The Afterlife of St Cuthbert

Christiania Whitehead is an Honorary Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland where she specialises in medieval religious literature. Her books include Castles of the Mind: a Study of Medieval Architectural Allegory (2003), The Doctrine of the Hert: A Critical Edition (co-ed.) (2010), Saints of North-East England, 600-1500 (co-ed.) (2017), and Middle English Lyrics: New Readings of Short Poems (co.ed.) (2018).

'[the book] is terrifically detailed and compelling, and offers scholars of medieval English literature, hagiography, and monastic and religious history a wealth of information and insightful perspectives on the evolution of this important saint across the centuries …' Shannon Godlove, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures

• 1. Blessings on pregnant seals: constructing Cuthbert's asceticism in his anonymous and Bedan vitae and the Historia ecclesiastica, 690-740; 2. Travels with my coffin: the dislocation and defence of the community of St Cuthbert in the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 793-1050; 3. The bishop in the rain: celebrating the new order in Symeon of Durham's Libellus de exordio, Old English Durham, and the Capitula de miraculis et translationibus sancti Cuthberti, 1066-1140; 4. Expansions and contractions of saintly space in two Cuthbertine miracle collections, 1150-1210; 5. Godric of Finchale, Bartholomew of Farne, and the 'Irish' Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti: three eremitic responses to St Cuthbert, 1150-1210; 6. Delimiting sanctity in two meditations from Farne Island: the Exortacio ad Contemplacionem and the Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne, 1210-1370; 7. Vernacular epitomes and encyclopedias: Southern Legendaries and the Metrical Life of St Cuthbert, 1270-1500; Conclusion.