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About the saint, St. Bede the Venerable

Saint Bede the Venerable

“A servant of Christ and

a priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul”

 

There are no physical descriptions of St. Bede the Venerable, no drawings or painting by anyone who actually saw the man.  Bede, it is said, lived his life in the darkest of times and was indeed “a light shining in that darkness”, as St. Boniface called him.  As the barbarians in Rome were burning books, Bede was recording them.  Most of what is known of his life is contained in a note added by Bede himself to his most famous work outside his writings on Scripture, "Ecclesiastical History of the English People".   

 

 In the last chapter, written in 731, he writes: 

“Thus much concerning the ecclesiastical history of Britain, and especially of the race of the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from the traditions of the elders, or from my own knowledge. I was born in the territory of the said monastery, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [St. Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated. From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St. John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation.”

 

Bede concludes with this prayer:

“And I pray thee, loving Jesus,

that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight

the words of Thy knowledge,

so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee,

the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.”

 

Although Bede was well educated he passionately believed that God’s Word should also be available to the ‘unlearned.”  Everyone should be able to hear and learn the Bible in their own language.  Bede stated his beliefs in a letter to Bishop Egbert, Archbishop of York. 

“Do you cause [the scriptures] to be known and constantly repeated in their own tongue by those that are unlearned, that is, by them who have knowledge only of their proper tongue?”

 

 It was this deeply held belief that caused Bede to begin his own translation of the Gospel of John into (Old) English, which he finished on his deathbed.  Bede was very much a man ahead of his time.  His was the lonely voice calling out for the Word of God in the language of the people.  He anticipated the Reformation cry for Scripture in the native tongue centuries before Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale and a host of others undertook the task of translation in the 16th century. 

He died and was buried in Jarrow.  His bones were moved to Durham in the 11th century.

In the twentieth century a relic of St. Bede, a slice of the bone off one of his fingers was surgically removed and placed in the reliquary of the altar in St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Canada Flintridge, California

Title of Venerable and Sainthood

The title Venerable seems to have been associated with the name of Bede within two generations after his death.  However some accounts allege that the title was used during his lifetime by those who knew him or know of his faith, his dedication and his knowledge.    At the Council of Aachen in 835 this title was awarded to Bede, venerabilis et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda”.

His scholarship, holiness and importance to Catholicism were officially recognized on November 13, 1899 when Leo XIII declared Bede a saint and decreed that the feast of Venerable Bede as a Doctor of the Church would be celebrated throughout the Church on May 27th of each year.

 

Works

Bede’s works reflect that he had at his command much of the learning of his time.  The library at Wearmouth-Jarrow was reputed to contain between 300-500 books, making it one of the largest in England.  His Abbot, Biscop made strenuous efforts to collect books while on his extensive travels. Bede was fluent in Latin, knew Greek and some Hebrew.   He is a skillful story-teller. Bede used the allegorical method of interpretation.  His works reveal his love of truth and fairness, his unfeigned piety, and his devotion to the service of others.  Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical, and theological.

 

 


Historia Ecclesiastica

The most important and best known of his works is the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, on the ecclesiastical and political history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the date of its completion in 731.  The first twenty-one chapters are compiled from earlier writers with the insertion of legends and traditions.

 

Beginning with the 6th century Bede began to document his work that he took great pains to obtain, as well as oral testimony, which he used with critical consideration of its worth. He cited his references after painstaking research for reliable sources for all his references, which created an important historical chain. He is credited with inventing footnoting. (Due to others misunderstanding of the significance of his system of referencing and footnoting Bede was, for a short time, accused of heresy for miscalculating the age of the world. He was soon cleared of any charges)

Other Historical and Theological Works

At the request of the Pope, Bede re-edited the Vulgate Bible. 

“The Vulgate Bible was a 5th century translation into Latin made by St. Jerome on the orders of Pope Damasus I.  It takes its name from the phrase versio vulgata, "the common (i.e., popular) version" and was written in an everyday Latin used in conscious distinction to the elegant Ciceronian Latin of which Jerome was a master. The Vulgate was designed to be both more accurate and easier to understand than its predecessors. It was the first, and for many centuries the only, Christian Bible that directly translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew original rather than indirectly from the Greek Septuagint.”                                                                  

 -Biocrawler online Encyclopedia

 

Bede’s Vulgate was the official version of the Bible for all of Western Christendom until the Reformation and was used by the Catholic Church until 1966.

 

"The Venerable Bede Translates John"

 by J. D. Penrose

He also worked on translations of parts of the Bible into old English. He translated the Gospel of John into English, completing the work on the very day of his death.  Sadly of his work, “to break open the word to the poor and unlearned” nothing has survived. 

 

Bede composed 45 books, including 30 commentaries on books of the Bible in addition to the many books that he copied.  His other historical works include lives of the saints. The most numerous of his writings are theological, and consist of commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, homilies, and treatises of Scriptures.

 

 


Bede on Science

His scientific works include treatises on grammar (written for his pupils); 

a work on natural phenomena (De rerum natura);

two on chronology (De temporibus liber and De temporum ratione) where he first used the term ‘anno domini’ (A.D.) as a means of designating whether an event occurred before or after the birth of Christ.

 

Bede had a sense of latitude and the annual movement of the sun into the north and south hemispheres from the evidence of varying lengths of shadows. 

He knew that the moon influenced the cycle of tides.

He was the first known write to state that the solar year is not precisely 365 and a quarter days long.  This recognized that the Julian calendar (with one leap year every four years) requires some adjusting if the months are not to get out of step with the seasons. His calculation on time was of fundamental value in helping the church calculate the date of Easter.

He also made a new calculation of the age of the earth.

Bede, in contrast to the thinking of the day, wrote that the Earth was round "like a playground ball", in opposition to being “round like a shield"

 

 


Quotes

 

About Bede

 

  • “We have not, it seems to me, amid all our discoveries, invented as yet anything better than the Christian life which Bede lived, and the Christian death which he died.

-C Plummer, editor of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History

 

  • “I can with truth declare, that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the living God.”

-Cuthbert, one of Bede’s Disciples (writing of Bede)

 

  • Bede “shone forth as a lantern in the church by his scriptural commentary”

Bishop Boniface

 

  • "The candle of the Church, lit by the Holy Spirit, is extinguished."

-St. Boniface upon hearing of Bede’s death

 

  • I'd like to think that there would be a little smile on Bede's face if he learned that his manuscripts were being copied by the national library of the Welsh and put on a medium which the whole world can read,'

-Andrew Green, Librarian of The National Library of Wales.

 

 

By Bede

 

  • “He alone loves the Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbor.”

 

  • “Better a stupid and unlettered brother who, working the good things he knows, merits life in Heaven than one who though being distinguished for his learning in the Scriptures, or even holding the place of a doctor, lacks the bread of  love.”

 

  • For 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 reader or listener is encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse, and to follow what he knows to be good and pleasing to .God.”

 

  • “Christ is the morning star who when the night of this world is past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day.”

 

 


Bede – Prayers

 

Prayer (traditional language)

Heavenly Father,

who didst call thy servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to thy service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of thy truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make thee known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 

Prayer (contemporary language)

Heavenly Father,

who called your servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to your service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of your truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make you known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.                       Amen

 

Patron Saint of Lectors

Careful Historian and Doctor of the Church,

lover of God and of truth,

you are a natural model for all readers of God's inspired Word.

Move lectors to prepare for public reading by prayerfully pondering

the sacred texts and invoking the Holy Spirit.

Help them to read in such a way that those who hear

may attain learning and edification. Amen.

 

 

Bede’s favorite prayer (uttered as he died):

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

As in the beginning, so now, and forever.    Amen”

 

Bede closed his History of the English Church and People with this prayer:

“I pray you, Noble Jesus, that as you have graciously granted me joyfully to imbibe the words of Your Knowledge, so You will also of Your bounty grant me to come at length to Yourself, the fount of all wisdom, and to dwell in Your presence forever.”

 

A Prayer of St. Bede

O Lord, Almighty God,

open wide my heart and teach it

by the grace of your Holy Spirit

to ask for what is pleasing to you.

 

Direct my thoughts and senses so to think

and to act that by a worthy manner of life

I may deserve to obtain the eternal joys of the heavenly kingdom. 

 

Direct my actions according to your commands so that,

ever striving to keep them in my life,

I may receive for my deeds the eternal reward.  Amen

 


A Listing of the Works of Bede Through 731

Compiled as of the year 731 (four years before his death)

 

The listing is from the fifth and final book of Bede’s Eccelesiastical History of the English People, a copy of which can be found at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book5.html

 

  • On the Beginning of Genesis, to the Nativity of Isaac and the Reprobation of Ismaal, three books.
  • Of the Tabernacle and its Vessels, and of the Priestly Vestments, three books.
  • On the first Part of Samuel, to the Death of Saul, four books.
  • Of the Building of the Temple, of Allegorical Exposition, like the rest, two books.
  • Item, on the Book of Kings, thirty Questions.
  • On Solomon's Proverbs, three books.
  • On the Canticles, seven books.
  • On Isaiah, Daniel, the twelve Prophets, and part of Jeremiah, Distinctions of Chapters, collected out of St. Jerome's Treatise.
  • On Esdras and Nehemiah, three books.
  • On the Song of Habacuc, one book.
  • On the Book of the blessed Father Tobias, one Book of Allegorical Exposition concerning Christ and the Church.
  • Also, Chapters of Readings on Moses's Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges.
  • On the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
  • On the Book of the blessed Father Job.
  • On the Parables, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles.
  • On the Prophets Isaiah, Esdras, and Nehemiah.
  • On the Gospel of Mark, four books.
  • On the Gospel of Luke, six books.
  • Of Homilies on the Gospel, two books.
  • On the Apostle, I have carefully transcribed in order all that I have found in St. Augustine's Works.
  • On the Acts of the Apostles, two books.
  • On the seven Catholic Epistles, a book on each.
  • On the Revelation of St. John, three books.
  • Also, Chapters of Readings on all the New Testament, except the Gospel.
  • Also a book of Epistles to different Persons, of which one is of the Six ages of the world; one of the Mansions of the Children of Israel; one on the Words of Isaiah, "And they shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited; " one of the Reason of the Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and of the Equinox, according to Anatolius.
  • Also, of the Histories of Saints. I translated the Book of the Life and Passion of St. Felix, Confessor, from Paulinus's Work in metre, into prose.
  • The Book of the Life and Passion of St. Anastasius, which was ill translated from the Greek, and worse amended by some unskillful person, I have corrected as to the sense.
  • I have written the Life of the Holy Father Cuthbert, who was both monk and prelate, first in heroic verse, and then in prose.
  • The History of the Abbots of this Monastery, in which I rejoice to serve the Divine Goodness, viz. Benedict, Ceolfrid, and Huetbert, in two books.
  • The Ecclesiastical History of our Island and Nation in five books.
  • The Martyrology of the Birthdays of the Holy Martyrs, in. which I have carefully endeavored to set down all that could find, and not only on what day, but also by what sort of combat, or under what judge they overcame the world.
  • A Book of Hymns in several sorts of metre, or rhyme.
  • A Book of Epigrams in heroic or elegiac verse.
  • Of the Nature of Things, and of the Times, one book of each.
  • Also, of the Times, one larger book.
  • A book of Orthography digested in Alphabetical Order.
  • Also a Book of the Art of Poetry

 

Other Sites

  • The De Natura Rerum  is a scientific treatise by Bede on natural phenomena, an encyclopaedia of the sciences as known in contemporary medieval times. The digitally recorded manuscript, written on parchment, is a fine example of medieval text with many decorative Latin lettering in the margins.and can be viewed at the National Library of Wales website:    http://digidol.llgc.org.uk/METS/BED00001/physical

 


The Venerable Bede

Bede: His Life, Times, and World

 

Short Biographies

 

 

Bede: His Own Writings

 

Book Reviews:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to Bede’s putting the bible into a single volume it had circulated as separate books. Rather than copying from any one edition, he researched from several to create a single volume bible, a practice which was highly unusual for the time.