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HOW CUTHBERT WAS RECOVERED FROM SICKNESS, AND BOISIL,
ON HIS DEATH-BED, FORETOLD TO HIM HIS FUTURE FORTUNES
When that servant of the Lord, Boisil, saw that Cuthbert was restored, he said, " You see, my brother, how you have recovered from your disease, and I assure you it will give you no further trouble, nor are you likely to die at present. I advise you, inasmuch as death is waiting for me, to learn from me all you can whilst I am able to teach you; for I have only seven days longer to enjoy my health of body, or to exercise the powers of my tongue." Cuthbert, implicitly believing what he heard, asked him what he would advise him to begin to read, so as to be able to finish it in seven days. "John the Evangelist," said Boisil. "I have a copy containing seven quarto sheets: we can, with God's help, read one every day, and meditate thereon as far as we are able. " They did so accordingly, and speedily accomplished the task; for they sought therein only that simple faith which operates by love, and did not trouble themselves with minute and subtle questions. After their seven days' study was completed, Boisil died of the above-named complaint; and after death entered into the joys of eternal life. They say that, during these seven days, he foretold to Cuthbert every thing which should happen to him: for, as I have said before, he was a prophet and a man of remarkable piety. And, moreover, he had three years ago foretold to Abbot Eata, that this pestilence would come, and that he himself would die of it; but that the abbot should die of another disease, which the physicians call dysentery; and in this also he was a true prophet, as the event proved. Among others, he told Cuthbert that he should be ordained bishop. When Cuthbert became an anchorite, he would not communicate this prophecy to any one, but with much sorrow assured the brethren who came to visit him, that if he had a humble residence on a rock, where the waves of the ocean shut him out from all the world, he should not even then consider himself safe from its snares, but should be afraid that on some occasion or other he might fall victim to the love of riches.
from Bede's : The Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne
Link to the Living Water From an Ancient Well Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne Bio
MEANWHILE, as every thing in this world is frail and fluctuating,
like the sea when a storm comes on, the above-named Abbot Eata,
with Cuthbert and the other brethren, were expelled from their
residence, and the monastery given to others. But our worthy champion
of Christ did not by reason of his change of place relax his zeal
in carrying on the spiritual conflict which he had undertaken;
but he attended, as he had ever done, to the precepts and example
of the blessed Boisil. About this time, according to his friend
Herefrid the priest, who was formerly abbot of the monastery of
Lindisfarne, he was seized with a pestilential disease, of which
many inhabitants of Britain were at that time sick. The brethren
of the monastery passed the whole night in prayer for his life
and health; for they thought it essential to them that so pious
a man should be present with them in the flesh. They did this
without his knowing it; and when they told him of it in the morning,
he exclaimed, " Then why am I lying here ? I did not think
it possible that God should have neglected your prayers: give
me my stick and shoes." Accordingly, he got out of bed, and
tried to walk, leaning on his stick; and finding his strength
gradually return, he was speedily restored to health: but because
the swelling on his thigh, though it died away to all outward
appearances, struck into his inwards, he felt a little pain in
his inside all his life afterwards; so that, as we find it expressed
in the Apostles, " his strength was perfected in weakness."
When that servant of the Lord, Boisil, saw that Cuthbert was restored, he said, " You see, my brother, how you have recovered from your disease, and I assure you it will give you no further trouble, nor are you likely to die at present. I advise you, inasmuch as death is waiting for me, to learn from me all you can whilst I am able to teach you; for I have only seven days longer to enjoy my health of body, or to exercise the powers of my tongue." Cuthbert, implicitly believing what he heard, asked him what he would advise him to begin to read, so as to be able to finish it in seven days. "John the Evangelist," said Boisil. "I have a copy containing seven quarto sheets: we can, with God's help, read one every day, and meditate thereon as far as we are able. " They did so accordingly, and speedily accomplished the task; for they sought therein only that simple faith which operates by love, and did not trouble themselves with minute and subtle questions. After their seven days' study was completed, Boisil died of the above-named complaint; and after death entered into the joys of eternal life. They say that, during these seven days, he foretold to Cuthbert every thing which should happen to him: for, as I have said before, he was a prophet and a man of remarkable piety. And, moreover, he had three years ago foretold to Abbot Eata, that this pestilence would come, and that he himself would die of it; but that the abbot should die of another disease, which the physicians call dysentery; and in this also he was a true prophet, as the event proved. Among others, he told Cuthbert that he should be ordained bishop. When Cuthbert became an anchorite, he would not communicate this prophecy to any one, but with much sorrow assured the brethren who came to visit him, that if he had a humble residence on a rock, where the waves of the ocean shut him out from all the world, he should not even then consider himself safe from its snares, but should be afraid that on some occasion or other he might fall victim to the love of riches.
from Bede's : The Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne
Link to the Living Water From an Ancient Well Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne Bio
