stone marks the place. The King gave the missionaries land to build an
Abbey outside Canterbury, where St Augustine was buried. He is said to
have baptised thousands on Christmas day 597, He founded bishoprics in
London and Rochester, but attempts to persuade the Celtic bishops to
submit to his authority failed. After his death on 26 May 604 Augustine was
soon revered as a Saint.
27 May The Venerable Bede (also referred to as St Bede), lived 672/73
to 26 May 735
Bede was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of St Peter at
Monkwearmouth near Newcastle. He was of noble birth and entered the
monastery aged 7 to be educated. In 682 he moved to St Paul’s at Jarrow,
both monasteries had superb libraries and Bede was known as a scholar
and prolific author in Latin. He translated the early Church Fathers and
contributed significantly to the English Church. His most famous work is The
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, which gained
him the title ‘Father of English History’ His non-historical works on grammar,
chronology and biblical studies contributed greatly to the Carolingian
Renaissance. He was Priest to Saint Cuthbert who described Bede’s death
in a letter. He died at Jarrow on 26 May 735 and was buried there. In 1899
he was made a ‘Doctor of the Church’, the only native Britain to receive that
title.
TRINITY
On the Sunday after Whitsun we celebrate Trinity Sunday. Theologians
explaining the Trinity often get into difficulties. Yet the Bible tells us of God
working in many different ways. He creates Heaven and Earth, He loves and
suffers for mankind, He unites and strengthens His people. He is sometimes
called ‘Father’, sometimes ‘Son’ and at other times ‘Holy Spirit’. Can we
think of these three together as one? How can three make one?
The doctrine of the Trinity, first set out in the fourth century, is only an
attempt to explain God by limited words. If we call Him a Being in Three
Persons, we have not even touched at the secret of His nature. This is not
surprising, the living God cannot be confined by dogmatic means. He who
works in so different ways, cannot be reduced to one idea. God is many
things at once: Power and might, love and devotion, enthusiasm and hope.
All this is meant when Christians bless in the Name of the Father, of the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
The Trinity is something basic for us Christians. We hear these words during
every church service, in the blessing and in hymns. Traces of this can even
be seen in church architecture, for instance in the three aisles of gothic
cathedrals, or in music. J.S.Bach e.g. in his B-minor mass wrote this creed in
StOM Page 7