BENEDICT BISCOP (Baducino), Saint. - Abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow, b. in Northumbria of noble Anglo-Saxon stock around 628, d. 12 January 690.
B. served at the court of King Oswiu (Oswy) until the age of 25. Returning from a journey to Rome (653) with the king's son, instead of going back to his homeland, he stopped in Provence, becoming a Benedictine in the monastery of Lérins. A few years later (665-67), he returned again to Rome, and from Pope Vitalian he received the charge of accompanying to England the new archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, together with the abbot Adrian. Once they arrived there, Theodore kept him still with him, making him abbot of the monastery of St. Peter (668). After two years had passed, B. renounced the abbacy in favor of Adrian, and undertook a third pilgrimage to Rome (670). He set out from there laden with codices which, together with those already gathered at Vienne, he transported to England along with a great quantity of relics of martyrs. But, the king of the West Saxons, Coinualch, his friend and benefactor, having died, he directed himself toward his native land, and presented himself to the king of Northumbria, Egfrid (son and successor of Oswiu), whom he immediately won over to his cause.
Having received from him as a gift some land near the mouths of the Vyri (Were or Wear), B. set his hand, in 674, to the monastery of Wearmouth (mouth of the Wear), dedicating it to St. Peter the Apostle. Once the foundation was begun, he went to France in search of caementarii and other artists; he also came to Rome (678), bringing back from it "innumerabile librorum omnis generis copiam," relics and works of art. On this same occasion, eager to give life to a model monastery, he obtained from Pope Agatho the abbot John, archicantor of the basilica of St. Peter, to give impetus to Roman chant and liturgy (cf. Bede, Hist. Eccl., IV, 18). From the Pontiff he also obtained a diploma or epistola privilegia, to guarantee the freedom of the monastery: a privilege later confirmed in public assembly by the king and the bishops (cf. Jaffé-Wattenbach, I, 2106).
Having received other land as a gift from the sovereign, a little further north, at the mouth of the Tyne, B. founded there, in 681-82, dedicating it to St. Paul (in imitation of Rome), the monastery of Jarrow, whose name is linked to that of St. Bede. Being close by, the two monasteries were considered as a single community in two houses. Having placed Ceolfrid at Jarrow and Easterwine at Wearmouth, B., wishing to provide worthily for the furnishing of the new monastery, undertook a sixth journey to Rome (684), bringing back from it a great quantity of books and paintings "de concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti," of the Most Holy Virgin and of the Apocalypse, which, a true Biblia pauperum, adorning the church of Jarrow, were to be for the instruction of the faithful.
But great was his sorrow on his return at finding the king dead and the two monasteries devastated by epidemic. Without losing courage, he recruited new subjects and continued the decoration of the churches. In the end, a progressive paralysis immobilized him in bed for three years: at about 72 years of age, after having commended with special solicitude to his monks the library "quam de Roma nobilissimam copiosissimamque advexerat," he died a holy death. B., whose work is of great importance in the history of culture, was soon venerated. Bede composed a homily "in natali s. Benedicti episcopi" (PL 94, 224-28). The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 12 January. The English Benedictines honor him as their patron.
Bibliography7 works
Igino Cecchetti