Born Biscop Baducing c. 628, he served King Oswui of Northumbria as a warrior until 653 when he accompanied St Wilfrid on a pilgrimage to Rome. After their return to Britain, Baducing travelled again to Rome with Alcfrith, the son of Oswui, and in 666, Biscop was tonsured at St Honorat at Lérins, where he took the monastic name of Benedict. He made a third trip to Rome and returned in 669 with Theodore of Tarsus, who had recently been appointed archbishop of Canterbury. Theodore appointed Benedict abbot of Sts Peter and Paul monastery in Canterbury (now St Augustine’s). On a fourth trip to Rome in 679, he assured Pope Agatho of the orthodoxy of the English church, and he returned with books and pictures that created cultural ties between Britain and the Continent. John, the abbot of St Martin’s in Rome, came to Britain with Biscop to teach the monks Roman rubrics and script. Benedict’s last trip to Rome (685) resulted in many additions to the libraries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, which Biscop had founded in 682. Benedict died c. 689/90, and his relics were translated c. 980 from Wearmouth to Thorney. Glastonbury also claims his relics.
