Saint Bède le Vénérable
Moine, Docteur de l'Eglise (+ 735)
On disait de lui: "C'est l'homme le plus savant de notre temps. Pourtant
Bède n'est jamais sorti de son monastère anglais." C'était un petit
orphelin de Wearmouth dans le Northamberland quand, à sept ans, on le confie à
saint Benoît Biscop, abbé du monastère local. Le petit Bède trouve là sa vraie
famille, la famille bénédictine. Quand il fut grand, l'abbé l'envoya fonder
avec saint Ceolfrid l'abbaye-sœur de Jarrow. Il y demeura toute sa vie,
réalisant en sa personne le modèle du moine bénédictin, partageant son temps
entre le travail manuel (on dit de lui qu'il exerçait l'office de boulanger),
l'étude et la prière. Son oeuvre, qu'il appelle lui-même une compilation
d'extraits des anciens (la bibliothèque de monastère était d'une richesse
étonnante pour un nouveau monastère) est considérable: œuvres exégétiques,
historiques, liturgiques, poétiques. Il fut le premier historien de
l'Angleterre, des origines à l'année 731, et nul historien de l'Europe ne peut
s'en passer. Il introduisit la connaissance des Pères latins dans ce pays et
fut le premier auteur à s'être servi de l'anglais dans ses écrits. Son oeuvre
lui valut le surnom de vénérable. Sa mort fut humble et tranquille comme toute
sa vie. La veille, il dictait encore, assis sur son lit, une traduction anglaise
de l'évangile selon saint Jean.
Au cours de l'audience générale du 18 février 2009, Benoît XVI a tracé un
portrait de Bède le vénérable, un saint anglais né vers 672 en Northumbrie. A
sept ans ses parents le confièrent à un monastère bénédictin où il fut éduqué.
Saint Bède est considéré comme un des principaux érudits du haut moyen-âge.
"Son enseignement et la célébrité de ses écrits lui acquirent l'amitié des
principaux personnages de son temps, qui encouragèrent des travaux qui
profitaient à tant de personnes".
L'Ecriture, a rappelé le Pape, fut la source des réflexions théologiques de
Bède qui voyait dans les évènements de l'Ancien comme du Nouveau Testament un
chemin conduisant au Christ. Evoquant le premier Temple de Jérusalem, à la
construction duquel prirent part des païens, en offrant les matériaux de prix
et l'expérience de leurs maîtres, il a rappelé que les apôtres ont contribué à
bâtir l'Eglise, qui a grandi ensuite grâce aux apports juifs, grecs et latins,
puis grâce aux peuples comme les Celtes irlandais ou les Anglo-Saxons comme
aimait à le souligner Bède.
Puis le Saint-Père a cité certaines œuvres de Bède le vénérable comme sa Grande
Chronique dont la chronologie servit de base à un calendrier universel, ou son
Histoire ecclésiastique des peuples angles, qui fit de lui le père de
l'historiographie anglaise. L'Eglise dont Bède fit le portrait se caractérisait
par sa catholicité, sa fidélité à la tradition et son ouverture au monde, mais
aussi par sa "recherche de l'unité dans la diversité..., par son
apostolicité et sa romanité. C'est pourquoi Bède considéra-t-il capital de
convaincre les diverses Eglises celtiques irlandaises et pictes de célébrer
ensemble Pâques selon le calendrier romain".
Bède fut aussi un "maître de premier ordre en théologie liturgique".
Ses homélies habituèrent "les fidèles à célébrer dans la joie les mystères
de la foi et de la vivre de manière cohérente dans l'attente de leur
dévoilement final avec le retour du Seigneur... Grâce à un travail théologique
intégrant Bible, liturgie et histoire, l’œuvre de Bède contient un message
encore actuel pour les divers aspects de la vie chrétienne. Ainsi rappelle-t-il
aux chercheurs leurs deux principaux devoirs, étudier les merveilles de la
Parole de manière à les rendre attrayantes aux fidèles, et puis exposer les
vérités dogmatiques hors de toute complication hérétique, en s'en tenant à la
simplicité catholique qui est la vertu des petits et des humbles auxquels il
plaît à Dieu de révéler les mystères du Royaume".
Selon l'enseignement de Bède, les pasteurs "doivent se consacrer avant
tout à la prédication, qui ne doit pas se limiter aux sermons mais recourir à
la vie des saints et aux images religieuses, aux processions et aux
pèlerinages". Les personnes consacrées doivent s'occuper de l'apostolat,
"en collaborant à l'action pastorale des évêques en faveur des jeunes
communautés et en s'engageant dans l'évangélisation". Pour le saint érudit
le Christ attend "une Eglise active...qui défriche de nouveaux terrains de
culture..., qui insère l'Evangile dans le tissu social et dans les institutions
culturelles". Il encourageait aussi "les laïcs à l'assiduité dans la
formation religieuse...et leur expliquait comment prier de manière
constante...en faisant de leurs actions une offrande spirituelle en union avec
le Christ". L’œuvre de Bède le vénérable, qui mourut en mai 735, contribua
fortement à la construction de l'Europe chrétienne. (source: VIS 090218)
Mémoire de saint Bède le Vénérable, prêtre et docteur de l’Église qui passa toute
sa vie au service du Christ. Orphelin à l’âge de sept ans, il fut confié, au
monastère de Wearmouth, à saint Benoît Biscop, puis par celui-ci à saint
Céolfrid, au monastère de Jarrow en Northumbrie où il vécut comme moine tout le
reste de sa vie, tout occupé à méditer et à commenter les saintes Écritures, à
pratiquer avec soin l’observance régulière, à chanter chaque jour les louanges
divines, trouvant son plaisir à apprendre, à enseigner et à écrire, jusqu’à sa
mort en 735.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1213/Saint-Bede-le-Venerable.html
SAINT BÈDE LE VÉNÉRABLE
Confesseur et Docteur
(673-735)
Saint Bède naquit en Écosse,
au bourg appelé aujourd'hui Girvan. A l'âge de sept ans, il fut donné au
célèbre moine anglais saint Benoît Biscop, pour être élevé et instruit selon
l'usage bénédictin. Son nom, en anglo-saxon, signifie prière, et qualifie bien
toute la vie de cet homme de Dieu, si vénéré de ses contemporains qu'il en
reçut le surnom de Vénérable, que la postérité lui a conservé.
A sa grande piété
s'ajouta une science extraordinaire. A dix-neuf ans, il avait parcouru le
cercle de toutes les sciences religieuses et humaines: latin, grec poésie,
sciences exactes, mélodies grégoriennes, liturgie sacrée, Écriture Sainte
surtout, rien ne lui fut étranger. Mais la pensée de Dieu présidait à tous ses
travaux: "O bon Jésus, s'écriait-il, Vous avez daigné m'abreuver des ondes
suaves de la science, accordez-moi surtout d'atteindre jusqu'à Vous, source de
toute sagesse."
D'élève passé maître, il
eut jusqu'à 600 disciples et plus à instruire; ce n'est pas un petit éloge que
de citer seulement saint Boniface, Alcuin, comme des élèves par lesquels sa
science rayonna jusqu'en France et en Allemagne. Étudier, écrire était sa vie;
mais l'étude ne desséchait point son coeur tendre et pieux; il rédigeait tous
ses immenses écrits de sa propre main: les principaux monuments de sa science sont
ses vastes commentaires sur l'Écriture Sainte et son Histoire ecclésiastique
d'Angleterre.
Le Saint eut à porter
longtemps la lourde Croix de la jalousie et fut même accusé d'hérésie: ainsi
Dieu perfectionne Ses Saints et les maintient dans l'humilité. Il n'avait que
soixante-deux ans quand il se sentit pris d'une extrême faiblesse. Jusqu'à la
fin, son esprit fut appliqué à l'étude et son coeur à la prière; tourné vers le
Lieu saint, il expira en chantant: Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_bede_le_venerable.html
Ni Dieu sans le prochain,
ni le prochain sans Dieu
Le parfait amour est
celui par lequel il nous est commandé d’aimer le Seigneur de tout notre cœur,
de toute notre âme et de toute notre force et le prochain comme nous-mêmes. Et
l’amour de l’un ne peut être parfait sans l’amour de l’autre, car on ne peut
aimer vraiment ni Dieu sans le prochain ni le prochain sans Dieu. Aussi, chaque
fois que le Seigneur demande à Pierre s’il l’aime et que celui-ci répond qu’il
l’aime en le prenant lui-même à témoin, à chaque reprise il
conclut : « Pais mes brebis » ou « Pais mes
agneaux » (Jn 21, 17.15) ; c’est comme s’il disait ouvertement
qu’il n’y a qu’une véritable preuve d’amour total de Dieu, l’ardeur à prendre
bien soin des frères.
Car celui qui néglige
l’acte de piété qu’il peut accomplir en faveur d’un frère montre bien qu’il
aime moins son Créateur, dont il méprise le commandement de venir en aide aux
besoins du prochain. Oui, il ne peut y avoir de charité sans la grâce de l’inspiration
divine : le Seigneur le laisse penser d’une manière voilée lorsque,
interrogeant Pierre au sujet d’elle, il l’appelle « Simon, fils de
Jean », un nom que personne ne lui donne nulle part ailleurs.
St Bède le Vénérable
(Traduction de G. Bady
pour Magnificat.)
Moine de l’abbaye de
Jarrow, en Angleterre, saint Bède le Vénérable († 735) fut l’auteur de
l’Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais, ainsi qu’un fécond exégète. /
Homélie 22, trad. de G. Bady pour Magnificat
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/jeudi-8-juin-2/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Saint Bède le Vénérable
docteur de l'église
catholique
672-735
Dictionnaire de Théologie
Catholique
I. VIE.
Bède, le plus grand
personnage intellectuel de son pays et de son siècle, l’émule des Cassiodore et
des Isidore de Séville, naquit en 673, à Jarrow, sur les terres de l’abbaye de
Wearmouth, dans le Northumberland. Orphelin, il fut confié, dès l’âge de sept
ans, par ses proches au saint et savant évêque abbé de Wearmouth, Benoit
Biscop. Mais, trois ans après, celui-ci confia l’enfant à son coadjuteur
Ceolfrid, qui allait fonder avec quelques religieux, près de l’embouchure de la
Tyne, la colonie de Jarrow. C’est à que Bède reçut, à dix-neuf ans, le
diaconat, et à trente ans, la prêtrise des mains de saint Jean de Beverley.
C’est là qu’élève tour à tour et maître, il passa, sauf les voyages nécessités
par ses études, le reste de sa vie, au milieu de ses confrères et de la foule
des disciples qu’attirait sa renommée, en relations familières, sinon intimes,
avec ce que l’Angleterre avait de plus grand et de meilleur, Ceowulf, roi de
Northumbriens, saint Acca, évêque d’Hexham, Albin, le premier abbé anglo-saxon du
monastère de saint Augustin à Cantorbéry, l’archevêque d’York, Egbert, etc.,
sans autre récréation que le chant quotidien du chœur, sans autre plaisir, à ce
qu’il dit lui-même, que d’apprendre, d’enseigner et d’écrire. Bède mourut à
Jarrow en odeur de sainteté, le 27 mai 735 ; ses reliques dérobées au XIe
siècle et transportées à Durham, pour être réunie à celles de saint Cuthbert,
n’échappèrent pas, sous Henri VIII, à la profanation générale des ossements des
saints de la Northumbrie. La voix populaire, en saluant Bède, au IXe siècle, du
nom de Vénérable, l’avait canonisé. Par un décret du 13 novembre 1899, Léon
XIII l’a honoré du titre de docteur et a étendu sa fête à toute l’Eglise, en la
fixant au 27 mai, jour de sa mort. Canoniste contemporain, 1900, p. 109-110.
Cf. Analecta juris pontificii, Rome, 1855, t. I, col. 1317-1320.
II. OUVRAGES.
A la sincérité, à
l’ardeur de la foi chrétienne, Bède allie, comme plus tard Alcuin,
l’admiration, le goût, dirai-je le regret de la littérature classique. Saint Ambroise,
saint Jérôme, saint Augustin, saint Grégoire le Grand, lui sont très familiers
; mais Aristote, Hippocrate, Cicéron, Sénèque et Pline, Lucrèce, Virgile,
Ovide, Lucain, Stace, reviennent aussi dans sa mémoire. Il est théologien de
profession ; mais l’astronomie et la météorologie, la physique et la musique,
la chronologie et l’histoire, les mathématiques, la rhétorique, la grammaire,
la versification le préoccupent vivement. C’est un moine, un prêtre, la lumière
de l’Eglise contemporaine ; mais c’est en même temps un érudit, un lettré.
L’humble moine de Jarrow maniait également le vers et la prose, l’anglo-saxon
et le latin ; et nul doute qu’il sût le grec.
1° Vers.
Les œuvres poétiques de
Bède sont, relativement, de peu de valeur. Dans la liste que Bède a rédigée
lui-même, Hist. eccl., l. V, c. XXIV, P. L., t. XCV, col. 289-290, trois ans
avant sa mort, de ses quarante-cinq ouvrages antérieurs, il mentionne deux
recueils de poésies, un livre d’hymnes, les unes métriques, les autres
rythmiques, et un livre d’épigrammes. Le Liber epigrammatum est perdu ; quant
aux hymnes qui ont trouvé place dans les éditions de Bède, P. L., t. XCIV, col.
606-638, l’authenticité en est contestée. Un Martyrologe en vers, attribué à
Bède, est tenu pareillement pour apocryphe, Ibid., col. 603-606. Le poème Vita
metrica sancti Cuthberti episcopi Lindisfarnensis, ibid., col. 575-596,
témoigne, sinon du génie poétique de l’auteur, du moins de son goût et de sa
rare culture d’esprit. Bède nous a conservé, en l’insérant dans son Histoire,
l. IV, c. XX, P. L., t. XCV, col. 204-205, l’hymne métrique, hymnus
virginitatis, qu’il avait dédié à la reine Etheldrida, l’épouse vierge
d’Egfrid, un bienfaiteur insigne de l’abbaye de Wearmouth. Des vers
anglo-saxons de Bède il ne nous reste rien, hormis les dix vers qu’un de ses
disciples, témoin oculaire de ses derniers jours, avait recueillis sur les
lèvres du moribond.
2° Prose.
Bien autre est
l’importance de ses ouvrages en prose. On peut les diviser en quatre classes :
1. œuvres théologiques ;
2. œuvres scientifiques
et littéraires ;
3. œuvres historiques ;
4. lettres.
1. Les œuvres
théologiques de Bède, avant que la théologie chrétienne n’eût revêtu le
caractère et la forme d’une vaste synthèse, ne pouvaient guère être que des
études d’exégèse sacrée. De fait, ce sont, ou des commentaires sur divers
livres de l’Ecriture, ou des dissertations soit sur quelques parties isolées,
soit sur quelques passages difficiles du texte sacré, ou des homélies,
destinées primitivement aux religieux de Jarrow et vite répandues dans les
autres cloîtres bénédictins. Selon Mabillon, nous n’avons plus de Bède que
quarante-neuf homélies authentiques, P. L., t. XCIV, col. 9-268 ; de ce nombre
n’est pas la soi-disant homélie LXX, ibid., col. 450 sq., que le bréviaire
romain fait lire le jour et dans l’octave de la Toussaint. Partout
l’interprétation allégorique et morale prédomine ; les pensées et les textes
des Pères fournissent la trame et le fond du travail. Dans la matière de la
grâce, Bède suit saint Augustin et le transcrit presque mot à mot.
Les écrits exégétiques de
Bède embrassaient l’Ancien et le Nouveau Testament et formaient une somme
biblique complète. Tous ne sont pas parvenus jusqu’à nous. Ceux qui sont
publiés, P. L., t. XCI-XCIII, sont ou bien des résumés substantiels, clairs et
méthodiques des commentaires antérieurs des Pères grecs et latins, ou bien des
œuvres personnelles, dans lesquelles le sens allégorique et moral est recherché
au détriment de l’interprétation littérale. Pour les détails, voir le
Dictionnaire de la Bible, de M. Vigouroux, t. I, col. 1539-1541.
Aux œuvres théologiques
on peut rattacher un Martyrologe en prose, où il est assez malaisé de
reconnaître la main de Bède sous les retouches et les additions postérieures,
P. L., t. XCIV, col. 797-1148 ; ? le Pénitentiel qui porte le nom de Bède, sans
que celui-ci, dans le catalogue précité, en dise mot ; voir Martène, Thesaurus
novus anedoctum, Paris, 1717, t. IV, p. 31-56 ; Mansi, Concil., supplément, t.
I, col. 563-596 ; le Liber de locis sacris, qui probablement ne fait qu’un avec
l’abrégé, composé par l’infatigable travailleur, Hist. eccles., l. V, c.
XV-XVII, P. L., t. XCV, col. 256-258, du livre d’Adamnan, abbé d’Iona, De situ
urbis Jerusalem.
2. Les ouvrages
scientifiques et littéraires sont au nombre de quatre :
a. De orthographia
liber, P. L., t. XC, col. 123-150.
b. De arte metrica
liber ad Wigbertum levitam, ibid., col. 149-176, rédigés tous les deux par Bède
à l’usage des disciples monastiques ; le second, offre par les citations des
poètes chrétiens latins comme par les explications que Bède en propose, un
intérêt particulier. ?
c. Un petit traité de
rhétorique pratique est intitulé De schematis et tropis sacræ Scripturæ
liber, ibid., col. 175-186 ; l’auteur en appuie les préceptes sur des exemples
de la Bible et y relève notamment, après Cassiodore, les beautés littéraires
des psaumes. ?
d. Un autre ouvrage de la
même classe a pour titre, De natura verum, ibid., 187-278, et date de l’an
703. C’est un résumé méthodique et précis de ce qui survivait alors de
l’astronomie et de la cosmographie des anciens, en même temps qu’un premier
essai de géographie générale.
3. Les travaux
chronologiques et historiques de Bède sont d’une très haute valeur.
En 703, le docte
Anglo-Saxon, prélude par l’opuscule De temporibus, ibid., col. 277-292, à son
grand ouvrage, De temporum ratione, ibid., col. 293-518, lequel en est une
refonte et nous donne, au témoignage d’Ideler, Handbuch der Chronologie, t. II,
p. 292, " un manuel complet de chronologie pour les dates et les fêtes.
" Ici et là, Bède se prononce nettement contre le comput pascal des
Eglises d’Ecosse et d’Irlande, et tient pour le comput alexandrin, suivi par
Denys le petit. Au De temporum ratione il rattacha, en 725 et en 726, son
Chronicon sive de sex ætatibus mundi, ibid., col. 520-571. Comme saint Isidore,
il y divise l’histoire du monde en six âges ; mais, à la différence de saint
Isidore, il calcule les années depuis Adam jusqu’à Abraham selon l’original
hébreu, non pas selon le texte des Septante. Saint Augustin est son guide,
Eusèbe et saint Jérôme sont les sources auxquelles il vient puiser.
Quelques années plus
tard, Bède publiait son chef-d’œuvre, cette Historia ecclesiastica gentis
anglorum, P. L., t. XCV, col. 21-290, qui lui a mérité le titre de père de
l’histoire l’anglaise et qui suffirait pour immortaliser son nom. Elle se
partage en cinq livres ; après être remontée aux premières relations des
Bretons et des Romains et s’être faite comme l’écho de Gildas, d’Orose, de
saint Prosper d’Aquitaine, elle prend vite une allure et ton personnels et
s’arrête à l’an 731. Les affaires de l’Eglise et les affaires civiles, les
traditions religieuses et les évènements de tout genre y sont enchâssés dans
une seule narration ; pas plus que saint Grégoire de Tours, Bède ne sépare les
destinées des laïques et des clercs. Au fond, c’est une chronique, aussi bien
que les ouvrages analogues de Grégoire de Tours, des Jornandès, des Isidore de
Séville, des Paul Diacre, un recueil d’histoires, suivant l’ordre chronologique
et d’après l’ère chrétienne. Mais les juges les plus compétents reconnaissent
en Bède un chroniqueur instruit et pénétré du sentiment de sa responsabilité,
un critique habile et pénétrant, un écrivain exact, clair, élégant, qui se lit
avec plaisir et a le droit d’être cru. L’Historia ecclesiastica se continue,
pour ainsi dire, et se complète dans la biographie des cinq premiers abbés de
Wearmouth et Jarrow, que Bède avait tous personnellement connus. P. L., t.
XCIV, col. 713-730. Elle avait été précédée par un récit en prose de la vie de
saint Cuthbert, que Bède ne tenait que des moines de Lindisfarne, et qui
renferme, au milieu des miracles dont il fourmille des détails, des détails
assez curieux pour l’histoire des mœurs. Ibid., col. 733-790 ; Acta sanctorum,
martii, t. III, p. 97-117. La Vie de saint Félix, évêque de Nole, d’après les
poèmes de saint Paulin, nous reporte à l’âge des persécutions. Ibid., col.
789-798. La Vie et passion de saint Anastase semble bien perdue.
4. Seize lettres
Parmi les seize lettres
que nous avons de Bède, l’une De æquinoctio, est un opuscule scientifique ; la
lettre De Paschæ celebratione est reproduite deux fois, P. L., t. XC, col.
599-606 ; t. XCIV, col. 675-682 ; une autre, Ad pleigwinum, s’élève contre la
manie de vouloir déterminer l’année de la fin du monde, P. L.¸ t. XCIV, col.
669-675 ; sept sont adressées au plus intime ami de l’auteur, saint Acca, et
traitent de questions exégétiques ; une est écrite à l’abbé Albin, pour le
remercier de son appui dans la composition de l’Historia ecclesiastica. Ibid.,
col. 655-657. La longue lettre écrite à l’archevêque d’York, Egbert, est une
espèce de traité sur le gouvernement spirituel et temporel de la Northumbrie ;
en jetant une vive et franche lumière sur l’état de l’Eglise anglo-saxonne,
elle fait honneur à la clairvoyance comme au courage du Vénérable Bède. Ibid.,
col. 657-668.
III. INFLUENCE.
La renommée de Bède se
répandit promptement de son pays natal dans tout l’Occident, et ses ouvrages,
qui prirent place dans les bibliothèques des monastères à côté de ceux des
Ambroise, des Jérôme, des Augustin, etc., perpétuèrent son influence à travers
le moyen âge. De son vivant, ses compatriotes, saint Boniface en tête, Epist.,
XXXVIII, à Egbert, P. L., t. LXXXIX, col. 736, l’avaient tenu pour le plus
sagace des exégètes. Lui mort, ses œuvres théologiques impriment à l’exégèse
une impulsion vigoureuse et fraient la voie aux travaux d’Alcuin, de Raban Maur
et leurs plus illustres émules. S. Lull, Epist., XXV, XXXI, P. L., t. XCVI,
col. 841, 846 ; Alcuin, Epist., XIV ? XVI, LXXXV, P. L.¸ t. C, col. 164, 168,
278, 279 ; Smaragde, Collectaneum, præf., P. L., t. CII, col. 123 ; Raban Maur,
In Gen., P. L., t. CVII, col. 443 sq. ; In Matth., ibid., col. 728 sq. ; In IV
Reg., præf., P. L., t. CIX, col. 1 ; Paschase Radbert, Exposit. in Matth.,
prol., P. L., t. CXX, col. 35 ; Walafrid Strabon, Glossa ordinaria, P. L., t.
CXIII, CXIV ; Notker, De interpretibus S. Script., P. L., t. CXXXI, col. 996.
Dès le temps de Paul Diacre, on se servait en nombre de cloîtres et notamment
au mont Cassin des homélies de Bède. Dans son Institution laïque, l. I, c.
XIII, P. L., t. CVI, col. 147-148, etc., l’évêque d’Orléans, Jonas, rangera le
moine de Jarrow parmi les Pères de l’Eglise, et le vieil auteur de l’Héliand
s’inspirera ici et là des commentaires sur saint Luc et saint Marc. Vers la fin
du Xe siècle, Adelfrid de Malmesbury ne se fera pas faute, dans ses deux
premiers recueils d’homélies, d’emprunter à Bède. Le diacre Florus de Lyon
avait gagné, du moins en partie, sa réputation à remanier le Martyrologe ; ce
Martyrologe, ainsi refondu, servira de base et de canevas, vers le milieu du
IXe siècle, à celui de Raban Maur comme à celui de Wandelbert. Les liturgistes
Annalaire de Metz, De eccl. officiis, l. I, c. I, VII, VIII ; l. IV, c. I, III,
IV, VII, P. L., t. CV, col. 994, 1003, 1007, 1165, 1170, 1177, 1178 ; Florus de
Lyon, De exposit. missæ, P. L., t. CXIX, col. 15 ; les théologiens et les
canonistes, Loup de Ferrières, Epist., CXXVIII, ibid., col. 603, Collectaneum,
col. 665 ; Remi de Lyon, Liber de tribus epist., c. VII, P. L., t. CXXI, col.
1001 ; Hincmar de Reims, Epist. ad Carol., P. L., t. CXXV, col. 54 ; De
prædestinatione, c. XXVI, ibid., col. 270 ; les ascètes, saint Benoît d’Aniane,
Concordia regularum, c. XXXVI, 6, P. L., t. CIII, col. 1028 sq. recourent à
l’autorité de Bède.
Les œuvres historiques de
Bède seront également citées et mises à contribution. Paul Diacre, par exemple,
dans son Histoire romaine et dans son Histoire des Lombards, prendre pour
guide, entre autres, la Chronique ; Frékulf et saint Adon au IXe siècle,
Réginon de Prüm au Xe, en relèveront et y puiseront à pleines mains. L’Histoire
ecclésiastique sera traduite, hormis quelques coupures, en anglo-saxon par
Alfred le Grand ; elle sera aussi la grande mine exploitée par Paul Diacre,
dans sa Vie de saint Grégoire le Grand ; par Jean Diacre, cent ans plus tard,
dans sa biographie du même pontife ; par Radbod dans son panégyrique de saint
Suitbert ; par Hucbald dans sa vie de saint Lébuin ; et l’archevêque de Reims,
Hincmar, s’en autorisera pour publier les versions de Bernold. Raban Maur, dans
son traité Du comput, pillera des pages entières du De temporum ratione.
Adelfrid de Malmesbury à son tour traduira le Liber de temporibus, et le savant
Hérix d’Auxerre l’enrichira de ses gloses.
Les œuvres scientifiques
et littéraires du moine de Jarrow ne resteront pas non plus sans influence. Le
traité De l’orthographe marquera visiblement de son empreinte l’opuscule
d’Alcuin sur le même sujet ; et Bridferth, au Xe siècle, devra sa réputation de
mathématicien à ses gloses latines sur le De natura rerum et sur le De temporum
ratione, P. L., t. XC, col. 187 sq.
I. EDITIONS.
Les premières éditions
des œuvres complètes de Bède, Paris, 1544, 1554 ; Bâle, 1563 ; Cologne, 1613,
1688, fourmillaient de lacunes et d’erreurs. Grâce aux travaux de Cassandre,
d’Henri Canisius, de Mabillon, etc., le tri de l’apocryphe et de l’authentique
s’est fait peu à peu ; les lacunes ont été comblées par d’heureuses
trouvailles. Smith donna une meilleure édition à Londres en 1721 ; une autre,
supérieure encore, bien qu’elle ne dise pas le dernier mot, est celle de Giles,
6 vol., Londres, 1844, reproduite et complétée, P. L., t. XC-XCV ; nouvelle
édition par Plummer, 2 vol., 1896. L’Histoire ecclésiastique a été édité par
Robert Hussey, Oxford, 1865 ; par Mayor et Lumby, 1878 ; par Holder, 1882.
Mommsen a réédité à part le Chronicon de sex ætatibus mundi, dans Monumenta
germanica historica, Auctatores antiquissimi, Berlin, 1895, t. XIV. La vie de
saint Cuthbert a été éditée par les bollandistes, Acta sanct., martii, t. III.
II. TRAVAUX.
Prolegomena de
l’édition de Migne, P. L., t. XC, col. 9-124, où se trouvent réunies plusieurs
vies de Bède, avec les jugements de divers critiques :
Gehle, De Bedæ
venerabilis vita et scriptis, Leyde, 1838 (dis.) ; Montalembert, Les
moines d’Occident, Paris, 1867, t. V, p. 59-104 ; Werner, Beda der
Ehrwürdige une seine Zeit, Vienne, 1881 ; A. Ebert, Histoire générale de
la littérature du moyen âge en Occident, trad. franç, Paris, 1883, p. 666-684 ;
Kraus, Histoire de l’Eglise, trad. franç., Paris, 1902, t. II, p. 100-101
; dom Plaine, Le vénérable Bède, docteur de l’Eglise, dans la Revue
anglo-romaine, 1896, t. III, p. 49-96 ; H. Quentin, Les martyrologes
historiques, Paris, 1908.
P. GODET. Dictionnaire
de Théologie Catholique
JesusMarie.com
SOURCE : http://jesusmarie.free.fr/bede_le_venerable.html
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 18 février 2009
Bède le vénérable
Chers frères et sœurs,
Le saint que nous
évoquons aujourd'hui s'appelle Bède et naquit dans le Nord-Est de l'Angleterre,
plus exactement dans le Northumberland, en 672/673. Il raconte lui-même que ses
parents, à l'âge de sept ans, le confièrent à l'abbé du proche monastère bénédictin,
afin qu'il l'instruise: "Depuis lors - rappelle-t-il -, j'ai toujours vécu
dans ce monastère, me consacrant intensément à l'étude de l'Ecriture et, alors
que j'observais la discipline de la Règle et l'engagement quotidien de chanter
à l'église, il me fut toujours doux d'apprendre, d'enseigner ou d'écrire"
(Historia eccl. Anglorum, v, 24). De fait, Bède devint l'une des plus éminentes
figures d'érudit du haut Moyen-Age, pouvant utiliser les nombreux manuscrits
précieux que ses abbés, revenant de leurs fréquents voyages sur le continent et
à Rome, lui portaient. L'enseignement et la réputation de ses écrits lui
valurent de nombreuses amitiés avec les principales personnalités de son
époque, qui l'encouragèrent à poursuivre son travail, dont ils étaient nombreux
à tirer bénéfice. Etant tombé malade, il ne cessa pas de travailler, conservant
toujours une joie intérieure qui s'exprimait dans la prière et dans le chant.
Il concluait son œuvre la plus importante, la Historia ecclesiastica gentis
Anglorum, par cette invocation: "Je te prie, ô bon Jésus, qui avec
bienveillance m'a permis de puiser aux douces paroles de ta sagesse,
accorde-moi, dans ta bonté, de parvenir un jour à toi, source de toute sagesse,
et de me trouver toujours face à ton visage". La mort le saisit le 26 mai
735: c'était le jour de l'Ascension.
Les Saintes Ecritures
sont la source constante de la réflexion théologique de Bède. Après une étude
critique approfondie du texte (une copie du monumental Codex Amiatinus de la
Vulgate, sur lequel Bède travailla, nous est parvenue), il commente la Bible,
en la lisant dans une optique christologique, c'est-à-dire qu'il réunit deux
choses: d'une part, il écoute ce que dit exactement le texte, il veut
réellement écouter, comprendre le texte lui-même; de l'autre, il est convaincu
que la clef pour comprendre l'Ecriture Sainte comme unique Parole de Dieu est
le Christ et avec le Christ, dans sa lumière, on comprend l'Ancien et le
Nouveau Testament comme "une" Ecriture Sainte. Les événements de
l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament vont de pair, ils sont un chemin vers le
Christ, bien qu'ils soient exprimés à travers des signes et des institutions
différentes (c'est ce qu'il appelle la concordia sacramentorum). Par exemple,
la tente de l'alliance que Moïse dressa dans le désert et le premier et le
deuxième temple de Jérusalem sont des images de l'Eglise, nouveau temple édifié
sur le Christ et sur les Apôtres avec des pierres vivantes, cimentées par la
charité de l'Esprit. Et de même qu'à la construction de l'antique temple
contribuèrent également des populations païennes, mettant à disposition des
matériaux précieux et l'expérience technique de leurs maîtres d'œuvre, à
l'édification de l'Eglise contribuent les apôtres et les maîtres provenant non
seulement des antiques souches juive, grecque et latine, mais également des
nouveaux peuples, parmi lesquels Bède se plaît à citer les celtes irlandais et
les Anglo-saxons. Saint Bède voit croître l'universalité de l'Eglise qui ne se
restreint pas à une culture déterminée, mais se compose de toutes les cultures
du monde qui doivent s'ouvrir au Christ et trouver en Lui leur point d'arrivée.
L'histoire de l'Eglise
est un autre thème cher à Bède. Après s'être intéressé à l'époque décrite dans
les Actes des Apôtres, il reparcourt l'histoire des Pères et des Conciles,
convaincu que l'œuvre de l'Esprit Saint continue dans l'histoire. Dans la
Chronica Maiora, Bède trace une chronologie qui deviendra la base du Calendrier
universel "ab incarnatione Domini". Déjà à l'époque, on calculait le
temps depuis la fondation de la ville de Rome. Bède, voyant que le véritable
point de référence, le centre de l'histoire est la naissance du Christ, nous a
donné ce calendrier qui lit l'histoire en partant de l'Incarnation du Seigneur.
Il enregistre les six premiers Conciles œcuméniques et leurs développements,
présentant fidèlement la doctrine christologique, mariologique et
sotériologique, et dénonçant les hérésies monophysite et monothélite,
iconoclaste et néo-pélagienne. Enfin, il rédige avec beaucoup de rigueur
documentaire et d'attention littéraire l'Histoire ecclésiastiques des peuples
Angles, pour laquelle il est reconnu comme le "père de l'historiographie
anglaise". Les traits caractéristiques de l'Eglise que Bède aime souligner
sont: a) la catholicité, comme fidélité à la tradition et en même temps
ouverture aux développements historiques, et comme recherche de l'unité dans la
multiplicité, dans la diversité de l'histoire et des cultures, selon les
directives que le Pape Grégoire le Grand avait données à l'Apôtre de
l'Angleterre, Augustin de Canterbury; b) l'apostolicité et la romanité: à cet
égard, il considère comme d'une importance primordiale de convaincre toutes les
Eglises celtiques et des Pictes à célébrer de manière unitaire la Pâque selon
le calendrier romain. Le Calcul qu'il élabora scientifiquement pour établir la
date exacte de la célébration pascale, et donc tout le cycle de l'année
liturgique, est devenu le texte de référence pour toute l'Eglise catholique.
Bède fut également un
éminent maître de théologie liturgique. Dans les homélies sur les Evangiles du
dimanche et des fêtes, il accomplit une véritable mystagogie, en éduquant les
fidèles à célébrer joyeusement les mystères de la foi et à les reproduire de
façon cohérente dans la vie, dans l'attente de leur pleine manifestation au
retour du Christ, lorsque, avec nos corps glorifiés, nous serons admis en
procession d'offrande à l'éternelle liturgie de Dieu au ciel. En suivant le
"réalisme" des catéchèses de Cyrille, d'Ambroise et d'Augustin, Bède
enseigne que les sacrements de l'initiation chrétienne constituent chaque
fidèle "non seulement chrétien, mais Christ". En effet, chaque fois
qu'une âme fidèle accueille et conserve avec amour la Parole de Dieu, à l'image
de Marie, elle conçoit et engendre à nouveau le Christ. Et chaque fois qu'un
groupe de néophytes reçoit les sacrements de Pâques, l'Eglise
s'"auto-engendre" ou, à travers une expression encore plus hardie,
l'Eglise devient "Mère de Dieu" en participant à la génération de ses
fils, par l'œuvre de l'Esprit Saint.
Grâce à sa façon de faire
de la théologie en mêlant la Bible, la liturgie et l'histoire, Bède transmet un
message actuel pour les divers "états de vie": a) aux experts
(doctores ac doctrices), il rappelle deux devoirs essentiels: sonder les
merveilles de la Parole de Dieu pour les présenter sous une forme attrayante
aux fidèles; exposer les vérités dogmatiques en évitant les complications
hérétiques et en s'en tenant à la "simplicité catholique", avec
l'attitude des petits et des humbles auxquels Dieu se complaît de révéler les
mystères du royaume; b) les pasteurs, pour leur part, doivent donner la
priorité à la prédication, non seulement à travers le langage verbal ou
hagiographique, mais en valorisant également les icônes, les processions et les
pèlerinages. Bède leur recommande l'utilisation de la langue vulgaire, comme il
le fait lui-même, en expliquant en dialecte du Northumberland le "Notre
Père", le "Credo" et en poursuivant jusqu'au dernier jour de sa
vie le commentaire en langue vulgaire de l'Evangile de Jean; c) aux personnes
consacrées qui se consacrent à l'Office divin, en vivant dans la joie de la
communion fraternelle et en progressant dans la vie spirituelle à travers
l'ascèse et la contemplation, Bède recommande de soigner l'apostolat - personne
ne reçoit l'Evangile que pour soi, mais doit l'écouter comme un don également
pour les autres - soit en collaborant avec les évêques dans des activités
pastorales de divers types en faveur des jeunes communautés chrétiennes, soit
en étant disponibles à la mission évangélisatrice auprès des païens, hors de
leur pays, comme "peregrini pro amore Dei".
En se plaçant dans cette
perspective, dans le commentaire du Cantique des Cantiques, Bède présente la
synagogue et l'Eglise comme des collaboratrices dans la diffusion de la Parole
de Dieu. Le Christ Epoux veut une Eglise industrieuse, "le teint hâlé par
les efforts de l'évangélisation" - il y a ici une claire évocation de la
parole du Cantique des Cantiques (1, 5) où l'épouse dit: "Nigra sum sed
formosa" (je suis noire, et pourtant belle) -, occupée à défricher
d'autres champs ou vignes et à établir parmi les nouvelles populations
"non pas une cabane provisoire, mais une demeure stable", c'est-à-dire
à insérer l'Evangile dans le tissu social et dans les institutions culturelles.
Dans cette perspective, le saint docteur exhorte les fidèles laïcs à être
assidus à l'instruction religieuse, en imitant les "insatiables foules
évangéliques, qui ne laissaient pas même le temps aux apôtres de manger un
morceau de nourriture". Il leur enseigne comment prier continuellement,
"en reproduisant dans la vie ce qu'ils célèbrent dans la liturgie",
en offrant toutes les actions comme sacrifice spirituel en union avec le
Christ. Aux parents, il explique que même dans leur petit milieu familial, ils
peuvent exercer "la charge sacerdotale de pasteurs et de guides", en
formant de façon chrétienne leurs enfants et affirme connaître de nombreux
fidèles (hommes et femmes, mariés ou célibataires), "capables d'une
conduite irrépréhensible, qui, s'ils sont suivis de façon adéquate, pourraient
s'approcher chaque jour de la communion eucharistique" (Epist. ad
Ecgberctum, ed. Plummer, p. 419).
La renommée de sainteté
et de sagesse dont, déjà au cours de sa vie, Bède jouit, lui valut le titre de
"vénérable". C'est ainsi également que l'appelle le Pape Serge i,
lorsqu'en 701, il écrit à son abbé en lui demandant qu'il le fasse venir pour
un certain temps à Rome afin de le consulter sur des questions d'intérêt
universel. Après sa mort, ses écrits furent diffusés largement dans sa patrie
et sur le continent européen. Le grand missionnaire d'Allemagne, l'Evêque saint
Boniface (+ 754), demanda plusieurs fois à l'archevêque de York et à l'abbé de
Wearmouth de faire transcrire certaines de ses œuvres et de les lui envoyer de
sorte que lui-même et ses compagnons puissent aussi bénéficier de la lumière
spirituelle qui en émanait. Un siècle plus tard, Notkero Galbulo, abbé de
Saint-Gall (+ 912), prenant acte de l'extraordinaire influence de Bède, le
compara à un nouveau soleil que Dieu avait fait lever non de l'orient, mais de
l'occident pour illuminer le monde. Hormis l'emphase rhétorique, il est de fait
que, à travers ses œuvres, Bède contribua de façon efficace à la construction
d'une Europe chrétienne, dans laquelle les diverses populations et cultures se
sont amalgamées, lui conférant une physionomie unitaire, inspirée par la foi
chrétienne. Prions afin qu'aujourd'hui également, se trouvent des personnalités
de la stature de Bède pour maintenir uni tout le continent; prions afin que
nous soyons tous prêts à redécouvrir nos racines communes, pour être les
bâtisseurs d'une Europe profondément humaine et authentiquement chrétienne.
* * *
Je salue cordialement les
pèlerins de langue française, particulièrement les groupes du diocèse de
Créteil, avec leur Évêque Mgr Michel Santier, les prêtres du diocèse de
Grenoble-Vienne, avec Mgr Guy de Kérimel, les nombreux jeunes des lycées et des
aumôneries ainsi que les groupes provenant de diverses paroisses. À l’exemple
de Bède le Vénérable, prenez le temps de scruter les merveilles de la Parole de
Dieu, pour en faire votre nourriture. Que Dieu vous bénisse!
© Copyright 2009 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Saint Bède le vénérable
La vie paisible et laborieuse de saint Bède le Vénérable s’écoula toute entière
à l’ombre du cloître où, orphelin, il fut recueilli dès l’âge de huit ans. Les
principales dates de sa vie sont connues par quelques lignes qu’il écrivit à la
fin de son Histoire ecclésiastique où il se donne cinquante-neuf ans ;
l’ouvrage étant achevé en 731, on peut en déduire qu’il naquit en 672 ou 673.
Accueilli à l’abbaye de Wearmouth par saint Benoît Biscop, Bède fut, trois ans
plus tard, confié à saint Ceolfrid qui allait fonder l’abbaye de Jarrow où il
passa toute sa vie ; diacre à dix-neuf ans, prêtre à trente ans, il mourut à
Jarrow le 26 mai 735. Il se décrit lui-même « Tout occupé de l’étude des
saintes Ecritures, de l’observance de la disciline régulière, du souci de
chanter chaque jour la louange divine dans l’église, trouvant son plaisir à
apprendre, à enseigner et à écrire. »
Initié à la culture classique, Bède le Vénérable connaît le latin et le grec ;
il possède Aristote et Hippocrate, Cicéron, Sénèque, Pline, Virgile, Ovide et
Lucain ; il manie la prose et les vers ; encore qu’il fut surtout exégète et
historien, son œuvre contient à peu près toute la science de son temps
(orthographe, métrique, cosmologie...), au point que Burke l’appelle le père de
l’érudition anglaise. Grand lecteur des Pères de l’Eglise, il se fit surtout le
disciple de saint Ambroise, de saint Jérôme, de saint Augustin et de saint
Grégoire le Grand. Outre ses récits hagiographiques, ses œuvres grammaticales,
ses écrits scientifiques, ses lettres, ses prières et ses ouvrages historiques
dont son Histoire ecclésiastique, on a de lui des commentaires de presque toute
l’Ecriture (48 livres) et des sermons dont deux groupes de vingt-cinq homélies
qu’il prêcha aux moines de Jarrow. Il s’inspire de saint Jérôme pour le sens
littéral, de saint Augustin pour le sens moral et de saint Grégoire le Grand
pour le sens allégorique.
Bède le Vénérable, parfait moine, qui était mort en disant : Gloire au Père, au
Fils, et au Saint-Esprit, comme il était au commencement, maintenant et
toujours, pour les siècles des siècles, fut enterré dans l’église abbatiale
Saint-Paul de Jarrow. En 1020, ses reliques furent portées à Durham et mises
dans une châsse que l’évêque Hugues fit somptueusement refaire en 1155. Henri
VIII fit détruire les reliques dont il ne reste plus qu’un vieux siège de bois
que l’on montre à Jarrow.
Commentaire de l'évangile
selon saint Luc
Le Seigneur m'a fait une telle grâce qu'aucune parole humaine ne saurait
l'exprimer et que je puis à peine, au fond de ma conscience, la comprendre :
c'est pourquoi j'offrirai à mon Dieu, pour lui exprimer ma reconnaissance,
toutes les forces de mon âme ; et tout ce que j'ai de vie, de sentiment,
d'intelligence, je l'emploierai de tout coeur à contempler la grandeur de celui
qui est infini ... Le psalmiste avait indiqué une disposition semblable quand
il disait : Mon âme a tressailli dans le Seigneur et elle se délectera dans son
salut. (...) Un seul regard de Dieu sur sa créature la plus pauvre (et ceci
elle le dit encore à la gloire de Dieu), suffit pour amener cette créature à la
grandeur et à la béatitude. C'est pourquoi elle sait, qu'à cause de ce regard
de Dieu sur elle, on l'appellera bienheureuse.
Saint Bède le Vénérable
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/05/25.php
St Bède le vénérable,
confesseur et docteur
Mort à l’abbaye de Jarrow le 25 mai 835, veille de l’Ascension. Son nom est
joint à celui de saint Augustin de Cantorbéry le 26 mai dans les calendriers
anglais du XIe siècle.
Baronius l’inscrivit à la date du 27 mai dans le martyrologe en 1584. C’est ce
jour qui fut choisi en 1899 pour inscrire sa fête au calendrier sous le rite
double quand Léon XIII le proclama docteur.
Leçons des Matines avant 1960
Quatrième leçon. Bède, prêtre de Jarrow, né sur les confins de la Grande-Bretagne
et de l’Écosse, n’avait que sept ans quand son éducation fut confiée à saint
Benoît Biscop, abbé de Wearmouth. Devenu moine, il régla sa vie de telle sorte
que, tout en se donnant entièrement à l’étude des arts et des sciences, il n’a
jamais rien omis des règles monastiques. Il n’est pas de science qu’il n’ait
acquise, grâce à des études approfondies ; mais il apporta surtout ses soins
les plus assidus aux divines Écritures ; et, pour les posséder plus pleinement,
il apprit le grec et l’hébreu. A trente ans, sur l’ordre de son supérieur, il
fut ordonné prêtre et aussitôt, à la demande d’Acca, évêque d’Exham, il donna
des leçons d’Écriture sainte ; il les appuyait si bien sur la doctrine des
Saints Pères, qu’il n’avançait rien qui ne fût fortifié par leur témoignage, se
servant souvent presque des mêmes expressions. Le repos lui était en horreur il
passait de ses leçons à l’oraison pour retourner de l’oraison à ses leçons ; il
était si enflammé par les sujets qu’il traitait, que souvent les larmes accompagnaient
ses explications. Pour ne pas être distrait par les soucis temporels, il ne
voulut jamais accepter la charge d’abbé qui lui fut bien des fois offerte.
Cinquième leçon. Bède s’acquit un tel renom de science et de piété, que la
pensée vint à Saint Sergius, pape, de le faire venir à Rome, pour qu’il
travaillât à la solution des difficiles questions que la science sacrée avait
alors à étudier. Il fit plusieurs ouvrages, dans le but de corriger les mœurs
des fidèles, d’exposer et de défendre la foi, ce qui lui valut à un tel point
l’estime générale que saint Boniface, évêque et martyr, l’appelait la lumière
de l’Église ; Lanfranc, docteur des Angles, et le concile d’Aix-la-Chapelle,
docteur admirable. Bien plus, ses écrits étaient lus publiquement dans les
églises, même de son vivant. Et quand le fait avait lieu, comme il n’était pas
permis de lui donner le nom de saint, on l’appelait vénérable, et ce titre lui
a été attribué dans les siècles suivants. Sa doctrine avait d’autant plus de
force et d’efficacité qu’elle était confirmée par la sainteté de sa vie et la
pratique des plus belles vertus religieuses. Aussi, grâce à ses leçons et à ses
exemples, ses disciples, qui étaient nombreux et remarquables, se
distinguèrent-ils autant par leur sainteté que par leurs progrès dans les
sciences et dans les lettres.
Sixième leçon. Enfin, brisé par l’âge et les travaux, il tomba dangereusement
malade. Cette maladie, qui dura plus de cinquante jours, n’interrompit ni ses
prières, ni ses explications ordinaires des Saintes Écritures : c’est pendant
ce temps, en effet, qu’il traduisit en langue vulgaire, à l’usage du peuple des
Angles, l’Évangile de Saint Jean. La veille de l’Ascension, sentant sa fin
approcher, il voulut se fortifier par la réception des derniers sacrements de
l’église. Puis il embrassa ses frères, se coucha à terre sur son cilice, répéta
deux fois : Gloire au Père, et au Fils et au Saint-Esprit et s’endormit dans le
Seigneur. On rapporte qu’après sa mort, son corps exhalait l’odeur la plus
suave : il fut enseveli dans le monastère de Jarrow et ensuite transporté à
Dublin avec les reliques de Saint Cuthbert. Les Bénédictins, d’autres familles
religieuses et quelques diocèses l’honoraient comme docteur : le Saint Père
Léon XIII, d’après un décret de la sacrée congrégation des Rites, le déclara
Docteur de l’Église universelle et rendit obligatoires pour tous, au jour de sa
fête, la Messe et l’Office des Docteurs.
Au troisième nocturne.
Lecture du saint Évangile selon saint Matthieu. Cap. 5, 13-19.
En ce temps-là : Jésus dit à ses disciples : Vous êtes le sel de la terre. Mais
si le sel s’affadit, avec quoi le salera-t-on ?. Et le reste.
Homélie de saint Bède le Vénérable, Prêtre.
Septième leçon. Par la terre, entendez la nature humaine ; par le sel, la sagesse.
Le sel, de sa nature, fait perdre à la terre sa fécondité. Nous lisons de
certaines villes, qui ont passé par la colère des vainqueurs, qu’elles ont été
ensemencées de sel. Et ceci convient bien à la doctrine apostolique : le sel de
la sagesse, semé sur la terre de notre chair, empêche de germer, et le luxe du
siècle, et la laideur des vices. S’il n’y a plus de sel, avec quoi salera-t-on
? C’est-à-dire, si vous, qui devez servir aux peuples de condiment, vous perdez
le royaume des cieux par crainte de la persécution, par une vaine terreur, il
n’est pas douteux que, sortis de l’Église, vous ne deveniez le jouet de vos
ennemis.
Huitième leçon. « Vous êtes la lumière du monde » : c’est-à-dire, vous qui avez
été éclairés de la vraie lumière, vous devez être la lumière de ceux qui sont
dans le monde. « Une cité bâtie sur la montagne ne peut se cacher » : il s’agit
de la doctrine apostolique, fondée sur le Christ ; ou de l’Église, bâtie sur le
Christ, formée de beaucoup de nations unies par la foi, et cimentée par la
charité. Elle offre un asile sûr à ceux qui entrent, elle est d’un accès
difficile à ceux qui approchent ; elle garde ceux qui l’habitent et elle
refoule tous ses ennemis.
Neuvième leçon. « Et on n’allume point une lampe pour la mettre sous le
boisseau, mais sur un chandelier ». Or celui-là met la lumière sous le boisseau
qui obscurcit, voile la lumière de la doctrine en la faisant servir à des
avantages temporels. Et celui-là met la lumière sur le chandelier qui se soumet
de telle sorte au ministère de-Dieu, qu’il mette bien au-dessus de la servitude
du corps la doctrine de la vérité. Ou bien encore : le Sauveur allume la
lumière, lui qui a éclairé notre nature humaine par la flamme de la divinité ;
et il a placé cette lumière sur le chandelier, c’est-à-dire sur l’Église, en
marquant sur notre front la foi de son Incarnation. Cette lumière n’a pu être
placée sous le boisseau, c’est-à-dire enfermée dans les dimensions de la foi et
dans la Judée seulement, mais elle a éclairé le monde tout entier.
Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique
La bénédiction que le Seigneur donnait à la terre en s’élevant au ciel atteint
les plus lointaines frontières de la gentilité. Trois jours de suite, le Cycle
nous montre les grâces qu’elle annonçait concentrant sur l’extrême Occident
leurs énergies : c’est le fleuve de Dieu [1], dont les eaux débordées se font
plus impétueuses à la limite qu’elles ne dépasseront pas.
Hier, l’expédition évangélique que le roi Lucius avait sollicitée du Pontife
Éleuthère quittait Rome pour la future Ile des Saints. Demain, dans la terre
des Bretons devenue celle des Angles, elle sera suivie par le chef du second
apostolat, Augustin, l’envoyé de Grégoire le Grand. Aujourd’hui, impatiente de
justifier ces célestes prodigalités, Albion produit devant les hommes son
illustre fils, Bède le Vénérable, l’humble et doux moine dont la vie se passe à
louer Dieu, à le chercher dans la nature et dans l’histoire, mais plus encore
dans l’Écriture étudiée avec amour, approfondie à la lumière des plus sûres
traditions. Lui qui toujours écouta les anciens prend place aujourd’hui parmi
ses maîtres, devenu lui-même Père et Docteur de l’Église de Dieu. Entendons-le,
dans ses dernières années, résumer sa vie :
« Prêtre du monastère des bienheureux Pierre et Paul, Apôtres, je naquis sur
leur territoire, et je n’ai point cessé, depuis ma septième année, d’habiter
leur maison, observant la règle, chantant chaque jour en leur église, faisant
mes délices d’apprendre, d’enseigner ou d’écrire. Depuis que j’eus reçu la
prêtrise, j’annotai pour mes frères et pour moi la sainte Écriture en quelques
ouvrages, m’aidant des expressions dont se servirent nos Pères vénérés, ou
m’attachant à leur manière d’interprétation. Et maintenant, bon Jésus, je vous
le demande : vous qui m’avez miséricordieusement donné de m’abreuver à la
douceur de votre parole, donnez-moi bénignement d’arriver à la source, ô
fontaine de sagesse, et de vous voir toujours [2]. »
La touchante mort du serviteur de Dieu ne devait pas être la moins précieuse
des leçons qu’il laisserait aux siens. Les cinquante jours de la maladie qui
l’enleva de ce monde s’étaient passés comme toute sa vie à chanter des psaumes
ou à enseigner. Comme on approchait de l’Ascension du Seigneur, il redisait
avec des larmes de joie l’Antienne de la fête : « O Roi de gloire qui êtes
monté triomphant par delà tous les cieux, ne nous laissez pas orphelins, mais
envoyez-nous l’Esprit de vérité selon la promesse du Père. » A ses élèves en
pleurs il disait, reprenant la parole de saint Ambroise : « Je n’ai pas vécu de
telle sorte que j’eusse à rougir de vivre avec vous ; mais je ne crains pas non
plus de mourir, car nous avons un bon Maître. » Puis revenant à sa traduction
de l’Évangile de saint Jean et à un travail qu’il avait entrepris sur saint
Isidore : « Je ne veux pas que mes disciples après ma mort s’attardent à des
faussetés et que leurs études soient sans fruit. »
Le mardi avant l’Ascension, l’oppression du malade augmentait les symptômes
d’un dénouement prochain se montrèrent. Plein d’allégresse, il dicta durant
toute cette journée, et passa la nuit en actions de grâces. L’aube du mercredi
le retrouvait pressant le travail de ses disciples. A l’heure de Tierce, ils le
quittèrent pour se rendre à la procession qu’on avait dès lors coutume de faire
en ce jour avec les reliques des Saints. Resté près de lui :»Bien-aimé Maître,
dit l’un d’eux, un enfant, il n’y a plus à dicter qu’un chapitre ; en
aurez-vous la force ? » — « C’est facile, répond souriant le doux Père : prends
ta plume, taille-la, et puis écris ; mais hâte-toi. » A l’heure de None, il
manda les prêtres du monastère, et leur rit de petits présents, implorant leur
souvenir à l’autel du Seigneur. Tous pleuraient. Lui, plein de joie, disait : «
Il est temps, s’il plaît à mon Créateur, que je retourne à Celui qui m’a fait
de rien quand je n’étais pas ; mon doux Juge a bien ordonné ma vie ; et voici
qu’approche maintenant pour moi la dissolution ; je la désire pour être avec le
Christ : oui, mon âme désire voir mon Roi, le Christ, en sa beauté. »
Ce ne furent de sa part jusqu’au soir qu’effusions semblables ; jusqu’à ce
dialogue plus touchant que tout le reste avec Wibert, l’enfant mentionné plus
haut : « Maître chéri, il reste encore une phrase.— Écris-la vite. » Et après
un moment : « C’est fini, dit l’enfant. —Tu dis vrai, répartit le bienheureux :
c’est fini ; prends ma tête dans tes mains et soutiens-la du côté de
l’oratoire, parce que ce m’est une grande joie de me voir en face du lieu saint
où j’ai tant prié. » Et du pavé de sa cellule où on l’avait déposé, il entonna
: Gloire au Père, et au Fils, et au Saint-Esprit ; quand il eut nommé
l’Esprit-Saint, il rendit l’âme [3].
Gloire au Père, et au Fils, et au Saint-Esprit ! C’est le chant de l’éternité ;
l’ange et mme n’étaient pas, que Dieu, dans le concert des trois divines
personnes, suffisait à sa louange : louange adéquate, infinie, parfaite comme
Dieu, seule digne de lui. Combien le monde, si magnifiquement qu’il célébrât
son auteur par les mille voix delà nature, demeurait au-dessous de l’objet de
ses chants ! Toutefois la création elle-même était appelée à renvoyer au ciel
un jour l’écho de la mélodie trine et une ; lorsque le Verbe fut devenu par
l’Esprit-Saint fils de l’homme en Marie comme il l’était du Père, la résonance
créée du Cantique éternel répondit pleinement aux adorables harmonies dont la
Trinité gardait primitivement le secret pour elle seule. Depuis, pour l’homme
qui sait comprendre, la perfection fut de s’assimiler au fils de Marie afin de
ne faire qu’un avec le Fils de Dieu, dans le concert auguste où Dieu trouve sa
gloire.
Vous fûtes, ô Bède, cet homme à qui l’intelligence est donnée. Il était juste
que le dernier souffle s’exhalât sur vos lèvres avec le chant d’amour où
s’était consumée pour vous la vie mortelle, marquant ainsi votre entrée de
plain-pied dans l’éternité bienheureuse et glorieuse. Puissions-nous mettre à
profit la leçon suprême où se résument les enseignements de votre vie si grande
et si simple !
Gloire à la toute-puissante et miséricordieuse Trinité ! N’est-ce pas aussi le
dernier mot du Cycle entier des mystères qui s’achèvent présentement dans la
glorification du Père souverain par le triomphe du Fils rédempteur, et
l’épanouissement du règne de l’Esprit sanctificateur en tous lieux ? Qu’il
était beau dans l’Ile des Saints le règne de l’Esprit, le triomphe du Fils à la
gloire du Père, quand Albion, deux fois donnée par Rome au Christ, brillait aux
extrémités de l’univers comme un joyau sans prix de la parure de l’Épouse !
Docteur des Angles au temps de leur fidélité, répondez à l’espoir du Pontife
suprême étendant votre culte à toute l’Église en nos jours, et réveillez dans
l’âme de vos concitoyens leurs sentiments d’autrefois pour la Mère commune.
[1] Psalm. XLV, 5.
[2] BED. Hist. eccl. Cap. ultimum.
[3] Epist. CUTHBERTI.
Bhx Cardinal Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
La fête de cet ancien moine anglo-saxon fut introduite dans le calendrier de
l’Église universelle par Léon XIII, après que la Sacrée Congrégation des Rites
lui eût reconnu ce titre de docteur que, depuis de longs siècles, lui avaient
décerné les suffrages de l’univers. Cette vénération pour Bède avait même déjà
commencé à se manifester de son vivant, si bien que, lors de la lecture
publique de ses œuvres, ses contemporains ne pouvant encore lui attribuer le
titre de saint l’appelaient venerabilis presbyter, et c’est sous ce titre que
Bède est passé à la postérité.
A une science vraiment encyclopédique, Bède unit les plus éclatantes vertus du
moine bénédictin, faisant alterner dans sa vie la prière et l’étude. Ora et
labora. Il eut de nombreux disciples et laissa tant d’écrits que, durant le
haut moyen âge, ceux-ci constituèrent pour ainsi dire toute la bibliothèque
ecclésiastique des Anglo-Saxons. La vaste érudition de ce moine rappelle d’une
certaine manière celle de saint Jérôme à qui il ressemble quelque peu. Saint
Boniface, l’apôtre de l’Allemagne, salua saint Bédé comme la lumière de
l’Église, et le Concile d’Aix-la-Chapelle lui donna le titre de docteur
admirable.
Bédé mourut très âgé, le 26 mai 735, et sa dernière prière fut l’antienne de
l’office (de l’Ascension) : O Rex gloriae, qui triumphator hodie super omnes
caelos ascendisti, ne derelinquas nos orphanos, sed mitte promissum Patris in
nos Spiritum veri-tatis. Au moment d’expirer, il entonna le Gloria Patri.
Le collège ecclésiastique anglais de Rome est dédié à la mémoire de saint Bédé
le Vénérable.
La messe est du Commun des Docteurs, sauf la première collecte qui est propre :
« Seigneur, qui avez voulu illuminer votre Église au moyen de la science
merveilleuse de votre bienheureux confesseur Bédé le docteur, faites que nous,
vos serviteurs, fassions toujours notre trésor de sa doctrine, et que nous
soyons aidés par ses mérites. »
Voici ce que rapportent les historiens de saint Bédé le Vénérable : Numquam
torpebat otio, numquam a studio cessabat ; semper legit, semper scripsit,
semper docuit, semper oravit, sciens quod amator scientiae salutaris vitia
carnis facile superaret. Quelle leçon pour notre sensualité, qui se nourrit
justement dans l’oisiveté et la frivolité !
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide dans l’année liturgique
Le docteur de la sagesse biblique.
Saint Bède. — Jour de mort : 26 mai 735 à Jarrow. Tombeau : à Durham, en
Angleterre. Image : On le représente en bénédictin, avec le livre du docteur à
la main. Vie : L’importance de saint Bède réside dans ce fait qu’il forme la
transition entre l’époque des Pères de l’Église et les premiers progrès des
peuples germaniques devenus chrétiens. Il transmet les traditions de culture et
de science romano-chrétiennes au moyen âge. Ses écrits étaient lus publiquement
dans les églises, de son vivant. C’est pourquoi on le vénérait. Comme on ne
pouvait pas encore le nommer « saint », on lui donna le titre de « vénérable ».
Ce titre lui resta plus tard comme surnom. — Le jour de l’Ascension, il sentit
que la mort approchait. Il se munit alors des derniers sacrements. Il embrassa
ensuite ses frères, se fit coucher sur un dur cilice et, en prononçant
doucement ces paroles : « Gloire au Père et au Fils et au Saint-Esprit », il
s’endormit dans le Seigneur.
Pratique : Saint Bède est notre docteur dans la sagesse biblique. Celui qui
veut vivre avec l’Église doit avoir à la main le livre des Saintes Écritures,
pendant la semaine, pendant sa vie. Saint Bède a expliqué ce livre à d’autres.
Peut-être avons-nous t’occasion et la possibilité d’en faire autant. — La messe
(In medio) est du commun des docteurs.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/27-05-St-Bede-le-venerable#nh4
Br. Kenneth Hosley, O.P.C.: the Venerable Bede.
Also
known as
Venerable Bede
Father of English History
formerly 27 May
Profile
Born around the
time England was
finally completely Christianized,
Bede was raised from age seven in the abbey of
Saints Peter and Paul at Wearmouth-Jarrow,
and lived there the rest of his life. Benedictine monk.
Spiritual student of the founder, Saint Benedict
Biscop. Ordained a priest in 702 by Saint John
of Beverley.
Bede was considered the
most learned man of his day. He worked as both teacher and author, writing about history, rhetoric, mathematics, music, astronomy, poetry,
grammar, philosophy, hagiography, homiletics,
and Bible
commentary. His writings began
the tradition of dating this era from the incarnation of Christ. The central
theme of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica is
of the Church using
the power of its spiritual, doctrinal, and cultural unity to stamp out violence
and barbarism. Our knowledge of England before
the 8th
century is mainly the result of Bede’s writing.
He was declared a Doctor
of the Church on 13
November 1899 by Pope Leo
XIII.
Born
Redemptoris
Mater Seminary, Uzhhorod, Ukraine
old monk dying amidst
his community
old monk reading
or otherwise studying
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Little
Lives of the Great Saints
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Pope
Benedict XVI: General Audience, 18
February 2009
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Christian Classics
Ethereal Library
Ecclesiastical
History of England, by Saint Bede
Redemptoris
Mater Seminary, Uzhhorod, Ukraine
images
audio
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
Abbé
Christian-Philippe Chanut
fonti
in italiano
Readings
He alone loves the
Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbour. – Saint Bede
the Venerable
On Tuesday before the
feast of the Ascension,
Bede’s breathing became labored and a slight swelling appeared in his legs.
Nevertheless, he gave us instruction all day long and dictated cheerfully the
whole time. It seemed to us, however, that he knew very well that his end was
near, and so he spent the whole night giving thanks to God. At daybreak on
Wednesday he told us to finish the writing we had begun. We worked until nine
o’clock, when we went in procession with the relics as
the custom of the day required. But one of our community, a boy named Wilbert,
stayed with him and said to him, “Dear master, there is still one more chapter to
finish in that book you were dictating. Do you think it would be too hard for
you to answer any more questions?” Bede replied: “Not at all; it will be easy.
Take up your pen and ink, and write quickly,” and he did so. At three o’clock,
Bede said to me, “I have a few treasures in my private chest, some pepper,
napkins, and a little incense. Run quickly and bring the priest of
our monastery,
and I will distribute among them these little presents that god has given me.”
When the priests arrived
he spoke to them and asked each one to offer Masses and prayers for him
regularly. They gladly promised to do so. The priests were sad, however, and
they all wept, especially because Bede had said that he thought they would not
see his face much longer in this world. Yet they rejoiced when he said, “If it
so please my Maker, it is time for me to return to him who created me and
formed me out of nothing when I did not exist. I have lived a long time, and
the righteous Judge has taken good care of me during my whole life. The time
has come for my departure, and I long to die and be with Christ. My soul yearns
to see Christ, my King, in all his glory.” He said many other things which
profited us greatly, and so he passed the day joyfully till evening. When
evening came, young Wilbert said to Bede, “Dear master, there is still one
sentence that we have not written down.” Bede said, “Quick, write it down.” In
a little while, Wilbert said, “There; now it is written down.” Bede said,
“Good. You have spoken the truth; it is finished. Hold my head in your hands,
for I really enjoy sitting opposite the holy place where I used to pray; I can
call upon my Father as I sit there.” And so Bede, as he lay upon the floor of
his cell,
sang, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit.” And when he had named the Holy
Spirit, he breathed his last breath. – from a letter on the death of Saint Bede written by
the monk Cuthbert
“My soul proclaims the
greatness of the Lord, any my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” With these
words Mary first
acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Above all other saints, she
alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was
the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one
person both her own son and her Lord. “For the Almighty has done great things
for me, and holy is his name.” Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She
refers all her greatness to the gift of one whose essence is power and whose
nature is greatness, for he fill with greatness and strength the small and the
weak who believe in him. She did well to add: “and holy is his name,” to warn
those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must
believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting
holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: “and it will
come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This is the name she spoke of earlier when she said “and my spirit rejoices in
God my savior.” – from a homily by Saint Bede
MLA
Citation
“Saint Bede the
Venerable“. CatholicSaints.Info. 23 March 2022. Web. 8 June 2023. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-bede-the-venerable/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-bede-the-venerable/
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Bede, the Venerable
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
The Saint we are
approaching today is called Bede and was born in the north-east of England, to
be exact, Northumbria, in the year 672 or 673. He himself recounts that when he
was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the Abbot of the neighbouring
Benedictine monastery to be educated: "spending all the remaining time of
my life a dweller in that monastery". He recalls, "I wholly applied
myself to the study of Scripture; and amidst the observance of the monastic
Rule and the daily charge of singing in church, I always took delight in
learning, or teaching, or writing" (Historia eccl. Anglorum, v, 24).
In fact, Bede became one of the most outstanding erudite figures of the early
Middle Ages since he was able to avail himself of many precious manuscripts
which his Abbots would bring him on their return from frequent journeys to the
continent and to Rome. His teaching and the fame of his writings occasioned his
friendships with many of the most important figures of his time who encouraged
him to persevere in his work from which so many were to benefit. When Bede fell
ill, he did not stop working, always preserving an inner joy that he expressed
in prayer and song. He ended his most important work, the Historia
Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, with this invocation: "I beseech you,
O good Jesus, that to the one to whom you have graciously granted sweetly to
drink in the words of your knowledge, you will also vouchsafe in your loving
kindness that he may one day come to you, the Fountain of all wisdom, and
appear for ever before your face". Death took him on 26 May 737: it was
the Ascension.
Sacred Scripture was the
constant source of Bede's theological reflection. After a critical study of the
text (a copy of the monumental Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate on
which Bede worked has come down to us), he comments on the Bible, interpreting
it in a Christological key, that is, combining two things: on the one hand he
listens to exactly what the text says, he really seeks to hear and understand
the text itself; on the other, he is convinced that the key to understanding
Sacred Scripture as the one word of God is Christ, and with Christ, in his
light, one understands the Old and New Testaments as "one" Sacred
Scripture. The events of the Old and New Testaments go together, they are the
way to Christ, although expressed in different signs and institutions (this is
what he calls the concordia sacramentorum). For example, the tent of the
covenant that Moses pitched in the desert and the first and second temple of
Jerusalem are images of the Church, the new temple built on Christ and on the
Apostles with living stones, held together by the love of the Spirit. And just
as pagan peoples also contributed to building the ancient temple by making
available valuable materials and the technical experience of their master
builders, so too contributing to the construction of the Church there were
apostles and teachers, not only from ancient Jewish, Greek and Latin lineage,
but also from the new peoples, among whom Bede was pleased to list the Irish
Celts and Anglo-Saxons. St Bede saw the growth of the universal dimension of
the Church which is not restricted to one specific culture but is comprised of
all the cultures of the world that must be open to Christ and find in him their
goal.
Another of Bede's
favourite topics is the history of the Church. After studying the period
described in the Acts of the Apostles, he reviews the history of the Fathers
and the Councils, convinced that the work of the Holy Spirit continues in
history. In the Chronica Maiora, Bede outlines a chronology that was
to become the basis of the universal Calendar "ab incarnatione
Domini". In his day, time was calculated from the foundation of the City
of Rome. Realizing that the true reference point, the centre of history, is the
Birth of Christ, Bede gave us this calendar that interprets history starting
from the Incarnation of the Lord. Bede records the first six Ecumenical
Councils and their developments, faithfully presenting Christian doctrine, both
Mariological and soteriological, and denouncing the Monophysite and
Monothelite, Iconoclastic and Neo-Pelagian heresies. Lastly he compiled with
documentary rigour and literary expertise the Ecclesiastical History of
the English Peoples mentioned above, which earned him recognition as
"the father of English historiography". The characteristic features
of the Church that Bede sought to emphasize are: a) catholicity, seen as
faithfulness to tradition while remaining open to historical developments, and
as the quest for unity in multiplicity, in historical and cultural diversity
according to the directives Pope Gregory the Great had given to Augustine of
Canterbury, the Apostle of England; b) apostolicity and Roman
traditions: in this regard he deemed it of prime importance to convince
all the Irish, Celtic and Pict Churches to have one celebration for Easter in
accordance with the Roman calendar. The Computo, which he worked out
scientifically to establish the exact date of the Easter celebration, hence the
entire cycle of the liturgical year, became the reference text for the whole
Catholic Church.
Bede was also an eminent
teacher of liturgical theology. In his Homilies on the Gospels for Sundays and
feast days he achieves a true mystagogy, teaching the faithful to celebrate the
mysteries of the faith joyfully and to reproduce them coherently in life, while
awaiting their full manifestation with the return of Christ, when, with our
glorified bodies, we shall be admitted to the offertory procession in the
eternal liturgy of God in Heaven. Following the "realism" of the
catecheses of Cyril, Ambrose and Augustine, Bede teaches that the sacraments of
Christian initiation make every faithful person "not only a Christian but
Christ". Indeed, every time that a faithful soul lovingly accepts and
preserves the Word of God, in imitation of Mary, he conceives and generates
Christ anew. And every time that a group of neophytes receives the Easter
sacraments the Church "reproduces herself" or, to use a more daring
term, the Church becomes "Mother of God", participating in the
generation of her children through the action of the Holy Spirit.
By his way of creating
theology, interweaving the Bible, liturgy and history, Bede has a timely
message for the different "states of life": a) for scholars (doctores
ac doctrices) he recalls two essential tasks: to examine the marvels of the
word of God in order to present them in an attractive form to the faithful; to
explain the dogmatic truths, avoiding heretical complications and keeping to
"Catholic simplicity", with the attitude of the lowly and humble to
whom God is pleased to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom; b) pastors, for
their part, must give priority to preaching, not only through verbal or
hagiographic language but also by giving importance to icons, processions and
pilgrimages. Bede recommends that they use the vulgate as he himself does,
explaining the "Our Father" and the "Creed" in Northumbrian
and continuing, until the last day of his life, his commentary on the Gospel of
John in the vulgate; c) Bede recommends to consecrated people who devote
themselves to the Divine Office, living in the joy of fraternal communion and
progressing in the spiritual life by means of ascesis and contemplation that
they attend to the apostolate no one possesses the Gospel for himself alone but
must perceive it as a gift for others too both by collaborating with Bishops in
pastoral activities of various kinds for the young Christian communities and by
offering themselves for the evangelizing mission among the pagans, outside
their own country, as "peregrini pro amore Dei".
Making this viewpoint his
own, in his commentary on the Song of Songs Bede presents the Synagogue and the
Church as collaborators in the dissemination of God's word. Christ the
Bridegroom wants a hard-working Church, "weathered by the efforts of
evangelization" there is a clear reference to the word in the Song of
Songs (1: 5), where the bride says "Nigra sum sed formosa" ("I
am very dark, but comely") intent on tilling other fields or vineyards and
in establishing among the new peoples "not a temporary hut but a permanent
dwelling place", in other words, intent on integrating the Gospel into
their social fabric and cultural institutions. In this perspective the holy
Doctor urges lay faithful to be diligent in religious instruction, imitating
those "insatiable crowds of the Gospel who did not even allow the Apostles
time to take a mouthful". He teaches them how to pray ceaselessly,
"reproducing in life what they celebrate in the liturgy", offering
all their actions as a spiritual sacrifice in union with Christ. He explains to
parents that in their small domestic circle too they can exercise "the
priestly office as pastors and guides", giving their children a Christian
upbringing. He also affirms that he knows many of the faithful (men and women,
married and single) "capable of irreproachable conduct who, if
appropriately guided, will be able every day to receive Eucharistic
communion" (Epist. ad Ecgberctum, ed. Plummer, p. 419).
The fame of holiness and
wisdom that Bede already enjoyed in his lifetime, earned him the title of
"Venerable". Pope Sergius I called him this when he wrote to his
Abbot in 701 asking him to allow him to come to Rome temporarily to give advice
on matters of universal interest. After his death, Bede's writings were widely
disseminated in his homeland and on the European continent. Bishop St Boniface,
the great missionary of Germany, (d. 754), asked the Archbishop of York and the
Abbot of Wearmouth several times to have some of his works transcribed and sent
to him so that he and his companions might also enjoy the spiritual light that
shone from them. A century later, Notker Balbulus, Abbot of Sankt Gallen (d.
912), noting the extraordinary influence of Bede, compared him to a new sun
that God had caused to rise, not in the East but in the West, to illuminate the
world. Apart from the rhetorical emphasis, it is a fact that with his works
Bede made an effective contribution to building a Christian Europe in which the
various peoples and cultures amalgamated with one another, thereby giving them
a single physiognomy, inspired by the Christian faith. Let us pray that today
too there may be figures of Bede's stature, to keep the whole continent united;
let us pray that we may all be willing to rediscover our common roots, in order
to be builders of a profoundly human and authentically Christian Europe.
To special groups
I offer a warm welcome to
the pilgrimage group from the Diocese of Arlington led by Bishop Paul Loverde,
and to the School Sisters of Notre Dame taking part in a programme of spiritual
renewal. I also greet the many student groups present. Upon all the
English-speaking pilgrims, especially the visitors from England, Ireland, Sweden,
Japan and the United States, I cordially invoke God's Blessings of joy and
peace!
Lastly, I address a
greeting to the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. Dear young
people, prepare yourselves to face the important stages of life with
spiritual commitment, building every one of your projects on the solid
foundations of fidelity to God. Dear sick people, always be aware
that by offering your sufferings to the heavenly Father in union with those of
Christ, you are contributing to building the Kingdom of Heaven. And you,
dear newlyweds, make your family grow every day by listening to God
so that your reciprocal love will continue to be sound and open to welcoming
the neediest.
And my cordial thanks to
you all. Thank you for your patience, in the wind and with the cold. I thank
you all.
© Copyright 2009 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090218.html
The Venerable Bede
Historian and Doctor
of the Church, born 672 or 673; died 735. In the last chapter of
his great work on the "Ecclesiastical History of the English
People" Bede has told us something of his own life, and it is,
practically speaking, all that we know.
His words, written in 731, when death was not far off, not only show a
simplicity and piety characteristic
of the man, but they throw a light on the composition of the work through which
he is best remembered by the world at large. He writes:
Thus much concerning
the ecclesiastical
history of Britain, and especially of the race of
the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a priest of
the monastery of
the blessed apostles St. Peter and St.
Paul, which is at Wearmouth and
at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so
far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from
the traditions of the elders, or from my own knowledge.
I was born in the territory of the said monastery,
and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the
most reverend Abbot Benedict [St.
Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated.
From that time I have spent the whole of my life within thatmonastery, devoting all
my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance
ofmonastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church,
it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I
was admitted to the diaconate,
in my thirtieth to thepriesthood,
both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St.
John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the
time of my admission to the priesthood to
my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my
brethren, to make brief notes upon the holyScripture, either out
of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their
meaning and interpretation.
After
this Bede inserts a list or Indiculus, of his previous writings
and finally concludes his great work with the following words:
And I pray thee, loving Jesus,
that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of
Thy knowledge,
so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of
all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.
It is plain
from Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert that the historian
occasionally visited his friends for a few days, away from his own monastery of
Jarrow, but with such rare exceptions his life seems to have been one peaceful
round of study and prayer passed
in the midst of his own community. How much he was beloved by them is made
manifest by the touching account of the saint's last
sickness and death left us by Cuthbert, one of his disciples. Their
studious pursuits were not given up on account of his illness and they read
aloud by his bedside, but constantly the reading was interrupted by their
tears. "I can with truth declare", writes Cuthbertof
his beloved master, "that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears
anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the living
God." 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.
The title Venerabilis seems
to have been associated with the name of Bede within two generations after
his death. There is of course no early authority for
the legend repeated by Fuller of the "dunce-monk" who in
composing an epitaph on Bede was at a loss to complete the line: Hac
sunt in fossa Bedae . . . . ossa and who next morning found that
the angels had
filled the gap with the word venerabilis. The title is used byAlcuin, Amalarius and
seemingly Paul
the Deacon, and the important Council of Aachen in
835 describes him as venerabilis et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda. This decree was
specially referred to in thepetition which Cardinal
Wiseman and the English bishops addressed
to the Holy
See in 1859 praying that Bede
might be declared a Doctor
of the Church. The question had already been debated even before the time
ofBenedict
XIV, but it was only on 13 November, 1899, that Leo
XIII decreed that the feast of Venerable Bede with
the title of Doctor Ecclesiae should be celebrated throughout
the Church each
year on 27 May. A local cultus of St. Bede had been maintained
at York and in the North of England throughout
the Middle
Ages, but his feast was not so generally observed in the South,
where the Sarum
Rite was followed.
Bede's influence both
upon English and foreign scholarship was very great, and it would
probably have been greater still but for the devastation inflicted upon the
Northern monasteries by
the inroads of the Danes less than a century after his death. In
numberless ways, but especially in his moderation, gentleness, and breadth of
view, Bede stands out from his contemporaries. In point of scholarship he
was undoubtedly the most learned man of his time. A very remarkable trait,
noticed by Plummer (I, p. xxiii), is his sense of literary property,
an extraordinary thing in that age. He himself scrupulously noted in his
writings the passages he had borrowed from others and he even begs the copyists
of his works to preserve the references, a recommendation to which they, alas,
have paid but little attention. High, however, as was the general level
ofBede's culture, he repeatedly makes it clear that all his studies were
subordinated to the interpretation ofScripture. In his "De
Schematibus" he says in so many words: "Holy
Scripture is above all other books not only by its authority because
it is Divine, or by its utility because it leads to eternal life, but
also by its antiquity and its literary form" (positione dicendi).
It is perhaps the highest tribute to Bede's genius that with so
uncompromising and evidently sincere a conviction of the inferiority
of human learning, he should have acquired so much real culture.
Though Latin was to him a still living tongue, and though he does not
seem to have consciously looked back to the Augustan Age
of Roman Literature as preserving purer models
of literarystyle than the time of Fortunatus or St.
Augustine, still whether through native genius or through contact with the
classics, he is remarkable for the relative purity of his language, as also for
his lucidity and sobriety, more especially in matters of historical
criticism. In all these respects he presents a marked contrast to St.
Aldhelmwho approaches more nearly to the Celtic type.
Writings and editions
No adequate edition
founded upon a careful collation of manuscripts has
ever been published of Bede's works as a whole. The text printed
by Giles in 1884 and reproduced in Migne (XC-XCIV)
shows little if any advance on the basic edition of 1563 or
the Cologne edition of 1688. It is of course as an historian
that Bede is chieflyremembered. His great work, the "Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum", giving an account of Christianity in England from
the beginning until his own day, is the foundation of all our knowledge of British history and
a masterpiece eulogized by the scholars of every age. Of this work, together
with the "Historia Abbatum", and the "Letter to Egbert",
Plummer has produced an edition which may fairly be called final (2 vols.,
Oxford, 1896). Bede's remarkable industry in collecting materials and his
critical use of them have been admirably illustrated in Plummer's Introduction
(pp. xliii-xlvii). The "History of the Abbots" (of the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and
Jarrow), the Letter to Egbert", the metrical and prose lives of St.
Cuthbert, and the other smaller pieces are also of great value for the
light they shed upon the state of Christianity in
Northumbria inBede's own day. The "Ecclesiastical History" was
translated into Anglo-Saxon at the instance of King
Alfred. It has often been translated since, notably by T.
Stapleton who printed it (1565) at Antwerp as
a controversial weapon against the Reformation divines in
the reign of Elizabeth. The Latin text first appeared in Germany in
1475; it is noteworthy that no edition even of the Latin was printed
in England before
1643. Smith's more accurate text saw the light in 1742.
Bede's chronological treatises
"De temporibus liber" and "De temporum ratione" also
contain summaries of the general history of the world from
the Creation to 725 and 703, respectively. These historical portions
have been satisfactorily edited by Mommsen in the "Monumenta Germaniae
historica" (4to series, 1898). They may be counted among the earliest
specimens of this type of general chronical and were largely copied
and imitated. The topographical work "De locis sanctis" is a
description of Jerusalem and
the holy places based upon Adamnan and Arculfus. Bede's
work was edited in 1898 by Geyer in the "Itinera Hierosolymitana" for
the Vienna "Corpus
Scriptorum". That Bede compiled a Martyrologium we know from
his own statement. But the work attributed to him in extant manuscripts has
been so much interpolated and supplemented that his share in it is quite
uncertain.
Bede's exegetical writings
both in his own idea and
in that of his contemporaries stood supreme in importance among his works, but
the list is long and cannot fully be given here. They included
a commentary upon the Pentateuch as
a whole as well as on selected portions, and there are
also commentaries on
the Books ofKings, Esdras, Tobias, the Canticles, etc.
In the New
Testament he has certainly interpreted St.
Mark, St. Luke, the Acts, the Canonical Epistles, and
the Apocalypse. But the authenticity of
the commentary on St. Matthew printed under his name is
more than doubtful.
(Plaine in "Revue Anglo-Romaine", 1896, III, 61.) The homilies of Bede
take the form of commentaries upon the Gospel. The
collection of fifty, divided into two books, which are attributed to him
by Giles (and in Migne)
are for the most part authentic, but thegenuineness of a few is open
to suspicion. (Morin in "Revue Bénédictine", IX, 1892, 316.)
Various didactic works
are mentioned by Bede in the list which he has left us of his own
writings. Most of these are still preserved and there is no reason to doubt that
the texts we possess are authentic. The grammatical treatises "De
arte metricâ" and "De orthographiâ" have been adequately edited
in modern times by Keil in his "Grammatici Latini" (Leipzig, 1863).
But the larger works "De naturâ rerum", "De temporibus",
"De temporium ratione", dealing with science as
it was then understood and especially with chronology,
are only accessible in the unsatisfactory texts of the earlier editors
and Giles. Beyond the metrical life of St.
Cuthbert and some verses incorporated in the Ecclesiastical
History" we do not possess much poetry that can be assigned to Bede
with confidence, but, like other scholars of his age,
he certainly wrote a good deal of verse. He himself mentions his
"book of hymns"
composed in different meters or rhythms. So Alcuin says
of him: Plurima versifico cecinit quoque carmina plectro. It
is possible that the shorter of the two metricalcalendars printed
among his works is genuine. The Penitential ascribed to Bede,
though accepted as genuine by Haddan and Stubbs and Wasserschleben, is
probably not his (Plummer, I, 157).
Venerable Bede is the earliest witness of pure Gregorian tradition in England. His works "Musica theoretica" and "De arte Metricâ" (Migne, XC) are found especially valuable by present-day scholars engaged in the study of the primitive form of the chant.
Thurston, Herbert. "The Venerable Bede." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.29
May 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02384a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul Knutsen.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02384a.htm
Bede the Venerable ca.
673-735
St. Augustine of Canterbury: ¬ Whereas the Faith is one and the same, why are
there different customs in different churches? and why is one custom of masses
observed in the holy Roman Church, and another in the Gallican Church?
Pope St. Gregory the Dialogist: ¬ You know, my brother, the custom of the Roman
Church in which you remember you were bred up. But it pleases me, that if you
have found anything, either in the Roman, or the Gallican, or any other church,
which may be more acceptable to Almighty God, you carefully make choice of the
same, and sedulously teach the Church of the English, which as yet is new in
the Faith, whatsoever you can gather from the several churches. For things are
not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things.
Choose, therefore, from every church those things that are pious, religious,
and upright, and when you have, as it were, made them up into one body, let the
minds of the English be accustomed thereto. (Ecclesiastical History of the
English Bk. 1.27)
Filed Under: Bede the Venerable ca. 673-735, By Saint, Holy Fathers,
Liturgy/Worship, St. Augustine of Canterbury 6th cent., St. Gregory the
Dialogist ca. 540-604, Worship (ancient)
On Moses and Elijah
They were not forbidden to listen to Moses and Elias, that is, the Law and the
Prophets, but listening to the Son was to take precedence, since He came to
fulfill the Law and the Prophets. It is impressed upon them that the light of
Gospel truth was to be put before all the types and obscure signs of the Old
Testament. (Homily 1.24, 242)
St. Bede on Binding and Loosing
Although it may seem that this power of loosing and binding was given by the
Lord only to Peter, we must nevertheless know without any doubt that it was
also given to the other Apostles, as Christ Himself testified when, after the
triumph of His Passion and Resurrection, He appeared to them and breathed upon
them and said to them all: ‘Receive ye the Holy Spirit: if ye forgive the sins
of any, they are forgiven to them; if ye retain the sins of any, they are
retained [Jn. 20:22,23].’ Indeed, even now the same office is committed to the
whole Church in Her bishops and priests. (Homily 1.20, The Orthodox New
Testament: Endnotes — Matthew pg. 106)
SOURCE : http://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/bedevenerable/
St. Bede the Venerable
St. Bede “the Venerable” was the first great English scholar. He was born in
Northumbria (according to tradition, at Monkton, Durham, east of Newcastle) 672
or 673 and died at the monastery of Jarrow on May 25, 735. Almost all that is
known of his life is contained in a notice added by himself to his great work
Historia ecclesiastica (v, 24), which states that he was placed in the
monastery at Wearmouth at the age of seven, that he became deacon in his
nineteenth year, and priest in his thirtieth.
He was trained by the abbots Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid, and probably
accompanied the latter to Jarrow in 682. There he spent his life, finding his
chief pleasure in being always occupied in learning, teaching, or writing, and
zealous in the performance of monastic duties.
His works show that he had at his command all the learning of his time. He was
proficient in patristic literature, and quotes from Puny the Younger, Vergil,
Lucretius, Ovid, Horace, and other classical writers, but with some
disapproval. He knew Greek and a little Hebrew. His Latin is clear and without
affectation, and he is a skilful story-teller.
His works were so widely spread throughout Europe and so much esteemed that he
won the name of “the teacher of the Middle Ages.”
Bede became known as Venerable Bede soon after his death, but this was not
linked to consideration for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. His
scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognized in 1899 when he was
declared a Doctor of the Church.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-bede/
James Doyle Penrose (1862–1932), The Last Chapter. The Venerable Bede translating the Gospel of John on his deathbed, 1902, Royal Academy summer exhibition, Burlington House, http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg
.jpg)
James Doyle Penrose (1862–1932), The Last Chapter. The Venerable Bede translating the Gospel of John on his deathbed, 1902, Royal Academy summer exhibition, Burlington House, http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg
Bede, Priest, Doctor (RM)
Born in Northumbria, England, 673; died at Jarrow, England, on May 25, 735;
named Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. In the days when
Northumbria was a great scholastic center with famous schools at Jarrow and
York, Bede was the most distinguished of its scholars. Beginning at age seven
(or three?), he was educated at the newly-founded monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow
under Abbots Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid. In 703, he was received as a monk by
Saint Benedict Biscop and ordained a priest at age 30 by Saint John of
Beverley. Except for a few brief visits elsewhere, Bede spent the rest of his
life in Jarrow; never going further afield than Lindisfarne and York.
"I have spent my
whole life," he says, "in the same monastery, and while attentive to
the rule of my order and the service of the Church, my constant pleasure lay in
learning or teaching or writing." He numbered 600 monks among his pupils
and became the Father of English learning. "I have devoted my energies to
the study of Scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily
services in church."
Bede was a prodigious
worker, the author of 45 volumes, including commentaries, text-books, and
translations. His range was encyclopedic, embracing the whole field of
contemporary knowledge. He wrote grammatical and chronological works, hymns and
other verse, letters, and homilies, and compiled the first martyrology with
historical notes. These are in Latin, but Bede was also the first known writer
of English prose (since lost). Bede's Biblical writings were extensive and
important in their time, but it is as an historian that he is famous. The Latin
of the hymns 'The hymn for conquering martyrs raise' and 'Sing we triumphant
hymns of praise' was written by Bede
His supreme achievement,
completed in 731, was his History of the English Church and People, in the
laborious preparation of which he searched the archives of Rome (? most sources
say he never left England), collecting and collating documents, and set forth
in detail the first authoritative history of Christian origins in Britain. To
this he added Lives of five early abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. Nor until his
last illness had he any assistance: "I am my own secretary; I dictate, I
compose, I copy all myself."
Many stories have
gathered round his name. This one is probably mythic: On a visit to Rome with
other scholars, he found them puzzled by an inscription of cryptic letters upon
an iron gate. A passing Roman citizen, seeing their confusion, sneered at Bede
and rudely called him an English ox, when, to his surprise, Bede at once read
out the meaning. From that time, because of the range of his wisdom and the
keenness of his intellect, he was given the title of venerable.
But the best-known story
is related by his contemporary Saint Cuthbert of how when illness and weakness
came upon him at the end of his life, his translation of Saint John's Gospel
into the English tongue was still unfinished. Despite sleepless nights and days
of weariness, he continued his task, and though he made what speed he could, he
took every care in comparing the text and preserving its accuracy. "I
don't want my boys," he said, "to read a lie or to work to no purpose
after I am gone." His friends begged him to rest, but he insisted on
working. "We never read without weeping," remarked one of them.
When it came to the last
day, he called his scribe to him and told him to write with all possible speed.
"There is still a chapter wanting," said the boy, as the day wore on;
"had you not better rest for a while?" But Bede persisted with his
task. "Be quick with your writing," he answered, "for I shall
not hold out much longer."
When night fell, the boy
said: "There is yet one sentence not written." "Write
quickly," Bede replied; and when it was done, he said: "All is
finished now," then after sending for his fellow monks and distributing to
them his few belongings, in a broken voice he sang the Gloria and passed to his
reward on Ascension Eve.
Of all the writers in
Western Europe from the time of Saint Gregory the Great until Saint Anselm,
Saint Bede was perhaps the best known and most influential, especially in
England. He was a careful scholar and distinguished stylist. His works De
Temporibus and De Temporum Ratione established the idea of dating events anno
domini (A.D.).
Already in 853 a church
council in Aachen referred to him as 'the venerable,' i.e., worthy of honor.
Saint Boniface called Bede 'a light of the church, lit by the Holy Spirit.' To
Alcuin, himself the 'schoolmaster of his age,' he was 'blessed Bede, our master.'
(Alcuin claimed Bede's relics worked miraculous cures.) Bede is the only
Englishman whom Dante names in the Paradiso. The center of Bede's cultus is
Durham, where his shrine is located, and York (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney,
Duckett, Gill, Hamilton Thompson, White).
A good deal of further
information on Saint Bede is available on the Internet, including his Life of
St. Cuthbert. Saint Bede is depicted in art as an old monk writing with a quill
and rule. He might also be shown (1) studying a book, (2) holding up a pitcher
with light from heaven falling on him, or (3) supported by monks as he is dying
(Roeder). He is the patron saint of scholars and historians (White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0525.shtml
May 27
St. Bede, Confessor and
Father of the Church
From the short account he
has given of himself in the last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History; his
disciple Cuthbert’s relation of his death; his two short anonymous lives
extant, one in Capgrave, the other quoted by F. Maihew; also from Simeon of
Durham, Hist. Dunelm. c. 14, 15, et l. de Pontif. Eborac. in manuscript.
Cotton. Malmesb. de Reg. Angl. l. 2, c. 4; Matt. of West. ad an. 734. See
Mabillon, sæc. 3, Ben. p. 1, p. 539. Bulteau, t. 2, p. 316. Cave, Hist. Lit. t.
1. ed. noviss. Ceillier, t. 18, p. 1. Tanner, Bibl. Script. Brit. p. 86,
Biographia Brit. t. 1, V. Bede; and Smith in app. after Bede’s Eccl. Hist. p.
791.
A.D. 735.
THE CELEBRATED Dom.
Mabillon 1 mentioning
Bede as a most illustrious instance of learning in the monastic institute,
says: “Who ever applied himself to the study of every branch of literature, and
also to the teaching of others, more than Bede? yet who was more closely united
to heaven by the exercises of piety and religion? To see him pray, says an
ancient writer, one would have thought he left himself no time to study; and
when we look at his books we admire he could have found time to do any thing
else but write.” Camden calls him “the singular and shining light,” and Leland,
“the chiefest and brightest ornament of the English nation, most worthy, if any
one ever was, of immortal fame.” William of Malmesbury tells us, that it is
easier to admire him in thought than to do him justice in expression. Venerable
Bede, called by the ancients Bedan—who is not to be confounded with a monk of
Lindisfarne of the same name, 2 but
older—was born in 673, as Mabillon demonstrates from his own writings, in a
village which soon after his birth became part of the estate of the new
neighbouring monastery of Jarrow, but was gained upon by the sea before the
time of Simeon of Durham. St. Bennet Biscop founded the abbey of St. Peter’s at
Weremouth, near the mouth of the Were, in 674, and that of St. Paul’s at
Girvum, now Jarrow, in 680, on the banks of the river Tyne, below the Capræ-caput, still
called Goat’s-head or Gateshead, opposite to Newcastle. Such a harmony
subsisted between the two houses that they were often governed by the same
abbot, and called the same monastery of SS. Peter and Paul. St. Bennet was a
man of extraordinary learning and piety, and enriched these monasteries with a
large and curious library which he had collected at Rome, and in other foreign
parts. To his care Bede was committed at seven years of age, but was afterwards
removed to Jarrow, where he prosecuted his studies under the direction of the
abbot Ceolfrid, who had been St. Bennet’s fellow-traveller. Among other able
masters, under whom he made great progress, he names Trumbert, a monk of
Jarrow, who had formerly been a disciple of St. Chad, bishop, first of York,
afterwards of Litchfield, who had established a great school in his monastery
of Lestingan in Yorkshire. The church music or chant Bede learned of John,
formerly precentor of St. Peter’s of the Vatican, and abbot of St. Martin’s at
Rome, whom Pope Agatho had sent over to England with St. Bennet Biscop. The
Greek language our saint must have learned of Theodorus archbishop of
Canterbury, and the abbot Adrian, by whose instruction that language became as
familiar to several of their English scholars as their native tongue. For an
instance of which Bede mentions Tobias bishop of Rochester. How great a master
Bede was of that language appears from his Ars Metrica and other
works. His poem on St. Cuthbert and other performances show him to have been a
good poet for the age wherein he lived. But his comments on the holy scriptures,
and his sermons prove that the meditation on the word of God, and the writings
of the holy fathers chiefly engrossed his time and attention.
His great piety and
endowments supplying the defect of age, by the order of his abbot Ceolfrid, he
was ordained deacon in 691, at nineteen years of age, by St. John of Beverley,
who was at that time bishop of Hexham, in which diocess Jarrow was situated,
there being then no episcopal see at Durham. From this time he continued his
studies, till, at thirty years of age, in 702, he was ordained priest by the
same St. John who was made bishop of Hexham in 685, and bishop of York in 704.
In King Alfred’s version Bede is styled mass-priest, because it was his
employment to sing every day the conventual mass. He tells us, that the holy
abbot and founder St. Bennet Biscop, like the rest of the brethren, used to
winnow the corn and thrash it, to give milk to the lambs and calves, and to
work in the bakehouse, garden, and kitchen. Bede must have sometimes had a
share in such employments, and he was always cheerful, obedient, and
indefatigable. But his studies and writings, with assiduous meditation and
prayer, must have chiefly employed him. He often copied books. From the time
that he was promoted to priestly order he began to compose books; and he had a
great school, in which he brought up many eminent and holy scholars, and
instructed his fellow monks, who amounted to the number of six hundred. Bede
tells us of himself that he applied himself wholly to the meditation of the holy
scriptures, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care
of singing in the church, it was his delight to be always employed either in
learning, teaching, or writing. He says, that from the time of his being made
priest, to the fifty-ninth year of his age when he wrote this, he had compiled
several books for his own use, and that of others, gathering them out of the
works of the venerable fathers, or adding new comments according to their sense
and interpretation. 3 He
gives a list of forty-five different works which he had then composed, of which
thirty, and many of those are divided into several books, consist of comments
on the Old and New Testament. He wrote several other works after this. All the
sciences and every branch of literature were handled by him; natural
philosophy, the philosophical principles of Aristotle, astronomy, arithmetic,
the calendar, grammar, ecclesiastical history, and the lives of the saints;
though works of piety make up the bulk of his writings. The ornaments of
rhetoric were not his study; but perspicuity, (the first qualification in
writing,) an unaffected honesty and simplicity, and an affecting spirit of
sincere piety and goodness of heart and charity run through all his
compositions, and cannot fail to please. An honest candour and love of truth
are so visibly the characteristics of his historical works, that if some
austere critics have suspected him sometimes of credulity, no man ever called
in question his sincerity. If on the scriptures he often abridged or reduced to
a methodical order the comments of St. Austin, St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St.
Basil, and other fathers, this he did, not out of sloth or for want of genius,
(as some later writers have done,) but that he might stick closer to tradition
in interpreting the sacred oracles; and in what he found not done by other
eminent fathers, he still followed their rules lest he should in the least
tittle deviate from tradition. In the original comments which he wrote, he
seems in the opinion of good judges, not inferior in solidity and judgment to
his ablest masters among the fathers. John Bale, the apostate Carmelite friar,
and the sworn enemy of the monks and fathers, who was bishop of Ossory under
Edward VI., and died canon of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth, could not
refuse Bede the highest encomiums, and affirms, that he certainly surpassed
Gregory the Great in eloquence and copiousness of style, and that there is
scarcely anything in all antiquity worthy to be read which is not found in
Bede. Dr. John Pitts 4 advances,
that Europe scarcely ever produced a greater scholar; and that even whilst he
was living, his writings were of so great authority, that a council ordered
them to be publicly read in the churches. Folchard, a very learned monk of
Christ Church, in Canterbury, and abbot of Thorney, in the days of St. Edward
the Confessor, and the Conqueror, originally from Sithiu, in his life of St.
John of Beverley, quoted by Leland, says of Bede, “It is amazing how this great
man became so perfect in all the branches of those sciences to which he applied
himself, whereby he conquered all difficulties, and brought those of his own
nation to form right notions; so that from the rude and boorish manners of
their ancestors they began to be exceedingly civilized and polite through their
desire of learning, of which he not only taught them the grounds whilst living,
but in his works left them a kind of Encyclopædia (or universal library) for
the instruction of youth after his decease.” Fuller writes of him: “He
expounded almost all the Bible, translated the Psalms and New Testament into
English, and lived a comment on those words of the apostle—shining as a light
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” What we most admire in
Bede is the piety with which he pursued and sanctified his studies, and the use
which he made of them. What he says of St. Chad was a transcript of his own
life, that he studied the holy scriptures so as to meditate assiduously on the
mysteries of faith and the maxims and rules of piety, treasuring up in his
heart the most perfect sentiments of divine love, humility, and all virtues,
and diligently copying them in his whole conduct. Hence his life was a model of
devotion, obedience, humility, simplicity, charity, and penance. He declined
the abbatial dignity which was pressed upon him. Malmesbury gives us a letter
of Pope Sergius, 5 by
which with many honourable expressions he was invited to Rome, that pope
desiring to see and consult him on certain matters of the greatest importance.
This must have happened about the time that he was ordained priest. Bede out of
modesty suppressed this circumstance. What hindered his journey thither we know
not; but we have his word for it that he lived from his childhood in his
monastery without travelling abroad, that is, without taking any considerable
journey. His reputation drew to him many visits from all the greatest men in
Britain, particularly from the pious king Ceolwulp. Ecgbright or Egberct,
brother to Eadbyrht, king of Northumberland, who was consecrated archbishop of
York in 734, had been a scholar of Bede. At his pressing invitation our saint
went to York, and taught there some months, but excused himself from leaving
his monastery the following year. 6 This
school set up at York became very flourishing, and Alcuin, one of its greatest
ornaments, is said to have been himself a scholar of Bede. Our saint died soon
after Ecgbright’s accession to the see of York; but lived long enough to write
him a letter of advice upon his advancement. Herein he puts him in mind that it
was a most essential part of his duty to place everywhere able and learned
priests, to labour strenuously himself in feeding his flock, in correcting all
vice, and endeavouring to convert all sinners, and to take care that every one
knew the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed, and was thoroughly instructed in the
articles of our holy religion. He gives it as an important piece of advice,
that all among the laity whose lives are pure, (or free from vice,) communicate
every Sunday, and on the festivals of the apostles and martyrs, as he says
Ecgbright had seen practised at Rome; but Bede requires that the married
persons prepare themselves by continence to receive the holy communion, 7 which
was formerly a precept repeated in several councils; but is now by disuse
looked upon as no more than a counsel, but a counsel which St. Charles Borromeo
recommends to be inculcated. Bede died within the compass of a year after he
wrote this letter. Cuthbert, called also Antony, one of his scholars, to whom
the saint dedicated his book De Arte Metrica, wrote to one Cuthwin a
monk, who had formerly been his schoolfellow under Bede, an account of the
death of their dear master. This Cuthbert was afterwards abbot of Jarrow, in
which dignity he succeeded Huethbert, called also Eusebius, another scholar of
Bede.
The letter of Cuthbert 8 deserves
to have a place in the life of Bede, though it is here something abridged:—“To
his most beloved in Christ, and fellow-reader Cuthwin, his schoolfellow
Cuthbert wishes eternal salvation in our Lord. Your small present was very
acceptable, and your letter gave me much satisfaction, wherein I found what I
greatly desired, that masses and prayers are diligently said by you for Bede,
the beloved of God, our late father and master. For the love I bear him, I send
you in few words an account of the manner in which he departed this world,
understanding it is what you desire. He began to be much troubled with a
shortness of breath about two weeks before Easter, yet without pain: thus he
lived cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God every day and
night, nay, every hour, till the day of our Lord’s Ascension, which was the
26th of May. He daily read lessons to us his scholars; the rest of the day he
spent in singing psalms; he also passed all the night awake in joy and
thanksgiving, only when he was interrupted by a short slumber; but awakening,
he repeated his accustomed exercises, and ceased not to give thanks to God,
with hands expanded. O truly happy man! He sung that sentence of St. Paul: It
is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; and much
more out of holy writ. Being well skilled in English verses, he recited some
things in our tongue. He said in English: ‘No man is too wise to consider what
good or evil he has done, before the necessary departure:’ that is, to examine
the state of his soul sufficiently before his death. He also sung anthems,
according to his and our custom; one of which is: ‘O glorious King, Lord of
Hosts, who triumphing this day didst ascend above all the heavens; leave us not
orphans, but send down the Father’s Spirit of truth upon us: Alleluia.’ When he
came to that word ‘leave us not,’ he burst into tears, and wept much; and an
hour after he began to repeat the same anthem he had commenced, and we hearing
it, grieved with him. By turns we read, and by turns we wept; nay, we always
wept even when we read. In such joy we passed the fifty days, and he rejoiced
much, and gave God thanks because he deserved to be so infirm. He often
repeated, that God scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; and much
more out of the scripture; also that sentence of St. Ambrose: ‘I have not lived
so as to be ashamed to live among you; nor am I afraid to die, because we have
a good God.’ During these days, besides the daily lessons he gave, and the
singing of psalms, he composed two works for the benefit of the church; the one
was a translation of St. John’s gospel into English, as far as those
words: But what are these among so many? the other, some collections
out of St. Isidore’s book of notes; for he said, ‘I will not have my scholars
read a falsehood after my death, and labour without advantage.’ On Tuesday
before the Ascension he began to be much worse in his breathing, and a small
swelling appeared in his feet; but he passed all that day pleasantly, and
dictated in school, saying now and then, ‘Go on quickly; I know not how long I
shall hold out, and whether my Maker will soon take me away.’ To us he seemed
very well to know the time of his departure. He spent the night awake in
thanksgiving. On Wednesday morning he ordered us to write speedily what he had
begun. After this, we made the procession according to the custom of that day, 9 walking
with the relics of the saints till the third hour (or nine o’clock in the
morning); then one of us said to him: ‘Most dear master, there is still one
chapter wanting. Do you think it troublesome to be asked any more questions?’
He answered: ‘It is no trouble. Take your pen and write fast.’ He did so. But
at the ninth hour (three in the afternoon) he said to me: ‘Run quickly; and
bring all the priests of the monastery to me.’ When they came, he distributed
to them some pepper-corns, little cloths or handkerchiefs, and incense which he
had in a little box, 10 entreating
every one that they would carefully celebrate masses and say prayers for him;
which they readily promised to do. They all wept at his telling them, they
should no more see his face in this world; but rejoiced to hear him say: ‘It is
now time for me to return to him who made me, and gave me a being when I was
nothing. I have lived a long time; my merciful Judge most graciously foresaw
and ordered the course of my life for me. The time of my dissolution draws near.
I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. Yes; my soul desires to see
Christ my king in his beauty.’ Many other things he spoke to our edification,
and spent the rest of the day in joy till the evening. The above-mentioned
young scholar, whose name was Wilberth, said to him: ‘Dear master, there is
still one sentence that is not written.’ He answered, ‘Write quickly.’ The
young man said: ‘It is now done.’ He replied: ‘You have well said; it is at an
end: all is finished. Hold my head that I may have the pleasure to sit, looking
towards my little oratory where I used to pray; that whilst I am sitting I may
call upon my heavenly Father, and on the pavement of his little place
sing, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.’ Thus
he prayed on the floor, and when he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed out
his soul. All declared that they had never seen any one die with such great
devotion and tranquillity; for so long as his soul was in his body, he never
ceased, with his hands expanded, to give thanks and praise to God,
repeating Glory be to the Father, &c., with other spiritual acts.
I have many other things I could relate of him; and I have a thought of writing
more amply on this subject,” &c.
Ranulph Higden 11 relates
the manner of his holy departure: “After teaching all day, it was his custom to
watch much in the nights. Finding by the swelling of his feet that death
approached, he received extreme unction, and then the Viaticum on the Tuesday
before the Ascension of the Lord, and gave the kiss of peace to all his
brethren, imploring their pious remembrance after his death. On the feast of
the Ascension, lying on sackcloth spread on the floor, he invited the grace of
the Holy Ghost; and continued in praise and thanksgiving in which he breathed
forth his holy soul.” St. Bede died in the year 735, of his age sixty-two, 12 on
Wednesday evening the 26th of May, after the first vespers of our Lord’s
Ascension; whence many authors say he died on the feast of the Ascension; for
our Saxon ancestors reckoned festivals from the first vespers. Thus from
repeating the divine praises here in the most pure and profound sentiments of
compunction, humility, zeal, and love, he passed, as it were without
intermission, to sing eternally the same praises with affections at once
infinitely dilated with inexpressible holy joy, ardour, and love, in the
glorious choirs of the blessed, and in the beatific contemplation of God, whom
he praised and loved. His feast was kept in England in some places on the 26th
of May, with a commemoration only in the office of St. Austin; in others it was
deferred to the 27th, on which it occurs in the Roman Martyrology. In the
constitution of John Alcock, bishop of Ely, for the festivals of his diocess,
printed in 1498 by Pynson, Bede’s feast is ordered to be kept with an office on
the 13th of March, the day of his death being taken up by the office of St.
Austin. Certain congregations of the Benedictin Order have long kept his office
on the 29th of October, perhaps, on account of some translation. On the same
day it is celebrated at present in England, and by a special privilege, the
office is said by all English priests who live in foreign countries, by an
indult or grant of Pope Benedict XIV. given in 1754; which grant, at least with
regard to those clergymen or regulars who are in England, was interpreted at
Rome to imply a precept.
Alcuin 13 having
extolled the learning and virtues of this holy doctor, says that his sanctity
was attested by the voice of heaven after his death; for a sick man was freed
from a fever upon the spot by touching his relics. St. Lullus, archbishop of
Mentz, wrote to his scholar Cuthbert, then abbot of Weremouth and Jarrow, to
beg a copy of Bede’s works, and sent him a cloak for his own use, and a silk
vest to cover the shrine of this great servant of God. At that time a vest was
a usual present even to kings. Bede was buried in St. Paul’s church in Jarrow,
where a porch on the north side bore his name. In 1020 his sacred remains were
conveyed to Durham, and laid in a bag and wooden trunk in the shrine of St.
Cuthbert, as Simeon of Durham relates. In 1155 they were taken up by Hugh
bishop of Durham, and inclosed in a rich shrine of curious workmanship, adorned
with gold, silver, and jewels, as we learn from the appendix to the history of
Durham, compiled by Simeon of Durham, who wrote from the memoirs of Turgot the
learned prior of Durham in the reign of Edward the Confessor, made archbishop
of St. Andrew’s in the reign of the Conqueror, whose declared enemy he was.
Hence Turgot’s history has been by some ascribed to him. At the change of
religion in England the shrines of the saints were plundered by the royal
commissioners, but these were anticipated by private robbers in many places. At
the same time the relics were scattered or publicly burnt. This latter part of
the commission, which was rigorously executed near the court and in the
southern provinces, was not much regarded in the more remote northern counties,
where they were usually interred in the churches where their shrines were kept,
as we see in St. Cuthbert’s, St. John of Beverley’s, &c. Speed, in his
Theatre of Britain, says his marble monument subsisted, when he wrote, in our
Lady’s chapel in the western part of the church of Durham. Sir George Wheeler,
who died prebendary of Durham, and was a great admirer of Bede, according to
his will, is buried within the cathedral, near the foot of Bede’s tomb, and has
an inscription, whereas none is now found over St. Bede’s. Mr. Smith has given
a type of the remains which are now standing, 14 and
another of the altar of St. Cuthbert and St. Bede, delineated from the
paintings of the Eastern window. 15 Nevertheless
the monks of Glastenbury laid claim to St. Bede’s relics, or a portion of them. 16 Boniface
calls St. Bede the lamp of the English church; St. Lullus, Alcuin, and other
writers from the time of his death exceedingly extol his learning and sanctity.
By Lanfranc and many others he is styled the doctor and father of the English.
Trithemius imagined that the title of “Venerable” was conferred on
him in his life-time. But Mabillon shows from the silence of all former
writers, that it was begun to be given him, out of a peculiar respect, only in
the ninth age, when it was used by Amalarius, Jonas, Usuard, &c. 17 He
was styled Saint, and placed in foreign Martyrologies long before that time, by
Hincmar, Notker, 18 in
the litany of St. Gall’s, &c. Rabanus Maurus mentions an altar at Fulde, of
which Bede was titular saint. The second council of Aix la Chapelle, in 836,
calls him “The venerable, and in the modern times admirable doctor,” &c.
It was the happiness of
venerable Bede, that receiving his education under the direction of saints, by
their example, spirit, and instructions he learned from his infancy the maxims
and practice of perfect sanctity. St. Chrysostom 19 wished
that parents would breed up their children in monasteries till they are to be
produced in the world. Several Roman senators and other noblemen committed the
education of their sons to St. Bennet. The most austere and regular monasteries
have been chosen by virtuous parents of the first rank, whose principal desire
was that their children should be brought up among saints, where their passions
would be in no danger of being flattered, and where their minds would be filled
with Christian verities and Christ’s spirit, and their hearts formed to piety,
grounded in the love, and exercised in habits of all virtues. This is the first
and essential advantage which parents are bound to procure their children, upon
which their temporal and eternal happiness depends, and all other advantages
and qualifications are to be founded. Let them not be neglected, but let this
be secured in the first place, and at all rates.
Note 1. Tr. des
Etudes Monast. t. 1, p. 111, ed. Par. 1692. [back]
Note 2. Vit. S.
Cuthbert. c. 37. See Mabil. Anal. t. 4, pp. 521, 522. [back]
Note 3. Bede wrote
his Church History of the English in the year 731, the fifty-ninth of his age,
at the request of Ceolwulph, (to whom it was dedicated,) a very learned and
pious king of the Northumbrians, who three years after Bede’s death resigned
his kingdom to his son Edbert, and became a monk at Lindisfarne, where he died
in 740. Milton and some others complain of omissions of dates and civil
transactions. But Bede’s undertaking was only a history of the English Church;
a work suitable to his profession and piety. He speaks sparingly of the British
churches, because they fell not directly under his plan. If he relate many
visions and miracles, he usually names his vouchers. The best editions of this
history are those of Abr. Wheloc with notes, at Cambridge, in 1644; of Peter
Fr. Chifflet, a Jesuit, with notes, at Paris, in 1681, and especially of Dr.
John Smith at Cambridge, in 1722, in folio, with Bede’s other historical works,
as his Chronicle, or on the six ages of the world; his Lives of St. Cuthbert
and St. Felix, his Letters to Archbishop Ecgberct, his book on the Holy Places,
(p. 315,) his Genuine Martyrology, (p. 327,) first published without the
posterior additions of Florus, monk of St. Tron’s, and others, by the Bollandists,
(Mart. t. 2, Proleg.) Bede’s Lives of the five first abbots of Weremouth (St.
Bennet Biscop, St. Ceolfrid, Estervin, Sigefrid, and Witbert) is accurately
published by Sir James Ware, at Dublin, in 1664, and by Henry Wharton, at
London, in 1693. The life of St. Cuthbert he wrote both in prose and verse:
that of St. Felix he only translated into prose from the poems of St. Paulinus.
Several lives published among Bede’s works belong to other authors; that of St.
Gregory the Great, to Paul the deacon; those of SS. Columban, Attalus,
Eustatius, Bertulfus, and Fara, to Jonas, the disciple of St. Columban; that of
St. Vedastus to an anonymous Frenchman; that of St. Patrick to Probus. The
other works of Bede are comments on the scripture, and several homilies or sermons;
others treat on poesy, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy, music, the art of notation
or of memory, the calendar, on Easter or the Equinox, &c. His book on the
Holy Places is an abridgment of Adamnan, &c. His hymns and epigrams are
lost. The works of Bede were printed at Paris in 1499 and in 1545, in three
tomes; and at Basil in 1563, in eight tomes; at Cologne in 1612 and 1688. See
Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. 254. Mabillon, sæc. Ben. iii. in Elogio Historico de
Beda, ejusque Scriptis; Cave, Hist. Liter, t. 1, p. 612. Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p.
86, and Boston Buriens, p. 29, ap. Tan. in Præf. Cave calls it a disgrace to
our nation that no accurate or complete edition of Bede’s works has been set
forth, especially as many genuine valuable writings of this father are found in
manuscripts, which have never been published, of which catalogues are given by
Cave and Tanner. The former has published Bede’s Prologue to the Canonical
Epistles, (p. 614,) pretending that the primacy of St. Peter seems to have been
unknown to the author. Bede indeed thinks the epistle of St. James may have
been placed first, because the gospel began to be preached at Jerusalem, and
because St. James wrote his epistle before St. Peter. But see this prologue
more correctly given by Trombelli, a canon regular of St. Saviour, at Bologna,
in 1755. (Bedæ Claudii Taurinensis aliorumque Veterum Patrum Opuscula.) This
piece is published by the warmest abetters of St. Peter’s supremacy; so far are
they from industriously suppressing it, as Cave insinuates. Neither can any one
form from it an objection to that article, which no one more manifestly
establishes than Bede in many parts of his works. Nor can Bede’s religion as to
any other points of controversy in faith be ambiguous to any one who is the
least conversant in his writings, especially as to the doctrine of praying for
the dead, invoking saints, venerating their relics and holy images, &c., to
all which practices he ascribes miracles, &c. He proves that God in the
decalogue forbade only idols, not all holy images; for he commanded himself the
brazen serpent, &c. (l. De Templo Solom. c. 19, t. 8, p. 40.) His Church
History, which is in every one’s hands, may suffice alone to speak for him. See
him also on praying for the dead. (Hom. 2, t. 5. Anecd. Martenne, p. 239,
&c.) It may seem worth notice that (l. De Nat. Rerum. p. 46. Op. t. 2, p.
37,) he teaches the world and the earth to be round. The Protestants would be
unwilling to stand by his verdict or testimony of the church’s faith; though
they have not refused him the just tribute of praise. Melanchton (De
Corrigendis Studiis) confesses Venerable Bede to have been a person singularly
skilled in Greek and Latin; also in mathematics, philosophy, and sacred
literature. Bishop Tanner (p. 86,) gives this character of him: “He was a
prodigy of learning in an unlearned age, whose erudition we can never cease
admiring. If we think that he sometimes failed in his judgment or by credulity,
when we take a view of all his writings together, we shall confess that he
alone is a library and a treasure of all the arts.” The geography of Bede, even
in his descriptions of foreign countries, is incomparably exact, though he
never travelled abroad; which shows how careful he was in procuring the best
information, which he also discovers in his preface to his history, where he
speaks of the sources of his intelligence. [back]
Note 4. De Script.
Angl. [back]
Note 5. L. 1, de
Reg. c. 3. [back]
Note 6. Bed. ep.
Ecgbright, ap. Smith, p. 306. [back]
Note 7. Bed. ep.
Ecgbright, ap. Smith, p. 311. [back]
Note 8. Ap.
Simeon. Dunelm. Hist. Dunelm. l. 1, c. 15, et ap. Smith, p.
792. [back]
Note 9. Usque ad
tertiam horam, ambulavimus deinde cum reliquiis sanctorum, ut consuetude diei
illius poscebat, p. 793, ed. Smith. This was the procession of the Rogations on
the eve of Ascension-day. [back]
Note 10. Piperem,
oraria et incensa. The incense was used to burn at high mass, as Gemmulus, a
deacon of Rome, mentions, (Ep. ad S. Bonifac. inter ep. Bonif. 149,) who sent
the like present to St. Boniface. Oraria means little cloths to wipe the mouth,
as Vossius shows, (c. 3, De Vitiis Serm. c. 31.) Bede by these little presents
desired to give tokens of mutual charity, and memorials to put others in mind
to remember him in the divine office, as Mabillon and Smith observe. Monks were
then allowed, with the abbot’s tacit consent, to leave such little tokens as
memorials, as is clear from St. Bennet’s rule. St. Lullus sent to the Abbess
Kaneboda a present of pepper, incense, and cinnamon. The epistles of St.
Boniface and others furnish several like instances. Such little tokens were
intended to put persons in mind to pray for one another. Fortunatus, returning
thanks for such a present of herbs, chesnuts, and plums, says, “Munere in
angusto cernitur amplus amor.”—L. 11, epigr. 23. See Mabillon, loco cit. § 8. De
Xeniolis. Smith, loc. cit. [back]
Note 11. Polychron.
l. 5, ad an. 732. [back]
Note 12. This
calculation of Mabillon agrees with the saint’s writings and history, and with
the Paschal Cycle of that year; though some make him to have lived only
fifty-nine years; and the life of Alcuin seems to say that he died in his
ninetieth year; consequently that he lived thirty years after he had written
his Church History; which system is adopted by Bishop Tanner, who says he died
in 762, ninety years old. Bibl. Britan. p. 92. [back]
Note 13. Alcuin,
Carm. de Pontif. et Sanct. Eccl. Eborac. v. 1305. [back]
Note 14. App. ad
Hist. Bedæ, p. 805. [back]
Note
15. Frontispiece, ib. [back]
Note 16. See Monast.
Angl. t. 1, and John of Glastenbury. [back]
Note 17. Mab. ib
Elog. Hist. et ap. Smith in App. p. 807. [back]
Note 18. Notker ad
13, Cal. Apr. [back]
Note 19. St. Chrys.
l. 3, contr. Vitup. Vitæ. monast. pp. 94, 95, 99, t. 1, ed. Ben. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/272.html
Golden Legend –
Venerable Bede
Article
Here followeth the Life
of the holy and Venerable priest Bede.
The holy and venerable
Bede was born in England, and when he was seven years of his age he was
delivered to Benet Biscop of Jarrow, for to learn, and after his death he was
put to Ceolfrith, abbot of the same place, and learned and profited much in
holy life and conning. And the nineteenth year of his age he was made deacon,
of John, bishop of York, and in the thirtieth year of his age he was made priest.
Then began he to write and to study and to expound holy writ, whereupon he made
many noble homilies, and notwithstanding his great business, was daily in the
service of religion, as in singing and praying in the church. He had great
sweetness and liking to learn, to teach and to write; he wrote seventy eight
books; he accounted the books and years from the beginning of the world
in Historia Anglicana.
In the book of
Polycronicon is rehearsed that is wonder, that a man that is without use of
school made so many noble volumes in so sober words in so little space of his
life time. It is said he went to Rome for to show there his books, for to see
them according to holy writ and to the lore of holy church, but hereof some
doubt, and say that he never went to Rome. Also it is said that when he was
blind he went about for to preach, and his servant that led him brought him
whereas were many hopples of stones, to whom he made a noble sermon, and when
he had all finished his sermon the stones answered and said, Amen.
Also it is said that he
found a writing of three R’s and three F’s over the gate of Rome, which he
expounded thus: The first R betokened regna, the second ruent, the third Rome,
that is: Regna ruent Rome. And the first F betokened ferro, the second flamma,
the third fame, that is: Ferro, flamma, famæque. Also pope Sergius wrote a
letter to the abbot Ceolfrith and prayed for to have Bede come to Rome for to
assoil certain questions that were there moved. Here is to be noted, that how
noble and worthy the court of Rome held him, when so noble a court had need to
have him for to declare and assoil the questions that were there moved. Also we
ought to hold him noble and holy by the manner of his living and his teaching.
He must needs be virtuous and eschew vices that was so well occupied in
spending his wit and thought in expounding of holy writ, and his cleanness was
much seen at his last end. For his stomach had indignation of meat seven weeks
continually, and of drink, so that unnethe he might retain any meat,
and was strait and short-breathed, but for all that he spared not the travail
of lecture and of books, and every day among the detty travail of service and
of psalms, he taught his disciples in lessons and in questions. He transiated
Saint John’s Gospel into English, and said to his scholars: Learn ye, my small
children, whiles I am alive and with you; I wot not how long I shall abide with
you, and alway among he said that saw of Saint Ambrose: I have not so lived
among you that me shameth to live, neither me dreadeth to die, for we have a
good Lord.
On night’s time when he
had no man to teach then would he devoutly be in prayers and thanking our Lord
of all his gifts. The Tuesday tofore Ascension-day his death approached, and his feet began to
swell; he was houseled, anointed and kissed his brethren, and prayed them all
to remember him, and he gave to divers of his servants things that he had in
privity. On the Ascension-day the hair was spread, and he laid him down
thereon, and prayed for the grace of the Holy Ghost, and said: O king of bliss,
and Lord of virtues, that hast the prize and art this day styed up above all
heavens, leave thou us not fatherless, but send thou in to us that behest of
the Father, the ghost of soothfastness. And when he had ended that, he gave up
the last breath with a sweet dour and savour, and there he was then buried, but
the common fame telleth that he now lieth at Durham with Saint Cuthbert.
There was a devout clerk,
which laboured in his mind for to make his epitaph, and in no wise he could
make true metre, wherefore on a time he went to the church and prayed God to
give him conning to make a true verse. And after came unto his tomb and saw
there written by an angel:
Hic sunt in fossa
Bedæ venerabilis ossa.
Then let us pray to this
holy man that he pray for us, that after this life we may come to everlasting
life.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-venerable-bede/
Tomba del Venerabile Beda nel
duomo di Durham
Bede
Definition
published on 10 May 2017
Available in other
languages: French, Spanish
Bede (c. 673-735 CE)
was an English monk, historian, and scholar who lived in the Kingdom of
Northumbria. He is at times referred to as the Venerable Bede or Bede the
Venerable. He was a monk at the double monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. Bede
was a prolific writer and many of his works have survived to the present day.
His work was extremely influential in the generations after his death. His most
famous work, the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical
History of the English People), has been a vital source for the study of early
English history for centuries. For this reason, he is remembered by some as the
'Father of English History.'
Life
Very little is known
about Bede's life outside of what he himself writes in the final chapter of
the Historia Ecclesiastica. Bede was born in either 672 or 673 CE; he
claims to have been born on the very grounds of the monastery of Jarrow. This
would mean he was born in Bernicia, the northernmost of the two Northumbrian
kingdoms (Bernicia and Deira were already united into the Kingdom of Northumbria
by the time of his birth), in what is now Sunderland. Bede says virtually
nothing about his early life and very little external evidence exists. There
seems to be some likelihood that he came from a noble family. Throughout his
life, he had connections with the wealthy and powerful in Northumbria. In
addition to this, some scholars have pointed to the name Beda (Old English for
Bede) in a list of Kings of Lindsey (adjacent to Northumbria) as evidence that
he was born to a wealthy or influential family.
Bede claims to have been
sent to the monastery of Monkwearmouth on the River Wear to be educated by the
abbot Benedict Biscop (c. 628 CE - 690 CE). Bede was raised at Monkwearmouth
until about 682 CE when he was transferred to the new abbey at Jarrow, founded
by Saint Ceolfrith (c. 642-716 CE). Bede was made a deacon at the age of 19,
several years prior to the canonical age of 25, which may be a sign of his
exceptional abilities. He was fully ordained as a priest at the age of 30, and
he seems to have written his earliest works around the turn of the 8th century
CE for use in teaching in the monastery. His works cover the subjects of
history, theology, and science,
as well as a range of exegesis and hagiography. Bede is widely credited with
helping to spread the use of the anno domini dating method, discussed
in his work on chronology, De Temporum Ratione. Bede's adoption of the AD
system, used at times in his Historia Ecclesiastica, popularized it for
his contemporaries and subsequent generations.
Bede knew and
communicated with many of the prominent clergymen and laymen of his day. As a
young man he met Adomnan, then abbot of the important monastery of Iona. He was
educated by Saints Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith, who played crucial roles in
the formation of the Church in northern England. He was
ordained as a deacon and later as a full priest by Saint John of Beverley, who
was the bishop of Hexham and of York at different points in his life and
founded the town of Beverley in modern-day East Yorkshire. He regularly
communicated with Saint Ecgbert of York, and correspondence between the two of
them still survives today. Nothelm, an Archbishop of Canterbury, helped Bede
find source material for the Historia Ecclesiastica. On a number of
occasions, Bede encountered Wilfrid, the controversial Bishop of York. At one
point, he wrote a letter to Wilfrid defending himself against an accusation of
heresy. Bede was clearly known to the Northumbrian royalty as well, and he
dedicated his greatest work to King Ceolwulf (reigned c. 729-737 CE) who
consulted him regularly.
Bede died in May of 735
CE. According to one of his disciples who wrote an account of Bede's final
days, he died singing a hymn. The account of Bede's death is quite detailed,
describing Bede's illness, his last wishes, and his interactions with those
around him. He apparently composed poetry on his deathbed as well. Following
his death, he was buried at Jarrow. Though he was considered a saint soon after
his death, he was not formally canonised until the end of the 19th century CE.
However, he was also named a Doctor of the Church, the only native of Britain to hold this
title.
Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum
Bede's most well-known
work is a history of the Christian Church in England. While Bede also provides
an in-depth history of England up to his own lifetime, his main focus is the
spread of Christianity in
his native country. A lengthy discussion of the development of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms up to the
8th century CE is complemented with a catalogue of saints, converted kings, and
miracles. Bede pays particular attention to the rivalry between Rome-centered Church practice and
the Celtic Christian
communities which had been present in Britain and Ireland for centuries
before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.
Bede's work is considered one of the most important sources of Anglo-Saxon
history for modern-day scholarship. It is a major source for political, social,
and religious history in England during the early Anglo-Saxon age.
BEDE'S WORK IS CONSIDERED
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SOURCES OF ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY FOR MODERN-DAY
SCHOLARSHIP.
Bede had an exceptionally
wide array of sources available to him while writing the Historia
Ecclesiastica. The monastery at Jarrow had a famous library which gave the
monastic community a reputation as a centre of learning in Northumbria. For the
earliest parts of his work, Bede follows classical authors such as Pliny,
Eutropius, and Orosius,
while his account of the invasions of the Anglo-Saxons is drawn largely
from Gildas' De
Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain). For
the history of the early English kingdoms up until his own lifetime, Bede
relies heavily on more contemporary sources such as Eddius Stephanus' Life
of Saint Wilfrid, which contains important accounts of events in the late 7th
century CE. He also clearly draws on correspondence and interviews with
witnesses of the great events of his own lifetime.
The major subject of
Bede's history is the growth of the Church in the English, i.e. Anglo-Saxon,
kingdoms up to the 8th century CE. Religious figures and events throughout this
period are described, often in great detail. The lives and careers of secular
rulers are recounted as well, though largely in relation to their roles in the
spread of Christianity in England. Bishops, monks, saints, and martyrs are
profiled throughout the work, as are the kings who sponsored them. A common
theme in the Historia Ecclesiastica is the responsibility of kings in
the religious issues within their domains. Bede is clearly biased toward the
kings of his own homeland of Northumbria. He has particularly strong praise for
Edwin and Oswald
of Northumbria while also writing largely favourable portrayals of
other Northumbrian kings including Æthelfrith and Oswiu.
The Historia
Ecclesiastica is comprised of five separate books, with a preface in which
Bede dedicates his work to Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria at the time of his
writing. The first book is largely concerned with the arrival of the Romans in
Britain beginning with Caesar's
invasion in 55 BCE. Much of the book details the spread of Christianity in
Britain, and Bede recounts the stories of early martyrs like Saint Alban. He
also writes of Britain's struggles in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, describing
in detail numerous imperial usurpations that shook Romano-British society. He
describes heresies such as Arianism and Pelagianism, which took root in Britain
and caused significant social upheaval. The book ends with the arrival of Augustine of
Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597 CE to convert King Æthelberht
of Kent to Christianity.
Augustine sent to
Æthelberht to say that he had come from Rome bearing the best of news, namely
the sure and certain promise of eternal joys in heaven and an endless kingdom
with the living and true God to
those who received it - Bede, Historia Ecclesiastic, 39 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2009)
The next two books
chronicle the spread and setbacks of Augustine's Roman mission
and the coinciding political and military events that often determined the fate
of the Church in different places and times. Æthelberht's heirs abandoned the
Christian faith for the pagan deities of their ancestors. This is a pattern in
a number of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms throughout the Historia Ecclesiastica.
Bede heaps scorn on these apostate kings and he simultaneously praises kings
like Edwin and Oswald of Northumbria, two of the heroes of his history. Both
adopted Christianity and vigorously spread the faith in Northumbria, both also
died in battle and
were venerated as martyrs soon after their deaths. The third book culminates in
the Synod of Whitby, in 664 CE, where King Oswiu of Northumbria settled
the Easter Controversy.
He decided to follow the Roman practice in the dating of the holiday and
against the conflicting native Celtic practice.
King Oswiu began by
declaring that it was fitting that those who served one God should observe one
rule of life and not differ in the celebration of the heavenly sacraments
- Historia Ecclesiastica, 154
The fourth and fifth
books detail the reign of Ecgfrith and the decline of the Northumbrian
supremacy. Bede also recounts the careers of famous churchmen of the late 7th
century CE such as Theodore of Tarsus, the Northumbrian bishop
Wilfrid of Ripon, and the great Northumbrian Saint Cuthbert of
Lindisfarne. The fifth and final book of the Historia Ecclesiastica covers
missionary efforts overseas to regions such as Frisia. Here Bede also provides
a detailed history of the Easter Controversy. He vigorously denounces the
Celtic practice in dating Easter, even going so far as to criticise Saint
Cuthbert himself for following it. Bede writes of his own relief that, by the
time he was writing, the Irish had been saved from the egregious error of
celebrating Easter on the wrong day.
Legacy
Bede's work was widely
renowned almost immediately after his death. He was venerated as a saint in the
Jarrow monastic community and his posthumous reputation spread throughout
neighbouring Anglo-Saxon territories. He was remembered as an authority on
theological doctrine as well as for his history and was extremely influential
in terms of the chronological systems used by future historians. His work was
also looked to by later generations of English scholars, clergy, and statesmen
as a foundational text of English identity.
The translation of
the Historia Ecclesiastica into Old English at the court of Alfred the Great in
the 9th century CE has been seen as an important step in the development of
English identity, as opposed to the number of unique regional identities of the
earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The use of the term 'English' in Bede's work is a
sign of his own notion of a wider cultural identity shared by those living in
the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with th https://www.worldhistory.org/Bede/ https://www.worldhistory.org/Bede/ose
living in Northumbria.
SOURCE : https://www.worldhistory.org/Bede/
Bartolomé Román (1587–1647), San Beda,
Primera mitad del siglo XVII, 205 x 110, Museo del Prado
San Beda detto il
Venerabile Sacerdote e dottore della Chiesa
- Memoria Facoltativa
Monkton in Jarrow
(Inghilterra) 672-673 - Jarrow, 25 maggio 735
Fu seguace di San
Benedetto Biscop e di S. Ceolfrido, dedicandosi solo alla preghiera, allo studio
e all'insegnamento del monastero di Jarrow. Fu anche amanuense e il Codex
Amiatinus, uno dei più preziosi e antichi codici della Volgata, conservato
nella biblioteca Laurenziana di Firenze, sarebbe stato eseguito sotto la sua
guida. Della sua vasta produzione letteraria restano opere esegetiche,
ascetiche, scientifiche e storiche. Tra queste c'è L'Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum, un monumento letterario universalmente riconosciuto da cui
emerge la Romanità (universalità) della Chiesa. Studioso di tempra eccezionale
e gran lavoratore, ha lasciato nei suoi scritti l'impronta del suo spirito
umile sincero, del suo discernimento sicuro e della sua saggezza.
Patronato: Studiosi
Martirologio Romano: San
Beda il Venerabile, sacerdote e dottore della Chiesa, che, servo di Cristo
dall’età di otto anni, trascorse tutta la sua vita nel monastero di Jarrow
nella Northumbria in Inghilterra, dedito alla meditazione e alla spiegazione delle
Scritture; tra l’osservanza della disciplina monastica e l’esercizio quotidiano
del canto in chiesa, sempre gli fu dolce imparare, insegnare e scrivere.
Beda e basta. Le sue generalità cominciano e finiscono lì. Non conosciamo i suoi genitori. La data di nascita è incerta. Sappiamo soltanto che a sette anni viene affidato per l’istruzione ai benedettini del monastero di San Pietro a Wearmouth (oggi Sunderland) e che passerà poi a quello di San Paolo di Jarrow, contea di Durham, centri monastici fondati entrambi dal futuro san Benedetto Biscop, che è il primo a prendersi cura di lui.
E tra i benedettini Beda rimane, facendosi monaco e ricevendo, verso i trent’anni, l’ordinazione sacerdotale. Dopodiché basta: non diventa vescovo né abate: tutta la sua vita si concentra sullo studio e sull’insegnamento. Unici suoi momenti di “ricreazione” sono la preghiera e il canto corale.
La sua materia è la Bibbia. E il metodo è del tutto insolito per il tempo, ma ricco d’interesse per gli scolari, mentre i suoi libri raggiungeranno presto le biblioteche monastiche del continente europeo. In breve, Beda insegna la Sacra Scrittura mettendo a frutto tutta la sapienza dei Padri della Chiesa, ma non si ferma lì. Inventa una sorta di personale didattica interdisciplinare, che spiega la Bibbia ricorrendo pure agli autori dell’antichità pagana (Beda conosce il greco) e utilizzando le conoscenze scientifiche del suo tempo.
Gran parte di questo insegnamento si tramanda, perché Beda scrive, scrive moltissimo e di argomenti diversi, anche modesti; come il libretto De orthographia. E anche insoliti, come il Liber de loquela per gestum digitorum, famoso in tutto il Medioevo perché insegna a fare i conti con le dita. Si dedica ai calcoli astronomici per il computo della data pasquale, indicandola fino all’anno 1063. E ai suoi compatrioti il monaco benedettino offre la storia ecclesiastica d’Inghilterra, molto informata anche sulla vita civile, e soprattutto non semplicemente riferita, ma anche esaminata con attenzione critica.
Già da vivo lo chiamano “Venerabile”. E l’appellativo gli rimarrà per sempre, sebbene nel 1899 papa Leone XIII lo abbia proclamato santo e dottore della Chiesa. È stato uno dei più grandi comunicatori di conoscenza dell’alto Medioevo. E un maestro di probità, col suo costante scrupolo di edificare senza mai venire meno alla verità, col grande rispetto per chi ascoltava la sua voce o leggeva i suoi libri. A più di dodici secoli dalla morte, il Concilio Vaticano II attingerà anche al suo pensiero, che viene citato nella Costituzione dogmatica Lumen gentium sulla Chiesa e nel decreto Ad gentes sull’attività missionaria. Beda muore a Jarrow, dove ha per tanto tempo insegnato, e lì viene sepolto. Ma il re Edoardo il Confessore (1004-1066) farà poi trasferire il corpo nella cattedrale di Durham.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/27350
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
Beda il Venerabile
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
il Santo che oggi
avviciniamo si chiama Beda e nacque nel Nord-Est dell’Inghilterra, esattamente
in Northumbria, nell’anno 672/673. Egli stesso racconta che i suoi parenti,
all’età di sette anni, lo affidarono all’abate del vicino monastero benedettino
perché venisse educato: “In questo monastero – egli ricorda – da allora sono
sempre vissuto, dedicandomi intensamente allo studio della Scrittura e, mentre
osservavo la disciplina della Regola e il quotidiano impegno di cantare in
chiesa, mi fu sempre dolce o imparare o insegnare o scrivere” (Historia eccl.
Anglorum, V, 24). Di fatto, Beda divenne una delle più insigni figure di
erudito dell’alto Medioevo, potendo avvalersi dei molti preziosi manoscritti
che i suoi abati, tornando dai frequenti viaggi in continente e a Roma, gli
portavano. L’insegnamento e la fama degli scritti gli procurarono molte
amicizie con le principali personalità del suo tempo, che lo incoraggiarono a
proseguire nel suo lavoro da cui in tanti traevano beneficio. Ammalatosi, non
smise di lavorare, conservando sempre un’interiore letizia che si esprimeva
nella preghiera e nel canto. Concludeva la sua opera più importante la Historia
ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum con questa invocazione: “Ti prego, o buon
Gesù, che benevolmente mi hai permesso di attingere le dolci parole della tua
sapienza, concedimi, benigno, di giungere un giorno da te, fonte di ogni
sapienza, e di stare sempre di fronte al tuo volto”. La morte lo colse il 26
maggio 735: era il giorno dell’Ascensione.
Le Sacre Scritture sono
la fonte costante della riflessione teologica di Beda. Premesso un accurato
studio critico del testo (ci è giunta copia del monumentale Codex
Amiatinus della Vulgata, su cui Beda lavorò), egli commenta la Bibbia, leggendola
in chiave cristologica, cioè riunisce due cose: da una parte ascolta che cosa
dice esattamente il testo, vuole realmente ascoltare, comprendere il testo
stesso; dall’altra parte, è convinto che la chiave per capire la Sacra
Scrittura come unica Parola di Dio è Cristo e con Cristo, nella sua luce, si
capisce l’Antico e il Nuovo Testamento come “una” Sacra Scrittura. Le vicende
dell’Antico e del Nuovo Testamento vanno insieme, sono cammino verso Cristo,
benché espresse in segni e istituzioni diverse (è quella che egli chiama concordia
sacramentorum). Ad esempio, la tenda dell’alleanza che Mosè innalzò nel deserto
e il primo e secondo tempio di Gerusalemme sono immagini della Chiesa, nuovo
tempio edificato su Cristo e sugli Apostoli con pietre vive, cementate dalla
carità dello Spirito. E come per la costruzione dell’antico tempio
contribuirono anche genti pagane, mettendo a disposizione materiali pregiati e
l’esperienza tecnica dei loro capimastri, così all’edificazione della Chiesa
contribuiscono apostoli e maestri provenienti non solo dalle antiche stirpi
ebraica, greca e latina, ma anche dai nuovi popoli, tra i quali Beda si
compiace di enumerare gli Iro-Celti e gli Anglo-Sassoni. San Beda vede crescere
l’universalità della Chiesa che non è ristretta a una determinata cultura, ma
si compone di tutte le culture del mondo che devono aprirsi a Cristo e trovare
in Lui il loro punto di arrivo.
Un altro tema amato da
Beda è la storia della Chiesa. Dopo essersi interessato all’epoca descritta
negli Atti degli Apostoli, egli ripercorre la storia dei Padri e dei
Concili, convinto che l’opera dello Spirito Santo continua nella storia.
Nei Chronica Maiora Beda traccia una cronologia che diventerà la base
del Calendario universale “ab incarnatione Domini”. Già da allora si calcolava
il tempo dalla fondazione della città di Roma. Beda, vedendo che il vero punto
di riferimento, il centro della storia è la nascita di Cristo, ci ha donato
questo calendario che legge la storia partendo dall’Incarnazione del Signore.
Registra i primi sei Concili Ecumenici e i loro sviluppi, presentando
fedelmente la dottrina cristologica, mariologica e soteriologica, e denunciando
le eresie monofisita e monotelita, iconoclastica e neo-pelagiana. Infine redige
con rigore documentario e perizia letteraria la già menzionata Storia
Ecclesiastica dei Popoli Angli, per la quale è riconosciuto come “il padre
della storiografia inglese”. I tratti caratteristici della Chiesa che Beda ama
evidenziare sono: a) la cattolicità come fedeltà alla tradizione e
insieme apertura agli sviluppi storici, e come ricerca della unità nella
molteplicità, nella diversità della storia e delle culture, secondo le
direttive che Papa Gregorio Magno aveva dato all’apostolo dell’Inghilterra, Agostino
di Canterbury; b) l’apostolicità e la romanità: a questo riguardo ritiene
di primaria importanza convincere tutte le Chiese Iro-Celtiche e dei Pitti a
celebrare unitariamente la Pasqua secondo il calendario romano. Il Computo da
lui scientificamente elaborato per stabilire la data esatta della celebrazione
pasquale, e perciò l’intero ciclo dell’anno liturgico, è diventato il testo di
riferimento per tutta la Chiesa Cattolica.
Beda fu anche un insigne
maestro di teologia liturgica. Nelle Omelie sui Vangeli domenicali e festivi,
svolge una vera mistagogia, educando i fedeli a celebrare gioiosamente i
misteri della fede e a riprodurli coerentemente nella vita, in attesa della
loro piena manifestazione al ritorno di Cristo, quando, con i nostri corpi glorificati,
saremo ammessi in processione offertoriale all’eterna liturgia di Dio nel
cielo. Seguendo il “realismo” delle catechesi di Cirillo, Ambrogio e Agostino,
Beda insegna che i sacramenti dell’iniziazione cristiana costituiscono ogni
fedele “non solo cristiano ma Cristo”. Ogni volta, infatti, che un’anima fedele
accoglie e custodisce con amore la Parola di Dio, a imitazione di Maria
concepisce e genera nuovamente Cristo. E ogni volta che un gruppo di neofiti
riceve i sacramenti pasquali, la Chiesa si “auto-genera”, o con un’espressione
ancora più ardita, la Chiesa diventa “madre di Dio”, partecipando alla
generazione dei suoi figli, per opera dello Spirito Santo.
Grazie a questo suo modo
di fare teologia intrecciando Bibbia, Liturgia e
Storia, Beda ha un messaggio attuale per i diversi “stati di vita”: a) agli
studiosi (doctores ac doctrices) ricorda due compiti essenziali: scrutare le
meraviglie della Parola di Dio per presentarle in forma attraente ai fedeli;
esporre le verità dogmatiche evitando le complicazioni eretiche e attenendosi
alla “semplicità cattolica”, con l’atteggiamento dei piccoli e umili ai quali
Dio si compiace di rivelare i misteri del Regno; b) i pastori, per parte loro,
devono dare la priorità alla predicazione, non solo mediante il linguaggio
verbale o agiografico, ma valorizzando anche icone, processioni e
pellegrinaggi. Ad essi Beda raccomanda l’uso della lingua volgare, com’egli
stesso fa, spiegando in Northumbro il “Padre Nostro”, il “Credo” e portando
avanti fino all’ultimo giorno della sua vita il commento in volgare al Vangelo
di Giovanni; c) alle persone consacrate che si dedicano all’Ufficio divino,
vivendo nella gioia della comunione fraterna e progredendo nella vita
spirituale mediante l’ascesi e la contemplazione, Beda raccomanda di curare
l’apostolato - nessuno ha il Vangelo solo per sé, ma deve sentirlo come un dono
anche per gli altri - sia collaborando con i Vescovi in attività pastorali di
vario tipo a favore delle giovani comunità cristiane, sia rendendosi
disponibili alla missione evangelizzatrice presso i pagani, fuori del proprio
paese, come “peregrini pro amore Dei”.
Ponendosi da questa
prospettiva, nel commento al Cantico dei Cantici Beda presenta la Sinagoga
e la Chiesa come collaboratrici nella diffusione della Parola di Dio. Cristo
Sposo vuole una Chiesa industriosa, “abbronzata dalle fatiche
dell’evangelizzazione” – è chiaro l’accenno alla parola del Cantico dei Cantici
(1, 5), dove la sposa dice: “Nigra sum sed formosa” (Sono abbronzata, ma
bella) –, intenta a dissodare altri campi o vigne e a stabilire fra le nuove
popolazioni “non una capanna provvisoria ma una dimora stabile”, cioè a
inserire il Vangelo nel tessuto sociale e nelle istituzioni culturali. In
questa prospettiva il santo Dottore esorta i fedeli laici ad essere assidui
all’istruzione religiosa, imitando quelle “insaziabili folle evangeliche, che
non lasciavano tempo agli Apostoli neppure di prendere un boccone”. Insegna
loro come pregare continuamente, “riproducendo nella vita ciò che celebrano
nella liturgia”, offrendo tutte le azioni come sacrificio spirituale in unione
con Cristo. Ai genitori spiega che anche nel loro piccolo ambito domestico
possono esercitare “l’ufficio sacerdotale di pastori e di guide”, formando
cristianamente i figli ed afferma di conoscere molti fedeli (uomini e donne,
sposati o celibi) “capaci di una condotta irreprensibile che, se opportunamente
seguiti, potrebbero accostarsi giornalmente alla comunione eucaristica” (Epist.
ad Ecgberctum, ed. Plummer, p. 419)
La fama di santità e
sapienza di cui Beda godette già in vita, valse a guadagnargli il titolo di
“Venerabile”. Lo chiama così anche Papa Sergio I, quando nel 701 scrive al suo
abate chiedendo che lo faccia venire temporaneamente a Roma per consulenza su
questioni di interesse universale. Dopo la morte i suoi scritti furono diffusi
estesamente in Patria e nel Continente europeo. Il grande missionario della
Germania, il Vescovo san Bonifacio (+ 754), chiese più volte all’arcivescovo di
York e all'abate di Wearmouth che facessero trascrivere alcune sue opere e gliele
mandassero in modo che anch'egli e i suoi compagni potessero godere della luce
spirituale che ne emanava. Un secolo più tardi Notkero Galbulo, abate di San
Gallo (+ 912), prendendo atto dello straordinario influsso di Beda, lo paragonò
a un nuovo sole che Dio aveva fatto sorgere non dall’Oriente ma dall’Occidente
per illuminare il mondo. A parte l’enfasi retorica, è un fatto che, con le sue
opere, Beda contribuì efficacemente alla costruzione di una Europa cristiana,
nella quale le diverse popolazioni e culture si sono fra loro amalgamate,
conferendole una fisionomia unitaria, ispirata alla fede cristiana. Preghiamo
perché anche oggi ci siano personalità della statura di Beda, per mantenere
unito l’intero Continente; preghiamo affinché tutti noi siamo disponibili a
riscoprire le nostre comuni radici, per essere costruttori di una Europa
profondamente umana e autenticamente cristiana.
Saluti:
Chers frères et soeurs,
Je salue cordialement les pèlerins de langue française, particulièrement les
groupes du diocèse de Créteil, avec leur Évêque Mgr Michel Santier, les prêtres
du diocèse de Grenoble-Vienne, avec Mgr Guy de Kérimel, les nombreux jeunes des
lycées et des aumôneries ainsi que les groupes provenant de diverses paroisses.
À l’exemple de Bède le Vénérable, prenez le temps de scruter les merveilles de
la Parole de Dieu, pour en faire votre nourriture. Que Dieu vous bénisse!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I offer a warm welcome to the pilgrimage group from the Diocese of Arlington
led by Bishop Paul Loverde, and to the School Sisters of Notre Dame taking part
in a program of spiritual renewal. I also greet the many student groups
present. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially the visitors from
England, Ireland, Sweden, Japan and the United States, I cordially invoke God’s
blessings of joy and peace!
Liebe Brüder und Schwestern!
Einen herzlichen Gruß richte ich an die deutschsprachigen Pilger und Besucher
hier auf dem Petersplatz. Der heilige Beda soll uns durch das Studium der
Heiligen Schrift und die Teilnahme an der Liturgie eine immer lebendigere
Freude am Glauben finden helfen. Ebenso soll, wie es bei ihm war, unser Gebet
und unser Leben Lob Gottes und Dienst für unsere Brüder und Schwestern sein.
Der Herr segne euch und eure Familien.
Queridos hermanos y hermanas:
Saludo con afecto a los peregrinos de lengua española, en particular los
miembros de la Comisión Promotora del monumento en Sevilla al Papa Juan Pablo
II y a los componentes de la Fundación “Padre Leonardo Castillo”, de esa misma
ciudad, acompañados por el Señor Cardenal Carlos Amigo Vallejo; a los
Seminaristas y fieles de la Diócesis de Cartagena, con su Obispo, Monseñor Juan
Antonio Reig Plá, así como a los demás grupos venidos de España, Chile, México
y otros países de Latinoamérica. Que la palabra y el ejemplo de san Beda el
Venerable os ayuden en vuestra vida cristiana. Muchas gracias.
Amados peregrinos de
língua portuguesa, queridos estudantes brasileiros de Criciúma, possa a vossa
vinda a Roma cumprir-se nas vestes de um verdadeiro peregrino que, sabendo de
não possuir ainda o seu Bem maior, põe-se a caminho decidido a encontrá-Lo! Sabei
que Deus Se deixa encontrar por quantos assim O procuram; e, com Ele e n’Ele, a
vossa vida não poderá deixar de ser feliz. Sobre vós e vossas famílias desça a
minha Bênção.
Saluto in lingua croata:
Srdačnu dobrodošlicu
upućujem hrvatskim hodočasnicima, osobito vjernicima iz župe Svetog Mihajla iz
Dubrovnika. Pohodeći grob apostola Petra, nasljedujte njegovo svjedočanstvo
vjere prepoznavajući u Isusu iz Nazareta Sina Božjega i svoga Spasitelja.
Hvaljen Isus i Marija!
Ttaduzione italiana:
Rivolgo un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini croati, particolarmente ai fedeli della parrocchia di
San Michele di Dubrovnik. Visitando la tomba dell’apostolo Pietro, seguite la
sua testimonianza di fede, riconoscendo in Gesù di Nazaret il Figlio del Dio e
il vostro Salvatore. Siano lodati Gesù e Maria!
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Drodzy pielgrzymi z
Polski. Sercem i modlitwą obejmuję was i waszych najbliższych. Nawiedzenie
grobów apostolskich niech umacnia was w wierze, budzi miłość do Chrystusa i
utwierdza w jedności ze wspólnotą Kościoła powszechnego. Niech Bóg wam
błogosławi!
Traduzione italiana:
Cari pellegrini
provenienti dalla Polonia. Abbraccio con cuore e con la preghiera voi e i
vostri cari. La visita alle tombe degli apostoli vi consolidi nella fede,
ravvivi l’amore per Cristo e rafforzi l’unione con la comunità della Chiesa
universale. Dio vi benedica.
Saluto in lingua
slovacca:
Srdečne pozdravujem slovenských pútnikov z Nitry a Močenka ako aj Základnú umeleckú školu svätej Cecílie z Bratislavy.
Bratia a sestry, milí mladí, spievajte Pánovi novú pieseň predovšetkým svojim
príkladným kresťanským svedectvom. S láskou žehnám vás i vašich drahých vo
vlasti.
Pochválený buď Ježiš Kristus!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente i pellegrini slovacchi provenienti da Nitra e Močenok come pure la Scuola elementare d’arte di Santa Cecilia da Bratislava. Fratelli e sorelle, cari giovani, cantate al Signore un canto nuovo soprattutto con una esemplare testimonianza cristiana.
Volentieri benedico voi e le vostre famiglie in Patria.
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
Saluto in lingua slovena:
Lepo pozdravljam romarje
iz Slovenije, še posebej birmance iz župnije Sveti Križ - Podbočje. Bodite
odprti za darove Svetega Duha in vneto skrbite, da z leti v vas ne bodo zamrli,
ampak bodo prinašali obilne sadove krščanske ljubezni in zvestobe! Naj bo z
vami moj blagoslov!
Traduzione italiana:
Rivolgo un cordiale
saluto ai pellegrini provenienti dalla Slovenia, ed in particolare i cresimandi
della Parrocchia Sveti Križ - Podbočje. Siate aperti ai doni dello Spirito
Santo e abbiate cura che, nel corso degli anni, non svaniscono ma portino
abbondati frutti della fedeltà e della carità cristiana! Vi accompagni la mia
Benedizione!
Saluto in lingua
ungherese:
Isten hozta a magyar híveket, elsősorban azokat, akik Bajáról és Munkácsról érkeztek! Kedves Testvéreim, örömmel látlak titeket és azt kívánom, hogy zarándoklatotok gyümölcsöző legyen Számotokra és egyházközségeitek számára. Ehhez kérem a jó Isten áldását Mindnyájatokra.
Dicsértessék a Jézus Krisztus!
Traduzione italiana:
Rivolgo un cordiale
saluto ai fedeli di lingua ungherese, specialmente a quelli di Baja ed al
gruppo di Mukachevo! Cari fratelli e sorelle, vi accolgo volentieri ed auspico
di cuore che il vostro pellegrinaggio apporti frutti di bene a voi ed alle
vostre comunità. Con la particolare Benedizione Apostolica a voi tutti! Sia
lodato Gesù Cristo!
* * *
Rivolgo un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto i fedeli
dell'Arcidiocesi di Brindisi-Ostuni, che, guidati dall'Arcivescovo Monsignor
Rocco Talucci, sono venuti a ricambiare la mia visita alla loro Comunità
diocesana. Cari amici, vi ringrazio per la vostra presenza così numerosa e vi
incoraggio a vivere il vostro Sinodo diocesano come una importante tappa di crescita
nella comunione ecclesiale. Saluto voi, pellegrini provenienti dall’Arcidiocesi
di Ancona-Osimo, accompagnati dal vostro Pastore Mons. Edoardo Menichelli, ed
assicuro la mia preghiera perché si rafforzi in ciascuno il fermo desiderio di
annunciare a tutti Gesù Cristo, unico Salvatore del mondo. Saluto il
pellegrinaggio promosso dai Chierici Regolari di San Paolo – Barnabiti, ed
auspico che voi possiate testimoniare con sempre più forte ardore apostolico
nella Chiesa il vostro specifico carisma paolino. Saluto le Suore Figlie di
Maria Santissima dell’Orto, riunite per il Capitolo generale, e prego il
Signore perché da questa assemblea scaturiscano generosi propositi di vita
evangelica per l’intero Istituto.
Infine il mio saluto si
rivolge ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi novelli. Cari giovani,
preparatevi ad affrontare le importanti tappe della vita con impegno
spirituale, edificando ogni vostro progetto sulle solide basi della fedeltà a
Dio. Cari malati, siate sempre consapevoli che, offrendo le vostre
sofferenze al Padre celeste in unione a quelle di Cristo, voi contribuite alla
costruzione del Regno di Dio. E voi, cari sposi novelli, fate crescere
ogni giorno la vostra famiglia grazie all'ascolto di Dio, perché saldo resti il
vostro reciproco amore e si apra all'accoglienza dei più bisognosi.
© Copyright 2009 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090218.html
BEDA, il Venerabile,
santo e dottore della Chiesa
di Carlo SILVA-TAROUCA - Enciclopedia Italiana (1930)
Nato nel 672-3, ancor
settenne venne dai parenti offerto al santo abate Benedetto Biscop, per essere
educato nel monastero dei Ss. Pietro e Paolo di Wearmouth-Yarrow (Northumbria).
"Da questo tempo in poi ho passato tutta la mia vita in questo monastero,
consacrandomi interamente alla meditazione delle Scritture, e tra l'osservanza
della disciplina regolare e la cura quotidiana di cantare l'ufficio in chiesa,
ebbi sempre carissimo lo studio, l'insegnare e lo scrivere" (Historia
eccles. gentis Anglorum, V, 24, ed. C. Plummer, Baedae opera
historica, I, Oxford 1896, p. 357). Con queste parole "il più grande
erudito dell'alto Medioevo", come lo chiama il Manitius, ci dà la nota
distintiva della sua vita. Gravemente ammalato, continuava a dettare ai
discepoli la versione anglo-sassone di alcuni capitoli di Isidoro e del Vangelo
di S. Giovanni, gli ultimi versetti del quale egli tradusse mentre entrava in
placida agonia, conchiusa col canto del Gloria Patri.
Ad eccezione delle opere
storiche, quanto ci resta di Beda è frutto del suo insegnamento. Da lui stesso
abbiamo l'elenco dci suoi scritti, inserito nell'ultimo capitolo della storia
della chiesa anglo-sassone (ed. cit., I, p. 357 segg., cfr. p. cxlv segg.).
Sono innanzi tutto commentarî sopra tutte le parti del sacro testo, compresi in
una sessantina di libri; in essi segue per lo più le esposizioni dei Padri,
quelle specialmente dei Ss. Ambrogio, Agostino, Gregorio e Girolamo. Ai
Commentarî tengono dietro gli opuscoli grammaticali: De metrica arte (ed.
H. Keil, Grammatici latini, VII, 219 segg.), De schematibus et
tropis (ed. C. Halm, Rhetores latini minores, 607 segg.), De
orthographia (ed. H. Keil, op. cit., VII, 261 segg.). Fra queste
opere didattiche di Beda ve ne hanno alcune che fecero di lui il dottore per
eccellenza del Medioevo: sono queste le opere cosmografiche e
cronologiche: De temporibus, De natura rerum, De ratione
temporum. Per quest'opera specialmente il ciclo pasquale di Dionigi, continuato
da Beda fino all'anno 1063 e inserito al cap. 65 del De ratione temporum,
venne divulgato in tutta l'Europa occidentale e centrale. Anche le due
Cronache, una minore (capitoli 16-22 del De temporibus) ed una maggiore
(cap. 66 del De ratione temporum, cfr. Mommsen, in Mon. Ger. Hist., Auctores
antiquissimi, 13, 223 segg.), ebbero notevolissimo influsso sui cronisti del
Medioevo.
La gloria più grande di
Beda è la sua Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (ed. C.
Plummer, op. cit.), nella quale, di su documenti locali e notizie
desunte di fuori (compresovi l'archivio della S. Sede), narrò le gesta della
sua nazione fino all'anno 731, tenendo speciale conto degli avvenimenti
d'ordine ecclesiastico: essa è la migliore opera storica che la letteratura
cristiana fino a quei tempi abbia prodotto, e anche nei secoli seguenti
dobbiamo arrivare fino alla Storia della chiesa di Amburgo di Adamo di Brema
(1075) per trovare un'altra opera storica che possa gareggiare con l'Historia
ecclesiastica, la quale ebbe per i posteri speciale importanza anche sotto
l'aspetto cronologico, avendo introdotto il modo di computare gli anni ab
Incarnatione Domini: dietro questo esempio tale sistema fu adottato negli
Annali dell'Evo Carolino e da questi poi propagato per tutto il mondo
cristiano. Sue opere storiche di minor mole sono la Vita Cudbercti,
vescovo di Lindisfarne, e la storia degli abati del monastero di
Wearmouth-Yarrow (Historia sanctorum abbatum monast. in Wiremutha et
Gyruum), lavoro pregevole specialmente per le notizie intorno al fondatore S.
Benedetto Biscop.
Bibl.: Sulla vita e le
opere di Beda, ottima l'introduzione alla citata ed. del Plummer; v.
specialmente a p. 4, n. 3, l'elenco degli autori citati da Beda. Si veda
inoltre M. Manitius, Gesch. der latein. Literatur im Mittelalter, I,
Monaco 1911, p. 70 segg. Edizioni critiche non esistono, tranne quelle indicate
di Plummer, Keil, Halm, Mommsen; per tutte le altre opere bisogna ricorerre
all'edizione mediocre del Giles, Londra 1843 segg., ristampata in Migne, Patrol.
Lat., XC-XCV, o a quella di Colonia 1688.
Voir aussi : https://www.arlima.net/ad/bede_le_venerable.html
