XXX. How his body was found altogether uncorrupted after it had
been buried eleven years, and how his successor in the bishopric
departed this world not long after. [698 A.D.]
CHAP. XXX.
How his body was found altogether uncorrupted after it had been buried eleven
years, and how his successor in the bishopric departed this world not long
after. [698 A.D.]
IN order to show forth the great glory of the life after death of the man of
God, Cuthbert, whereas the loftiness of his life before his death had been
revealed by the testimony of many miracles, when he had been buried eleven
years, Divine Providence put it into the minds of the brethren to take up his
bones. They thought to find them dry and all the rest of the body consumed and
turned to dust, after the manner of the dead, and they desired to put them into
a new coffin, and to lay them in the same place, but above the pavement, for the
honour due to him. They made known their resolve to Bishop Eadbert, and he
consented to it, and bade them to be mindful to do it on the anniversary of his
burial. They did so, and opening the grave, found all the body whole, as if he
were still alive, and the joints of the limbs pliable, like one asleep rather
than dead; besides, all the vestments in which he was clothed were not only
undefiled, but marvellous to behold, being fresh and bright as at the first. The
brothers seeing this, were struck with a great dread, and hastened to tell the
bishop what they had found; he being then alone in a place remote from the
church, and encompassed on all sides by the shifting waves of the sea. There he
always used to spend the time of- Lent, and was wont to pass the forty days
before the Nativity of our Lord, in great devotion with abstinence. and prayer
and tears. There also his venerable predecessor, Cuthbert, had for some time
served as the soldier of the Lord in solitude before he went to the isle of
Fame.
They brought him also some part of the garments that, had covered the holy body;
which presents he thankfully accepted, and gladly heard of the miracles, and he
kissed the garments even, with great affection, as if they had been still upon
his father's body, and said, "Let new garments be put upon the body, in place of
these you have brought, and so lay it in the coffin which you have prepared; for
I know of a surety that the place will not long remain empty, which has been
hallowed with so great grace of heavenly miracles; and how happy is he to whom
the Lord, the Author and Giver of all bliss, shall vouchsafe to grant the
privilege of resting therein." When the bishop had made an end of saying this
and more in like manner, with many tears and great compunction and with
faltering tongue, the brothers did as he had commanded them, and when they had
wrapped the body in new garments, and laid it in a new coffin, they placed it
above the pavement of the sanctuary. Soon after, Bishop Eadbert, beloved of God,
fell grievously sick, and his fever daily increasing in severity, ere long, that
is, on the 6th of May, he also departed to the Lord, and they laid his body in
the grave of the blessed father Cuthbert, placing over it the coffin, with the
uncorrupted remains of that father. The miracles of healing, sometimes wrought
in that place testify to the merits of them both; of some of these we have
before preserved the memory in the book of his life. But in this History we have
thought fit to add some others which have lately come to our knowledge.
