ON S. BRITHUNUS OR BERETHUNUS,
ABBOT OF BEVERLEY IN ENGLAND.
A.D. 733.
CommentaryBrythunus, or Berethunus, Abbot of Beverley, in England (S.)
BHL Number: 1465
G. H.
The monastery of Beverley in the Eastern part of the Duchy of York S. John Archbishop of York constructed, thence called of Beverley, as more at length on his Life on May VII it was said. The first Abbot there constituted was S. Brithunus, of whom still living S. Bede in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation, chapter 2, gave this testimony. Of John more miracles of virtues, Deacon of S. John of Beverley, those who knew him are wont to tell, and especially the most reverend and most truthful Berethun, formerly his Deacon, but now Abbot of the monastery, which is called Inderawood, that is the Wood of the Deirans; in which namely the monastery itself of Beverley is situated. The Life of S. John we gave, written by Folcard a monk of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Canterbury in the XI century, in which it is said that S. John, the Pontificate of York being left, with whom he buries him: by the counsel of S. Brithunus his Abbot, sought Beverley, and there long persisting in the service of God, on the Nones of May happily ended his life, and so ascending to the heavenly kingdoms, was buried in the porch of S. John the Evangelist in his monastery, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord seven hundred twenty-one. And this is the second testimony, in which with the title of Saint Brithunus is honored. The third is suggested by John of Tynemouth in Capgrave in the Legend of the Saints of England, in which an illustrious compendium of his life is had under this title, On S. Brithunus the Abbot and Confessor.
[2] The venerable Confessor of Christ Brithunus, deriving his origin from the progeny of the Angles, long remained Deacon of S. John Bishop of Beverley: Abbot famous for virtues, whom for the sanctity of his life and laudable conversation of morals he held before the rest more familiar and ever dear, and in the monastery of Deirwood, that is of the wood of the Deirans (which now is called Beverley, from the same
S. John constructed from the foundations) constituted him Abbot. For S. John, weighed down by old age, the Bishopric being dismissed, in his aforesaid monastery, by the counsel of the venerable Abbot Brithunus, living for four years in an Angelic conversation, ended his life. He being translated to the heavens, the venerable Abbot Brithunus at all the time of his life, as a good foster-son, made an imitator of his Master, in all purity of life, vigils, fasts, prayers, and the other good works persevered even to the end of his life. For he was a lover of virtues, a persecutor of vices, a despiser of this world, a desirer of the heavenly kingdom, a faithful guardian and instructor of the flock committed to him: an untiring executor of justice and piety, given to the bestowal of alms and to hospitality: and in those things in which he knew to please God, he took care diligently to minister and give his labor. And when in all good works even to a decrepit age serving God, he had completed his most holy life with a laudable end; on the Ides of May the world being left he ascended to the heavenly things, and in his monastery with great honor received burial. dead May 15, he works miracles: But in the process of time, his merits growing clear and by frequent signs of miracles, with the consent of the Clergy and people his holy body was translated from the earth: whose Relics beside the bier of his Master and instructor, S. John the Bishop, at his own altar in the church of Beverley divided into two biers are laid up.
[3] Thus far the compendium of the Life: from which also his birthday is known to be May XV, inscribed in the sacred calendars, on which day with an illustrious eulogy from these Acts his feast is indicated by Richard Whitford, in a Martyrology printed in English at London about the year 1526. On the same day he is referred by Edward Maihew, in the English Trophies of the Benedictine Order: likewise by Hugh Menard and Gabriel Bucelin in their Benedictine calendars, Wilson in the Martyrology of the English of the second, and Michael Alford in the Annals of the English Church at the year 721 number 8. In the first volume of the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 170, these things are handed down: Brithunus the first Abbot of Beverley died on the Ides of May, in the year of the Lord 733, and was buried beside S. John. And in the 2nd column, In the year of the Lord 1088, the church of S. John was burned, on the following night after the feast of Matthew the Apostle. he is translated in the year 1088. There were translated at the same time the bones of S. Brithunus, Abbot of Beverley. Some works of mercy performed by S. Brithunus to Druchwald the Presbyter, are narrated in the Life of S. John number 18, which there can be read.