He was born near Sunderland in 673AD and when he was 7 his parents gave him to the new monastery at Wearmouth. There he was taught by Benedict Biscop, he later moved to the main monastery at Jarrow where his teacher was Abbot Ceolfrith. In 862 AD a plague killed all the monks except the abbot and Bede. The monastery numbers were increased in time and Bede became a monk there. He was ordained as a priest in 703AD and concentrated on studying scripture when he wasn't following monastic discipline. He spent his whole life there, probably going only to York and Lindisfarne for a short time.

Bede's writings were extensive and very important to his contemporaries. Jarrow monastery had an extensive library and was very rich and powerful. Abbot Ceolfrith had 3 copies of single volume Bibles, which Bede certainly used. Bede's most valuable book was his History of the English Church and People, finished in 731AD, which gives us most of what we know of the period called the Dark Ages.

He also wrote the lives of the first 5 abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. He wrote grammatical and chronological books, hymns and verses, letters and sermons, and also wrote the first martyrology with historical notes. Writings at the time were in Latin, but Bede was the first to use the English language. These latter are unfortunately lost. He was described by his devoted follower Cuthbert as sitting on the floor of his cell translating St John's Gospel and extracts from the writings of St Isidore of Seville, even on the day of his death in 735AD

Bede was known all over Europe, and in 856AD the Council of Aachen gave him the title Venerable which means 'worthy of honour'. Boniface called him 'a light of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit'. He was declared a doctor of the Church by the Pope Leo XIII in 1899AD. Bede is the only Englishman mentioned in Dante's 'Paradiso'. Bede is an Anglo-Saxon name and means 'prayer'.