Page:The golden days of the early English church from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede, volume 3.djvu/18

4 (commendans suis pecora quae pascebit dominis) on the hills bordering the river Leder. The name of the river is given in the former authority only. It is a stream now called the Leader, and coming from the north falls into the Tweed two miles below Melrose. Montalembert compares his life there with that of the shepherds of Hungary in the pustas on both sides of the Danube.

While his companions were asleep, Cuthberht, we are told, saw a sudden light streaming down from above, in which were choirs of angels coming down from heaven and then returning to their heavenly home escorting a soul of exceeding brightness, and he judged that he must have been either a bishop or some holy man among the faithful. When morning came it turned out, so says the saga, that Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne had died that very night and at the time when Cuthberht had his vision. The shepherd boy thereupon determined to abandon his occupation and to enter a monastery.

The equation between this story and Aidan's death makes it probable that Cuthberht adopted the monastic life in 651, and in that year it is dated by Symeon of Durham.

The monastery he chose was close to his own home, namely, that of Melrose, then called Mailros.