Today we will talk about Saint Bede. He was born in the northeast of England. At the age of seven, his relatives entrusted him to the abbot of the nearby Benedictine monastery for his education. In fact, Saint Bede became one of the most distinguished scholars of the early Middle Ages. Despite falling ill, he never stopped working, always keeping an inner joy that expressed itself in prayer and song.

The Holy Scriptures were the constant source of his theological reflection. He commented on the Bible, reading it in a Christological key; that is, he did two things: on the one hand, he listened carefully to what the text said; on the other, he was convinced that the key to understanding Scripture as the one Word of God is Jesus Christ. In His light, both the Old and New Testaments are understood as one unified Sacred Scripture.

Another recurring theme in Saint Bede’s work is the history of the Church. After studying the era described in the Acts of the Apostles, he reviewed the history of the Fathers and Councils, convinced that the work of the Holy Spirit continues through history. He wrote the “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” with documentary precision and literary skill, a work for which he is recognized as “the father of English historiography”.

—The fame for holiness and wisdom that Saint Bede enjoyed during his life earned him the title “Venerable”. Through his writings, he contributed greatly to the building of a Christian Europe, where different peoples and cultures came together, giving it a unified identity inspired by the Christian faith.