5/25/2015 – Memorial Day and the Venerable Bede

      It is a very rainy day here in Tupelo.  I have had much of a break lately, so I was looking forward to going on a hike on the Tanglefoot Trail.  However, the rain put a stop to those plans, so instead I am taking care of some errands and work around the rectory that I need to do.  We celebrate Memorial Day today.  We have a lot of veterans in our parish.  I think of their service and their sacrifices.  The city of Columbus is located a little more than an hour from Tupelo.  Friendship cemetery in Columbus is a place where many prominent Mississippians are buried, as well as many Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War. According to local historians, it is here that Memorial Day got its start when the young women of the town decorated the graves of fallen soldiers on both sides of that great conflict.

         Besides Memorial Day today, we celebrate the feast day of the Venerable Bede today on May 25.  I have always loved his name – the Venerable Bede, rather than St Bede, attributing to how he is loved and venerated in our Church. A Benedictine monk and priest, he lived in the 7^th and 8^th century.  A skilled linguist and translator, his translations make the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers accessible to the Anglo Saxons.  Yet, he is most known for being the Father of English History.  In fact, I remember reading his book The Ecclesiastical History of the English People in my Western Civilization history course in college.  I found it interesting that the term “the Venerable Bede” that has been named comes from the inscription on his tomb in Durham England.  The Latin words say:  “HIC SUNT IN FOSSA BEDAE VENERABILIS OSSA.”  In English, it says: “Here are buried the bones of the Venerable Bede.”  What I love about our Catholic faith is the history and the continuity that ties us together.  I love that we honor an English historian from so many centuries ago, remembering his contributions to our faith and to our Church.