In the third episode of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina explore the much-chronicled life of St Cuthbert, as told by the most famous writer of the early medieval period, the so-called Venerable Bede. From Cuthbert’s childhood interest in naked handstands, to his later work as a charismatic preacher who could elicit total confession, and as a hermit who enjoyed the assistance of friendly sea otters, it was a life which, as told by Bede, both challenged and conformed to the expected patterns of hagiography.

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Further reading in the LRB:

Barbara Newman: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n09/barbara-newman/when-medicine-failed

Diarmaid MacCulloch: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n11/diarmaid-macculloch/rome-s-new-mission

Irina Dumitrescu is Professor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn and Mary Wellesley as a historian and author of Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and their Makers.

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