In the Steps of Saint Cuthbert
By: Richard J. Goodrich
Tags: Christianity, Spirituality, Travel, History, Religion And History

In the Steps of Saint Cuthbert

Saint Cuthbert’s Way I: A new travel series from the Peripatetic Historian

The starting point for Saint Cuthbert’s Way, Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Author Photo.

IF thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray. Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto II.

Having taken Walter Scott’s advice, I am standing in the half-light of a cool September morning, waiting for the sun to rise and light the ruined red sandstone pillars of Scotland’s Melrose Abbey. A relentless breeze harries the dying grasses at my feet, while wisps of cloud scurry past overhead. Winter arrives early in this part of the world, and even though autumn has barely begun, there is a touch of frost in the air.

Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Author Photo.

Today marks the beginning of a pilgrimage: together with my stalwart companion, the Reverend David Albon, I am going to hike Saint Cuthbert’s Way, a modern pilgrimage route that connects Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, to the Holy Island, Lindisfarne, on the northeastern English coast. Fourteen centuries ago, the Celtic monk Cuthbert is said to have walked this path from Melrose to Lindisfarne to take up a post as prior for the monastic community that had settled on the island. Information about Cuthebert’s itinerary died with him. He began in Melrose; he finished his walk at Lindisfarne. His route between those two points is lost.

England’s great historian, Bede, who supplied our primary evidence for this pilgrimage, wrote nothing about the journey itself. Did Cuthbert walk in a straight line to Lindisfarne? Did he head north and take a ship? We simply do not know. Nevertheless, in 1996, a group of hiking enthusiasts charted a probable course that runs over the hills of southern Scotland before descending toward the eastern coast of England. Today, this sixty-three mile trail connects Melrose to Lindisfarne. St Cuthbert’s Way is a “new” pilgrimage route, and although it lacks the prestige and antiquity of Spain’s Santiago de Compostela, it compensates with charming pubs, pastoral landscapes, and occasional brushes with the checkered history of Britain.

It is, in short, a perfect hike for the Peripatetic Historian.

Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Author Photo.

I rise before dawn on the day of our departure. I want to capture a photo of Melrose Abbey, one of the most important monasteries in Great Britain. Melrose, founded in 1146, was home to monks of the Cistercian order. The monastery and its monks occupied a prestigious position in the life of both church and state. Melrose served as the mother house of the Cistercian order in Scotland, and it also hosted Scottish kings and other members of the royal family. The heart of Robert the Bruce, Scottish liberator, was buried in a lead capsule on the site.

Unfortunately, the monastery only enjoyed a couple of centuries of preeminence. Its location left it vulnerable to attack during the incessant border wars with England. Moreover, by the fifteenth century, religious strife altered Scottish society. Melrose declined as the country embraced the Protestant Reformation. In 1544, the English King Henry VIII delivered a fatal wound, setting the monastery on fire. Calvinistic reformers finished the job, expelling the monks and leaving the abbey to wither. Villagers pilfered stone blocks to raise new homes, turning the building into a quarry. Today only a few walls remain, columns set between gaping holes, a romantic ruin.

Stone columns, Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Author Photo.

In any event, this is not the monastery where Cuthbert began his career. That honor belonged to Old Melrose Abbey, founded by Saint Aiden of Lindisfarne in the mid-seventh century, two miles east of town. A wanderer, like his spiritual son Cuthbert, Aidan had been sent from the famous Scottish monastery on Iona to serve as the first bishop of Northumbria. In addition to spreading the Celtic form of Christianity throughout the north, Aidan also planted monasteries at Melrose, and his diocesan seat, Lindisfarne.

Cuthbert never met Aidan. Their nearest approach was a celestial encounter. According to Bede (Life of Cuthbert, 4), the young Cuthbert was often to be found in the Scottish hills tending sheep. One night, while his companions slept and Cuthbert busied himself with prayers and psalmody, he saw a marvelous sight. The darkness shattered, pierced by a stunning light that streamed down from the heavens. Touching for a moment upon the earth, this ethereal blaze collected an object of incredible brightness and conveyed it into the sky. Young Cuthbert interpreted the event as the spirit of a holy man ascending to heaven; he later learned that Aidan had died at the moment of his vision. Stimulated by this sight, he set his heart on winning a similar heavenly reward, and shortly thereafter, entered the monastery at Melrose.

There is no heavenly light this morning, and in fact, the sunrise is less than dramatic. I take pictures of the monastery for forty minutes, then pack up camera and tripod, and return to my room in the B&B. In a couple of hours I will be taking the first steps of a 63 mile pilgrimage, placing my feet in the (theoretical) steps of Saint Cuthbert.

Ruins of Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Author Photo.

Although St. Cuthbert’s Way is not a major cross-country hike, and we will only be on the trail for five days, I am still apprehensive about it. I have spent most of my recent years flying a desk, and am a stranger to long mileage. We will have to average slightly more than twelve miles a day — nothing for experienced walkers, but a long puff for a man like me who is crowding later middle age (and crowding it hard). Yet, I imagine that the walk will ultimately prove worth the effort. It will be an opportunity to breathe fresh air, see new landscapes, and challenge my sedentary lifestyle.

Most importantly, I will be walking through history, which is what the Peripatetic Historian does best.