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Almost all that is known of his life is contained in a notice added by himself to his Historia (v. 24), which states that he was placed in the monastery at Wearmouth at the age of seven, that he became deacon in his nineteenth year, and priest in his thirtieth. He was trained by the abbots Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid, and probably accompanied the latter to Jarrow in 682. There he spent his life, finding his chief pleasure in being always occupied in learning, teaching, or writing, and zealous in the performance of monastic duties.

His works show that he had at his command all the learning of his time. He was proficient in patristicThe Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The term means specifically writers and teachers of the Church, literature, and quotes from Pliny the YoungerCaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ( 63 ca. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger was a lawyer, an author and a scientist of Ancient Rome. Born in Como, Italy, Pliny the Younger was the nephew of Pliny the Elder, who is considered by many to be the greate, Vergil, LucretiusTitus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher, whose contribution was to free men's minds of superstition and fear of death. He focused more on the law than did earlier Epicureans, but persuasively transmitted their physics and psyc, OvidFor other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. Ovid wrote in elegiac couplets, with, HoraceQuintus Horatius Flaccus ( December 8, 65 BC 8 BC) known in the English world as Horace was the leading lyric poet in Latin. Horace was the son of a freedman, but himself born free. His father spent considerable money on Horace's education, sending him to, and other classical writers, but with some disapproval. He knew GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce and a little HebrewThe Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. What makes it unique is that the original Bible, the Torah, by Orthodox Jews held to be recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago, was written in Biblical Classical. His Latin is clear and without affectation, and he is a skilful story-teller.

Bede practiced the allegorical method of interpretation, and was by modern standards credulous concerning the miraculous; but in most things his good sense is conspicuous, and his kindly and broad sympathies, his love of truth and fairness, his unfeigned piety, and his devotion to the service of others combine to make him an exceedingly attractive character.

Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical, and theological. The scientific include treatises on grammar (written for his pupils), a work on natural phenomena (De rerum natura), and two on chronology (De temporibus and De temporum ratione). Bede made a new calculation of the age of the earth and began the practice of dividing the christian era into BC and AD. Interestingly, Bede wrote that the Earth was round "like a playground ball", contrasting that with being " round like a shield".

The most important and best known of his works is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, giving in five books the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Caesar to the date of its completion ( 731). The first twenty-one chapters, treating of the period before the mission of Augustine, are compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I, and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions. After 596, documentary sources, which Bede took pains to obtain, are used, and oral testimony, which he employed not without critical consideration of its value.

His other historical works were lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and lives in verse and prose of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. The most numerous of his writings are theological, and consist of commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, homilies, and treatises on detached portions of Scripture.

His last work, completed on his death-bed, was a translation into Anglo-Saxon of the Gospel of John.

Bede became known as Venerable Bede soon after his death, but this was not linked to consideration for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. His scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognised in 1899 when he was declared a Doctor of the Church as St Bede The Venerable.