The+Venerable+Bede



**The Venerable Bede** The Venerable Bede translated the gospel of John from the Greek during the last years of his life. Bede was born around 670 AD. He was consecrated to a life in the service of the church and was taken to the monastery at Wearmouth to be educated and trained. Bede was transferred to Jarrow monastery after it was completed. He was one a handful of survivors when the plague struck Jarrow in 686. Bede became a prolific writer, creating works on science, history, religion. Most of his work was in Latin, including his Bible commentaries and his famous history of England: //Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum//, but he did write some poetry in the Old English Vernacular. He labored on his Old English translation of the Gospel of Saint John throughout his later years. Legend states that he completed the work on the day he died in 735 AD. Upon dictating the last words to his scribe he cried “//consummatum est//”, sang a hymn of praise and passed away. This text has since been lost to time, but the story was recorded by contemporary historians in their accounts of this great scholar.

Links: Bede's Cross Monument in Sunderland Bede's Tomb