Ecumenical Commemoration
Priest, Monk of Jarrow, & Doctor of the Church
May 25 · d. 735
also known as The Venerable Bede
Bede was a Northumbrian monk-priest whose Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) established him as the father of English history and one of the greatest scholars of the early medieval West. He spent his entire life — from the age of seven — at the twin monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, producing an extraordinary body of exegetical, scientific, hagiographic, and historical work. Declared a Doctor of the Church in 1899, he is the only Englishman to hold that title.
Cuthbert's Letter describes Bede's final days with unusual circumstantial detail: Bede working urgently to complete his John translation, distributing small personal gifts (pepper, napkins, incense) to his fellow monks, and dying while singing the Gloria Patri on Ascension Eve. The account has the ring of genuine eyewitness memory rather than hagiographic convention.
Bede's famous Death Song — 'Before that inevitable journey, no one becomes wiser in thought than he needs to be' — is preserved in the Letter and is one of the earliest surviving pieces of Old English poetry. Its attribution to Bede on his deathbed is about as well attested as any early medieval quotation can be.
The title 'Venerable' was applied to Bede from at least the ninth century. A popular medieval legend attributed it to an angel completing an epitaph that a monk had left unfinished — 'Hic sunt in fossa Bedae... ossa' ('Here in this grave are the bones of Bede...') was completed overnight to 'Bedae Venerabilis ossa.' This is pure legend with no early attestation.
Bede was born around 673 in Northumbria. At seven he was entrusted to the care of Abbot Benedict Biscop at the monastery of Wearmouth, later transferring to the sister house at Jarrow under Abbot Ceolfrith. He was ordained deacon at nineteen and priest at thirty — both unusually early, suggesting exceptional ability and character.
Bede never traveled far from Jarrow. His world was the monastic library that Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith had assembled through multiple journeys to Rome — one of the finest collections in Western Europe. From this library Bede produced a corpus of work that shaped medieval learning across the entire Latin West.
His biblical commentaries, covering much of both Testaments, were widely copied and influenced exegesis for centuries. His De Temporum Ratione (725) established the system of dating events from the Incarnation (AD/BC) that became universal in Western chronology. His hagiographic works included Lives of Cuthbert (verse and prose) and a history of the abbots of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731), completed four years before his death, is his masterpiece. It tells the story of Christianity in Britain from the Roman period to Bede's own time with a method remarkable for its era: Bede names his sources, distinguishes levels of testimony, acknowledges uncertainty, and attempts to reconcile conflicting accounts. The work established the model for English historical writing and remains the indispensable source for the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England.
Bede's final days are described in a moving letter by his student Cuthbert (not to be confused with the bishop-saint). Bede spent his last weeks translating the Gospel of John into English and dictating a collection of excerpts from Isidore of Seville. He died on the evening of May 25, 735 — Ascension Eve — singing the Gloria Patri.
The holy and venerable Bede was born in England, and when he was seven years of his age he was delivered to Benet Biscop of Jarrow, for to learn, and after his death he was put to Ceolfrith, abbot of the same place, and learned and profited much in holy life and conning. And the nineteenth year of his age he was made deacon, of John, bishop of York, and in the thirtieth year of his age he was made priest. Then began he to write and to study and to expound holy writ, whereupon he made many noble homilies, and notwithstanding his great business, was daily in the service of religion, as in singing and praying in the church. He had great sweetness and liking to learn, to teach and to write; he wrote seventy eight books; he accounted the books and years from the beginning of the world in Historia Anglicana. In the book of Polycronicon is rehearsed that is wonder, that a man that is without use of school made so many noble volumes in so sober words in so little space of his life time. It is said he went to Rome for to show there his books, for to see them according to holy writ and to the lore of holy church, but hereof some doubt, and say that he never went to Rome. Also it is said that when he was blind he went about for to preach, and his servant that led him brought him whereas were many hopples of stones, to whom he made a noble sermon, and when he had all finished his sermon the stones answered and said, Amen.
Also it is said that he found a writing of three R's and three F's over the gate of Rome, which he expounded thus: The first R betokened regna, the second ruent, the third Rome, that is: Regna ruent Rome. And the first F betokened ferro, the second flamma, the third fame, that is: Ferro, flamma, famæque. Also pope Sergius wrote a letter to the abbot Ceolfrith and prayed for to have Bede come to Rome for to assoil certain questions that were there moved. Here is to be noted, that how noble and worthy the court of Rome held him, when so noble a court had need to have him for to declare and assoil the questions that were there moved. Also we ought to hold him noble and holy by the manner of his living and his teaching. He must needs be virtuous and eschew vices that was so well occupied in spending his wit and thought in expounding of holy writ, and his cleanness was much seen at his last end. For his stomach had indignation of meat seven weeks continually, and of drink, so that unnethe he might retain any meat, and was strait and short-breathed, but for all that he spared not the travail of lecture and of books, and every day among the detty travail of service and of psalms, he taught his disciples in lessons and in questions. He transiated S. John's Gospel into English, and said to his scholars: Learn you, my small children, whiles I am alive and with you; I wot not how long I shall abide with you, and alway among he said that saw of S. Ambrose: I have not so lived among you that me shames to live, neither me dreads to die, for we have a good Lord.
On night's time when he had no man to teach then would he devoutly be in prayers and thanking our Lord of all his gifts. The Tuesday tofore Ascension-day his death approached, and his feet began to swell; he was houseled, anointed and kissed his brethren, and prayed them all to remember him, and he gave to divers of his servants things that he had in privity. On the Ascension-day the hair was spread, and he laid him down thereon, and prayed for the grace of the Holy Ghost, and said: O king of bliss, and Lord of virtues, that have the prize and are this day styed up above all heavens, leave you us not fatherless, but send you in to us that behest of the Father, the ghost of soothfastness. And when he had ended that, he gave up the last breath with a sweet dour and savour, and there he was then buried, but the common fame tells that he now lies at Durham with S. Cuthbert.
There was a devout clerk, which laboured in his mind for to make his epitaph, and in no wise he could make true metre, wherefore on a time he went to the church and prayed God to give him conning to make a true verse. And after came unto his tomb and saw there written by an angel:
Hic sunt in fossa
Bedæ venerabilis ossa.
Then let us pray to this holy man that he pray for us, that after this life we may come to everlasting life.
Almighty God, you gave your servant Bede the Venerable special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
British (Received Pronunciation): Northumbria /nɔːrˈθʌmbriə/; Wearmouth-Jarrow /ˈwɪərmaʊθ ˈdʒæroʊ/; Venerabilis /ˌvɛnəˈrɑːbɪlɪs/
Readings for a Teacher of the Faith
Proverbs 3:13–26Psalm 119:89–1061 John 1:1–10Matthew 13:47–52