Thank you for the invitation to help celebrate the life of St Cuthbert and to explore something of its meaning, both for his contemporaries and for us today. I’d like to begin by briefly setting that life in context, for just as a jewel is enhanced by its setting (something of which the Anglo-Saxons were very aware), so Cuthbert’s life and service shine even brighter when set against the very significant needs and challenges of his own time.
Northumbria in Cuthbert’s day was a rich, complex melting pot, shaped by recurring waves of migration and cultural influences from across the known world: a fascinating, fluid, shifting, swirling blend of different groupings, languages, social patterns, and preoccupations. People on the move, clashing, competing, and, in the end, contributing to a very creative cultural mix which helped to produce the glories of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
A very creative cultural mix but a very uncertain world. No one knew when bereavement, plague, war, or exile might leave them facing life alone, stripped of all security and significance. Cuthbert and Bede both experienced two major pandemics first hand. Cuthbert became ill during a plague said to have ‘ravaged the length and breadth of the country.’ He survived but his abbot died. Bede’s own monastery was decimated by plague, with only the abbot and a young monk, probably Bede himself, left to sing the services. Life could suddenly be cut short for other reasons. This was a society in which conflict was very much the norm (someone was always fighting someone, and few Anglo-Saxon kings died peacefully in their beds). As a result, poems and sermons throughout the Anglo-Saxon period show a profound sense of the precariousness of life, an intense need to belong, and a deep longing for hope and security in a troubled and uncertain world.
Against this background, Cuthbert’s choices and Cuthbert’s life spoke very clearly to his contemporaries - and still have much to say to us today. We also know what it’s like to be hit by a pandemic which we couldn’t control. We’ve just marked the fifth anniversary of the beginning of COVID – an event which changed all our lives, caused huge disruption and lasting loss - and left so many grieving and alone. We also live in a world of great conflict and uncertainty, where the decisions of the powerful thousands of miles away can cost the lives of so many, and even affect the cost of the food we put on our tables. We have vastly more technology, medical care, and wealth than the Anglo-Saxons; yet we too have finite lives; we too have hostages to fortune in the ones we love; we too cannot predict the future.
So, what was Cuthbert’s answer? In terms of Anglo-Saxon spirituality, it was to become a pilgrim - in multiple senses of the word. Now as we know, going on pilgrimage to special places has seen an extraordinary revival over recent decades and this Cathedral is part of ground-breaking, highly creative partnerships to encourage its growth in this region. Pilgrimage is popular today because it meets human needs – and because it’s a term which seems to be able to mean virtually anything you want it to! I recently searched the Library of Congress catalogue and found 3834 titles containing the word pilgrimage. These include ‘An Australian wine pilgrimage’; 'A pilgrimage by Greyhound bus to Tolkien's Middle Earth,' and even ‘A Flying Saucer Pilgrimage.’
However, if you’d asked Cuthbert and his contemporaries what they understood by pilgrimage, they’d have been very clear about what it meant to them. For Anglo-Saxon spirituality was built on three intersecting meanings of pilgrimage which had emerged during previous centuries. Firstly, and most importantly, the whole of life was seen as a pilgrim-journey with God – a concept inherited from the Bible and the Early Church. Secondly, the lives of monks, nuns, and hermits like Cuthbert, were viewed as a kind of inner pilgrimage with God through prayer. Thirdly, Anglo-Saxons resourced their life journeys through pilgrimage to special places, within England and beyond, with the aim of learning more about God and seeking forgiveness, healing, or guidance.
In all this, the concept of life as a pilgrimage was central. This world was seen as a place of conflict, suffering, exile, and separation from God, and above all something which was temporary. But the Good News which Jesus preaches in our Gospel reading, which Cuthbert responded to and preached across the North, offered something very different. Following Christ brought forgiveness and a relationship with God as guide and protector. It opened up a new way of life. It provided an enduring community to which all could belong. It offered a golden thread of security in a deeply insecure world: God’s help on earth in the present and an eternal home in heaven to come.
This long-term security was not just ‘pie in the sky when you die’! It gave Christian believers a strong foundation from which to serve God and others here and now, willing to take risks and make great sacrifices because they were convinced this often-fragile life was not all there was. This meant they were both connected with their culture and could be radically counter-cultural in their lifestyle, forgiving rather than seeking vengeance, and sitting light to status and possessions, for these were only 'lent' for a person’s lifetime, and were to be used and shared gratefully and wisely. Kings and queens were taught how to use their power and influence for good; laws and society were re-shaped by principles of justice and care for others; Aidan, Cuthbert, and others travelled to remote villages to teach and care for the poor and needy so that they would not miss out.
It was against this background that Cuthbert’s own life journey evolved - from shepherd to monk, to hermit, to reluctant bishop - and back to hermit. The connecting thread was serving God and others. He cared for the needy and constantly sought to learn and grow as his inner spiritual journey directed his pilgrimage through life. As a result, he became the object of the third form of pilgrimage, as people came to him for help while he was alive and sought his resting place after his death. This place was built to honour the way his life served as a signpost to God. It has remained the pre-eminent enduring place of pilgrimage in this country, despite the brief success of that southern upstart Thomas Becket! Many cathedrals have carelessly mislaid their saints over time; not so Durham. Both Cuthbert and Bede have rested here through the centuries - powerful reminders to the Northeast of our immensely rich cultural and spiritual heritage.
Many people today also seem to feel at home with the three ways of being a pilgrim I’ve outlined. We’re very familiar with the idea of life as a journey. We intuitively recognise pilgrimage as a special journey to a special place, with a special meaning. And many of us are conscious that we are also on an ongoing inner emotional or spiritual journey.
Our readings today tell of Cuthbert’s calling and his continuing obedience to that call. We’ve also seen in our Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 35-8) the role model Cuthbert followed above all others: Jesus, who came to be involved with humankind, to care with compassion, to suffer, and to sacrifice himself so that all of us could experience the Good News of forgiveness and renewal which lay at the heart of Cuthbert’s life and work.
So, as we go to Cuthbert’s resting place tonight, and give thanks for all that he and other Northern Anglo-Saxon saints did to shape their society and this region, let’s celebrate him as someone who lived, modelled, and preached the Good News, and cared deeply for all people. Someone whose example of responsiveness to God, and compassion for others, can still enrich and resource our own pilgrimage through life.
It seems very appropriate to finish with the cathedral’s Pilgrim Prayer:
God of the journey,
who inspired the northern saints
to walk in your way and to bear your light;
bless us on our pilgrimage in life,
that we may find companions on the road,
learn to travel with joyful and generous hearts,
and discover your welcome at our journey’s end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.