Abstract/Summary

Whilst Bede’s Prose Life of St Cuthbert has been several times edited and translated, and has been discussed together with his historical writings, his earlier, metrical, version of the Life has received considerably less attention. Bede worked on his Lives of Cuthbert during the periods when he was also writing his fundamental works on computus and natural philosophy. A central argument of this article is that Bede’s work on these ‘scientific’ subjects had a significant impact on his ideas concerning sanctity and the miraculous, and that this gave him a unique approach as a hagiographer.