The Arts In Berwick -- Religion
Cuthbert on Farne

Disliking the frantic pace of life on Holy Island, St.Cuthbert retired to Farne. He was only persuaded to give up his solitary life to become Bishop by the personal intervention of King Egfrid. Later he became a hermit again and died in 684.

Other hermits imitated Cuthbert's example, the most celebrated being the Scandinavian St.Bartholomew (d.1193) who fell out with the hermit-in-resident as soon as he arrived. . St.Bart's exploits were also the basis for The Miracles of Farne, composed by one of hermits a few years later.

A statute of Cuthbert was unveiled at Lindisfarne in 2001.

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