What is Benedict Biscop?
[[File:Image of a noble donor in a fresco of the church of San Benedetto in Malles Venosta.jpg|thumb|right|250px|{{Center|Image of St. Benet (Benedict) Biscop carrying [the [[:wikt:traditions|traditions]] of] St. Peter's Basilica to Britain.}}]] '''Benedict Biscop''' ({{circa|627}}–690), also called '''Biscop Baducing''',{{efn|Baducing was his family name based on his father's name.<ref name=Bede45/> But most commonly he was known as Benedict Biscop.}} was an [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] [[nobleman]], [[monk]] and [[abbot]]. He was the founder and benefactor of the [[Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbeys]]. He had been a [[thane]] of King [[Oswiu of Northumbria]] and an officer in his court. Benedict Biscop is probably best known for the library he created at Jarrow and for being the mentor of the [[Bede|Venerable Bede]]. He was venerated as a [[saint]] after his death. ==Life== Benedict Biscop was born {{circa|627}}.<ref>Bede; C. W. Grocock; I. N. Wood, ''The Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2013), p. xv</ref> He was from a [[noble]] family of [[Northumbria]]n [[Angles]].<ref name=Bede45>Bede; James Patterson; Peter Wilcock; et al., ''Lives of the First Five Abbots of Wearmouth & Jarrow: Benedict, Ceolfrid, Eosterwine, Sigfrid and Huetbert'' (Sunderland: Hills & Co., 1910), p. 45</ref> As a young man he was a member of the [[court]] of King Oswiu of Northumbria while still young. He was a rich nobleman who had a good deal of political power.<ref>Michael Gleason, 'Bede and his Fathers', ''Classica et mediaevalia'', Vol. 45 (1994), p. 223</ref> When he was twenty-five he gave up his [[:wikt:secular|secular]] life, his marriage and family and decided to join the Church.<ref>Charles Forbes Montalembert; Aurélien Courson, ''The monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard, Volume 4 (London: J.C. Nimmo, 1896), p. 172</ref> In 653 he went on a journey to [[Rome]] on a [[pilgrimage]]. He traveled with [[Wilfrid]], who later became Bishop of York. He returned home shortly after that.<ref name=Bed