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Introduces readers interested in insular spirituality and hagiography to the major texts associated with the cult of the great northern English saint, Cuthbert. The first sustained analysis of this textual tradition from 690-1500, emphasizing his ascetic evolution, and association with changing perceptions of northernness and nationhood.
List of contents
1. Blessings on pregnant seals: constructing Cuthbert's asceticism in his anonymous and Bedan vitae and the Historia ecclesiastica, 690-740; 2. Travels with my coffin: the dislocation and defence of the community of St Cuthbert in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 793-1050; 3. The bishop in the rain: celebrating the new order in Symeon of Durham's Libellus de exordio, Old English Durham, and the Capitula de miraculis et translationibus sancti Cuthberti, 1066-1140; 4. Expansions and contractions of saintly space in two Cuthbertine miracle collections, 1150-1210; 5. Godric of Finchale, Bartholomew of Farne, and the 'Irish' Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti: three eremitic responses to St Cuthbert, 1150-1210; 6. Delimiting sanctity in two meditations from Farne Island: the Exortacio ad Contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210-1370; 7. Vernacular epitomes and encyclopedias: Southern Legendaries and the Metrical Life of St Cuthbert, 1270-1500; Conclusion.
About the author
Christiania Whitehead is an Honorary Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland where she specialises in medieval religious literature. Her books include Castles of the Mind: a Study of Medieval Architectural Allegory (2003), The Doctrine of the Hert: A Critical Edition (co-ed.) (2010), Saints of North-East England, 600-1500 (co-ed.) (2017), and Middle English Lyrics: New Readings of Short Poems (co.ed.) (2018).
Summary
Introduces readers interested in insular spirituality and hagiography to the major texts associated with the cult of the great northern English saint, Cuthbert. The first sustained analysis of this textual tradition from 690-1500, emphasizing his ascetic evolution, and association with changing perceptions of northernness and nationhood.
Foreword
This book surveys the textual representation of Cuthbert, the premier northern English saint, from the seventh to fifteenth centuries.
