Born near Sunderland, he was a monk of Jarrow, a biblical scholar and the first English historian.
He was educated from the age of seven, first by Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth and then by Ceolfrith at Jarrow, where he was a monk for the rest of his life.
Bede was ordained priest c703; then devoted himself to the study of Scripture. His impressive range of writings included works on orthography, metre, computistics, chronology, as well as the lives of the saints. In his own view his 25 works of Scripture commentary were his most important, but many scholars regard his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished in 731 as his most significant.
Apparently he travelled little, probably never outside Northumbria. He was not acquainted with courts or kings, being occupied with monastic duties and with his writing.
At the end of his life he showed himself remarkably well-informed about the Church of Northumbria, in his Letter to Egbert (735) he made a number of shrewd suggestions for its reform, which were not all carried out.
His cult as a saint was established within fifty years of his death. Alcum claimed that his relics had worked miraculous cures. Fulda, as well as York possessed relics of Bede in the crypt where Boniface was buried. In the 10th century Glastonbury also claimed some of his relics, but his bones were translated from Jarrow to Durham by Alfred Westow in the mid-11th century. These were translated again to the Galilee chapel of Durham Cathedral in 1370 where they rest to this day.
Durham and York are the main centres of his cult.
Since 1969 his feast day has been on the 25th May.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
