St Bede of Wearmouth and Jarrow
The mild-mannered, artistic monk was nevertheless a founding father of the English nation.
The mild-mannered, artistic monk was nevertheless a founding father of the English nation.
St Bede of Jarrow (673-735) could claim to be one of founding Fathers of the English nation: his ground-breaking ‘History’ helped create a sense of national identity and Christian culture. Artistic yet scientific, jealous of Northumbrian sovereignty yet appreciative of European culture, he exemplifies all that is best in the English people.
THE church of St Peter in Monkwearmouth is all that remains today of a monastery founded in 674 by St Benedict Biscop, a local man who had studied abroad and was a frequent visitor to Rome. The land was donated by Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria, and included the home of a Christian family with a one-year-old boy called Bede.
When he was seven, Bede was sent to the monastery school to be tutored by Benedict in Latin and Greek, astronomy, music and art. Two years later, he was taken to a new monastery school in Jarrow further north, and continued his studies under Abbot Ceolfrid.
Bede spent the remainder of his life at Jarrow. Although he did some travelling (he went to Lindisfarne and York), peasants, kings and monks – such as Adamnán,* who came to learn the Northumbrian way of singing the liturgy – brought him news, while Benedict brought him books, music and icons from his journeys to France and Rome.*
Rome in Bede’s day was under Constantinople’s governance and was culturally Greek, with Greek-speaking popes and strongly eastern culture. Benedict borrowed a musician from Rome named John to set up a music school at Monkwearmouth, and according to Andrew J. Ekonomou in Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes he too was probably an Easterner, brought over under Pope Vitalian (r. 657-672) to help St Peter’s in Rome emulate the glory of Agia Sophia in Constantinople. See How Benedict Biscop brought Byzantium to Britain.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Who founded the monastery at Monkwearmouth?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
St Benedict Biscop founded a monastery. It stood near the mouth of the River Wear. King Ecgfrith donated the land.