A HAVEN FOR ST CUTHBERT
In the year 995, a religious group known as the Cuthbert Community arrived on the Peninsula. Weary from wandering, they brought with them the remains of St Cuthbert. Cuthbert had joined a monastery at Melrose in the Scottish borders as a boy. He became known for his holy devotion, his energy as a preacher and the miracles he performed. Made Bishop of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in 685, he spent the last two years of his life living as a hermit on the nearby island of Inner Farne. He died in 687 and was buried on Lindisfarne. Eleven years later, in 698, the monks decided to re-bury him in a more important part of the church. When the coffin was opened, they found his body still fresh and his clothes undecayed. Following a Viking attack on the island in 793, Cuthbert’s body was moved from place to place, in search of a safe haven. In 995, the body was being carried from Ripon to Chester-le-Street to escape the Vikings, when, legend tells, it became too heavy to move. St Cuthbert told his followers in a vision that he wished to rest at the rocky and uninhabited peninsula at Durham. It is believed the monks first settled at Elvet, across the river from the peninsula. The saint’s remains were moved into the cathedral upon its completion in 1093. Today, his once ornate shrine is a simpler affair, having been stripped of its jewels and decorations during the 16th century Dissolution of the Monasteries. It remains the focus of pilgrimage, with many visitors quietly paying respect to him. Scholar, theologian and historian, the Venerable Bede is also buried in the cathedral. Living between 673 and 735, he was a monk at Jarrow, from where his remains were brought to Durham Cathedral in 1022. Initially buried alongside those of Cuthbert, they were moved to the cathedral’s Galilee Chapel in 14th century, where they remain.