Born in Northumbria in 628, he became a monk shortly, after a visit to Rome with St. Wilfrid. Benedict was his name in religion, which he received at the French abbey of Lerins, where he was professed. For a short time he was abbot of St. Augustine's monastery in Canterbury, but seeking to make his own foundation he returned North and was granted lands on which he founded the monastery of Wearmouth. Wearmouth was to become an extremely important centre of learning and the arts. Its liturgy was made famous by one of its 'imported' monks, the cantor of St. Peter's in Rome, and its exceptionally rich library was built up by Benedict himself. In 682 he founded the nearby abbey of Jarrow, on the Tyne, which was to be the home of the Venerable Bede. St. Bede's theological and historical achievements would have been impossible without recourse to Benedict's library. He died in 689, and was succeeded by Ceolfrith, whom he had made first abbot of Jarrow. The cult of St. Benedict Biscop only developed later, when his remains were taken to the Fenland abbey of Thorney in about 980.