Bede was born near Monkwearmouth, Durham, in about 673. At the age of seven he was placed in the care of Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth Monastery. After moving to Jarrow he was ordained as a priest in 703.

Bede used to library established by Benedict Biscop to study Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Over the next thirty years he wrote extensively about a wide-range of subjects including religion, medicine, astronomy, language and physical science.

It is generally believed that Bede's greatest work was the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he finished in 731. The book is the most valuable source that we have for early English history.

Bede hoped that the book would educate people on how a good Christian life should be led. Written in Latin it was later translated into Anglo-Saxon by Alfred the Great. In his history writing, Bede established a new chronology using anno domini (AD) in dating. Bede died in 735 and was canonized in 1899.