Cuthmann of Steyning

Cuthmann of Steyning
Modern statue of Cuthmann by Penny Reeve, looking over the road to the church he founded at Steyning.
Hermit
Born	c. 681 Chidham, near Bosham, Sussex (some legends say Devon or Cornwall)
Died	8th century Steyning, Sussex
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion; Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	St Andrew's, Steyning – his relics removed to Fécamp Abbey in the 11th century
Feast	8 February
Attributes	wheelbarrow
Patronage	shepherds; Steyning, West Sussex

Cuthmann of Steyning (c. 681 – 8th century), also spelt Cuthman, was an Anglo-Saxon hermit, church-builder and saint.

In the biographies of the saints called the Acta Sanctorum which were preserved at the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy it is said that he was born about 681, either in Devon or Cornwall, or more probably at Chidham, near Bosham, about 25 miles from Steyning. A birth in Chidham at that date would place him in the right time and area to be preached to by Saint Wilfrid, the Apostle of Sussex (680–685), and would probably make Wilfrid the man who converted and baptised Cuthmann and his parents.

His legend states he was a shepherd who had to care for his paralysed mother after his father's death. When they fell on hard times and were forced to beg from door to door, he built a one-wheeled cart or wheelbarrow (with a rope from the handles over his shoulders taking part of the weight) in which he moved her around with him. They set out east, towards the rising sun, from his home and, even though the rope broke, he improvised a new one from withies, deciding that when that rope broke he would accept it as a sign from God to stop at that place and build a church. The withy rope broke at the place now called Steyning, upon which (according to his biography) he prayed:

After building a hut to accommodate his mother and himself, he began work on the church (now St Andrew's, Steyning, which in the 20th century instituted a Cuthmann chapel in his honour), with help from the locals (for those who did not help received divine punishment). As the church was nearing completion and Cuthmann was having difficulty with a roof-beam, a stranger showed him how to fix it. When Cuthmann asked his name, he replied:

Whatever date is ascribed to Cuthmann, this church was in existence by 857, when King Æthelwulf of Wessex was buried there.

According to one legend, Chanctonbury Ring near Steyning was created by the Devil who became so angry at the conversion of England thanks to 'apostles' like Cuthmann that he decided to dig a channel by night to let in the sea and drown the Christians of Sussex. Fortunately, Cuthmann found out the Devil’s plan and tricked him by holding a candle behind a sieve and knocking the local cock off its perch. When the Devil saw the light and heard the cock crow, he fled the scene, leaving his great plan unfinished and giving us a complex of hills (the mounds of earth from his digging), including Chanctonbury Ring and the nearby ‘Devil's Dyke.’