Happy Feast of Saint Bede!

Saint Bede was born in Northumbria in 672 or 673. Born on lands belonging to the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in present-day Tyne and Wear, Bede was sent to Monkwearmouth at the age of seven and later joined Abbot Ceolfrith at Jarrow, both of whom survived a plague that struck in 686, an outbreak that killed a majority of the population there. 

Although he spent most of his life in the monastery (in self-isolation with his family of monks) in a remote part of Britain on civilisation’s edge, his scholarship enriched the world and ours by helping to establish Christianity in the West. Bede is a well-known author, teacher, and scholar. His most famous work (still in print!), the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, gained him the title "The Father of English History".

Saint Bede recalled later on that he “wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture; and…I always took delight in learning or teaching, or writing..” He wrote twenty-five commentaries on the Bible, always striving to uncover the spiritual meaning of the text. During the Lent before he died, Bede worked on  translating the Gospel of Saint John into English, completing it the day he died. This was so that he could “break the word to the poor and unlearned”, but sadly these translations are no longer around. 

He died in 735.

Saint Bede, pray for us.