at the gates of the monastery of Melrose,
being probably in his twenty-fourth year. He was received as a
novice by St. Boisil, the Prior, who, on first beholding the youth,
said to those who stood near: "Behold a true servant of the Lord," a
prediction abundantly fulfilled in Cuthbert's life.

For ten years the saint remained hidden at Melrose perfecting himself
by the routine of monastic observance. Then on the foundation of
Ripon he was sent there as one of the first community. After a short
stay he returned to Melrose, and on the death of St. Boisil was {50}
made Prior. To the greatest zeal for all that concerned monastic life
he added a tender charity for the souls of others, which led him to
make many missionary excursions into the surrounding territory.

When Abbot Eata in 664 received the charge of the Abbey of
Lindisfarne in addition to Melrose, Cuthbert was sent thither as
Prior. For twelve years he was a teacher to his community, both by
word and example, of the precepts of the perfect life. Then, desiring
more strict seclusion, he retired to a solitary cell on Fame Island,
that he might give himself more completely to prayer. Here he lived
eight years, visited on great feasts by some of the Lindisfarne
monks, and at frequent intervals by pious Christians who sought his
direction and intercession.

Having been thus prepared, like St. John Baptist in his desert, for
the work God had in store for him, he was chosen Bishop of
Lindisfarne. During the two years he exercised this office he was to
his flock a model of every virtue, and a pastor full of zeal and
charity. He preserved, notwithstanding his high dignity, {51} the
humility of heart and simplicity of garb which belonged to his
monastic state. Numerous and striking miracles attested his sanctity.

Foreseeing his approaching end he retired to his little cell at Fame
where he passed away, strengthened by the Sacraments, with his hands
uplifted in prayer. He was buried at Lindisfarne; but incursions of
the Danes necessitated the removal of his remains, and for nearly two
hundred years his body was conveyed from place to place till it was
eventually laid to rest in the Cathedral of Durham. There it became
an object of pious pilgrimage from all the three kingdoms. More than
800 years after death the sacred body was found still incorrupt, and
there, in a secure hiding-place, it still awaits the restoration of
St. Cuthbert's shrine to its rightful custodians,