The (English: "Life of Saint Cuthbert") is a prose hagiography from early medieval Northumbria. It is probably the earliest extant saint's life from Anglo-Saxon England and is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert (died 687), a Bernician hermit-monk who became bishop of Lindisfarne. Surviving in eight manuscripts from Continental Europe, it was not as well read in the Middle Ages as the prose version by Bede. It was however Bede's main source for his two dedicated works on Cuthbert, the "Metrical Life" and the "Prose Life".
It was completed soon after the translation of Cuthbert's body in 698, at some point between 699 and 705. Compiled from oral sources available in Bernicia at the time of its composition, the Vita nonetheless utilized previous Christian writing from the Continent, particularly Gregory the Great's Dialogi and Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini, as powerful influences. The name of the author is not known, though he was a monk of the monastery of Lindisfarne. It is often called the Anonymous Life to distinguish it from the "Prose Life" and the "Metrical Life" of Bede. There are four modern editions of the Anonymous Life, the latest by historian Bertram Colgrave.
Background and sources
Written just after or possibly contemporarily with Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae ("Life of Saint Columba"), the Anonymous Life is the first piece of Northumbrian Latin writing and the earliest piece of English Latin hagiography.Love, "Hagiography", p. 226 This is an honour sometimes given to the anonymous Vita of Gregory the Great written at Whitby, though the date of 710 attributed to the latter by historian R. C. Love (in contrast to a date between 680 and 704) makes it later than the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert.Love, "Hagiography", p. 226; cf. Lapidge, "Anglo-Latin Literature", p. 13
The work is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert (), sometime Melrose monk, hermit of Farne and bishop of Lindisfarne who died on 20 March 687.Stancliffe, "Cuthbert, Pastor and Solitary", pp. 29–36 In common with Irish saints of the period, the Anonymous Life depicts the Bernician saint in the mold of Martin, bishop of Tours (died 397), who like Cuthbert successfully combined the role of hermit and bishop.Stancliffe, "Cuthbert, Pastor and Solitary", pp. 36–42; Thacker, "Origins", pp. 103–15 The Anonymous Life appears to have been particularly influenced by the example of Martin in its portrayal of Cuthbert's pastoral and healing activities.Thacker, "Origins", p. 113
It was commissioned by Bishop Eadfrith (died 721), the bishop famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels who also commissioned Bede's Prose Life of the saint.Stancliffe, "Cuthbert, Pastor and Solitary", p. 24; Williams, Smyth and Kirby, Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, s.v. "Eadfrith" p. 112 The Anonymous Life was organised into four books; though this was not common in the literature of the day, it followed the organization of the metrical Vita Sancti Martini of Venantius Fortunatus, Gregory of Tours' De Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Dialogi of Gregory the Great (containing an account of the life of Benedict of Nursia).Berschin, Berschin, "Opus Deliberatum", p. 98 This may be an indication that the author regarded Cuthbert as a saint of stature comparable with Benedict and Martin.Marner, St Cuthbert, p. 12
The Anonymous Life's biggest literary influence was the Christian Scriptures,Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 12 though it also borrowed some of the stories contained in Gregory's Dialogi, Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini and the Vita Sancti Antonii, Evagrius' Latin translation of Athanasius' biography of Anthony the Great.Stancliffe, "Cuthbert, Pastor and Solitary", pp. 25, 27 This influence extends to long verbatim extracts, such as those from the Sulpicius Severus at book i chapter 2 and book iv chapter 1.Thacker, "Origins", p. 111, n. 58 The author was also familiar with Victor of Aquitaine's Epistola ad Hilarium and the Actus Silvestri. The primary source used however was the oral tradition of the Lindisfarne monks. Many of the men the author consulted were unnamed priests, deacons and other men respected in their communities, though some are named directly, namely Ælfflaed, Æthilwald, Plecgils, Tydi and Walhstod.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 12–13
Date and authorship The Anonymous Life was complete somewhere between 699 and 705.Stancliffe, "Cuthbert, Pastor and Solitary", p. 22 The posthumous miracles set after Cuthbert's translation in 698 make 699 the earliest possible date for a completed text.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 13 As the text also says that King Aldfrith "is now reigning peacefully", it must have been written before the latter's death in 705.
The author of the Life of St Cuthbert has not been identified.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 11–12 Heinrich Hahn in 1883 put a case for Herefrith, the abbot of Lindisfarne mentioned as a source by Bede in his own Vita of the saint.Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul, pp. 175–79; Thacker, "Lindisfarne", p. 104 Bertram Colgrave, the Anonymous Life's most recent editor, has roundly rejected Hahn's argument. While offering Baldhelm and Cynemund (two other sources of Bede) as better candidates, Colgrave did not endorse either and declared that "it must always be a matter of conjecture". From the text itself, and from the writings of Bede, it can be deduced that it was written by a monk of Lindisfarne.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 11 Bede, in his introduction to his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, is almost certainly referring to this work when he wrote that What I have written concerning the most holy father and bishop Cuthbert, whether in this volume or in my little book concerning his acts, I took in part from what I have previously found written about him by the brethren of Lindisfarne. Throughout the Anonymous Life the author refers to Lindisfarne and its monastery with possessive pronouns. Though possibly written by many authors, the first person singular is used often enough to suggest only one major author.
Manuscripts The Anonymous Life is extant in eight manuscripts.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 17–20, has seven, but Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", pp. 105–37, adds an eighth The oldest, according to historian Donald Bullough, lies in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 15817Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", pp. 106–07 The manuscript was probably compiled at Salzburg under Bishop Adalram.Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", p. 107, n. 8, citing the conclusions of Professor Bernhard Bischoff It occupies folios 100v-119v, following two works of Augustine of Hippo (De pastoribus/Sermo xlvii, 1–53, and De Ovibus, 53r to 99v), and preceding Isidore of Seville's Synonyma.Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", pp. 107–08 The copy contains many scribal errors,Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", p. 108 but also a number of readings superior to other versions.Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", pp. 116–20, 131–37
Of the others, the oldest, probably written at the Abbey of St Bertin around c. 900, is extant in Folios 67b to 83b of St Omer 267.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 17 This manuscript contains works of saints Cyprian, Jerome, and Augustine, as well as hymn lyrics and music dedicated to Martin of Tours and Bertin of St Omer. St Omer 267 is still regarded as the best of all the available manuscripts in terms of accuracy, as well as age.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 45 Another St Omer manuscript, St Omer 715 preserves the Anonymous Life, occupying folios 164 to 168b. Here the Anonymous Life forms part of a larger legendary copied in the 12th century, with fifty-seven surviving vitae covering saints with feast days in the first three months of the year (January, February and March).
Missing nine chapters, the Anonymous Life is preserved in a late 10th-century manuscript from the abbey of St Vaast, Arras, Arras 812 (1029).Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 17–18 It occupies folios 1 to 26b, and is out of order towards the end.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 18 It is followed in the manuscript by the Vita Sancti Guthlaci ("Life of Saint Guthlac"), the Vita Sancti Dunstani ("Life of Saint Dunstan") and the Vita Sancti Filiberti ("Life of Saint Filibert", abbot of Jumièges), and originally contained another hagiography of a Jumièges abbot, that of Aichard of Jumièges.
Three British Library manuscript volumes, Harley MSS 2800–2802, contain a very large legendary from Arnstein Abbey in the diocese of Trier (now Limburg), and the Anonymous Life is found at Harley MS 2800, folios 248 to 251b. The same legendary is in three 13th-century Brussels volumes, Royal Library MSS 98–100, 206, and 207–208.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 18–19 The Anonymous Life is present in MS 207–208 folios 158 to 163.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 19 In Trier, in another legendary composed around 1235 probably at the Abbey of St Maximin, the anonymous life can be found: the Trier, Public Library 1151, folios 135 to 142. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Latin 5289, written in the 14th century, contains the last extant version of the Anonymous Life. It has been copied out of order, beginning on folio 55b, continuing on folios 49b to 52b, and ending on 56 to 58b.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 19–20
Historian Bertram Colgrave believed that Harley MS 2800 and Brussels MS 207–208 have a common origin, a 12th-century legendary from the diocese of Trier.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 43 Both manuscripts share common features, such as the omission of place-names and personal names (e.g. Plecgils). Colgrave likewise attributed a common parent manuscript to Trier, Public Library 1151 and Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Fonds Latin 5289, as he did to Arras 812 (1029) and the two St Omer manuscripts.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 43–45 The Salzburg manuscript may be descended from an ancestor predating the common ancestor of the former and the latter set.Bullough, "Early-Ninth-Century Manuscript", p. 109
Modern editions The Anonymous Life has been published four times in the modern era: The Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum Martii, vol. iii, (Antwerp, 1668), pp. 117–24 J. A. Giles, Venerabilis Bedae Opera, vol. vi, (London, 1843), pp. 357–82 Joseph Stevenson, Venerabilis Bedae Opera Historica Minora, (English Historical Society, London, 1851), pp. 259–84 Bertram Colgrave, Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert: A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede's Prose Life, (Cambridge, 1940) The Bollandist version was based on St Omer 267 and Trier Public Library 1151.Colgrave, Two Lives, p. 51 Giles' edition was a reprint of the Bollandist version. Stevenson's version too was a reprint of the Bollandist version, with some corrections brought in. Colgrave's edition was new, but like the Bollandist version is primarily based on St Omer 267.
Synopsis
The Anonymous Life consists of 4 books, book i relating Cuthbert's youth, book ii his early years serving God, book iii his time as a hermit on Farne, and book iv his time as bishop.
Book i Chapters one and two of book i consist of the prologue and preface, with the author indicating that the work was commissioned by Bishop Eadfrith.Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 60–60 In chapter three the eight-year-old Cuthbert plays with other children, showing off his physical abilities, until a three-year-old playmate, addressing him as "bishop and priest", chides him for lack of humility; this miracle the author claimed to have learned from Bishop Tumma, who apparently heard it from Cuthbert's own mouth (though Cuthbert confessed that the significance was unknown to him at the time).Berschin, "Opus Deliberatum", p. 97; Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 64–67 Still an eight-year-old, Cuthbert becomes lame and is visited by an angel who instructs him on a cure (chapter four).Colgrave, Two Lives, pp. 66–69