ON BLESSED BOSA, BISHOP OF THE DEIRANS, AT YORK IN ENGLAND,
YEAR 686.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Bosa, Bishop of the Deirans, at York in England (S.)
[1] York is a most illustrious city of England, adorned with an Archiepiscopal See, over which Bosa presided as the fourth bishop — also called Boza, Bossa, and Boso by others. That he had previously discharged the office of the altar as a priest in the monastery of Streneshalh under St. Hilda the Abbess Blessed Bosa, a priest under St. Hilda, is indicated by the Venerable Bede in Book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 23. Certainly, showing with what great perfection of life that monastery was governed by her, he reports the following: She taught there the observance of much justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but especially of peace and charity, so that, after the example of the primitive Church, there was no one rich and no one poor there, all things were common to all, and nothing seemed to be anyone's private possession. And she herself was of such great prudence that not only ordinary folk in their necessities, but sometimes even kings and princes would seek and find counsel from her. He devotes himself to Sacred Scripture and virtue: She caused her subjects to devote so much time to the reading of the divine Scriptures and so much to the exercise of the works of justice that very many could most easily be found there who seemed fit to undertake the ecclesiastical grade — that is, the office of the altar. Indeed, from that same monastery we afterwards saw five bishops, all men of singular merit and holiness, whose names are these: Bosa, Aethelheah, Oftfor, John, and Wilfrid. In the monastery of Streneshalh, Thus far Bede. Streneshalh was where Whitby now is, in the northern part of the Duchy of York, on the eastern shore of the German Ocean, near the bay of Dunum, where a monastery was founded in the year 658 by St. Hilda, after she had been in charge of the monastery of Heortheu for some years, greatly devoted to the instruction of the regular life — namely from the year 649. Heortheu, Or also in the Hertesey monastery? known to others as Hertesey, is now Hartlepool, on the same German Ocean in the diocese of Durham. Whether Bosa lived there with St. Hilda is uncertain. Of Oftfor, later Bishop of Worcester, who is placed in the middle among the five bishops listed above, Bede says that he devoted himself to the reading and observance of the Scriptures in both monasteries of Abbess Hilda. But what way of life or rule was prescribed for them, Bede also teaches in the same place. The handmaid of Christ Hilda, he says, being placed in charge of the government of the monastery, According to the Rule of St. Columba immediately took care to order everything there according to the regular life, as she was able to learn from learned men. For both Bishop Aidan (who had previously summoned her to himself and instructed her for one year on the northern bank of the River Wear) and whatever other religious men knew her, on account of her innate wisdom and love of divine service, used to visit her assiduously, love her earnestly, and instruct her diligently. Now St. Aidan and the other monks in the kingdom of the Northumbrians at that time lived according to the rule of St. Columba the Abbot; and afterwards St. Wilfrid, as some hold, brought the Rule of St. Benedict into those regions and imposed it upon the monasteries subject to him. But because St. Hilda and others at Streneshalh were less devoted to him, they seem to have persisted in the strict observance of their former Rule. St. Hilda died on November 17 in the year 680. But St. Aidan on August 31 of the year 651.
[2] Concerning the promotion of St. Bosa to the episcopal chair, Bede reports the following in Book 4, chapter 12: He becomes Bishop of the Deirans in the year 678 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 678, which is the eighth year of King Ecgfrith's reign, a disagreement having arisen between King Ecgfrith himself and the most reverend Bishop Wilfrid, the same bishop was expelled from the see of his bishopric, and two bishops were substituted in his place to preside over the Northumbrian people — namely Bosa, who should govern the province of the Deirans, and Eata, who should govern that of the Bernicians. The former, that is Bosa, Ordained together with St. Eata having his episcopal chair in the city of York, the latter in the Church of Hexham or Lindisfarne: both were taken from the company of monks into the dignity of the episcopate. With whom also Eadhed was ordained bishop in the province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrith had very recently acquired by defeating and routing Wulfhere in battle ... Now Eadhed, Bosa, and Eata were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore. Eata was, as Bede says in Book 3, chapter 26, one of twelve boys whom Aidan received for training in Christ from the English nation at the very beginning of his episcopate; Formerly Abbot of Melrose and in the year 651, when St. Aidan died, he was Abbot in the monastery called Melrose; and in the year 664 he was placed in charge of the brothers by abbatial right in the Church of Lindisfarne. In both places the monastic order flourished according to the institution of St. Aidan and the rule of St. Columba the Abbot. Both Bosa and Eata, therefore, were taken from the company of monks living according to this rule into the dignity of the episcopate. St. Eata is venerated on October 26.
[3] The same Bede, Book 5, chapter 21, reports that Acca succeeded St. Wilfrid in the bishopric of Hexham, who from boyhood was nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He therefore esteems highly the virtues of this Acca, because he shows that they were implanted by Bosa. It is worth describing them here, The teacher of St. Acca, Bishop of Hexham, in studies and piety so that in the disciple Acca we may recognize the master Bosa. For Acca was a most energetic man, magnificent before both God and men, who enlarged the building of his own church — which was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Apostle Andrew — with manifold ornament and marvelous works. For he took care (which he does even today) that, having acquired from all quarters the relics of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, he should erect altars in their veneration, with distinct porticoes built for this very purpose within the walls of the same church. But he also gathered with the greatest industry histories of their passions, together with the other ecclesiastical volumes, and made there a most ample and most noble library. He also most zealously prepared sacred vessels and lights and other things of this kind that pertain to the adornment of the house of God. He also summoned to himself an excellent singer named Maban, who had been taught the art of singing by the successors of the disciples of the Blessed Pope Gregory in Kent, to instruct himself and his people, and kept him for twelve years — so that he might both teach them those ecclesiastical songs they did not know, and restore by his instruction to their former state those which, once known, had begun to become obsolete through long use or negligence. For Bishop Acca himself was also a most skilled singer, just as he was most learned in the Holy Scriptures and most pure in the confession of the Catholic faith, and had been most diligent in the rules of ecclesiastical institution, and did not cease to remain so until he received the rewards of his pious devotion. For he was, as we mentioned above, from boyhood nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He was also aided by his association with St. Wilfrid, with whom he also traveled to Rome, and learned things useful for his Church. St. Acca is venerated on November 30.
whose catalogue there is no point in weaving here: He dies at a very advanced age: how long he prolonged his life, the silence of writers has left uncertain. That he reached an extreme age, Baronius infers from that Synod which, in the case of Agapius and Gebadius, was celebrated at Constantinople in the year 394, and is found in Theodore Balsamon, with Amphilochius of Iconium and Gregory of Nyssa sitting among many other bishops. Certainly, his already great age when he was ordained bishop — twenty-four years before this date — would be proved by the oration that bears, with our Fronto Ducaeus as translator, the title "On His Own Ordination," Whether he is the author of the oration on his own Ordination? if he could truly have said of himself at that time that he was one of those whose hair is white and whose strength is broken by age, whose speech is trembling and somewhat halting, and who should be permitted to amuse himself, like a retired athlete, by watching the contests of others. But just as in that entire oration there is absolutely no word that corresponds to that title, or at all suggests it is by the Nyssen — who was always, and especially then, flourishing in the praise of eloquence — so the very subject of the oration, which is entirely about the divinity of the Holy Spirit defended in some Synod that was closer to the time of the Council of Nicaea, raises in us a not slight suspicion that it belongs to some more ancient writer who, advanced in years, at the Synod of Alexandria celebrated in the year 362, declaimed after several others against Eunomius, Macedonius, and other Semi-Arians who had declared war on the Holy Spirit — calling him divine indeed, but not tolerating that he should be removed from the number of creatures.
ON BLESSED BOSA, BISHOP OF THE DEIRANS, AT YORK IN ENGLAND,
YEAR 686.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Bosa, Bishop of the Deirans, at York in England (S.)
[1] York is a most illustrious city of England, adorned with an Archiepiscopal See, over which Bosa presided as the fourth bishop — also called Boza, Bossa, and Boso by others. That he had previously discharged the office of the altar as a priest in the monastery of Streneshalh under St. Hilda the Abbess Blessed Bosa, a priest under St. Hilda, is indicated by the Venerable Bede in Book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 23. Certainly, showing with what great perfection of life that monastery was governed by her, he reports the following: She taught there the observance of much justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but especially of peace and charity, so that, after the example of the primitive Church, there was no one rich and no one poor there; all things were common to all, and nothing seemed to be anyone's private possession. And she herself was of such great prudence that not only ordinary folk in their necessities, but sometimes even kings and princes would seek and find counsel from her. He devotes himself to Sacred Scripture and virtue: She caused her subjects to devote so much time to the reading of the divine Scriptures, and so much to the exercise of the works of justice, that very many could most easily be found there who seemed fit to undertake the ecclesiastical grade — that is, the office of the altar. Indeed, from that same monastery we afterwards saw five bishops, and all of them men of singular merit and holiness, whose names are these: Bosa, Aethelheah, Oftfor, John, and Wilfrid. In the monastery of Streneshalh, Thus far Bede. Streneshalh was where Whitby now is, in the northern part of the Duchy of York, on the eastern shore of the German Ocean, near the bay of Dunum, where a monastery was founded in the year 658 by St. Hilda, after she had been in charge of the monastery of Heortheu for some years, greatly devoted to the instruction of the regular life — namely from the year 649. Heortheu, Or also in the Hertesey monastery? known to others as Hertesey, is now Hartlepool, on the same German Ocean in the diocese of Durham. Whether Bosa lived there with St. Hilda is uncertain. Of Oftfor, later Bishop of Worcester, who is placed in the middle among the five bishops listed above, Bede says that he devoted himself to the reading and observance of the Scriptures in both monasteries of Abbess Hilda. But what way of life or rule was prescribed for them, Bede also teaches in the same place: The handmaid of Christ Hilda, he says, being placed in charge of the government of the monastery, According to the Rule of St. Columba immediately took care to order everything there according to the regular life, as she was able to learn from learned men. For both Bishop Aidan (who had previously summoned her to himself and instructed her for one year on the northern bank of the River Wear) and whatever other religious men knew her, on account of her innate wisdom and love of divine service, used to visit her assiduously, love her earnestly, and instruct her diligently. Now St. Aidan and the other monks in the kingdom of the Northumbrians at that time lived according to the rule of St. Columba the Abbot; and afterwards St. Wilfrid, as some hold, brought the Rule of St. Benedict into those regions and imposed it upon the monasteries subject to him. But because St. Hilda and others at Streneshalh were less devoted to him, they seem to have persisted in the strict observance of their former Rule. St. Hilda died on November 17 in the year 680. But St. Aidan on August 31 of the year 651.
[3] The same Bede, Book 5, chapter 21, reports that Acca succeeded St. Wilfrid in the bishopric of Hexham, who from boyhood was nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He therefore esteems highly the virtues of this Acca, because he shows that they were implanted by Bosa. It is worth describing them here, The teacher of St. Acca, Bishop of Hexham, in studies and piety so that in the disciple Acca we may recognize the master Bosa. For Acca was a most energetic man, magnificent before both God and men, who enlarged the building of his own church — which was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Apostle Andrew — with manifold ornament and marvelous works. For he took care (which he does even today) that, having acquired from all quarters the relics of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, he should erect altars in their veneration, with distinct porticoes built for this very purpose within the walls of the same church. But he also gathered with the greatest industry histories of their passions, together with the other ecclesiastical volumes, and made there a most ample and most noble library. He also most zealously prepared sacred vessels and lights and other things of this kind that pertain to the adornment of the house of God. He also summoned to himself an excellent singer named Maban, who had been taught the art of singing by the successors of the disciples of the Blessed Pope Gregory in Kent, to instruct himself and his people, and kept him for twelve years — so that he might both teach them those ecclesiastical songs they did not know, and restore by his instruction to their former state those which, once known, had begun to become obsolete through long use or negligence. For Bishop Acca himself was also a most skilled singer, just as he was most learned in the Holy Scriptures and most pure in the confession of the Catholic faith; and he had been most diligent in the rules of ecclesiastical institution, and did not cease to remain so until he received the rewards of his pious devotion. For he was, as we mentioned above, from boyhood nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He was also aided by his association with St. Wilfrid, with whom he also traveled to Rome, and learned things useful for his Church. St. Acca is venerated on November 30.
[4] He died after St. Eata, Concerning the death of Blessed Bosa, Bede narrates only the following in Book 5, chapter 3: When the most reverend Wilfrid had been received back into the bishopric of the Church of Hexham after a long exile, the same John was substituted as Bishop of York in place of Bosa, a man of great holiness and humility, who had died. Now, as Bede had related in the preceding chapter, at the beginning of the reign of King Aldfrith, upon the death of Bishop Eata, the holy man John assumed the leadership of the Church of Hexham. Aldfrith succeeded his brother Ecgfrith, who was killed among the Picts on May 20 in the year 685; in which same year, as Richard, Prior of Hexham, reports concerning the bishops of this Church in chapter 10, upon the death of the venerable Eata, who was honorably buried in the Church of Hexham, St. John took up his bishopric, over which he presided for one year. And in chapter 11: Wilfrid received back his See and bishopric of the Church of Hexham. But the holy John, transferred from Hexham, took up the governance of the Church of York in place of the deceased Bosa, and governed it laudably for thirty-three years. Then ... he retired to his monastery, which is at Beverley, and there, living in a manner worthy of God in greater peace for three years, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 721, and the third year of Osric's reign, on the Nones of May, he rested in the Lord with a blessed end. Reckoning these years together, St. Bosa must be said to have migrated from this life to eternal life in the year 686. In the year 686,
[5] All the writers of England who touch upon those times in which he lived as bishop treat of the same Bosa; but they have either copied their material from Bede or they stray from the truth. I touch upon one error — namely, that in William of Malmesbury, Book 3 of the Deeds of the English Pontiffs, an error crept into the letter of Pope John to Ethelred, King of the Mercians, and Aldfrith, King of the Deirans and Bernicians, in the case of Bishop Wilfrid, The letter under the name of Pope John is spurious which is either very much interpolated or certainly fashioned as one from two separate letters. After St. Agatho, Popes Leo II, Benedict II, and then John V presided over the Church of Rome; to him Henry Spelman assigns this letter in the British Councils, page 179. He sat from July 22 of the year 685 until August 2 of the following year. Hence, around the middle of the letter, with the name of Berhtwald removed, one should read: Therefore we admonish Archbishop Theodore ... to convene a Synod together with Bishop Wilfrid, and to cause Bosa and John to attend the Synod, etc. These words, together with what follows, could have been written from information gathered during the eleven months over which John V presided, during which time both John and, at least for a considerable portion of that time, Bosa were living. The earlier part of the letter is either interpolated or pertains to John VI, who sat from October 29 of the year 701 until January 10 of the year 705 — because St. Wilfrid, having been expelled again from the See of Hexham, fled to that Pontiff in Rome, being chiefly concerned to retain the monasteries of Ripon and Hexham, which he had founded. Whether others prefer to attribute the earlier part to this pope, let them judge for themselves; indeed, even the whole letter, provided they allow that it is interpolated and that the name of Bosa was inserted, since William of Malmesbury asserts in these accounts of the deeds of St. Wilfrid that the Venerable Bede is a historian worthy, for the sobriety of his discourse, to be believed.
[6] Trithemius in Book 4 on the illustrious men of the Order of St. Benedict treats of Bosa in chapter 64, asserting that he was an assistant to Theodore in the English Council, together with the other archbishops, for the reform of that Church. Believed to be a Benedictine, He subscribed after Theodore to the donation of King Ecgfrith made to St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, which we explain in connection with his Acts on March 20. Arnold Wion in Book 2 of the Lignum Vitae, chapter 22, places St. Bosa as the fourth among six holy Archbishops of the Church of York.
[7] In what month or on what day he migrated from this life to a better one, we have not yet been able to discover among the ancient writers. Hence he has been inscribed in various Martyrologies on different days: Inscribed in the Martyrologies on January 13 first, in the manuscript Calendar of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, which exists in the monastery of the Holy Savior of the Cistercian Order — though not an ancient one — under January 13 is read: Saint Bosa, Archbishop and Metropolitan of York in England, formerly a monk of the monastery of Streneshalh. March 9 But on March 9, Jerome Porter treats of him in his Flowers of the Lives of the Principal Saints of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and John Wilson in both editions of the English Martyrology; also Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints, citing also the Records of the Church of York, by which are apparently meant the Catalogues of Bishops, whose authority is cited in the English Martyrology. Others refer him to March 10, And March 10. and Edward Maihew led the way in his Trophies of the English Congregation, who refused to believe the Worcester writer's assertion that he died in the year of Christ 686, and preferred to transfer his death to about the year 704, deceived by the letter mentioned above published under the name of Pope John by William of Malmesbury — to which he preferred to adhere rather than to the words of Bede and other ancient writers. Menard followed, who in his observations reports that he died around the year 705. Bucelin also celebrates him on the same day with his own encomium, and more prudently adds that he flourished under the year of Christ 678, when he was created Archbishop.
[8] So far the various Martyrologies, but of more recent authors, whom I see to have been led chiefly by the authority of the Venerable Bede, who called him most holy and beloved of God, Why we call him only Blessed. then a man of great holiness and humility, and indeed numbers him among the five bishops who lived with St. Hilda as men of singular merit and great holiness. Among these are Aethelheah or Aecca, who became Bishop of Dunwich in Suffolk, and Oftfor of Worcester, whom we do not yet know to have been inscribed in any calendars as Saints. Thomas Stubbs, known to others as Stobaeus, of the Order of Friars Preachers, who about three hundred years ago wrote a Chronicle of the Acts of the Pontiffs of York, and from among them calls Saints Paulinus, Chad, the elder Wilfrid, John of Beverley, the younger Wilfrid, Oswald, and William who died under King Stephen — and while treating of the Translation of his body under William Wykwane, calls him too a Saint, unless it is an error of the copyists. Meanwhile, when he treats of Archbishop Bosa, he abstains from that title, as Brompton, Diceto, and others do. We have therefore preferred also to honor him only with the appellation of Blessed, since we believe that no Ecclesiastical Office was recited for him.