The Venerable Bede (May 25)

Monk at Jarrow, Scholar, Historian 735

Recorder of History

Ecclus. 39:1-10; Ps. 78; 1 Cor. 1:18-25; John 21:20-25

‘[The scribe] seeks out the wisdom of all the ancients, and is concerned with prophecies; he preserves the sayings of the famous, and penetrates the subtleties of parables . . . Many will praise his understanding: it will never be blotted out. His memory will not disappear, and his name will live through all generations.’ Ecclesiasticus 39:1-2, 9

Ecclesiastical historian

From the ninth century, Bede has been known as the ‘Venerable’, in tribute to his holiness. His was no itinerant ministry; instead, he spent practically the whole of his life in the monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow. Nor was it a long life, for he died, on Ascension Day, 735, at the age of 63. Yet his monumental History is a classic of Christian literature. A grammarian and scientist, Bede resisted the trend of his day to ‘miraculize’ the honest truth; and his Lives of English churchmen are models of down-to-earth reportage. Bede remarked:

If history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good: or if it records evil of wicked men, the good, religious listener or reader is encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse, and to follow what he knows to be good and pleasing to God.

Bede surely bids fair to be the most prolific of English church writers. He divided his time between commentaries on the Bible, church history, biography, science and poetry, and his books total over sixty. He writes:

I was born on the lands of this monastery (i.e. Jarrow), and on reaching seven years of age, I was entrusted by my family first to the most reverend Abbot Benedict and later to Abbot Ceolfrith for my education. I have spent all the remainder of my life in this monastery and devoted myself entirely to the study of the scriptures. And while I have observed the regular discipline and sung the choir offices daily in church, my chief delight has always been in study, teaching and writing. I was ordained deacon in my nineteenth year, and priest in my thirtieth, receiving both these orders at the hand of the most reverend Bishop John at the direction of Abbot Ceolfrith. From the time of my receiving the priesthood until my fifty-ninth year, I have worked, both for my own benefit and that of my brethren, to compile short extracts from the works of the venerable Fathers on Holy Scripture and to comment on their meaning and interpretation.
Bede, A History of the English Church and People

‘Father of the Middle Ages’

Known in Germany as ‘Father of the Middle Ages’, Bede had an influence that was remarkable for a man who it is thought probably travelled no further north than Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and no further south than York. Our own road of life may be long or short: the distance is immaterial. What matters, is how we spend the time God gives us.

Suggested hymns

Amazing grace; Like a mighty river flowing; O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder; Oh, the love of my Lord is the essence.