Modern day mosaic of Bede at the underpass near the bus station in Jarrow, just a few yards from where Bede lived
Celts to the Crèche
Day 23
December 7
The Venerable Bede
672/673-May 25, 735 AD
Icon of Bede. Writer of the icon is unknown
On this 23rd day of our journey with the Celts to the Crèche, we meet Bede who was a historian, theologian, monk, scholar, writer, scribe, and a person of deep faith in Christ who wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is his best known work. We know very little about his personal life except what he wrote in the last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History that was completed about 731.
He lived most of his life at the Wearmouth-Jarrow Monasteries in Northeast England. If it were not for Bede’s works, we would know very little of the early history of the English nation. You may desire to continue reading more about Bede or go on to the Meditation towards the end of this page.
His Life: Bede implies that he was in his fifty-ninth year in 731, which would give a likely birth date of about 672–673. He said that he was born “on the lands of this monastery,” referring to the two twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, but there is also a tradition saying that he was born at Monkton, two miles from the monastery at Jarrow. Bede says nothing about his parents, but he was likely from a Christian family of nobility from the area of Lindsey (Lincolnshire) that later was dissolved into Northumbria and sometimes into Mercia. Bede’s first abbot was Benedict Biscop,(see day 34 of Celts to the Crèche) and the names “Biscop” and “Beda” both appear in the Anglian Collection of Genealogies, which is a list of the early kings of Lindsey further suggesting that Bede came from a noble family. The name “Bede” was not a common one at the time.
Jarrow Hall (Bede Museum) formerly Bede’s World. photo taken Sept. 2014 (note: Update: Bede’s World that closed on Feb. 12, 2016 reopened in late 2016 as “Jarrow Hall Anglo Saxon Farm Village and Bede Museum”). Revisited October 2017, 2018
Early Life: At the tender age of seven, Bede was sent to the monastery of Monkwearmouth by his family to be educated by Benedict Biscop and later by Ceolfrith.
Worshipped at St. Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth, October 2017. The tower on the front of the church likely dates to the time of Bede.
Monkwearmouth’s sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year. Bede would have been surrounded by the finest manuscripts, pictures, relics, Roman furniture, and religious vestments as Benedict Biscop would often travel to Rome to choose the the very best items he could for his monastery and for it’s library. Interestingly, Bishop Ceolfrith commissioned three copies of the Bible to be written. Only one full copy remains and it is now known as the Codex Amiatinus. I saw this fantastic Bible in 2018 when it left it’s Italy home and was brought to the British Library for a short visit. It was overwhelming to see this Bible in person!
Jarrow Church: The dedication stone for the church has survived to the present day; it is dated 23 April 685, and as Bede would have been required to assist with menial tasks in his day-to-day life, it is possible that he helped in building the original church. It is wonderful to be in the Jarrow church in which Bede likely helped build, where he worshipped, and where he lived and wrote.
St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow, visited 2007, Sept. 2014, and Oct. 2017, 2018
Bede records that Benedict Biscop only wanted stone churches and buildings like those he saw in Rome versus the wooden churches of the Anglo-Saxons. To make that happen, Benedict brought over from Italy the finest Roman stonemasons and from Mainz, Germany the best glass artists for his new monastery. Benedict also brought over one of the finest cantors, Abbot John of the Roman monastery of St. Martin’s to teach his monks to sing and how to read outloud. The south wall of the Jarrow church was filled with pictures or figurines of the Gospels while pictures or figurines from the Revelation of John were displayed along the north wall. Bede said that the church was so filled with pictures and scenes from the life of Christ that even if one was unable to read, that they could understand the Gospel message.
Photo taken Oct. 2014. Copy of Dedication stone of St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow. The original stone is right above this, built high into the stone wall.
The dedication of the church of St. Paul on the 9th of the Kalends of May in the fifteenth year of King Egfrith and the fourth year of Ceolfrith, abbot, and with God’s help, founder of this church.
Stained Glass of St. Ceolfrith in St. Peter’s Church, Wearmouth. I worshipped with this congregation in October 2017
Plague: The very next year, in 686, plague broke out at Jarrow. The Life of Ceolfrith, written in about 710, records that only two surviving monks were capable of singing the full offices; one was Ceolfrith and the other a young boy, who according to the anonymous writer had been taught by Ceolfrith. The two managed to do the entire service of the liturgy until others could be trained. The young boy was almost certainly Bede, who would have been about 14.
Scriptorium: There must have been a large scriptorium at Jarrow as the famous 75 lb. Codex Amiantinus that was to be a gift for Pope Gregory II was likely produced there or at Wearmouth Abbey by St. Ceolfrith.
Codex Amiantinus that was produced by Ceolfrith while at Wearmouth or Jarrow. This is a page from the Bible that was based on the Vulgate Bible of Ezra the scribe. The only full sized reproduction was brought back to England and displayed at Bede’s World (now Jarrow Hall) in the Summer and Fall of 2014. The original Codex Amiatinus returned to England after 1300 years in October 2018 for an Anglo-Saxon exhibition at the British Library that continued through February 19, 2019. It was a magnificent and breath-taking display.
This Bible was handwritten from a copy of the Vulgate Bible. It is possible that the Jarrow scriptorium is where Bede did his writing also.
Ordination: In about 692, when Bede was 19, he was ordained a deacon by his diocesan bishop, John of Beverly (see Celts to the Creche day 12) who was Bishop of Hexham, and was later Bishop of York. Bishop John was trained in St. Hilda of Whitby’s monastery (see Celts to the Creche day 2), so Bede had this great Celtic influence. The canonical age for the ordination of a deacon was 25 so Bede’s early ordination may mean that his abilities were considered exceptional or that the minimum age requirement was waived after the monastery was decimated by the plague. In Bede’s thirtieth year (about 702), he became a priest, with the ordination again performed by Bishop John of Hexham.
Bede as a Writer: Bede was a prolific writer, penning over 60 books, most of which have survived. He was very concerned for the welfare of the English and wanted them to know how to read and write Latin to aid in their conversion to Christianity.
With a huge wooden carved statue of Bede at Jarrow Hall (formerly Bede’s World) in Jarrow. October 2017
In order to make the scripture accessible to his people, Bede worked at translating Latin works into English such as the Apostles Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Besides his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he also wrote the Lives of Saints such as Cuthbert and Felix; a book on martyrology; and many biblical works such as commentaries and exegesis on Samuel, Genesis, Ezra, Song of Songs, Proverbs, Acts, Luke, Mark, Epistles and Revelations. He even wrote sermons and poems. Bede is also credited with being one of the first to use the dating system of Anno Domini (A.D.) that was developed by Dionysius Exiguus in 525 A.D.Both Dionysius and Bede considered Anno Domini as commencing at the incarnation of Christ.
Bede in the Nuremburg Chronicle
Bede who lived his entire life at the monastery, rarely left it even to travel, but in 733, he took a trip to York to visit Ecgbert, the Bishop of York and he also went to the monastery of Lindisfarne where Æthelwald was Abbot then. At some point he visited the unknown monastery of a monk named Wicthed, that he mentioned in a letter to that monk.
There must have been a large library at Jarrow for Bede to use for his research, that aided his writings. Bede also said that his research included personal interviews with religious leaders of his time that he knew. One of these interviews was likely with Adomnán, the 9th Abbot of Iona who was the biographer of St. Columba and who visited Ceolfrith when Bede was a youth. Another person who likely shared information with Bede was St. John of Beverley (also of Hexham and York) who had ordained Bede both as a deacon and a priest. St. John of Beverly would have been able to give firsthand information on St. Hilda of Whitby since he was trained by her. We are grateful that Bede included information on this great Abbess Hilda as otherwise her life might have been lost to history. Also, we only know about the shepherd Caedmon and his song about creation and how Hilda discovered him from Bede’s work.
The complete listing of Bede’s works can be found on Wikipedia: List of Bede’s Writings.
The Moore Bede is regarded by many as the earliest surviving manuscript of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. In the Cambridge University Library, Kk.5.16. Photo from Bedenet.com
Place of Resurrection: Bede died at about 62 years of age on Thursday, May 25/26, 735AD and was buried at Jarrow. Cuthbert (different than St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne), a disciple of Bede’s and later was the Abbot of Wearmouth Abbey wrote a letter to Cuthwin, describing Bede’s last days and his death. According to Abbot Cuthbert, Bede fell ill, “with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain,” before Easter. On Tuesday, two days before Bede died, his breathing became worse and his feet swelled.
He continued to dictate to a scribe, however, and despite spending the night awake in prayer he dictated again the following day. At three o’clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought, and distributed among the priests of the monastery “a few treasures” of his: “some pepper, and napkins, and some incense.” That night he dictated a final sentence to the scribe, a boy named Wilberht, and died soon afterwards. Cuthbert’s letter also relates a five-line poem in the vernacular that Bede supposedly composed on his deathbed, known as “Bede’s Death Song“.
Bede’s Tomb at Durham Cathedral in the Galilee Chapel, 2009, October 2017
Bede was buried at Jarrow, but his body was ‘translated’ (his relics were moved) from Jarrow to Durham Cathedral around 1020, where his body was placed in the same tomb with St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Later Bede’s remains were moved to a shrine in the Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral in 1370. The shrine was destroyed during the English Reformation, but his bones were reburied in the chapel. In 1831 his bones were dug up, and then reburied in a new tomb, which is still there.
It is interesting that during that opening of Bede’s tomb, that three casts were made of his skull. All three disappeared over time, but one has been discovered by Professor Jo Story, of the University of Leicester. She found it in 2015 among the collections of the Duckworth Laboratory in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge.
If not too morbid, a photo of a cast of Bede’s skull made in 1831 and found at Cambridge University in 2015.
Cast of back of skull with Bede’s name.
Jarrow Hall, formerly called Bede’s World in in the town of Jarrow is a must visit for anyone interested in Bede and that time period in history. It is an interactive museum filled with items about Bede and the two monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. It is next door to the ancient and historical Jarrow Church where each May the church brings in Anglo-Saxon scholars for the Jarrow Lecture to share about this fascinating period of history. Also Wearmouth has begun a lecture series with Anglo-Saxon scholars each year in August. The archaeologist for Jarrow was the famous Dr. Rosemary Cramp who often speaks at the Jarrow Lectures.
Bede’s Way. There is a 12 mile pilgrimage walk between Wearmouth and Jarrow represents an old pilgrims way between the two twin 7th century monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow. Every year there is the Bede’s Way Annual Pilgrimage on a Saturday at the end of June nearest Petertide beginning and ending with a short pilgrims’ prayer service.
Stained Glass of Bede at Jarrow Hall (formerly known as Bede’s World)
Meditation
Feast Day May 25 (even though his death date is May 26)
As we are a little over half-way through our Advent journey, we discover that we too are like a multitude of Mary’s, pregnant with the Christ child, anxiously awaiting the birth of this Messiah anew in our lives. It is our prayer during this pilgrimage that Jesus the Christ will be born anew into our world and into our lives. May the light and love of Christ so penetrate our souls and our very lives that we become lighthouses wherever we continue our life pilgrimage.
May we like Bede be both deeply spiritual and also studious, using our mind and our heart to be a manger for Christ to be born.
As an ordained minister, what an incredible experience to stand behind the Communion Table at St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow where Bede and Abbot Ceolfrith worshipped. Sept. 2014, 2017.
I am sitting on the Bishop’s Chair in St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow. Sept. 2014 and was able to sit in this chair again in October 2017.
Standing near the Chancel Area, St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow, Sept. 2014, visited again 2017.
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© Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org, 2018-2029. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org (Celts to the Creche) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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Some Resources:
Annual Wearmouth Lecture information on St. Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth Facebook page.
Bede and His World: Jarrow Lectures, 2 vols. 1958-1993.Aldershot, Hampshire, England/ Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1994.
Bede’s Lost Skull Cast’ rediscovered‘. BBC. 5 September 2015.
Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Website from Fordham University.
Bede. The Holy Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. Fordham University. Medieval Sourcebook.
“Bede,” by Roger Ray in Lapidge, Blaire, Keynes, & Scragg, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
Bede’s Way Walk.This is a 12 mile pilgrimage between the twin St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s churches.
Blair, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Blair, Peter Hunter. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
_____________.The World of Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Bragg, Melvin with guests Michelle Brown, Sarah Foot, and Richard Gameson. BBC: In Our Time: The Venerable Bede. Audio only on IDMB. November 24, 2005. (scholars discuss Bede’s life and work)
The British Library. Anglo-Saxons Kingdoms Exhibition to Open in 2018. (Codex Amiatinus returned to England in October 2018 at the British Library for the first time in 1300 years along with an exhibition of St. Cuthbert’s Gospel.) It was an excellent exhibit!
__________. Bede.
British Library. The First Voyage of the Codex Amiatinus. June 4, 2018
__________. Tiberius Bede. (very early manuscript held in the British Library of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History)
Brown, Michelle P. “Bede’s life in context” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
_____________. How Christianity Came to Britain and Ireland. Oxford, UK: Lion Hudson, 2006.
chronicaminora.wordpress.com/category/bede/ (a blog of a Ph.D. student who is working on Bede for their dissertation)
Codex Amiatinus Bible Returns to Its Home in Jarrow. BBC. 15 May 2014.
Colgrave, Bertram. The Venerable Bede and His Times. Jarrow Lecture, 1958.
____________, trans. Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert: A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede’s Prose Life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1940, 1985.
Cramp, Rosemary. Meet the Archaeologist: Rosemary Cramp. July 4, 2014.
Dales, Douglas. Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Cambridge, UK: James Clarke & Co., 1997.
DeGregorio, Scott, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
De Hamel, Christopher. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. New York: Penguin Random House, 2016. (there is a great chapter on the Codex Amiatinus).
Duckett, Eleanor S. Anglo-Saxon Saints and Scholars. New York: McMillan, 1947.
Durham Cathedral. The Book of Bede with Richard Gameson. February 10, 2011. YouTube.
Durham World Heritage Site. The Venerable Bede.
Fletcher, Eric. Benedict Biscop. Jarrow Lecture, 1981.
Foot, Sarah. Bede’s Church. Jarrow Lecture, 2012.
________. “Church and monastery in Bede’s Northumbria” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Goffart, Walter. The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D.550-800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
“Benedict Biscop” in blog: Heavenfield. by Michelle Ziegler, August 2010.
Higham, Nicholas J. and Martin J. Ryan. The Anglo-Saxon World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. (Article in the book by Martin J. Ryan on “The Venerable Bede” in Sources and Issues 3A is insightful.)
Historic UK. The Venerable Bede.
Hume, Basil. Footprints of the Northern Saints. London, UK: Darton, Longman, & Todd, Ltd., 1996.
Huntley, Dana. “The Venerable Bed-England’s First Great Historian.” British Heritage Travel. October 29, 2020 (originally published June 2006).
Jarrow Hall Anglo Saxon Farm Village and Bede Museum. (Note: formerly “Bede’s World”)
Jarrow Lectures. Parish of Jarrow and Simonside. (A chronological listing of all the lectures through the years).
Jarrow Lectures. 2 vols.
Leyser, Henrietta. Beda: A Journey Through the Seven Kingdoms in the Age of Bede. London: Head of Zeus, 2015.
Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 3rd ed. 1991.
O’Brien. Conor. The Venerable Bede: recent research. November 23, 2108. Historical Association.
McClure, Judith. “Bede and the Life of Ceolfrid, ” Peritia, Vol. 30. 1984, p. 71-84.
Parkes, M. B. The Scriptorium of Wearmouth-Jarrow. Jarrow Lecture, 1982.
Rollason, David. “The cult of Bede” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
___________. Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK. Basil Blackwell, 1989.
Smart, Ian Hunter, Mavis Dry, and Geoff Green. The Royal Ancient & Monastic Parish Church of St. Paul, Jarrow. UK: Temprint. nd.
“St. Bede” by Dom Alberic Stacpoole in Benedict’s Disciples, edited by D. H. Farmer. Leominster, UK: Fowler Wright Books Ltd, 1980.
St. Peter’s Church, Wearmouth, UK.
Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 3rd ed., 1971, 2001 reissue.
Sunfm 103.4. Historic Project Finished at Sunderland Church. 04/11/17 (new stained glass honoring Bede installed in Bede’s Bakehouse and Cafe, St.Peter’s Church, Sunderland) where first stained glass was installed in England in 674AD).
Turner, Sam, Sarah Semple, and Alex Turner. Wearmouth & Jarrow: Northumbrian monasteries in an historic landscape. Hatfield, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2013.
Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Warren, Brenda G. The Venerable Bede: Delighting in our Giftedness. July 5, 2018.
Wilson, David M., ed. The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Wood, Ian. “The foundation of Bede’s Wearmouth-Jarrow” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Wormald, Patrick. “Bede and Benedict Biscop” in Famulus Christi:Essays in Commemoration of the Thirteenth Centenary of the Birth of the Venerable Bede. G. Bonner, ed., London, 1976.
____________. Bede and the Conversion of England: The Charter Evidence. Jarrow Lecture, 1984.
Yorke, Barbara. Rex Doctissimus: Bede and King Aldfrith of Northumbria. Jarrow Lecture, 2009.
__________. The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c.600–800. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.
