Bede the Venerable

Monday, May 25th, 2020

Today is the feast of Bede the Venerable. There’s a lot I could say about his importance to world and church history - despite being in a monastery all his life. But maybe that was why: hidden from the world, he could spend his time on the priority for all of us - union with Christ. Amongst the beautiful things he was able to live was even his death. As the Catholic Encyclopedia relates to us: “Even on the day of his death (the vigil of the Ascension, 735) the saint was still busy dictating a translation of the Gospel of St. John. In the evening the boy Wilbert, who was writing it, said to him: "There is still one sentence, dear master, which is not written down." And when this had been supplied, and the boy had told him it was finished, "Thou hast spoken truth", Bede answered, "it is finished. Take my head in thy hands for it much delights me to sit opposite any holy place where I used to pray, that so sitting I may call upon my Father." And thus upon the floor of his cell singing, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost" and the rest, he peacefully breathed his last breath.” What a way to live!