page_title: Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey
section_title: Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey / Anglo-Saxon period / Foundation
caption_attribution_description: English: Surviving wall of the west range of St Paul's Monastery, Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, seen from the southwest. In the background is the Norman tower of St Paul's parish church Nederlands: Ruïne van het klooster te Jarrow, met de nog bestaande kerk op de achtergrond
context_page_description: The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, known simply as Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey, was a Benedictine double monastery in the Kingdom of Northumbria, England.
  Its first house was St Peter's, Monkwearmouth, on the River Wear, founded in AD 674–5. It became a double house with the foundation of St Paul's, Jarrow, on the River Tyne in 684–5. Both Monkwearmouth and Jarrow are now in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. The abbey became the centre of Anglo-Saxon learning, producing the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar, Bede.
  Both houses were sacked by Viking raiders and in the 9th century the abbey was abandoned. After the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century there was a brief attempt to revive it. Early in the 14th century the two houses were refounded as cells of Durham Priory. In 1536 they were surrendered to the Crown and dissolved.
  Since the dissolution the two abbey churches have survived as the parish churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. The two sets of conventual buildings fell into ruin. At Jarrow substantial ruins survive next to St Paul's church.
  The site of each house is a scheduled monument.
context_section_description: Benedict Biscop founded St Peter's monastery at Monkwearmouth in 674 on land given by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. He sought to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Roman traditions in an area previously more influenced by Celtic Christianity stemming from missionaries of Melrose and Iona. A papal letter in 678 exempted the monastery from external control.
  In 682 the king was so pleased at the success of St Peter's that he gave Benedict land in Jarrow, where he urged him to build a second monastery.This was established in 685 as St Paul's. Benedict appointed Ceolfrith as its superior, who took with him to Jarrow monks from Monkwearmouth, including the young Bede.
  The two monasteries were some of the first stone buildings to be built in an English kingdom. England had no masons, so Benedict brought masons from Francia. Benedict wanted glass windows, which were also then unusual in England, so he brought glassmakers also from Francia. The glassmakers had a workshop at Monkwearmouth, on the River Wear near the monastery.
  Benedict was well travelled in mainland Europe, and brought books and other materials from Rome and Lérins Abbey. He also persuaded John, arch-cantor of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, to come to teach plainsong at the abbey.
  The double abbey is often referred to simply as "Jarrow", despite its two houses being 7 miles (11 km) apart. Benedict himself was the first abbot, and the monastery flourished under him and his successors Eosterwine, Ceolfrith, and others, for 200 years. Benedict, on leaving England for Rome in 686, established Ceolfrith as Abbot in Jarrow and Eosterwine at Monkwearmouth; but before his death he stipulated that the two sites should function as "one monastery in two places".
caption: Monastery remains at Jarrow in front of St Paul's Church
exif: {}