From
the Life of Cuthbert by the Venerable Bede (Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham)
As soon as Christmas was over Cuthbert sought
out his island home one more. A crowd of the brethren gathered to see him off,
one of whom, an 01 monk, strong in the faith though wasted away through
dysentery, said to him.. 'Tell us, my lord, when we may expect to see you
again'. The answer came back as plain as the question (for Cuthbert knew it
was true): 'When you bring back my corpse'. He was given almost two months to
rediscover the delights of the quiet life and to fit mind and body into the
strict discipline of his old routine: then he was suddenly felled by disease,
to be prepared by the fires of internal pain for the joys of everlasting bliss.
Let me tell you of his death verbatim, just as I had it from Herefrith, a
sincerely devout priest and present abbot of Lindisfarne.
'After being wracked by three weeks of continual
illness; he met his end in the following way. He took ill, you know, on a
Wednesday, and it was on a Wednesday too that the disease conquered and he went
to his Lord. [ ... ] I went into him', Herefrith continued, 'about the ninth
hour and found him lying in a corner of the oratory opposite the altar. I sat
down beside him. He said very little, for the weight of affliction made it hard
for him to speak. But when I asked him rather urgently what counsel he was
going to leave us as his testament or last farewell, he launched into a brief
but significant discourse on peace and humility, and exhorted us to be on our
guard against those who, far from delighting in these virtues, actively foster
pride and discord.'
'''Preserve among yourselves unfailing divine charity,
and when you have to hold council about your common affairs let your principal
aim be to reach a unanimous decision. Live in mutual concord with all other
servants of Christ; do not despise those of the household of faith who come to
you seeking hospitality. Receive them, put them up, and set them on their way
with kindness, treating them as one of yourselves. Do not think yourselves
better than the rest of your companions who share the same faith and follow the
monastic life. With those who have wandered from the unity of the Catholic
faith, either through not celebrating Easter at the proper time or through evil
living, you are to have no dealings. Never forget that if you should ever be
forced to make the choice between two evils I would much rather you left the
island, taking my bones with you, than that you should be a party to wickedness
on any pretext whatsoever, bending your necks to the yoke of schism. Strive
most diligently to learn the Catholic statutes of the fathers and put them into
practice. Make it your special care to carry out those rules of the monastic
life which God in his divine mercy has seen fit to give you through my
ministry. I know that, though some might think my life despicable, none the
less after my death you will see that my teachings are not to be easily
dismissed.'"
'These and like sayings he uttered at intervals,
because the gravity of the disease, as I said before, had weakened his speech.
He passed the day quietly till evening, awaiting the joys of the world to come,
and went on peacefully with his prayers throughout the night. At the usual time
for night prayer I gave him the sacraments that lead to eternal life. Thus fortified
with the Lord's Body and Blood in preparation for the death he knew was now at
hand, he raised his eyes heavenwards, stretched out his arms aloft, and with
his mind rapt in the praise of the Lord sent forth his spirit to the bliss of
Paradise.
Saint Bede, Life of Cuthbert 37, 39, in J. F.
Webb, Lives of the Saints, translated with an introduction (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1965), pp. 116, 120-121.
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