Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/54

 in the Jordan did Godric take his rotten shoes from his ulcerated feet. Then he spent a few months at Jerusalem, waiting upon other pilgrims in the hospital of St. John, before returning to wander over England with his wares in search of the Finchale of his dream. Tired of his life, he settled in Eskedale-Side, near Whitby, whence he passed to Durham. At Durham he became doorkeeper and bell-ringer to St. Giles, outside the city, and later transferred himself to the cathedral church of St. Mary. Here he would take his place, listening to the boys as they repeated their psalms and hymns. A chance conversation revealed the vicinity of Finchale on the Wear near Durham (c. 1110). The land belonged to Rannulf Flambard, whose son and nephew, both named Radulf or Rannulf, took the hermit under their protection (ib. cc. 13, 20; cf. c. 170). From this day Godric never left Finchale except three times: once when Bishop Rannulf sent for him, and twice for a Christmas service or Easter communion (ib. c. 213).

At Finchale Godric built a wooden chapel, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. Later he erected a stone church ‘in honour of the Holy Sepulchre and St. John the Baptist,’ under whose special care he believed himself to be (ib. cc. 29, 67). In spiritual matters he submitted himself to the priors of Durham (ib. c. 58), and without their permission he would speak to no visitor. He invented a language of signs for his servants (ib. c. 58). At first he had but one attendant, his little nephew, who in later years gave Reginald much information as to his uncle's way of living (ib. c. 51). Afterwards he kept more servants, and before his death seems to have had a priest living with him (ib. cc. 58, 75). The stories of his austerities and his visions are told at length by his biographers, who, however, have preserved very few distinct details of his solitary life. When King David invaded England (1138?) his soldiers broke into Godric's church, slew the old man's heifer, and bound the saint himself, in the hope of finding out where he had hidden his treasure (ib. c. 49). The flooded Wear left his cell an island in surrounding waters (1133–c. Easter 1141) (Reg. c. 45; for date, cf., i. 205, {{sc|John of Hexham}, ii. 309, and Preface, i. xliv). Even in extreme old age he took an interest in the outside world, and eagerly asked a visitor from Westminster about the newly elected (c. 1163) archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, ‘whom he had seen in dreams, and would be able to recognise in a crowd.’ He begged for Becket's blessing, and Becket, who asked for Godric's prayers in return, confessed in later years (1170) that Godric's predictions had been fulfilled (Reg. c. 116). He had a special admiration for King Malcolm (d. 9 Dec. 1165), and was in friendly communication with Bishop Christian of Galloway, Abbot Æthelred of Rievaulx (d. 1166), William de Sta. Barbara, bishop of Durham, whose death he foretold, and other men of note (ib. cc. 69, 105, 116; cf. GALFRID, c. 3). For the last eight years of his life he was confined to bed, and in this condition seems to have become clairvoyant. He would interrupt his conversation to utter prayers for the storm-tossed vessels of his dreams, while to others he would describe the glories of the new Jerusalem as she now appeared under her Angevin kings (Reg. cc. 56, 163). Almost his last recorded words, in which he told his knightly visitor that he was soon ‘to pass the borders of the Great Sea,’ showed that his thoughts were wandering back to the pilgrimages of his early life (ib. c. 167). He died, according to the inscription on his tomb, the Thursday before Whitsuntide, 21 May 1170, after ‘having led a hermit's life for sixty years’ (ib. c. 170). In the first days of his retreat his relations came to join him. His brother was drowned in the Wear (between 1136 and 1147); Burchwene, after remaining with her brother for some time, was transferred to Durham, where she died and was buried; but his mother seems to have died at Finchale (ib. cc. 60, 64, 61, 63;, c. 4).

Godric was of moderate stature (Reg. c. 100;, proem), broad-shouldered, with well-set, sinewy frame, and flowing beard. In old age his black hair turned to an ‘angelic whiteness.’ He was almost illiterate; but must have been able to read the Latin psalter, and perhaps he understood something of conversational Latin or French, though his biographers turn these accomplishments into miracles (Reg. cc. 38, 94, 79; cf. De Mirac. c. 12;, fol. 168, a 1). He composed an English hymn to the Virgin Mary, to which, though ‘omnino ignarus musicæ,’ he seems to have fitted an air (Reg. c. 50; cf. cc. 11, 47, 158, 161). The few rude English rhymes attributed to Godric are printed from British Museum manuscripts by Ritson (pp. 1–4). These poems are addressed to the Virgin. Another, addressed to St. Nicholas, is among the manuscripts of the Royal Library (5, F. vii.), and is accompanied by the music to which it was to be sung (, p. 4).

Godric had unique influence over animals. His heifer, the hare that was nibbling at his garden herbs, the frozen birds, the stag pursued by huntsmen, all found a friend in him; for, to use his words, when the fugitive stag, chased by Bishop Flambard's huntsmen, took refuge in his cottage, ‘proditor hospitis noluit