Cuthbert, Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Cuthbert, Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow’

Cuthbert of Wearmouth and Jarrow joined the monastery (which was split between two sites, St Peter’s in Monkwearmouth and St Paul’s in Jarrow) in 718. There, he became a student of Bede, and remained devoted to him ever after. Cuthbert (not to be confused with St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne) eventually became abbot of the monastery, sometime after 747. The dates of his birth and death are not known, but a letter to Bishop Lull of Mainz in Germany survives, in which he speaks of the hard winter of 763-64 and its negative impact on the work of Jarrow’s busy scribes. In a letter to fellow-monk Cuthwine, he left behind a moving account of Bede’s last days. At the end of this letter he promised to write a fuller account of his master’s life, but it has not survived.

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The Departure of Bede by Cuthbert, Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow

Bede died as he had lived, freely sharing all he had, and singing praises to God.

Bede, a monk at the monastery of St Paul in Jarrow, did as much as any prince to make England. Two centuries before the Kingdom came into being, his History of the English Church and People (?731) had begun to create the common English faith, culture and purpose that a united nation would need. His death in 735 was witnessed by his student Cuthbert, who later wrote to his friend Cuthwine about it.

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