6 - Outside the Box: Relics and Reliquaries at the Shrine of St Cuthbert in the Later Middle Ages

Summary

The cathedral priory at Durham was the focal point of St Cuthbert's cult throughout the late medieval period. Cuthbert's body had resided at Durham from 995, and was translated to the new Anglo-Norman cathedral's east end, to the area behind the high altar known as the feretory, in 1104. His coffin, in which he had been placed on Lindisfarne in 698, was encased within at least two outer containers by 1104, according to the anonymous early twelfth-century account of the translation, and Reginald of Durham's account of the same event c. 1165 × 1172. The coffin (Pl. VI), an unparalleled Anglo-Saxon survival that was uncovered during Canon James Raine's investigation of Cuthbert's tomb in 1827, has been studied extensively in relation to aspects such as construction, style, and iconography. Most recently, Jane Hawkes has considered the relationship between the coffin's iconography and the body of Cuthbert itself as it lay within. Here, I wish to explore the evidence for the relics of other saints that documentary sources state resided for some time within the coffin and with the saint, concentrating on those relics and reliquaries that are described as ‘heads’ (capita). As Cynthia Hahn has emphasised, we need to be cautious in proposing that reliquaries ‘explicitly reveal their contents’ through their shape: in particular, her research has demonstrated that body-part reliquaries could contain relics very different from the body part their outward shape implied. This chapter therefore firstly traces the ‘heads’ at Durham (none of which are extant) through several inventories and accounts of the 1104 translation, and examines the ways in which the relics and reliquaries are described in order to ascertain exactly what they were. It then assesses why relics were removed from the coffin, before analysing the functions and meanings of their subsequent display within reliquary cupboards at the feretory. In doing so, this chapter aims to further our understanding of how the late medieval Benedictine community at Durham understood and presented their sacred patrimony, and draws attention to the importance of these objects as part of the feretory's sacred topography.

There are several reasons for focusing on heads and head reliquaries. Practically, the sheer number of relics listed in the inventories makes a full study unfeasible within the bounds of a single chapter.