Foundation

Benedict Biscop founded St Peter's monastery at Monkwearmouth in 674 on land given by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria.^[8] He sought to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Roman traditions in an area previously more influenced by Celtic Christianity stemming from missionaries of Melrose and Iona. A papal letter in 678 exempted the monastery from external control.

Monastery remains at Jarrow in front of St Paul's Church

In 682 the king was so pleased at the success of St Peter's that he gave Benedict land in Jarrow, where he urged him to build a second monastery^[9] This was established in 685 as St Paul's. Benedict appointed Ceolfrith as its superior, who took with him to Jarrow monks from Monkwearmouth, including the young Bede.

The two monasteries were some of the first stone buildings to be built in an English kingdom. England had no masons, so Benedict brought masons from Francia. Benedict wanted glass windows, which were also then unusual in England, so he brought glassmakers also from Francia.^[10] The glassmakers had a workshop at Monkwearmouth, on the River Wear near the monastery.^[11]

Benedict was well travelled in mainland Europe, and brought books and other materials from Rome^[10] and Lérins Abbey.^[12] He also persuaded John, arch-cantor of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, to come to teach plainsong at the abbey.^[10][13]

The double abbey is often referred to simply as "Jarrow", despite its two houses being 7 miles (11 km) apart. Benedict himself was the first abbot, and the monastery flourished under him and his successors Eosterwine, Ceolfrith, and others, for 200 years. Benedict, on leaving England for Rome in 686, established Ceolfrith as Abbot in Jarrow and Eosterwine at Monkwearmouth;^[14] but before his death he stipulated that the two sites should function as "one monastery in two places".

Ceolfrith

An illumination of Christ in Majesty, surrounded by the Four Evangelists, at the start of the New Testament in the Codex Amiatinus written at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow

As abbot, Ceolfrith continued Benedict's work of establishing the monastery as a centre of learning, scholarship, and especially book production. During this time a distinctive house style of half-uncial script emerged. When he died in AD 716, Monkwearmouth and Jarrow had between them 600 monks.^[15]

Ceolfrith's major project was to produce three great "pandect" Bibles (i.e. manuscripts containing the entire text of the Bible), intended to furnish the churches of St Peter's and St Paul's, with the third copy as a gift to the Pope. Of the two copies kept at the abbey, one has been entirely lost, and only fragments survive of the other. The copy meant for the Pope survives as the Codex Amiatinus in Florence and is the oldest surviving Vulgate Bible in the World. Ceolfrith himself was taking it to Rome when he died in 716. His companions continued to Rome and presented it to Pope Gregory II, who by return sent his thanks to Ceolfirth's successor, Abbot Hwaetberht.^[16]

Bede

A page of the Saint Petersburg Bede written at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. National Library of Russia, St Petersburg.

The library Benedict had created on his travels to Rome and then given to the monastery made it the cradle not only of English art but of English literature. Bede was educated under Ceolfrith's patronage and lived, wrote, and died as a monk at Jarrow. By his death Bede had established himself as England's leading scriptural and historical authority.^[17]

After his death Bede had a vital influence on the fortunes of the monastery. His writings, most importantly his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, became so popular in the 8th century that they not only assured the reputation of the houses, but influenced the development of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow's distinctive insular minuscule script, developed to increase the speed of book production.^[18]

Viking raids

In the 790s Vikings started to raid England. Their first target was Lindisfarne Priory in 793, followed by Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in 794. Danes destroyed the abbey about 860, and it seems to have been finally abandoned in the late 9th century.^[19]

Norman period

In the early 1070s Aldwin, prior of Winchcombe Abbey in Gloucestershire, was inspired by Bede's Historia to tour the sites of the Northumbrian Saxon saints, including Jarrow where he held masses in the Saxon ruins. He and 23 brothers from Evesham Abbey in Worcestershire began to build a new monastery, but its southern and western ranges were still incomplete when they were recalled to Durham Cathedral Priory in 1083.

According to English historian and antiquarian Robert Surtees, William of Malmesbury's statement that Wearmouth and Jarrow were raided by the Scottish king, Malcolm III, is doubtful due to discrepancies in time and place. Surtees pointed to the writings of Symeon of Durham, who was a near contemporary to Malcolm, noting that Symeon said nothing of such a raid and directly asserted that during the period from the Danish invasions to the revival of the monastery by Aldwin, “the site of the convent of Wearmouth lay waste and desolate two hundred and eight years.”^[20]

It has been said^[21] that "monks of Jarrow had copied out the Himriyan alphabet manuscript" from Hadramouth ( Huraidah region) in Yemen. This is the reflection of human connections in old time between East and West.

Refoundation

Both Monkwearmouth and Jarrow were re-established early in the 14th century, each as a cell of Durham Abbey, occupied by one or two monks under a magister or Master.^[14]

Dissolution and aftermath

Under King Henry VIII Parliament passed the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, and in 1536 Monkwearmouth and Jarrow were dissolved. In 1545 the Crown granted all the house and seite of the late cell of Monkwearmouth, valued at about £26 yearly, to Thomas Whitehead, a relative of Prior Hugh Whitehead of Durham, who resigned that monastery in 1540 and became the first Dean of Durham. Monkwearmouth passed afterwards to the Widdrington family, then to that of Fenwick.^[22]

The remains of the monastic buildings at Monkwearmouth were incorporated into a private mansion built in the reign of King James I. This burned down in 1790, and no trace of the monastery survives above ground. The parish registers, with the exception of some late entries, were destroyed in the fire.