Biography
Herbert of Derwentwater
About Herbert of Derwentwater
Herbert was a priest who lived in solitude on an island in the lake from which the Derwent flows. Bede describes a longstanding friendship with Cuthbert and annual visits for spiritual counsel.
Their last meeting took place at Lugubalia. In Bede’s account, Cuthbert foretold his approaching death, and Herbert asked that they might enter eternal life together.
Bede says that Herbert suffered a prolonged illness and that both men died at the same moment. This ending belongs to the religious interpretation of their friendship in Bede’s narrative; it is not an independently verified coincidence.
His memory remains attached to St Herbert’s Island on Derwent Water. The National Trust, which cares for the island, records its history as a place of pilgrimage and identifies remains associated with his cell. These later associations preserve the remembrance of the hermit without supplying a fuller account of his early life.
The Dictionary of National Biography records a later act of remembrance: in 1374, Bishop Thomas Appleby directed an annual Mass on the island. The same entry rejects a later claim that Herbert belonged to the Benedictine order. His identity as a priest and hermit does not require assigning him that affiliation.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.