On the 20th of March we remember with thanksgiving St. Cuthbert, the great Apostle of the North, in whose honour the Lindesfarne Gospels were made and on whose breast was found the beautiful Gospel of St. John which is our oldest complete book. And fittingly for Cuthbert, or ‘Cuddy’ as he is known affectionately in the North, was a man whose whole life was shaped and lived in and by the Gospel, by reconciliation, by good news for the poor and supremely by that free movement of the Holy spirit, flowing like water, and like the wind, blowing where it listeth. Though Cuthbert worked tirelessly for the church and for the poor he was at heart a hermit and a mystic, in intimate communion with God in his hermitage on his beloved inner Farne island . I feel a particular connection with Cuthbert and have walked on pilgrimage along the Cuthbert Way from Melrose Abbey in Scotland to the Holy island of Lindesfarne in Northumberland.
This sonnet will appear in my next collection for the Canterbury Press. My current volume Sounding the Seasons can be bought direct from Canterbury Press, from Amazon, or on Kindle
As always you can hear the poem by clicking on the title or the play button
Apparently he was also responsible for some of the first bird protection laws:
“A particularly famous colony of eiders lives on the Farne Islands in Northumberland, England. These birds were the subject of one of the first ever bird protection laws, established by Saint Cuthbert in the year 676.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Eider
An eco-saint, like many of the Celtic saints 🙂
Excellent, definitely an eco saint, He was himself an anglo-saxon, not a cely, but his Lindesfarne represents a fruitful fusion of Celtic and English art and a parable of community and reconciliation!
Your phrase “keening wind and wave” is very evocative of Lindisfarne, which I have visited – beautiful place. And I like the contrast between the Norman masonry of the tomb and the freedom of the ducks, the wind and the waves, and also the idea that the door to heaven is everywhere.
Thanks! I love Lindesfarne!!
Great poem. Very evocative. Ummm. I thought Cuthbert was from the Border Country and was more Celt than Anglo-Saxon…certainly Lindisfarne represents the Celtic tradition of Iona right up until Whitby when the Irish left to go back to Iona.
He was a lowland scot but in that period part of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria his predecessor on lindesfarne, Aiden was Irish but his genius was to ensure that the Celtic influence would not be lost post Whitby. Or that’s how I read it. Certainly he was popular as a Saxon saint to whom Saxons suffering Norman oppression could appeal hence the Durham sanctuary knocker to which I gently allude 🙂
Reblogged this on Malcolm Guite.
“You roam the North just as you used to do;
Always on foot and walking with the poor,”
Wounding words. (“And there’s not any reason/No, not the least/Why I shouldn’t be one too.”)
Precious words, Malcolm. Thanks.
thanks
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