The Venerable Bede (673-735)
St
Bede was a monk, an historian and a scholar whose delight it was to
impart to others something of his great knowledge, and he did so
with a humility and an ease that endeared him to his fellow monks.
Anno Domini
The 'lesser-known' saint this month is one whom we all 'know' inadvertently.
Every time we sign a
cheque or write a letter or glance at the calendar or check our mobile
to see what day it is, we owe a debt to the Venerable Bede, an English
monk who lived in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.
The practice of dividing time into BC ('Before Christ') and AD ('Anno
Domini') (in the year of the Lord) wasn't actually invented by Bede.
He, like the good scholar that he was, attributed this to Dionysius, a
Roman abbot, who lived between 500 and 550.
However the system lay
relatively unused for two hundred years until Bede started to popularize
it.
Soon it spread to Europe and was taken up by the Holy Roman Emperor
Charlemagne and later by the Popes.
Pupil of Benedict Biscop
Born in 672 in Jarrow,
Northumberland, Bede was entrusted to the care of the abbot Benedict
Biscop at the monastery of St. Peter in Wearmouth, near Sunderland in
northeastern England.
In 685 he moved to a new monastery in Jarrow and
records suggest that he never moved from there until his death, devoting
himself to the study of the scriptures and to the writing of history
with which he became more famous.
His works show that he had at his command all the learning of the
time. It was thought that the library at Jarrow had about 500 books,
making it one of the most extensive in the whole of England.
Bede's
mentor, Benedict, did his best to ensure that the library continued to
be well stocked and added to it from his travels within the realm and to
the continent of Europe.
Indeed, even within Bede's own lifetime he was
regarded as one of the most intelligent men of his age, and the Council
of Aachen in 835 referred to Bede as a contemporary doctor of the
Church.
Many of his commentaries on scripture were read extensively
during the Middle Ages.
He lived for eternity
Bede himself was a humble
man and said that he was always 'rejoicing to serve the Supreme Loving
Kindness'.
Yet while he made his name as a writer of history, he lived
for eternity and wanted to use his writings to help men reach a happy
eternity.
'Many a learned man will be found at last among the lost and
many a simple soul that has kept God's commandments will shine among the
apostles and doctors,' he wrote.
It was this standard which guided his historical writings. He did not
actually begin writing until he was ordained a priest at the age of
thirty and then only at the behest of Ceolfrid, an abbot, whom he
revered.
His effort then for the rest of his life was to bring to his
fellow countrymen the teachings of the four great Western doctors:
Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose and Gregory.
A modern historian has praised his contribution: 'First among English
scholars, first among English theologians, first among English
historians, it is in the monk of Jarrow that English literature strikes
its roots. In the six hundred scholars who gathered around him for
instruction, he is the father of our national education.' His access to
the great library of Jarrow ensured that his research and study of the
sources was as comprehensive as it could be at the time.
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Undoubtedly Bede's major work was The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
It took him thirty years to complete and it is a mixture of history and
hagiography (stories of the saints). In the first twenty-one chapters
Bede treats of the period from the time of Caesar to the mission of
Augustine to convert the English.
Bede includes in his text of this
later event an analysis of the correspondence between Pope St. Gregory
and Augustine on this issue and other various moral questions. Such
detail and scholarship was unknown at that time.
Bede too, was always scrupulous in recording the sources of his
information - and in asking those who copied and edited his work to
preserve these references (a practice which they did not always obey).
Even today modern scholars regard his History as the authoritative account of Christianity in England from its inception to Bede's own time.
A man of one place
Bede never moved any further
than a fifty-mile radius from his monastery. He was much loved and
revered by his own community.
Although writing was his main vocation, he
delighted in imparting to others something of his great knowledge and
he did so with a humility and an ease which endeared him to his fellow
monks.
It was they who kept vigil during his final illness. He himself
continued to pray and work right up to the last moment.
Death and feastday
Cuthbert, a student, relates
how he completed dictation of a translation of the Gospel of St. John on
the day of his death, the feast of the Ascension, 735, after which he
supposedly fell to the floor and passed quietly away.
He was buried in
Jarrow initially but his remains now reside in Durham Cathedral having
been moved there in 1370.
The title 'Venerable' began to be applied within a couple of
generations of his death as the influence of his writings spread.
However it wasn't until 1899 that Pope Leo XIII gave him the title
'Doctor of the Church'.
His feast day is kept on 25th May each year.