Neot (died 31 July 877) 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 (in what is now the town of Saint Neots), 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.
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.
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 (or anchorite) 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 is said to have been a frequent visitor to Hamstoke (or Neotstoke) 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 (Viking) invasions. Alfred had failed, Neot said, to attend to his people's complaints and petitions.
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 (stretching forth his hands towards heaven) breathed out his spirit in the midst of psalmody [the singing of psalms] and prayers.
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.