Godric of Finchale is joined at his hermitage on the banks of the River Wear by Reginald, a monk sent by the abbot of Rievaulx Abbey with instructions to record the aging saint’s biography. The arrival of the enthusiastic young monk plunges Godric back into his past, and he unflinchingly narrates the ribald tale of his own history, which is carefully edited by Reginald and set down in restrained and laudatory prose more befitting of the life of a saint.
Having survived a near drowning in the sea at a young age, Godric leaves home for a life of petty crime – selling counterfeit relics and the ostensibly holy hair of nuns. Following a dreamlike encounter on the Island of Farne with an apparition who identifies himself as Saint Cuthbert, Godric appears set to spend his life seeking God. His meeting with the roguish Roger Mouse, however, puts paid to any notion of quests for personal holiness. The two embark upon a life of crime and villainy aboard their boat, the Saint Espirit, where they hatch a series of schemes to defraud pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land and commit acts of piracy, all the while hoarding their growing stockpile of treasure.
While attempting to bury his ill-gotten gains, Godric encounters once more the apparition of Saint Cuthbert, a sobering and chastening experience for the prodigal. On returning home following his misadventures Godric discovers that his father has died in his absence. Determined to fulfil his last wish, the bereaved young man begins a pilgrimage to Rome, only to find the Holy City a disappointment: ‘a corpse without a shroud’.[1]
It is on the journey home, however, that Godric encounters God, following a transformative encounter with a wise maiden, Gillian, which convicts him of his past offences. Committing himself to a life of penitence and seclusion, Godric begins a second pilgrimage, this time to the ancient Holy City, Jerusalem. Upon reaching the River Jordan he rushes into its waters and is baptised. After a number of years spent in the service of Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, Godric espies a likely spot for a hermitage on the banks of the River Wear. No longer a young man, the hermit determines to spend the rest of his days humbly in this rural spot.
The ensuing fifty years are punctuated by the arrival of notable guests, pilgrims, and penance in the icy waters of the river. Reginald’s optimistic probing into the life of the saint of Finchdale reveal more than he had bargained for, as the aging hermit bitterly reveals that his miracles, wisdom, and good deeds are tempered by the hard realities of sin, murder, and even incest.
