Saint Bede

By Tracey Becker

How would you like to spend your whole life in the same school? St. Bede did just that. When he was 7, he went to live with monks. What teachers he had! Many saints taught him, such as St. Bennet. All the kings and wealthy people sent their children here, but so did the poor. Bede’s family was not rich, but they loved Bede very much and wanted him to have the best education.

Everyone noticed how smart Bede was (we’re still reading his books and letters today!) When Bede wasn’t studying, he was singing. When it was time for him to graduate, he wanted to stay on. He became a monk, priest, and teacher. Everyone said that he was kind and happy and very smart. Bede said “what made me happy was learning, teaching, or writing.” People everywhere wanted Bede to come and teach them, but Bede wanted to stay where he was. So they came to him instead! Even Pope Sergius--the pope at that time--wanted Bede’s advice!

What made his writing so wonderful was the piety, honesty, and simplicity that shows through on each page. He said he studied the Bible “to learn 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 of all virtues, and diligently copying them in his whole conduct.” This means he studied to love God more. He learned how to live the virtues, such as humility and charity towards one's neighbor. Bede's life was a model of devotion, obedience, humility, simplicity, charity, and penance.

God allowed him to know when he would die, so Bede did not waste any time he had left. He wrote as many books as he could, and when he couldn’t write anymore, others wrote for him. When it was his time to die, he reached out his hands to God and started to pray the Glory Be. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…” He was unable to finish because he died. Bede was 62.