Cuthbert’s Box
Shortly before Easter, an ivory box went missing from the gifts presented at the shrine of St Cuthbert.
1153-1190
King Henry II 1154-1189
Shortly before Easter, an ivory box went missing from the gifts presented at the shrine of St Cuthbert.
1153-1190
King Henry II 1154-1189
This post is number 26 in the series Miracles of St Cuthbert
Reginald (?-?1190) was a monk of Durham Priory where St Cuthbert, the seventh-century Bishop of Lindisfarne, lay buried behind the High Altar. Pilgrims came from all over the country with stories of the saint’s miraculous interventions, and Reginald compiled a catalogue of them, and of the miracles reported at Cuthbert’s shrine. Some he witnessed with his own eyes, such as this one.
SHORTLY before one Easter (so Reginald tells us) in bishop Hugh’s day,* Benedict the sacristan* decorated the church at Durham Priory with a selection of the public’s offerings to St Cuthbert. All around the shrine and altar many beautiful pieces were displayed.
For one poor man, the temptation was irresistible. As the shadows fell after Evensong, he slipped into a corner and waited; and when all was quiet, he crept out through the dappled shades of dusk towards the altar. High on one side was a little ivory box, and the thief clambered onto the bishop’s throne,* took down the box, and stuffed it beneath his shirt.
But as he began to climb down, an ever-thickening fog settled upon his sight. Soon he was quite blind. He had eyes, but Cuthbert had veiled them; he had feet, but they went whither Cuthbert directed them. Groping about, he reached what he thought was his former hiding place, where he tried to tuck the ivory box discreetly into his breeches or boots; but the incriminating trophy seemed to adhere to his shirt. In rising panic he tried to shake it out, and was still fumbling stupidly when he heard footsteps.
* Hugo de Puiset, who was bishop from 1153 to 1195, and served Richard I as Chief Justiciar of England in 1189-1190. He is sometimes known as Hugh Pudsey.
* A sacristan is the person charged with caring for the contents of a church, such as vestments, candles and chalices.
* Not the throne we see today: that was built on the orders of Bishop Thomas Hatfield (1345-1381), and his tomb is beneath it.