The Parish Church of St Cuthbert in Crayke, North Yorkshire, stands on the site of the monastery of St Peter founded here in the 7th century by St Cuthbert himself. The present church dates back to 1490. For the view in the opposite direction, through the gate and over the Vale of York, see this photo.
WHEN St Cuthbert was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne in 685, King Ecgfrith of Northumbria gave him an estate at Crayke, some twelve miles north of York, as a place to stay on his journeys to the capital.
Cuthbert at once founded a monastery there, and appointed the first abbot; one monk in the early days was Ultan, an Irishman admired for his beautiful illuminated manuscripts. And in 882, the monks who had been driven out of Lindisfarne by the Viking invasion seven years earlier brought St Cuthbert’s body to Crayke Abbey, for four months of welcome respite.
In 732, Ecgbert became bishop of York, and it was in his time that a monk named Echa retired to the seemingly endless woods surrounding Crayke, and built himself a hermitage.* His contemporary and neighbour Alcuin wrote that Echa lived in the company of the angels rather than men, but that those who visited him found a holy man gifted with prophetic powers. Echa died peacefully in 767.
Alciun of York (735-804) calls him Echa. Symeon of Durham (1060-1129) calls him Etha. Both wrote in Latin.
Précis
In the late 7th century, St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne founded an abbey at Crayke near York. Some fifty years on, it was home to two monks now venerated as saints, Ultan, a calligrapher, and Echa, a hermit. Crayke was also one of the places where the monks of Lindisfarne took Cuthbert’s body during the Viking raids of the ninth century. (60 / 60 words)
