The St Cuthbert Gospel of St John (formerly known as the 'Stonyhurst Gospel') is a small Anglo-Saxon pocket gospel which belonged to Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. The book was discovered in 1104 when Cuthbert's tomb was opened so that his relics could be translated to a new shrine behind the altar of Durham Cathedral, and was kept with other relics until the Reformation, when it passed to collectors. The third Lord Litchfield gave it to the Jesuits. At only three and a half by five inches the Stonyhurst Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The text is the Gospel of John. It was written at the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey during the abbacy of Ceolfrith. The original tooled goatskin binding is the earliest surviving western binding in Europe, and the virtually unique survivor of Insular leatherwork. The manuscript has been owned since 1769 by the Society of Jesus (British Province) and was formerly in the library of Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. It has been on loan to the British Library since the 1970s where it has been (almost) permanently on display in its exhibition gallery (first in the British Museum building, and now at the new St Pancras site of the Library).
