Chad of Mercia

Bishop of York
Stained glass depiction from Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York
Appointed	664
Term ended	669
Predecessor	Paulinus
Successor	Wilfrid
Orders
Consecration	664
Personal details
Born	c. 634 Northumbria
Died	2 March 672 Lichfield, Staffordshire
Buried	Lichfield Cathedral
Sainthood
Feast day	2 March
Venerated in	Catholic Church Anglican Communion Eastern Orthodox Church
Attributes	Bishop, holding a triple-spired cathedral (Lichfield)
Patronage	Mercia; Lichfield
Shrines	Lichfield Cathedral, now destroyed. Modern shrine on site. Part of Saxon shrine was discovered in 2006. St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham , where bones attributed to Chad were installed in 1841.

Chad

. He was later canonised as a saint.

He was the brother of

Mercian kingdom

.

Sources

Most of what is known of Chad comes from the writings of

i.e. Chad. In other words, Bede considered himself to stand in the spiritual lineage of Chad and had gathered information from at least one who knew him personally.

Early life and education

Family links

Chad was one of four brothers, all active in the

princes and nobles of the period and signifies "battle".

Education

The only major fact that Bede gives about Chad's early life is that he was a student of Aidan at the Celtic monastery at Lindisfarne.^[7] In fact, Bede attributes the general pattern of Chad's ministry to the example of Aidan and his own brother, Cedd, who was also a student of St Aidan.

Aidan was a disciple of Columba and was invited by King Oswald of Northumbria to come from Iona to establish a monastery. Aidan arrived in Northumbria in 635 and died in 651. Chad must have studied at Lindisfarne some time between these years.

Travels in Ireland and dating of Chad's life

A number of ecclesiastical settlements were established in 7th century Ireland to accommodate European monks, particularly Anglo-Saxon monks. Around 668, Bishop Colman resigned his see at Lindisfarne and returned to Ireland. Less than three years later he erected an abbey in County Mayo exclusively for the English monks in the village of Mayo, subsequently known as Maigh Eo na Saxain ("Mayo of the Saxons").^[8]

Chad traveled to Ireland as a monk,^[3] before he was ordained a priest. One of his companions was Egbert of Ripon. Egbert was of the Anglian nobility, probably from Northumbria. Bede places them among an influx of English scholars who arrived in Ireland while Finan and Colmán were bishops at Lindisfarne. This suggests that they left for Ireland some time after Aidan's death in 651. They went to Rath Melsigi, an Anglo-Saxon monastery in County Carlow, for further study. In the controversy over the keeping of Easter, Rath Melsigi accepted the Roman computation.

In 664 the twenty-five year old Egbert barely survived a plague that had killed all his other companions.^[9] Chad had by then already left Ireland to help his brother Cedd establish the monastery of Laestingaeu in Yorkshire.

The

. Egbert recalled later that he and Chad "followed the monastic life together very strictly – in prayers and continence, and in meditation on Holy Scripture". Some of the scholars quickly settled in Irish monasteries, while others wandered from one master to another in search of knowledge. Bede says that the Irish monks gladly taught them and fed them, and even let them use their valuable books, without charge. Since books were all produced by hand, with painstaking attention to detail, this was astonishingly generous.

Founding of Lastingham

King

. Caelin introduced Ethelwold to Cedd. The monastery became a base for Cedd, who was serving as a missionary bishop in Essex.

Bede says that Cedd "fasted strictly in order to cleanse it from the filth of wickedness previously committed there". On the thirtieth day of his forty-day fast, he was called away on urgent business. Cynibil, another of his brothers, took over the fast for the remaining ten days. The incident indicates the brothers ties with Northumbria's ruling dynasty. Laestingaeu was clearly conceived as a base for the family and destined to be under their control for the foreseeable future – not an unusual arrangement in this period.^[11] Cedd was stricken by the plague, and upon his death in 664, Chad succeeded him as abbot.^[12]

Abbot of Lastingham

Chad's first appearance as an ecclesiastical prelate occurs in 664, shortly after the Synod of Whitby, when many Church leaders had been wiped out by the plague – among them Cedd, who died that year at Lastingham. On the death of his elder brother, Chad succeeded to the position of abbot.^[4]

Bede tells us of a man called Owin (Owen), who appeared at the door of Lastingham. Owin was a household official of Æthelthryth, an East Anglian princess who had come to marry Ecgfrith, Oswiu's younger son. He decided to renounce the world, and as a sign of this appeared at Lastingham in ragged clothes and carrying an axe. He had come primarily to work manually. He became one of Chad's closest associates.

Chad's eschatological consciousness and its effect on others is brought to life in a reminiscence attributed to Trumbert,^[3] who was one of his students at Lastingham. Chad used to break off reading whenever a gale sprang up and call on God to have pity on humanity. If the storm intensified, he would shut his book altogether and prostrate himself in prayer. During prolonged storms or thunderstorms he would go into the church itself to pray and sing psalms until calm returned. His monks obviously regarded this as an extreme reaction even to English weather and asked him to explain. Chad explained that storms are sent by God to remind humans of the day of judgement and to humble their pride. The typically Celtic Christian involvement with nature was not like the modern romantic preoccupation but a determination to read in it the mind of God, particularly in relation to the last things.^[13]

Rise of a dynasty

It is possible that he had only recently returned from Ireland when prominence was thrust upon him. However, the growing importance of his family within the Northumbrian state is clear from Bede's account of Cedd's career of the founding of their monastery at Lastingham in North Yorkshire.^[4] This concentration of ecclesiastical power and influence within the network of a noble family was probably common in Anglo-Saxon England: an obvious parallel would be the children of King Merewalh in Mercia in the following generation.

, being ordained bishop shortly afterwards. Cedd's position as both a Christian missionary and a royal emissary compelled him to travel often between Essex and Northumbria.

Bishop of the Northumbrians

Need for a bishop

Bede gives great prominence to the

briefly, but in some respects puzzlingly.

Mission of Wilfrid

The first choice to replace Tuda was

to seek ordination. This was on the initiative of Alfrid, sub-king of Deira, although presumably Oswiu knew and approved this action at the time. Bede tells us that Alfrid sought a bishop for himself and his own people. This probably means the people of Deira. According to Bede, Tuda had been succeeded as abbot of Lindisfarne by Eata, who had been elevated to the rank of bishop.

Wilfrid met with his own teacher and patron, Agilbert, a spokesman for the Roman side at Whitby, who had been made bishop of Paris. Agilbert set in motion the process of ordaining Wilfrid canonically, summoning several bishops to Compiègne for the ceremony. Bede tells us that he then lingered abroad for some time after his ordination.

Elevation

Bede implies that Oswiu decided to take further action because Wilfrid was away for longer than expected. It is unclear whether Oswiu changed his mind about Wilfrid, or whether he despaired of his return, or whether he never really intended him to become bishop but used this opportunity to get him out of the country.

Chad was invited then to become bishop of the Northumbrians by King Oswiu. Chad is often listed as a

to Deira, so it is not clear whether Bede is simply echoing the practice of his own day, or whether Oswiu and Chad were considering a territorial basis and a see for his episcopate. It is quite clear that Oswiu intended Chad to be bishop over the entire Northumbrian people, over-riding the claims of both Wilfrid and Eata.

Chad faced the same problem over ordination as Wilfrid, and so set off to seek ordination amid the chaos caused by the plague. Bede tells us that he travelled first to Canterbury, where he found that Archbishop

West Saxons

and two British, i.e. Welsh, bishops. None of these bishops was recognised by Rome. Bede points out that "at that time there was no other bishop in all Britain canonically ordained except Wini" and the latter had been installed irregularly by the king of the West Saxons.

Bede describes Chad at this point as "a diligent performer in deed of what he had learnt in the Scriptures should be done." Bede also tells us that Chad was teaching the values of Aidan and Cedd. His life was one of constant travel. Bede says that Chad visited continually the towns, countryside, cottages, villages and houses to preach the Gospel. Clearly, the model he followed was one of the bishop as prophet or missionary. Basic Christian rites of passage, baptism and confirmation, were almost always performed by a bishop, and for decades to come they were generally carried out in mass ceremonies, probably with little systematic instruction or counselling.

Removal

In 666, Wilfrid returned from Neustria, "bringing many rules of Catholic observance", as Bede says. He found Chad already occupying the same position. It seems that he did not in fact challenge Chad's pre-eminence in his own area. Rather, he would have worked assiduously to build up his own support in sympathetic monasteries, like Gilling and Ripon. He did, however, assert his episcopal rank by going into Mercia and even Kent to ordain priests. Bede tells us that the net effect of his efforts on the Church was that the Irish monks who still lived in Northumbria either came fully into line with Catholic practices or left for home. Nevertheless, Bede cannot conceal that Oswiu and Chad had broken significantly with Roman practice in many ways and that the Church in Northumbria had been divided by the ordination of rival bishops.

In 669, a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, sent by Pope Vitalian arrived in England. He immediately set off on a tour of the country, tackling abuses of which he had been forewarned. He instructed Chad to step down and Wilfrid to take over.^[15] According to Bede, Theodore was so impressed by Chad's show of humility that he confirmed his ordination as bishop, while insisting he step down from his position. Chad retired gracefully and returned to his post as abbot of Lastingham, leaving Wilfrid as bishop of the Northumbrians at York.^[3]

Bishop of the Mercians

Recall

Later that same year, King

until his death (655). Penda had allowed bishops to operate in Mercia, although none had succeeded in establishing the Church securely without active royal support.

Archbishop Theodore refused to consecrate a new bishop. Instead he recalled Chad out of his retirement at Lastingham. According to Bede, Theodore was greatly impressed by Chad's humility and holiness. This was displayed particularly in his refusal to use a horse: he insisted on walking everywhere. Despite his regard for Chad, Theodore ordered him to ride on long journeys and went so far as to lift him into the saddle on one occasion.

Chad was consecrated bishop of the Mercians (literally, frontier people) and of the Lindsey people (

that formed the core of the wider Mercian polity. It was their sub-king, Peada, who had secured the services of Chad's brother Cedd in 653, and they were frequently considered separately from the Mercians proper, a people who lived further to the west and north.

Monastic foundations

When Chad was made Bishop of Mercia in 669, he moved his see from Repton to Lichfield, possibly because this was already a holy site, as the scene of martyrdoms during the Roman period. Wulfhere donated land at

. It was because of this that the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia became settled as the Diocese of Lichfield.

Wulfhere also gave Chad land for a monastery at Barrow upon Humber in North Lincolnshire. He traveled about on foot until the Archbishop of Canterbury gave him a horse and ordered him to ride it, at least on long journeys.^[18] Chad's shrine at Lichfield was destroyed in 1538.

Wulfhere also donated land sufficient for fifty families at a place in Lindsey, referred to by Bede as Ad Barwae. This is probably

, allowing rapid communication along surviving Roman roads with Lastingham. Chad remained abbot of Lastingham throughout his life, as well as heading the communities at both Lichfield and Barrow.

Ministry among the Mercians

Chad then proceeded to carry out much missionary and pastoral work within the kingdom. Bede tells us that Chad governed the bishopric of the Mercians and of the people of Lindsey 'in the manner of the ancient fathers and in great perfection of life'. However, Bede gives little concrete information about the work of Chad in Mercia, implying that in style and substance it was a continuation of what he had done in Northumbria. The area he covered was very large, stretching across England from coast to coast. It was also, in many places, difficult terrain, with woodland, heath and mountain over much of the centre and large areas of marshland to the east. Bede does tell us that Chad built for himself a small house at Lichfield, a short distance from the church, sufficient to hold his core of seven or eight disciples, who gathered to pray and study with him there when he was not out on business.

Chad worked in Mercia and Lindsey for only two years before he too died during a plague.^[19] Yet St. Bede could write in a letter that Mercia came to the faith and Essex was recovered for it by the two brothers Cedd and Chad. In other words, Bede considered that Chad's two years as bishop were decisive in Christianising Mercia.

Death

Chad died on 2 March 672, and was buried at the Church of Saint Mary which later became part of the cathedral at Lichfield. Bede relates the death story as that of a man who was already regarded as a saint. Bede has stressed throughout his narrative that Chad's holiness communicated across boundaries of culture and politics, to Theodore, for example, in his own lifetime. The death story is clearly of supreme importance to Bede, confirming Chad's holiness and vindicating his life. The account occupies considerably more space in Bede's account than all the rest of Chad's ministry in Northumbria and Mercia together.

Bede noted that Owin was working outside the oratory at Lichfield. Inside, Chad studied alone because the other monks were at worship in the church. Suddenly Owin heard the sound of joyful singing, coming from heaven, at first to the south-east, but gradually coming closer until it filled the roof of the oratory itself. Then there was silence for half an hour, followed by the same singing going back the way it had come. Owin at first did nothing, but about an hour later Chad called him in and told him to fetch the seven brothers from the church. Chad gave his final address to the brothers, urging them to keep the monastic discipline they had learnt. Only after this did he tell them that he knew his own death was near, speaking of death as "that friendly guest who is used to visiting the brethren". He asked them to pray, then blessed and dismissed them. The brothers left, sad and downcast.

Owin returned a little later and saw Chad privately. He asked about the singing. Chad told him that he must keep it to himself for the time being: angels had come to call him to his heavenly reward, and in seven days they would return to fetch him. So it was that Chad weakened and died after seven days on 2 March, which remains his feast day. Bede wrote that: "he had always looked forward to this day, or rather his mind had always been on the Day of the Lord". Many years later, his old friend Egbert told a visitor that someone in Ireland had seen the heavenly company coming for Chad's soul and returning with it to heaven. Significantly, with the heavenly host was Cedd. Bede was not sure whether or not the vision was actually Egbert's own.

Bede's account of Chad's death strongly confirms the main themes of his life. Primarily he was a monastic leader, deeply involved in the fairly small communities of loyal monks who formed his mission teams, his brothers. His consciousness was strongly eschatological: focussed on the last things and their significance. Finally, he was inextricably linked with Cedd and his other brothers.

Cult and relics

Chad is considered a saint in the

According to St. Bede, Chad was venerated as a saint immediately after his death, and his relics were translated to a new shrine. He remained the centre of an important cult, focused on healing, throughout the Middle Ages. The cult had twin foci: his tomb, in the apse, directly behind the high altar of the cathedral; and more particularly his skull, kept in a special Head Chapel, above the south aisle.

The transmission of the relics after the Reformation was tortuous. At the dissolution of the Shrine on the instructions of King Henry VIII in about 1538, Prebendary Arthur Dudley of Lichfield Cathedral removed and retained some relics, probably a travelling set. These were eventually passed to his nieces, Bridget and Katherine Dudley, of

.

The relics, some long bones, are now enshrined on the Altar of St Chad's Cathedral. They were examined by the Oxford Archeological Laboratory by carbon dating techniques in 1985, and all but one of the bones (which was a third femur, and therefore could not have come from Bishop Chad) were dated to the seventh century, and were authenticated as 'true relics' by the Vatican authorities. In 1919, an Annual Mass and Solemn Outdoor Procession of the Relics was held at St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham. This observance continues to the present, on the Saturday nearest to his Feast Day, 2 March.

Chad is

Portrayals of St Chad

There are no portraits or descriptions of St Chad from his own time. The only hint comes in the legend of Theodore lifting him bodily into the saddle, possibly suggesting that he was remembered as small in stature.

• 
  St Chad (left), alongside Mercian kings Peada and Wulfhere, as portrayed in 19th century sculpture above the western entrance to Lichfield Cathedral.
• 
  "Saint Chad", stained glass window by Christopher Whall. Currently exhibited at Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
• 
  An example of a late sculpture of St Chad, from St Chad's Church, Lichfield, Staffordshire, 1930.
• 
  A sculpture of St. Chad unveiled^[23] in 2021 outside Lichfield Cathedral.

Notable dedications

Churches

Chad gives his name to

. The site of the medieval shrine is also marked.

Chad also gives his name to a

).

Dedications are densely concentrated in the

University of Durham

, founded in 1904 as an Anglican hall.

In Canada, St Chad's Chapel and College was built in 1918 in Regina. Originally, it was a Catholic church and boys' school. In 1964, it became an Anglican school for girls, called St Chad's Girls' School. Today, it is a protected historic building in Regina.^[25]

The Principal Parish of the

The

Toponyms

Chadkirk Chapel in Romiley, Greater Manchester, may have been dedicated to St Chad; as Kenneth Cameron points out, -kirk ("church") toponyms incorporate the name of the dedicatee more often than that of the patron.^[28] The chapel dates back to the 14th century, but the site is much older, possibly dating back to the 7th century when it is believed St Chad visited to bless the well there.^{[citation needed]}

St Chad's Well near Battle Bridge on the River Fleet in London was a medicinal well dedicated to St Chad. It was destroyed by the Midland Railway company in 1860, and is remembered in the street name of St Chad's Place.^[29][30]

The Worcestershire town of Kidderminster was thought by one 19th-century author to be named for a minster dedicated to Chad or Cedd,^[31][32] but modern scholars give the etymology of the name as "Cydela's monastery".^[33]

Schools

Denstone College in the Village of Denstone, Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire was founded by Nathaniel Woodard as the Flagship Woodard School of the Midlands. The school was founded as St Chad's College, Denstone. The School's Chapel is named as the Chapel of St Chad with depictions of him around the chapel's Narthex. The students of the school wear the famous cross of St Chad which is the school's logo. The motto of the School is ‘Lignum Crucis Arbor Scientae’ which is Latin for ‘The Wood of the Cross is the Tree of Knowledge’. There are also depictions of him in the School's Quadrangle.

Chad as a personal name

Chad remains a fairly popular given name, one of the few personal names current among 7th century Anglo-Saxons to do so. However, it was very little used for many centuries before a modest revival in the mid-20th century.

Patronage

Due to the somewhat confused nature of Chad's appointment and the continued references to '

The Spa Research Fellowship states that Chad is the patron saint of medicinal springs,^[35] although other listings^[36] do not mention this patronage.

St. Chad's Day (2 March) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow

in England.

Legacy

St. Chad's College is a college of Durham University.^[37]

Notes

References

1. ISBN 0-14-044565-X
   .
2. ^ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Preface.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 4, chapter 3.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3, chapter 23.
5. ISBN 0-00-255203-5
   .
6. ISBN 1-85109-440-7
   , p. 360
7. ^ ^{a b} Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3, chapter 28.
8. ^ Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Colman." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 23 April 2019 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
9. ^ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3, chapter 27.
10. ^ Mayr-Harting 1991, p. 97.
11. ^ Mayr-Harting 1991, p. 253.
12. ^ Burton, Edwin. "St. Ceadda." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 28 September 2021 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
13. ^ Mayr-Harting 1991, p. 89.
14. ^ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3, chapter 25.
15. ^ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 4, chapter 2.
16. ^ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3, chapter 24.
17. ^ "Chad 1". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
18. ^ "St. Chad". www.satucket.com. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
19. ^ "CatholicSaints.Info » Blog Archive » Book of Saints – Chad". Retrieved 14 April 2024.
20. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-860949-0
    .
21. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
22. ISBN 978-1-64065-234-7
    .
23. ^ https://www.lichfield-cathedral.org/visit-the-cathedral/st-chad-statue
24. ^ Historic England. "Church of Saint Chad, Montford, Shropshire (1055118)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
25. ^ "'We brought this building back to life': St. Chad's renovations will honour historical landmark". Regina. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
26. ^ "Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross". All Dioceses. GCatholic.org. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
27. ^ "A concise history of Brasenose - Brasenose College, Oxford". www.bnc.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
28. ISBN 978-0-416-27990-0
    .
29. ^ Potter, Chesca. "The river of wells". The Holy Wells Journal. Series 1, issue 1. Archived from the original on 7 December 2006.
30. ISBN 0-333-45817-6
    .
31. ^ Cameron 1969, p. 127.
32. ^ Burton, John Richard (1890). A History of Kidderminster. E. Stock. p. 9.
33. ISBN 0-304-35385-X
    .
34. ^ "St. Chad". 4 December 2000.
35. ^ "Spa research fellowship, Occasional paper, 5: St Chad – Patron Saint of Medicinal Springs". Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
36. ^ "Patron Saints Index: Saint Chad". Archived from the original on 25 June 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
37. ^ "Who was St Chad?". Retrieved 14 April 2024.

Further reading

• Bassett, Steven, Ed. The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester University Press, 1989.
  ISBN 978-0-7185-1367-2
  .
• Fletcher, Richard. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371–1386. HarperCollins, 1997.
  ISBN 0-00-255203-5
  .
• ISBN 978-0-271-00769-4
  .
• Rudolf Vleeskruijer The Life of St.Chad, an Old English Homily edited with introduction, notes, illustrative texts and glossary by R. Vleeskruyer, North-Holland, Amsterdam (1953)

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Chad, Saint".

• Media related to Chad of Mercia at Wikimedia Commons
• Chad 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

Christian titles
Preceded by Jaruman as Bishop of Mercia	Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People 669–672	Succeeded by Winfrith as Bishop of Lichfield
Vacant Title last held by Paulinus as Bishop of York	Bishop of the Northumbrians 664–669	Succeeded by Wilfrid
Preceded by Tuda as Bishop of Lindisfarne