St Bede was born
in 672 in Wearmouth, England, at a time when England was completely Christianized. Raised from the age
of seven in the abbey of Saints Peter and Paul at Wearmouth, he lived there the
rest of his life. He himself became a Benedictine monk and a priest, ordained
in 702. Bede was very learned and prolific in his writing and teaching, so much
so that he was considered “venerable” in the ordinary sense by the world at
large.
He wrote about history, rhetoric, mathematics, music, astronomy, poetry,
grammar, philosophy, hagiography, homiletics and Bible commentary. He was known
as the most learned man of his day. The central theme of Bede’s “History of the
Church” is of the Church using the power of its spiritual, doctrinal, and
cultural unity to stamp out violence and barbarism, a plan that could very well
be put into use in this our own day and age. Our knowledge of England before
the 8th century is mainly the result of Bede’s writing. He died of
natural causes on May 25, 735, and was canonized and declared a Doctor of the
Church on November 13, 1899 by Pope Leo XIII.
He is the patron saint of lectors.
St Bede the Venerable, as so many other evangelizing saints in the Church
stressed the necessity of putting all of one’s eggs into one basket, the basket
of full faith and belief in Jesus and his words and works, as direct
communications and links with God himself. With the faith and belief, no matter
what comes our way, the Gospel, Jesus, the Church, the Truth, Life will
prevail! May we cooperate and do our part this day as members of Christ’s Body,
the Church, for whom he gave up his life.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life,
you have the words of everlasting life.
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