GUTHLAC, ST.

Anglo-Saxon monk, hermit; b. c. 667–674; d. April 11, 714. He was of royal stock and the brother of St. Pega (feast: Jan. 8). His vita, written by Felix c. 740, the main source of information, states that he began a successful military career at 15, but nine years later took monastic vows at the double monastery of Repton, where his asceticism aroused the dislike of his brethren. There he learned to read and chant, but longing for the spiritual warfare of the hermit's life, he settled on a remote island in the Lincolnshire fens called Crowland, arriving on St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24, c. 699. He spent the rest of his life there in meditation and spiritual combat, and had many strange experiences: on one occasion he was attacked by Welsh-speaking devils, on another he was carried by devils to the mouth of hell, whence his patron St. Bartholomew rescued him. Many people came to seek his advice including Ethelbald, afterward king of Mercia. He was ordained priest about eight years before his death. Twelve months after he died, his incorrupt body was elevated and placed in a shrine that Ethelbald later rebuilt. A monastery was eventually established on the site. His relics were twice translated in the 12th century, and are still in crowland abbey church. Two Old English poems on Guthlac survive, written c. 1100 and both based on Felix's Life. His cult was widespread in the Middle Ages, especially in the Midlands.

Feast: April 11; Aug. 30 (translation).

Bibliography: k. norgate, Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900; repr. 1908–38) 8:816–817. Felix's Life of St. Guthlac, ed. and tr. b. colgrave (Cambridge, Eng. 1956; repr. 1985). j. roberts, ed., The Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book (Oxford 1979). a. h. olsen, Guthlac of Croyland (Washington, D.C. 1981).

[b. colgrave]