DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6913#0106
56
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
world, the flesh, and the devil; the latter he is said to have encountered in various
shapes of sea monsters and land monsters ; of beautiful women and savage beasts ;
of fire and water ; of plague, pestilence, and famine ; of pride, vanity, and ambition ;
and indeed in every shape except that of heresy; but by the unshaken firmness and
serenity of his mind, and the aid of divine power, he triumphed over all opposition
and all temptations, and became what he has continued to be for twelve hundred
years, one of the most distinguished saints in the calendar. During his residence
at Melross he seldom quitted the walls of his convent; and if any one desired to
converse with him, he retired to his cell, and discoursed through the window; it was
not till he had migrated to Lindisfarn, that his active career of conversion and
benevolence began. The short time which he continued in his bishopric, is some
confirmation of the sincerity with which he refused it. Finding his health gradually
decline, and his mind unequal to the duties of his station, he resigned the see, and
returned to his cell in the Farn Island, where, within two months after, he yielded
up his spirit to God, and left his body to the world, a present which has by no means
been worthless, for no saint's body was ever so long useful to his votaries. By his
will he directed that he should be buried at the east end of the oratory or chapel, in
a stone coffin given him by the holy Juda, and wrapped in a sheet he had received
from the Abbess of Tynemouth; and, lastly, he ordered, with a kind of prophetic
spirit, that if the island should ever be invaded by the Danes, the monks should
take up his bones, and make them the companions of their flight, an injunction which
they religiously observed, for, after many wanderings, too tedious to relate, they
finally transferred the see from Lindisfarn to Chester-le-Street, in 884, where the
bones of the saint rested for nearly one hundred years ; and after further wander-
ings, caused by the persecution of the Danes, they finally rested at Durham, in 995.
The most remarkable trait in this saint's character, was his aversion to women, which
he carried to such a length as to forbid them to enter the Church of Lindisfarn, in
which the monks performed their devotions, and erected another at a considerable
distance for their use. Out of respect to his memory, women were excluded from
every church or cemetery where his body had rested; and many miraculous punish-
ments are related, of such as dared to disobey this command. In the Cathedral
Church of Durham, the pavement is to this moment distinguished by a cross of black
marble, beyond which no woman was permitted to advance towards the choir.
To this may be added a singular story related in Warton's " Anglia Sacra,"
i. 760. In the year 1333, Edward III. came from Scotland to Durham, and lodged
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
world, the flesh, and the devil; the latter he is said to have encountered in various
shapes of sea monsters and land monsters ; of beautiful women and savage beasts ;
of fire and water ; of plague, pestilence, and famine ; of pride, vanity, and ambition ;
and indeed in every shape except that of heresy; but by the unshaken firmness and
serenity of his mind, and the aid of divine power, he triumphed over all opposition
and all temptations, and became what he has continued to be for twelve hundred
years, one of the most distinguished saints in the calendar. During his residence
at Melross he seldom quitted the walls of his convent; and if any one desired to
converse with him, he retired to his cell, and discoursed through the window; it was
not till he had migrated to Lindisfarn, that his active career of conversion and
benevolence began. The short time which he continued in his bishopric, is some
confirmation of the sincerity with which he refused it. Finding his health gradually
decline, and his mind unequal to the duties of his station, he resigned the see, and
returned to his cell in the Farn Island, where, within two months after, he yielded
up his spirit to God, and left his body to the world, a present which has by no means
been worthless, for no saint's body was ever so long useful to his votaries. By his
will he directed that he should be buried at the east end of the oratory or chapel, in
a stone coffin given him by the holy Juda, and wrapped in a sheet he had received
from the Abbess of Tynemouth; and, lastly, he ordered, with a kind of prophetic
spirit, that if the island should ever be invaded by the Danes, the monks should
take up his bones, and make them the companions of their flight, an injunction which
they religiously observed, for, after many wanderings, too tedious to relate, they
finally transferred the see from Lindisfarn to Chester-le-Street, in 884, where the
bones of the saint rested for nearly one hundred years ; and after further wander-
ings, caused by the persecution of the Danes, they finally rested at Durham, in 995.
The most remarkable trait in this saint's character, was his aversion to women, which
he carried to such a length as to forbid them to enter the Church of Lindisfarn, in
which the monks performed their devotions, and erected another at a considerable
distance for their use. Out of respect to his memory, women were excluded from
every church or cemetery where his body had rested; and many miraculous punish-
ments are related, of such as dared to disobey this command. In the Cathedral
Church of Durham, the pavement is to this moment distinguished by a cross of black
marble, beyond which no woman was permitted to advance towards the choir.
To this may be added a singular story related in Warton's " Anglia Sacra,"
i. 760. In the year 1333, Edward III. came from Scotland to Durham, and lodged