Apart from the remarkable Patrology of J. Quastefi, whose fourth volume, published in 1996 by the Institute Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, ends with Bede Venerabilis, there is no specialized approach to the personality of the Anglo-Saxon monk in a Patrology textbook, as Andrew Louth pertinently suggests in the epilogue to his monograph on St. John Damaschin, a contemporary of Bede Venerabilis. Saint Bede Feast Day has significant theological contributions.

Saint Bede Feast Day is 25 May. Born in 672 or 673 in Monkton at Wearmouth/Northumbria (now Northumberland, or Sunderland, County Durham), Bede the Venerable was one of the leading figures of the Christian West and is honored today as a saint by both the Orthodox Church (25 May) and the Catholic and Anglican Christian communities.

Joining the ranks of Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monks at the age of seven, the young Bede distinguished himself early as a theologian and historian, acquiring the elements of his knowledge in St Peter’s Monastery in Wearmouth, under the direct guidance (intellectual and spiritual) of Benedict Biscop Baducing, one of the organizers of Benedictine monastic life in Northumbria, and of Abbot Ceolfrid, also venerated as a saint in the West today as Saint Bede Feast Day, on 29 September.

Biography of Saint Bede

When was St. Bede born?

Saint Bede Feast Day is 25 May. St. Bede was ordained a deacon at the age of 19 and 30 and received the Holy Sacrament of the priesthood from St. John of Beverley, the holy bishop of Hexham (687), and in 705 of York. Bede loved church services and believed that if angels were present at services with the monks, then his place was there too. “If they did not see me among the monks, would they not ask, where is Bede?”

According to historical sources, Saint Bede was born in 0673 AD. After his birth, he became a miracle man. The appearance of St. Bede the Venerable in the history of England coincides with the completion of the Anglo-Saxon conversion to the Catholic Church, begun under St. Augustine of Canterbury in about 600 AD and completed under St. Theodore, a native Cilician, Archbishop of Canterbury (668-691). St. Bede the Venerable was his main collaborator in organizing and establishing a solid Christian intellectual culture in England.

St. Bede had in England the role of Cassiodorus in Italy, St. Isidor in Spain, and St. Gregory of Tours in France, of initiating his nation into the knowledge of ancient patristic Christianity and helping it to fully embrace the Church of Christ led even then by the Bishop of Rome.

What is Bede’s real name?

The name Bede in Saxon means prayer. Saint Bede, “the father of English learning” – as the historian Burke called him – died at the age of 63 in the monastery of Jarrow, England, after dictating the last page of his previous book and reciting the prayer “Gloria Pairi”: “Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever and ever. Amen.”

According to historical sources, St. Bede’s real name is Benedict Bishop West Saxon Bīeda. St. Bede was a church historian and recorded the history of Christianity in England up to the present day. The probable year of his birth is 673, and the place is Northumbria, somewhere near the town of Jarrow.

In the anonymously written Life of Ceolfrith, there is a mention of an incident involving the young Bede. The plague of 686 swept through Ceolfrith’s monastery, kidnapping most of the chanting monks from the church choir, leaving only the abbot and a boy he had as an apprentice alive. This young man “is now a priest in the same monastery and praises the wonderful deeds of the abbot, both in word and in writing, before all who wish to know them.”

What is the Venerable Bede famous for?

Saint Bede Feast Day is 25 May. In 735 St., Bede fell ill. Almost two weeks before Easter, he felt weak. He kept up his cheerfulness and taught his pupils daily lessons, after which he continued his day singing Psalms and praying prayers of thanksgiving to God. He often quoted St Ambrose: “I have not led a life of which I am ashamed among you, and I do not fear death, for God is Merciful” (Pauline, Life of St Ambrose, ch. 45).

According to the apocryphal writings, St. Bede is famous because, in addition to his lessons and Psalms, St. Bede was also working on an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of John and a book of quotations from the writings of St. Isidore of Seville (celebrated on April 4). On the Thursday before the Ascension, the saint’s breathing became increasingly labored, and his legs swelled. ‘Study quickly,’ he said to those who wrote after his dictation, ‘for I don’t know how long I can go on. The Lord may call me to Him at any moment.”

After Wednesday morning, at the third hour, a procession with the relics of the saints in the monastery was held, after which the brothers went to Mass, leaving Monk Wilbert with Bede. He remembered that there was still a chapter to be written from the book the Saint had dictated, but he did not want to disturb Bede at his dying hour. Then St. Bede said to him, “Don’t bother. Take the pen and write quickly.”

What is Bede the Venerable patron saint of?

The Anglo-Saxons had three elements that set them apart from the inhabitants of the old continent: the sea, isolationism and insularity. Sir Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, English writer, philosophical essayist and politician and member of the Tory Party, expressed these features very clearly.

St Bede the Venerable is declared to be the patron saint of children and schoolchildren. Thousands of churches are built in his name, millions of people bear the name of the great hierarch, and many social and professional categories have him as their patron.  Saint Bede Venerable Feast Day is 25 May.

Bereaved by the catastrophe, Ceolfrith decided that it was appropriate to sing the Psalms without antiphons, except for the services of the Lord’s Supper and Vespers. After a week of singing, he reverted to the version with the antiphons sung where it was their turn. 

What did St Bede do?

Bede began his apprenticeship as a pupil of St. Bishop Benedict, who was a monk at the renowned Lerins Monastery, and founded other monasteries himself. St Benedict brought with him to England many books from Lerins and other monasteries in Europe. This library helped Bede to write his own books, such as biblical commentaries, ecclesiastical history and hagiographies.

St. Bede was ordained a deacon at the age of 19, and at 30 received the Sacrament of the Priesthood from St. John of Beverley (7 May), Holy Bishop of Hexham (687), and in 705 of York. Bede loved church services and believed that if angels were present at Mass with the monks, then his place was there too. “If they did not see me among the monks, would they not ask, where is Bede?”.

Bede was not a very objective historian. For example, in the dispute with Celtic Christianity, he was somewhat on the side of the Romans. But he was nonetheless fair and well-researched. Book V, 24, gives us a clear insight into religious and secular life in ancient Britain. St Bede describes a world painted according to spiritual traditions very similar to those preserved by Orthodox Christians. 

Key Verse related to Saint Bede

“Christ is the Morning Star,
who, when the night of this world is past,
gives to his saints the promise of the light of life,
and opens everlasting day.”

Venerable Bede

Read also: What Made Pope Gregory so Great?

What was Bede taught as a child at the monastery?

Monasteries are the cultural focal points of Celtic England. Monks read and write, become prolific and develop an authentic Christian literature in the island space long before the Danish invasions. The probable year of his birth is 673, and the place, Northumbria, somewhere near Jarrow.

According to biblical sources, Bede was taught as a child at the monastery that the true faith is that of Jesus Christ. Who follows Jesus’ life thread and proclaims him as the true Messiah. He was taught that to serve God he must become a monk and dedicate his entire life to Christian missionary work. Bede was also taught to write the ecclesiastical history of the English nation.

He then went on a pilgrimage, stayed in Constantinople, then was called to Rome, where he worked in the papal chancery, and in 496 was ordained a priest. An exceptional theologian, he invented the dating system ‘of the birth of Christ’ in 525, at a time when the old chronology, invented by the emperor Diocletian, the persecutor of Christians, needed to be changed.

Why was Bede made a saint?

Pope Gregory II summoned him to Rome, but Bede begged him to leave him in the busy solitude of the monastery of Jarrow, from which he was only away for a few months, to found the school in York; from this school would later emerge the famous Alcuin, master at the court of Charles the Great, and founder of the first school in Paris. Saint Bede Feast Day has important historical theological contributions.

According to sources and apocryphal records, Bede the Venerable was declared a saint for his missionary work and because at the age of 7, Bede was sent to St Peter’s Monastery in Wearmouth to be tutored and educated by St Benedict Biscop (celebrated 12 January). He was then taken to the new monastery of St Peter, established in Jarrow in 682, where he remained until his death.

The greatest satisfactions of his life were expressed by him in three words: discere, docere, scribere: to know himself, to teach others, and to write. Most of his written works are about teaching. He wrote extensively in the fields of philosophy, history, arithmetic, grammar, astronomy, music and medicine, following the example of the Spaniard Isidor of Seville. 

How did St. Bede die?

Before his death, Wilbert said to him, “Father, there is one sentence left unfinished.” To which the Saint replied, “Very well, write it down.” Then the young monk said, “Now it’s finished”. After singing “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit”, St. Bede fell asleep in the Lord whom he loved dearly.

St. Bede died at the age of 63 in the monastery of Jarrow, England, after dictating the last page of his last book and reciting the prayer “Gloria Pairi”: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

At the ninth hour before his death, Bede stopped and told Wilbert to look in his chest for spices, incense and cloth and to call the priests of the monastery to give them to them. When they arrived, he spoke to each one individually, asking them not to forget him and to remember him in their prayers. Then he told them this: “The time of my departure is near and my soul longs to see the beauty of Christ my King”.

Where was St Bede buried?

It was the eve of the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, 25 May 735. “I have lived long enough,” he said when he felt death approaching, “and God has granted me a good life. Bede, born in 672 into a family of simple laborers, completed his spiritual and cultural formation in two Benedictine monasteries, Wearmouth and Jarrow, where he was an ordained priest at the age of 22.

According to historical sources, St Bede’s body was first buried in the south doorway of the monastery church, and later moved to the altar. Today, his relics rest in Durham Cathedral in the Galileia Chapel. 

Although St Bede was celebrated on 25 May, the eve of the Ascension, he is celebrated on 27 May because the feast of St Augustine of Canterbury is set for the 26th. His body was originally buried in the south doorway of the monastery church and later moved to the altar.

Primary Takeaways

• St. Bede is a theologian who expounds his knowledge in a clear and fluent language, understandable to all. Bede is one of the fathers of the culture that followed after him, exerting, through the school of York and the school of Charles the Great, a decisive influence on the whole of European culture.
• St Bede is a saint of the Christian Church, and his dating system has been taken up in 731 by the Anglo-Saxon monk Bede the Venerable, who used it in his work “The Church History of the English People”, and then by the scholastic Alcuin of York.
• The Venerable Bede, himself was fond of calling himself “historicus verax”, historian of truth, aware that he had done a great service to the knowledge of truth.

Conclusion

Saint Bede Feast Day has important historical theological contributions on the beginnings of Christianity. Most of his written works deal with teaching. He wrote extensively in the fields of philosophy, history, arithmetic, grammar, astronomy, music and medicine, following the example of the Spaniard Isidor of Seville.

After dictating the last page of the “Comentarium in loannem” – “Commentary on the Gospel of the Holy Loan” – at the request of the secretary, he said to the monk who had finished writing: “now lift up my head and help me to turn my eyes towards the holy place where I was praying, for I feel a happy joy come over me”. Those were his last words. One of the great comets of human perfection is parting from our planet, having shown us that the Lord is the God of knowledge.

Quizlet about Bede The Venerable

Saint Bede

1 / 10

The Feast Day of Saint Bede The Venerable is __ May.

24

17

25

2 / 10

He was born in __.

455

698

673

3 / 10

Bede was born in ____.

Spain

Northumbria

Umbria

4 / 10

He was a ____.

bishop

pope

monk

5 / 10

His thread of life was about ___ years old.

45

62

79

6 / 10

He died in ___.

798

735

817

7 / 10

His nationality was ____.

Jewish

Irish

Roman

8 / 10

St Bede was also a ____.

scholar

writer

theologist

9 / 10

On the _____ before the Ascension, the saint’s breathing became increasingly labored and his legs began to swell.

Thursday

Monday

Tuesday

10 / 10

Saint Bede was ordained a deacon at the age of __.

19

43

21

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Bibliography

• Bede, S. (1845). The Biographical Writings and Letters of Venerable Bede. J. Bohn.
• Bede, S. (1890). The Old English version of Bede’s ecclesiastical history of the English people (No. 110). Early English Text Society.
• Gribomont, J. (1979). Saint Bede et ses dictionnaires grecs. Revue Bénédictine, 89(3-4), 271-280.
• SO. Bede, S. (1913). The ecclesiastical history of the English nation. Dent.
• Thacker, A. (2010). Bede and history. The Cambridge Companion to Bede, 170-89.