O God, Who has glorified Thy Church by the learning of
blessed Bede, Thy Confessor and Doctor; mercifully grant to Thy servants that
they may ever be enlightened by his wisdom and aided by his merits.
Catholics in America are generally unfamiliar with Saint Bede the Venerable. The Venerable Bede as he is often called, is rightly known as the "Father of English History" and his lasting work, History of the English Church and People, remains the basis of modern knowledge of the early period of the Church in England. Church has honored Bede with the titles of Confessor and Doctor of the Church.
 Bede's History is a decisive synthesis of the Celtic,
Gregorian and 'Benedictine' heritage. The medieval scholar Mary R. Price said: 'Under Bede's
eyes, as he toiled away in his cell,the divided peoples of the "island
lying in the sea" were being welded into a nation, and through his
eyes and by his pen we can see this happening. We see also the fusion of the
free-lance monasticism of the Celtic monks with the more regular
discipline of the Benedictine rule, of the Celtic Church with the
Roman.' Another scholar who knows Bede's work well says: 'The
centuries on which Bede concentrates are a crucial and formative period
in our island history, during which the future shape and pattern of the
English Church and nation were beginning to emerge.' The Church universal is grateful for Bede's interpretative
and synthesizing work that these key formative centuries are coherent and present to us as they give us a light on the form, life and significance without
parallel. |
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The rigorous approach to the facts of history in his
narration is widely acknowledged. He explicitly offers his own
theological interpretation of the history he is treating, and clearly offers
a monastic reading ecclesial history in the light of salvation history.
But what else would you expect of a monk? |
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