Saint Bede, The Venerable, Confessor, Doctor A.D. 735.
by VP
Posted on Tuesday May 27, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"FROM his infancy, he was consecrated to God, and brought up from the age of seven in holy monasteries. It was his delight to employ all his leisure time from other necessary duties, in either learning or teaching, or writing something for the greater glory of his master. He was ordained priest by St. John of Beverley; and from that time to the end of his life, he applied himself to writing commentaries and sermons on the Holy Scriptures. He was a man of sincere and unaffected piety, wonderful probity, singular modesty and humility, and indefatigable industry in doing good. He was also a great lover of truth. His virtue and learning drew to him many disciples; so that there were in his time six hundred monks in his monastery, and some of them very eminent for piety and learning. He applied himself wholly to the meditation of the holy Scriptures, the observance of regular discipline, and the daily duty of singing the divine office in the church.
What is most to be admired in Venerable Bede, is the piety, with which he pursued and sanctified his studies, and the use which he made of them. His life was a model of devotion, obedience, humility, simplicity, charity and penance. Out of humility he declined the dignity of abbot, which was pressed upon him.
The days of this saint were full days, and his whole time was devoted to God's glory. Such a life as he led from his infancy, could not but be followed by a happy death. For this he made a fervent preparation for some time beforehand, being constantly employed in singing psalms and the praises of God; but continuing every day to give lessons as usual to his scholars. After teaching all day, it was his custom to watch much in the nights. Finding that death approached, he received Extreme Unction, and then the Holy Viaticum, on the Tuesday before the Ascension of our Lord. He distributed little presents, as memorials to all his brethren, entreating them to celebrate Masses and say prayers for him after his death. On the feast of the Ascension, lying on sackcloth spread on the floor, he invoked the grace of the Holy Ghost; and breathed forth his holy soul in praise and thanksgiving, in the year 735, of his age sixty-two. Thus from repeating the divine praises here, in the most pure and profound sentiments of compunction, humility, zeal and divine love, he passed without intermission, to sing eternally the same praises, with affections dilated with inexpressible joy, ardour and love, in the glorious choirs of the blessed, and in the contemplation of that God, whom in life he praised and loved." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
