of Cocket, then filled with
holy anchorets. This close solitude was to our saint an uninterrupted
exercise of divine love, praise, and compunction; in which he enjoyed a
paradise of heavenly delights, unknown to the world.

In a synod of bishops, held by St. Theodorus at Twiford, on the river
Alne, in the kingdom of Northumberland, it was resolved that Cuthbert
should be raised to the episcopal see of Lindisfarne. But as neither
letters nor messengers were of force to obtain his consent to undertake
the charge, king Egfrid, who had been present at the council, and the
holy bishop Trumwin, with many others, sailed over to his island, and
conjured him, on their knees, not to refuse his labors, which might be
attended with so much advantage to souls. Their remonstrances were so
pressing, that the saint could not refuse going with them, at least to
the council, but weeping most bitterly. He received the episcopal
consecration at York, the Easter following, from the hands of St.
Theodorus, assisted by six other bishops. In {627} this new dignity the
saint continued the practice of his former austerities; but remembering
what he owed to his neighbor, he went about preaching and instructing
with incredible fruit, and without any intermission. He made it
everywhere his particular care to exhort, feed, and protect the poor. By
divine revelation he saw and mentioned to others, at the very instant it
happened, the overthrow and death of king Egfrid, by the Picts, in 685.
He cured, by water which he had blessed, the wife of a noble Thane, who
lay speechless and senseless at the point of death, and many others. For
his miracles he was called the Thaumaturgus of Britain. But the most
wonderful of his miracles was that which grace wrought in him by the
perfect victory which it gave him over his passions. His zeal for
justice was most ardent; but nothing seemed ever to disturb the peace
and serenity of his mind. By the close union of his soul with God, whose
will alone he sought and considered in all things, he overlooked all
temporal events, and under all accidents his countenance was always
cheerful, always the same; particularly in bearing all bodily pains, and
every kind of adversity with joy, he was invincible. His attention to,
and pure view of God in all events, and in all his actions, arose from
the most tender and sweet love, which was in his soul a constant source
of overflowing joy. Prayer was his centre. His brethren discove