactor. For the True One is sometimes, by God’s disposing, given over to the deceitful, and the wicked man often afflicts the guiltless righteous man, that he may be purged. And this is a sufficiently probable test of the righteous, when they patiently bear and endure adversities, for the discipline of humility and the example of holy living. Blessed, therefore, is the innocence of true purity which is known to have shone forth in the purity of this king’s daughter, who is known to be as beautiful in form as she is noble by the dignity of her noble descent. Many showed her the glory of veneration, because they saw the beauty of loveliness and the youth of pious nature shining in her form of beauty. And yet, as much as she was to some an object of affectionate grace, so much did she become marked out to rivals for the offence of persecution. So the noble virgin, by command of the impious king, was reduced to servitude. For he turned her nobility into servitude, her beauty into an occasion of cruelty, the freedom of her birth into mockery and the disgrace of baseness. For the queen demanded and received her service; but she turned the service of her dignity wholly into the oppression of wretched slavery. For whatever she ought to have had for the consolation of her rescue, the queen turned wholly to the little girl’s ruin by perverting it. And yet she bore these and like things with the peaceable patience of her mind, without any murmur of complaint or anguish of desolation. In patience indeed she possessed her soul, and, afflicted with revilings and reproaches, she bore all things calmly and with joy. For nothing is sweeter to the labouring soul than patience, because all that it endures is fragrant to it with the moderation of virtue and prudence. So this young girl, when she was often burned by heat or cold, endured all under the moderating grace; so that, trained in sorrows, she might merit to be chosen more familiarly by the Lord. For, harassed by so many stripes and miseries, she was never changed from her former state of comeliness and beauty.

Chapter Four #

¹ Therefore, enticed by her beauty and most comely form, the king was inflamed with sweetness and love for her. For whatever he saw shining in her by grace of virtue, he turned wholly to the incentives of lust. And so, as with the blind eye of love he was further animated to desire for her, what he had held hidden in his secret breast he often made public by signs and nods to another. With nods and lascivious gestures, as secretly as he could, he often enough intimated to the girl the heat of his desire. And afterwards, when he could at last obtain an opportunity, what he had previously proclaimed by signs he often explained with promised gifts and flattering speeches. But she could more easily be killed than be inclined in any way to the softness of lust. Therefore, as much as she could or was allowed, she withdrew herself from his presence, and always avoided the paths, steps and tracks of the suspect king by shrinking back. Since, therefore, the tender maiden chose death rather than resolve to be subjected to so dire a lot, the unordained death did not occur, but a destiny disposed beforehand accomplished the bounds of her resolve.

Chapter Five #

¹ There was then among the Irish a law of custom that at certain summer times a flock of serving-girls must go in bands to the glades of the woods, and there pluck the flowers of the boughs and, laden with fitting bundles, bring them for the adorning of the queen’s chambers; and every family of girls owed such work of service to the queen. But if an abundance of flowers could not then be found, the weaker family must gather burdens or bundles of joined greenery, or of green herb, or even of any sweet-smelling little flower. When therefore on a certain occasion the queen’s customary festive solemnity came round, the king sent her with her companions to the exercise of the prescribed work. And when the others returned more hastily with their bundles, she was left alone, because she proved less skilled at putting her hand to the sickle. Yet she, who had not learned from laborious practice of the custom, set down the bundle she had composed on her shoulders, and so wandered companionless through the pathless ways. And it chanced that, alone by the banks, she met the king alone, as he was keeping the water-birds at bay by the instinctive fierceness of his trained birds. But though he addressed her humbly, he could neither bend her by flattery nor captivate her mind by promises of gifts. Therefore, his conscience at last consulted, he seized the virgin with a stronger right hand and, leading her into the more secret woods, overpowered her by force. That violation was the occasion of Cuthbert’s conception, whom a fame more renowned for virtues commends to the glorious hearers.

Chapter Six #

¹ The girl, therefore, feeling herself pregnant, began to complain with querulous cries, and, often saddened, to weep over the disgrace of the violation. The king could not long endure her tearful complaints, since natural compassion had changed the anguish of bewailing the delights of his sin. And the king drew near to the virgin and soothed her with words more sweetly tempered: “God forbid, daughter, that through my neglect I should suffer the beauty of so great comeliness to sink into the disgrace of lukewarmness. No servant, man or woman, shall insult you for this fault, since your presence shall be so removed from the common run of servants that you shall hear neither reproaches of voices nor the shrill ravings of scoffers. Your womb, if ever it swells, cannot be for insult and disgrace, since you, the only daughter of a king, have been made the only servant of one king. And if the deliverance of your child is followed by the male sex, it will be known to have been the disposition of divine power. For since I have until now had no male offspring from elsewhere, in this little boy I shall repay the long-deferred desires for an heir that I have prayed for. And he shall deservedly be the natural successor of both our inheritances, since the seed of his propagation is of royal seed on both sides. Nor is the inheritance of either owed more excellently to another than to him. For by paternal seed my kingdom is lawfully due to him, and by his mother’s line of descent your father’s sceptre and dominion shall deservedly be transferred to him. For you are known to be the sole heir of your father’s throne. And from my paternal or maternal seed I see no one who ought to succeed me by right of inheritance besides him, since I never remember to have begotten the form of male substance. And what happened to us by chance’s dictation, as I perceive, has now come about by divine disposition. Now therefore I shall send you to my mother, and shall bestow all the care of devotion upon you and the child conceived.” Having summoned all his more familiar friends, therefore, he commanded them to convey her to his mother — once a queen — as devotedly as a daughter, and commanded them to cherish and console her more kindly. And they led the girl, received as commanded, more diligently to the place they had been commanded. The queen, for love of her son who asked it, received her most earnestly and adopted her as a daughter. For some time, therefore, the girl dwelt with the queen, and in a short space won the goodwill of all who dwelt there by her gracious liberality. Meanwhile the king, since he had learned the girl was pregnant, had her cherished more luxuriously. Meanwhile the king’s mother had shut herself up in a monastery of virgins, all things set aside for God’s kingdom, where she offered the sacrifices of prayers and tears to the Lord more frequently. The keeping and care of this monastery was then administered by a certain bishop, who managed both its inner and outer affairs; the virgins obeyed his command in all things, and all the offices of the monastery hung upon his nod. Above all, the religious life of the royal matron pleased the bishop, which adorned her more in mind than in body. Hence it was that the queen kept the girl in her charge, and each obtained whatever delights she desired at the other’s will. And since nature could not pass over its laws, when nine months were now completed the girl could no longer conceal the child; and so at the natural time she brought forth the fruit of her conception, a boy of the male sex.

Chapter Seven #

¹ But now let us come to the joy of greater wonder. For the new-born infant was laid in the cradle; and so great a brightness of splendour surrounded that whole place that for the splendour of the excessive light scarcely anyone could look at anything. For the whole house was thought by all the neighbours and those nearby to be consumed by flames. They all ran up, therefore, to put out the devouring fires; but coming there and looking more carefully at the matter, they found all things whole and unhurt by fire. At that time the bishop alone kept vigil in prayer, and in the oratory raised himself above himself in devout prayers through the night. Warned, therefore, by a revelation of God about the boy’s birth, and suffused with the wondrous brightness of the sudden light, he went out at once from the monastery and anxiously inquired what new thing the Lord had shown upon the earth. And seeing that the whole house was in flames, yet was not destroyed or harmed in any part by the fire-breathing vapours, he paid praises of jubilation to the Lord for the miracle of so great a novelty. Yet he did not wish to publish or reveal in haste the new thing he had sensed in spirit. Therefore he soon secretly approached the king and asked and received that the adoption and upbringing of the boy newly born in his kingdom should be granted to him. Revealing nothing at all of these things to anyone, he studied rather to obey the divine counsels than to oppose the heavenly commands. But pondering all things with himself in meditation, he soon went to the queen secretly and, complaining harshly, revealed all that he had seen.

Chapter Eight #

¹ “See,” he said, “O queen, it is now through your deserts that I stand confounded, who know that the vice of a brothel has long lain hidden in a house of religion. For a birth newly exposed to the eyes of many shows how defiled the conduct of your life is. For this holy house of the Lord is profaned and polluted, stained by the contagion of so great a crime. That the bride of Christ has defiled the bed of adulterated chastity is now known to all, since a birth among unwedded virgins could not hide so great a corruption. Therefore relate to me the truth of the matter concerning so great a crime, since the second plank after the wreck is to repent by confession.”

Chapter Nine #

¹ Then the queen, not enduring the bishop’s indignation, set out everything in order, and declared how this virgin had been sent and entrusted to her by her son the king. And the bishop, hearing all that had happened, began to be more peaceful in mind and afterwards bore the rest more gently. “Now,” he said, “since the clemency of God has kept this house unpolluted, let us render to him the praises of glory.” Unhesitatingly, therefore, the bishop, having inquired into the affair about which he had until then held a suspicious opinion, judged that nothing sinister was further to be believed. For he exalted with praises the queen’s clemency in her compassion for the girl, and relieved the oppressed virgin’s innocence by pious consideration and mitigation. So he soothed the queen with blandishments, and did not cease to comfort her, exasperated by revilings, with sweet addresses. And he tempered, as far as he could, the miseries of the innocent mother’s conscience; and, taking up the new-born child, he bore it away with him; and since he had learned from the shining miracle that the infant was most richly endowed, he caused the most diligent care and keeping to be applied to him in all things. And not long after, he immersed the boy in the water of baptism, and gave him in the sacred font the name Mullucc in the Irish tongue, and at last had him instructed in the study of letters; and since he saw him in all things made resplendent by the clemency of God, loving him above all, he could scarcely endure his absence. He received the sacrament of baptism in the city which is called by them Hartlbrechins.

Chapter Ten #

¹ On a certain day, when the bishop, after the custom of the Irish, was going round the folds of his herds alone, it happened that he had taken the little boy with him for the sake of walking. And when a pregnant cow met them, it chanced that the boy, running to meet it and looking at it for a long while, often going back and forth, played at admiring the things enclosed and the burden of its womb. The bishop, therefore, smiling and perceiving the boy examining something secret, said: “Go, boy, and tell your father what hidden mystery you see in the pregnant heifer’s womb.” To whom the boy said, not in a childish way: “Carefully watching the womb of this pregnant cow for a good while, I see something wonderful in it, which yet seems wholly to exceed the nature of the offspring’s mother. For since she appears wholly of black colour without, it seems too wonderful for what cause she has been able to conceive a foetus unlike her hidden nature. The calf which lies hidden within is all of a ruddy-yellow colour, and yet on the top of its forehead it is seen to bear the form of a shining star, which is in every way equal to the likeness of fresh snow.” Without delay the pregnant cow brought forth her calf, and bore a calf such as the boy had foretold. The bishop, therefore, marvelling, learned that the spirit of prophecy was in his breast, and from the present miracle foresaw of how great merit he would be before God. And from that time he began to cherish the boy more devotedly in his embrace, and often to comfort him with congratulations, sweeter addresses and services.

Chapter Eleven — the Assertion of Archbishop Mathias #

¹ Since the boy of the Lord was illustrious to all, he received certain dearer gifts from his father. Among them he had a certain little bell, which in their tongue is called a kelim, which after the custom of the Irish he carried about his neck. It happened by chance that the boy’s kelim was broken by a fall or some blow, which brought very great sorrow and sadness to the boy. Then, led by dove-like simplicity, he went alone to a smith and did not cease to beseech him earnestly to restore his kelim for the love of God. And that smith, marvelling that he who was still within the years of boyhood had asked with such mature prudence, believed he should yield to his prayers, since he understood that the spirit of God spoke through his mouth. So he said to the boy: “For God’s sake I am freely ready for your will, but I am wholly ignorant of the art of bronze-founding.” To whom the boy: “I trust in God, in whom I believe, that you will not be deprived of skill in this art, if only you are willing to fulfil my desire for love of him.” Then that smith: “He who knows how to fashion the heavens will himself be able enough to grant me skill in this art; but see, though I have the will, yet the means is lacking, since we are far from the woods, and we can in no way do smith’s work without oak charcoal.” Then the little boy: “God will be with us and will supply help. For in his name I shall go, and bring us sufficient fuel for the fire.” And taking a reaper’s bundle, he went out into the fields and reaped green rushes, which bringing back to the smith he said thus: “I believe in Christ that I have brought matter fitting enough for the art of founding.” The smith, therefore, seeing the boy’s faith, soon took the green rushes, set them in a heap, and put fire beneath. Wonderful indeed to see, and sweeter to hear: the power and clemency of Christ shone forth wholly for the declaring of the boy’s merits. For the smith, the furnace being set and the bronze now molten, cast the little bell; and produced in their midst one such as both desired, and delivered the whole bell to the boy.

Chapter Twelve #

¹ There is a very great city in Ireland, called Kenanus in the tongue of the Irish, and the province of that region is called the middle, which is richly adorned with beasts and fruits, pastures and groves, rivulets and rivers; and the river Mana washes that city, which is accustomed to abound most plentifully with fish of many kinds. In this city, as delightful as it is wealthy, this holy boy is said to have been born, where also the place of his birth is shown by the inhabitants, and a monastery of nuns is still known to many from its ancient ruins, which is often kept in honour’s glory by the people of the province in remembrance of the good boy’s piety. These things Bishop Eugenius of Hardion asserted that he had himself seen and read in the histories of the Irish, in which parts he was himself born and reared from earliest age to perfect manhood. In the see of whose bishopric Saint Tedanus the bishop, the magnificent raiser of nine dead men, rests, and, the worker of many miracles, once shone living on earth. He asserted that province of his country to be more illustrious and excellent than all the other regions of Ireland, and more fertile in all things.

Chapter Thirteen #

¹ But since we have digressed a little from the work begun, let us now return to what we had begun. Not long after, it happened that the bishop under whose keeping the boy had been committed departed from human affairs unexpectedly and received the rewards of his labours from the gracious judge of recompense. The little boy, therefore, bereft of so great a father, was deprived of almost all consolation. And his mother, with maternal piety, grew anxious for her son’s destitution, and wept with querulous groans and cries most often; for she perceived that the boy lacked his accustomed comforts, that she herself languished daily under trembling fear, and she ruminated with a fearful heart on the incontinent inconstancy of the king’s mind. She feared indeed exceedingly that the fierce king might oppress her with repeated ferocity and stain the infamy of a second sin with his former wickedness. By such goads of meditation the mother’s mind was disquieted, and she was stirred by various impulses to take flight. For this one hope of fleeing remained to her, nor was it safe for her to remain longer in that land. At last, taking the boy, she revealed to him the secrets of her heart, and disclosed in order the reasons for her anguish and her miserable lot. The youth at once acquiesced in his mother’s counsels, since after the type of the Lord the Saviour he did not fail to be subject to his parents.

Chapter Fourteen #

¹ Now the little boy had fully learned the creed and David’s psalms before the bishop’s death. He was of infinite beauty, comeliness, sweet and gracious countenance, and very lovable. His fame, therefore, outrunning the people of the province with swift foot, had kindled them, and everyone curiously inquired from what stock such beauty of grace had come forth. The inquiry into the matter did not escape his mother, who vexed and wearied his mind further with doubting of fear. So the mother, long agitated by the goads of thought, at last disposed to accomplish in deeds what she had conceived in mind. For she perceived that the counsel of flight alone would be a wholesome defence for herself and the boy. Under cover of night, therefore, she began to take flight and bore the boy with her, since she feared more for him. So, travelling by night, she secretly reached the sea ports, and came to the ports she had chosen, together with the boy. But since for those who love the Lord Christ all things work together for good, when they reached the seashore by God’s ordaining they found all things convenient to their purpose ready at hand. A ship bound for Britain was in the harbour, and a favourable wind smiled upon them. And as the boy, accompanied by his mother, was boarding it, it chanced that, improvidently, the psalter slipped from his hands and fell into the depths of the gulf; and there was great consternation of minds both in the boy and in his mother. As they long remained and wondered, suddenly a sea-calf burst out of the hidden paths of the sea and, all watching, took up the book floating loosely on the waves with gaping mouth and swallowed it. And at once the mad beast, slipping back into his native waves, cut off all hope of recovering the book. But the power of God, who preserved the prophet in the belly of the voracious whale, kept the book of his boy unhurt from all harm within the fish’s jaws, wholly inviolate. Yet he did not soon receive the book, but rather after the sea was crossed, as will be told in what follows.

Chapter Fifteen #

¹ Certain things must now be interposed which are found in the history of the Irish and are not to be omitted, though they may seem incredible. There was a certain great man among all the Irish, to whom, on account of the opinion of his manifold holiness, all the nobles of the land had entrusted their sons to be instructed in the service of God; and since he had shone illustrious among them both by birth and rank, he excelled in greater veneration and praise. When he had brought up six boys for some years, and saw them fervent with the heavenly Spirit, he kindled the sweetness of his soul beyond measure in their instruction and affection. At last, when the fathers of the boys, who were their kinsmen, died, they compelled them continually and often to go to receive the rights of their patrimonies. And their vehemence grew so much that they resolved at last to snatch the boys violently from the religious man’s hand and restore them in their fathers’ kingdom. To this man the bishop, the fosterer of Saint Cuthbert, dying, had committed the boy Cuthbert, whom also the venerable old man kept in his custody for some while. The old man, therefore, took flight with the boys, and so believed he could hide the boys if he could transfer them into Britain until the fury of the parents should sleep. Coming therefore to the sea ports with the boys, he rejoiced and marvelled greatly at the meeting with the woman. Seeing that the outcome of the matter came about by God’s disposition, he embraced the mother together with her son more diligently, and caused all things necessary to be ministered to them abundantly. So when the old man with his boys had been brought aboard the ship by the pilot, as quickly as the calm’s mildness and the winds’ smiling pleasantness allowed, he raised the mast’s tackle and committed the sails hanging above to the winds’ grace. And as they furrowed the most peaceful seas, while they believed no adversities would come upon them, the wheel of fortune turning, with swift change a surge of whirlwinds suddenly arose too unseasonable against the voyagers. And so for some days the tempest prevailed with most restless motions, but by the Creator’s ordaining nod it subsided after no little time.

Chapter Sixteen #

¹ Meanwhile a wonderful vision was shown to the boy, but whether it was in the body or out of it is unknown. It seemed to him that their anchor went down to the lowest parts of the sea, and he saw in wondrous wise the anchor fastened more firmly, as it were, to the beams and tiles of a certain dwelling. But the boy, unbelieving, descending in haste from the ship, tried to loose the fastenings of his anchor and to pull apart what looked like a house. To whom, as it were, a husbandman, aroused, came forth with swift haste, and complained, as though aggrieved, who it was that was tearing down the spoils of his dwelling. And coming out and looking closely at the boy, he at once rushed to kiss him, and, the boy being known by his tongue, greeted him by his own name with the salutations of eternity. “Well,” he said, “well have you come, holy boy, who stand as a fellow of the citizens above by God’s foreordaining. For it is long since the cause of your coming was made known to me, and divine grace promised me that I should see you in these parts. Nor should you now fear the cause of so unaccustomed an event, since what you now see with bodily sight you shall know as foreshadowed examples of your future life.” And, taking the boy’s hand, he went in with him as it were under the dwelling, and delivered into the boy’s hands three little vessels of admirable workmanship, which that hero called baccilia. To whom he added: “See, my son, this vessel is owed to you for your own, and the other two shall yield to your master; see that you do not let yours go from you.” Going out of the house, therefore, he soon loosed the anchor, and suffered the boy to go back free; saying: “See that you greet your old master in my name — which is inexplicable — and from him you can learn most fully what all these things portend for you.”

Chapter Seventeen #

¹ And the boy was at once presented to his master’s face. And the old man, seeing the little vessels, soon smiled, and giving one of them to the boy, said: “See, boy, the divine power has presaged wonders to come in you.” Now the man who had appeared to the boy was of mature countenance and suffused with hoary beauty, and shone ruddy as a flame of fire. When the boy asked his master to expound the secrets of the vision, he, complying, set out all things clearly to explain them the more plainly: “The old man, hoary and mature, who stood by you is God’s messenger, to reveal future things more briefly. For the little ship in which we are borne on the sea is the care of the holy Church, which is committed to your keeping in foreign parts by the Lord. The house to which the anchor clung is the heavenly and solitary dwelling presaged for you in a foreign province. These three little vessels presage the exemplars of the one Deity to be worshipped and preached in the holy Trinity. Two of which are owed to me, because to rude believing peoples only two precepts are to be preached. But by the one vessel is shown the solitude of your religious conscience, which is foretold as the future hall of the one Deity. You shall not indeed return living in the body to these provinces, but shall rather convert many unbelieving nations throughout the bounds of Britain. For the things you have seen are exemplars of things to come, not the fantastic mockeries of dreams.” Coming at last to the port of the wished-for shore, they rejoiced together that all things smiled upon them more wholesomely, and exalted with great alacrity of heart the gifts of God revealed to them in mysteries.

Chapter Eighteen #

¹ Then, as they sat in the harbour and strove eagerly to go forth from the ship to the shores of England, suddenly that sea-calf came with the greatest speed, anticipated their exit to the shore, and vomited up the book upon the dry land. Then the boy came up rejoicing and received his book. And seeing the book wholly unharmed and free from the whirlpool of the waters, he rendered praises to wonderful God, and raised the minds of all to preach the glory of God.

Chapter Nineteen #

¹ But to explain clearly what we have heard of him, we shall not keep silent the traditions and common beliefs. For both the Irish and the Galwegians and the Scots relate that the boy of the Lord was hated by many in his own land for the miracles which God worked through him. So some counselled that he should leave his own bounds and go as a fugitive to foreign kingdoms. He answered them that he would by no means do so unless they provided him with an unaccustomed vessel. Rejoicing immediately at the promise, in ironical mockery they cut out for him from hard rock a certain little boat which they call a corrok, and, setting it on the shore, told him to sail in it. And as soon as he made the sign of the cross over it, the stone curroc swam upon the watery waves. And wondering at his holiness, since they could no longer hinder his journey or his purpose by any prayers, he departed secretly by night with his mother and companions; and in wondrous wise borne on the stone boat, he landed in Galloway in the region called Rennnii, in the port called Rintsnoc. On the shore of that port the stone curroc of Saint Cuthbert seems to have endured to this day. After this, leaving the stone curroc in Galloway, he took another ship and landed at another port called Letherpen in Erregaithle, which is the land of the Scots. That port is situated between Erregaithle and Incegal, and the lake which lies nearest there is called Loicafan. There were not more than three men besides the mother and son who landed.

Chapter Twenty #

¹ Going out therefore to warm themselves by a fire — since it was winter time — wishing to build one, they gathered dry brushwood round about from the thickets of tamarisks, and put it together in one place. But since that place was the proper haunt of robbers and murderers practising plunder and rapine, the assassins dwelling there drew near, and seeing golden bracelets shining clearly on the arms of the noble woman, led by blind greed they ran up suddenly with javelins on this side and that, and hastened to pierce and kill the innocent woman. The same boy, seeing this, turned at once to the arms of prayer, and most devoutly besought the Lord in supplication to avert the misery of so great a slaughter. And since the clemency of God does not refuse to be present at the prayers of suppliants, as one was about to charge at the other, he suddenly stabbed his companion who met and ran at him. And so the three, stabbed in turn by one another, fell dead, and perished in a moment by God’s vengeance. Then the hearth being made ready, and the brushwood gathered from all sides and heaped up in a pile, they soon struck fire from flint, and, the kindling of brushwood being lit, they warmed themselves. And it happened in wondrous wise that from that day forward, even to this day, that very hearth becomes fire-bearing of itself when brushwood or twigs are laid upon it, which the inhabitants affirm happened by the merit of that boy.

Chapter Twenty-One #

¹ But the mother, proceeding from there, when she had come to the bounds of Scotia, Saint Columba, the first bishop in Dunkel, received the boy, and kept him together with a certain little girl named Brigida, also sprung from Ireland, and educated him for a while. At last, three southern clerics of the region of the English, who had served the bishop in his more private duties, did not cease to envy and lie in wait for the boys out of jealousy of their lord’s more familiar grace. Now the same bishop had a bird, commonly called a blackbird, which, taught after a human fashion, was most peaceable, domestic and gentle to all who wished to feed, handle or stroke it. Taking occasion from this, the clerics secretly killed the little bird and laid its death upon the boys with a most wicked accusation. The boys, grieving among themselves, denied the imputed crime. The bishop, however, knew well enough their innocence and the others’ wickedness towards them; yet he would not prefer some to others, but by keeping silence restrained the contending parties’ reproaches. Confounded within themselves by such a crime of accusation, the boys turned with all their might, as though lifeless, to implore the Lord’s clemency upon them. So, placed in the bishop’s presence, the boy Cuthbert began thus to God with poured-out prayers: “You, O God, searcher and judge of all consciences, whether we have been the doers of this deed, give judgement of your magnificence and power; we ask that, as quickly as may be, we may now in this present hour receive what we have deserved; for if we never either conceived such wickedness or deliberated to do it, we beseech that, your right hand favouring, we may receive power over the dead bird that it may live.” These things said, the dead bird at once raised itself alive, and began to sport, to leap, and to show itself most gentle to all, in the accustomed manner of old, the people watching and marvelling.

Chapter Twenty-Two #

¹ Then the girl Brigida, turning to the boy, said: “O most beloved boy, it is expedient that we should now go, God providing, to the nations set between us. For the Lord has destined you for the English sprung in the east of this province, but has reserved me for the western inhabitants of the land of Ireland.” And consoling one another they departed from each other, nor did they afterwards see one another living in the flesh. Afterwards, however, the boy went with his mother to the island called Hy; where he lived for a while with the religious men of that place. And the boy’s mother, since she had two brothers who were bishops in the province of the Scots, purposed by God’s inspiration to go and visit them. For each had an episcopal see in Scotia. One of whom was called Meldanus, the other Eatanus. Their sister, therefore, went there quickly with that nephew of theirs, and openly set out all that had befallen them in life or on the way. And she intimated to them that she had made a vow, proposing to visit the thresholds of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and that by the bond and desire of this vow, even before she left Ireland, she had bound herself in the presence of God under a covenant of faith. At last, by the Holy Spirit’s teaching their hearts, the bishops received the boy drawn from his mother’s bosom; and for the fulfilling of her vows they let their sister go, more diligently instructed as she had resolved.

Chapter Twenty-Three #

¹ The bishops Meldanus and Eatanus, therefore, taking the boy into their care, committed him to a certain religious man named Lodonicus: where the boy Cuthbert lived in simplicity among his coevals. None indeed could be milder or more joyous among his companions; for among those of his own age he freely exercised himself in every kind of delight. Therefore he pleased all in all things, since he showed himself all things to all men by his power and virtue. Once, when the boys were playing in their usual manner, Cuthbert joined in their games and appeared sufficiently merry with the players. Some strove to exercise themselves in leaping, others in wrestling, or in any other bending. Some, pressing the top of the head to the ground, with both feet stretched aloft, strove to raise themselves. Cuthbert, emulating their industry, struck the ground with his head alone, and with both feet stretched on high, in wondrous wise his clothes did not know how to fall down, but stood rigid without folding back. They would not be turned back, but, wrapped about the boy’s shins, showed him the reverence of honour. This was the first miracle made known in that land about that boy, whereby the Holy Spirit presaged that he would be a vessel of glory for himself. That very place is still most known to the inhabitants of the country, in which a church is now consecrated to the Lord in his honour; which, by the name Childeschirche, is called by the band of playing boys even to this day, giving testimony of eternal honour to him who lives in eternity for ever and ever.

Here ends the little book on the Birth of Saint Cuthbert, excerpted and translated from the histories of the Irish.

Chapter Twenty-Four #

¹ After the blessed boy Cuthbert landed in the Scottish land, he began to live for a while in various bounds. And since the Holy Spirit had made his dwelling in his breast from his earliest age, wherever he lived he always maintained the study and purpose of religious life. Coming therefore to the city called Dul, he left the town and chose to be solitary. There is indeed nearby, not farther than one mile, in the wooded places of the groves, a mountain of great height and very steep, which can be approached or climbed from no side except the south alone. This mountain is called Doilweme by the inhabitants of that region, which in Latin is interpreted “a most beautiful and pleasant floor”. On the summit of this mountain, therefore, blessed Cuthbert began to dwell alone, where before no man had dared to tarry because of the frequent phantoms of demons. To him the ancient enemy often appeared in visible and terrible shape, and, rushing upon him with threats and darts, was busy troubling him from the place. But the servant of God, Cuthbert, despising the adversary’s threats, would not depart from the place he inhabited. But since that dwelling lacked water, being set on the top of a rocky mountain, there the blessed boy Cuthbert drew forth by his holy prayers a spring from the hardest rock, which to this day does not cease to send forth perpetual waters. Which so flows with perennial waters by the moderating divine providence that it neither overflows for the uses of the inhabitants nor lacks abundance for those who draw. Its breadth is no greater than almost two feet on its topmost surface, and a very great stone, placed perpetually over it, covers the mouth of that spring, which the Saint of God set over the spring’s mouth. And its water is found to be sweet-flowing to the taste and most wholesome and healthful to the sick. And since that spring is always of very ample inner breadth and of deep depth, and always full to the brim with unfailing waters: hence it is that if anyone takes the stone from the spring’s mouth, the water at once boils up and overflows, and with violent waves exceeds the bounds of the rim in a moment of time. Whoever then, having drawn water in haste, endeavours to put the displaced stone back in its former place, because as the Scots relate, if the stone were removed longer or wholly, the water boiling up would cover all the region of the Scots with a flood of waters.

Chapter Twenty-Five — a Miracle of blessed Cuthbert #

¹ While the man of God lived the solitary life there, the tortuous enemy began to envy him the more highly as he strove to seize for himself the place of his usual dwelling. The man of God, perceiving this, erected a great stone cross in the middle of the mountain’s plain, and raised it so high that it could not be approached except by steps; and he built himself an oratory of shapeless timbers, and afterwards made himself a certain bathing vessel of whole stone, which he placed not far from that cross. In which, as they assert, filled with water, he used to enter and pass sleepless nights in the cold waters, and with hands stretched to heaven keep vigil until daybreak before the sight of the Lord who made him. Which vessel still remains on the mountain’s top and presents a spectacle of much devotion to all who look upon it. The devil, envying these pious works of his more fiercely, made himself another stone vessel on the ridge of the same mountain, as though to mock God’s servant; he built a bathing-place. But the Saint’s little vessel is of moderate size, while the adversary’s is of unformed and enormous magnitude. At last on a certain day the man of God would no longer endure his antagonist’s hostile company, since there can be no converse between God’s servant and Belial; and seizing a very great club like a fuller’s pole and pursuing the enemy, he drove him from place to place, and did not cease pursuing him as he fled until he forced him to fall headlong beyond the mountain’s top into the valley. And so to this day all the wood on the south side where he fell as he fled seems to hang down as it were on the slope of the descending mountain. And in wondrous wise the footprints, both of Saint Cuthbert and of the devil, seem still to this day to be imprinted in the rocks, which neither the age of time has washed away nor rainwater has been able to erase to this day; but Saint Cuthbert’s footprint stands out in a sufficiently comely form, while the devil’s is broad, crooked, great and distorted. And whoever has pressed their weak or languishing limbs upon or near Saint Cuthbert’s footprints have received health.

Chapter Twenty-Six — a Miracle #

¹ But after much time blessed Cuthbert departed from those bounds. No one dares to break the peace of this place, though he might by chance have killed a king or some more powerful man of the land and could flee there. And no one has ever introduced any woman there unpunished, since blessed Cuthbert forbade women entrance to his habitations. Which a certain earl of Scotia, namely Madet Maccrie Mori — that is, son of Mori — learned by experience; for when at a certain time he had done a deed deserving death, in the time of King David, he fled there and remained in peace for a long while. At last he introduced his wife and daughters there; who, following them, when he came to the approaches of the high places, fell headlong at once, and crushed the hip, knee and shin so violently that he could not afterwards be cured by any art. Immediately, therefore, he drove the woman away, nor did any woman afterwards ever presume to enter that place, just as not before. In the bounds of the Picts blessed Cuthbert was for a while a dweller in the solitary life, where a great concourse of people often came to visit him, since, by God’s grace providing, no one departed from him without the grace of consolation. The old, therefore, with the young flocked to him, for they rejoiced in his addresses and his looks.

Chapter Twenty-Seven — why women do not enter Saint Cuthbert’s church #

¹ Meanwhile it happened that the daughter of the king of that province, debauched in her father’s house by some young man, conceived, and her womb swelled with pregnancy. The king, when he learned this, both anxiously sought out the author of the deed and, investigating diligently, learned such things from her: “That solitary young man who dwells nearby overpowered me and deceived me, seduced by his beauty.” Then the king, raging with excessive indignation and greatly troubled in mind, went with his corrupted daughter to the solitary places, and thus addressed the servant of God: “Are you the man who under a religious guise pollutes God’s temples and sanctuaries by profaning them? Do you under the form of a solitary practise all the filth of impure and incestuous worship? Here is my daughter, whom you corrupted with your seductions and did not fear to dishonour. Now confess openly the guilt of your crime, and declare before all how you seduced her.” The girl therefore, hearing her father’s words, burst out more stubbornly, and asserted the more constantly that he had committed this crime upon her. The young man, marvelling and stupefied, perceived that these were devilish inventions, and, greatly anguished and turned wholly to God, said: “Lord God, who alone is the knower and vindicator of hidden things, let him prove this work of iniquity by revealing it, and by proving reveal it. But let him not make it known by human judgement, but rather declare it by divine miracle.” When the man had uttered these words groaning and with profuse tears — wonderful to say — suddenly in the place where she stood the earth gaped, opened its mouth, and swallowed her up, devouring her before the eyes of all. That place is still called Corruen, where she fell into hell for the ruin of her corruption. Her father therefore, seeing this done with his multitude, began to be tormented with the stings of fear and grief. He feared exceedingly that he had attacked the saint with revilings, and that a like vengeance might seize him. So he himself with all his people humbly begged God’s mercy, and most devoutly implored that the saint’s prayers might obtain it for him. To whom he benignly granted it, but he did not further admit the woman’s fellowship near him. For this reason he did not allow women to enter his church, which to this day is more strictly observed in the land of the Picts, wherever a church is dedicated to his honour. The Saint of the Lord was then unwilling to tarry longer in those parts, but afterwards sought and changed to another place of life and purpose.

Chapter Twenty-Eight — another reason #

¹ In modern times a certain man lived the solitary life in the wood which in the tongue of the English is called Moddri; who had formerly been a professed monk in Lichfield, who was called Ralph de Nuers. It happened at last that his Prior invited him to the solemnity of Saint Mary, which feast is the chief among them. He, not delaying, willingly prepared all things convenient and suitable for the proposed journey, wishing to obey his father’s edicts. On the night therefore preceding the dawn at whose early time he had resolved to set out, after his usual repose of sleep he kept the vigils as usual. And suddenly he was oppressed by the weariness of sleep, and a sudden slumber rushed upon him and took away all the senses of the outer man. And suddenly a certain venerable man, clothed in a pontifical mitre, stood by him in a vision of the imagination, and addressing him with gentler words said: “Why have you resolved to leave this place in so great a solemnity, and to forsake me, once the dweller and now the procurator of this place, destitute of God’s service? I indeed am Cuthbert, once bishop of the Lindisfarnese, consecrated by Christ’s divine gift, and this place was once sanctified by God by my dwelling.” In ancient times this was called Saint Cuthbert’s square, because whatever had entered within the bounds of its stronghold it used to keep unhurt from every mad assault of beasts or men. “So I warn you not to desert my place any longer, left destitute of God’s service.” These things said, the man of God vanished from his face, and the solitary, returning to himself, arose as quickly as he could from the dream-vision; and, stupefied and dismayed, was long troubled within himself about such a vision, and began to examine whatever that revelation might portend. Of blessed Cuthbert indeed he had until then known nothing. While he turned these things over in silent mind, suddenly at the rising of dawn a certain aged veteran stood at the doors of the outer hall, and knocking more sharply and crying more often, yet could not obtain entrance from the servants. Then he, demanding entrance more vehemently, kept calling on Saint Cuthbert’s protection and help. At last the solitary, hearing him and opening the door, diligently inquired why he should invoke Saint Cuthbert so often with importunate cries. Then the old man: “That this place is dedicated to the name of blessed Cuthbert, and once sanctified to the honour of his dwelling, we have often heard from our forefathers; and that frequent miracles were worked here on account of his holiness we have often learned by experience. For as we have learned by the tradition of the fathers, once in this solitude of the woods there was so great a multitude of wolves and such savage greed of rapacity that nothing living, whether of men or of beasts, could endure. But all that its bounds enclosed no plundering malice presumed to trouble; nor did robbers, thieves or worshippers of any other wickedness ever prevail to touch anyone within the bounds of this territory. And so this place is not so much succour and help to beasts as to men, but also a refuge and protection to all mortals. For in the time of the wolves’ ferocity all the people of the province drove their flocks within the bounds of this place, and though all the savage beasts lay in wait for them round about, they never presumed to cross the appointed limits of the ground. They could hiss, gnash and roar against them, but they could in no wise pass its bounds.” These things said, the solitary, stupefied beyond measure, gave thanks to God, and from that time most devoutly venerated blessed Cuthbert, since he could not doubt the things he had seen and heard. Moreover the inhabitants of that place say that even to this day, within the limits of that ground, neither do thieves break in or steal, nor can beasts or anything else be taken from that place unjustly, violently or fraudulently. That place is called Moddri, and is distant from the city of Bedford about four miles.

Chapter Twenty-Nine — another account #

¹ When blessed Cuthbert was bishop, the honour of chastity and the virtue of continence always shone in his governance of himself and his own, and the worship of justice and the feeling of honesty appeared flourishing, growing daily both in deeds and in pious works. And to avoid the disgrace of evil suspicion, he always forbade women his company or frequented fellowship. At a certain time after this, when the holy bishop was in the monastery cloistered as usual, he had to perform the rite of the procession: this he used to do on solemn days, and afterwards either to celebrate the sacred mysteries or to dispense heavenly teachings at length to the unlearned peoples. As the bishop went out, therefore, to these offices, suddenly amid the words of God which he scattered in preaching, he saw very many of the people laughing with re-echoing cackling. For some were already intent on other things, and, as though at spectacles of surpassing wonder to be beheld, some invited their fellows. Looking round, therefore, the bishop saw a certain woman in appearance wonderfully radiant, and shining in wondrous wise in hair and face with glistening variety of garments. She surpassed indeed every human form by her beauty, and her adornment exceeded all the skill or craft of earthly weaving. Therefore whoever had looked upon her countenance had almost gone out of themselves with the wantonness of excessive desire. But the bishop blessed water with haste, and, dipping the sprinkler in it, cast it upon the image of the fantastic delusion. Immediately the fantastic delusion vanished from the eyes of the deluded people, but, tearing away with it the greatest part of the church’s wall, it vanished in a moment into the empty air. And it suffused the noses of all whom it had deceived by its mockeries with so great a stench that scarcely anyone could stand for the horror of so great a dung. For upon whosesoever souls the flame of lust had been kindled, upon their senses the stench lay most heavily. Then the bishop wove in a sermon of admonition, and preached on the incontinence of impurity. “See,” he said, “you have just now seen with bodily eyes why of old you learned that women were so often to be kept from every bound of my church. For never is the devil’s poison received more mockingly or more perniciously than in the house of the Lord, where the sacrifice of chastity is daily offered. Nor does he ever more swiftly insert the poison of deception than by the cunning snare of women, which drives the frailer souls out of paradise. For this reason, from this time I prohibit the approach of women into my churches, since I do not permit the spirit of fornicating falsehood, which you have seen, to hold back either you or my people from the service of God. But if any shameless woman knowingly intrudes herself, I know that she will be punished the more swiftly by God’s vengeance. These things also I foretell to you hereafter: that I now see certain women who by their rash daring will incur God’s offence and the pains of my indignation.” These his precepts are observed even to this day, and if they are ever presumed to be transgressed, they are always expiated by the swiftest vengeance. These things we have copied out from the pages and writings of the Scots; but since we could not render every word more clearly, an interpreter setting them out in order, we have given our labour to explaining the senses and have translated them into this tongue. For when great men and certain bishops of the Irish related to us some illustrious things about the birth of blessed Cuthbert, we inserted them into this little book as was fitting, and composed the image of one body out of the joining of diverse limbs. For what the holy bishops had read in their own tongue and land about so great a boy ought by no means to have been buried in silence. For perhaps God compelled them to come to us for this reason: that he would not suffer the nativity of blessed Cuthbert to lie long mouldering in the ashes of ignorance or oblivion. And indeed whoever knew the footsteps of their holiness could not doubt their words and their protestation of truth. Saint Malachy indeed related very many of these things to David, king of the Scots, and Maurilius his successor as archbishop afterwards confidently confirmed the same, to which Eugenius, bishop of Hardmonia, added certain things more distinctly; but also two other bishops, whose names have now escaped us, together with their companions, priests and clerics, poured them more abundantly into our ears at different times. There were also very many others who were accustomed to bear witness to these and other things about him in our presence, to see each of which on the page would have exceeded the measure of reason. And so we have inserted into our exemplar certain handfuls of flowers, and have pieced and woven for blessed Cuthbert a many-coloured tunic of virtues out of so many testimonies of worthy men. These things, therefore, we have written for the honour and glory of the most blessed Cuthbert, which we pray may be gifts pleasing to him. Come, therefore, blessed father Cuthbert, deign happily and continually to be mindful before God of your poor little wretch, and, prostrate in tears at your most sacred footsteps, join me with you in eternal joys — where you ever live and glory in glory, co-heir of Christ’s grace, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

Here ends the little book on the Birth of Saint Cuthbert.