05 — Bishop and Wonderworker
Cuthbert’s brief episcopate and the wonders of his life: drawn from the solitude of Farne in 685 by the summons of a synod and a king, he was consecrated bishop — of Hexham first, then by exchange of Lindisfarne — and gave two short years to a tireless pastoral ministry before returning to his island to die. This section sets out his reluctant elevation and then gathers the healings, prophecies, and gifts of discernment the Lives ascribe to him — including the meeting with the royal Abbess Ælfflæd and the prophecy, fulfilled in the very hour, of King Ecgfrith’s death at the battle of Nechtansmere.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic-Roman; wonderworker of Northumbria)
Cuthbert did not seek the episcopate; he had to be fetched from his cell, weeping. But once consecrated he gave himself to the office as wholly as he had given himself to solitude, travelling, preaching, healing, and counselling through his diocese in the two years left to him, the hermit become once more the apostle of the north. The miracles of these years, and of his life as a whole, are reported in this section as what the Lives attest, pinned to their texts under METHODOLOGY §3.5 — never certified as adjudicated fact. The prophecy of Ecgfrith’s death, with its precise synchronism, is the most striking of them and shows the gift of foresight the tradition most associated with him.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Reluctant Bishop | The synod at Alnmouth (684) under Archbishop Theodore that elected Cuthbert; King Ecgfrith’s part; Cuthbert fetched weeping from Farne; his consecration at York (685) and the exchange of sees with Eata, taking Lindisfarne; the character of his two-year episcopate. |
| Healing and Prophecy | The miracles as the Lives report them, pinned to their texts: healings of the sick and plague-stricken; the gifts of prophecy and discernment; the meeting with Abbess Ælfflæd; and the prophecy of King Ecgfrith’s death at Nechtansmere (685), known to Cuthbert in the hour it happened. |
See Also
- The Inner Desert — the solitude from which Cuthbert was drawn to the episcopate
- The Creatures of Farne — the nature wonders, reported on the same principle as the healings
- The Translation of 698 — his return to Farne, his death, and what followed
- The Anonymous Life and Bede — the sources for the miracle accounts and their handling
- Monasticism — the monastic-episcopal pattern Cuthbert embodied
References
- Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940.
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
- Bonner, Gerald, David Rollason, and Clare Stancliffe, eds. St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1989.