page_title: Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey
section_title: Bede
hierarchical_section_title: Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey / Anglo-Saxon period / Bede
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: The library Benedict had created on his travels to Rome and then given to the monastery made it the cradle not only of English art but of English literature.  Bede was educated under Ceolfrith's patronage and lived, wrote, and died as a monk at Jarrow. By his death Bede had established himself as England's leading scriptural and historical authority.
  After his death Bede had a vital influence on the fortunes of the monastery. His writings, most importantly his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, became so popular in the 8th century that they not only assured the reputation of the houses, but influenced the development of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow's distinctive insular minuscule script, developed to increase the speed of book production.
caption: A page of the Saint Petersburg Bede written at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. National Library of Russia, St Petersburg.
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