A brief history of our patron saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne:

Cuthbert was born around 634 AD. in Northumbria. He started life as a shepherd, and later became a monk at the monastery of Melrose in the border country in 651. It was from here he accompanied his Abbot, Eata in founding a new monastery at Ripon in 658. Following the important Synod of Whitby in 664, Cuthbert became Prior at Melrose, but then with Eata moved to Lindisfarne. In 676 Cuthbert felt called to a hermit's life and retired to the Inner Farne islands. Several times Cuthbert was invited to become a bishop, and in 685 with some reluctance he accepted, to become Bishop of Lindisfarne.

However, within two years he withdrew to his hermitage and there he died on 20th March 687. His body was taken to Lindisfarne but after many raids by the Vikings, the monks fled taking Cuthberts body with them. After years of wandering they settled at Chester-le-Street in 883, then Ripon and eventually came to rest at Durham in 995. Cuthbert's tomb became a major centre of veneration and pilgrimage in the middle ages. Durham Cathedral was built to honour the saint. There he is still honoured today, alongside the bones of the Venerable Bede of Jarrow, Cuthbert's biographer. Cuthbert is the Patron of the Diocese, of our parish and of many parishes, Catholic and Anglican throughout the North East of England.