He was born around 681 possibly in Devon or Cornwall, or more probably in Chidham near Bosham, about 25 miles from Steyning. His life was one of simple filial piety and charity...
According
to legend, he was a shepherd who had to care for his paralysed mother after his
father's death. Due to their poverty, he built a one-wheeled cart or wheelbarrow
(with a rope from the handles over his shoulders taking part of the weight) in
which he moved her around with him.
They set
out east from his home and, when the rope broke, he made a new one, deciding that
if the rope broke again he would take it as a sign from God to stop at that
place and build a church. The rope broke at the place now called Steyning.
After building a hut to accommodate his mother and himself, he began work on
the church (St Andrew's, Steyning). As the church was nearing completion and St
Cuthman was having difficulty with a roof-beam, a stranger showed him how to
fix it. When Cuthman asked his name, he replied: "I am he in whose name
you are building this church." This church was certainly in existence by
857, for we know that King Ethelwulf was buried there in that year.
Here he
died and was buried. King Edward the Confessor handed over responsibility for
the Steyning church to the monks of Fécamp in
Normandy; they enlarged the church, but took
the saint’s remains back to their French abbey to be enshrined. He died at an
unknown date in the 8th century. A local cult of his sainthood predates the
Norman Conquest.