es concerning the celebration of Easter,
he and the other Scottish monks returned to Melrose. Some four years
later, on the death of Boisil, Cuthbert was elected his successor, as
prior of Melrose. In A.D. 664, we find him holding the same office at
Lindisfarne, where he remained for twelve years. He then retired from
his position, in order to attain a higher degree of Christian perfection
by living a solitary life, first on a small island near Lindisfarne, and
afterwards on the island of Farne, near Bamburgh. There are many stories
told of his great piety at this time, so that even the wild sea-birds
are said to have obeyed him.

[1] Sanderson, in his edition of "Rites of Durham," 1767, says:
"He is said to be descended from the Blood Royal of the Kings
of Ireland, being son of one Muriardach and Sabina his wife,
a King's daughter. He was educated in the Abbey of Mailrose."

In the year A.D. 685 Cuthbert was, though against his own wishes,
consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne. His great activity and usefulness in
this office was soon cut short, for in less than two years, on the 20th
of March A.D. 687, he died. Obediently to his own request, his body was
wrapped in a linen cloth, which had been given him by the Abbess Yerca;
and, placed in a stone coffin, the gift of the Abbot Cudda, was interred
in the church at Lindisfarne. He was not to rest, however. In A.D. 698
the monks disinterred his remains in order to place them in a
specially-prepared wooden coffin. It is said they found the saint's body
perfectly incorrupt. To quote the quaint Hegge:

But whiles they opened his coffin, they start at a wonder, they
look't for bones and found flesh, they expected a skeleton, and saw
an entire bodie, with joynts flexible, his flesh so succulent, that
there only wanted heate to make his bodie live without a soul, and
his face so dissembling death, that elsewhere it is true that sleep
is the image of death, but here death was the image of sleep. Nay,
his very funerall weeds were so fresh, as if putrefaction had not
dared to take him by the coat.[2]

[2] "County of Durham," by J.K. Boyle, F.S.A.

Whatever may be the truth of this, his body was placed in a wooden
coffin, portions of which are still preserved in the chapter library at
Durham.

Over a century and a half after these events the coast of Northumbria
was disturbed and troubled by the piratical invasions of the