Thus much concerning the ecclesiastical history of Britain, and especially of the race of the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from the traditions of the elders, or from my own knowledge. I was born in the territory of the said monastery, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [St. Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated. From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St. John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation.

The Venerable Bede was the Dark Ages Man For all Seasons...a renaissance man for the Dark Age.  He was a mathematician, a doctor, a poet, a monk, and best known and most valuable to we who study history...the historian of his time. 

The Age of Bede

• Bede (673-735): Ecclesiastical History of England: Book I
• Bede (673-735): Ecclesiastical History of England: Book II
• Bede (673-735): Ecclesiastical History of England: Book IV
• Bede (673-735): The Explanation of the Apocalypse
• Willibald: The Life of St. Boniface
• The Correspondence of St. Boniface

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1n.html#Anglo-Saxon%20Britain 

Bede became the "Venerable Bede" after his lifetime.  As the story goes a "dunce-monk" while writing the epithet for Bede's tomb could not finish having no words to describe the beloved monk.  In the morning, the "dunce-monk" awoke, and returning to his work saw that it was finished with describing the monk as "venerable".  The completion of the work was attributed to angels who had come during the night.

   A hymn of glory let us sing;
   New songs throughout the world shall ring:
   Christ, by a road before untrod,
   Now rises to the throne of God.

   The holy apostolic band
   Upon the Mount of Olives stand;
   And with his followers they see
   Their Lord's ascending majesty.

   To them the angels drawing nigh,
   "Why stand and gaze upon the sky?
   This is the Savior," thus they say;
   "This is his glorious triumph day.

   "Again shall ye behold him so
   As ye today have seen him go,
   In glorious pomp ascending high,
   Up to the portals of the sky."

   O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
   All praise to thee let earth accord,
   Who art, while endless ages run,
   With Father and with Spirit one.

Hymn written by Bede for the Ascension.  Suggested tune is called "Agincourt" or "Deo Gratias" ...it is heard at the end of the film "Henry V" the Lawrence Olivier version.

http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/05/25.html