Hwaetberht (died 740s) was

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory, where he had served as a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

. He was elected to succeed Abbot

Ceolfrith Saint Ceolfrid (or Ceolfrith, ; c. 642 – 716) was an Anglo-Saxon Christian abbot and saint. He is best known as the warden of Bede from the age of seven until his death in 716. He was the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, and a major co ...

in 716 or 717 when Ceolfrith set off on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

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 ...

reports that Hwaetberht had himself made a pilgrimage to Rome, "and had stayed there a good long while, learning, copying down and bringing back with him all that he thought necessary for his studies" during the papacy of Sergius I (687–701). Bede's ''

De temporum ratione ''The Reckoning of Time'' ( la, De temporum ratione) is an Anglo-Saxon era treatise written in Medieval Latin by the Northumbrian monk Bede in 725. The treatise includes an introduction to the traditional ancient and medieval view of the cosm ...

'' is dedicated to Hwaetberht, so Bede appears to have regarded him highly. A letter from

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...

to Hwaetberht dated to circa 747 has survived in the

Boniface Correspondence Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

, placing Hwaetberht's death after that date. In the letter (Tangl 76), Boniface asks Hwaetberth to send him "the treatises of the monk Bede, that profound student of the Scriptures"; he also asks him to send him a cloak: "it would be of great comfort to me in my journeys". In return, he sent Hwaetberht a "coverlet" made of goat hair. It was during Hwaetberht's time that the remains of Abbots

Sigfrith Sigfrith (also Sigfrid) (died 689) was abbot of Monkwearmouth Priory in north-east England. Sigfrith was a deacon at the time he was chosen "by Ceolfrid bbot of the twin abbey at Jarrowand the monks" (Bede, Lives of the abbots, 10 - 13). Bed ...

and

Eosterwine Eosterwine (or Easterwine) (650 – 7 March 686) was the second Anglo-Saxon Abbot of Wearmouth in Northumbria (England). Descended from the noblest stock of Northumbria, as a young man he led the life of a soldier in the army of King Egfrid, ...

were reburied alongside those of

Benedict Biscop Benedict Biscop (pronounced "bishop"; – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory (where he also founded the famous library) and was considered a saint after his death. Lif ...

next to the main altar at Monkwearmouth. In the preface to the fourth book of his commentary on I Samuel (''In primam partem Samuhelis''), Bede associates Hwaetberht with the Latinate name Eusebius, which seems therefore to have been an alternative name taken by Hwaetberht (citing Bede, ''De natura rerum'', ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 119 (Turnhout 1962) 212.). For this reason, it has been inferred that Hwaetberht was the author of a collection of sixty Latin riddles known as the '' Enigmata Eusebii''. These were written as a supplement to forty riddles written earlier by

Tatwine Tatwine ( – 30 July 734) was the tenth Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he compos ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

.Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin ''Enigmata'' and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1-40 of the ''Exeter Book'', ''Viator'', 43 (2012), 339–374 (p. 340 n. 3). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.

References

* Bede, ''Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow'' in Webb and Farmer (eds & trs), ''The Age of Bede.'' London: Penguin, 1998. * Lapidge, M., "Hwaetberht", in M. Lapidge et al., ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England.'' Blackwell, 1999. * Bede, Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow

External links

* {{authority control Anglo-Saxon writers Abbots of Jarrow 740s deaths Burials at Glastonbury Abbey Year of birth unknown 7th-century English writers 8th-century English writers 8th-century Latin writers