ON ST. YWIUS, DEACON AND CONFESSOR, AT WILTON IN ENGLAND, TOWARDS THE END OF THE 7TH CENTURY OR ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE 8TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
The memory of St. Ywius in the sacred Fasti, his cult, his profession of life.
Ywius, deacon and confessor, at Wilton in England. (S.)
BY J. B.
St. Cuthbert, Provost first of Melrose, then of Lindisfarne, and at length made bishop of the same see in the year 685 under Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, of St. Ywius, disciple of St. Cuthbert, and called to those above in the year 687, our Predecessors illustrated in volume III of March, from page 93, at the 20th day of March, on which he is venerated. His disciple St. Ywius, or, as others are pleased to write, Juvius, Yvius or Juius, strove to imitate that most holy man as far as he could, although he did not shine with that celebrity of name with which his master Cuthbert did. We have his Life in manuscript from Rouge-Cloître, a monastery of Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine near Brussels, but not different from that which Capgrave, a writer of the 15th century, either wrote or compiled from John of Tynemouth, who lived in the 14th century; and since they were removed from the age of Ywius by a rather long interval, it is not wonderful that they treated his deeds very meagrely, especially as the ancient writers are generally silent about him. Indeed, I have found none older than the writer of the Life of St. Edith, nun and virgin of Wilton in England, whose Acts have been illustrated among us in volume V of September from page 364, who made mention of St. Ywius; although he too flourished only in the 11th century verging to its end, if indeed he was Goscelin, a monk of St. Bertin, as is believed, and mentions St. Ywius only in passing.
[2] The ancient Martyrologies bring no more light, in which you would seek him in vain: in the Martyrologies receive therefore some more recent martyrologists. Wilson, in the English Martyrology printed in the year 1608, taking the Saint's name from Rosweyde's Tables of the Saints, composed this eulogy for him at the 6th day of October: In Northumbria, the feast of St. Ywius, deacon and confessor, disciple of St. Cuthbert of Durham, the sanctity of whose remarkable life was illustrious in Catholic times of old in our island, especially among the Northumbrians. He died, as far as is gathered from antiquity, about the year of Christ DCCIV. Alford also noted the same year as fatal to St. Ywius in his Annals; which, since they did this only from conjecture, as far as appears, I have referred the Saint's death more broadly to the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the following. Further, lest anyone should wonder that St. Cuthbert, whom I called above of Lindisfarne, is here called of Durham by Wilson, let him know that he was so named by him in the latter manner because the episcopate and region of Durham (the English today call it Durham) were formerly called the Land or Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, and, the body of the holy prelate having been translated from the island of Lindisfarne into various places from time to time, and at length brought to Durham about the year 995, he was made tutelary patron of the city of Durham and the neighbouring tracts; which you will find explained more fully in the Commentary on the History of the translation of St. Cuthbert. Let us hear the other martyrologists.
[3] the more recent, Châtelain in the Universal Martyrology at the 6th day of October, among the Saints of Gaul not expressed in the Roman, reviews St. Ywius in these words: On the same day (so run his French words) St. Yvius; whom ancient manuscripts of Wilton in England, where his body was long venerated, note as sprung from Britain. Châtelain could in some manner reckon St. Yvius among the Saints of Gaul on this score, that he lived for some while in Armorican or Lesser Britain, a province of Gaul on the British sea, and there died. But when he says, from the Wilton manuscripts, that St. Yvius was sprung from Britain (Originaire de Bretagne, by which words the French generally indicate Armorican Britain), if he believed Yvius a Breton in the latter sense, I do not agree with him: for the Acts, when they treat of his birth and country, name Britain without addition, by which Latin name Greater Britain generally goes: but when they speak of his departure into Britain, they expressly name the Lesser, so as clearly to distinguish the one from the other, as is to be seen below in the Acts. Du Saussay, in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, announces St. Yvius at the same day in these words: At Cologne Agrippina, of St. Ywius, deacon of the holy bishop Cuthbert; and his disciple and outstanding imitator. For no other cause, as I think, did he ascribe Ywius to Cologne Agrippina than that he believed his relics to be kept there; on which matter see number 8.
[4] the memory, Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of Saints at the 6th day of October first announces St. Ywius thus: In England, of St. Tuuius, deacon: and again a little after in this manner: At Cologne, of St. Yuuius, deacon, as if the one were different from the other. That they are one and the same, however, the circumstances which Ferrarius himself brings forward in the Annotations show. St. Tum the deacon he drew from the English Martyrology and Rosweyde's sacred Fasti, and says he lived about the year DCCIV; but Rosweyde's Fasti have only Ywius, whatever may be the case with the English Martyrology which Ferrarius had in hand. And the year of Christ 704 fits very well with St. Yuuius, whom Ferrarius believed was to be announced by him at Cologne: and to him he subjoins this annotation: From the Calendar of Cologne. He was a deacon and disciple of St. Cuthbert the bishop. All which things manifestly denote one and the same Saint. Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology, from Capgrave, Mayhew and Ménard, shows a compendium of the Life of St. Ywius in these words: At Winchester in England, of St. Junius, deacon and confessor. Junius, sprung from an illustrious stock of the Britons, brought up in the island of Lindisfarne, while still a boy, both parents
being lost to him. The happy Boy thereafter merited a far worthier parent, and, reborn to Christ by the solemn vows of monastic profession, he had that great and most holy Cuthbert of ours both as master and as exemplar of the most absolute perfection. He advanced very greatly in outstanding sanctity of life, and, promoted to the sacred Order of the diaconate, he was made of the greatest account not only among men, but was also commended by the Deity, by the great glory of miracles, as of how great account he was held in heaven.
[5] Of the martyrologists just related, Châtelain says in express words that St. Yvius once enjoyed ecclesiastical cult at Wilton; and his cult at Wilton in England, of which matter we have as witness Capgrave, who reveals in these words that the cult of St. Ywius there flourished at least in his age, that is, in the 15th century: At Wilton in our days his holy body, resting there, is held in great veneration. You have a notice of Wilton and its nunnery, in which the body of St. Yvius was kept, in volume V of September in the preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Edith, or Eadgyth, page 367 and following. It is very probable that the cult of St. Ywius in it lasted up to Henry VIII, king of England, in whose time the convent of virgins of Wilton is shown in the same place, page 368, from the Monasticon Anglicanum, to have survived: and that it began from the time when the nun-virgins of Wilton possessed the Body of St. Yvius. On what occasion the body of St. Ywius was carried thither and afterwards remained there, Goscelin teaches in the volume already cited, page 371, in the Life of St. Edith, number 10: Clerics of the Picts, he says, carrying about in a shrine the holy confessor Juius, having been honourably received in the monastery of the holy virgin, deposited the relics on the altar of blessed Edith: and when the clerics wished to depart, Juius was fixed with such weight that they could not lift him from the altar by any effort. The strangers weep, wail, rend their garments and tear out their hair; at length, despairing, having received two thousand solidi from Wolftrude the abbess, they went away sad to their own.
[6] As regards the time at which the body of St. Ywius was carried to Wilton, at which his body Mayhew writes that it happened about the year DCCCCLXXX, who nevertheless fixes the death of St. Edith, on whose altar the relics of St. Ywius were deposited, about the year 984. Goscelin too, or the author of the Life of St. Edith, is not sufficiently consistent with himself when he writes that the elevation of the body of St. Edith was made by St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, thirteen years after it had elapsed i.e., after her death, that is, by his calculation, about the year 997: for how could this be done about that year by Dunstan, whom Osbern, the biographer of St. Dunstan, who flourished in the 11th century and was well informed about his affairs, reveals to have departed from the living in the year 988? But, even if the year in which the elevation of St. Edith took place were established, not even so could the year in which the relics of St. Ywius arrived at Wilton be certainly drawn from the words of Goscelin. It can indeed be concluded from them that this happened after the elevation of the body of St. Edith; but whether in the same year, or some years after, and how many, he left wholly uncertain. It is doubtful moreover whether Wolftrude, abbess of Wilton, mentioned by Goscelin in the words cited above, is the same as St. Edith's mother; nor is the year certainly known in which she passed from this life. This one thing, if Goscelin is to be relied on, I would say: that the relics of St. Ywius were carried to Wilton within the space of time which elapsed from the year 984 up to the occupation of the kingdom of England by Cnut, king of the Danes, which Alford refers to the year 1016 and following.
[7] So I think, both because Goscelin relates, in the September volume, page 370, number 7, that Aelfheah, namely then bishop of Wilton, shortly after the death of St. Edith baptized a girl whom she had promised to receive from the sacred font, but, having died before the girl was born, could not receive; [it seems to have been translated towards the end of the 10th century or the beginning of the following,] who was consecrated bishop of Wilton in the year 984 on the 14th day before the Kalends of November, as is proved in volume 2 of April, page 634, from the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronology then living. And because Goscelin, reviewing the prodigies which happened at the remains of St. Edith, elevated by St. Dunstan, or elsewhere at her invocation, seems to keep the order of time; and immediately after the words related above which pertain to St. Ywius he subjoins another prodigy performed at the remains of the same virgin in the presence of king Cnut staying at Wilton.
[8] some part of which is perhaps also kept at Cologne Agrippina. For the rest, since Goscelin affirms that the Pictish clerics carried about the body of St. Yvius and were compelled to leave it at Wilton, it can easily be gathered from this that sacred honours had already before been shown to his remains among the Picts (these were situated between the firth of Dumbarton and that of Edinburgh, near the wall of the emperor Severus). But since, according to the Acts, St. Ywius died in Lesser or Armorican Britain, his body must at some time have been translated from there into Greater Britain; on what occasion or at what time this happened I have been able to find nowhere. No more is it ascertained by me when, or who among the people of Cologne received relics of him, nor in what church they are kept, nor finally whether they are accustomed to be honoured there with any special cult; only this, as far as I know, being noted by Gelenius in the sacred and pious Fasti of Cologne at the 6th day of October: On the same (day) at Cologne, of St. Viuuius, deacon of St. Cunibert. Nay, since Gelenius seems here to make mention of Cunibert, bishop of Cologne, not of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, there is some reason for doubting, both whether any relics of St. Ywius, the disciple of St. Cuthbert, have existed at Cologne, although neither Yvius nor any other Saint of this or a kindred name is known to me from elsewhere who was a disciple of St. Cunibert; and whether Ferrarius and Du Saussay, from a corrupted or wrongly understood Calendar of the church of Cologne, which Ferrarius cites, did not substitute Cuthbert of Lindisfarne for Cunibert of Cologne. But whether the error here be theirs or Gelenius's, I have preferred for my part to ascribe St. Ywius to Wilton, where he was formerly venerated, as we have already said, rather than to Cologne or any other place.
[9] He was in all likelihood a monk, of the same kind Further, that St. Ywius was a monk by his institute of life is gathered from Bede in the Life of St. Cuthbert; in chapter 5 of which (see volume III of March, page 105), treating of St. Cuthbert when he held the office of Provost of Lindisfarne, he writes thus: Nor let anyone wonder that we have said above that in the same island of Lindisfarne, although it is very small, there is the place both of the bishop and now of the abbot and monks: for so it is in truth. For one and the same dwelling of the servants of God holds both together, nay holds all as monks. For Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, was a monk, and was always accustomed to lead the monastic life with all his own: whence from him all the prelates of that place to this day so exercise the episcopal office that, an abbot ruling the monastery whom they themselves have elected with the counsel of the brethren, all the priests, deacons, cantors, lectors and the other ecclesiastical grades keep the monastic rule together with the bishop himself. For it is not probable that St. Ywius, disciple and deacon of St. Cuthbert, differed in kind of life from his master, who walked in the footsteps of his predecessors. But it is not so clear what rule they followed.
[10] Whether St. Cuthbert followed the Benedictine Rule, of which St. Cuthbert, his master, Henschen long since called into doubt at his Life in the March volume cited before, and seems to incline to the view that he followed the institutes of St. Columba, for which he afterwards substituted either another rule composed by himself, or certainly added some precepts of his own: but Mabillon, in the 2nd Benedictine Saeculum, in the preliminary Admonition to the Life of St. Cuthbert, contends not only that he embraced the rule of Benedict, but that this is even certain. St. Cuthbert was received in the monastery of Melrose by the abbot Eata in the year 651; and lived for some years both there and in the monastery of Ripon. Having returned from Ripon to Melrose, he acted as Provost here about the year 664, in which the Scottish rite of celebrating Easter, different from the Roman, was proscribed in the synod of Streanaeshalch under Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians. Then he was Provost of Lindisfarne until the year 676: in the year 685, summoned from the island of Farne, where he was leading an anchoritic life, he was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne at York; and he prolonged his life until the year 687, in which he put it off. Eata was a disciple of Colman; and the latter professed the rule of St. Columba, abbot of Iona, and the Scottish rites: But concerning your father Columba, says Wilfrid, disputing against Colman in the synod of Streanaeshalch, and his followers, whose sanctity you are reported to imitate and to follow their rule and precepts confirmed by heavenly signs, I can answer, etc. These things are beyond controversy: but Mabillon contends, first indeed, that Eata, although a disciple of Colman, could, being not Irish but English, already have renounced the Scottish customs and gone over to the Roman; namely already from the year 651, in which he affirms that Eata imparted to Cuthbert not the Scottish but the Roman tonsure: and then that at least it is certain that Cuthbert after the synod aforesaid (of the year 664) adhered to the Roman party and the Benedictine rule; whether these things are so I now inquire.
[11] St. Cuthbert, after some years spent in the monastery of Melrose, went together with Eata, his abbot, who at least until the year 664 to the monastery of Ripon, and there used the same institute of life which he had used before at Melrose: Bede teaches this in these words in the Life of St. Cuthbert, among us number 13: And when after some years it pleased king Alchfrid, for the redemption of his soul, to give to the abbot Eata a certain place of his kingdom, which is called Inrhipum, for building a monastery there, the same abbot, taking with him certain of the brethren, among whom was Cuthbert also, founded there the monastery which was asked for, and imbued it with the same institutes of regular discipline as Melrose before. But, as Bede says at number 14, Eata with Cuthbert and the other brethren whom he had brought there was driven back home, and the place of the monastery which he had founded was given to other monks to inhabit. And the cause for which they withdrew from the monastery of Ripon Bede sets forth in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 20, saying: Which place, namely (Inrhipum), he (king Alchfrid) had formerly given for building a monastery there to those who followed the Scots. But because they afterwards, a choice being given, preferred to leave the place rather than to receive the Catholic Easter and the other canonical rites according to the custom of the Roman and Apostolic Church, he gave it to him (Wilfrid), etc., an energetic propagator of the Benedictine institute. That among the canonical rites the tonsure of the head comes in this place is not doubtful. It is therefore ascertained from Bede that Eata, although English,
adhered to the Scottish rites up to that time, and did not impart the Roman tonsure to St. Cuthbert in the year 651, when he first entered the monastery of Melrose.
[12] seems to have adhered to the Scottish rites, I confess indeed that in the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne, who wrote the Life of St. Cuthbert about the year 700, book 2, number 2 (see page 119 of the third volume of March), these words are read: There was therefore another miracle, in which the holy man of God Cuthbert was first glorified by the Lord, after he had received, with the Lord's help, the yoke of the service of Christ and the form of Peter's tonsure, in the manner of the crown of thorns encircling the head of Christ, in the monastery which is called Hrype, etc. But Henschen rightly held this passage suspect of interpolation: both because the sense holds together without that mention of the Roman tonsure, and because Bede, in neither Life of St. Cuthbert nor in the Ecclesiastical History, mentions that tonsure; I add, and most of all, because it conflicts with Bede's words from what has already been said. Nor does the said Mabillon bring forward anything by which he might remove Henschen's opinion about the interpolated words of the monk of Lindisfarne, or the difficulty adduced from Bede. Let us now see whether after the year 664, which is certain to Mabillon, Cuthbert adhered to the Benedictine rule.
[13] and afterwards to have received the Catholic Easter, Certainly, he says, as Bede testifies in chapter XXXIX of the Prose Life, Cuthbert, when near to death, is reported to have admonished his disciples "that with those who stray from the unity of Catholic peace, either by not celebrating Easter at its proper time or by living perversely, they should have no communion." It is rightly concluded from this that St. Cuthbert before his death (let us grant even from the year 664) admitted the Catholic Easter, and observed the common custom of the Church in that matter: but how it becomes certain from this that, having cast aside the old rule, which he could have retained without sacrilege, he passed so quickly to the Benedictine, I do not see; nor does the not small affection which monks ordinarily have for their rule suggest it: nay, from the place cited by Mabillon the contrary seems rather to be gathered: for so, after a few words, Cuthbert, near to death, goes on in Bede to address his own: Strive most diligently to learn and observe the Catholic statutes of the fathers: exercise solicitously also those institutes of regular life which the divine Loving-kindness has deigned to give you through my ministry. The place was indeed fit, more than any, for commending the rule of St. Benedict as he was dying, if from the year 664 that alone had been introduced among the monks of Lindisfarne. But that those institutes of regular life of which Cuthbert speaks here were not another's but his own the words which immediately follow in Bede seem to indicate, and in which he calls them his doctrine: For I know, he says, that, although I have lived as contemptible to some, yet after my death you will see what sort of man I was, how my doctrine is not to be despised.
[14] yet not certainly But manifest, Mabillon will say, are the words of the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne, book 3, near the beginning: Living there too (not in the island of Farne, as Mabillon says, but in Lindisfarne, near the former), according to holy Scripture, leading the contemplative life together with the active, and first composing a regular life for us, he established it, which we observe to this day together with the rule of Benedict. But what if those words, with the rule of St. Benedict, are not those of the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne but of some interpolator? I indeed cannot deny that, so long as it is not shown that the same anonymous writer suffered no interpolation in the place cited at number 12, the scruple about this passage being likewise interpolated, in the same anonymous writer and in a very kindred matter, will with difficulty be removed from me. Let us suppose, however, that nothing of this kind happened to the anonymous writer's words; not even so will it be clearly established that St. Cuthbert was a follower of the Benedictine rule. For since St. Cuthbert ceased to be among the living in the year 687, while the anonymous writer wrote his Life about the year 700, his words can be true even if in the space of time that lay between the death of Cuthbert and the year in which the anonymous writer composed his Life the rule of St. Benedict had been brought into the monastery of Lindisfarne, whether by the labour of St. Wilfrid, who after the death of Cuthbert took up the care of the church of Lindisfarne for a year, as Bede testifies in book 4, chapter 29, or of St. Eadbert, to whom about the year 688 the care of the same church was transferred, or finally of anyone else.
[15] Mabillon in all likelihood saw this: wherefore he strives to show the Benedictine rule, whatever that the rule of St. Benedict was in use in the monastery of Lindisfarne even while St. Cuthbert was living: he brings forward for this, first, from Bede, that the monks of Lindisfarne took a midday rest; and that they did this without doubt by the prescription of the Benedictine rule in chapter 48: "After the sixth hour, rising from table, let them rest on their beds." The words of Bede, among us volume III of March, page 105, number 26, are these: Finally he was wont to reprove the faint-heartedness of the brethren who took it ill if anyone perchance roused them by an untimely disturbance at the time of the night or midday rest; from which, however, it is not certainly clear that the monks of Lindisfarne took a midday rest by the prescription of the rule which they followed, much less of the Benedictine. Then Mabillon adds: And the office of Provost, which Boisil and Cuthbert exercised under the abbot, seems to have proceeded from the decree of the same rule in chapter 65: for you will not easily find a Provost together with an abbot in the same monastery, except in those monasteries which were devoted to the Benedictine institutes. Boisil was already from the year 651 Provost of Melrose under the abbot Eata, as Bede testifies, among us volume III of March, page 101, number XI, at which time the Scottish usages still flourished there, as was said above from Bede; nor yet is it certain to Mabillon that the monks of Melrose already then observed the Benedictine rule: therefore neither ought it to have been certain to him on this head that after the year 664 the Benedictine rule flourished, either among the monks of Melrose or among those of Lindisfarne, while Cuthbert survived among the living.
[16] After Colman had lost his cause in the year 664 in the synod of Streanaeshalch, to the contrary he returned, as Bede testifies in book 3, chapter 26 of the Ecclesiastical History, to Scotia, that is, Ireland, leaving the episcopate of Lindisfarne. Some of the monks of Lindisfarne followed the example of Colman, but others remained in the same island: Further, says Bede, over the Brethren who wished to remain in the church of Lindisfarne when the Scots went away there was set, with the right of abbot, the most reverend and most gentle man Eata, who was abbot in the monastery which is called Melrose. From which it seems it can be deduced that the Scottish customs lasted in the monastery of Lindisfarne up to the time of the synod of Streanaeshalch, that is, the year 664; but that, it having been held, they ceased there under Eata, who afterwards gave St. Cuthbert as Provost to the monastery of Lindisfarne; by whose labour a new kind of life was introduced, though with difficulty, into the same monastery: for so again Bede in the Life of St. Cuthbert, among us chapter 5, number 25: But there were in the monastery (of Lindisfarne) certain Brethren who preferred to obey their ancient custom rather than the regular observance: whom, however, he overcame by the modest virtue of his patience, and by daily exercise gradually converted to the state of a better purpose; by which words no other institutes of regular life seem to be designated than those which, near to death, he commended to the monks of Lindisfarne as his own, being in all likelihood not about to speak thus of the institutes of St. Benedict, as we said above. Nor is it very probable that St. Cuthbert would have said nothing in commendation of the Benedictine rule among monks who had not yet wholly laid aside the love of their ancient custom, if he had recently introduced it, and only enlarged it with some additions of his own, as Mabillon insinuates in words presently to be cited.
[17] Mabillon may bring forward Finally Mabillon argues thus: Finally Wilfrid, the outstanding propagator of the Benedictine rule, as even the adversaries agree, after he had overcome the Scots in the aforesaid synod and by the force of truth had driven them from Northumbria, WITHOUT DOUBT imposed the rule of St. Benedict on the deserted monasteries of the Scots. Although we do not doubt that certain decrees or statutes besides the rule of St. Benedict (besides which there was certainly also the white garment, which Bede relates St. Cuthbert and the monks of Lindisfarne used, in his Life, chapter 5, number 27) were prescribed to the monks of Lindisfarne. It is indeed probable that St. Wilfrid, as he strove to bring in the rule of St. Benedict into other monasteries deserted by the Scots, so also into that of Lindisfarne, when occasion was given: but, as regards Lindisfarne, it is more probable that St. Wilfrid attempted this immediately after the death of St. Cuthbert, after which Wilfrid held the charge of the people of Lindisfarne for about a year. For Bede, after he had narrated in chapter XI, number 61, in the words of Herefrid, that St. Cuthbert died at that moment of time at which Psalm 59, whose beginning is: O God, You have cast us off and destroyed us: You have been angry, and have had mercy on us, was being sung by the monks, subjoins this a little after: Which was brought about by heavenly dispensation, as the outcome of things shows. For when the man of God had been buried, so great a blast of temptation shook that church that many of the Brethren preferred to leave the place rather than be involved in such dangers. Yet after a year, Eadbert having been ordained to the episcopate … the Lord brought the vision of peace and gathered the dispersions of Israel.
[18] against Henschen, who St. Wilfrid from the death of St. Cuthbert To these words of Bede Henschen subjoined the following annotation: That temptation seems to have consisted in this, that St. Wilfrid wished to abrogate the ancient statutes of the Fathers and of St. Cuthbert himself, which they (the monks of Lindisfarne) had observed hitherto, and which St. Cuthbert when dying had commended to them, and to have the rule of St. Benedict either introduced or alone observed. Something similar (see number XI) had happened, certainly not without St. Wilfrid's knowledge, to Eata and Cuthbert living in the monastery of Ripon. The charge of the church of Lindisfarne taken up by St. Wilfrid afforded, by his zeal, a convenient occasion of introducing the Benedictine institute there; finally, that temptation lasted for the whole space of time in which Wilfrid held the episcopate of Lindisfarne, and ceased at once under his successor: which things indeed make Henschen's conjecture not improbable. But what does Mabillon say to these things? But these things, he says in the Annotations to chapter 40 of the Life of St. Cuthbert, are wholly uncertain. Be it so: then neither is it certain that St. Cuthbert passed over to the Benedictine institute from the synod of Streanaeshalch held in the year 664.
[19] Mabillon speaks more affirmatively in the Benedictine Annals at the year 687, the Benedictine rule into the monastery of Lindisfarne number 58. Not long after, he says, namely after the death of St. Cuthbert, so great a storm of temptation blew upon that church that many of the brethren preferred to leave the place rather than be involved in so great a danger. The venerable prelate Wilfrid governed that episcopate for one year, until one should be elected who was to be ordained bishop in place of Cuthbert. There was elected to this office a man of great virtues, Eadbert, who, the storms of disturbances being put to flight, restored tranquillity to Lindisfarne and called back those who had been dispersed. These things Mabillon rightly says;
he confesses further that it can be conjectured from these things that these storms arose on the occasion of Wilfrid, certainly in his time (which appears certain). But that this was done by Wilfrid because he wished the ancient statutes of the Fathers (he ought to have added, and of St. Cuthbert himself) to be abrogated in the monastery of Lindisfarne, and the rule of St. Benedict to be introduced, or alone observed, is, he says, mere divination, not to say hallucination. That the disturbances among the monks of Lindisfarne arose on the occasion and through the cause of Wilfrid is not a hallucination, but at least a tolerable conjecture: for if we seek the cause of the disturbances, it cannot be referred to the Scottish Easter, to which, while Cuthbert survived, the monks of Lindisfarne had already, according to his Life, bidden farewell. Nor to the other Scottish rites: for, according to Bede, cited above at number XI, the Scots, and those who preferred to follow their rites, left the island of Lindisfarne after the synod of Streanaeshalch was held. What more probable cause, then, will Mabillon assign than this, that St. Wilfrid wished either to abrogate their rule, which they held recently commended to them by St. Cuthbert, substituting the Benedictine, or, by joining both, to enlarge or change it?
[20] But, says Mabillon, whatever the cause of these commotions may have been, suggests attempted to bring in: it appears from the Life of St. Cuthbert that the Benedictine rule flourished in the monastery of Lindisfarne before his death; from which namely we have that St. Cuthbert rendered his soul to God on the fourth weekday, and indeed at the time at which the brethren of Lindisfarne were saying "in the order of the night Lauds" the fifty-ninth Psalm, whose beginning is, "O God, You have cast us off and destroyed us:" for so St. Benedict orders the series of vigils that this Psalm falls in the vigils of the fourth weekday. But what then? Was this observed at that time by the Benedictines alone? Could St. Cuthbert not follow this custom, as also the Catholic Easter, unless he at the same time embraced the rule of St. Benedict? Certainly even today all who follow the Roman Breviary recite the same Psalm at Matins on the fourth weekday. Mabillon subjoins to these things the words of the anonymous writer of the Life of St. Cuthbert related at number 14, by which he confirms his statement; not unaware, however, that those words by which the observance of the Benedictine rule in the monastery of Lindisfarne before the year 700 is maintained were not held by Henschen as certainly genuine; and indeed not undeservedly, as I said at number 14. Nor indeed do I think it escaped Mabillon that those words, however genuine they perhaps may be, do not prevent the rule of St. Benedict having been brought into the monastery of Lindisfarne after the death of St. Cuthbert indeed, yet before the year 700, which I likewise said at number 14. I wonder therefore that nothing was brought forward by that truly most learned man, as far as I know, by which he might remove interpolation from the anonymous writer, whether in the preliminary Admonition to the Life of St. Cuthbert, or in the Annotations to it, or in volume 2 of the Vetera Analecta, page 176, where he treats of the rule of St. Benedict introduced into the monastery of Lindisfarne by Wilfrid, or in part 1 of the IV Benedictine Saeculum, where he treats of St. Wilfrid, or elsewhere.
[21] and so neither was St. Ywius certainly a Benedictine. Further, it seems one must speak here of St. Ywius no otherwise than of St. Cuthbert. That St. Ywius was a monk can indeed probably be gathered from Bede, cited at number 9; namely of the same institute of which St. Cuthbert was either author or follower; and so it is plainly doubtful whether a Benedictine. Nor does the departure of St. Ywius into Lesser or Armorican Britain hinder his monastic profession: for he could have migrated there with the good leave of his abbot and Brethren, to lead there a solitary life for God, after the example of his master Cuthbert, who for a similar reason at one time withdrew to the island of Farne. The other things which the Acts hand down about St. Ywius are credible enough indeed, but not equally attested: for it is clear that their author was very far removed from the Saint's age, and had his deeds explored with little clarity. I have sought more than these in vain among the writers on the affairs of Armorica; nor can I say whether the memory of St. Ywius lived on in Armorica long after his death.
ACTS FROM CAPGRAVE.
Ywius, deacon and confessor, at Wilton in England. (S.) BHL Number: 4638
From Capgrave.
St. Ywius, a Briton by country, disciple For St. Ywius, of an illustrious stock of the Britons a, born of religious parents, namely Brano his father and Egida his mother, was also brought up in the province of Lindisfarne b. He, handed over from infancy to the rudiments of letters, the grace of the Holy Spirit inspiring him, surpassing his contemporaries in the knowledge of letters, was venerated by great doctors. He did nothing childish in word or deed: but, religion growing together with his age, obeying the divine commands, he gave thanks not only for the things which came to him happily, but also for those which came not prosperously. And when he was already flourishing in the flower of youth, being often urged by his family, as heir of so great a patrimony, to take up arms, preferring the heavenly reward to the earthly, he ascended certain grades of sacred order, his parents being unaware c. But somewhat more mature, being bereaved of both parents, instructed by the most holy bishop of Lindisfarne Cuthbert d, whose disciple he was, he received the diaconate.
[2] of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, and deacon, having wrought His frequent care in the monastery was now to persevere in prayer, now to take e spiritual food from the Lord's table. And while he was anxious for nothing concerning the morrow, whatever he could have at hand he daily bestowed on the poor as nourishment, as each one's need required, giving pardon to those who offended against him, clothing to the cold, solace to the sorrowful, and so purchased eternal things with perishable ones, heavenly things with earthly ones. One day, when the aforesaid prelate was celebrating solemnly, and St. Ywius was performing the office of deacon, behold, a certain man oppressed by the force of fevers, guiding his weak steps with a staff, came up after the throng of the people to make his offering. The blessed Deacon, having compassion on his calamity, taking his hand, gave him support as he climbed the step next to the altar, which was an obstacle to so great a weakness. Forthwith, in a wondrous manner, at the touch of the Man of special simplicity the sickness, although vehement, departed f; he rejoices that he has obtained the strength of his former vigour for each of the offices of his members. And the holy Man, prostrating himself, said: Not by my merits, brother, but by the interceding merits of the holy prelate whose hand you desired to kiss, has the heavenly Loving-kindness worked in you.
[3] Not long after, while the same blessed Man, having taken his food soberly, some prodigies, seeks a hiding place in Armorican Britain, was sitting at home one day, it happened that a certain poor man, vexed by a long infirmity, so that, his flesh being wasted and wrinkled, the bare skin alone covered his bones, came to the door: and, pitying his misery, he humbly asked him what he would wish to receive. And when he received this answer from the poor man: I take delight in no food, I will enjoy no food with you; but with drink quench the flame which burns * my inward parts: he hastily brought cider g and gave it to the needy man. Having drunk it, the poor man raises his bent shoulders, and, restored to health, gave thanks to God. But St. Ywius, fearing lest the breeze of human favour should harm him, determined to leave his own country altogether by flight, and, fortifying himself with the sign of the cross, directed his way to a certain port h. As he was approaching the seventh station of ships, the sailors asked him whither he was going. And when he had given them the answer that he was going whither the Lord should deign to call him, he added: If any of you desire at present to cross over the sea, I pray that in the name of the Lord they receive a companion of their course and labour. They said to him: Had not the wind hindered our course, we should long ago have put in at Lesser Britain i, and if you desire to go thither, until the breeze blows according to our wish, we will furnish you with necessaries.
[4] Hearing this, the holy Man, blessing the Lord, showing joy in his face, said: he seeks, and dies there. Let us go down, then, brethren, and prepare what is necessary. And when suddenly the desired wind arose and they began to sail, a most grievous tempest having arisen, the sailors, despairing, began to stretch their palms to heaven and to beg help from God. At length the man of God Ywius, who was refreshing his weary body with sleep, being roused, poured forth prayers to God, and the whole commotion of the sea at once grew calm. A certain paralytic, not able to take food except by another's hand, merited by his sacred prayers to receive health. Meanwhile the Servant of God, afflicting his body with continual vigils and fasts, showed himself to all an example of humility and of works of virtue and of all honesty, and on the day before the Nones of October in Lesser Britain he happily passed to the joys that will remain for ever k. At Wilton l in our days m his holy body, resting n, is held in great veneration.
ANNOTATIONS.
mea* [my]