Durham Cathedral owed its existence to St. Cuthbert (one of the three great English saints), and was fortunate enough to possess his shrine. Therefore, it is well to recall his life before visiting the church. St. Cuthbert was born about 635, and in Ireland, according to tradition. He is first heard of as a shepherd-boy in Northumbria, where, in 651, while watching his flocks by night, he had a vision of the heavens opening and angels carrying thither the soul of St. Aidan, the pious bishop of Lindisfarne. He decided to become a monk and entered the monastery of Melrose, where he became prior. After a few years he went to Lindisfarne, and also became prior there. In 676 he became an anchorite on Farne Island, where he died, March 20, 687. The fame of St. Cuthbert increased after his death and his anniversary was a great festival in the English Church. Many churches in the north were dedicated to him. His body rested quietly in Lindisfarne for two hundred years, but in 875, when the Danes were ravaging Northumbria, the pious monks of Holy Island, bearing the body on their shoulders, fled inland and found a temporary resting-place in Chester-le-Street, half-way between Newcastle and Durham. In 995 they transferred the body of St. Cuthbert to Ripon; but in the same year removed it to Durham. Legend says that after the monks left Chester-le-Street, St. Cuthbert appeared and announced that he desired to rest at Dun-holm. The monks wandered about in search of this place. Finally they heard a woman asking another if she had seen her lost cow. The other answered: “It’s down in Dun-holm.” The monks remembering that Dun-holm meant hill-meadow, carried the body of St. Cuthbert into the lonely field. Here they built a stone chapel to protect the body; and Bishop Aldhun soon began a great church. This “White Church” was consecrated in 999. Aldhun died in 1018. The next important bishop was William of Saint Carileph (1080-1096), appointed by William the Conqueror. He turned the place into a Benedictine monastery. Then he determined to build a better Cathedral, and laid the foundation-stone in 1093. When he died, three years later, the walls of the choir, the eastern walls of the transepts, the arches of the tower and a part of the first bay of the nave were finished. A temporary shrine was also made for St. Cuthbert’s body. Ranulph Flambard (1099-1128) was the next great builder. The nave, the aisles, the west doorway, the lower part of the western towers and the vaulting of the aisles are his. In 1104 he removed the body of St. Cuthbert from the cloister-garth to the splendid shrine behind the high altar. Here the sacred relics were supposed to work miracles, and pilgrims flocked in great numbers to this holy place. William the Conqueror, Henry III., Edward II., and Henry VI. were among the royal personages who did homage to the saint.