This chapter examines two Cuthbertine miracle collections produced respectively in the third quarter and the end of the twelfth century: Reginald of Durham’s Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus, and the anonymous De mirabilibus Dei modernis temporibus in Farne insula declaratis. Reginald’s De admirandis offers a geographically expansive representation of Cuthbert’s wonder-working, incorporating north-west England, Galloway and Lothian, re-engaging with Farne Island and extending into the North Sea. It also positions him within a British map of competing sanctities, negotiating his power and sphere of jurisdiction in relation to Scottish, southern English and local cults. De mirabilibus, by contrast, remains tightly focused on Farne Island. This textual re-engagement with Farne Island returns Cuthbert’s ascetic sanctity to the fore. Animal and bird miracles make a significant comeback, and are used to determine the parameters of a series of small-scale jurisdictions of immunity throughout Cuthbert’s spiritual geography, debarred to Anglo-Norman secular and religious elites.

Attention to eremitic place is one way by which the ascetic dimensions of Cuthbert’s sanctity are returned to the fore by Durham priory in the late twelfth century. The other way, much more animated and contemporary, is through the creation of modern-day hermits in Cuthbert’s image. This chapter examines Reginald of Durham’s vita of the faintly dubious Benedictine hermit, Godric of Finchale; Geoffrey of Durham’s vita of Bartholomew of Farne and his associate, Thomas, more safely and consistently Benedictine; and finally, the anonymous new ‘Irish’ vita of none other than Cuthbert himself, the Libellus de ortu Sancti Cuthberti, substantially recreated to further a Cistercian and eremitic agenda.