Benedict Biscop

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Saint Benedict Biscop
Saint Biscop Baducing

Saint Benedict Biscop
Born c. 628 in Northumbria
Died January 12, 690 in St Peter's, Wearmouth
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
and Church of England
Major shrine Wearmouth 690 - c.980;
translated c. 980 from there to
Thorney Abbey (Glastonbury Abbey
also claims his relics)
Feast January 12 (C of E calendar)
Patronage City of Sunderland
(since March 24, 2004)
Saints Portal

Benedict Biscop (c. 628 - 690) (also known as Biscop Baducing) was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory.

Contents

[edit] Life

[edit] Early life

He was born of a good Northumbrian family and was for a time a thegn of King Oswiu.[1]

He then went abroad and after a second journey to Rome on which he met Acca and Wilfrid (he made five altogether) Benedict lived as a monk at Lerins on the Mediterranean coast of France (665–667). He was commissioned by the pope to accompany Theodore of Tarsus back from Rome to Canterbury in 669, and in the same year Benedict was appointed abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury, a role he held for 2 years.[2]

[edit] Founder

See also: Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory

Five years later he built the monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth, on land granted him by Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and endowed it with a library. A letter sent by Pope Agatho in 678 exempted the monastery from external control. In 682, Benedict appointed Easterwine as his coadjutor and the King was so delighted at the success of St Peter's, he gave him more land in Jarrow and urged him to build a second monastery. Benedict erected a sister foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. He appointed Ceolfrid as the superior, who left Wearmouth with 20 monks (including his protege the young Bede) to start the foundation in Jarrow. Bede tells us that he brought builders and glass-workers from Francia to erect the buildings in stone.[3]

His idea was to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Catholic Church in Europe. It was the first ecclesial building to be built in stone, and the use of glass was a novelty for many of the Saxons in 7th-century England. It eventually possessed what was a large library for the time – several hundred volumes – and it was here that Benedict's student St Bede wrote his famous works. The library became world-famous, and manuscripts that had been copied there became prized possessions throughout Europe.[4]

[edit] Death

He died on January 12, 690.[5]

[edit] Overview

In his life time he had seen the Church change from being divided between the Roman and Celtic Churches and threatened by a resurgent paganism, to becoming a strong united and growing Roman Catholic Church, united with the worldwide church. His monastery was the jewel in the crown, under the direct patronage of the Pope and ushered in a Golden Era for Christianity in England.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ HAbb, I; Blair, p. 155. Biscop, while unusual, is not a unique Northumbrian byname. Blair notes that it is possible that, given the proximity of Benedict's birth and King Edwin of Deira's conversion, some unusual circumstances concerning his birth, or perhaps baptism, may account for this byname.
  2. ^ HAbb, II–III; Blair, pp. 156–159
  3. ^ HAbb, IV–VI; Blair, p. 161.
  4. ^ HAbb, IV & VI; Blair, pp. 165ff.
  5. ^ AVCeol, 18; Blair, p. 177.

[edit] Sources

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