Died 721. Edfrith's life is obscure prior to his becoming bishop in 698.
He studied in Ireland and was well-trained as a scribe, an artist, and a
calligrapher because it seems almost certain that he alone wrote and
illuminated the Lindisfarne Gospels, which can now be seen in the
British Library. His masterpiece was dedicated to Saint Cuthbert and
would have taken at least two years to complete. He welcomed the new
text of the Gospels and the new layout, both of which came to him from
Italy via
Wearmouth-Jarrow. He provided evangelist portraits as a creative artist
in a field of Mediterranean expertise, but he also excelled in insular
majuscule script and Irish geometric and zoomorphic decoration of
extraordinary delicacy and accuracy. The fusion of all these elements in
one work is a tribute to Edfrith's well-rounded education and the
merging of Roman and Irish elements in Northumbria about 35 years after
the Synod of Whitby.
The manuscript would have been enough to ensure Edfrith a place in art
history; nevertheless, he was also a good bishop. Most of his memorable
actions, however, are associated with Saint Cuthbert. The anonymous Life
of Cuthbert was dedicated to Edfrith and he commissioned Saint Bede to
write his prose Life of Cuthbert. He restored Cuthbert's oratory on the
Inner Farne Island for the use of Saint Felgild. He may also have been
the recipient of a letter from Saint Aldhelm.
Edfrith was connected with Cuthbert even in death: He was buried near
his tomb. His relics, together with those of Saints Aidan, Eadbert, and
Ethelwold, were taken with Cuthbert's in their wanderings through
Northumbria from 875 to 995, when they reached Durham. When Cuthbert's
relics were taken to the new cathedral, Edfrith's were translated, too.
Today's feast is that of the translation
(
Farmer).
See the British Library's web site for the Lindisfarne Gospels:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/lindisfarne.html
A Brief Chronology of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular Manuscripts:
http://web.missouri.edu/~ahaanne/Insular.html
The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells:
http://www1.minn.net/~wildrivr/eadfrith_studio/history.html