Saint Neot (monk)

Neot was an English monk. Born in the first half of the ninth century, he lived as a monk at Glastonbury Abbey. He preferred to perform his religious devotions privately, and he later went to live an isolated life in Cornwall, near the village now called St Neot. His wisdom and religious dedication earned him admiration from the monks. He visited the Pope in Rome, who instructed him to found a monastery in Cornwall.
He did so, and because of his devotional qualities, he became famous, and attracted large numbers of pilgrims, and with them money. A number of miracles are said to have taken place involving him. Neot died on 31 July 877. His remains were kept at the monastery he had founded, and they attracted considerable numbers of pilgrims.
About 975 AD a monastery was founded at Eynesbury, and in order to increase the lucrative visits of pilgrims, Neot's remains were abstracted from Cornwall without permission, and lodged at Eynesbury. The anticipated public attention followed, and the district around the priory and monastery became known as St Neots: that is the name of the chief town there now. Controversy arose later as to whether Neot's remains were truly at the Priory, but this was confirmed by Anselm, the Prior of the French Abbey of our Lady of Bec, in Normandy, which was the superior institution to Eynesbury and St Neots after the Norman Conquest. Anselm took Neot's jawbone back to Bec.
During the reign of King Henry VIII, the Dissolution of the Monasteries took place and the priory and monastery at St Neots were probably destroyed. No further report is made of the location of Neot's remains to this day. He is remembered by the names of the town of St Neots and the Cornish village of St Neot; the parish church of Poundstock in Cornwall was also dedicated to him until 1970. The parish church in St Neot has a medieval stained glass window depicting the miracles. His feast day is 31 July.

Early life

Neot was born into a minor branch of the West Saxon royal house, in the first half of the ninth century, somewhere in Wessex. Neot's father was named Ethelwulph. In early life he was under pressure to become a soldier, but when he was old enough, he devoted himself instead to a religious life. As a young man therefore, he became a novice monk, living in Glastonbury Abbey, about the middle of the ninth century. He was extremely studious.
He is likely to have been given an Anglo-Saxon name by his parents, but this is not recorded. The word neophyte was commonly used at the time for individuals who had newly undertaken religious vows, and Gorham speculates that he might have been called "Neophytus", the Latin form of neophyte, at the monastery by monks who noticed his application to religiosity. In time, this might have been abbreviated to "Neotus", the Latin form of the name by which we know him now.
He was admired for his literary attainments by the other monks; and he was known for his humility and religious devotion. In addition to the religious observances prescribed by the monastery, he often awoke in the middle of the night and went to the chapel secretly to pray, in the disguise of a penitent, returning at dawn to continue the ordinary monastic routine. In due course he was admitted to Holy orders, and later he was made Sacristan of the Abbey. The fame of his scholarship and devotion attracted many pilgrims from all parts of the country, who went to Glastonbury to receive the benefit of his wisdom.
It was while he was at Glastonbury that the miracle of the door lock, described below, took place.

Becoming a hermit

Neot's wish to do his additional devotional prayer privately shows that he wanted to avoid deriving pleasure from the approval of others. As Gorham puts it, "Under a strong feeling of the danger of popular applause, he determined to retire from this public station, and to lead the life of an anchoret in some less frequented spot". An anchoret is someone who retires from ordinary life, and lives in seclusion for religious reasons.
Neot travelled from Glastonbury to live near a remote village in Cornwall; at the time the village was known as Hamstoke. The location Neot chose was surrounded by dense woodland in hilly terrain. Neot took with him one man, named Barius, as a servant. He spent seven years at this place; despite his wish to avoid public attention, the tiny community of Hamstoke became known as Neotstoke or Neot-stow during this time. He lived as if he was a novice in religion; he macerated his body by fastings, by watchings, by prayers, because he had not lived hitherto in any hermitical strictness.
When seven years had passed, Neot visited the Pope in Rome, to seek instructions about his future. He evidently intended to withdraw further from the world, but the Pope dissuaded him from that course, and told him to return to Cornwall and to "scatter the word of God among the people". Neot returned to where he had been living and founded a monastery there, and gathered together some religious men, over whom he was made Abbot.

King Alfred's visits

is said to have been a frequent visitor to Hamstoke where Neot had withdrawn from his celebrity status at Glastonbury. In the year 867, Alfred was on a hunting expedition in the area; he turned aside to the Church at Ham-Stoke, where St Guerir was in residence. Alfred remained there for some time prostrate in prayer, imploring freedom from some severe disease with which he was afflicted. When he left, it was not long before the King was free of the illness. This was believed to be as a result of the holiness of the place in which his prayers had been offered. Neot seems not to have been in residence at the time of this visit by Alfred, and Whitaker says that the cure of Alfred's illness prompted Neot's adoption of the place as his residence.
Later, when Neot was installed as Abbot, Alfred made several visits. Neot is said to have repeatedly rebuked the King for his unbridled ambition. He warned that Alfred might expect greater misfortunes from the Danish invasions. Alfred had failed, Neot said, to attend to his people's complaints and petitions.

Neot's death

After his journey to Rome and his return to Neotstoke, Neot now remained there for the rest of his life. In the year 877 he became ill with a progressive illness described as "languor" and sensing the approach of death, he took the holy communion.

Having refreshed his spirit by a participation of the emblems of his Saviour's death, like a faithful shepherd he addressed his own little flock. He exhorted them to live in peace, and spoke much of the means by which the salvation of the soul might be promoted. He then committed his soul to the mercy of the Almighty, and breathed out his spirit in the midst of psalmody and prayers.

He died on 31 July 877.
31 July is widely quoted as his Saint's Day.
However Skeat gives his day as October 28. and Saunders explains:
That was the date of his death and his "principal festival"; "Afterwards his festival was observed on October 28th, the day of the translation of his relics from Cornwall into Huntingdonshire, and he is still venerated on that day in the calendar of the Universal Church.
He was buried in the Church which he himself had built, upon the site of the more ancient Chapel dedicated to St Guerir. Seven years later, a larger and more appropriate building had been made by the monks of Neotstoke, and Neot's body was reinterred at the north side of the altar.
Whitaker had written that "When Neot died he was buried at the monastery. About sixty years after his death, about the year 936, his remains were taken inside, at first to a side-chapel, and then to the nave, while much of the monastery and the accompanying church were demolished and rebuilt." but Gorham, writing later, decidedly contradicts that.
The monastery that Neot had founded declined in importance after his death, and in fact the lands were later seized by the Earl of Morton. It is likely that in the reign of William the Conqueror the building was demolished entirely. No trace of it remains, nor is the location known.

Eynesbury Priory founded and Neot's remains transferred there

About the year 975 a priory was founded in Eynesbury, close to the River Great Ouse in what is now Huntingdonshire. A nobleman and landowner named Leofric and his wife Leofleda were the creators of the priory on their land. It was essential to add prestige and status to their new priory; the objective was to attract pilgrims, and their money. This meant selecting a notable holy person as their patron, and Neot was their choice. The commercial possibilities would be even greater if some physical relics could be acquired, and legend has it that Leofric and Leofleda decided to acquire those of Neot. Legend continues that Neot's bones were stolen from Cornwall, and brought to Eynesbury where they were placed in a shrine at the priory.
The priory structure was wooden, located in what is now St Neots, but at that time was considered to be part of Eynesbury. The locality already had a small population.
The official Warden of Neot's shrine secretly decamped from Cornwall with the treasure with which he had been entrusted. He left Neot-Stoke on St Andrew's day, 30 November, he reached Eynesbury on 7 December. Neot's remains were kept in the residence of Earl Alric at Eynesbury for a short time, as the Priory had not yet been constructed. The year of this event seems not to have been recorded, but must have been several years after Neot's death in 877 AD and well before the presumed destruction of the Eynesbury priory by the Danes in 1010 AD.
Stevenson in reviewing the work of other historians states in passing, "The date of the transference was, however, not 974, but about 1000."
Returning to events at the time:

In the meantime, the inhabitants of Neot-Stoke, having understood that the Warden was missing, and having suspected the fraud, flocked to the Shrine of their Saint to inspect the sacred Chest. On finding that their invaluable treasure was gone, they were filled with self-reproach at their own carelessness, and with indignation at the infidelity of their servant. Having armed themselves with such weapons as they could procure, they sought the fugitive among the neighbouring woods, hills and valleys. After much waste of time and fruitless labor, having obtained information respecting the road by which he had fled, a party of the principal inhabitants traced him to Eynesbury.

Restoration of the stolen property having been in vain demanded, their rage became excessive. From bribes and threats, they were about to proceed to violence; and blood would have been shed, had not the royal authority interposed to quell this disturbance.

King Edgar sided with Leofric and Leofleda, and actually sent soldiers to ensure that the Cornishmen went home, empty-handed.