Saint Godric
Ermite (✝ 1170)
Colporteur, il en
profita pour se rendre en pèlerinage à Rome et en France. Il alla même jusqu'à
Jérusalem. A son retour, il se retira dans la forêt de Finkley. Sa retraite fut
découverte par des chasseurs qui pourchassaient un cerf. Ils l'épargnèrent à cause
du saint. A partir de ce moment, nous dit son hagiographe, les animaux
poursuivis vinrent se réfugier auprès de saint Godric. Sa renommée fut si
grande qu'on le vénéra dès le lendemain de sa mort.
A découvrir aussi:
- Little-known Saints of the North
(en anglais) site internet 'la sainte île de Lindisfarne'
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/7038/Saint-Godric.html
Saint Godric de
Finchale
D'après sa
biographie, écrite par le moine Reginald de Durham, Godric naquit dans une
famille pauvre mais vertueuse du Norfolk. Il devint colporteur, puis marchand,
et enfin marin. Il passa de longues années en mer, voyageant, faisant commerce,
et évita miraculeusement plusieurs fois une mort certaine. À Lindisfarne, saint
Cuthbert apparut à Godric. Cette vision le décida à consacrer sa vie à la
religion. Godric prit la croix et partit en pèlerinage à Jérusalem, Rome, ainsi
qu'au sanctuaire de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle en Espagne. À son retour en
Angleterre, il continua à errer, vivant reclus dans des grottes et dans la
forêt. À la fin du siècle, l'évêque de Durham, Flambard, lui fit don d'un
ermitage à Finchale, où il vécut jusqu'à sa mort, soixante ans plus tard. On
dit que Thomas Beckett et le Pape Alexandre III faisait partie de ceux qui
venait lui demander conseil.
May 21
St.
Godrick, Hermit
HE was
born of very mean parents at Walpole in Norfolk, and in his youth carried about
little peddling wares which he sold in villages. Having by degrees improved his
stock he frequented cities and fairs, and made several voyages by sea to
traffic in Scotland. In one of these he called at Holy Island, or Lindisfarne,
where he was charmed and exceedingly edified with the retirement and religious
deportment of the monks, and especially with the account which they gave him of
the wonderful life of St. Cuthbert. He inquired of them every particular
relating to him, visited every corner of that holy solitude and of the
neighbouring isle of Farne, and falling on his knees, prayed with many tears
for grace to imitate the fervour of that saint in serving God, resolving for
that purpose to give up all earthly pretensions. He entered upon a new course
of life by a penitential devout pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and visited
Compostella in his way home. After his return into Norfolk he accepted the
charge of house steward in the family of a very rich man. The servants were not
very regular, and for their private junketings often trespassed upon their
neighbours. Godrick finding he was not able to prevent these injustices, and
that the nobleman took no notice of his complaints about them, being easy so
long as he was no sufferer himself, left his place for fear of being involved
in the guilt of such an injustice.
After
making a pilgrimage to St. Giles in France and to Rome, he went to the north of
England in order the better to carry into execution his design of devoting
himself wholly to a retired life. A fervent servant of God, named Godwin, who
had passed a considerable time in the monastery of Durham, and by conversing
with the most holy monks and exercising himself in the interior and exterior
practices of all virtues, was well qualified to be a director to an
inexperienced novice, joined our saint, and they led together an austere
anchoretical life in a wilderness situated on the north to Carlisle, serving
one another, and spending both the days and nights in the praises of God. After
two years God called Godwin to himself by a happy death after a short sickness.
St. Godrick, having lost his companion, made a second painful pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. After his return he passed some time in the solitude of Streneshalch,
now Whitby; but after a year and some months went to Durham to offer up his
prayers before the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and from thence retired into the
desert of Finchal or Finkley, three miles from Durham, near the river Wear. St.
John Baptist and St. Cuthbert he chose for his principal patrons and models.
The austerities which he practised are rather to be admired than imitated. He
had his regular tasks and devotion, consisting of psalms and other prayers
which he had learned by heart, and which he constantly recited at midnight,
break of day, and the other canonical hours, besides a great number of other
devotions. Though he was ignorant of the very elements of learning, he was too
well experienced in the happy art of conversing with God and his own soul ever
to be at a loss how to employ his time in solitude. Whole days and nights
seemed too short for his rapturous contemplations, one of which he often wished
with St. Bruno he could have continued without interruption for eternity, in
inflamed acts of adoration, compunction, love or praise. His patience under the
sharpest pains of sicknesses or ulcers, and all manner of trials, was
admirable; but his humility was yet more astonishing. His conversation was
meek, humble, and simple. He concealed as much as possible from the sight and
knowledge of all men whatever might procure their esteem, and he was even
unwilling any one should see or speak with him. Yet this he saw himself obliged
to allow on certain days every week to such as came with the leave of the prior
of Durham, under whose care and obedience he lived. A monk of that house was
his confessor, said mass for him, and administered him the sacraments in a
chapel adjoining to his cell, which the holy man had built in honour of St.
John Baptist. He was most averse from all pride and vanity, and never spoke of
himself but as of the most sinful of creatures, a counterfeit hermit, an empty
phantom of a religious man: lazy, slothful, proud, and imperious, abusing the
charity of good people who assisted him with their alms. But the more the saint
humbled himself the more did God exalt him by his grace, and by wonderful
miraculous gifts. For several years before his death he was confined to his bed
by sickness and old age. William of Newbridge who visited him during that time,
tells us that though his body appeared in a manner dead, his tongue was ever
repeating the sacred names of the three Divine Persons, and in his countenance
there appeared a wonderful dignity, accompanied with an unusual grace and
sweetness. Having remained in this desert sixty-three years he was seized with
his last illness, and happily departed to his Lord on the 21st of May, 1170, in
the reign of Henry II. His body was buried in the chapel of St. John Baptist.
Many miracles confirmed the opinion of his sanctity, and a little chapel was
built to his memory by Richard, brother to Hugh Pidsey, bishop of Durham. See
William of Newbridge, l. 2, c. 20; Matthew Paris, Matthew of Westminster, his
life written by Nicholas of Durham his confessarius, and abridged by
Harpsfield, Sæc. 12, c. 45; see also the English Calendars, and those of the
Benedictins, especially Menard’s and Edw. Maihew; likewise Henschenius, t. 5,
Maij. p. 68.
Rev.
Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/212.html
(C.1070-1170)
We know a good deal about medieval saints (and non-saints) who came from
upper-class families. Godric of Finchale is one of those rare men of humble
origin about whose varied career a good deal is known. It took a long time for
him to find his true calling. Many of us are late bloomers, and it is consoling
to know of a saint who was a peddler, a pilgrim, a sailor, a ship's captain, a
bailiff, and a sacristan before he discovered that God wanted him to be a
hermit.
Godric was born in Norfolk, England, of Anglo-Saxon peasant stock.
Normally he would have stuck to small farming. Instead, he chose to be a
travelling peddler. Apparently he had gifts as a bargainer. In 1089 he made his
first pilgrimage to Rome. (There was always this piety in his makeup.) On
returning to England, however, he decided to expand his commercial efforts. Now
he went to sea, trading in Scotland, Flanders and Denmark. He was so successful
that he bought a share in two ships, becoming a captain of one of them. In 1101
he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, presumably in his own ship. On the
return trip he visited the shrine of St. James at Compostela in Spain. Back in
England he took a job as a bailiff (property manager), but before long he was
again a pilgrim to Rome and Saint-Gilles in southern France. He made yet a
third pilgrimage to the Eternal City, this time with his aged mother as
companion. It is a fair guess that he got his piety from this dauntless old
lady, who is said to have made the journey barefoot!
After that Roman pilgrimage, Godric finally gave signs of having made up
his mind - partially, at least. He sold all his goods and began to experiment
with a hermit's life in a forest in northern England. To better learn the
eremitical ropes, he returned to the Holy Land, spent some time with other
hermits in the desert of St. John the Baptist, and worked for a while in the
crusader hospital in Jerusalem. Back in England, he became a peddler again for
a while. Then he went to Durham, was engaged as sacristan of a local church,
and attended school with the choirboys at St. Mary-le-Bow. Finally he settled
down for good in the woods of Finchale on the River Wear. He was by then over
40.
The life of a solitary is pretty drastic. St. Godric made it even more
so, doing penance for the sins of his youth. He had no spiritual guidance at
first. That was remedied when Roger, the prior of the monastery at nearby
Durham, gave him a rule of life to follow.
The routine was typically eremitical. Long prayers of the liturgy were
followed by silent contemplation of the mysteries of faith, all carried on in
penitential austerity. Loneliness itself had its challenges: not from the wild
beasts of the forest, which he quickly befriended, but from diabolical
manifestations; grave illnesses; a near-drowning; and even being beaten up by
Scottish soldiers who believed he had a hidden treasure. Godric stuck to his
rule nevertheless. Gradually he won the respect of neighboring villagers and
monks, and even received a letter of encouragement from Pope Alexander III.
How did the Hermit of Finchale appear to those who received permission
to speak with him? A contemporary writer noted that he was "strong and
agile, and in spite of his small stature his appearance was very venerable. He
had a broad forehead, sparkling grey eyes, and bushy eyebrows that almost met.
His face was oval, his nose long, his beard thick. " Visitors found him a
good listener, always serious, and sympathetic to those in trouble. Among his
charismatic gifts were prophecy and the knowledge of distant happenings.
St. Godric also became noted as a writer of hymns. His lyrics are among
the oldest to employ rhyme and measure rather than the alliteration
characteristic of Anglo-Saxon verse. The tunes to which he set the poems were
simple ones, taught him, he said, in various visions. Four of these melodies
and texts have been preserved in the British Museum and were recorded in 1965.
Stricken with a long illness at the end of threescore years in his
little hermit's cell, Godric died May 11, 1170. His tomb then became a shrine
at which many miracles of healing were performed, especially on women. Like
many ancient saints, Godric was never formally canonized, but his cult has continued
at Finchale, at Durham, and among the Cistercian monks.
Men and women called belatedly to the religious life should find in St.
Godric of Finchale a sympathetic patron. Before he finally settled down, he,
too, had been around!
--Father Robert F. McNamara
SOURCE : http://kateriirondequoit.org/resources/saints-alive/gabra-michael-grimoaldo/st-godric-of-finchale/
Also known as
- Godrick
Profile
Oldest of three children born to a freedman Anglo-Saxon farmer. An adventurous seafaring man, Godric spent his youth in travel, both on land and sea, as a peddler
and merchant mariner first along the coast of the
British Isles, then throughout Europe. Sometime sailor, sometime ship’s captain, he lived
a seafarer’s life of the day, and it was hardly a religious one. He was known
to drink, fight, chase women, con customers, and in a contemporary
manuscript, was referred to as a “pirate”. Converted upon visiting Lindisfarne during a
voyage, and being touched by the life of Saint Cuthbert
of Lindisfarne.
Pilgrim to Jerusalem and the holy lands, Saintiago de Compostela, the shrine of Saint Gaul in
Provence, and to Rome, Italy. As a self-imposed austerity, and a
way to always remember Christ’s lowering himself to become human, Godric never
wore shoes, regardless of the season. He lived as a hermit in the holy lands, and worked in a hospital near Jerusalem. Hermit for nearly sixty years at Finchale,
County Durham, England, first in a cave, then later in a
more formal hermitage; he was led to its site by a vision
of Saint Cuthbert. It was a rough life, living
barefoot in a mud and wattle hut, wearing a hair
shirt under a metal breastplate, standing in icy waters to control his lust,
living for a while off berries and roots, and being badly beaten by Scottish raiders who strangely thought he
had a hidden treasure.
Noted for his close familiarity with wild animals, his supernatural visions, his gift
of prophecy, and ability to know of events occurring hundreds or thousands of
miles away. Counseled Saint Aelred, Saint Robert
of Newminster, Saint Thomas
Beckett, and Pope Alexander
III. Wrote poetry in Medieval English. The brief song
Sainte nicholaes by Godric is one of the oldest in the English language, and is believed to be the
earliest surviving example of lyric poetry. He was said to have received his
songs, lyrics and music, complete during his miraculous
visions.
Born
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-godric-of-finchale/
Reginald of Durham: Life of St. Goderic [12th
Cent]
The growth of trade in the middle ages is of overwhelming significance. By the 13th century towns and trade, even though comprising a minority of the population, dominated the Western economy. This has widespread ramification - the monetization of life, the possibility of communally rather than aristocratically sponsored art, the possibility of urban subcultures and so on. On a wider level, it was this expansion of trade which in a later age pushed European states to establish the world system of the modern period.
The growth of trade in the middle ages is of overwhelming significance. By the 13th century towns and trade, even though comprising a minority of the population, dominated the Western economy. This has widespread ramification - the monetization of life, the possibility of communally rather than aristocratically sponsored art, the possibility of urban subcultures and so on. On a wider level, it was this expansion of trade which in a later age pushed European states to establish the world system of the modern period.
Since literature was long
the domain of aristocrats and clerics, we sometimes miss direct early accounts
of merchant'a lives. One merchant, Goderic, became a saint and hence we do have
an account of his life.
This holy man's father was named Ailward, and his
mother Edwenna; both of slender rank and wealth, but abundant in righteousness
and virtue. They were born in Norfolk, and had long lived in the township
called Walpole.... When the boy had passed his childish years quietly at home;
then, as he began to grow to manhood, he began to follow more prudent ways of
life, and to learn carefully and persistently the teachings of worldly
forethought. Wherefore he chose not to follow the life of a husbandman, but
rather to study, learn and exercise the rudiment of more subtle conceptions.
For this reason,' aspiring to the merchant's trade, he began to follow the
chapman s way of life, first learning how to gain in small bargains and things
of insignificant price; and thence, while yet a youth, his mind advanced little
by little to buy and sell and gain from things of greater expense. For, in his
beginnings, he was wont to wander with small wares around the villages and
farmsteads of his own neighborhood; but, in process of time, he gradually
associated himself by compact with city merchants. Hence, within a brief space
of time, the youth who had trudged for many weary hours from village to
village, from farm to farm, did so profit by his increase of age and wisdom as
to travel with associates of his own age through towns and boroughs, fortresses
and cities, to fairs and to all the various booths of the market-place, in
pursuit of his public chaffer. He went along the high-way, neither puffed up by
the good testimony of his conscience nor downcast in the nobler part of his
soul by the reproach of poverty....
Yet in all things he walked with simplicity; and, in
so far as he yet knew how, it was ever his pleasure to follow in the footsteps
of the truth. For, having learned the Lord's Prayer and the Creed from his very
cradle, he oftentimes turned them over in his mind, even as he went alone on
his longer journeys; and, in so far as the truth was revealed to his mind, he
clung thereunto most devoutly in all his thoughts concerning God. At first, he
lived as a chapman for four years in Lincolnshire, going on foot and carrying
the smallest wares; then he travelled abroad, first to St. Andrews in Scotland
and then for the first time to Rome. On his return, having formed a familiar
friendship with certain other young men who were eager for merchandise, he
began to launch upon holder courses, and to coast frequently by sea to the
foreign lands that lay around him. Thus, sailing often to and fro between
Scotland and Britain, he traded in many divers wares and, amid these
occupations, learned much worldly wisdom.... He fell into many perils of the
sea, yet by God's mercy he was never wrecked; for He who had upheld St Peter as
he walked upon the waves, by that same strong right arm kept this His chosen
vessel from all misfortune amid these perils. Thus, having learned by frequent
experience his wretchedness amid such dangers, he began to worship certain of
the Saints with more ardent zeal, venerating and calling upon their shrines,
and giving himself up by wholehearted service to those holy names. In such
invocations his prayers were oftentimes answered by prompt consolation; some of
which prayers he learned from his fellows with whom he shared these frequent
perils; others he collected from faithful hearsay; others again from the custom
of the place, for he saw and visited such holy places with frequent assiduity.
Thus aspiring ever higher and higher, and yearning upward with his whole heart,
at length his great labours and cares bore much fruit of worldly gain. For he
laboured not only as a merchant but also as a shipman ... to Denmark and Flanders
and Scotland; in all which lands he found certain rare, and therefore more
precious, wares, which he carried to other parts wherein he knew them to be
least familiar, and coveted by the inhabitants beyond the price of gold itself;
wherefore he exchanged these wares for others coveted by men of other lands;
and thus he chaffered most freely and assiduously. Hence he made great profit
in all his bargains, and gathered much wealth in the sweat of his brow; for he
sold dear in one place the wares which he had bought elsewhere at a small
price.
Then he purchased the half of a merchant-ship with
certain of his partners in the trade; and again by his prudence he bought the
fourth part of another ship. At length, by his skill in navigation, wherein he
excelled all his fellows, he earned promotion to the post of steersman....
For he was vigorous and strenuous in mind, whole of
limb and strong in body. He was of middle stature, broad-shouldered and
deep-chested, with a long face, grey eyes most clear and piercing, bushy brows,
a broad forehead, long and open nostrils, a nose of comely curve, and a pointed
chin. His beard was thick, and longer than the ordinary, his mouth well-shaped,
with lips of moderate thickness; in youth his hair was black, in age as white
as snow; his neck was short and thick, knotted with veins and sinews; his legs
were somewhat slender, his instep high, his knees hardened and horny with
frequent kneeling; his whole skin rough beyond the ordinary, until all this
roughness was softened by old age.... In labour he was strenuous, assiduous
above all men; and, when by chance his bodily strength proved insufficient, he
compassed his ends with great ease by the skill which his daily labours had
given, and by a prudence born of long experience.... He knew, from the aspect
of sea and stars, how to foretell fair or foul weather. In his various voyages
he visited many saints' shrines, to whose protection he was wont most devoutly
to commend himself, more especially the church of St Andrew in Scotland, where
he most frequently made and paid his vows. On the way thither, he oftentimes
touched at the island of Lindisfarne, wherein St Cuthbert had been bishop, and
at the isle of Farne, where that Saint had lived as an anchoret, and where St
Godric (as he himself would tell afterwards) would medit' ate on the Saint's
life with abundant tears. Thence he began to yearn for solitude, and to hold
his merchandise in less esteem than heretofore....
And now he had lived sixteen years as a merchant, and
began to think of spending on charity, to God's honour and service, the goods
which he had so laboriously acquired. He therefore took the cross as a pilgrim
to Jerusalem, and, having visited the Holy Sepulchre, came back to England by
way of St James [of Compostella]. Not long afterwards he became steward to a
certain rich man of his own country, with the care of his whole house and
household. But certain of the younger household were men of iniquity, who stole
their neighbours' cattle and thus held luxurious feasts, whereat Godric, in his
ignorance, was sometimes present. Afterwards, discovering the truth, he rebuked
and admonished them to cease; but they made no account of his warnings;
wherefore he concealed not their iniquity, but disclosed it to the lord of the
household, who, however, slighted his advice. Wherefore he begged to be
dismissed and went on a pilgrimage, first to St Gilles and thence to Rome the
abode of the Apostles, that thus he might knowingly pay the penalty for those
misdeeds wherein he had ignorantly partaken. I have often seen him, even in his
old age, weeping for this unknowing transgression....
On his return from Rome, he abode awhile in his
father's house; until, inflamed again with holy zeal, he purposed to revisit
the abode of the Apostles and made his desire known unto his parents. Not only
did they approve his purpose, but his mother besought his leave to bear him
company on this pilgrimage; which he gladly granted, and willingly paid her
every filial service that was her due. They came therefore to London; and they
had scarcely departed from thence when his mother took off her shoes, going
thus barefooted to Rome and back to London Godric, humbly serving his parent,
was wont to bear her on his shoulders....
Godric, when he had restored his mother safe to his
father's arms, abode but a brief while at home; for he was now already firmly
purposed to give himself entirely to God's service. Wherefore, that he might
follow Christ the more freely, he sold all his possessions and distributed them
among the poor. Then, telling his parents of this purpose and receiving their
blessing, he went forth to no certain abode, but whithersoever the Lord should
deign to lead him; for above all things he coveted the life of a hermit.
From Reginald of Durham, "Life of St. Godric,
" in G. G. Coulton, ed. Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the
Reformation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918), pp. 415-420
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook
is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval
and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic
form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic
copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use.
If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is
granted for commercial use.
(c)Paul Halsall Mar 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
SOURCE : http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/goderic.asp
St Godric of Finchale
April 16, 2009 by
Mark Armitage
Godric was born at Walpole in
Norfolk (England) around the year 1065. He was a peddler of some sort – a
traveling salesman, indeed – whose wanderings led him to sea for a period of
around sixteen years, during which time he became a part-owner of a number of
vessels, one of which he went on to captain. There is, in fact, some indication
that he may have been operating more or less as a pirate, and that his
lifestyle was as far removed from the ways of Christian living as that of pirates
generally is.
Godric’s maritime exploits
brought him to the island of Lindisfarne off the Northumbrian coast, and here
he became acquainted with tales of St Cuthbert, Lindisfarne’s greatest saint.
Godric’s life was transformed by his encounter with Cuthbert (who, even
centuries after his death, must have remained an almost tangible presence on
Lindisfarne), and he experienced a profound conversion.
Ever the seafarer, his conversion
of heart manifested itself in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In the early Middles
Ages as in Late Antiquity, the idea of pilgrimage exercised a powerful hold
over the imaginations of the holy, symbolizing as it did both the wanderings of
the Israelites in the desert as they passed from Egypt to the Promised Land,
and the wanderings of Christians exiled by sin from Paradise and living in this
world as “strangers and pilgrims” en route to the New Jerusalem. Christ
himself, who had “nowhere to lay his head”, was essentially a pilgrim, and
pilgrimage was understood as a way of conforming oneself with Christ and of
following in his footsteps.
This last aspect of following in
Christ’s footsteps was one which Godric interpreted with a certain literalness.
While in Jerusalem he visited the river Jordan, and, contemplating his own
feet, vowed: “Lord, for love of your name, who for men’s salvation walked
barefoot through the world, and did not deny to have your naked feet struck
through with nails for me; from this day I shall put no shoes upon these feet”.
Godric always remained faithful to this vow – even in old age (he lived to be
around 100) amid the biting winters of the North East of England.
Further pilgrimages took him to
Santiago de Compostella, the shrine of Saint Giles in Provence, to Rome, to
Cumberland in North West England (where he obtained a copy of the Psalms which
was to provide the material and inspiration for his life of prayer and
contemplation), and back to Jerusalem, where he spent time working in a
hospital and living with the hermits of Saint John the Baptist and worked in a
hospital for several months.
Cuthbert remained his
inspiration, however, and it was a vision of Cuthbert in which the saint
promised him a hermitage in England that promoted him to return to the land of
his birth – this time to Durham, where Cuthbert lay buried – and eventually
became a hermit in the forest around Finchale (just outside Durham) in the
hunting grounds of the rather disreputable Bishop Ranulf Flambard (the first
man to escape from the Tower of London).
Godric embarked upon a life of austerity
and mortification, wearing a hair shirt under a metal breastplate, under the
guidance of the prior of Durham. Many people sought his advice either in person
or from a distance (the latter group included both St Thomas à Becket and Pope
Alexander III), and Godric developed a reputation for miracles, for prophecy
and for an affinity (characteristic of hermits) for the wild animals among
which he lived.
His gift of prophecy extended to
foretelling not only his own death both also the deaths of others. Though he
seafaring days were now behind him, his prophetic charism enabled him to know
when a ship somewhere was in danger of being wrecked, and he would cease from
whatever he was doing in order to offer up a prayer.
Godric’s prophetic visions were
also the occasion for the Blessed Virgin (among others) to teach him songs, and
the four which are recorded by his biographer Reginald are the oldest examples
of English verse for which we possess the original musical settings survive,
and also the first to favour rhyme and metre over traditional Anglo-Saxon
techniques of alliteration.
He died in 1170, tended and mourned by the monks of
Durham, having given expression during the course of his extended life to the
vocations of both the pilgrim and the hermit.
SOURCE : https://saintsandblesseds.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/st-godric-of-finchale/
Godric of Finchale, OSB,
Hermit (AC)
Born at Walpole, Norfolk, England, c. 1065; died in Finchale, County Durham,
May 21, c. 1170.
I came upon a contemporary
biography of Godric, written by Reginald of Durham, which I'm sending in a
separate post, and below I've taken excerpts from this and other biographies
detailing some of the unusual stories about the saint.
The short version of the
tale is that Godric was a peddler who travelled extensively and, like Saint
Brendan, was eventually attracted to the sea for 16 years. He managed to
purchase part ownership in several ships and even to captain one. One historian
indicates that he may be the Gudericus pirata who carried Baldwain to Jaffa in
1102. In short, his life was not always a holy one. Having experienced many
difficulties at sea, Godric was forever troubled on stormy night for ships at
sea, even when he lived inland.
His conversion apparently
came when he visited Lindisfarne and was touched by an account of the life of
Saint Cuthbert. Thereafter he changed his ways. He immediately went on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he visited the Holy Sepulchre. Coming out of the
Jordan River, and looking down at his feet, he vowed, "Lord, for love of
Your name, Who for men's salvation walked barefoot through the world, and did
not deny to have Your naked feet struck through with nails for me: From this
day I shall put no shoes upon these feet." He kept this vow until his
death, even in the snow.
Returning to England via
Santiago de Compostella, he became a house steward until he realized that the
landowner was acting unjustly toward his poorer neighbors. Upon resigning he
went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Giles in Provence and to Rome with
his mother.
In Cumberland he acquired a
Psalter, which became his most valued possession, and learned it by heart. In
1105, he sold all his goods and travelled to Wolsingham, where he joined up
with an elderly hermit named Aelric, with whom he spent two years. After
Aelric's death, Godric made another pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he lived for
a time with the hermits of Saint John the Baptist and worked in a hospital for
several months.
In a vision, Saint Cuthbert
promised Godric a hermitage in England, so he returned and spent some time in
Eskedale and Durham, where he acted as a sacristan and went to school with the
choirboys at Saint Mary-le-Bow. Then he found his hermitage in Bishop
Flambard's hunting grounds on the River Wear near Durham.
He spent the next 60 years
in the Finchale forest living an austere life of mortification. At first he
lived on berries and roots, but later he grew vegetables and milled and baked
his own barley. He wore a hair shirt under a metal breastplate. Godric built a
wattle oratory and later a small stone church dedicated to Saint Mary. Twice he
nearly died, once when he was caught in a flood, and once when Scottish
soldiers beat him on the assumption that he had hidden valuables.
He lived mainly alone under
the guidance of the prior of Durham, who supplied him with a priest to say Mass
in his chapel and would send strangers to him to ask his advice. These visitors
included SS. Aelred and Robert of Newminster, and the monk named Reginald who
wrote the included biography. Saint Thomas à Becket and Pope Alexander III also
sought his advice. Godric's sister Burchwen lived with him for a time but then
became a sister in the hospital at Durham.
Godric had the gift of
prophecy. He foretold the death of Bishop William of Durham and Saint Thomas a
Becket--whom he had never met. He often saw visions of scenes occurring at a
distance and was known to stop mid-sentence to pray for ships in danger of
shipwreck.
He suffered a long illness
during which the monks of Durham nursed him, but he died after foretelling his
own death. His biographer, Reginald, recorded four songs that Godric said had
been taught to him in visions of the Blessed Virgin, his dead sister, and
others. They are the oldest pieces of English verse of which the musical
settings survive, and are the oldest to show the use of devices of rhyme and
measure instead of alliteration.
Godric
was remarkable for his austerities, supernatural gifts, and his familiarity
with wild animals (Benedictines, Delaney, White).
Saint Godric at Finchale
Finchale is difficult to find: in a valley bound by the teeming Wear River on
the east, north, and west, and by a dense wood in the south. In this valley
"the man of God began to build the tiny habitations of his going out and
coming in . . .
[At his first coming he had
built an oratory, and one day saw above the altar two young and very lovely
maids: the one of them, Mary Magdalene, the other the Mother of God: and the
Mother of God put her hand upon his head and taught him to sing after her this
prayer:
Mary Holy Virgin, mother of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Hold, shield and help thy Godric, Take him, bring him
soon to the Kingdom of God with thee.]
"Thereafter with more
devotion than ever he served the Lord: and called upon the most blessed Mother
of God, even as he had promised her, in all distress that came about him, and
found her most swift to aid. A long time thus spent in solitude, his friends
compelled him to take some one to wait on him, and have a better care of his
outward affairs. For so intent was he upon his prayer, meditation, and
contemplation that he would spend no labor on things out of doors.
"At first, therefore,
a little boy, his brother's son, came to wait upon him, and was with him for 11
years. At that time the only living thing he had about him was a single cow;
and because the boy was yet but small and of very tender years, he would often
be so drowsy with sleep in the mornings that he would forget to take the beast
to pasture, or fetch her again in the evenings; or indeed perhaps the familiar
task became a weariness to him.
"So one day the man of
God went up to the creature, and putting his girdle about her neck, spoke to
her as if to one that had reason and intelligence. 'Come,' said he, 'follow me,
and go on with me to thy pasture.' She went on, and the youngster, looking and
listening, followed after them. And again the saint spoke. 'I command thee, in
the Lord's name,' said he, 'that every day at sunrise thou shalt go forth
alone, with no guide, to thy pasture; and every noon and evening at the fitting
time, come home, with no servant to lead thee; and when thine udder with
fullness of milk needs easing come to me, wherever I shall be, and when thou
art milked, go lightened back to thy pasture, if yet there is time.'
"And, marvel as it is,
from that day and thence forward, the cow went and came at the proper hour, and
whenever through the day she was heavy with milk she would come to him; and if
by chance he were in church she would stand outside, by the door, lowing and
complaining, calling him. And he, his hour of prayer ended, would come out and
milk her, and she then go away, wherever he bade her. The boy who saw this,
told it; for he grew up, and is now a very old man.
"In after days, a
little lad came to serve in the house of the man of God, and was set to these
outside tasks. And not knowing that the cow was accustomed to obey the Saint's
command, and finding her one day grazing in the meadow, he began to harry her
and prod her with a goad. And she, incensed, turned on the youngster and
catching him between her horns, charged off with him in a great heat of
indignation, to the door of the house where the man of God was busy within. He
came out, took the boy in his arms and lifted him from between her horns,
rescuing him unhurt from the wrath of the irate beast.
"In this are three
works of God which we find singularly admirable: first, that the animal feared
to injure or inflict any wound on the servant of her master, but, nonetheless,
by terrifying his boldness and presumption, administered well-deserved
punishment; second, that Christ Himself would not have the guileless and
ignorant youngster killed, but preserved him by the help of His servant; third,
that He made manifest to us the merits of the man of God, in that by his
intervention he saved one set amid death from death's very jaws.
"This same youngster,
now indeed an old man, would often tell the story with thankfulness, praising
God who so marvelously deigned to snatch him by the merits of his master from
sudden destruction" (Reginald of Durham).
Saint Godric's Garden and
the Wild Deer
There are other fantastic
stories written of Godric. As a break from prayer, Godric grafted some cuttings
from visitors' fruit trees to create an enclosed orchard. The sweetness of the
crop drew all the local animals, who nibbled away at the tender shoots and
destroyed Godric's painstaking work.
"So one day coming out
of his oratory he saw a wild stag from the wood cropping the tender leafage of
his trees, scattering and spoiling with all its heart; and making his way
towards the creature, he bade it with a crook of his finger not to run away
from the spot, but to wait till he came, without stirring. Oh strange and
stupendous mystery! The stag, this wild thing of the woods, that knew no
discretion, understood the will of the man of God from his gesture alone, and
standing still it began trembling all over, as if it knew that it had offended
the soul of the man of God.
"Its extreme tremor
and fear went to his heart, and he checked the wrath in his mind and the blows
he had meant to inflict; and the creature dropped on its knees as he came, and
bowed its head, to ask pardon as best it could for its bold trespass. He ungirt
his belt, and put it round the neck of the kneeling animal, and so led him
beyond the bounds of his orchard, and there releasing him bade him go free
wherever he willed. . . .
"It was not long after
when lo! a herd of the woodland creatures came crowding again; they leapt
across the fence, they tore off the tender flowers and delicate leaves, and
every one of the slips of apple trees that he had watched over from the
beginning and planted or grafted in his garden, they set themselves to root up
and break off and trample underfoot.
"He came out of the
house, and ordered the whole mob to leave the place; and seizing a rod, he
struck one of them thrice on the flank and leading her to the trees that lay
along the ground, he showed her rather by signs than by any spoken word what
damage her herd had done to his planting.
"Then, raising both
hand and voice, 'In the name of Jesus of Nazareth,' said he, 'be off and away
as quickly as ye may, nor be so bold as to come near this garden of mine to its
hurt, until these trees are full grown; for the slips of fruit trees that I have
grafted on these trunks I meant for the food of men and not of beasts.' And so
saying, he threatened the rest of the dumb creatures with the rod that he held
in his hand. And thereupon the whole herd, with heads down bent and stepping
delicately, went out; and where they had rioted, prancing here and there, and
leapt in great bounds, they now went forth stepping as it were on tiptoe, with
swift-hurrying hoofs.
"He drove the whole
herd to the depth of the forest; and such as lagged behind in weariness, he set
his arms about and gently brought them out, making a way for them by lifting a
hurdle from his fence. From that time forth never any forest creature dared to
trespass the bounds which he had fixed. . . .
"Bears, too, would
come from the depths of the forest to eat the honey of his bees, and he would
find them out and chastise them with the stick that he always carried in his
hand. And at a word from him the unwieldy creatures would roar and run, and
creatures that no steel blade could daunt would go in terror of a blow from his
light rod" (Reginald of Durham).
Saint Godric and Saint John
the Baptist's Salmon
"It was the serene and
joyous weather of high summer, and the turning of the year brought nigh the
solemn feast of Saint John the Baptist. And because the man of God had begged
it, and it was the familiar custom, two brothers from he monastery at Durham
were sent out to him to celebrate the divine office with all due honor. The
office reverently said, and this most solemn Mass ended, the folk who had come
for the Feast made their way home; and the brethren came to him to ask his
blessing, and leave to return to their monastery.
"'Ye may have God's
blessing,' said he, 'but when Saint Cuthbert's sons have come to visit me, they
must not go home without their dinner.' And, calling his serving-man, 'Quick,
beloved,' said he, 'and set up the table, for these brethren are to eat with us
this day.'
"The table was set up,
and oat cake laid upon it, such as he had, and bowls of good milk. Yet when he
looked at the feast, it seemed to him but poor, and he bade the serving-man
bring fish as well.
"'Master,' said he in
amaze, 'where should we get fish at a time like this, in all this heat and
drought, when we can see the very bottom of the river? We can cross dry shod
where we used to spread the seine and the nets.' But he answered, 'Go quickly
and spread my seine in the same dry pool.' The man went out and did as he was
told; but with no hope of any sort of catch.
"He came back,
declaring that the pool had dried up till the very sands of it were parched;
and his master bade him make haste to fill the cauldron with water, and set it
on the hearth to heat, and this was done. After a little while he bade his man
go to the bank and bring back his catch; the man went and looked, and came back
empty-handed; he did it again a second time; and then in disgust, refused to go
any more. For a little while the man of God held his peace, and then spoke.
'Now go this time,' said he, 'for this very hour the fish has come into the
net, that Saint John the Baptist promised me; for never could he break a
promise by not doing what he said, although our sluggish faith deserved it
little. And look you,' said he, 'but that salmon that is now caught in the
seine is a marvelous fine one.'
"So in the end his man
went off, and found even as he had been told; and drawing it out of the net he
brought the fish alive to where his master sat in the oratory, and laid it at
his feet. Then as he was bidden, he cut it into pieces and put it into the pot
now boiling on the hearth, and cooked it well, and brought it and set it before
the brethren at table, and well were they fed and mightily amazed.
"For they marvelled
how a fish could come swimming up a river of which the very sands were dry;
and, above al, how the man of God, talking with them and sitting in the oratory
could have seen, by the revelation of the spirit, the very hour when the fish
entered the meshes of the net. To which he made reply, 'Saint John the Baptist
never deserts his own, but sheds the blessing of his great kindness on those
that trust in him.' And so he sent them home, well fed and uplifted at so
amazing a miracle; praising and glorifying God, Who alone doeth marvels, for
all that they had seen and heard" (Reginald of Durham).
Saint Godric and the Hare
To feed the poor Godric had
planted vegetables, which a little hare used to devour stealthily. One day
Godric tracked down the culprit and bade the hare to stop as tried to bolt
away. He chastised the trembling animal, bound a bundle of vegetables on its
shoulder and sent it off with a warning, 'See to it that neither thyself nor
any of thy acquaintance come to this place again; nor dare to encroach on what
was meant for the need of the poor.' And so it happened (Geoffrey).
Godric's kindness, however,
extended even to the reptiles. "For in winter when all about was frozen
stiff in the cold, he would go out barefoot, and if he lighted on any animal
helpless with misery of the cold, he would set it under his armpit or in his
bosom to warm it. Many a time would the kind soul go spying under the thick
hedges or tangled patches of briars, and if haply he found a creature that had
lost its way, or cowed with the harshness of the weather, or tired, or half
dead, he would recover it with all the healing art he had. . . .
"And if anyone in his
service had caught a bird or little beast in a snare or a trap or a noose, as
soon as he found it he would snatch it from their hands and let it go free in
the fields or the glades of the wood. So that many a time they would hide their
captive spoils under a corn measure or a basket or some more secret
hiding-place still; but even so they could never deceive him or keep it hidden.
For without telling, and indeed with his serving- man disavowing and
protesting, he would go straight to the place where the creatures had been
hidden; and while the man would stand by crimson with fear and confusion, he
would lift them out and set them free.
"So, too, hares and
other beasts fleeing from the huntsmen he would take in, and house them in his
hut; and when the ravagers, their hope frustrated, would be gone, he would send
them away to their familiar haunts. Many a time the dumb creatures of the wood
would swerve aside from where the huntsmen lay in wait, and take shelter in the
safety of his hut; for it may be that by some divine instinct they knew that a
sure refuge abided their coming" (Reginald).
Saint Godric and the Hunted
Stag
"In the time of
Rainulf, Bishop of Durham, certain of his household had come out for a day's
hunting, with their hounds, and were following a stag which they had singled
out for its beauty. The creature, hard pressed by the clamor and the baying,
made for Godric's hermitage, and seemed by its plaintive cries to beseech his
help.
"The old man came out,
saw the stag shivering and exhausted at his gate, and moved with pity bade it
hush its moans, and opening the door of his hut, let it go in. The creature
dropped at the good father's feet but he, feeling that the hunt was coming
near, came out, shut the door behind him and sat down in the open; while the
dogs, vexed at the loss of their quarry, turned back with a mighty baying upon
their masters.
"They, nonetheless,
following on the track of the stag, circled round about the place, plunging
through the well-nigh impenetrable brushwood of thorns and briars; and hacking
a path with their blades, came upon the man of God in his poor rags.
"They questioned him
about the stag; but he would not be the betrayer of his guest, and he made
prudent answer, 'God knows where he may be.' They looked at the angelic beauty
of his countenance, and in reverence for his holiness, they fell before him and
asked his pardon for their bold intrusion.
"Many a time
afterwards they would tell what had befallen them there, and marvel at it, and
by their oft telling of it, the thing was kept in memory by those that came
after. But the stag kept house with Godric until the evening; and then he let
it go free. But for years thereafter it would turn from its way to visit him,
and lie at his feet, to show what gratitude it could for its deliverance"
(Reginald).
In art, Saint Godric is
depicted as a very old hermit dressed in white, kneeling on grass and holding a
rosary, with a stag by him (Roeder, White). He is venerated especially at
Finchdale, County Durham, and Walpole, Norfolk, England (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0521.shtml
Memorial
* 21 May
Profile
Oldest of three children
born to a freedman Anglo-Saxon farmer. An adventurous seafaring man, Godric
spent his youth in travel, both on land and sea, as a peddler and merchant mariner
first along the coast of the British Isles, then throughout Europe. Sometime
sailor, sometime ship’s captain, he lived a seafarer’s life of the day, and it
was hardly a religious one. He was known to drink, fight, chase women, con
customers, and in a contemporary manuscript, was referred to as a “pirate”.
Converted upon visiting Lindisfarne during a voyage, and being touched by the
life of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
Pilgrim to Jerusalem and
the holy lands, Saintiago de Compostela, the shrine of Saint Gaul in Provence,
and to Rome, Italy. As a self-imposed austerity, and a way to always remember
Christ’s lowering himself to become human, Godric never wore shoes, regardless
of the season. He lived as a hermit in the holy lands, and worked in a hospital
near Jerusalem. Hermit for nearly sixty years at Finchale, County Durham,
England, first in a cave, then later in a more formal hermitage; he was led to
its site by a vision of Saint Cuthbert. It was a rough life, living barefoot in
a mud and wattle hut, wearing a hair shirt under a metal breastplate, standing
in icy waters to control his lust, living for a while off berries and roots,
and being badly beaten by Scottish raiders who strangely thought he had a
hidden treasure.
Noted for his close
familiarity with wild animals, his supernatural visions, his gift of prophecy,
and ability to know of events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Counseled Saint Aelred, Saint Robert of Newminster, Saint Thomas Beckett, and
Pope Alexander III. Wrote poetry in Medieval English. The brief song Sainte
nicholaes by Godric is one of the oldest in the English language, and is
believed to be the earliest surviving example of lyric poetry. He was said to
have received his songs, lyrics and music, complete during his miraculous
visions.
Born
* 1069 at Walpole, Norfolk,
England
Died
* 1170 at Finchale, County
Durham, England of natural causes
