Guthlao, St

Guthlao, ST., a Mercian saint, who died in 714. His early life was a wicked one, he even being the leader of a band of robbers; but, abandoning his evil ways at the age of 24, he retired to the monastery of Repton, where he learned to read, and studied the lives of the hermit fathers. He then took up his abode on the desolate isle of Croyland, where, we are told, his temptations and trials paralleled those of St. Anthony, but acquired for him extraordinary favors and consolations from God. He died at the age of 47, and his sanctity, according to the legend, wrought posthumous miracles, which brought about the erection of the abbey of Croyland, famed for its libraries and seminaries and the story of Turketel (q.v.), abbot thereof in 948. See Life of Guthlac, by Felix of Croyland, in Mabillon's Acta Sanctor. Ord. St. Benedict, iii, .963-284. — Butler, Lives etc., April 11; Jamieson, Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 63-4; Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. (Anglo-Saxon Period), p. 246-9. (J.W.M.)