Robert of Knaresborough

Robert of Knaresborough (St Robert, born Robert Flower, 24 September 1218) making him a myroblyte saint.

Life

He was born Robert Flower (Floure or Fleur) in York, the son of Touk Flower, mayor of York, around 1160.

Very early in his life he became a sub-deacon and a novice at the Cistercian Newminster Abbey, but he stayed there only a few months. Having his hermitage destroyed for the second time, this time by the forces of law and order under William de Stuteville, Robert returned to the cave at Knaresborough, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Although living as a recluse, his piëty soon attracted followers and gifts from local benefactors, gifts that included land alongside the river. A number of stories of St Robert exist both in Latin and early English verse. One concerns his complaining about the King's deer eating his crops. Sir William, making fun of the saint, invites Robert to catch the offending beasts. Robert manages not only to herd the deer into his barn as if they were a tame flock of sheep but also harnesses them to his plough and sets them to work.

Robert died on 24 September 1218. Before his death, St Robert established an order of Trinitarian Friars at Knaresborough Priory, but he warned them that, when his time came, the monks of Fountains Abbey would try to carry his body away to their own establishment. He urged his followers to resist them, which they did, and so St Robert was buried in his chapel cut from the steep rocky crags by the river, where, it was said, an oil flowed from his tomb; pilgrims came from near and far to be healed by it.

St Robert's Cave

Robert lived in various places in the vicinity of Knaresborough before taking up residence in a cave by the river Nidd (then known as St Giles' Priory). It is said that King John visited him and Trinitarian friars also venerated him. His brother Walter, then Mayor of York, came and paid for some new buildings, including a chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross. The floorplan of this can still be seen alongside Robert's cave in Knaresborough. An 1850s OS map marks a "Cold Bath" near the York Road, as described by Calvert, and this site was connected by a track to St Robert's cave and chapel to the south-west.

The Monkswell business park was built on the site of St Robert's well or Cold Bath, where a well shaft preserves the site of the spring that fed it. Visitors drop coins (as well as litter) through the metal grid that covers the wellshaft.

Towards the end of his life, pilgrims flocked to see Robert to seek spiritual guidance and to be healed of physical ailments. Although Robert was not a Trinitarian, By the time of his death, this following had become a cult, after which management was adopted by the Trinitarian Order,

Veneration The earliest religious order to venerate Robert was likely the Cistercians, recorded in the thirteenth century text MS Harley 3775. The Trinitarian Order too venerated Robert, as well as recording his life multiple times. The three records known were written in Latin prose, Latin verse and Middle English verse. Both orders portrayed his life uniquely based on his ties to their own tradition: the Cistercians emphasising Robert's hermetic nature; the Trinitarian emphasising his charismatic nature. Trinitarians recorded two separate interpretations of Robert's life: the first meant to be circulated internally within the order, minimising his care for the poor and emphasising his spirituality; the other intended to be circulated outside of the order, emphasising his charity work, and encouraging others to take up a similar lifestyle.

Acclaimed as a saint through popular acclaim, neither the Church of England nor the Roman Catholic Church have officially canonised St Robert. His feast day is the anniversary of his death, the 24th of September. Seven stained-glass panels of his life, originally from Dale Abbey, survive at St Matthew's Church in Morley, Derbyshire.