DURHAM Cathedral is inviting the public to celebrate the arrival of a facsimile version of the Lindisfarne Gospels today.

The high-tech replica of the 1,300-year-old manuscript, produced by experts in Switzerland, was commissioned by the British Library, where the original gospels remain in the permanent collection.

Copies are being presented to both Durham Cathedral, home to the gospels until Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, and to the Heritage Centre at Lindisfarne, Northumberland, where they were produced by Eadfrith and other monks at the priory in memory of St Cuthbert.

A simultaneous special exhibition, featuring the original manuscript, also opens at The British Library, at the weekend.

The Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels runs for the next six months at the library, in London.

Lord Eatwell, chairman of The British Library, is the guest of honour at a service of thanksgiving and dedication of the replica copy of the gospels, at the cathedral today.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the service, starting at 2.30pm, which features a Gospel Procession and readings in the original Latin, and old and modern English.

The facsimile can be viewed by the public in the cathedral Chapter House, tomorrow and Sunday. There will also be free entry to the cathedral treasury and the exhibition Building the Cathedral, as well as to the Monks' Dormitory.

Customers to the cathedral's Undercroft Restaurant can also taste a piece of 'Cuthbert's Pie' free with every hot or cold drink purchased over the weekend.

The gospels can be viewed in the Chapter House from 10am to 4pm tomorrow and between 12.30pm and 4pm on Sunday.