Cuthbert of Wearmouth
CUTHBERT OF WEARMOUTH
Anglo-Saxon abbot, student of Bede. He entered the abbey of jarrow in 718 and there was taught by bede. He became abbot of the twin Benedictine abbeys of wearmouth-jarrow sometime after 747. He is remembered chiefly as the writer of a touching letter to Cuthwine, his fellow disciple, describing the deathbed of their master Bede. He corresponded also with St. boniface and Bp. lull of mainz, sending them copies of Bede's works. In one letter to Lull he apologized for not having sent more, saying that the terrible winter of 763–764 had prevented work in the Jarrow scriptorium. He also asked Lull to send him a glassmaker and a harpist, for they had a harp at Jarrow that no one could play. He added that he had used Lull's present of an elaborate coverlet not as a protection against the cold, but as an altar cloth. The date of his death is unknown.
Bibliography: bede, Eccl. hist. 1:lxxi–lxxviii, clx–clxiv. boniface, Briefe, ed. m. tangl, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Epistolae selectae 1 (1916), nos. 116, 117, 126, 127. j. raine, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, ed. w. smith and h. wace 1:730.
[b. colgrave]