Bede was born in 673 near Sunderland, and from the tender age of 7 began to receive a Benedictine education, firstly from St. Benet Biscop at Wearmouth Abbey and then at Jarrow on the Tyne, where he was to become a monk and remain for the rest of his life. His scholarly work depended on the fine libraries which St. Benet Biscop had assembled; Bede's output consists of commentaries on the Scriptures writings, on a whole host of subjects including mathematics, poetry and timekeeping, and his famous 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People', which is such an important source of our knowledge of the development of Christianity in early Britain. Bede never travelled but he had a very shrewd awareness of what was going on; in 735 he wrote a letter making suggestions to reform the Church in Northumbria, where not all was going well. St. Cuthbert has left an account of Bede's death, which took place just after he had dictated the last sentence of his translation of St. John's Gospel. His name became famous on the Continent principally through his History, a work which reveals Bede's qualities of modesty and humility. Unlike many historians, he did not seek to score points against those of whom he wrote. His sainthood was recognised 50 years after his death in 735; his body was later taken from Jarrow to Durham Cathedral, where it lies in the Galilee Chapel. In 1899 he was belatedly named a Doctor of the Church.