Copy Book Archive

Bread from Heaven Cuthbert trusted that keeping his promised fast would not do him any harm.
AD 665
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Music: Edward German

© Mike Quinn, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

To the right of Thinhope Burn near Slaggyford, south of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, are the remains of a shieling – a rough, temporary shepherd’s hut built for the summer months and then abandoned until next year. Cuthbert himself had once been a shepherd, so this would have been a familiar environment for him.

Bread from Heaven
A shieling is a temporary stone hut, built for the summer months when sheep or cattle are taken to higher ground. Bede tells us that a near-contemporary, the seventh-century saint Cuthbert, once had a remarkable experience in one of these huts, as he was journeying across the empty moorland of Northumbria.

AT ten o’clock one morning, Cuthbert stopped off in a village, hoping to find something for his horse to eat; as it was a Friday and Cuthbert liked to fast until three, he declined all offers of food himself, though he had no idea when he might eat again.

He returned to the road until night fell around four (it was the beginning of winter). A derelict shieling out on the moors provided some shelter,* and his horse at once started tugging away at the remaining thatch. Cuthbert contented himself with psalms.

Presently, he noticed something tumble down with the straw: a little cloth bundle. Inside, he found half a loaf of bread, still hot, and some slices of meat. Cuthbert gave half the bread to his horse, and ate the rest himself.

It put him in mind, he later told Ingwald at the monastery in Monkwearmouth, of Elijah, who was fed by ravens;* and Ingwald told Bede, who recorded it all for posterity.

Miracles of St Cuthbert Next: The Man Who Left No Footprints

A shieling (see picture) is a traditional hut in remote parts of Scotland and northern England, built by shepherds and cowherds for the summer months and then abandoned. The word may also be used for the pasture land where the sheep or cattle live.

See 1 Kings 17:2-6. At the time when the miracle took place, Cuthbert had decided to become a monk but had not actually joined a monastery.

Précis

Bede heard this miracle-story from the person to whom Cuthbert himself told it. On a journey through Northumbria, Cuthbert maintained his regular Friday fast when he could reasonably have broken it. That night, sheltering in a derelict hut in the middle of nowhere, he saw half a loaf, hot as if straight from the oven, fall from the roof. (59 / 60 words)

Source

Based on The Life of Cuthbert by St Bede of Jarrow (?672-735).

Suggested Music

Three Dances from ‘Henry VIII’

Shepherds’ Dance

Edward German (1862-1936)

Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), conducted by Adrian Leaper.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for Bread from Heaven

Lives of the Saints

‘Why Am I Still Lying Here?’

Cuthbert, struck down by plague, was vexed to find that his brethren had been praying for him all the previous night.

Lives of the Saints

Cuthbert and the White Rider

The young Christian from ancient Northumbria was healed of a lame leg in a manner that reminded Bede of the archangel Rafael.

Lives of the Saints

The Man Who Left No Footprints

A young monk was rewarded for taking his duties as guest-master seriously.

Lives of the Saints

Cuthbert and the Miracle of the Wind

The young monk taught some hard-hearted pagans a lesson they’d never forget.

Lives of the Saints (186)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)