Neot

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Saint Neot
FMIB 33068 St Neots Window.jpeg
A drawing of a stained glass window at St Neot, Cornwall, illustrating the life of St Neot
Hermit
Died9th Century
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine St Neot, Cornwall (original)
St Neots Priory ( destroyed )
Feast 31 July
Patronage Fish

Neot is a saint of the ninth century who lived as a monk and hermit in Cornwall. He is mentioned in an interpolated passage in Asser's Life of King Alfred [1] and died around AD 870. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Western Orthodoxy. His legend is preserved in two Latin "lives" and one Old English "life," dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with other mentions preserved in later chronicles.

Contents

Life

Neot was the nephew or brother of King Alfred. Neot's father was Adulph, King of Kent, more formally called Ethelwulph. [2]

Following a remarkable cure by St Gueryr of a medical condition suffered by Alfred, Neot decided to go to the place where Gueryr had retired. Neot went attended by only one person, named Barius.The place had been known by St Gueryr's name, but gradually became known as Neot-stow. [3]

He entered into the life of an anchorite as if he was a novice in religion; he macerated his body by fastings, by watchings, by prayers, becasue he had nopt lived hitherto in any hermitical strictness. [4]

After seven years as a hermit, Neot decided to found a monastery, but before doing so he visited Rome, to seek the advice of the Pope. The Pope arrpoved, and Neot returned and built a monastery, which numerous religious persons inhabited. [5]

Relics of St Neot

Neot's bones were preserved as a holy relic in the Cornish village of St Neot. St Neot's body was removed from Cornwall to Eynesbury in Huntingdonshire in around 980 when a monastery was founded there (renamed St Neots Priory in his honour). [6] The monks returned with their prize, pursued (according to some versions) by angry Cornishmen. The bones were housed in the priory for many years but were finally 'lost' during the reign of Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His feast day is 31 July (celebrated at St Neot on the last Sunday of July). [1] He is also the patron saint of fish. [7]

Mosaic in memory of St Neot Mosaic, St. Neots Market Square, 2004.jpg
Mosaic in memory of St Neot

Miracles

Neot is said to have been involved in several miraculous events, although these are widely disparaged. [8]

The high door lock

Neot was small of stature: four feet tall. An important visitor arrived at Glastonbury church, of which he was sacrist. Aroused from a midday nap, Neot went to open the door to him. It was approached from within by a step upwards, so that the lock was very high from the place where Neot could stand, and he could not reach it. [note 1] [9]

He is thus distressed exceedingly, when at last, wonderful to be seen! the lock descends from its height to the level of his monastic sash... the lock remained thus low during a long time afterwards, for a witness to the mighty "miracle", being lowered assurdly in consequence of St. Neot's distress, continuing lowered long after St. Neot was gone... [10]

Whitaker asserts that in reality, Neot fetched an iron stool, enabling him to reach the lock, and left it there for later use. This is how the lock "lowered" for Neot to reach, and how the lock remained "lowered". [9]

A derivative of this fable developed later: there is supposed to be a stone opposite the south porch; Neot stood on it and threw the key towards the door; the key found its way into the key-hole and opened the door for him. [9]

The perpetual fish pond

God had placed three small fish in a pond near where Neot stayed as a hermit. He was a vegetarian, but he was told by an angel that he might take one fish daily to eat, but only one. He did so every day, and in the following mornings Neot found that there were still three fish: the fish that had been taken was restored. Later Neot fell very ill, and in despair his servant Barius decided to take two fishes out of the pond, and prepared them for Neot to eat. When he took the cooked fish to Neot, he was alarmed, and told Barius to return them to the water instantly. He did so, and as soon as the fish reached the water they revived and began to swim about. [11] [12]

The deer pull the plough

Although he was a hermit, Neot farmed land at the monastery, and he used oxen to pull the plough. One night some thieves came and stole the oxen. There was a great herd of stags near the place and Neot ordered them to be yoked to the plough like oxen, to pull the plough. At the Saint’s command, the stags all left their pasture and came to bow their necks under the yoke. They were yoked to the plough and pulled it every day.

The thieves heard of this miracle and went to Neot and asked for forgiveness, which he promptly granted to them. Realising that their life of crime was wicked, they asked to be admitted as monks, and they spent the rest of their lives in prayer. As the oxen had been returned to Neot by the thieves, he commanded the stags to return to their natural life, but their progeny bore a mark recording the event, "a ring of white like a yoke about their necks, and on that part of the neck which used to bear the yoke." [13]

Hunting dogs are rebuffed

One day Neot was singing the psalms, when a doe was being chased by a huntsman's dogs. She came in terror to Neot and lay down at his feet, and by her anxious pantings implored his aid. The pursuing dogs wished to tear her into pieces, and approaching, they showed the signs of their fury in the loudness of their barking. However when they saw the doe at the feet of St Neot, they ran away, as if they had been struck with a stick or a spear, and Neot commanded the doe to depart in safety.

The huntsman was a noble gentleman; he went to Neot in submission and asked his advice on how he should conduct his life; and on Neot's instruction he too became a monk and joined the monastery. [14]

The powerful wind

Neot had a wealthy neighbour, and one day his agricultural workers were bringing in the harvest on wagons. A strong wind developed, and it was so powerful that it drove the wagons and the oxen and men back to the field from which the corn had been taken. The harvest was unloaded for safety. As soon as the rich man heard of the event, he considered it as a warning, sent for his sin. He hastened to the saint and begged pardon, and made a perpetual donation of money to the tenants of the saint, apparently liberating them from further obligation to work for him. [15]

Legacy

The Cornish village of St Neot and the Cambridgeshire town of St Neots are named after him. There are many churches dedicated to St Neot and at least one holy well. [16]

There is a commemorative mosaic of the saint in the Market Square in St Neots. The mosaic is based on a Saxon ornament, the Alfred Jewel.

Notes

  1. It seems extraordinary that the lock was placed so high that a man four feet tall, perhaps able to reach to five feet, could not reach it.

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References

  1. 1 2 Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 170
  2. Whitaker, pages 69 and 70
  3. Whitaker, pages 108 and 109
  4. Whitaker, page 112
  5. Whitaker, pages 123 to 125
  6. "St. Neot and King Alfred", St. Neot Parish Website
  7. Patron Saints Index, Accessed 11 November 2010, http://saints.sqpn.com/patrons-of-fish/
  8. John Whitaker, The Life of Saint Neot, the Oldest of the All the Brothers of King Alfred, John Joseph Stockdale, London, 1809
  9. 1 2 3 Whitaker, pages 42 to 46.
  10. Whitaker, quoting and translating Ramsay's Latin text of the 12th century.
  11. Whitaker, pages 47 to 50
  12. E V Thompson, 100 Years on Bodmin Moor, Bossiney Books, St Teath, 1984, isbn 0-906456-90-8
  13. Whitaker, pages 51 to 54
  14. Whitaker, pages 59 and 60
  15. Whitaker, pages 64 to 66
  16. ""Who was St Neot?", St Neots in Cambridgeshire". Archived from the original on 18 November 2010. Retrieved 22 May 2013.