The Anglo Saxon Monastery of Wearmouth

The Anglo-Saxon monastery at Wearmouth (Monkwearmouth) was founded in 673 by the Northumbrian nobleman, Benedict Biscop and was supported by a large estate, granted to him by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria for that purpose. Biscop, a monk widely travelled on the continent, had just returned to his native kingdom after an absence of many years. As a nobleman he seems to have been known by the name Biscop Baducing and probably took the forename Benedict when he was professed a monk at the monastery of Lérins, on an island near Cannes, in the early 660s. He had then returned to England, on the instructions of the pope who asked him to accompany the newly appointed bishop of Canterbury.

Biscop remained in Canterbury for two years, before embarking on what was his fourth visit to Rome (having first visited there in c.652-3) where he bought various objects in preparation for the foundation of a monastery. The building of Wearmouth monastery probably began in 674. Strongly influenced by the religious institutions of the Mediterranean, Biscop brought in expert masons from Gaul in order to construct his monastery in stone, in the manner of those he had seen in Rome. Glass workers, too, were recruited to glaze the windows, a luxury virtually unknown in England at that time, and to make lamps and vessels for use in the church. On further trips to Rome in the 670s and 680s he brought back considerable quantities of luxurious items, including scholarly books, which provided the foundation of the monastery’s impressive library, religious relics, vestments, liturgical objects and painted icons, in order to provide for his new foundation.

Whilst setting up his monastery, Biscop had also begun the task of recruiting suitable men for his new religious community. His most important recruit was Ceolfrith, a monk and priest of Ripon, who became prior of the monastery and Biscop’s right-hand man. Indeed, Ceolfrith had often to assume responsibility for the monastic community whilst Biscop undertook his further journeys to Rome. When in 682 Biscop was granted a further estate by King Ecgfrith, centred on Jarrow, he sent Ceolfrith there to establish a second monastery which was dedicated to St Paul. Shortly before Biscop’s death in 689, Ceolfrith was appointed abbot of both foundations.

The most celebrated member of the Wearmouth Jarrow community was of course Bede, who entered Wearmouth as a child of seven, later transferring to Jarrow where he was probably buried. Certainly in their early days, the Wearmouth and Jarrow monastic communities were closely linked, with much evidence regarding their history surviving in an anonymous source, the Life of Ceolfrith (perhaps written by Bede himself, although this is not certain). A major enterprise for the monks was the translation of St Jerome’s Latin text of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. Three great pandects (complete texts of the Bible in a single volume) were subsequently produced, one of which, the richly illustrated Codex Amiatinus, still survives and is held in the Laurentian Library in Florence. This volume was originally meant for the pope but it did not reach its intended recipient for in 716, during his journey to Rome to present the gift, Ceolfrith became ill and died.

By the early 8th century the twin monasteries were gaining the reputation of scholarship and learning that was to make them famous throughout Western Europe. The presence of Bede within the community served further to enhance that reputation. Indeed by the time of his death in 735, Bede had become renowned as one of the greatest scholars of the age. The monastic buildings at Wearmouth continued in use until around the mid-9th century when they were either destroyed by Viking invaders or else abandoned because of the threat posed by the invaders. The site became derelict and although there is evidence afterward of some occupation and burials, the once famous monastery of Wearmouth was in ruins by the time the monk Aldwin came to restore it in the early 1070s.