Today May 27

Today is the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, but we will celebrating him tomorrow, on his old feast day, so we can celebrate Bede, "the venerable Bede" ("the Venomous Bede" according to the spoof "1066 and All That"), who died in 735. This simple English monk did his people, his Church (in those days, of course, the ONLY Church), and the world an enormous favor by composing and putting to paper a detailed history of the Church in England. He was born at Jarrow and given to St. Benedict Biscop and the monks at the age of 7, ordained deacon at 19 and priest at 30. He wrote several books, including commentaries on Sacred Scripture, ending with the famous Ecclesiastical History of the English People when he was 59. He never left home, never conquered foreign countries for Christ, never did anything folks might call amazing or heroic, but he was a great saint nonetheless. Thank God "it has ever been my delight to learn or teach or write," as he himself wrote in a brief autobiographical note at the end of his opus. Thank God he was published.

He suffered from "shortness of breath" and had an intimation of his upcoming death after a particularly bad spell. He spent his remaining days (from two weeks before Easter til a little after Ascension Day) with his pupils at his bedside, continuing to "learn, teach and write" -- working on a translation of St. John's Gospel into English and a commentary on the works of St. Isidore of Seville. Why did he knock himself out so? "I will not have my scholars read what is false or labour unprofitably on this after my death." His last days were well recorded by his pupil Cuthbert, and it is known that on his last day he dictated the final sentence of St. John to his assistant. Then he desired to be taken into the church so he could gaze on the tabernacle, and his last words were "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost."

He was always called Venerable as a mark of respect, although he was not officially canonized and declared a doctor of the Church until 1899! He is the only English doctor and the only Englishman named in the Paradise of Dante's Divine Comedy. Dear Venerable Bede, pray for us.