Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.
Showing posts with label Saint Bede. Durham Cathedral.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saint Bede. Durham Cathedral.. Show all posts

Saturday 25 May 2013

Saint Bede. Feast Day 27 May.


Roman Text can be found in an Article on the Blog ENLARGING THE HEART

Italic Text is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.


File:The Venerable Bede translates John 1902.jpg


"The Venerable Bede Translates John" by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932).
Inset from "The last chapter (Bede)", exhibited at the Royal Academy (1902).
Date: 2005-03-06 (original upload date).
Source: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Author: Original uploader was Timsj at en.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)


He was troubled with weakness and chiefly with difficulty in breathing, yet almost without pain, for about a fortnight before the day of our Lord’s Resurrection.

And thus he afterwards passed his time, cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God every day and night, nay, every hour, till the day of our Lord’s Ascension…, and daily gave lessons to us, his disciples.

And whatsoever remained of the day he spent in singing psalms, as far as he was able; he also strove to pass all the night joyfully in prayer and thanksgiving to God, save only when a short sleep prevented it.

And then he no sooner awoke than he straightway began again to repeat the well-known sacred songs, and ceased not to give thanks to God with uplifted hands.

I declare with truth that I have never seen with my eyes, or heard with my ears, any man so earnest in giving thanks to the living God. O truly blessed man!




Durham Cathedral, England, 
where Saint Bede is buried.
Photo Credit: Zephyrinus.


[...] He also sang antiphons for our comfort and his own. One of these is, ‘O King of Glory, Lord of all power, Who, triumphing this day, didst ascend above all the heavens, leave us not comfortless, but send to us the promise of the Father, even the Spirit of Truth—Hallelujah.’

And when he came to the words, ‘leave us not comfortless,’ he burst into tears and wept much. And an hour after, he fell to repeating what he had begun. And this he did the whole day, and we, hearing it, mourned with him and wept.

[...] He said, ‘…the time of my release is at hand; for my soul longs to see Christ my King in His beauty.’ Having said this and much more for our profit and edification, he passed his last day in gladness till the evening.

[...] And thus on the pavement of his little cell, chanting ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,’ and the rest, he breathed his last.




Durham Cathedral, England, 
where Saint Bede is buried.
Photo Credit: Zephyrinus.


And without doubt we must believe that inasmuch as he had always been devout and earnest on earth in the praise of God, his soul was carried by angels to the joys of Heaven which he desired.

And all who heard him or beheld the death of our father Bede, said that they had never seen any other end his life in so great devotion and peace.

For, as thou hast heard, so long as the soul abode in the body, he chanted the Gloria Patri and other words to the glory of God, and with outstretched hands ceased not to give thanks to God.

Cuthbert (an 8th century monk of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow): Letter to Cuthwin on the death of The Venerable Bede (672/4 A.D. - 735 A.D.).


Bede (pron.: /ˈbd/ beed; Old English: Bǣda or Bēda; 672/673 A.D. – 26 May 735 A.D.), also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede (Latin: Bēda Venerābilis), was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow (see Monkwearmouth-Jarrow), both in the Kingdom of Northumbria

He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The Father of English History".

In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation (Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy). Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers contributed significantly to English Christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons. Bede's monastery had access to a superb library which included works by Eusebius and Orosius among many others.


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