Bede Jarrett OP (22 August 1881 - 17 March 1934) was an English Dominican friar and Catholic priest who was also a noted historian and author. Known for works including Mediaeval Socialism and The Emperor Charles IV, Jarrett also founded Blackfriars Priory at the University of Oxford in 1921, formally reinstating the Dominican Order at that university for the first time since the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.

Born in Greenwich as Cyril Jarrett, he was the fifth of six sons to parents Colonel H.S. Jarrett, Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE), and Agnes (Beaufort) Jarrett. Beginning in 1891, Jarrett studied at Stonyhurst, and in August 1898 he joined the Order of Preachers (OP), also known as the Dominican Order, at St Dominic’s Priory in London. Jarrett continued to study at the novitiate in Woodchester and became a novice on 24 September 1898 under the new name of Friar Bede. His religious name was for Bede, known as the Venerable Bede , an early British Catholic saint sometimes called the Father of English History. On 30 August 1900, Jarrett moved to continue his studies of philosophy, theology and history at Hawkesyard Priory and received minor orders and the subdiaconate, and diaconate in 1902.

Jarrett authored numerous books, prayers and articles, including five entries in the Catholic Encyclopedia. He also purchased Blackfriars, a Dominican magazine renamed New Blackfriars in the 1960s, for GBP40 in 1919 and persuaded publisher Basil Blackwell to publish it, which prevented it from being discontinued.

Jarrett died of sudden illness on 17 March 1934. He is buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Woodchester. (wikipedia.org)