E06030: In the Anonymous Life of *Cuthbert (bishop and anchorite of Lindisfarne (north-east Britain), ob. 687, S01955), the author records the translation of the saint 11 years after death, and how his body, vestments, and shoes were found incorrupt; and later, how a paralysed boy was healed by wearing those shoes. Written in Latin by a monk of Lindisfarne, 699/705.

The Anonymous Life of Cuthbert (BHL 2019)

For an overview of the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert, see E05871.

Book four, chapter 14
Nam etenim post annos xi spiritu sancto suadente et docente consilio a decanibus facto, et a sancto episcopo Eadberhto licentia data, reliquias ossium sancti Cudberhti episcopi totius familiae probatissimi uiri de sepulchro proposuerunt eleuare. Inuenerunt itaque in prima apertione sepulchri, quod dictu mirum est totum corpus tam integrum, quam ante annos xi deposuerunt. Non enim marcescente et senescente cute et arescentibus neruis strennue corpus erectum et rigidum est, sed membra plena uiuaciter in articulis motabilia requiescebant. Collum enim capitis et genua crurum sicut uiuentis hominis. Eleuantes eum de sepulchro, ut uoluerunt flectere potuerunt. Omnia autem uestimenta et calciamenta quae pelli corporis eius adherebant, attrita non erant. Nam sudarium reuoluentes quo capud eius cingebantur, pristine candiditatis pulchritudinem custodiens, et ficones noui quibus calciatus est, in basilica nostra contra reliquiis pro testimonio, usque hodie habentur.

'After eleven years, through the prompting and instruction of the Holy Spirit, after a council had been held by the elders and licence had been given by the holy Bishop Eadberht, the most faithful men of the whole congregation decided to raise the relics of the bones of the holy Bishop Cuthbert from his sepulchre. And, on first opening the sepulchre, they found a thing marvellous to relate, namely that the whole body was as undecayed as when they had buried it eleven years before. The skin had not decayed or grown old, nor the sinews become dry, making the body tautly stretched and stiff; but the limbs lay at rest with all the appearance of life and were still moveable at the joints. For his neck and knees were like those of a living man; and when they wished to lift him from the tomb, they could bend him as they wished. None of his vestments and footwear which touched the flesh of his body had worn away. They unwound the headcloth in which his head was wrapped and found that it kept all the beauty of its first whiteness; and the new shoes, with which he was shod, are preserved in our church over against the relics, for a testimony, up to this present day.'

Book four, chapter 17
Miraculum aliud simile huic silentio non praetereo, quod in praesenti anno factum est. Fuit namque quidam adolescens paraliticus de alio monasterio in plaustro deductus ad medicos edoctos cenobii nostri. Illi enim omni cura eum qui pene cunctis membris mortifactis dissolutus iacebat, medere ceperunt, nihilque proficientes, post longum laborem omnino deseruerunt, disperantes curare eum. Puer itaque desertum se a medicis carnalibus ut uidit, plorans et lacrimans ministro suo dixit, Primum utique mihi hoc malum desolutionis et mortificationis inchoans. Ideo namque deposco ab abbate calciamenta que circumdederunt pedes sancti martyris Dei incorruptibilis, et secundum consilium eius ficones detulit, pedibus suis nocte illa circumdedit, et requieuit. Surgens in matutinis quod dictu mirum est, Domino laudem stans cantauit, qui prius pene absque lingua nullum membrum mouere potuit. Crastina autem die circuibat loca sanctorum martyrum, gratias agens Domino, quod meritis sancti episcopi secundum fidem eius pristine sanitati redditus est.

'I will not pass over in silence a miracle similar to this which only happened this year. There was a certain youth, a paralytic, who was brought in a wagon from another monastery to the skilled physicians of our monastery. They began to try every cure on him as he lay with almost all his limbs mortified and powerless. After toiling long, they had no success and gave up altogether, despairing of curing him. When the boy saw himself deserted by human doctors, he said to his servant with lamentations and fears: "This powerlessness and mortification first began from my feet and so spread through all my members. So I ask the abbot for the shoes which were on the feet of the holy and incorruptible martyr of God." According to his counsel, the servant brought the shoes and he put them on his feet that night and rested. He arose in the morning and, marvellous to relate, he stood up and sang praise to the Lord, he who before could hardly move any of his members except his tongue. On the next day he went round the places of the sacred martyrs, giving thanks to the Lord because he had been restored to his former health, according to his faith, through the merits of the holy bishop.'

Text and translation: Colgrave 1940, 130-33.