Benedict Biscop

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Saint Benedict Biscop
Biscop Baducing
Catholic)
PatronageEnglish Benedictines,[2] musicians, painters, and (since 24 March 2004) the City of Sunderland[3] St Benet Biscop Catholic Academy in Northumberland

Benedict Biscop (c. 628 – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an

Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory
(where he also founded the famous library) and was considered a saint after his death.

Baducing has been suggested to appear as Biscop Beding the Son of

Alfred The Great.[4]

Life

Early career

Benedict, born of a noble

Oswiu of Bernicia[5] (r. 642–670) At the age of 25 (c. 653) Benedict made the first of his five trips to Rome, accompanying his friend Saint Wilfrid the Elder. However Wilfrid was detained in Lyon en route. Benedict completed the journey on his own, and when he returned to England was "full of fervour and enthusiasm ... for the good of the English Church".[6]

Benedict made a second journey to Rome twelve years later.

Rule of St. Benedict. During his two-year stay there, from 665 to 667, he underwent a course of instruction, taking monastic vows[7]
and the name of "Benedict".

Following the two years in Lérins Benedict made his third trip to Rome. At this time Pope Vitalian commissioned him to accompany Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus back to Canterbury in 669. On their return Archbishop Theodore appointed Benedict as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury, a role he held for two years.[8]

Bibliophile

Benedict Biscop, the Bibliophile, assembled a library from his travels. His second trip to Rome had been a book-buying trip. Overall, the collection had an estimated 250 titles of mostly service books. The library included scripture, classical, and secular works.[9]

Founder

See also: Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey

Ecgfrith of Northumbria granted Benedict land in 674 for the purpose of building a monastery. He went to the Continent to bring back masons who could build a monastery in the Pre-Romanesque style. Benedict made his fifth and final trip to Rome in 679 to bring back books for a library, saintly relics, stonemasons, glaziers, and a grant from Pope Agatho granting his monastery certain privileges. Benedict made five overseas voyages in all to stock the library.[10][11]

In 682 Benedict appointed

Ceolfrid as the superior, who left Wearmouth with 20 monks to start the foundation in Jarrow. Bede, one of Benedict's pupils, tells us that he brought builders and glass-workers from Francia to erect the buildings in stone.[11][12]

He drew up a rule for his community, based on that of Benedict and the customs of seventeen monasteries he had visited. He also engaged Abbot John, Arch-cantor of St. Peter's in Rome, to teach Roman chant at these monasteries.[7]

In 685, Ecgfrith granted the land south of the River Wear to Biscop. Separated from the monastery, this would be known as the "sundered land," which in time would become the name of the wider urban area.[13]

Benedict's idea was to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Church in Europe. It was the first ecclesiastical building in Britain to be built in stone, and the use of glass was a novelty for many in 7th-century England. It eventually possessed what was a large library for the time – several hundred volumes – and it was here that Benedict's student Bede wrote his famous works. The library became world-famous and manuscripts that had been copied there became prized possessions throughout Europe,[14] including especially the Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version.

Death

For the last three years of his life Benedict was bed-ridden. He suffered his affliction with great patience and faith.[11] He died on 12 January 690.[15]

Veneration

A sermon of

feast day
on 12 January.

Benedict is

commemoration on 12 January.[17]

The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates him as a saint and celebrates his feast day on 12th January on the New Calendar.[1]


See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Hutchison-Hall 2013, p. 47.
  2. ^ English Benedictine Congregation – January Ordo Archived 10 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Sunderland City Council minutes, 24 March 2004 Archived 14 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ The Anglian collection of royal genealogies and regnal lists, DAVID N. DUMVILLE, 1976, Cambridge University Press
  5. Edwin of Deira
    's conversion, some unusual circumstances his birth, or perhaps baptism, may account for this byname.
  6. ^ St. Benedict Biscop (AD 628–689) Archived 29 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine. An edition of Gibson, E.C.S., Northumbrian Saints, S.P.C.K., 1884. Britannia.com. Retrieved on 26 May 2008.
  7. ^ a b Ott, Michael. "St. Benedict Biscop." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 23 January 2020Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  8. ^ HAbb, II–III; Blair, pp. 156–159
  9. ^ Olley, L. (2014). Benedict Biscop: Benedictine, Builder, Bibliophile. Theological Librarianship, 7(1), pp. 30-37
  10. ISBN 0895260387
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-14-051312-4
    .
  12. ^ HAbb, IV–VI; Blair, p. 161.
  13. ^ "Old Sunderland History". englandsnortheast.co.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  14. ^ HAbb, IV & VI; Blair, pp. 165ff.
  15. ^ AVCeol, 18; Blair, p. 177.
  16. ^ "Benedict Biscop", The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
  17. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Benedict Biscop". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sources

External links
Preceded by
—
Monkwearmouth

674–681 		Succeeded by
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