Discover how the Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk, shaped the history of early medieval England through his Ecclesiastical History and lasting influence.

Eleanor Parker

Sunset over Carlisle, 1852

Samuel Bough (1822–1878)

Oil on Canvas

Like the Swift Flight Of a Single Sparrow

“It seems to me that the life of man on earth is like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting hall where you are sitting at dinner on a winter’s day with your captains and counsellors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall. Outside, the storms of winter rain and snow are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one window of the hall and out through another. While he is inside, the bird is safe from the winter storms, but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. So man appears on earth for a little while – but of what went before this life, or what follows, we know nothing.”

 [- - Venerable Bede’s History of the English People]