St Cuthbert's Way

Mary Low

Sujets

• Walking

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 10 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849526685
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

There’s nothing like putting one foot in front of the other, day after day, in all weathers, for getting you in touch with the things that really matter .
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
– A field guide to places of interest along the route
– An introduction to St Cuthbert and his world
– Songs, meditations and stories
– Ideas and resources for a contemporary pilgrimage experience
While other guides major on directions, this one brings the landscape to life through a wealth of stories and personalities, while leaving you free to experience your own pilgrimage for yourself. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in early Celtic and Anglo-Saxon spirituality, the more recent history of the Borderlands and the flora and fauna to look out for along the way.
Mary Low is a writer and independent scholar with a long-standing interest in the religious and spiritual traditions of Scotland and Ireland. She has lived near Melrose in the Scottish Borders for most of her life. Her other books include Celtic Christianity and Nature and Cherish the Earth. This new and thoroughly revised edition of St Cuthbert’s Way brings her unique Companion up to date for a new generation of readers.
‘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.’
– Mary Grey, former editor of Ecotheology magazine
‘Here is a chance to walk with many people of history in a land of beauty touched by the Eternal.’
– David Adam
www.ionabooks.com
St Cuthbert’s Way
A PILGRIMS’ COMPANION
M ARY L OW
with illustrations by Dick Warren

www.ionabooks.com
Copyright © 1999 and 2019 Mary Low
Illustrations © 1999 Dick Warren
First published 2000. New edition 2019.
Wild Goose Publications
21 Carlton Court, Glasgow G5 9JP
www.ionabooks.com
Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794.
Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243.
PDF: ISBN 978-1-84952-667-8
ePub: ISBN 978-1-84952-668-5
Mobipocket: ISBN 978-1-84952-669-2
Cover photo © 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 transmitted in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Commercial use:
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 under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
For all the people of St Cuthbert’s Church
High Cross Avenue, Melrose
And for Helen MacLaughlin
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)
St Cuthbert and his contemporaries
Field guide
– In and around Melrose
– Melrose to St Boswells
– St Boswells to Harestanes
– Harestanes to Morebattle
– Morebattle to Yetholm
– Kirk Yetholm to Wooler
– Wooler to Fenwick
– Fenwick to Lindisfarne
– Lindisfarne
Going on a pilgrimage
Resources (readings, prayers, poems, songs)
– Readings from Bede and the Anonymous
– Songs, hymns and chants
– Bible readings
– Prayers, poems and other readings
– Readings from non-Christian traditions
Abbreviations
Further reading
Acknowledgements
Thanks
Index
Foreword to the 1st edition
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, folk-lore 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