| ST. EADBERT, BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE, C. |
| Feast: May 6
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| Venerable
Bede assures us, that this holy man excelled both in the knowledge of the holy
scriptures, and in the observance of the divine precepts. All his lifetime he
was remarkable for his alms-deeds, and it was a law with him to lay aside yearly
the tenth part of his goods for the poor. He was ordained successor to St.
Cuthbert, in the see of Lindisfarne, in 687, and most worthily governed that
church eleven years. It was his custom twice a year, in Lent, and during forty
days before Christmas, to retire into a solitary place, encompassed by the
waters of the sea, where St. Cuthbert had for some time served God in private
before he went to the isle of Ferne. St. Eadbert spent this time remote from all
company, in abstinence, prayers, and tears. St. Cuthbert had been buried about
eleven years, when the brethren desired, with the approbation of Eadbert, to
take up the bones of that eminent servant of God, whose life had been signalized
by many illustrious miracles. Instead of dust, to which they expected they were
reduced to their great surprise they found the body as entire, and the joints
all as pliable as if it had been living—all the vestments and clothes in which
it was laid were also sound, and wonderfully fresh and bright. The monks made
haste to inform the holy bishop, who was then in his Lent retreat, and they
brought him part of the garments which covered the holy body. These he devoutly
kissed, and ordered that the blessed body should be laid in other garments, put
into the new coffin which was made for the holy relics, and, for greater
veneration, placed above the pavement in the sanctuary. He added, that the grave
which had been sanctified by so great a miracle of heavenly grace, would not
remain long empty. This was accordingly done, and presently after Eadbert, the
bishop beloved of God, fell dangerously sick, and his distemper daily
increasing, on the 6th of May following he departed to our Lord. His body was
laid in St. Cuthbert's grave, and over the place was deposited the uncorrupted
body of that glorious servant of God. "Miracles here wrought from time to
time, in curing the sick, bear testimony to the merits of them both," says
Bede. The same historian informs us, that St. Eadbert covered with lead the
church of Lindisfarne, which was dedicated by the archbishop Theodorus, under
the patronage of St. Peter. It had been formerly built by bishop Finan, after
the Scottish fashion, of oak boards and thatched with reeds. See Bede, Hist 1.
3, c. 25, 1. 4, c. 29, 30, and his life of St. Cuthbert. St. Eadbert named on
this day in the Roman Martyrology.
(Taken from Vol. V of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company) |
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