Henry David Hurst (July 7, 1916 – June 6, 2003), known also as Dom David Hurst OSB and to his colleagues and students as Father David, was a classicist and historian best recognized for his scholarship on

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

. He spent the greater part of his career as a teacher of Greek and Latin at the

Portsmouth Abbey School Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational Benedictine boarding and day school for students in grades 9 to 12. Founded in 1926 by the English Benedictine community, the School is located on a 525-acre campus along Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. ...

, a

prep school Preparatory school or prep school may refer to: Schools *Preparatory school (United Kingdom), an independent school preparing children aged 8–13 for entry into fee-charging independent schools, usually public schools *College-preparatory school, ...

in Rhode Island with an attached monastery. Hurst was born in Bardstown, Kentucky. He attended

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

in Washington, D.C., obtaining a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree there in 1943. Hurst took vows as a Benedictine monk of Portsmouth Priory on June 30, 1942, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1946. In

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to study the works of Bede in European monasteries. From 1969 to 1975 he taught at the Catholic Seminary Foundation in Indianapolis, Indiana. He returned to teach at Portsmouth Abbey after that, but a heart attack in 1977 caused him to retire. Despite his obligations as a secondary school classics teacher and as an active member of his monastic community, he became well known for his critical editions and translations of Bede's writings. He also published scholarly work on Gregory the Great. He died on June 6, 2003, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Bibliography

''Bedae Venerabilis Opera'', multiple volumes; editors David Hurst, Charles Williams Jones, J. E. Hudson, Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner (Turnholti, Belgium: Brepols, 1955-1960)

''The commentary on the seven Catholic Epistles of Bede the Venerable''; translated by David Hurst (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1985)

''Forty Gospel Homilies: Gregory the Great''; translated from the Latin by Dom David Hurst (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1990)

''Homilies on the Gospels: Bede the Venerable''; translated by Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst, preface by Benedicta Ward, introduction by Lawrence T. Martin (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1991)

''Excerpts from the works of Saint Augustine on the letters of the Blessed Apostle Paul: Bede the Venerable''; translated by David Hurst (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1999)

External links

Obituary of Dom David Hurst OSB

Portsmouth Abbey Monastery archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurst, Henry David 1916 births 2003 deaths People from Bardstown, Kentucky Catholic University of America alumni Benedictine monks American educators 20th-century American educators 21st-century American educators American Benedictines Roman Catholic religious educators