Benedict Biscop

Benedict Biscop, a great churchman of Anglo-Saxon times, was born about 628 of a good Northumbrian family. At first in the service of King Oswy, he assumed the tonsure in the Benedictine monastery of Lerins, after his second journey to Rome. On his return to England from his third journey, he was appointed abbot of St Peter's at Canterbury, but this office he held only for two years. He made yet another pilgrimage to Rome, and soon after his return received from Egfrith of Northumbria, in 674, a grant of land between the Wear and the Tyne. Here he founded a monastery, and endowed it with numerous books which he had collected in his visits to Rome. 'He was,' says William of Malmesbury, 'the first person who introduced in England constructors of stone edifices, as well as makers of glass windows.' In 682 he founded a second monastery at Jarrow. Himself a man of the most lofty character, he did much to advance learning and culture in the church, and to his careful fostering of learning we owe his great pupil Bede. He died 12th January 690.