Saint Benedict Biscop

Benedict Biscop (c. 628 – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory (where he also founded the famous library). Following his death, he was canonized as a saint. It has been suggested that Baducing appears as Biscop Beding, the son of Beda Bubbing, King of Mercia in the Lyndsey/Lindfearnan lists of geneaologies held by the Anglian Collection and great-grandfather of Alfred The Great. Benedict, born of a noble Northumbrian family, was for a time a thegn of King Oswiu of Bernicia (r. 642–670) At the age of 25 (c. 653) Benedict made the first of his five trips to Rome, accompanying his friend Saint Wilfrid the Elder. However, Wilfrid was detained in Lyon en route. Benedict completed the journey on his own, and when he returned to England, he was "full of fervour and enthusiasm ... for the good of the English Church". Benedict made a second journey to Rome twelve years later. Alchfrith of Deira, a son of King Oswiu, intended to accompany him, but the king refused to grant permission. On this trip, Biscop met Acca and Wilfrid. On his return journey to England, Benedict stopped at Lérins, a monastic island off the Mediterranean coast of Provence, which had by then adopted the Rule of St. Benedict. During his two-year stay there, from 665 to 667, he underwent a course of instruction, taking monastic vows and the name of "Benedict". Following the two years in Lérins, Benedict made his third trip to Rome. At this time, Pope Vitalian commissioned him to accompany Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus back to Canterbury in 669. On their return, Archbishop Theodore appointed Benedict as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury, a role he held for two years. Benedict Biscop, the Bibliophile, assembled a library from his travels. His second trip to Rome had focused on book-buying. Overall, the collection comprised an estimated 250 titles, mostly service books.