CAEDMON, Saint. - Benedictine and the first Christian English poet, d. between 670 and 680. As for the name, there has been talk of a Celtic origin or of a Hebrew or Chaldean pseudonym.
A humble cowherd of the monastery of Streaneshalch (Whitby), as Bede recounts (Hist. eccl., IV, 24), C. had never composed verses, and one night, while a singing contest was taking place in the monastery, he had withdrawn, conscious of his ignorance. During the night he had a vision, in which he felt himself moved to compose poetry. He improvised, thus, a marvelous hymn on the creation, to the astonishment of the abbess Hilda, who recognized in him one inspired by God and received him among her monks. From these he learned the biblical episodes, to which he then gave poetic form. According to William of Malmesbury (1125) he was probably buried at Whitby. His feast falls on February 11.
Certainly C.'s are the 9 verses of a Hymn to God, reported by Bede in Latin. The so-called C. poems contain instead paraphrases of parts of Genesis, Exodus, Daniel and Christ and Satan (3 poems on the fall of the angels, the descent into limbo and the temptation). Genesis and Christ and Satan are distinguished by their dramatic accent; especially the character of Satan is vigorously drawn.
Bibliography3 worksCritical ed. by R. Wülker, in Bibl. der angelsächs. Poesie, II, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1895; C. W. Kennedy, The C. poems, London 1916 (English ver
BIBL.: Critical ed. by R. Wülker, in Bibl. der angelsächs. Poesie, II, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1895; C. W. Kennedy, The C. poems, London 1916 (English vers.); G. Gollancz, The C. manuscript, Oxford 1927 (reproduction with introduction). Studies: cf. The Cambridge Bibliogr. of Engl. Literat., I, Cambridge 1940, p. 73 ff.
Giusti, Wolf. “Caedmon, santo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, coll. 271–272. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/caedmon-santo.
MLA
Giusti, Wolf. “Caedmon, santo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 271–272. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/caedmon-santo.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec3_caedmon_santo,
author = {Giusti, Wolf},
title = {Caedmon, santo},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {III},
pages = {271--272},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/caedmon-santo}
}
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