May 25, 2018
Collect
Don Bosco Cristo Rey, Takoma Park, Md.
“O
God, you bring light to your Church thru the learning of the priest St. Bede”
(Collect).
The
Venerable Bede—monk, priest, and doctor of the Church—was born in northern
England around 673 and died in 735—thus in the early Middle Ages. He’s probably the only medieval saint who can
be described as having worked no miracles, seen no visions, and taught no path
to God, not even in pious legend. Aside
from his sanctity, his learning, and his ability as a teacher, perhaps there
was nothing outstanding about him. He
was just a plain choir-monk. There is
this to be said, however: On his
deathbed he bequeathed to his fellow priest-monks his few goods, which included
such monastic staples as linen, incense, and pepper!
We commemorate Bede, however, not for his
material bequests but for his spiritual ones.
He himself wrote that he devoted “all [his] pains to the study of the
Scriptures”; it was ever his “delight to learn or teach or write.”[1] Although he is best
known for his History of the English
Church & People, which remains an extremely valuable historical source,
he produced a prodigious pile of commentaries on the Bible in the patristic
style of his day, still very much appreciated today, and he labored almost to
his last breath to finish a translation of John’s Gospel into his native Anglo-Saxon. It was Bede who popularized the use of anno Domini in our dating system, altho
he’s not the monk who tried to calculate the year of Christ’s birth. He’s the only doctor of the Church from the
English-speaking world.
Bede was revered as a
great teacher in the monastic school, not only learned but humble and
holy. He was sober, accurate, and
orthodox in what he taught, which makes him a model for all of us who are
teachers. When he learned of Bede’s
death, St. Boniface in Germany—another Anglo-Saxon monk who was a missionary—remarked,
“The light of the Church, lit by the Holy Spirit, is extinguished”[2]—which seems to be what the Collect alludes to with its 2
references to light.
Like
Bede, may we find light in the sacred Scriptures, orthodox teaching, and of
course the history of our faith.
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