Wearmouth Abbey is an Benedictine abbey located on the River Wear in Durham, England. Its formal name is The Abbey Church of Saint Peter, Wearmouth.

Overview

Wearmouth Abbey was founded in 674 by St. Benedict Biscop on land given by Egfrid, King of Northumbria. Benedict dedicated it to St. Peter and ten years later founded the sister house of Jarrow Priory, on the River Tyne, in honour of St. Paul. These two monasteries were so closely connected in their early history that they are often spoken of as one, but they were really six to seven miles apart.

The founder brought workmen from France to build his church at Wearmouth in the Roman fashion, and furnished it with glass windows that were unknown to England at the time, pictures, and service books. The abbey was thus the cradle not only of English art but of English literature, and the Venerable Bede received his early education there. Benedict himself was the first abbot, and the monastery flourished under him and his successors Easterwin, St. Ceolfrid, and others, for two hundred years.

It suffered greatly from the Danes about 860, and again, after the Conquest, at the hands of Malcolm I of Scotland. Jarrow was destroyed about the same time, but both monasteries were restored, though not to their former independence. They became cells subordinate to the great Durham Cathedral Priory, and were thereafter occupied by only a very small number of monks. The names of only two of the superiors (known as magistri) have been preserved-those of Alexander Larnesley and John Norton.

In 1545 "all the house and seite of the late cell of Wearmouth", valued at about £26 yearly, were granted by Henry VIII to Thomas Whitehead, a relative of Prior Whitehead of Durham, who resigned that monastery in 1540 and became the first Protestant dean. Wearmouth passed afterwards to the Widdrington family, then to that of Fenwick. The remains of the monastic buildings were incorporated in a private mansion built in James I's reign; but this was burned down in 1790, and no trace is now visible of the monastery associated with the venerable names of Benedict Biscop, Ceolfrid, and Bede.

The present parish church occupies the site of the ancient priory church. The tower dates from Norman times, and doubtless formed part of the building as restored after the Conquest.

Wearmouth-Jarrow was a double monastery sited at the mouth of the River Wear in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The monastery was founded in 674, with the establishment of the monastery of St Peter's, Monkwearmouth, and expanded in 681 with the establishment of St Paul's, Jarrow, with both houses falling under the authority of their founder, Benedict Biscop. Benedict, on leaving England for Rome in 686 establised Ceolfrith as Abbot in Jarrow, and Eosterwine at St Paul's.

Ceolfrith as abbot continued Benedict's work in establishing the monastery as a centre of learning, scholarship, and especially book production, during which time a distinctive house style of half-uncial script emerged. Ceolfrith's major project was the production of three great pandect Bibles, intended to furnish the churches of St Peter's and St Paul's, with the third copy earmarked as a gift to the Pope. The only survivor of the three bibles is the Codex Amiatinus, now in Florence, the oldest complete surviving Bible in the world, which was being carried to Rome by Ceolfrith himslef when he died in 716. The Bible was carried to Rome by his companions, whence Pope Gregory II sent his thanks to Ceolfirth's successor, Abbot Hwaetberht.

Ceolfrith has been equally famous as the patron of Wearmouth-Jarrow's most famous resident, St Bede the Venerable, who by his death had established himself as England's leading scriptural and historical authority, and was to have a vital post-mortem influence on the fortunes of the monastery. Bede's writings, most importantly his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum would become so popular in the 8th century that they not only assured the reputation of the houses, but influenced the development of Wearmouth-Jarrow's distinctive insular minuscule script, developed to increase the speed of book production.

The golden age of Wearmouth-Jarrow began to draw to a close in the late 8th century, as Northumbrian monasteries became vulnerable to Viking raids, with Wearmouth-Jarrow itself being attacked in 794. The monastery seems to have been finally abandoned in the late 9th century, and is currently a candidate for the status of a World Heritage Site.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.