St Cuthbert's Way

Mary Low

Description

St Cuthbert's Way runs from Melrose in the Scottish Borders to Lindisfarne, Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. This book, designed as a pilgrims' companion, presents information essential for walking the Way, together with a field guide to plac

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Escocia
• Christian worship
• North West England
• Walking
• Scotland

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781849521529
• Langue: English

Extrait

St Cuthbert s Way
A PILGRIMS COMPANION
by
M ARY L OW
with illustrations by Dick Warren
Copyright 1999 Mary Low Illustrations 1999 Dick Warren
First published 2000, reprinted 2009 by Wild Goose Publications, 4th Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK. Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. www.ionabooks.com
ePub:ISBN 978-0-947988-82-1 Mobipocket:ISBN 978-0-947988-93-7 PDF:ISBN 978-0-947988-96-8
Page layout by David Gregson Cover photo: Old Melrose Mary Low
All rights reserved. Apart from reasonable personal use on the purchaser s own system and related devices, no part of this document or file(s) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For any commercial use of the contents of this book, permission must be obtained in writing from the publisher in advance.
Mary Low has asserted her right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
For Bruce and for all the young people, past, present and future of High Cross, St Cuthbert s Melrose
Now my wee book, whate er betide
Thou e en maun face the warld wide;
The Forest, Tiviotdale and the Merse
Thro thae, at least, thou maun traverse;
Dink d up in hamely russet claes
Thou now must face thy freends and faes
But oh, may never critic rude
Stretch forth his hands to shed thy blude
But if for little rompish laits
I hear that thou a pandy gets
Wi patience thou maun bear the brunt
An e en put up wi mony a dunt .
Andrew Scott of Bowden
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Before you go (practicalities)
Cuthbert and his contemporaries
Field guide
Going on a pilgrimage
Resources (readings, prayers, poems, songs)
Abbreviations
Further reading
Acknowledgements
Thanks
Index
Access assessment form
Foreword
It was a great joy to be asked to write a foreword for this book. It evoked so many memories. I recall that my father taught for his whole career at St Cuthbert s Grammar School, Newcastle-on-Tyne, where the school song opened with the words
By the banks of silvery Wear,
neath proud Dunelm s towered shrine,
rests the body of our patron
hard by Beda 1 , sage divine.
This my sisters and I sang along with enthusiastically - although we did not attend the school itself. 2 Cuthbert s memory was a vibrant part of my childhood. I cannot forget the first time I saw the Holy Island of Lindisfarne - the end point of the pilgrimage described in this book. The element of danger stands out in my mind: would we beat the tide across the causeway, as the silver ribbons of water crept almost imperceptibly across the golden sands? The pilgrims refuge stood out on the causeway as a cautionary tale: they had left it too late. Cuthbert caught our imagination as we too crept over the rocks to the tiny islet, St Cuthbert s island, and searched for the tiny black beads, St Cuthbert s beads. Here, we were told, he first sought solitude. I could understand this: in my first attempts at seeking space away from my family - I was 14 years old - even I could cope with a few hours in the rain and wind on that lonely spot. But at night, looking out through the darkening skies to the flashing lighthouse of the Inner Farne island, I realised that his search for solitude with God was far deeper than any of my feeble imitations.
This was years before St Cuthbert s Way became well known. But my early wanderings around Northumbria and the enchantment that Cuthbert, Aidan, Oswald and Hilda have for me give an inkling that these ancient roots, these connections between land and faith, remain a rich source for exploration. They also offer a resource for today s spiritual quest. What Mary Low s book does is to give a rich context for one specific pilgrimage, and in a way accessible to pilgrims of all faiths and those beyond faith. She connects St Cuthbert s Way pilgrimage with the searching and yearning common to all humanity. We are told that to embark on a pilgrimage journey is part of the wellsprings of many religions. For Christianity it was the journey of the Wise Men that culminated in the vision of the child of Peace. Russian Christianity sees that journey continuing in the Babushka s Christmas gift-giving to poor children of her neighbourhood. 3 Jesus himself went on regular pilgrimages to the Holy City of Jerusalem. For Islam, the focus of pilgrimage is Mecca. It is a timely moment to show how pilgrimage can meet a deep human need, when it is so easy for deeper yearnings to be stifled by cultural pressures to spend, to shop till we drop . The words of Peter Millar, former warden of Iona Abbey, will always ring in my ears: Have you still room in your life to be a pilgrim? 4
Mary Low connects walking St Cuthbert s Way with ecological sensitivity. (And she is already well known for her work in the field of the Celtic love of nature). 5 Joy in the Divine revealed through the creatures of earth, sky and sea was common to the early Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints - as well as found in sacred scripture. At a time of severe crisis in the environment, walking the way can make real for the wayfarer the sacredness of water (Holy Wells form an important part), of trees, of the struggles of monks and poor farmers to sow and harvest their crops and the kindness they display in dealing with birds and animals. A kindness which is of course reciprocated - as in the much-loved story of the furry sea otters who came to lick Cuthbert s feet dry after he had spent the night in prayer in the icy waters of the North Sea.
These lives of Cuthbert, his contemporaries and forebears are told simply, using early primary sources. Maybe some of them are well known - but their power still holds! As the reader might expect, Mary Low is a good storyteller: for example, when describing the tragic slaughter of the battle of Flodden Field, she writes:
If there are tears in heaven Cuthbert must surely have shed them that day as 40,000 men from north and south of the Border laid into each other with guns and pikes. Casualties were so heavy that, as night fell, neither side was sure who had won. (p. 134-5)
This is just one example where grief over slaughter of the past reminds us that in all these years humanity seems never to let go of its love affair with war.
Through the story of Cuthbert we are linked with Iona s story and with Brigit of Ireland. But not only are we given a history of the saints - as befits a pilgrimage - but also a feast of legend, folklore and local song, always with a health warning that all is not always what it seems!
St Cuthbert s Way: A Pilgrims Companion is at the same time extremely practical. Mary Low is concerned for wheelchair users, those not so goat-footed, and the discomfort where no toilets are available. (My own experiences in the desert of Rajasthan come to mind ) We are also given a range of inspiring resources in the form of readings and songs - as a different form of food for the journey.
But, when all is said and done, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Walking St Cuthbert s Way may be simply a holiday in beautiful countryside; it may be a discovery of the fascination of Celtic/Anglian Northumbria; or it may be a pilgrimage which brings more questions than it provides answers. But then, that is the only path to wisdom.
Mary Grey Editor of Ecotheology magazine

1 Beda is St Bede, one of the most important resources for this book. Hard by means near. Dunelm is, of course, the old name for Durham.
2 It was - and is - a boys school!
3 Babushka is the old grandmother. The story relates that she was too old and tired, and the night was too cold for her to accompany the Wise Men in their search.
4 This was summer 1998, when I was on the island leading a group.
5 See Mary Low, Celtic Christianity and Nature , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
Introduction
In the steps of St Cuthbert?
St Cuthbert s Way is not an ancient pilgrim route, but parts of it were probably walked by pilgrims in the past, and other parts would certainly have been known to Cuthbert and his contemporaries. From the seventh till the ninth century, visitors would have come and gone regularly between Lindisfarne and its daughter-house at Melrose, either on business or on pilgrimage. Cuthbert would have known the area intimately, from his childhood and from his pastoral journeys. He was a great walker: he had to be. There were very few roads here in the seventh century and it was easier to walk or ride than to bump along in a cart. The countryside was criss-crossed by a network of footpaths and bridle-ways and these are what Cuthbert would have used. We know that he could ride and sometimes he went on horseback, but more often he did the rounds of the villages on foot. 1 Sometimes he would be away for a week, a fortnight, even a month at a time, living with the rough hill folk . Bede tells us that he made a point of searching out those steep rugged places in the hills which other preachers dreaded to visit because of their poverty and squalor . 2 If he were alive today, he would probably visit people in towns and cities as well, but he knew from experience that beautiful scenery is no protection against hardship and he made it his business to understand and encourage people, especially if they were isolated or in trouble.
Where exactly did he go? We can only guess, but steep rugged places within a day s walk of Melrose would include the southern slopes of the Lammermuirs and the Leader valley, the Black Hill at Earlston, the Eildons, Teviotdale and the hills around Hawick, and above all the great mass of the Cheviots. From his days as Prior of Lindisfarne, he would also have known the Northumberland coast, parts of Berwickshire and the hills inland towards Wooler. As bishop, he travelled e