Feast: 25 May <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bede lived from his seventh year in a monastry in Northumbria under the charge of the Benedict Biscop. In his Ecclesiastical History of the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
English Peoples, Bede tells us that he had spent entire life in this monastery, “devoted entirely to the study of the Scriptures…. My chief delight has always been in study, teaching, and writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bede’s scholarly pursuits were exemplary: lucid Latin translations of the Fathers, Scriptural commentaries, and, above all, the History. His writings show his pastoral style. Though the monks lived the rhythms of ordered prayer, the surrounding peoples were illiterate and coarse. Bede wanted the faithful to learn to pray and sing the Creed and the Our Father by heart; and he wanted scholars to make sure that the Latin prayers were rendered for them in their own tongue. Bede thought lay-persons were capable of great devotion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bede’s disciple Cuthbert reverently recounted his last days. Bede took ill before Easter in 735, but he continued his daily work from his bed: a translation of Saint John’s <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gospel into English for his students and excerpts from Saint Isidore’s Book of Cydes. This went on until 25th May. That day, he asked to be helped to sit on the floor’of his cell. After praying the “Glory Be”, he passed on, as he had said, “to see Christ the King in all his beauty\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merciful Father through the intercession of St Bede the Venerable, help me to put my hand to the task every day. When work is unpleasant and I am tired remind me who it is that I serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Feast: 25 May Bede lived from his seventh year in a monastry in Northumbria under the charge of the Benedict Biscop. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples, Bede tells us that he had spent entire life in this … Continue reading