Death of the Venerable Bede - May 25, 735

Bede (the Father of English History) was a Benedictine monk born around 672 at Wearmouth, England. He was brought to the abbey of Saints Peter and Paul at Wearmouth-Jarrow, England when he was only seven. He became a priest by the time he was thiry years old and was well-suited and happy with his life as a scholar and historian. The abbey at Jarrow had one of the largest English libraries of the time with between 300 and 500 volumes. (To contrast the times, my own library, including brain candy, easily passes 1500 books. Yes, I have a lot of books in boxes.)

Bede wrote about history, science, music, grammar and theology. He was not averse to including legends and tales in his histories and even penned a few poems. He quoted classical writers like Pliny and Virgil easily. His two greatest works were a history of England from the time of Caesar to its completion in 731 titled: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and a re-editing of the Vulgate Bible, for which he used many different texts instead of just one. This edition became the standard used up to the Reformation.

Bede is credited with the invention of footnoting (so now students know who to blame!) and dividing time into the BC/AD system we now use. He had a good knowledge of science and even compared the earth to a "playground ball". He also understood tides, longtitude and latitude and one of his scientific treatises became very important in the Church's determining the date of Easter each year.

Bede died in his cell in 735, first finishing up a chapter of a translation and asking a young priest to get his few treasures and bring them and another priest so Bede could give them to some friends.

He was both canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. His feast day is May 25th.

Note - the first reference I found to his death was on May 26. I am now finding references that he died on May 27th (Julian calender), which is now May 25th (Gregorian calender). Since I really don't want to wait a year to feature him, you're getting two May 25th people instead of one. Also, since the book I saw the 26th in seems to be the only one mentioning that date, I'm going to say it was wrong.

The Venerable Bede - Wikipedia
Patron Saints Index - Bede
The Catholic Encyclopedia - The Venerable Bede
Bede's World (I have this insane picture in my head of a monk riding in a dogcart banging his head to Bohemian Rhapsody)
Catholic.org - The Venerable Bede