But all kept weeping and lamenting, especially because he said that they must not think to see his face much longer in this world; but they rejoiced in that he said: “It is time, if it be the will of my Maker, for me to be released from the body, and go unto Him who formed me out of nothing, when as yet I was not. I have lived long, and my merciful Judge has well ordered my life. The time of my departure is at hand, for my soul desires to see my King, even Christ in His beauty.” This and much else he said for our edification, and passed his last day joyfully until evening. And the boy named Wilbert, mentioned above, said again: “Dear master, there is yet one sentence unwritten.”
“Very well,” said he, “write.”
And shortly the boy said: “It is done now.”
“You have spoken very truly,” said he; “it is finished.* Take my head in your hands, for it is highly pleasing to me to sit facing my holy place where I was wont to pray, so that I may sit and call upon my Father.”
And thus upon the floor of his little cell, chanting “Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto,” and the rest,* he breathed his last.
From ‘Select Translations from Old English Prose’ (1908), edited by Albert S. Cook (1853-1927) and Chauncey Brewster Tinker (1876-1963).
* These were the last words of Jesus Christ on the cross, according to St John — as Bede would know, since he was dictating a commentary on that Gospel. See John 19:30.
* In English, ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit’ or, more traditionally, ‘the Holy Ghost’. Cuthbert omits the remainder, Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum which in English may be translated ‘As it was in the beginning, both now, and forever, even to the ages of ages’, or in traditional Church English, ‘As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.’ The prayer is known as the Little Doxology. Church music was a very important part of Bede’s life: see A Quick Study.