Bede (673-735), also known as the Venerable Bede, was a Northumbrian monk and scholar, famous for writing Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed in 731 and held to be the earliest history of England. However, his scholarship extended far beyond this: he was a student of classical literature, studied Hebrew, medicine and astronomy, and wrote hymns, sermons, biographies of saints, works on chronology and grammar, and Biblical commentaries[1].
He is believed to have been born at Monkton, South Tyneside, north-east England - then part of the kingdom of Northumbria, and spent all his life in that region, although he had a correspondence with scholars across Europe. He studied at the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland[2], but later moved to St Peter's sister house, the monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow[3], a few miles to the north on the River Tyne, where he spent most of his life. Original stonework from both monasteries still exists, as part of later medieval church buildings, and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow has been approved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Bede's remains are buried in Galilee Chapel of the Norman cathedral at Durham[4].
Bede's life, and early medieval Northumbria, is celebrated at the museum and visitor centre Bede's World, opened in 2000 and located next to the church and monastic remains at Jarrow[5]. The nearest station of the Tyne and Wear Metro was named Bede in honour of the saint.