WEARMOUTH, ABBEY OF

Former Benedictine monastery in Northumbria, England, on the Wear River. The abbey was founded in 674 by benedict biscop on land given by King Egfrid of Northumbria and was dedicated to the Apostle Peter. Eight years later, in 682, Benedict Biscop founded the sisterhouse of jarrow, on the Tyne River, some six or seven miles away, and dedicated it to the Apostle Paul. These two abbeys, always intimately associated with each other and usually ruled by the same abbot, were frequently thought of as constituting one double monastery. They rapidly became a center of learning and Christian culture for the early English Church. Benedict Biscop, the first abbot, and his successor ceolfrid compiled the basis of an impressive library through their collections of MSS in the course of their numerous Italian travels. This library, as well as the famous scriptorium, made possible Wearmouth's renowned monastic school, of which Venerable bede was both the most celebrated product and the most outstanding master. As a result of the scholarly work of this school and scriptorium, a group of Northumbrian MSS with obviously common features is extant; of these the Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate is the best-known example; it mentions Abbot Ceolfrid by name and comes probably from Wearmouth. The Codex Fuldensis of the New Testament seems to have been preserved for a time at Jarrow. After two centuries of brilliant contributions to Anglo-Saxon intellectual and cultural life, both abbeys were destroyed during the Danish invasions of 867–870. Although reconstructed by Aldwin of Winchcombe c. 1074, they never again attained their earlier importance; they became cells of durham, on which they remained dependent until their dissolution in 1539. Today a parish church occupies part of the site of Wearmouth at Sunderland, Durham, England.

Bibliography: bede, Historia abbatum in Opera historica, ed. c. plummer (2d ed. Oxford 1956) 364–387. w. dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London 1655–73); best ed. by j. caley, et al., 6 v. (1817–30) 1:501–504. j. raine, ed., The Inventories and Account Rolls of the Benedictine Houses or Cells of Jarrow and Monk-Wearmouth (Surtees Society 29; Durham 1854). f. m. stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (2d ed. Oxford 1947). d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953). d. knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 943–1216 (2d ed. Cambridge, England 1962) 168–171.

[j. brÜckmann]