Since Bede's Martyrologium is related to several of his other works, particularly the KALENDARIUM AD USUM COMPUTANDI, which he used to teach computus (see EDUCATIONAL WORKS), but also his HISTORIES and his SAINTS’ LIVES, it is treated here in its own section.

According to Jacques Dubois (1978 p 13), the word “martyrologium” was first used in the Latin West by Bede in HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM V.xxiv (ed. Lapidge 2010 2.484) when he applied it to his own work. It was, however, a term that he would have both heard and spoken throughout his life, especially if the text that influenced his own work, the MARTYROLOGIUM HIERONYMIANUM, was indeed brought to Monkwearmouth in 679 by John the Arch-Chanter, as both Padraig O Riain (1993 p 1 and 2002 pp 338-39) and Michael Lapidge (2005b p 45) have argued. Bede would have been six or seven at this time, and might well have also just arrived, if in humbler fashion, at the monastery. Even if not instructed directly by this new teacher, he would have been influenced by the changes to the liturgy that John would have introduced. It also seems likely that the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, a document that combined the local celebrations of saints throughout the Christian world and so a source of geographical and historical information, would have fascinated the young Bede. His own interest in local saints, although not martyrs, is recorded, for example, in his metrical VITA CUTHBERTI and his hymn to Athelthryth, ALMA DEUS TRINITAS QUAE SAECULA CUNCTA GUBERNAS. Yet Bede's thoughts moved well beyond Northumbria as he sought to understand God's plan as it unfolded throughout the world and time. Like the opening of Genesis and the Acts of the Apostles, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum would have been a primary source for plotting the spread of the faith. Unlike Genesis or Acts, however, it had, as a historical document, a serious defect: as a list of places and names associated with particular days of the year, it lacked the narrative details necessary to keep the accounts of the separate martyrdoms distinct. Bede solved this problem by creating a new kind of work, the historical martyrology, providing identifying material for each saint he included.