Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/January 12

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

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

At the age of 25, Benedict made his first of five trips to Rome. He made a second journey twelve years later. Benedict stopped at Lérins, an island off the French coast in the Mediterranean, instead of returning to England. During his two year stay from 665 to 667, he underwent a course of instruction and took monastic vows. There he took the name of "Benedict".

Following the two years in Lérins, he made his third trip to Rome. At this time, he was commissioned by the pope to accompany Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus to Canterbury in 669. On their return, Benedict was appointed abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury.

King Egfrith granted Benedict land in 674 to build a monastery. He brought masons from the continent, who could build a monastery in the Romanesque style. From another trip to Rome in 679 he also brought back books, saintly relics, stonemasons, glaziers, and a grant from Pope Agatho granting his monastery certain privileges.

In 682, the King gave him more land in Jarrow to build a second monastery. Benedict erected a sister foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. 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 in 7th-century England. It eventually possessed what was a large library for the time. The library became world-famous.

For the last three years of his life, Benedict was bed-ridden. He suffered his affliction with great patience and faith.

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.
Attributes: a Benedictine abbot dressed as a bishop standing by the Tyne with two monasteries nearby; with the Venerable Bede
Patronage: English Benedictines, musicians, painters, city of Sunderland
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