#saint cuthbert

Illustration tirée d'un manuscrit du XIIe siècle, représentant le roi Æthelstan offrant un livre à la communauté de Saint Cuthbert à Chester-le-Street.

Holy Father Cuthbert, Pray to God for us! O Lord, Thou Who alone preservest us unfailing in divine love and oneness of mind, grant that we may live in concord with all the servants of Christ’s holy Church, and show patience to us who seek hospitality in the household of faith. Preserve us from entanglement with those who have forsaken the Faith, deliver us from schisms and heresies, grant that we may learn the teachings of our Fathers and live by them. Strengthen us to carry out the rule of life which Thou in Thy mercy hast seen fit to grant us through the witness and prayers of thy holy servant Cuthbert and all Thy saints, for Thou art holy, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Recently took a trip to Lindisfarne, Holy Island

“The Quest” -- So you meet in a tavern, “The Green Dragon, a busy inn in a town on the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths” (Greg Irons, from The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album, 1979, text by Gary Gygax) The location on the lake places the coloring book within the world of Greyhawk.  One wonders if this inn is related to the more famous Green Dragon in the Free City.  Gygax’s text also says the rough looking fellow with mutton chops behind the map is “Sertern the cleric who, like his deity St. Cuthbert, favors blue for garb and silver for decoration,” though St Cuthbert usually wasn’t associated with those colors in other sources.

The British Library: Source

Æthelstan presenting a book to St Cuthbert, the earliest surviving portrait of an English king. Illustration in a manuscript of Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert presented by Æthelstan to the saint's shrine in Chester-le-Street. He wore a crown of the same design on his "crowned bust" coins.

Some of these manuscripts still survive, such as this initial page of the Gospel of Matthew. Note that some of the lines use Rune script capitals. I love that the last word on the page - “Abraham” - had to be divided over two lines to fit in!