CEOLFRIDO, 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, of a family of the Anglo-Saxon high nobility. At the age of eighteen he entered the monastery of Gilling (Yorkshire), from which he went to Ripon at the invitation of Wilfrido, who, after ten years of study, ordained him priest. At Ripon, while carrying out the humble office of baker, he was elected master of the novices when, in 674, he BISARCIO (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 number of codices, taking with them, with the assent of Pope Agatho, Giovanni (v.), archcantor of St Peter. In 682 St Benedict entrusted him with the foundation of Jarrow, and at his death (690) C. succeeded him as abbot of the two twin monasteries, over which, for more than twenty-five years, as Bede says, he «sollerti regimine praefuit» (PL 94, 725).
A septuagenarian and distressed at no longer being able to discharge his communal duties, he decided to end his days in Rome and, in the summer of 716, after three months of travel, reached Langres with a large retinue, where he fell ill and died on 25 September of that year. Buried there «in monasterio Geminorum», his relics were later transferred to Jarrow and, at the time of the Danish raids, to Glastonburg (cf. Guglielmo di Malmesbury, De Reg., I, 3).
He exercised his zeal in leading the Irish and the Scots to observe the discipline of the Roman Church concerning the celebration of Easter and the tonsure (cf. Beda, 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 that he had brought
from Rome (678); of these, he had two placed in the churches of the twin monastery, while he took the third with him as a gift to the Confession of St Peter (PL 94, 725).
This third copy, produced at Jarrow (or at Wearmouth) between the seventh and eighth centuries under the guidance of Bede himself, is the celebrated Codex Amiatima, one of the most precious and ancient codices of the Vulgate. It derives, almost certainly, from the library of Cassiodorus. C. died while travelling, and his vow was fulfilled by his disciples. The codex, whose first folio, with its purple background, bears the dedicatory epigram with the name «Ceolfridus abbas», later passed to the Lombard monastery of the Savior on Mount Amiata (hence the name). As a result of the monastic suppressions ordered by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo 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 succeeded in restoring the dedicatory epigram, damaged by Abbot Pietro in order to substitute his own name for that of C. Highly esteemed for its text, the codex was temporarily transferred to Rome in 1586 for the use of the correctors of the Vulgate.