Досточтимый Беда — ритор, агиограф, проповедник

St.Bedé's knowledge of the ancient rhetorics enabled him to give a Christian meaning to it. His treatise «De schematibus and tropis» is based on the ideas of St.Dionisius Areopagite. Rhetorical figures and tropes, mentioned in this treatise, were used by St.Bede in all his works in question.

Two of St.Bedé's hagiographical works have come to our days. The composition of both Lives is based on the classical scheme of the laudatory speech. It can be easely noticed in the first Life («The Life of St.Felix»), while the structure of the second Life («The Life of St.Cuthbert») is much more elaborate.

«The Life of the five abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow» is St.Bedé's minor historical work. St.Bede depicts his protagonists — the first five abbots of his monastery — according to the above mentioned scheme of the laudatory speech.

The difference between the hagiographical and the historical works lies in the attitude to Time and Space. In the former ones Time and Space are most often indeterminate, because even the daily life of a saint belongs to Eternity. In the latter Time and Space are written down as precisely as it is possible for a medieval writer, because the main feature of a medieval historical work is trustworthiness.

St.Bedé's homilies belong to the same tradition as those of Origene and St.Gregory the Great. The analysis of the homily structure showed that St.Bede was acquainted with the laws of logic. Besides homily, St.Bede knew also exemplum and, probably, sermon as separate forms of one and the same genre.

St.Bedé's texts were created at the period of time, when two Christian traditions — the Celtic and the Roman ones — existed in Early England. St.Bedé's works reflect their synthesis in the Anglo-Saxon culture.

St.Bedé's works are especially interesting in the light of merging the Christian traditions mentioned above, because his saints» Lives, homilies, historical and rhetorical treatises influenced not only the beginnings of the literature in the vernacular on the British Isles, but also played an important role in the formation of European Literatures.