St Cuthman was a humble shepherd who built a church in Steyning, West Sussex and became a saint.
Christianity comes to Sussex
Christianity had first arrived in Britain during the Roman occupation, but following the departure of the Romans in the fifth century and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, pagan beliefs became widespread across much of what is now England. Sussex was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to embrace Christianity, although the precise circumstances of its conversion are probably rather more complicated than the story of St Wilfrid and the fish.
(Just in case you haven’t heard the story, it is said that Wilfrid taught the locals of Chichester Harbour to fish at a time of great famine, and they were so impressed, they converted to Christianity!)
According to eighth-century historians, however, the turning point was slightly less dramatic and came around AD 681, when St Wilfrid, a Northumbrian bishop was expelled from his homeland and arrived in Sussex. He began preaching Christianity to its largely pagan population. That said, Sussex probably already had an element of Christianity. Its king, Æthelwealh, had been baptised in Mercia, while a small Christian community led by an Irish monk named Dicul was founded in Bosham in around 670 AD.
Nevertheless, Wilfrid played an important role in establishing the Church in Sussex, and was given land at Selsey from Æthelwealh and by 715, Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey, had become the first bishop of the South Saxons. It was against this backdrop of religious change that Cuthman is believed to have lived.
The shepherd boy from Chidham
Cuthman is believed to have been born in around AD 681, possibly at Chidham, at Chichester Harbour. If this dating is correct, he would have grown up during the very period when Wilfrid was preaching across Sussex. It is tempting to imagine that Wilfrid himself might have converted the young Cuthman.
Accounts of Cuthman’s life describe a boy of remarkable kindness, humility and devotion. He is said to have worked as a shepherd, spending his days tending sheep while helping his parents and devoting much of his spare time to prayer. One legend tells how he would draw a circle around his flock with his shepherd’s staff. The sheep would remain within the circle, allowing him to leave them safely while he went in search of food. The story is sometimes associated with a place at Chidham known as St Cuthman’s Field or St Cuthman’s Dell. Following his father’s death, Cuthman and his mother fell into desperate poverty. With little food and no means of supporting themselves, they were reduced to begging.
Cuthman, his mother and the wheelbarrow
With his mother unable to walk, Cuthman made a wheelbarrow in which she could sit, fastening a rope from the handles across his shoulders to help bear her weight. Together, they set off eastwards across Sussex.
The broken rope and a church at Steyning
According to legend, Cuthman had resolved that wherever the rope supporting his mother’s cart broke, he would take it as a sign from God that they should make their home there. Eventually, after a long and arduous journey, the rope broke at Steyning, near the foot of the South Downs. True to his word, Cuthman stopped, built a small hut for himself and his mother and set about constructing a church.
Local people are said to have helped him with the building, although not everyone was impressed. Some mocked the young shepherd and his efforts, only to find themselves punished by a sudden downpour that ruined their hay. A curious local tradition tells of heavy rain falling on the same field on the same day each year, supposedly in remembrance of the incident.
Another legend relates how, when the church was almost complete, Cuthman struggled to position the final roof beam. A mysterious stranger appeared and helped him finish the work. The visitor was variously identified as St Andrew or Christ himself. There is even a story that Cuthman once hung his gloves upon a sunbeam while working on the church.
A hermit
Cuthman is believed to have spent the remainder of his life at Steyning, living simply as a hermit, praying, preaching in neighbouring settlements and helping those in need. Miraculous healings were attributed to him, and he became revered for his compassion, humility and closeness to ordinary people.
The Devil, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke
Like many Sussex saints, Cuthman also features in the county’s legends involving the Devil. One story tells how the Devil, furious at the spread of Christianity across Sussex, decided to dig an enormous channel through the South Downs to allow the sea to flood inland and drown the Christians. Cuthman discovered the plan and devised an ingenious trick. During the night, while the Devil was busy digging, Cuthman held a candle behind a sieve and disturbed a cockerel, causing it to crow. Mistaking the light and the crowing for the arrival of dawn, the Devil abandoned his work and fled.
The unfinished earthworks were said to have left their mark upon the landscape, with versions of the story associated with Devil’s Dyke and Chanctonbury Ring although the legend has been attributed to several different Sussex saints and characters over the centuries.
A place of pilgrimage
By the ninth century, a church existed at Steyning, and Cuthman had become the focus of a local religious cult. He was believed to have been buried in the church he founded, and his tomb became a place of pilgrimage, attracting those seeking healing and spiritual comfort. Such was his importance that Steyning was sometimes referred to as St Cuthman’s Port.
In the eleventh century, Edward the Confessor granted the estate at Steyning to the abbey of Fécamp in Normandy. Cuthman’s relics were eventually transferred to Fécamp, where his memory continued to be honoured. His feast day, 8 February, was commemorated in Norman religious communities.
Remembering St Cuthman today
The church at Steyning was later dedicated to St Andrew, a dedication documented from the medieval period, but Cuthman’s name was formally restored alongside it in 2007. Today, the church stands as one of Steyning’s most important historic buildings, its Norman architecture a reminder of the town’s medieval prosperity. Inside, stained-glass windows depict scenes from Cuthman’s life, while outside the church a sculpture by Penny Reeve commemorates the saint and his extraordinary journey.
His image, pushing his mother in her cart, also appears on Steyning’s town emblem, a fitting tribute to the man whose story is so closely bound up with the town’s beginnings.
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