The Venerable Bede By Brian Yablon

Bede 673-735 Wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished in 731.

His Life Born in AD 763. At age 7, entrusted to Benedict Biscop, founder of a monastery. Then transferred to Ceofirth, Abbot at Jarrow. Bede spent the rest of his life in the monastery.

Growing Up He became a deacon at 19, and a priest at 30. He spent his time at choir, as a scholar, and a teacher.

His Intellect His religious commentary was internationally circulated. He wrote on nature: knew the earth was a sphere. had a sense of latitude and the annual movement of the sun into northern and southern hemispheres. He knew the moon influenced the tides.

Smart Guy! He wrote on calculating time, and his calculations helped the Church determine the date of Easter. He wrote a textbook on poetic meters for his students. He died after dictating a chapter of a book he was composing. His writings, virtually a summary of the learning of his time, consist of theological, historical, and scientific treatises. Like a modern scholar, he consulted many documents, discussed their relative reliability, and cited them as sources (very unusual for the time). His theological works are commentaries on the Scriptures in the light of the interpretations of the Church Fathers. He wrote biographic works such as the life of St. Cuthburt, the History of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. His Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, written in Latin prose, is a primary source for English history from 597-731. It gives the most thorough and reliable contemporary account of the triumph of Christianity and the growth of Anglo-Saxon culture in England.

Why Venerable? Besides being very smart, his Ecclesiastical History of the English People is our primary source for understanding the beginnings of the English people and the coming of Christianity to England.

Honors Bede or Baeda was recognized as a saint in 1899. He was named Doctor of the Church, the only Englishman so honored. St. Bede’s Feast Day is May 27th.