Monastic Mysteries

The vanishing vellum

Abbot Ceolfrith set off on his last journey to present one of three amazing bibles to the Pope himself, in AD 716. He died before he could reach Rome, but the Codex Amiatinus got there – the Pope wrote a letter to Wearmouth-Jarrow thanking them for the gift. Later it was in the possession of the monastery at Monte Amiata, and its origin was forgotten – the monks believed it was the work of one of St Benedict of Nursia's close associates. The Roman Uncial Script it was written in was so perfect that until the 19th century its origin remained hidden, and it was thought to be from sixth-century Italy. It was not until this Dedication Inscription was recognised as being that recorded in an 8th-century text from Wearmouth-Jarrow, describing Ceolfrith's gift to the Pope, that its true origin was recognised: an amazing discovery and testament to the quality of the Wearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium.

The elusive Bede

Abbot Ceolfrith set off on his last journey to present one of three amazing bibles to the Pope himself, in AD 716. He died before he could reach Rome, but the Codex Amiatinus got there – the Pope wrote a letter to Wearmouth-Jarrow thanking them for the gift. Later it was in the possession of the monastery at Monte Amiata, and its origin was forgotten – the monks believed it was the work of one of St Benedict of Nursia's close associates. The Roman Uncial Script it was written in was so perfect that until the 19th century its origin remained hidden, and it was thought to be from sixth-century Italy. It was not until this Dedication Inscription was recognised as being that recorded in an 8th-century text from Wearmouth-Jarrow, describing Ceolfrith's gift to the Pope, that its true origin was recognised: an amazing discovery and testament to the quality of the Wearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium.

Angelic approval

Nearly everything we know about Bede comes from the last chapter of his Historia Ecclesiastica - his history of the development of the church in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, without which we would know little of early England. It was finished in 731. Bede tells us he was then in his fifty-ninth year which makes his likely birth date 672 or 673. We do not know exactly where Bede was born. In the same chapter he wrote, 'I was born in the territory of this monastery,' which by then stretched from Dalton in County Durham north probably as far as Wallsend. We know he was seven when he was placed into the care of Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith by his 'kinsmen' – which may suggest he was an orphan – and that he was ordained deacon age 19 and priest age 30. A surviving letter of Cuthbert - Bede's student and later Abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow - describes Bede's death.