The Venerable Bede

Today in the calendar of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is the feast of this blog’s patron, Saint Bede the Venerable.

Today in the older calendars, it is the Solemnity of the Ascension. More on that later, probably.

The amazing Saint Bede was a Benedictine monk, priest, historian, and a Doctor of the Church, all while dealing with Viking attacks.

I took the name Bede when I made my final oblation as a Benedictine.

Bede occupies an important niche in Church history by bridging the gap between patristic and early medieval times, the era when the Germanic nations had just been Christianized. Through him Christian tradition and Roman culture came to the Middle Ages.

He is also honored as the “father of English history.” His writings were read publicly in churches while he was still alive; but since he could not be called “Saint,” the title of Venerable was attached to his name, a usage which continued down through the centuries.

True Benedictine that he was, his life revolved around prayer and work.

(Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace)

Saint Bede is the patron of lectors and historians, both of which I am to some small extent. As an historian and writer himself, he seems the natural choice for a patron of blogs.

Before the unavoidable journey there, no one
becomes wiser in thought than him who, by need, ponders,
before his going hence, what good and evil within his soul,
after his day of death, will be judged.

(Saint Bede the Venerable, “Death Song”)

Saint Bede, pray for us!