being situate among high and craggy mountains, and inhabited by
the most rustic, ignorant, and savage people, were the less frequented
by other teachers. After St. Cuthbert had lived many years at Mailros,
St. Eata, abbot also of Lindisfarne, removed him thither, and appointed
him prior of that larger monastery. By the perfect habit of
mortification and prayer the saint had attained to so eminent a spirit
of contemplation, that he seemed rather an angel than a man. He often
spent whole nights in prayer, and sometimes, to resist sleep, worked or
walked about the island while he prayed. If he heard others complain
that they had been disturbed in their sleep, he used to say, that he
should think himself obliged to any one that awaked him out of his
sleep, that he might sing the praises of his Creator, and labor for his
honor. His very countenance excited those who saw him to a love of
virtue. He was so much addicted to compunction, and inflamed with
heavenly desires, that he could never say mass without tears. He often
moved penitents, who confessed to him their sins, to abundant tears, by
the torrents of his own, which he shed for them. His zeal in correcting
sinners was always sweetened with tender charity and meekness. The saint
had governed the monastery of Lindisfarne, under his abbot, several
years, when earnestly aspiring to a closer union with God, he retired,
with his abbot's consent, into the little isle of Farne, nine miles from
Lindisfarne, there to lead an austere eremitical life. The place was
then uninhabited, and afforded him neither water, tree, nor corn.
Cuthbert built himself a hut with a wall and trench about it, and, by
his prayers, obtained a well of freshwater in his own cell. Having
brought with him instruments of husbandry, he sowed first wheat, which
failed; then barley, which, though sowed out of season, yielded a
plentiful crop. He built a house at the entry of the island from
Lindisfarne, to lodge the brethren that came to see him, whom he there
met and entertained with heavenly conferences. Afterwards he confined
himself within his own wall and trench, and gave spiritual advice only
through a window, without ever stirring out of his cell. He could not,
however, refuse an interview with the holy abbess and royal virgin
Elfleda, whom her father, king Oswi, had dedicated to God from her
birth, and who, in 680, succeeded St. Hilda in the government of the
abbey of Whitby. This was held in the isle