HALIWERFOLC

Amazing Stuff from Newcastle Bloggers

2011-12-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

I 've never seen this blog before, but this was quite a fascinating piece. Read the rest of the story at the Amazing Stuff Blog. -- DonnaF

2011-08-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Archeologists believe they may have found the relics of St. Edburg. Read the full story here.

Edburg or Eadburga, like St. Cuthbert, lived in the 7th Century. She founded a monastery in what was then the kingdom of Mercia.

More about the St. Cuthbert Gospel

2011-07-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

This site describes a 2007 bookbinding workshop where facsimiles of the St. Cuthbert Gospel were created.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the net, Michelle of Heavenfield writes a post about Lindesfarne and the Gospel of John

The British Library wants the St. Cuthbert Gospel book...

2011-07-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

13/07/2011

British Library announces £9m campaign to acquire the St Cuthbert Gospel – the earliest intact European book

* National Heritage Memorial Fund makes major grant of £4.5m
* Bid to save 7th century masterpiece for the nation
* Substantial grants offered by the Art Fund and other foundations
* £2.75 million still needed to acquire Gospel

The British Library has announced an ambitious fundraising campaign to acquire the St Cuthbert Gospel for the nation. Created in the 7th century and intimately associated with one of Britain’s foremost saints, the Gospel is the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world’s most significant books.

Read the rest of the story HERE

A lovely Stained Glass Cuthbert

2011-04-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

(Photographer: Andy V Byers, Stained Glass Window, St Michael Church, Workington) via Wikimedia Commons

You will notice that Cuthbert is portrayed in this modern window as a middle-aged man with dark hair and beard. This accords with the description in the dream of King Alfred. Cuthbert carries the crozier which marks him a bishop, and wears a simplified version of the famous pectoral cross that was found with his relics and is now in the crypt of Durham cathedral.

Bearing the Saint in podcast now!

2011-02-26T16:09:00.001-08:00

Update: Podcast reading is now up to Chapter 6-- see this page for all episodes

Dr. Chrissi Hart of Readings from Under the Grapevine has begun the podcast version of my young adult historical novel, Bearing the Saint. I haven't heard it yet myself, still haven't fixed my speakers (not missing them that much, to tell the truth!) So I would love to hear what you think of the reading....

This program focusing on children's books is found on Ancient Faith Radio, where you will also find my husband's regular Bible Study series, The Coffee Cup Commentaries, along with numerous other enlightening programs. There is one track for talk and another for some of the most glorious music you will ever hear anywhere.

If you like what you hear of Bearing the Saint in the podcast, you can buy the book from several outlets including Amazon.com.

Lindisfarne Haven in the East Kootenay...a dream begins

2011-02-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

A self-sustaining, intentional community proclaiming Jesus Christ through daily worship in the Orthodox Christian way, and daily acts of charity for those in need, regardless of ethnicity, creed, or gender.

This dream of a very special community in the British Columbia interior, named for the Holy Island of St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert, is just beginning. Visit the website to learn more.

http://www.lindisfarnehaven.com/

Sleeping in St. Cuthbert's Churchyard, Darlington UK

2011-01-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

May Saint Cuthbert be with them.

Historic Image from England's Northeast

VOLUNTEERS will be raising awareness of the dangers of sleeping rough by spending the night in a churchyard where a homeless man was killed.

The group of volunteers, staff and residents of Tees Valley YMCA will bed down in St Cuthbert’s churchyard, in Darlington, to raise awareness of youth homelessness.

The sleep-out, on Friday, January 28, will launch Poverty and Homelessness Action Week.

Thousands of young people under the age of 18 become homeless, which makes them vulnerable to unemployment and dropping out of education.

St Cuthbert’s churchyard was the location of an attack last year in which roughsleeper George Akers, 59, died.

Read the rest of this story in The Northern Echo

Fun and wonderful Cuthbert Products!

2010-09-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know what the saint would think, I really don't. But I'm enjoying the very existence of these items!

Lindesfarne Mead from Saint Aidan's Winery, Holy Island

Cuddy's Cave Cheese by Doddington Dairy

Saint Cuthbert Beer by Durham Brewery

Lindesfarne Gospels mimcube from the British Library

Plainchant for the Translation of St. Cuthbert

2010-09-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

at his church in Norham by Cappella Novocastriensis

Plainchant for St. Cuthbert, followed by William Byrd "Ego sum panis vivus", performed in the St. Cuthbert Church at Norham.

My (Classical) Latin is far too rusty to make anything much of this medieval hymn, and sadly I discover that the online translation pages can make even less of it than I can....:-) I can however tell you that this is for the September 4th feast of the Translation of Saint Cuthbert's body from Chester-le-Street to its final resting place in Durham cathedral. The text appears in a missal according to the use of York

Text of the Plainchant:

De sancto Cuthberto.

Verbum Pater eructavit,
Verbi rore germinavit
Cuthbertus ut lilium;
Regnum tenens et supernum,
Ibi floret in aeternum
Ante Dei filium.
Iste suis in diebus
Mundus, mundi carens rebus,
Carens labe criminis,
Lege fulsit in divina,
Quasi stella matutina
Medio caliginis.
Carne vivens, carnem mori
Fecit usu graviori
Victus, vestis asperae;
Sic Cuthbertus promeretur,
Caro nitens quod videtur
Nunc post mortem vivere.
Hic expertes sanitatis
Omnis sexus et aetatis
Saluti restituit,
Caecis visum, claudis gressun,
Ad loquendum dat regressum
Quibus sermo defuit.
Sunt et patris infinita
Quae post mortem et in vita
Protulit miracula,
Cuius prece Deo grata,
Stola nobis vitae data,
. Cuius prece Deo grata,
Stola nobis vitae data,
Vivamus in saecula. Amen

Time Team at Bamburgh

2010-07-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

The bone pendant that came up in finds washing this week, with a twenty pence coin for scale.From the Bamburgh Research Project blog
Bamburgh was a royal stronghold in Northumbria in St. Cuthbert's day and later. The castle is of course from a later time, but Tony Robinson's Time Team have done a program about the current archeological work being done on the Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

More than 85 graves from the 7th and 8th centuries, have been uncovered. Graeme Young, director of archaeology for the Bamburgh Project, said that the cemetery could number up to 1,000 burials.

The Bamburgh Research Project has its own blog here.

Saint Cuthbert in Canada

2010-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Wishing all a Happy Canada Day!

Today is a special Canada Day for me, as it is the official release date of Bearing the Saint, my novel about the pilgrimage of the Company of Cuthbert with his body about the north of England and Scotland in the face of the Viking invasion in the late 9th Century AD.

But what does a saint from early medieval Northumbria have to do with Canada? As it happens, there are quite a few churches bearing his name in this fine country, and a few schools. They are Anglican, Old Catholic, Roman Catholic and Presbyterian and perhaps others.

It appears that the oldest St. Cuthbert church in Canada gives its name to the community of Saint-Cuthbert in Quebec. My French is very rusty, and the Google translation is poor, but as near as I can figure out, one James Cuthbert, aide-de-camp to General Wolfe, was in at the fall of Quebec to the British in the late 1700s. James Cuthbert appears to have been one of that ancient family in the north who trace their lineage to the very people my novel is about, the company of Cuthbert, who were made up of both layfolk and monastics, and some of whose earliest members and their children and grandchildren are named in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto.

One source I've found seems to suggest James Cuthbert's family was Roman Catholic, and the page below seems to be talking about an RC church:

" C’est en 1766 que la localité reçoit le nom de Saint-Cuthbert, lorsque le seigneur James Cuthbert, aide de camp du général Wolfe qui a fait l’acquisition de ces terres quelques années plus tôt, en fait don à la fabrique, à condition que son nom soit donné à la nouvelle municipalité.
L’année suivante, on y érige une petite chapelle en bois et en 1879, l’église en pierre est bâtie à l’initiative de l’abbé Kerbério, curé de Berthier. L’église existe toujours et a été classée monument historique, ainsi que le presbytère, en 1980.

but another page I've found says he had a Protestant chapel built in memory of his wife:

CUTHBERT CHAPEL

The oldest Presbyterian sanctuary in Quebec can be found at the junction of routes 138 and 158. Cuthbert built the chapel to honor the memory of his wife in 1786. It has been protected as a historical monument since 1958, and currently hosts a very convenient visitor’s bureau, open from May to October. Travelers will find an informative guide here to over 20 other heritage buildings, including the original Berthier Grammar School (1880-1917) at 562 rue Montcalm and the last of the Cuthbert manor houses in Berthierville at 710 rue Frontenac.
The house built in 1821 by Lanoraie seigneur Ross Cuthbert to accommodate servants stands west of Berthierville on Route 138 (701 Grande-Côte Est.) It was occupied until the 1970s by the last descendant of the Cuthbert family to live in the area, Margaret Bostwick.

If anyone can clarify all this for me, I would love to hear from you. Meanwhile, it's just nice to know that Cuthbert's name appears in Canada from a very early time by Canadian standards. Of course, 1766 is still more than a thousand years after Saint Cuthbert's death...

Meanwhile, I offer this picture of the lovely stained glass St. Cuthbert's cross, taken and cropped from the web page of St. Cuthbert's Anglican Church, Delta BC. I hope they won't mind...I have been to this church a number of times when my daughters took part in music recitals in the bright beautiful space of the church nave.

Bearing the Saint Chapter One is Online

2010-06-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

The Publisher's back cover copy:

Edmund is just an ordinary fisherman¹s son from the island of Lindisfarne, whose one great talent and joy is running as a messenger for his bishop. But when Viking invaders threaten the holy island and its great treasure, the relics of St. Cuthbert, Edmund¹s life changes forever. Along with his whole village, he must accompany their beloved saint on a perilous pilgrimage that will carry him across England, through adventure, heartbreak, miraculous deliverance, and love, all the way to manhood.
Bearing the Saint brings to life the late ninth century in Northumbria, a turbulent period of invasion and conquest that concluded with an uneasy peace between Saxon and Dane. This gripping story, infused with the holy breath of St. Cuthbert, will hold readers of all ages spellbound.

Read Chapter One

The book is currently gone to press and will be in the publisher's warehouse in a few weeks. Review copies are being sent out to a number of outlets in the UK and North America.

Meanwhile, you can Order from Amazon.com

The Ravens and Saint Cuthbert

2010-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is a detail from a sample illustration sent to my publisher by Heather Hayward, before she was chosen to illustrate my children's picture book, The Ravens of Farne. I think it's quite beautiful!

The final illustration in the picture book, though, shows the raven bringing the piece of lard to St. Cuthbert in its beak, not its claws. Heather, my editor Jane Meyer and I all worked hard to make sure the details were accurate. We wanted the ravens to look natural, but have just a touch of anthropomorphism, humour and character that would suit the narrative given by Bede in his Life of St. Cuthbert. In the story, Cuthbert relates how ravens stole straw from the roof of the guest house of St. Cuthbert's island hermitage. The saint scolded the birds, who returned next day with a gift of lard, laying it at his feet.

In the course of my raven research, I of course turned to the work of the foremost expert in the field, Bernd Heinrich, author of The Mind of the Raven. This interesting quote about this noted researcher appears at the PBS site:

from pbs.org Raven site:

"Heinrich ... flushed a bird off a frozen chunk of suet and observed upon inspection that the raven used its beak to carve a precise groove around the fat, allowing it to carry off a large chunk at once instead of several small morsels to eat one at a time. Heinrich commented that “the raven not only had thought ahead, but also had acted on that thought and shown intelligence.”

Preliminary sketch of St. Cuthbert & Raven by illustrator Heather Hayward.

Sermon: Ministers of St Cuthbert

2010-05-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

I've just now discovered a fine sermon from the Eve of St. Cuthbert (March 19th) this year by the V. Rev. Michael Sadgrove, Dean of Durham Cathedral, the shrine of St. Cuthbert. He relates a fascinating miracle story from the 15th century, and goes on to talk about the vocation of the cathedral parish and indeed the vocation of all Christians. Here is a short excerpt:

In the Cathedral collect for today ‘we rejoice with all our hearts in Cuthbert, glory of our sanctuary and ever-living symbol of our apostleship'. What is ‘glory'? The prayer goes on to explain. ‘Help us to follow his example by the simplicity of our lives and by the power of our witness.' In our reading from St John, which the young Cuthbert first learned from his prior Boisil, Jesus says, ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' St John tells us that the glory of Jesus is his self-giving love, his life laid down for the world. This passion and death we shall soon celebrate in Holy Week. Cuthbert strove to live it out as a leader of the church, evangelist, pastor and man of prayer. He did it by renouncing wealth, privilege and power in order to cultivate simplicity and walk the path of the cross.

This reminds me of the tropar to St. John Chrysostom, which says "You have revealed to us the riches of poverty/ and shown to us the heights of humilty." Saints are people who show us truths in paradox, and Cuthbert's story is one of the finest for such teaching.

you can read Dean Michale Sadgrove's full sermon here.

P.S. Coincidentally, the Dictionary of Old English Word of the week is heafodmynster, which means cathedral. :-)

Ma Bonny Lad

2010-05-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Traditional Northumbrian song, on the traditional sad subject of losing a young man who has gone away to war, by The Onion House Band, with scenes around Holy Island. The 'coffin of St. Cuthbert' you see near the end is of course not the original.

Ravens of Farne Podcast read aloud on Ancient Faith Radio

2010-05-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ancient Faith Radio now features a podcast of The Ravens of Farne: A Tale of Saint Cuthbert being read aloud by Dr. Chrissi Hart on her program of children's book readings "Readings from under the Grapevine".

I hope you will enjoy my retelling of this story recounted by the Venerable Bede in his Life of Saint Cuthbert. The book, illustrated by Heather Hayward in beautiful full colour, is available from Conciliar Press or through Amazon.com

St. Cuthbert's Day Pilgrimage AD 2010

2010-04-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

pilgrims crossing the sands

Grant us your help against the enemy, •
for earthly help is in vain.
12 Through God will we do great acts, •
for it is he that shall tread down our enemies. – psalm 60

This is the text taken by The Rt. Rev. Mark Bryant, Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow (Church of England) for a pithy sermon given to pilgrims from the Diocese of Durham
this past St. Cuthbert's day (March 20th.) You can read the full text by clicking the link on that page, where you will also see some nice photos and a lovely poem by one David Grieve. Since this was a one-day celebration, the participants had to take coaches to Durham, but they began as pilgrims have done by centuries, by walking the route across the sands at low tide from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to the mainland.

Another regular Pilgrimage is held in Holy week, by pilgrims who travel -to- Holy Island. This event is led by the Northern Cross ecumenical group who come to celebrate Christ's resurrection by walking to Lindesfarne via several locations on the mainland.

The COVER of Bearing the Saint

2010-04-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

Illustration by Sarah Marina. Release date July 2010.

more info coming soon.....

Old English Word of the Week

2010-04-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Dictionary of Old English Word of the Week at Uof T

In the right sidebar of this blog you will find a section called "The Languages".

In my upcoming book about 9th Century Northumbria, Bearing the Saint, there are three languages of importance: Old Norse, Medieval Latin, and Old English.

The last is the one of most interest to me, as it is the language spoken by my protagonists (and by my own personal ancestors, in fact). Like many others today, I first became interested in this ancient tongue via J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was of course a philologist and the fantasy world he created is woven together with his invented languages. But in the case of one group of people in Lord of the Rings, he uses an actual ancient language in which he was expert-- Old English, sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, though the latter now usually refers to the people who spoke Old English in the period before the Norman conquest in AD 1066. Tolkien has the Rohirrim speak what is virtually the Mercian dialect of Old English, and portrays them as a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon warrior culture.

Saint Cuthbert spoke the Northumbrian dialect of this same language, as did the Haliwerfolc company who carried his body away from Lindisfarne in the face of Scandinavian invasion.

The University of Toronto, where I studied Old English at the introductory level in the late 1970's, maintains the online Dictionary of Old English.

A page there is dedicated to an Old English Word of the Week, and this is what I have linked in the sidebar on this blog. I don't know who chooses these words, but here's an interesting choice they've made for the week after Easter this year:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hell-dēofol
Att. sp.: heldeofol | heldiobul (CorpGl)
2 occ.

devil, glossing Orcus ‘god of the infernal regions’
ClGl 1 4502: Orcus orc, þyrs ł heldeofol.
CorpGl 2 13.231: Orcus ðyrs, heldiobul.
Lat. equiv. in MS: Orcus
See also: hell, dēofol; cf. helledēofol
OED2 helldeoful s.v. hell n. note after sense 11.a, hell-devil s.v. hell n. sense 12. Cf. MED helle devel s.v. helle sense 2(b).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does the connection of 'devil' with "Orcus" sound familiar? Here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia's article on "Orcus", an Etruscan and Roman mythological figure:

From Orcus' association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld monsters, particularly in Italian where orco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh. The French word ogre (appearing first in Charles Perrault's fairy-tales) may have come from variant forms of this word, orgo or ogro; in any case, the French ogre and the Italian orco are exactly the same sort of creature. An early example of an orco appears in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, as a bestial, blind, tusk-faced monster inspired by the Cyclops of the Odyssey; this orco should not be confused with the orca, a sea-monster also appearing in Ariosto. This orco was the inspiration to J. R. R. Tolkien's orcs in his The Lord of the Rings. In a text published in The War of the Jewels, Tolkien stated:

Note. The word used in translation of Q urko, S orch, is Orc. But that is because of the similarity of the ancient English word orc, 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no connexion between them. The English word is now generally supposed to be derived from Latin Orcus.

Also, in an unpublished letter sent to Gene Wolfe, Tolkien also made this comment:^[2]

Orc I derived from Anglo-Saxon, a word meaning demon, usually supposed to be derived from the Latin Orcus -- Hell. But I doubt this, though the matter is too involved to set out here.

Cuthbert's Early career and social standing

2010-04-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Michelle of Heavenfield provides a very intriguing post about St. Cuthbert's early career and social standing.

Saint Cuthbert and Saint Herebert

2010-04-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

Today is Saint Cuthbert's day on the Old (Julian) Calendar, still followed by many Orthodox Christians. As it is also Holy Friday for both Old and New Calendar Orthodox, and this year Good Friday for the Western Church as well, I am a little busy for a post of my own today; but happily The Ochlophobist is more diligent than I and has already made a wonderful post about St. Cuthbert and St. Herebert here.

Call Renewed for Return of Lindesfarne Gospels to the Northeast

2010-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Some St. Cuthbert's Day activities last weekend included this year's walk from Chester-le-Street to Durham (retracing the final translation of the relics to their current resting place) and a renewed call to return the Lindisfarne Gospels to the Northeast, where they were created in honour of Saint Cuthbert.

You can read a bit more about this campaign via the post I made about it last year.

Saint Cuthbert's Day March 20th: Peter Ustinov on Cuthbert's remains

2010-03-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

Today is St. Cuthbert's Day, and to celebrate I thought I'd post this lovely little YouTube clip.

Splendid view of St. Cuthbert's isle, the tiny islet just off the Holy Island of Lindisfarne where St. Cuthbert occasionally spent time in solitude until he felt the need to remove to the more isolated location of Inner Farne.

The ruins you see in this video are of a later medieval chapel. On my visit there many years ago, I sat where Sir Peter sits in the video, pondering on the life of Cuthbert. I remember being sad to find trash and beer cans in the little sacred space. Still I think probably the number who visit St. Cuthbert's isle in a respectful manner outnumber the occasional barbarians.

And then there is the contrasting segment showing Cuthbert's grand tomb at Durham. Food for thought.

"...to learn a lesson in virtue from birds."

2010-03-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Photo of Saint Cuthbert's Church, Bedlington, on a 1910 post card from the Northumberland Communities website

My picture book, The Ravens of Farne, tells a story related by the Venerable Bede in his Life of Saint Cuthbert. These mischievous birds had stolen straw from the roof of the new guest house Cuthbert had built for visitors to his hermitage on Farne. When the man of God scolded them, they departed; but the next day one came back, offering a lump of lard as a gift in token of repentance.

Now today we hear of a band of modern thieves stealing from the roof of Saint Cuthbert's church in Bedlington, Northumberland, one of the sites where his body is believed to have rested for a time on its pilgrimage in the ninth century.

The black market in scrap metal provides a great temptation to thieves these days, and Saint Cuthbert's is only one of several churches targeted recently.

Thieves can repent-- let us hope and pray that somehow grace will penetrate the hearts of these thieves.

"Let no-one think it ridiculous," says Bede, "to learn a lesson in virtue from birds."

Update: an arrest has been made

Cuthbert's Hermitage-- Inner Farne

2010-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

Now that The Ravens of Farne: A Tale of Saint Cuthbert is being officially released, I want to tell you a little about the story behind the story.

It began while I was working on my young adult novel, Bearing the Saint. This story too involves Saint Cuthbert, though not in the same way, for it takes place two hundred years after The Ravens of Farne, when the monks and layfolk of Lindesfarne fled Viking invaders, taking his body with them.

Since I wanted to know everything possible about Saint Cuthbert, even though my novel takes place long after his earthly lifetime, I naturally read one of the primary sources, his life story as told by The Venerable Bede. You can find a translation of that work online here; I read it first in the Penguin classics edition. As I happened on the episode about Cuthbert and the ravens (crows in the online translation), it struck me that this was a beautifully self-enclosed story, just the right length for a picture book. Not a form I had ever attempted before-- but the rhythmic first lines of my own retelling presented themselves to me at once:

The man of God Cuthbert came to live

on the island of Farne alone.

All alone with God he meant to stay,

Just Cuthbert, God, and the birds of Farne.

So where is this Island of Farne? You can see a map and elevation drawing of it above. And you can find it on an Ordnance Survey map in OS square NU 2136. The whole group is called the Farne Islands, but the one where Cuthbert lived is called the Inner Farne.

There is too much to be told in just one post about the Farne Islands, Cuthbert's time there, and the birds of Farne. So I will continue this exploration next time!

Awe-Inspiring Inlay!

2010-02-12T16:51:00.001-08:00

My mouth is hanging open. Go to the site of master inlay artist Larry Robinson and look at these AMAZING images of his Lindisfarne Guitar Project.

Ravens (not Raven's!) of Farne available for pre-order now

2010-01-28T11:31:00.001-08:00

I'm working on getting Amazon to correct the typo in their listing of the book....:-)

Canadians can now pre-order from Amazon.ca There seems to be a discount offered, too!

Americans and I think others as well can pre-order at Amazon.com

Americans can also order direct from the publisher, Conciliar Press. You may want to go over there anyway, just to check out their other children's picture books.

I do not know yet if it will be made available on Amazon.co.uk, but we -do- have a UK distributor, and the book will be available there in time.

The Ravens of Farne Author's Copies have arrived!

2010-01-20T15:14:00.001-08:00

Like the robins returning in spring, the author's copies are harbingers of more to come-- in this case, the release of the Saint Cuthbert picture book, The Ravens of Farne, in the weeks to come!

My publisher, Conciliar Press, has just come through a complete move of their warehouse, so I haven't got exact dates for everything yet. But when they are done, the book will be available at bookstores and on Amazon, as well as direct from the publisher. Conciliar has distributors in the UK as well as the US, and is about to get a new distributor in Canada as well.

As soon as I know more, I will let you all know!

Holy Island by Andrew White

2010-01-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!

Deep Freeze on Lindisfarne!

2010-01-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

The Holy Island website has some fine photos of the recent frosty weather on their gallery page.

Check them out here

Scroll down to the New Year 2010 group of pictures

Cover Artist chosen for Bearing the Saint!

2009-11-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

My young adult historical adventure novel about the Company of Saint Cuthbert, Bearing the Saint, is now in the editorial process at the publisher, Conciliar Press with my editor, Katherine Hyde.

One part of that process is the work of the cover artist. This will be Sarah Marina, whose marvellous work you can see here. I've seen a rough sketch of the cover concept, and I am very excited about it.

Below is a sample of her style, in an unofficial interpretation of the Kings and Queens of Narnia, which she is keeping on an archival page. I chose this one to post here because Sarah says she will be leaning toward this style for Bearing the Saint. I really like how the kings and queens look like real people with individual character to their features, not idealized and Hollywoodized cartoons.

As well as the cover, Sarah will be providing some maps inside the book. Can't wait to see these!

Bearing the Saint is scheduled to be released summer 2010.

Treasure from Saint Cuthbert's Time!

2009-10-06T20:33:00.001-07:00

Can't quite get this to fit the page properly, but here is the big excitement-- The Staffordshire Hoard. Found farther south than Cuthbert's country, but this exquisite hoard of gold and silver appears to be from Cuthbert's day.

Which is very exciting for me personally, as anything that draws more attention to Anglo-Saxon times will only be good publicity for my books! :-)

The reason I didn't blog on this the very day of the exciting announcement is that I was in the final stages of completing my young adult novel about the Haliwerfolc of Saint Cuthbert, Bearing the Saint. It's done-- and it's been handed in to my editor. It will probably be released in June 2010. Meanwhile, my picture book, The Ravens of Farne has completed the illustration process by Heather Hayward. It will be published in February 2010.

More blog posts to come soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the video:

Cuthbert's Other Feast Day

2009-09-03T10:08:00.001-07:00

Saints often have more than one Feast Day dedicated to them, and Cuthbert has two.
His main feast day falls on March 20th, which commemorates the day of his death.

But we also have another celebration in his honour September 4th. This date commemorates the translation of his relics to their final resting place in the Cathedral Church of Durham:

In 995 Danes again ravaged Northumbria and forced the monks tending his coffin to move it to Ripon. Only two months later they left Ripon and journeyed north.

East of Durham the cart carrying the saint's body stuck fast in the mud of the road. After three days of fasting and prayer St.Cuthbert revealed that he wished his shrine to be at Dunholme, a place unknown. Then it was learned that a great crag in a loop of the River Wear was the place of the dun cow, lost and found, Here at the east end St.Cuthbert was buried exactly where the dun cow had been found at rest, and here was built the present Durham Cathedral. Pilgrims to the shrine attested miracles and each All Saint's Day the body was revealed, yet incorrupt.

In 1104, with the present Cathedral almost complete, monks inspecting the coffin found St.Cuthberts's body still entire and incorrupt, lying on its right side as if asleep.

--from A Brief Life & History of St. Cuthbert, by John Butcher

So once more, Happy St. Cuthbert's Day!

p.s. The Harry Potter fans among you will be happy to know that one of the other saints sharing this date is Saint Hermione.

St. Cuthbert's Banner

2009-08-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

An exciting bit of news from Textile artist Ruth O'Leary, who has been commissioned to make a replica of a lost Medieval processional banner dedicated to St Cuthbert, for presentation to Durham Cathedral.

Read her blog post about how she arrives at the design here.

The agency which has commissioned her, The Northumbrian Association, exists to promote Northumbrian culture. Perhaps their biggest focus is on the drive to return the Lindesfarne Gospels to the North East where they were created. They also encourage the celebration of Saint Cuthbert's Day, March 20th, with Northumbrian food and culture.

Saint Cuthbert is the official patron of the Northumbrian Association. Through his prayers may Ms. O'Leary produce a worthy work, and the Northumbrian Association accomplish all their goals.

UPDATE: Ruth O'Leary has a new post with a photo of the mock-up of the banner on her blog.

IN OTHER NEWS: Ravens of Farne is virtually complete, with the final colour illustrations turned in by artist Heather Hayward to the publisher, Conciliar Press. I am thrilled with Heather's vibrant colours and her humorous portraits of the birds that enhance my free-verse text, which re-tells the story of St. Cuthbert and the ravens found in Bede's narrative of his life.

I also took part in a local library reading the other day. My contribution was a scene from my other Saint Cuthbert book, Bearing the Saint. I read a bit where my young protagonist, Edmund, has a run-in with an unfriendly feline, and ends up becoming an errand boy for Bishop Eardwulf.

Read about these upcoming books via the links in the sidebar.

St. Cuthbert Wordle

2009-07-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Saint Cuthbert wordle image made at wordle.net

I have now finished serializing my AGAIN article on Saint Cuthbert. If you haven't been here from the start, you can read the parts in sequence by beginning here.

There will be lots more interesting Saint Cuthbert posts coming in future, but at the moment I will be buckling down to the writing of Bearing the Saint. Meanwhile, here is a Wordle image made from the words in this blog. You can have fun making your own at wordle.net.

And don't forget, if you are on Facebook, you can join our HALIWERFOLC group for updates on this blog, pictures, news, discussion and links about Saint Cuthbert and Northumbria. Just search for HALIWERFOLC on the groups menu at Facebook.

And now I am off to the Ninth Century again. The weather is very bad, wolves are threatening, and cracks are appearing in the unity of the company....

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART SEVEN

2009-07-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

CUTHBERT'S LEGACY

Some years ago I visited both Lindisfarne and Cuthbert’s tomb at Durham. The cathedral museum displays his coffin, pectoral cross, vestments and other items. I was struck by the inclusion of so humble an object as a small ivory comb; this would have been a necessary item for a bishop to have on hand so that he might present himself decently to serve the divine offices after vesting. The brilliantly illustrated Lindisfarne gospel book, made at Lindisfarne in the late 7th Century in honor of Cuthbert, is now housed at the British Library in London.

Some 135 churches in Britain bear the name of Cuthbert, as well as others around the world; and both tourists and sincere pilgrims visit his tomb and other holy sites associated with him. Nor is the Orthodox Church in Britain slow to honor this greatest of English saints, and you may find icons of him in many places. Perhaps most amazing of all in this post-Christian era, a long distance walking route today is named Saint Cuthbert’s Way, winding through the Scottish Borders and north England from the former site of the monastery at Melrose, past a cave where Cuthbert’s body was hidden from the Vikings, and across the tidal sands on the path known as the Pilgrim’s Way to Lindisfarne.

As for Cuthbert’s beloved retreat in the Farne Islands, it is now a nature reserve administered by the National Trust, boasting a vast number of species of birds and other wildlife. Among the humblest members of the Northumbrian bishop’s flock, the eider ducks are still known in the area today by the affectionate name Cuddy (Cuthbert’s) ducks.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE STARTING WITH PART ONE

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART SIX

2009-06-16T02:55:00.000-07:00

Bronze sculpture of St Cuthbert's "Journey"

Fenwick Lawson carved the first version of this sculpture "Journey" in 1999 from seven elm trees; it is now on Holy Island. After it was exhibited in Durham Cathedral local people raised £200,000 to have a bronze casting, and this is now in Millennium Square Durham. It was unveiled in 2008 by Princess Anne. St Cuthbert's body was at Lindisfarne, but in 875 fearing a Viking invasion monks carried it away, first to Workington, then Whithorn, Crayke, Chester-le-Street, Ripon and finally to Durham where it remained. See Wiki North-east Link and Fenwick Lawson's website Link .

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE BEGINNING WITH PART ONE

A.D. 684 Bishop of Lindisfarne

In A.D. 684, his fiftieth year, Cuthbert’s great fear came at last to pass: he was elected bishop. Only when a large delegation including the king of Northumbria himself sailed to his island hermitage to plead with him did he accept the burden laid on him. Bede tells us that Cuthbert’s manner of life as bishop was to protect “the flock committed to him by constant prayer on their behalf, by wholesome admonition and—which is the real way to teach—by example first and precept later.” But after less than two years he knew it was time to retire once more to his hermitage.

Death and beyond

During a final illness which allowed him, as he had wished, time to compose his soul and instruct his brethren before his death on March 20th, 687, Cuthbert told the monks of Lindisfarne, “....I would much rather you left the island, taking my bones with you, than that you should be a party to wickedness.....” Cuthbert spoke of the sad schisms that had resulted from the clash between Roman and Irish factions, but nearly two centuries later, in A.D. 875, the remaining community at Lindisfarne applied these words in a different way. The island was about to be invaded by Vikings.

Cuthbert had never left his people, even in death. Now they would not leave him. His relics, buried in the monastery church, had been found to be incorrupt and the source of several miracles. The community, both monastics and layfolk, adults and children, took up the saint’s body in its wooden coffin and carried it away, taking other relics as well, including the famous Lindisfarne Gospel book. An arduous pilgrimage in flight from the invaders led them to the brink of despair, and they determined to carry their saint’s body across the sea to sanctuary in Ireland.

But it seems Cuthbert refused to leave the soil of Northumbria. A terrible storm prevented the little ship bearing the coffin from sailing away, and the waves swept the beautiful gospel book overboard. But the company returned to shore with their relics, and the book was recovered, miraculously unharmed. The company, though now much reduced, bravely returned to their journey, persevering for many years—indeed, for generations-- before they settled at last at Durham. There in the 12th century the coffin was opened once more and the saint’s body found to be still incorrupt. Symeon of Durham then recorded the story of the painful and miraculous journey that had come down by word of mouth through the proud descendants of the wanderers.

Go to the CONCLUSION IN PART SEVEN

Happy St. Columba's Day!

2009-06-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Stained glass at Iona Abbey. Photo licensed under Creative Commons by vegansoldier

Columba (the dove) or Columcille is the celebrated founder of the missionary monastery of Iona in Scotland. Coming from Ireland, he brought the Celtic tradition of the Christian faith to the island of Britain. It remained the dominant form of Christianity until the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D. Those who would not adopt the Roman customs then returned once more to Iona, but Saint Cuthbert remained to bridge the transition between the old and new.

Saint Aidan came out from Iona to found the monastery at Lindesfarne, which is so closely connected to our beloved Saint Cuthbert. On Lindesfarne today, there is still a memory of Columba preserved in a number of place names. One of them is St. Coomb's Farm. There may once have been a chapel dedicated to Columba on that property. Today an 18th Century farm house there is up for sale, so if you were thinking of moving to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, now is your chance!

I've just found that a google search brings up a new feature called a timeline, so here is St. Columba's

Celebrating the Venerable Bede

2009-05-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast day of Saint Bede of Jarrow, known as the father of English history and the biographer of Saint Cuthbert. I find that my church lists his feast as the 27th, My guess about this discrepancy:

English-speaking Orthodox-- Greek and Russian emigres and converts in Great Britain and elsewhere in the West-- began to take an interest in celebrating pre-schism Western saints sometime in the early to mid-twentieth Century. Bede's feast would therefore have to have been added to the calendar of Eastern Orthodox churches, and apparently they used the General Roman Calendar 1899-1962 to determine the dates of such commemorations.

My old 1962 Book of Common Prayer (ie, the one followed by the Anglican Church of Canada in 1962) also gives Bede's date as May 27th.

So. I don't know why the Roman church changed his date. Apparently the Anglican Church followed suit at some point. But those Orthodox who have an interest in celebrating Bede and other Western Saints probably could not be bothered, as they have enough Calendar confusion already, some being on the Julian (Old) and others on the Gregorian (New) Calendar.

And now that I have made your head spin with all this calendrical minutiae, I hope you will enjoy the above video about Bede's home monastery, Wearmouth- Jarrow.

Wearmouth-Jarrow was a hugely influential monastery in early Christian Northumbria and beyond. It is now the subject of a bid for a World Heritage Site.

Some more posts about Bede on other blogs today :

Matters Arising

Bishop's Blog

Atonement Online

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART FIVE

2009-05-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Lindisfarne

But it was not such an easy adjustment at all monasteries, and Cuthbert was sent to the tidal island of Lindisfarne to gently help the monks there adapt to the change. As prior of the community, Cuthbert won the brothers’ hearts with firm and kind leadership. When arguments at chapter meetings became too heated, Cuthbert would simply walk out, only to return and begin again the next day without reference to the previous unpleasantness. He also awed the brethren with his nights spent in prayer, going without sleep often—and what is more, doing it with great cheer and enthusiasm. A compassionate confessor, he would burst into tears of sympathy as the penitents bewailed their weakness, and would himself do acts of penance as an example to them.

The Hermit of the Farnes

In A.D. 676, Cuthbert at 41 at last entered with joy the life of solitude he had always longed for, establishing a little hermitage on the Farne Islands, a long row away from Lindisfarne. Here he struggled with invisible demonic enemies; brought forth a miraculous well; sowed barley to feed himself; and lived in peace and quietness. Still his brethren and others came to visit, so he built a guest house for them to use.

From this period comes one of the most charming of the animal tales that adorn Cuthbert’s life:

One day a tribe of ravens swooped in to steal straw from the roof of the laboriously built guest house. Cuthbert tried to wave them off, but they ignored him until he shouted, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, depart!”
The birds fled at once, as if ashamed. Three days later one returned to Cuthbert as he dug in his garden, and “stood before him, with feathers outspread and head bowed low to its feet in sign of grief.” Cuthbert then pronounced the ravens free to return. When they came, they brought a gift—a lump of lard, which the saint kept and encouraged visitors to use for the very practical purpose of waterproofing their shoes.

By Cuthbert’s decree the Farne Islands became what was perhaps the world’s first bird sanctuary. The black and white eider ducks line their nests with down plucked from their breasts, which would in Cuthbert’s time be stolen by entrepreneurs to sell as a luxury for the beds of the rich. This would leave the nestlings to die cruelly of exposure; Cuthbert declared the birds sacred to himself, and untouchable.

Icon above from the Monastery of St. Anthony and St. Cuthbert in Shropshire, posted on the Facebook group for HALIWERFOLC by Catrin. I believe it is by the hand of Aidan Hart,though I cannot find this particular one on his site.

GO TO PART SIX

Ravens of Farne book progress

2009-05-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

The Ravens of Farne picture book is progressing. My editor at Conciliar Press, Jane Meyer, recently sent me the preliminary layout of the book, and some early sketches by illustrator Heather Hayward. It is exciting to see the period detail and humor of the birds and monks coming to life!

Coincidentally, Jane happened to snap this raven photo recently at a botanical garden in her area. I often hear the ravens when I walk in a local park here in British Columbia. They are a very widespread bird, and perhaps the most intelligent of all birds.

Our next post will tell about St. Cuthbert's encounter with the ravens, which is the story I re-tell in the picture book.

Episcopalians propose to combine feasts of Cuthbert & Aidan

2009-05-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Michelle of Heavenfield, who produces the marvellous HEAVENFIELD blog about Anglo-Saxon Northumbria and related history, has made a report about the ECUSA plan to change the feast day of St. Cuthbert in their yearly cycle on her other blog, SELAH.

The proposal is to c ombine the commemoration of Saint Cuthbert with the feast of Saint Aidan, who of course was also a bishop of Lindisfarne. The date is August 31st, when Aidan died and Cuthbert as a shepherd boy had the vision of Aidan's soul being taken to heaven.

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint -- PART FOUR

2009-04-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Prior, Preacher, Wonder-worker

Now thirty years old, Cuthbert succeeded his master in the office of prior, teaching and counselling the other monks. He also went out to the lands round about, to fire with zeal the lukewarm believers and call back to repentance those who had fallen back into pagan superstition during the plague. Sometimes on horseback but often on foot, he visited the impoverished and isolated hillsteads, and went to encourage and teach at other monastic houses such as Coldingham.
There on one occasion Cuthbert, who had never forgotten the spiritual clarity of his long-ago vision while watching sheep in the hills, rose late at night to pray outdoors. One of the brothers followed him and observed the saint standing in the North Sea up to his neck, where he remained all night praising God. He left the water at dawn, falling down to praise God on the shore, and the the amazement of the watching monk,

Icon copyright by Aidan Hart icons

two otters came to twine themselves round Cuthbert’s feet, warming him with their breath. When he arose and gave the animals his blessing, they departed; the spying brother he kindly warned to keep the incident secret while Cuthbert lived.

Many other miracles are recorded of Cuthbert. Often they involve the saint’s interaction with animals; miraculous provisions of food; healing; knowledge of happenings elsewhere or in the future; exorcisms; or mastery over the threatening elements of water or fire. The boy who once boasted he could beat all his fellows at sports had become an outstanding athlete in the spiritual arena. But he still remembered—and feared—the prophecy that he would become a bishop; and felt himself tempted by the love of money. He longed for the contemplative life of a hermit, but God first required of him an active ministry.

The church politics did not go away. The Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664 saw a definitive decision by the Church of Britain to make the change to Roman customs; and the Melrose monks, though they had already been ousted from the new monastery at Ripon by Roman partisans, at this time humbly submitted to the will of the church.

GO TO PART FIVE

Christ is Risen!

2009-04-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Today is Orthodox Pascha, the Eastern Christian celebration of the Holy Resurrection of Christ.

Among our customs is the blessing of Paschal baskets. We bring to church with us decorated baskets containing all the meat, eggs and dairy products we have been abstaining from through Lent and Holy Week. These are blessed with lighted candles and holy water after the midnight service, and then we share the contents to break our fast.

I commissioned this lovely embroidered linen Paschal basket cover with the Saint Cuthbert Cross on it from a member of our church. She sells her work on Etsy as snowbirdling.

Crist aras! Crist sothlice aras!

That is, Christ is Risen! (and the response, Truly Christ is Risen!) translated into Old English, the common language of Saint Cuthbert's day. And here it is in Latin, the liturgical language of his day:

Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!

I'm not certain these actual forms would have been used in the West then, however. At some time in the future I will be adding posts on language and liturgy, so I hope we will find out! Meanwhile, the next post will continue the story of Saint Cuthbert's life!

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART THREE

2009-04-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Old Melrose

Old Melrose is on a land peninsula surrounded by the River Tweed and was the site of a 7th century monastery with links to St Aidan and St Cuthbert. The 19th century house called Old Melrose is visible on the left through autumn mists. The Eildon Hills in the background are from left to right, Eildon Wester Hill, Eildon Mid Hill and Eildon Hill North. Viewed from Scott's View in early October. For more information on the site of Old Melrose see: Link

photo & above text © Copyright Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

read the previous installments

Saint Cuthbert: England's Saint Part Three:

Monk at Melrose and Ripon

The reputation of one Boisil, a priest and prior (chief assistant to the abbot) drew Cuthbert to the monastery at Melrose
in what is now the Scottish Borders; Boisil himself was standing at the gate with some other monks when Cuthbert rode up, and the prior said to the other monks, “Behold the servant of the Lord.”

Under Boisil’s wing, Cuthbert trained at the monastery in troubled times for the English church. Two streams of Christian thought were colliding, as the Roman-influenced mission from the south met with the Celtic practices that had been established in Northumbria and the rest of Britain by monks from Ireland. But Cuthbert kept to his learning; Bede says that he “watched, prayed, worked and read harder than anyone else. Like Samson the Nazarite he carefully abstained from all alcoholic drink, but he was not so severe with himself as regards food lest his work should suffer.”

In A.D. 657 the abbot found Cuthbert, still in his early twenties, fit to serve in the important role of guestmaster at a daughter monastery at Ripon. But the political and religious controversies of the times resulted in this group of monks, trained in the Irish tradition, being removed from Ripon in A.D. 661 in favour of others who championed the Roman usage. Cuthbert returned to Melrose with the others, and three years later suffered in a plague that ravaged the land. The brethren prayed all night for him, and when one told him of it in the morning he arose saying, “Then what am I lying here for? God will certainly have heard the prayers of so many good men.” And though he made a gradual recovery, a swelling on his thigh moved inwards, to trouble him at intervals throughout the rest of his life so that “strength was made perfect in weakness.”

His beloved mentor Boisil, however, also prostrate with illness, foresaw his own death within seven days. He called Cuthbert to his side, so that he might instruct him from the Gospel of John “not with the profound arguments, but with the simple things of ‘the faith which worketh by love’.”

(as we are now beginning Orthodox Holy Week, the next post will appear after Orthodox Pascha, April 19th this year)

CONTINUE READING WITH PART FOUR

VIKINGS ATTACK!

2009-04-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

image from Wikimedia Commons (but the Vikings did not wear horned helmets!)

AD 793...June 8th..the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God's Church at Lindesfarne
-- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

AD 2009...April 1st...Cyber-Vikings launch a raid on the Haliwerfolc Facebook group!

In between the time of my picture book The Ravens of Farne (the age of Cuthbert and Bede, 7th C) and the time of my YA novel Bearing the Saint (the wanderings of the company of Cuthbert with his relics during the Scandinavian invasion and settlement, late 9th C), Viking warriors made their first surprise raid on the Holy Island of Lindesfarne. It was the beginning of a whole new age of violence and turmoil for the kingdom of Northumbria and the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

The Old Norse term Viking does not describe a particular nationality. These marauding "Northmen" and invaders were commonly spoken of as Danes; but in fact they were not a highly organized group and not of a single nationality, but came from various parts of what is now Scandinavia. "Viking" is now thought to mean something like "adventurer"....someone who set out to make his fortune over the sea. Some of these folk as traders and fighters on the continent made their way as far south and east as Byzantium, becoming members of the Emperor's Varangian Guard; others led smash-and-grab raids on Britain and Ireland. But in the mid to late 9th Century they came to the British Isles to conquer, settle and intermarry with the Anglo-Saxons.

This is the background for Bearing the Saint, and in future this blog will cover much more about the cultures and interactions of both the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxons and their Scandinavian conquerors.

I hadn't planned to get into this topic on the blog quite yet, but an April Fool's day invasion of my HALIWERFOLC Facebook group rather tickled my fancy. Despite their bloodthirsty threats and pagan graffiti on the group wall, these are a kinder, gentler sort of Viking than the ones who came to Lindesfarne in AD 793. Thanks for making my day, guys!

One other note-- the editor of Lindisfarne Calling, an e-mail newsletter from the modern-day Holy Island of Lindisfarne kindly printed my letter and a link to this blog in the Feb. 28 issue. The newsletter, archived here, offers delightful historical and wildlife articles about the island, and some glimpses into the life of the island's inhabitants, who today thankfully live in peace and safety from the 'fury of the northmen'!

Parents, teachers and kids: Read about the Viking invaders at the BBC kids site

The next post here on HALIWERFOLC will resume the account of "Saint Cuthbert: England's Saint. "

ADDENDUM: April 2= March 20 A happy St. Cuthbert's Day to all those using the Julian calendar. A reader of this blog has a Saint Cuthbert post here

Breaking News-- Lindisfarne Gospels limited loan agreement!

2009-03-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

We interrupt the account of Saint Cuthbert's life to bring you breaking news about the Lindisfarne Gospels .

This famous illuminated manuscript, made after Saint Cuthbert's death by the scriptorium of Lindisfarne 'in honour of God and Saint Cuthbert' is currently in the British Library in London. There will be more about this great cultural treasure in later posts on this blog, but for now you should know:

Every seven years, they will be put on limited loan for three months by the British library to some place in the North East of England-- Saint Cuthbert's Country-- perhaps as soon as AD 2010

and

there is currently a move afoot to have the Gospels brought back to a permanent home in the North East where they were created. My personal sentimental preference would be Lindesfarne, but as the article linked above points out, there are definite security concerns, so perhaps Durham would be preferable. Durham is also more easily accessible.

Why not read up a little, and then if you would like, go and fill out the online feedback form?

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint PART TWO

2009-03-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

you can read part one first here

August 31, A.D. 651

Following this angelic encounter, Cuthbert lived a prayerful life, but did not at once submit himself to monasticism. We learn from Bede of Jarrow (working from eyewitness accounts less than a generation after the saint’s death), that Cuthbert owned a spear and horse, and so must have been of a noble family. Perhaps through family obligations, then, at the age of sixteen he found himself supervising the tending of a flock of sheep. Loving solitude and the natural world God created, he made it his custom to keep the night watch over the animals, praying while others slept.

On this night he saw a light streaming from the sky, and choirs of angels descending to the earth. They gathered to themselves a figure Cuthbert recognized as a human soul, and carried it with them back to heaven. Struck with rapture, he at once woke his companions and with his contagious excitement, writes Bede, “fired the hearts of the shepherds with the love and honor of God.” The next day, Cuthbert learned of the death of Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, the holy bishop who had firmly established the faith in this northern kingdom.

READ PART THREE HERE

FOR KIDS, parents and teachers : Saint Aidan was a missionary who brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria. Find out more about missionaries at this page of the Early British Kingdoms site.

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint

2009-03-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

This article, sans hyperlinks, appeared in AGAIN Vol. 29 No. 2, Summer 2007

PART ONE:

Northumbria, A. D. 642

“Why, most holy priest and bishop Cuthbert, do you persist in doing what is so contrary to your nature and your rank?”

This prophetic utterance, eerie and solemn, rang out across a field somewhere in the windswept Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. A crowd of boys suddenly ceased their rough and rowdy game to stare at the speaker. He was no sage elder, but a child scarcely three years of age; and the one named “Cuthbert”, whom he addressed as “priest and bishop”, was one of the other boys-- indeed the champion and leader of their wild play. Cuthbert was no more than seven.

Thus began the career of a saint whose fame, popularity and influence in life and death surpassed all others in England until the Reformation. The unsettling incident turned the young Cuthbert’s energies in a new and thoughtful direction, and he abandoned his competitive spirit and frivolity. But before long, the once athletic boy fell victim to a painful swelling of the knee. Though he bore it with patience, it steadily worsened until he could hardly walk.

One day as he sat outdoors where the servants had carried him, a noble, white-clad horseman rode up and asked for hospitality. Cuthbert apologized for not being able to serve him for, he said, “I am pinned down, for my sins, by this weakness of the leg.”

The horseman, examining his knee, advised the boy to bathe it in a solution of flour and hot milk, then rode off again, not staying for the hospitality he had requested. Cuthbert obeyed the instructions and was healed, and so knew his visitor for an angel.

GO TO PART TWO

What this blog is about...

2008-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

My Facebook group, Haliwerfolc, just doesn't offer enough scope for my Saint Cuthbert stuff. So here I am.

Haliwerfolc is Old English for 'people of the holy man'. The holy man in question is Saint Cuthbert, 7th Century Anglo-Saxon bishop, hermit, wonder-worker and evangelist.

This blog is for people who, like me, love everything about Saint Cuthbert, his land, and his story.

I love Saint Cuthbert so much that I have written not one but two books about him, both contracted to Conciliar Press for release in 2010.

The Ravens of Farne is a picture book based on an incident recounted in Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert. This manuscript has already been turned in to the editor, and an illustrator has been chosen. More about that soon.

Bearing the Saint is a novel for young adults, set during the Viking invasion of Northumbria, two centuries after Cuthbert's death. The saint's devotees at that time took up his relics and left Lindesfarne, wandering as refugees for seven years before finding peace and a home once more.

As we approach release, there will be more posts about these books,

--BUT this blog will be about much more!

My research has turned up lots of wonderful stuff related to Saint Cuthbert, and I want very much to share it. This blog will serve as a sort of internet shrine to him, and collect as many links and other information as I can find in this one place.

I do need to devote myself to completing the manuscript for Bearing the Saint in the next half year, as well as providing input to my editor and illustrator for the next stage of work on The Ravens of Farne. So the updates here will be infrequent until summer; but I will be adding the occasional link to the sidebar.

**special note to kids, parents and teachers** -- I will be making a collection of links and resources just for kids. Many future posts will include a link to a site of special interest to kids at the very end of the post. But please note: Haliwerfolc is not responsible for the content of linked sites. Apart from links labeled here as specifically for kids, some content on sites linked in posts or sidebars on this blog may not always be suitable for younger children.

Meanwhile, if you are on Facebook and you are interested, go on over to the Haliwerfolc group there to find more links. I will continue to post news there until we really get this blog rolling in summer 2009.