
What is usually referred to as St Cuthbert's coffin is a fragmentary oak coffin in
Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...
, pieced together in the 20th century, which between AD 698 and 1827 contained the remains of
Saint Cuthbert, 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 known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...
to the main altar.
[Wilson, 49–50]
here for number of fragments
/ref>
The coffin is almost the only surviving example of what was no doubt a very large body of Anglo-Saxon wood carving, being inscribed or engraved with linear images which have '' tituli'' in Latin lettering and Anglo-Saxon runes
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (, ᚱ� ...
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.
Bamburgh was the centre of an independent north Northumbrian territory between 867 a ...
, Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
, 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 (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
from about 720) his remains were found to be " incorrupt" 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, 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 Scandinavian warriors who invaded ...
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 () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555.
The town's history is ancient; ...
until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...
. 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, 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; 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, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
. 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, then with the British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, 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
The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is an early 8th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to s ...
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 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 Christian art, a Madonna () is a religious depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a singular form or sometimes accompanied by the Child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word ...
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. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
) 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 w ...
'', a stole and maniple which were probably added in the 930s, and given by King Athelstan. 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 Christian cross, cross that is worn on the chest, usually suspended from the neck by a cord or Link chain, chain. In ancient history and the Middle Ages, pector ...
with gold and garnet cloisonné
Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, 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 inla ...
, 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 runes. 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 () 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 oldest Christograms is the C ...
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 ; or ) is the seventeenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician letter resh . Its uppercase form uses the same ...
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-Europe ...
rune ''z'') used to render chi. 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 (furniture), chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut ...
and stones from Lindisfarne and Monkwearmouth.[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 Bibliophilia, bibliophilic and Text publication society, publishing society based in the United Kingdom.
Origins
The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe ...
* 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