Today January 12

Today we are going to celebrate St. Benedict Biscop (c. 628 - 690). He started out as a knight to King Oswy of Northumbria (England being divided into many kingdoms at the time) but left the service to go on pilgrimage. The many pilgrimages he made led in turn to a deep spirituality and to a religious calling. He made 5 trips in all. On the first, he met a saint (St. Wilfrid) and became convinced of the rightness and justice of 1) having a universal [religious] system and 2) having that be Rome's. Ever after he argued convincingly for the Roman date of Easter and its custom and law. On his second visit, he became a monk in Lerins, in the seemingly inauspicious year 666. He accompanied both the monk Adrian and the newly appointed archbishop Theodore of Tarsus to Canterbury. After the third visit (to Rome), he founded the twin monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth (which were to become so dear to the Venerable Bede). After the fourth visit, he brought back many, many books for his libraries (good man!). These were available to all at the monasteries and churches (under the watchful and discreet eyes of the monks, of course). And after the final visit, he brought back architects, masons and glaziers to build the first churches of stone in the kingdom and to fit them with the heretofore unheard-of "stained glass." "Apart from his undoubted spirituality, he earned an eternal debt of gratitude by linking English art and culture with the Mediterranean tradition" - Angelus Book of Saints. St. Benedict Biscop, pray for us.