Eadfrith of Lindisfarne
Saint Edfrith | |
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Roman Catholic Church | |
| Feast | June 4 |
Eadfrith of Lindisfarne (died 721), also known as Saint Eadfrith, was
Life
A colophon added to the Lindisfarne Gospels in the tenth century states that Eadfrith was the scribe and artist responsible for the work. The Lindisfarne Gospels were the product of a single scribe and illustrator, working full-time over a period of about two years. For this reason, many historians who accept that the work was authored by Eadfrith in person date it to the period before he became bishop. Not all historians accept that he was the scribe: some argue that he may have commissioned the work rather than creating it in person; some reject the association as an unreliable tradition.[4]
Contemporary witnesses to Eadberht's episcopacy portray him as a supporter of the cult of Saint Cuthbert. He commissioned three lives of the Saint, the first by an anonymous writer, written between 699 and 705. This Anonymous Life of Saint Cuthbert was revised on Eadfrith's orders by Bede, writing around 720, to produce both prose and verse lives.[5]
Eadfrith also oversaw the restoration of the
When Lindisfarne was abandoned in the late ninth century, Eadfrith's remains were among those taken on the community's long wanderings through Northumbria. The relics of Saint Cuthbert, and those of Eadfrith along with them, eventually found a new home at
Citations
- ^ Hutchinson-Hall, John (Ellsworth). Orthodox Saints of the British Isles. Vol II (St. Eadfrith Press, 2014) p. 158
- ^ Dates after Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology, p. 219; Thacker, "Eadfrith".
- ^ Blair, "Lindifarne"; Alcock, Kings and warriors, p. 78.
- ^ For arguments in favour of Eadfrith as the creator, see Thacker, "Eadfrith"; Blair, Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 316–317; Blair, World of Bede, p. 230. For other views, see Brown, "Lindisfarne Gospels"; Alcock, Kings and warriors, pp. 304–305 & 308.
- ^ Thacker, "Eadfrith"; Thacker, "Cuthbert"; Blair, World of Bede, p. 202.
- ^ "Northern Saints", 'This is Durham', Durham County Council
- ^ Thacker, "Eadfrith".
- ^ Thacker, "Eadfrith"; Thacker, "Cuthbert"; Blair, Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 84–85.
References
- ISBN 0-903903-24-5
- Blair, John (1999), "Lindisfarne", in Lapidge, Michael (ed.), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 287–288, ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Blair, Peter Hunter (1977), An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29219-0
- Blair, Peter Hunter (1990), The World of Bede (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-39138-5
- Brown, Michelle P. (1999), "Lindisfarne Gospels", in Lapidge, Michael (ed.), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 288–289, ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
- Thacker, Alan (1999), "St. Cuthbert", in Lapidge, Michael (ed.), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 131–133, ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Thacker, Alan (2004). "Eadfrid or Eadfrith (d. 721)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8381. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
- Eadfrith 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- The Lindisfarne Gospels
- British Library feature on The Lindisfarne Gospels
- Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert dedicated to Eadfrith
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