CEOLFRID, Saint. - Abbot of the two English monasteries of St. Peter at Wearmouth and St. Paul at Jarrow, in Northumberland; born in 642 in that region to a family of the high Anglo-Saxon nobility. At the age of 18 he entered the monastery of Gilling (Yorkshire), whence he passed to Ripon, at the invitation of Wilfrid, who, after ten years of study, ordained him priest. At Ripon, while discharging the humble office of baker, he was elected master of the novices, when, in 674, he was requested by St. Benedict Biscop (v.) for the foundation of Wearmouth, where he served as prior during the abbot's absence. In 678 he accompanied St. Benedict to Rome, whence the two brought back a great quantity of codices, bringing with them, with the assent of Pope Agatho, also the abbot John (v.), archchanter of St. Peter. In 682 St. Benedict entrusted to him the foundation of Jarrow, and on his death (690) C. succeeded him as abbot of the two twin monasteries, over which for more than 25 years, as Bede says, «sollerti regimine praefuit» (PL 94, 725).
At seventy years of age and grieved at no longer being able to fulfill his duties toward his community, he decided to end his days in Rome, and in the summer of 716, after three months of travel, with a large retinue, he reached Langres, where he fell ill and died, on 25 September of that year. Buried there «in monasterio Geminorum», his relics were later transported to Jarrow and, at the time of the Danish raids, to Glastonbury (cf. William of Malmesbury, De Reg., I, 3).
He exercised his zeal in leading the Irish and the Scots to the observance of the discipline of the Roman Church concerning the celebration of Easter and the tonsure (cf. Bede, Hist. eccl. Gentis Angl., V, 21: PL 95, 271-80).
With particular satisfaction Bede reveals that C. had three copies of the entire Bible («tres pandectes») transcribed according to the version of St. Jerome brought back from Rome (678), of which he had two placed in the churches of the twin monastery, and took the third with him as a gift to the Confession of St. Peter (PL 94, 725).
This third copy, executed at Jarrow (or at Wearmouth) between the 7th and 8th centuries under the guidance of Bede himself, is the celebrated Codex Amiatinus, one of the most precious and ancient codices of the Vulgate. It derives, almost certainly, from the library of Cassiodorus. C. having died on his journey, his vow was discharged by his disciples. The codex, which on its first leaf, against the purple background, bears the dedicatory epigram with the name of «Ceolfridus abbas», later passed to the Lombard monastery of the Savior on Mount Amiata (whence its name). Owing to the monastic suppressions of Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Tuscany (1785), the Amiatine Bible is preserved in the Laurentian Library of Florence.
The identification of the Amiatine codex with C.'s copy is due to G. B. De Rossi, who was able to restore the dedicatory epigram damaged by Abbot Peter in order to substitute his own name for that of C. Esteemed for its text, the codex was in 1586 temporarily transported to Rome and placed at the disposal of the correctors of the Vulgate.
Bibliography10 works
Igino Cecchetti