Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert is a primary hagiographic text, an eighth century account of the Northumbrian monk-bishop's life and posthumous miracles, written by one of the most careful historians of the early medieval period though still working within the conventions of the saint's-life genre. Its value is direct: it is close in time to its subject, drawing partly on testimony from people who had known Cuthbert, and it preserves details of Anglo-Saxon monastic life found nowhere else. Its limit is the genre itself, since a hagiography is written to demonstrate sanctity through miracle narrative, not to provide a modern historian's disinterested biography, so its miracle accounts are read by historians as evidence of what Cuthbert's cult believed and wanted asserted about him, not as neutral historical reporting of events.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert is a primary eighth century hagiographic text by one of the most careful historians of the early medieval period, close in time to its subject and drawing partly on testimony from people who had known Cuthbert, treated at the top tier as that primary source, notwithstanding that its miracle accounts are read as evidence of cult belief rather than neutral historical reporting. NotesBede's prose life, composed c. 721, building on an earlier anonymous Lindisfarne life.
Citation
Source TypeBook (primary)
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Associated With
This source names Anglo-Saxons directly: "Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert is a primary hagiographic text, an eighth century account of the Northumbrian monk-bishop's life and posthumous miracles, written by one of the most careful historians..."
Source Life of St Cuthbert (Vita Sancti Cuthberti)Bede
This source names Cuthbert of Lindisfarne directly: "Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert is a primary hagiographic text, an eighth century account of the Northumbrian monk-bishop's life and posthumous miracles, written by one of the most careful historians..."
Source Life of St Cuthbert (Vita Sancti Cuthberti)Bede
This source names Saxons directly: "Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert is a primary hagiographic text, an eighth century account of the Northumbrian monk-bishop's life and posthumous miracles, written by one of the most careful historians..."
Source Life of St Cuthbert (Vita Sancti Cuthberti)Bede
Claims Backed By This Source (25 claims)
This source backs 25 claims across the atlas. As facts: 17 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 3 holds. Plus 3 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Figures, 11 claims: 7 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 2 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 5 well-attested, 3 holds.
- Articles, 4 claims: 4 well-attested.
- Sacred Sites, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
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