Last words of the faithful
Bede
Died 26 May 735 · Jarrow, Northumbria
Bede, the English monk and historian, died at Jarrow on 26 May 735. His pupil Cuthbert wrote an eyewitness letter describing the day: Bede spent it dictating an English translation of the Gospel of John, and when the boy taking it down said the last sentence was written, Bede answered that it was finished, was carried to the place where he prayed, and died as he sang the Gloria.
The last words
The story behind them
He had spent his life in one monastery, in the cold north of England, and written the book that is still the reason we know anything about the English church before him. On his last day he was not writing history. He was putting the Gospel of John into English so that his own people could hear it in their own tongue, and he was dictating it because he no longer had the strength to write.
Cuthbert, his pupil, wrote the day down. There was a boy taking dictation. In the evening the boy said there was one sentence left. Bede told him to write it quickly. A little later the boy said: it is finished now, master.
The last words of the Gospel he was translating became the last words of the man translating it.
And Bede answered him: it is well, you have spoken truth, it is finished. He knew exactly what he was quoting. He asked to be carried to the spot in his cell where he was accustomed to pray, and there he sang 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit', and Cuthbert records that as he named the Holy Spirit he breathed his last and went. A man died in the middle of a doxology, at the end of a Gospel, in a language his neighbours could understand.
What they died for, you can meet
None of these people died for an idea. They died holding onto a Person, convinced that death was not the end because he had already walked out of a tomb. The Living Bread is a quiet place to meet that same Jesus, read the Gospels for yourself, and ask your honest questions.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- What were Bede's last words?
- According to the eyewitness letter of his pupil Cuthbert, when the boy taking dictation said the last sentence of the translation was written, Bede replied, 'It is well, you have spoken truth. It is finished.' He then sang the Gloria and died as he named the Holy Spirit.
- What was Bede translating when he died?
- The Gospel of John, into English, so that his own people could hear it in their own language. He was dictating because he was too weak to write.
- How do we know how Bede died?
- From the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae, a letter written by his pupil Cuthbert, who was present.
