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Bede the Venerable reading an open book, a hand-coloured woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493

Saint Bede the Venerable

Jarrow monk who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Honoured as
Doctor of the Church, the Venerable
Western calendar
25 May
Orthodox calendar
27 May

Bede was given to the monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow at seven and spent the whole of his life within it, where, as he wrote, "it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write". He finished his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in 731. On the eve of the Ascension in 735 he was still dictating a translation of the Gospel of John, and when the boy Wilbert told him the last sentence was written he answered, "it is finished", and died on the floor of his cell singing "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost". In 1899 Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.

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What is a saint’s feast day?

It is the day each year when the Church remembers a saint in its prayers, and for most saints it is the day they died and went home to God. Many saints here have two dates, because the Western and Orthodox Churches keep their own calendars, and some Orthodox churches still count by the old Julian calendar, which runs thirteen days behind ours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

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Why did you choose these saints and not others?

We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

Every saint here, by feast day