Saint Edbert, Bishop
  May 6th  

    The Venerable Bede, writing of St. Edbert, states that he was remarkable for his knowledge of the Bible, as well as for his faithful observance of the divine precepts. All his life long he was extremely generous to the poor, for whose benefit he set aside a tenth part of his possessions. Ordained successor to St. Cuthbert in the see of Lindisfarne, he governed wisely for eleven years, and covered with lead St. Finan's great wooden cathedral church which had previously been thatched only with reeds, Sottish fasion. He made it a practice to retire twice a year for forty days of solitary prayer to the retreat - probably the tiny island known as St. Cuthbert's Isle - where his great predecessor had spent some time before finally withdrawing to Farne. When the relics of St. Cuthbert were found incorrupt, St. Edbert gave instructions that the body should be put into a new coffin which was to be raised above the pavement for greater veneration. He added that the space below would not long remain empty. Scarcely had his orders been carried out when he was seized with a fever which proved mortal, and his own remains were laid in the empty grave. A commemoration of St. Edbert is made today in the diocese of Hexham.

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All our information is, practically speaking, derived from Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica, bk iv. C. Plummer in his notes, Canon Raine in DCB., the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. i, and Symeon of Durham add very little. St. Edbert's relics shared the wanderings of those of St. Cuthbert, and ultimately rested with them at Durham.

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Butler's Lives of The Saints, Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. and Donald Attwater Nihil Obstat: PATRICIVS MORRIS, S.T.D., L.S.S., CENSOR DEPVTATVS. Imprimatur: E. MORROGH BERNARD, VICARIVS GENERALIS WESTMONASTERII: DIE XXIII FEBRVARII MCMLIII