Letter on the Death of Bede
An eyewitness account of Bede’s last weeks and death, written by one of his pupils at Jarrow to a fellow student named Cuthwin. It is the source used here for the day and manner of his death.
Cuthbert was a pupil of Bede at Jarrow and, according to Sellar, later abbot of the monastery. He writes to Cuthwin, who had sent word that masses were being said for Bede, and tells what he himself saw: the illness from before Easter, the daily teaching, the two works left unfinished, the distribution of small gifts to the priests of the house, and the last sentence dictated to the boy Wilbert.
The letter gives the day of the death, the eve of the Ascension, and says that Ascension Day fell on 26 May. It does not name the year. It also preserves five lines of English verse that Bede recited, on the soul’s need to consider its judgment before death.
Cited in
- AD 731, firm date