St Cuthbert's Coffin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

What is usually referred to as St Cuthbert's coffin is a fragmentary oak coffin in
Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...
, pieced together in the 20th century, which between AD 698 and 1827 contained the remains of
Saint Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...
, who died in 687. In fact when Cuthbert's remains were yet again reburied in 1827 in a new coffin, some 6,000 pieces of up to four previous layers of coffin were left in the burial, and then finally removed in 1899. This coffin is thought to be Cuthbert's first wooden coffin, and probably to date to 698, when his remains were moved from a stone sarcophagus in the abbey church at
Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...
to the main altar.Wilson, 49–50
here for number of fragments
/ref> The coffin is almost the only survival of what was no doubt a very large body of Anglo-Saxon wood carving, being inscribed or engraved with linear images which have ''
tituli :''See also Titulus (Roman Catholic) for Roman churches called tituli, or titulus (disambiguation) for more meanings.'' ''Titulus'' (Latin "inscription" or "label", the plural ''tituli'' is also used in English) is a term used for the labels or ...
'' in Latin lettering and
Anglo-Saxon runes Anglo-Saxon runes ( ang, rūna ᚱᚢᚾᚪ) are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ ''fuþorc'') from the Old English sound va ...
with names of apostles and saints; many names are illegible.


History

Cuthbert died on 20 March 687 in his hermit's cell on Inner Farne Island, two miles from
Bamburgh Bamburgh ( ) is a village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It had a population of 454 in 2001, decreasing to 414 at the 2011 census. The village is notable for the nearby Bamburgh Castle, a castle which was the seat of ...
,
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...
, and was taken back to the main monastery at Lindisfarne to be buried. Eleven years later the coffin was re-opened, and according to his biographies (including prose and verse ones by
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
from about 720) his remains were found to be "
incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their ...
" or undecayed. This was a traditional attribute of sainthood and helped greatly in his subsequent cult. He was reburied in a new coffin, apparently over the original one, which is described in his biographies, and matches the surviving coffin closely; this is called a ''levis theca'' ("light chest" in Latin) in Bede's biography. This was placed above ground at the altar, and apparently covered with a linen cloth, an indication that Cuthbert was already regarded as a saint. In 875 the monks evacuated the abbey with the coffin, in anticipation of the
Great Heathen Army The Great Heathen Army,; da, Store Hedenske Hær also known as the Viking Great Army,Hadley. "The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", ''Antiquaries Journal''. 96, pp. 23–67 was a coalition of Scandin ...
moving into the area. For seven years they carried it with them to various places in modern Scotland and Northumbria before settling it in the still existing St Cuthbert's church in
Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...
until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to
Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
. It was at Chester-le-Street that King Athelstan visited it, and the textiles were placed inside. Travelling once again, the cart with the coffin became stuck at
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
, which was taken as a sign that the saint wished to remain there. A new stone church—the so-called 'White Church'—was built, the predecessor of the present grand cathedral. The body was moved within the cathedral at various points; perhaps in 1041, in 1069 to escape the
Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last House of Wessex, Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged An ...
by
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, in 1104 when the Norman cathedral was constructed, and in 1541 when the medieval shrine which was one of the principal English pilgrimage sites was destroyed during the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. The coffin was opened at various times during this period: a mid-11th century priest named Alfred Westou was in the habit of often combing the hair of the saint, and is also traditionally considered to have been responsible for placing the purloined bones of Bede in the coffin. In 1827 the coffin was once again removed, having been found in a walled space at the site of the shrine. By then there were up to four layers of coffin in fragmentary condition, taken to date from 1541, 1041, 698 and 687, housing a complete skeleton, and other human remains, though many of the contents had been removed earlier. The textiles were removed in 1827. The human remains were reburied in a new coffin under a plain inscribed slab, with the remains of the old coffins, which were removed in yet another opening of the burial in 1899. These totalled some 6,000, of which 169 showed signs of having been carved or engraved. The art-historian
Ernst Kitzinger Ernst Kitzinger (December 27, 1912 – January 22, 2003) was a German- American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art. Biography Kitzinger was born into a well-educated Jewish family in Munich; his father, Wilhelm Nathan ...
, then with the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, made a reconstruction of the carved oak sections in 1939, which has subsequently been slightly re-arranged. The reconstructed coffin and most of the contents are on now view in the Cathedral Museum; the St Cuthbert Gospel has been often on display in London since the 1970s. The fragments of St Cuthbert's coffin have been exhibited at Durham Cathedral since 2017.


Engraving and contents

From the several thousand fragments collected in 1899 the art historian
Ernst Kitzinger Ernst Kitzinger (December 27, 1912 – January 22, 2003) was a German- American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art. Biography Kitzinger was born into a well-educated Jewish family in Munich; his father, Wilhelm Nathan ...
pieced together in 1939 a selection of 169 to make the fragmentary montages of the 7th century coffin now exhibited in the museum in Durham Cathedral, with engraved figures of Christ surrounded by four Evangelists' symbols on the lid, on one end the earliest surviving iconic representation of the
Virgin and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent in ...
outside Rome from the medieval art of the Western Church, with the archangels Michael and Gabriel on the other. The sides show the
Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...
and five archangels. The coffin also contained the Stonyhurst or Saint Cuthbert Gospel (now
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
) and the best surviving examples of Anglo-Saxon embroidery or ''
opus Anglicanum Opus Anglicanum or English work is fine needlework of Medieval England done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings or other textiles, often using gold and silver threads on rich velvet or linen grounds. Such English embroidery wa ...
'', a stole and maniple which were probably added in the 930s, and given by
King Athelstan King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
. Other probable possessions of Cuthbert found inside are an ivory comb, a portable altar, and a
pectoral cross A pectoral cross or pectorale (from the Latin ''pectoralis'', "of the chest") is a cross that is worn on the chest, usually suspended from the neck by a cord or chain. In ancient and medieval times pectoral crosses were worn by both clergy and ...
with gold and garnet
cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inlays of cut gemstones, ...
, a rare and important early example of Christian Anglo-Saxon jewellery.


Inscriptions

The runic inscription reads: :''ihs xps mat(t) eus)'' The ''ma'' and possibly the ''eu'' are
bind rune A bind rune or bindrune ( is, bandrún) is a Migration Period Germanic typographic ligature, ligature of two or more Runic alphabet, runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (med ...
s. The ''t'' is inverted. Then follows: :''marcus'' The ''ma'' is again a bind rune, then: :''LVCAS'' In Latin letters, followed by runic: :''iohann(i)s'' Followed by Latin: :''(RAPH)AEL (M)A(RIA)'' The names of Matthew, Mark and John are thus in runes, while that of Luke is in Latin letters. The
Christogram A Christogram ( la, Monogramma Christi) is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism, religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldes ...
is notably in runic writing, ''ihs xps'' ᛁᚻᛋ ᛉᛈᛋ, with the ''h'' double-barred in the continental style, the first attestation of that variant in England. The monogram reflects a runic variant of a partly Latinized ''XPS'' from Greek ''ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ'', with the
rho Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
rendered as runic ''p'' and the ''eolc'' rune (the old
Algiz Algiz (also Elhaz) is the name conventionally given to the "''z''-rune" of the Elder Futhark runic alphabet. Its transliteration is ''z'', understood as a phoneme of the Proto-Germanic language, the terminal ''*z'' continuing Proto-Indo-Europ ...
rune ''z'') used to render
chi Chi or CHI may refer to: Greek *Chi (letter), the Greek letter (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ); Chinese *Chi (length), ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter *Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon *Chi (surname) (池, pin ...
. It is difficult to account for the mixture of scripts, or find significance in which parts are in which script, but it can be said that such mixtures are not uncommon among inscriptions of the period from northern England, including the
Franks Casket The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in ...
and stones from Lindisfarne and
Monkwearmouth Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bisho ...
.Page, 264–265


Notes


References

* Bonner, Gerald, Rollason, David & Stancliffe, Clare, eds., ''St. Cuthbert, his Cult and his Community to AD 1200''. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1989 * Brown, T.J., et al., ''The Stonyhurst Gospel of Saint John'', 1969, Oxford, printed for the
Roxburghe Club The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. Origins The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 days ...
* Cronyn, J.M. and Horie, C.V., "The Anglo-Saxon Coffin: Further Investigations", in Bonner et al. *"Lexicon", Page, R. I., "St Cuthbert", in
Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde
', Volume 26, 2004, Walter de Gruyter, , 9783110177343 *Crook, John
English Medieval Shrines
Boydell & Brewer, 2011 * Page, R. I., "Roman and Runic on St Cuthbert's Coffin", in Bonner et al. * Raine, James,
Saint Cuthbert: with an account of the state in which his remains were found upon the opening of his tomb in Durham cathedral, in the year MDCCCXXVII
', 1828, G. Andrews, (treat with caution, but important primary account of the 1827 opening) * Wilson, David M.; ''Anglo-Saxon Art: from the Seventh Century to the Norman Conquest'', London: Thames and Hudson, 1984 (also: US edn. Overlook Press)


Further reading

* Battiscombe, C. F. (ed.) ''The Relics of Saint Cuthbert: studies by various authors collected and edited with an historical introduction'', 1956, Oxford University Press * Cronyn, J.M., Horie, Charles Velson, ''St. Cuthbert's coffin: the history, technology & conservation'', 1985, Dean and Chapter, Durham Cathedral, ,
pdf
J. H. Looijenga's dissertation including comments on the runes. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuthbert's Coffin Anglo-Saxon burial practices Anglo-Saxon art Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England Runic inscriptions Anglo-Saxon runes Woodcarving Durham Cathedral