Saint Bede

(c. 673 - 735)

Saint Bede is the author of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which chronicles England’s conversion to Christianity. He was ordained deacon at the age of nineteen and priest at the age of thirty; he spent the majority of his life at the Jarrow abbey in northwestern England. Among the thirty-plus books attributed to him is a now-lost translation of the Gospel According to John—the first in English—which Bede supposedly completed moments before dying. He is also credited with popularizing the practice of dating events from the birth of Jesus Christ.