John of Beverley, St.
JOHN OF BEVERLEY, ST.
Anglo-Saxon bishop of Hexham and York; b. Harpham, Humberside; d. Beverley, England, May 7, 721. He was of noble birth and was a disciple of hilda at whitby and later of Abp. theodore of canterbury. Consecrated bishop of Hexham in 687, he ordained bede deacon in 692 and priest in 703. In 705 he was translated to york as successor to wilfrid of york. John resigned this see in 720, consecrating Wilfrid the younger as his successor. He retired to the monastery he had founded in Beverley and died shortly afterward. His cult became very popular in the north of England, and his shrine at Beverley was a place of pilgrimage and sanctuary all through the Middle Ages. Bede, the main source for his life, tells a number of delightful stories of the miracles he performed. His relics are still at Beverley Minster.
Feast: May 7; Oct. 25 (translation).
Bibliography: w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 10:872–873. bede, Ecclesiastical History 4.23; 5.2, 3, 24. folcardo, The Historians of the Church of York and Its Archbishops, ed. j. raine (Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 71; 1879) 239–260.
[b. colgrave]