PILGRIMAGE PRAYER
Lord,
of time and space
As I begin this journey
to you
travelling in faith
in the footsteps of
Aidan, Cuthbert and Hild
I pause to reflect
on all you have given me,
all you have done for me,
all that will be.
Help me to step into the
unknown in faith,
knowing you are there,
I ask this is the name
of Jesus Christ,
Our Lord.
Amen.
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Life of St. Oswald
St. Oswald,
King of Northumbria
(AD 605-AD 642)
King of Bernicia
King of Northumbria
Born: AD 605
Died: 5th August AD 642
St. Oswald was the eldest son of the pagan King Aethelfrith of Bernicia by his second marriage to Princess Aacha of Deira. He was probably born in AD 605 at the height of his father's power, just after he had invaded the Kingdom of Deira and forced its king, Edwin, to flee. He was probably born at Yeavering, though perhaps Aacha preferred the newly acquired Deiran Court, from which her brother was expelled, at York. At the age of only eleven, however, it was Oswald who found themselves on the run, when King Edwin reconquered Northumbria, with forces gathered in East Anglia.
Queen Aacha took her children to the Court of Dalriadan King, Eochaid Buide, at Dunadd in modern Scotland. Here, the family was converted to Christianity by monks from Iona Abbey and Oswald and his brother, Oswiu, were sent to the same monastery to be educated. Little is known of these formative years in the far North, but it does appear that Oswald became a brave warrior at an early age, accompanying King Connad Cerr of Dalriada to Ireland to fight against Maelcaich and the Irish Cruithne at the Battle of Fid Eoin in AD 628.
While Oswald was growing up, his old enemy, King Edwin, had been waging a major war against the allied forced of Gwynedd and Mercia. In AD 633, he was killed in battle and Oswald's elder half-brother, Eanfrith, was able to establish himself on the Bernician throne for a almost a year. However, he was just as unpopular with the Northern Welsh and the Mercians who were prompt in his cature and execution. Despite have a baby son still exiled in Pictland, Oswald clearly saw himself as his brother's heir, probably with encouragement from the Northumbrians. As his father was Bernician and his mother, Deiran, he was one of the few people who could unite the Kingdom.
Having been lent a small force of men by King Domnall Brecc of Dalriada (including monks from Iona), Oswald marched south to claim his inheritance. He clashed with King Cadwallon of Gwynedd at the Battle of Heavenfield. Oswald raised a large cross their before the fight and the prayers of his soldiers around it are said to contributed to the King's victory, despite the superior numbers of the Welsh army. Triumphantly he marched into York, while the Dowager Queen Ethelburga of Deira and her family fled from Yeavering and the new King's expected wrath.
Oswald's reputation as a saint originates in his re-introduction of Christianity to Northumbria. The chief among the monks who accompanied him from Dalriada initially attempted to convert the Northumbrians, but met with little success. So Oswald sent to the monks of Iona for an evangelical Bishop. St. Aidan, Bishop of Scattery Island in Ireland, arrived the following year and set up a strong missionary movement centred on Lindisfarne, near the Royal Court at Bamburgh. It was at the latter that the famous legend took place which resulted in St. Aidan blessing the King's arm and making it incorruptable, even in death. King Oswald himself often acted as an ecclesiastical interpreter, for the new Northumbrian Bishop who spoke only Gaelic.
Oswald further increased the spread of Christianity in Britain by pressurizing King Cynegils of Wessex to allow St. Birinus to preach to his people. Oswald eventually agreed to a strategic alliance with the southern king, cemented by his marriage to Cynegils' daughter and the latter's baptism with Oswald standing as Godfather.
Such bonds were important to Oswald and he did not forget his old allies, the Dalriadan Kings, who had helped him gain his throne. For he appears to have sent troops to Ireland to assist King Domnall Brecc and his ally, King Congal Caech of Ulster, during the Irish dynastic wars. By AD 638, Oswald was in a secure position at home and he turned to expansionism. His army moved north and besieged and captured Edinburgh. Then, in a stroke of, what appears to have been, diplomatic genious, he arranged for his brother, Prince Oswiu, to marry Princess Rhiainfelt, the last remaining heiress of North Rheged. The old Celtic kingdom was subsequently swallowed up by Northumbria in a peaceful takeover. Oswiu continued to expand the kingdom's borders by taking his brothers armies to Gododdin and conquering modern lowland Scotland as far north as Manau. Bede claims that the King was thus recognised as Bretwalda by all of Saxon England.
There were, however, forces gathering who wished to bring to an end King Oswald's glorious reign in Britain. In AD 642, the old Northumbrian enemy, King Penda of Mercia gathered a large united Welsh and Mercian force against King Oswald. The Welsh contingent included the armies of Gwynedd, Powys and Pengwern. They clashed at Maserfield, now Oswestry (Oswald's Tree) in Shropshire, and Oswald was killed.
King Oswald's body was hacked to pieces by the victors and his head and arms stuck on poles. An old legend has one arm taken to his sacred ash tree (Oswald's Tree) by his constant companion, a pet raven. Where it fell a holy well sprang up. Thus, Oswald came to be reverred as a Christian martyr and his dismembered limbs eventually found there way into various relic collections in monasteries around the country. His body was removed to Bardney Abbey and later translated to St. Oswald's in Gloucester.
The King's Royal Standard of purplish-red and gold, once to be seen at Bardney (and probably the banner which found its way to Durham), forms the basis of the coat of arms of modern Nothumberland. Popular iconography depicts the King wearing a crown and carrying sceptre and orb, the ciborium (showing his charity to the poor), a sword, a palm-branch or his raven companion.
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Life of St. Aidan
St Aidan was a Celtic monk. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans (not religious people) put under the control of the great King Edwin, who became a Christian. A missionary campaign by Paulinus and based at York reached many people.
However, when Edwin was killed in battle by the pagan Penda of Mercia, Christianity was driven underground until Oswald became King. Oswald had been educated on Iona as a boy, and had become a Christian there.
Before the battle in which he gained the crown, he set up a rough wooden cross on the battle field, to show that he was fighting for the Christian faith as well as for a kingdom. So naturally as King he turned to Iona to supply him with a missionary bishop to preach to his people.
The first missionary sent from Iona said the Northumbrians were "uncivilised people of obstinate (stubborn) and barbarous temperament" (brutal anger) and returned home disgusted. The Ionan monks then chose the wise and gentle Aidan to make the second attempt. He was consecrated (blessed) bishop and sent to Northumbria in 634.
St Aidan chose Lindisfarne as his missionary centre. Here his monks could have found seclusion (be alone) due to the high tides but they could easily walk across the sands at low tide to the King's house at Bamburgh and to the mainland.
None of the buildings from the Celtic monastery remain today. They were probably small, round wooden huts with thatched roofs, Churches within the monastery would also have been small. St Aidan's monastery may have been on the Heugh, or in the place where the stone ruins of the Benedictine Priory may still be seen. St Aidan realised from the start the importance of a "native Priesthood" learning school on Lindisfarne was one of the many important things he did. Boys were taught to read and write, and the Latin they needed for the Gospels and Psalms. They were trained as Priests and missionaries. Many of them became famous, and much of England was converted (became Christian) by them.
St Aidan also started the monastic (Nun) life for women of Northumbria. Under his guidance St Hild became the first great Abbess, ruling houses at Hartlepool and Whitby. So women had the chance to give themselves to God in a life of prayer and service. But they did not go go out as travelling missionaries in the same way as the men. St Aidan always travelled around by foot. He comforted the poor and attacked the rich.
St Aidan spent much of his time reading the scriptures and learning Psalms. Aidan introduced the custom of fasting until 3 o' clock in the afternoon on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year except during the forty days after Easter. Many miracles were claimed to have been done by Aidan.
One of the best known involves a Priest called Utta who was to travel to Kent by sea and asked Aidan to pray for him. Aidan prophesied (predicted) a storm and gave Utta some oil, telling him to cast it upon the waves when the storm broke. As prophesied a storm overwhelmed the ship and all had given up hope when Utta poured the oil on the waters and the storm died down.
Loved and respected by all St Aidan died at Bamburgh in 651, after 17 years as the first bishop of Lindisfarne. His feast day is 31st August
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Life of St. Bede
Bede was a monk at the English monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow, in Northumbria. From the age of seven, he spent all his life at that monastery except for a few brief visits to nearby sites. He says of himself: "I have devoted my energies to a study of the Scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight."
He was the first person to write scholarly works in the English language, although unfortunately only fragments of his English writings have survived. He translated the Gospel of John into Old English, completing the work on the very day of his death. He also wrote extensively in Latin. He wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch and other portions of Holy Scripture. His best-known work is his History of the English Church and People, a classic which has frequently been translated and is available in Penguin Paperbacks. It gives a history of Britain up to 729, speaking of the Celtic peoples who were converted to Christianity during the first three centuries of the Christian era, and the invasion of the Anglo-Saxon pagans in the fifth and sixth centuries, and their subsequent conversion by Celtic missionaries from the north and west, and Roman missionaries from the south and east. His work is our chief source for the history of the British Isles during this period. Fortunately, Bede was careful to sort fact from hearsay, and to tell us the sources of his information. He also wrote hymns and other verse, the first martyrology with historical notes, letters and homilies, works on grammar, on chronology and astronomy -- he was aware that the earth is a sphere, and he is the first historian to date events Anno Domini, and the earliest known writer to state that the solar year is not exactly 365 and a quarter days long, so that the Julian calendar (one leap year every four years) requires some adjusting if the months are not to get out of step with the seasons.
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The Life of St. Cuthbert
Cuthbert was born in North Northumbria in about the year 635 - the same year in which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne. He came from a well-to-do English family and like most boys of that class, he was placed with foster-parents for part of his childhood and taught the arts of war. We know nothing of his foster-father but he was very fond of his foster-mother, Kenswith. It seems, from stories about his childhood, that he was brought up as a Christian. He was credited, for instance, with having saved by his prayers, some monks who were being swept out to sea on a raft. There is some evidence that, in his mid-teens, he was involved in at least one battle, which would have been quite normal for a boy of his social background.
His life changed when he was about 17 years old. He was looking after some neighbour's sheep on the hills. (As he was certainly not a shepherd boy it is possible that he was mounting a military guard - a suitable occupation for a young warrior!) Gazing into the night sky he saw a light descend to Earth and then return, escorting, he believed, a human soul to Heaven. The date was August 31st 651AD - the night that Aidan died.
Perhaps Cuthbert had already been considering a possible monastic calling but that was his moment of decision. He went to the monastery at Melrose, also founded by Aidan, and asked to be admitted as a Novice For the next 13 years he was with the Melrose monks. When Melrose was given land to found a new monastery at Ripon, Cuthbert went with the founding party and was made guestmaster.
In his late 20s he returned to Melrose and found that his former teacher and friend, the prior Boisil, was dying of the plague. Cuthbert became prior (second to the Abbot) at Melrose. In 664AD the Synod of Whitby decided that Northumbria should cease to look to Ireland for its spiritual leadership and turn instead to the continent the Irish monks of Lindisfarne, with others, went back to Iona. The abbot of Melrose subsequently became also abbot of Lindisfarne and Cuthbert its prior.
Cuthbert seems to have moved to Lindisfarne at about the age of 30 and lived there for the next 10 years. He ran the monastery; he was an active missionary; he was much in demand as a spiritual guide and he developed the gift of spiritual healing. He was an outgoing, cheerful, compassionate person and no doubt became popular. But when he was 40 years old he believed that he was being called to be a hermit and to do the hermit's job of fighting the spiritual forces of evil in a life of solitude. After a short trial period on the tiny islet adjoining Lindisfarne he moved to the more remote and larger island known as 'Inner Farne' and built a hermitage where he lived for 10 years. Of course, people did not leave him alone - they went out in their little boats to consult him or ask for healing.
However, on many days of the year the seas around the islands are simply too rough to make the crossing and Cuthbert was left in peace. At the age of about 50 he was asked by both Church and King to leave his hermitage and become a bishop. He reluctantly agreed. For two years he was an active, travelling bishop as Aidan had been. He seems to have journeyed extensively. On one occasion he was visiting the Queen in Carlisle (on the other side of the country from Lindisfarne) when he knew by second sight that her husband, the King, had been slain by the Picts doing battle in Scotland.
Feeling the approach of death he retired back to the hermitage on the Inner Farne where, in the company of Lindisfarne monks, he died on March 20th 687AD. His body was brought back and buried on Lindisfarne.
St.Cuthbert died on the Inner Farne island and was buried on Lindisfarne. People came to pray at the grave and then miracles of healing were claimed. To the monks of Lindisfarne this was a clear sign that Cuthbert was now a saint in heaven and they, as the saint's community, should declare this to the world.
In those days people felt it important, when they prayed for help or healing, to be as close as possible to a saint's relics. And so, if a community made relics available that was equivalent to a declaration of sainthood. The monks of Lindisfarne determined to do this for Cuthbert.
They decided to allow 11 years for his body to become a skeleton and then 'elevate' his remains on the anniversary of this death (20th March 698). We believe that during these years the beautiful manuscript known as 'The Lindisfarne Gospels' was made, to be used for the first time at the great ceremony of the Elevation. The declaration of Cuthbert's sainthood was to be a day of joy and thanksgiving. It turned out to be also a day of surprise, even shock, for when they opened the coffin they found no skeleton but a complete and undecayed body. That was a sign of very great sainthood indeed.
So the cult of St.Cuthbert began. Pilgrims began to flock to the shrine. The ordinary life of the monastery continued for almost another century until, on 8th June 793, the Vikings came. The monks were totally unprepared; some were killed; some younger ones and boys were taken away to be sold as slaves; gold and silver was taken and the monastery partly burned down. After that the monastery lived under threat and it seems that in the 9th century there was a gradual movement of goods and buildings to the near mainland.
The traditional date for the final abandonment of Lindisfarne is 875ad..
The body of St.Cuthbert, together with other relics and treasures which had survived the Viking attack were carried by the monks and villagers onto the mainland.
For over 100 years the community settled at the old Roman town of Chester-le-Street. It was said that fear of further attack took them inland to Ripon but not for long and on their journey back from there they finally settled at Durham.
After the Norman Conquest (1066) a Benedictine community replaced the "St.Cuthbert's Folk" and began to build the great Norman cathedral at Durham. They proposed to honour the body of St.Cuthbert with a new shrine immediately east of the new High Alter and in 1104 the placed was ready.
At this point, it seems spurred on by doubts expressed by others about the truth of the tradition of the undecayed body, the Durham monks opened up the coffin and found, so it was said, that the body was indeed still uncorrupt. Throughout the Middle Ages the coffin was placed in a beautiful shrine and visited by great numbers of pilgrims. But at the reformation, when the monastery was dissolved, the shrine was dismantled and the coffin opened - it seems that the body was still complete.
It was buried in a plain grave behind the High Altar. In 1827 the coffin was again opened and a skeleton was found. The objects in the coffin were removed and can now be seen in the Cathedral treasury. The human remains were reburied. In 1899 the coffin was again opened and a doctor carried out a post-mortem on the remains. His opinion was that the skeleton was consistent with all that is known of St.Cuthbert in his lifetime.
The human remains were then re-interred in the same place and marked by a plain gravestone with the name Cuthbertus. This feretory, as it is called, is still the site of many pilgrimages today.
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The Life of St. Hild
Almost all of our knowledge of St. Hilda (Hild) is derived from the writings of the Venerable Bede. Her correct name, Hild, means "battle." She was born in Northumbria in 614, the daughter of Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, making her King Edwin's grandniece. She, like her great-uncle, was brought to Christ through the preaching of St. Paulinus, who baptized her in 627 at the age of 13 when King Edwin and his entire household became Christians.
She lived the life of a noblewoman until 20 years later when she was moved by the example of her sister Saint Hereswitha who became a nun at the Chelles Monastery in France. Hilda intended to follow her sister abroad, but St. Aidan persuaded her to return to Northumbria in 649. She was initially put in charge of a small group of women who were also aspiring to the religious life at a small house on the River Wear, but Bishop Aidan soon realized she was ready for wider responsibilities. There was a much larger and fully established religious house of women at Hartlepool whose Foundress, Bega (St. Bee), was founding a new house at Tadcaster. Hilda was called to take her place as Superior. St. Hilda ruled at Hartlepool for some years with great success before being called to found a monastery at Streaneshalch, a place to which the Danes a century or two later gave the name of Whitby.
St. Hilda governed the monastery at Whitby for the rest of her life. Under Abbess Hilda, Whitby gained a great reputation, becoming a burial place for kings, and a place of pilgrimage. The fame of St. Hilda's wisdom was so great that from far and near monks and royal personages came to consult her. Whitby was also a double monastery: a community of men and another of women, with the chapel in between, and Hilda as the governor of both. It was a great center of learning, especially the study of sacred scripture. Whitby was known as a place where clergy, monks and nuns could receive a rigorous and thorough religious education. The arts and sciences were so well established by her that it was regarded as one of the best seminaries for learning in the then known world. No less than five of her subject monks later became bishops, including Saint John of Beverly, and Saint Wilfrid of York.
St. Hilda was especially revered for her ability to recognize spiritual gifts in both men and women. Her kindheartedness can be seen from the story of Caedmon, one of her herdsmen, whose poetic gift was discovered and nurtured by Hilda. She encouraged him with the same zeal and care she would use toward a member of the nobility, urging him to use his gifts as a means of bringing the knowledge of the Gospel Truth to common folk. St. Caedmon later composed the first hymns in the English language.
Whitby Abbey stands at the very crossroads of Celtic and Roman Christianity. Roman and Celtic traditions differed, not in basic doctrine, but on such questions as the proper way of calculating the date of Easter, and the proper style of haircut and dress for a monk. It was highly desirable that Christians in the same area should celebrate Easter at the same time; and eventually the Church had to choose between the Celtic customs it had inherited from before 300, and the customs that missionaries had brought from continental Europe and Rome. It was at Whitby Abbey in 663 when King Oswy, persuaded by the arguments of St. Wilfrid, convened a synod to decide once and for all the date of the observance of Easter, and resolve other differences between Celtic and Roman ecclesiastical practices. Saint Hilda was a strong supporter of the Celtic party, nevertheless, once the Synod of Whitby decided to observe the Roman rule and customs, Hilda used her moderating influence in favor of its peaceful acceptance. This period of conflict over the Easter observance was a time of great discord in the religious communities. Hilda's influence, persuading her followers to adhere to the decision, was one of the key factors in securing unity in the Church.
The Venerable Bede is enthusiastic in his praise of Abbess Hilda, one of the greatest women of all time: She was the adviser of rulers as well as of ordinary folk; she insisted on the study of Holy Scripture and proper preparation for the priesthood; the influence of her example of peace and charity extended well beyond the walls of her monastery; and "all who knew her called her Mother, such were her wonderful godliness and grace." Saint Hilda is often represented in art holding Whitby Abbey in her hands with a crown on her head or at her feet. Sometimes she is shown turning serpents into stone; stopping the wild birds from ravaging corn at her command; or as a soul being carried to heaven by the angels. Frequent historic place-name references to Shields are probably sites named after her, Shields being thought to be a corruption of St. Hilda.
Seven years before her death St. Hilda was stricken down with a fever which never left her till she breathed her last. In spite of this, she neglected none of her duties to God or to her subjects. She passed away most peacefully after receiving the Holy Communion and Anointing, and the tolling of the Whitby monastery bell was heard miraculously thirteen miles away, where Saint Bee saw the soul of St. Hilda borne to heaven by angels. Hilda remained a peacemaker to the very end-her greatest concern was that her monastic family should be one in the Lord, and her last recorded words were: "Have evangelical peace among yourselves." She died on November 17, 680.
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The Life of St. Aebbe
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St. Aebbe the Elder (c.AD 615-683) Abbess of Coldingham Born: circa AD 615 Died: 25th August AD 683 at Coldingham, Berwickshire
Two saints of the name of Aebbe were abbesses of the double Benedictine monastery of Colud, or Coldingham, near Berwick, with an interval of about two hundred years between them. The first was the daughter of King Aethelfrith the Ravager of Bernicia, by his third wife, and sister of St. Oswald and Oswiu, Kings of Northumbria; and, on her mother's side, niece of St. Edwin, King of Northumbria.
On the death of Aethelfrith, Edwin, chief of the rival race of Deira, became King and Aebbe, then about ten years old, fled with her seven brothers to Scotland. They were hospitably received by Dumnual Brec, the King, and there they became Christians. Aidan, a Scottish prince, wished to marry Aebbe, and her brothers favoured his suit, but being bent on a religious and celibate life, she took the veil from St. Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne (circa AD 655). Aidan followed her, intending to take her by force and make her his wife, but Aebbe betook herself to a high rock; round which, at her prayer, high tide ran for three days, forming a perfect defence against her pursuers.
Observing her resolute desire, Aebbe's brother, Oswiu, gave her an old Roman camp in County Durham in which to found her first monastery, called Ebchester (Aebbe's castle or camp). She built her greater and more famous monastery on a promontory in Berwickshire, which rises on three of its sides perpendicularly from the sea, and was out off from the land on the fourth side by an almost impassable morass, further strengthened by a high wall. The building was a little way south of the rock now called St. Abb's head. From it can be seen the Scottish coast, to the opposite side of the Forth, and the English coast, as far as Lindisfarne and Bamburgh. A old legend explains the foundation.
When Oswiu's kingdom was distracted, by broils and wars, Aebbe became a prisoner, but escaped. Finding a boat on the Humber, she went in it, alone, down the river and out to sea. Some monks were singing in a church on the cliff, afterwards called by her name. They saw the boat, steered through tremendous waves by a superhuman being, come safely to land, a little to the south of the Head. On this spot, she built her church and monastery. Here she ruled one of the double communities of monks and nuns which were usual in Saxon times and always governed by the abbess. She invited St. Cuthbert, Prior of Melrose, and afterwards Abbot of Lindisfarne, to visit her and her nuns.
He generally avoided the society of women, but thought so highly of Aebbe that he came to stay with her. As a gift, she gave him the piece of cloth in which eventually he was buried. Egfrith, King of Northumbria, was Aebbe's nephew. When his first wife, St. Etheldreda, left him, she took refuge at Coldingham and the phenomenon which had saved Aebbe from pursuit was repeated in favour of Etheldreda. Egfrith, arriving to bring her back, saw the sea flow into the marsh on the landward side of the rock, making an effectual barrier until he gave up the chase.
Etheldreda then became a nun under Aebbe's care for a time. When she had become Abbess of Ely, and Egfrith had married again, he made a tour through his northern dominions with his second wife, Ermenburga, and sought his niece's hospitality for a night on the way. During the night, the Queen suffered a severe flagellation, which some ascribed to angelic, some to diabolic, agency. She was found in convulsions in the morning and Aebbe, with all the authority of aunt and abbess, and perhaps already also of saint, told the King that this visitation was in consequence of his and the Queen's behaviour to St. Wilfrid, Abbot of Hexham and Bishop of York. They had imprisoned him at Dunbar and Ermenburga had robbed him of a reliquary which he valued and which she superstitiously carried with her wherever she went. Although, being ill-gotten, it had only brought her ill luck. They promised to liberate the bishop and restore him his property without delay.
Thus the Queen soon recovered. Although Aebbe could act with decision on occasion, she did not succeed in maintaining strict discipline in her monastery and abuses crept in. One of the monks, named Adomnan, was warned, in a vision, that the place would be burnt to ashes as a punishment for the laxity of the inhabitants. Even the cells, which were built for prayer, were converted into places of revelry, drinking, conversation and other amusements. Even the virgins, dedicated to God, spent their leisure in making fine garments to adorn themselves "wherefore a heavy vengeance from Heaven is deservedly prepared for this place and its inmates."
When this was told to Aebbe, she was much distressed, but Adomnan gave her the consolation that it should not happen in her life-time. The monks and nuns having heard the vision, began to be alarmed and, for a time, to be more circumspect. However, after the death of Aebbe, they fell into greater disorders than ever and then, through carelessness, the monastery caught light and was burnt to the ground. This first monastery probably consisted of small buildings of wood or wattle and mud. It is not exactly known when it was restored. Some have conjectured that it was rebuilt for nuns only, as there is no mention of monks at the time of the martyrdom of St. Aebbe the Younger. The later Priory of Coldingham was built by Edgar, King of Scots, in about 1099; not on the same spot as the monastery, but farther inland. It was dedicated in the name of SS. Cuthbert, Mary and Aebbe.
Edited from Agnes Dunbar's "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904).
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Life of St. Robert of Newminster
Born at Gargrave, Yorkshire, England, in 1100; died at Newminster in 1159.
Saint Robert, described as "gentle in companionship, merciful in judgment," studied in Paris and wrote a commentary--since lost--on the Psalms. After being ordained and serving as a parish priest in his native place, he was made rector of Gargrave. He then became a Benedictine at Whitby and joined a band of monks from Saint Mary's Abbey, York, to establish a monastery in which the strict Benedictine Rule would be revived. They settled, in the middle of winter in 1132, in the valley of Skeldale on land given to them by Archbishop Thurston.
The monastery became known at Fountains Abbey due to the presence of springs within its borders. The group became affiliated with the Cistercian reform, and the house became famous for the holiness and austerity of its members and its way of life. Robert was one of its most devout monks. The abbey became one of the centers of the White Monks in north England.
Impressed by the establishment, Ralph de Merly, Lord of Morpeth, built a Cistercian monastery on his own land, the Abbey of Newminster. In 1137 he brought 12 monks from Fountains Abbey and appointed Robert abbot. The monastery flourished under Robert's rule, and he established a house at Pipewell in Northamptonshire in 1143, one at Sawley and another at Roche in the West Riding.
He is said to have had supernatural gifts, and visions and encounters with demons have been attributed to him.
The abstinence of Saint Robert at table sufficed to maintain the mortified spirit of the community. One Easter Day his stomach, weakened by the fast of Lent, could take no food, but he finally consented to try to eat some bread sweetened with honey. Before it was brought, however, he felt this relaxation would be a dangerous example for his monks, and sent the food untouched to the poor at the gate. The plate was received by a young man of shining countenance, who straightway disappeared. What the Saint had sacrificed for his brethren had been accepted by Christ.
Robert travelled to France again to see Saint Bernard, after he was slandered by some monks about his relations with a pious woman. Saint Bernard appears to have decided that the accusations were false. As a symbol of his belief in Robert's innocence, he gave him a girdle, which was kept at Newminster for performing cures.
At the moment of Saint Robert's death in 1159, Saint Godric, a hermit of Finchale, saw his soul like a globe of fire, borne up by the Angels in a pathway of light, while the gates of heaven opened before them.
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