Detail of St. Fursa being protected by angels from the assaults of devils from Morgan Library MS M.626, fol. 124r.

This episode we explore two glimpses of the afterlife presented by the Venerable Bede and consider how they relate to the modern conception of the near death experience.

Today’s Text

  • Bede. Ecclesiastical History. In The Complete Works of Venerable Bede. Edited and translated by J.A. Giles, vols. II & III, Whittaker and Co., 1843. Google Books.

References

  • Blasdel, Alex. “The New Science of Death: ‘There’s Something Happening in the Brain that Makes No Sense.'” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 April 2024, www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/02/new-science-of-death-brain-activity-consciousness-near-death-experience?CMP=share_btn_url
  • Cronin, Anthony. “The Historical Saint Fursey: The Achievements and Legacy of Haggardstown’s Patron Saint.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and History Society, vol. 27, no. 4, 2012, pp. 536-552. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23644252
  • Hamann, Stefanie. “St Fursa, the Genealogy of an Irish Saint — the Historical Person and His Cult.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, vol. 112c, 2012, pp. 147-187. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41714684
  • Rabin, Andrew. “Bede, Dryhthelm, and the Witness to the Other World: Testimony and Conversion in the Historia ecclesiastica.” Modern Philology, vol. 106, no. 3, Feb. 2009, pp. 375-398. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/605070.
  • White, Claire, Michael Kinsella, and Jesse Bering. “How to Know You’ve Survived Death: A Cognitive Account of the Popularity of Contemporary Post-mortem Survival Narratives.” Method and the Study of Religion, vol. 30, no. 3, 2018, pp. 279-299. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/26507489

Image: Detail of St. Fursa being protected by angels from the assaults of devils from Morgan Library MS M.626, fol. 124r.