“It was the eve of Ascension Day 735 that Bede in his last hours was translating the Gospel of St John, and some scribes were writing from his dictation. They reached the words ‘What are these among so many’ when Bede felt his end approaching. ‘Write quickly,’ he said, ‘I cannot tell how soon my Master may call me hence.’ All night he lay awake in thanksgiving, and when the festival dawned he repeated his request that they should accelerate their work. ‘Master, there remains one sentence.’ ‘Write quickly,’ said Bede. ‘It is finished, master,’ they soon replied. ‘Aye, it is finished,’ he echoed. ‘Now lift me up and place me opposite my holy place where I have been accustomed to pray.’ He was placed upon the floor of his cell, bade farewell to his companions, to whom he had previously given mementoes of his affection, and, having sung the doxology, peacefully breathed his last.”
“How beautiful your presence, how benign,
Servants of God! who not a thought will share
With the vain world; who, outwardly as bare
As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign
That the firm soul is clothed with fruit divine!
Such priest, when service worthy of his care
Has called him forth to breath the common air,
Might seem a saintly image from its shrine
Descended—happy are the eyes that meet
The apparition, evil thoughts are stayed
At his approach, and low-backed necks entreat
A benediction from his voice or hand;
Whence grace, through which the heart can understand;
And vows, that bind the will in silence made.”
Primitive Saxon Clergy (Wordsworth).
Standing on a green hill near the river Slake, the grey walls of Jarrow Abbey (now the Church of St Paul) contrast markedly with the general sense of everyday work conveyed by the active life of Shields, not far distant. Past and present, ancient and modern, are brought into close proximity, suggesting to one that were it possible to infuse some of the contemplative and quiescent frame of mind of Bede and his scholars into the toilers of this progressive 20th century, less might be heard of brain fag and other attendant evils of the high pressure of modern life. Of the Abbey church, the tower and chancel alone remain and are now used as the parish church. In the vestry is a chair said to have belonged to the Venerable Bede. Many visitors (as visitors will) have chipped off pieces of the old oak, the tradition being that a splinter, if placed under a damsel’s pillow, would invoke pleasant dreams of the ever prospective husband.
Of the domestic part of the establishment, which was situated on the south side of the church, there still stand some walls and a gable end which may possibly have formed part of the refectory.
[FINCHALE (Benedictine)]
1100, Godricus de Finchale, a hermit, spends his old age in devotion in a cell in this place—1196, Hugh, Bishop of Durham, founds and endows the Abbey—1536, Dissolved. Annual revenue, £122, 15s. 3d.
Engirt by trees and surrounded by wooded heights, this abbey on “Finches Haigh” (“low flat ground”) still retains a few old grey walls on the banks of the river Wear. Following the road from Durham, the “city on a hill,” one obtains the first view of the ruins from the west—where the long lane that leads from the high road dips towards the Priory. The church is of the Early English period, and until 1665 it retained its original stone spire. On each side of the nave are four piers, alternately round and hexagonal, supporting the exquisitely moulded arches which were built up during the 14th century—John of Tickhill being prior at the time. At this period, too, the aisles of the church were completely blocked up and Decorated windows were inserted—the south aisle becoming the northern alley of the cloister. These architectural alterations, which spoiled the beauty of a church originally perfect in its proportions, were probably inspired by the constant dread of Scottish invasion to which the Border counties were so peculiarly liable. Two beautiful lancet-windows light the north transept in which is an eastern chantry—while in the south transept may be seen an altar to St Godricus the Hermit, erected in the year 1256. The east wall of the choir has fallen, but the south-east turret still holds itself aloft.
The site of Finchale Abbey has been identified by some with Pincanhale—the meeting-place of the synods of the Saxon clergy in the 8th and 9th centuries. Tradition records that even further back this spot was inhabited by men who were eventually forced to abandon the place owing to the number of venomous snakes which abounded there. In the time of Godricus, however, it was a forest, and to the finches, which among other birds may have found their home there, some credit for the name Finchale may possibly be given. The story of the peddler Godricus, of his repeated pilgrimages to the Holy Land, his determined and successful search for knowledge, and his sixty years of solitary meditation at Finchale, was written by the monk Reginald, who after constant attendance on the aged hermit during his last illness was placed in charge of the hermitage. During the thirty or forty years following the death of Godricus, his tomb at Finchale was much visited by pilgrims, attracted thither by the fame of his virtues. The hospitality and resources of the monks would have been sorely taxed during these years had it not been for the benefactions of one Henry Pudsey who granted all his belongings “To the Durham monks serving God and the Blessed Mary, and St Godric, at Finchale,” directing that the gifts should be applied, firstly, in hospitality and alms-giving and for maintaining the service of God, etc., and secondly, for the spiritual welfare of himself and of his kith and kin.
The religious community at Finchale varied in number. Early in the 15th century the number was fixed at nine, four of whom with the prior were to live there permanently and relays of four others to be sent from the mother house at Durham. These visitors made a stay of three weeks, spending every alternate day in liberty and recreation, the remaining time being devoted to choir singing and other religious duties. The office of prior was in much repute, and served in more than one instance as a stepping-stone to promotion—Priors Strehall and de Insula attaining the Bishopric of Durham. The last prior, William Bennet, surrendered the priory in 1536, and his monks were cast adrift. He, however, was made Prebendary of the fourth stall in Durham Cathedral, and took to himself a wife “as soon as he was discharged from his vow.”