Benedict Biscop

Benedict Biscop Baducing (* 628 ; † 690 ) was an English monk from Northumbria who felt obliged to the Regula Benedicti , traveled a total of five times to Rome, founded two monasteries and significantly influenced the forerunners of Benedictineism in England.

Life

Biscop was part of King Oswiu's retinue when he was young . He later had the opportunity to travel to Rome with Wilfrid von Lindisfarne . Subsequently, he lived from 665 to 667 as a monk in the Benedictine abbey of Lérins on the island of Saint-Honorat near Cannes . Here, Knowles suspects, he took the name Benedict.

Then Biscop returned to Rome and, on behalf of Pope Vitalian , traveled back to England together with Theodore of Tarsus , the future Archbishop of Canterbury , where he was Abbot of St. Peter and Paul in Canterbury for two years in 669 took over.

After the arrival of the Neapolitan Hadrian, who replaced him as abbot, Biscop traveled a third time to Rome, after which he returned to his home in Northumbria and there, thanks to the donation of land from King Ecgfrith , Oswius' son, the Benedictine Abbey of Monkwearmouth (674) and the associated one Jarrow Priory (681) with Ceolfrid as prior. At the beginning, each of the two monasteries had around 22 monks and a school for boys. Beda later entered the Monkwearmouth School at the age of seven, at a time when he was still able to meet Biscop as abbot.

Benedict's rule in chapter 64 provides that abbots are elected from the community of monks. In Biscop's time, however, it had been customary for a long time for the right to appoint the abbot to be claimed by the responsible diocesan bishop or the founder of the monastery. Accordingly, it is noteworthy that Biscop succeeded in obtaining a papal privilege for his two foundations, which guaranteed both monasteries the right to freely choose the abbot or prior. In his last address to his monks, he emphasized the importance of defending this right in the future.

literature

• Timoth Fry (Ed.): The Rule of Saint Benedict . Vintage Spiritual Classics, ISBN 0-375-70017-X .
• David Knowles : The Monastic Order in England . Cambridge University Press, 1950. (See pages 21 and 22 for an account of Biscop's first three voyages and his influence on the development of the Benedictines in England.)
• David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses, England & Wales . Longman, 2nd edition, 1971, ISBN 0-582-11230-3 .