Bede (ca. 672-735)
“…Grant me to come at length to yourself, the fount of all wisdom, and to dwell in your presence forever.” (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 731)
Artist's Conception of The Venerable Bede
Dressed in a gray tunic and scapular, a Benedictine monk writes. He is completing his most famous book. This monk is about 59-years old. He does not know it, but he has only four years left to live. His entire life since the age of seven has been spent in monasteries. According to his own account, he has been happy as a monk and scholar, and loves to write and teach.
His works are numerous. The largest portion are Bible commentaries, but he also writes sermons, will translate the Gospel of John in his dying days, and is credited with books on music, and on the calculation of Christian dates. Posterity will consider the book he is finishing today his masterpiece: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People). It will earn him a nickname long remembered—Bede, the Father of English history. But because of his sweet character, all Christendom will also know him as “Venerable Bede.”
Bede is a saintly man. “I spent all my life in this monastery, applying myself entirely to the study of Scriptures,” he writes. He survived a plague that killed many of his fellow monks and superiors. Consequently he played a more prominent role than he might have in his monastic community if there had been more of the old guard over him. A letter written after his death will show that he was greatly beloved by his students and rejoiced in the prospect of heaven. He will die chanting praises to God.
Such sentiments were not death-bed posturing. As he completes his history, he writes on the last page, “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.”
By comparison with other historians of those times, Bede is a meticulous researcher who takes pains to document his sources when he can. Although his accounts of events which took place before 596 contain a good deal of legend, he bases other events on the writings of prior historians. He can do so, for the monastery possesses a huge library for that day: at least 300 books, and Bede is thoroughly acquainted with them all. His sources also include papal letters, and his own observations.
His short autobiography and his prayers show that his pupils had the true estimate of his godly character when they wrote his eulogy.
—Dan Graves
Dig a Little Deeper
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- Bede. A History of the English Church and People [Ecclesiastical History of England]. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1968.
- “Bede or Baeda.” Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford University Press, 1921 – 1996.
- “Bede, St.” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
- “Bede, the Venerable.” Dictionary of Scientific Biography; edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. New York: Scribner, 1970 – 1980.
- Blair, Peter Hunter. The World of Bede. London: Secker and Warburg, 1970.
- D’Souza, Dinesh. The Catholic Classics. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1986.
- Kunitz, Stanley L. British Authors Before 1800; a Biographical Dictionary. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1952.
- Thurston, Herbert. “The Venerable Bede.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
