The Vita Sancti Cuthberti (English: "Life of Saint Cuthbert") is a prose hagiography from early medieval Northumbria. It is probably the earliest extant saint's life from Anglo-Saxon England, and is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert (died 687), a Bernician hermit-monk who became bishop of Lindisfarne. Surviving in eight manuscripts from Continental Europe, it was not as well read in the Middle Ages as the prose version by Bede. It was however Bede's main source for his two dedicated works on Cuthbert, the "Metrical Life" and the "Prose Life". It was completed soon after the translation of Cuthbert's body in 698, at some point between 699 and 705. Compiled from oral sources available in Bernicia at the time of its composition, the Vita nonetheless utilized previous Christian writing from the Continent, particularly Gregory the Great's Dialogi and Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini, as powerful influences. The name of the author is not known, though he was a monk of the monastery of Lindisfarne. It is often called the Anonymous Life to distinguish it from the "Prose Life" and the "Metrical Life" of Bede. There are four modern editions of the Anonymous Life, the latest by historian Bertram Colgrave. Background and sources Written just after or possibly contemporarily with Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae ("Life of Saint Columba"), the Anonymous Life is the first piece of Northumbrian Latin writing and the earliest piece of English Latin hagiography. This is an honour sometimes given to the anonymous Vita of Gregory the Great written at Whitby, though the date of 710 attributed to the latter by historian R. C. Love (in contrast to a date between 680 and 704) makes it later than the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert. The work is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert (), sometime Melrose monk, hermit of Farne and bishop of Lindisfarne who died on 20 March 687. In common with Irish saints of the period, the Anonymous Life depicts the Bernician saint in the mold of Martin, bishop of Tours (died 397), who like Cuthbert successfully combined the role of hermit and bishop. The Anonymous Life appears to have been particularly influenced by the example of Martin in its portrayal of Cuthbert's pastoral and healing activities. It was commissioned by Bishop Eadfrith (died 721), the bishop famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels who also commissioned Bede's Prose Life of the saint. The