Chad of Mercia
Encyclopedia
Chad was a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon
churchman, who became abbot
of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People
. He was later canonized as a saint. He was the brother of Cedd
, also a saint. He features strongly in the work of Bede
the Venerable and is credited, together with Cedd, with introducing Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.
. Bede tells us that he obtained his information about Chad and his brother, Cedd, from the monk
s of Lastingham
, where both were abbot
s. Bede gives this attribution great prominence, placing it in the introduction to his work. This may indicate that the brothers had become controversial figures: certainly Bede must have thought that his material about them would be of more than usual interest to the reader. Bede also refers to information he received from Trumbert, "who tutored me in the Scriptures and who had been educated in the monastery
by that master", 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.
, Cynibil
and Caelin
. Chad seems to have been Cedd's junior, arriving on the political scene about ten years after Cedd. It is reasonable to suppose that Chad and his brothers were drawn from the Northumbrian nobility: They certainly had close connections throughout the Northumbrian ruling class. However, the name Chad is actually of British Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon
origin. It is an element found in the personal names of many Welsh
princes and nobles of the period and signifies "battle". This may indicate a family of mixed cultural and/or ethnic background, with roots in the original Celtic population of the region.
at the Celtic
monastery
at Lindisfarne
. 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 the 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.
as a monk, before he was ordained as a priest. Bede's references to this period are the only real evidence we have for dating the earlier part of Chad's life, including his birth.
Cedd is not mentioned as Chad's companion in this stage of his education. Probably Cedd was considerably older than Chad, and was ordained priest some years earlier: certainly he was already a priest by 653, when he was sent to work among the Middle Angles
. Chad's companion was Egbert, who was of about the same age as himself. The two travelled in Ireland for further study. Bede tells us that Egbert himself was of the Anglian nobility, although the monks sent to Ireland were of all classes. Bede places Egbert, and therefore Chad, among an influx of English scholars who arrived in Ireland while Finan
and Colmán
were bishops at Lindisfarne. This means that Egbert and Chad must have gone to Ireland later than the death of Aidan, in 651.
Bede gives a long account of how Egbert fell dangerously ill in Ireland in 664 and vowed to follow a lifelong pattern of great austerity so that he might live to make amends for the follies of his youth. His only remaining friend at this point was called Ethelhun, who died in the plague. Hence, Chad must have left Ireland before this. In fact, it is in 664 that he suddenly appears in Northumbria, to take over from his brother Cedd, also stricken by the plague. Chad's time in Ireland, therefore must fit into period 651–664. Bede makes clear that the wandering Anglian
scholars were not yet priests, and ordination to the priesthood generally happened at the age of thirty – the age at which Jesus
commenced his ministry. The year of Chad's birth is thus likely to be 634, or a little earlier, although certainty is impossible. Cynibil and Caelin were ordained priests by the late 650s, when they participated with Cedd in the founding of Lastingham. Chad was almost certainly the youngest of the four, probably by a considerable margin.
The Benedictine
rule was slowly spreading across Western Europe, with encouragement from Rome. Chad was educated in an entirely distinct monastic tradition, indigenous to Western Europe itself, and tending to look back to the saint and monastic founder Martin of Tours
as an exemplar, although not as founder of an order. As Bede's account makes clear, the Irish and early Anglo-Saxon monasticism experienced by Chad was peripatetic, stressed ascetic
practices and had a strong focus on Biblical exegesis
, which generated a profound eschatological consciousness
. 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. The practice of loaning books freely seems to have been a distinctive feature of Irish monastic life: it was a violent dispute over rights to copies of a borrowed psalter which had allegedly led to Columba
's exile from Ireland many years before.
and Mercia
. Penda, the pagan king of Mercia
, continually campaigned against Northumbrian rulers, usually with the support of the Christian Welsh princes. Defeat in this struggle tended to unhinge the fragile unity of the competing states. In 641, Penda inflicted a crushing defeat on the Northumbrians, killing King Oswald. Northumbria broke into its component parts of Bernicia (north) and Deira, and its rival factions were easily manipulated by Penda. Northumbria was not fully reunited by Oswald's successor, Oswiu, until 651. Conversely, Oswiu defeated and killed Penda in 655, causing Mercia to descend into disunity for a more than a decade, and allowing the Northumbrian rulers to intervene in Mercian affairs throughout that period.
of 597, sent by Pope Gregory I
. However, the Churches of Ireland and of western and northern Britain had their own distinct history and traditions. The Churches of Wales
and Cornwall
had an unbroken tradition stretching back to Roman times. Ireland traced its Christian origins to missionaries from Wales, while Northumbria looked to the Irish monastery of Iona
, in modern Scotland, as its source. Although all western Christians recognised Rome as the ultimate font of authority, the semi-independent churches of Britain and Ireland did not accept actual Roman control. Considerable divergences had developed in practice and organization. Most bishops in Ireland and Britain were not recognized by Rome because their apostolic succession
was uncertain and they condoned non-Roman practices. Monastic practices and structures were very different: moreover monasteries played a much more important role in Britain and Ireland than on the continent, with abbots regarded as de facto leaders of the Church. Many of the issues crystallized around disputes over the dating
of Easter
and the cut of the monastic tonsure
, which were markedly and notoriously different in the local churches from those in Rome.
These political and religious issues were constantly intertwined, and interacted in various ways. Christianity in Britain and Ireland largely progressed through royal patronage
, while kings increasingly used the Church to stabilize and to confer legitimacy on their fragile states. A strongly local church with distinctive practices could be a source of great support to a fledgling state, allowing the weaving together of political and religious elites. Conversely, the Roman connection introduced foreign influence beyond the control of local rulers, but also allowed rulers to display themselves on a wider, European stage, and to seek out more powerful sources of legitimacy.
These issues are also crucial in assessing the reliability of sources, Bede
being the only substantial source for details of Chad's life. Bede wrote about sixty years after the crucial events of Chad's episcopate, when the Continental pattern of territorial bishoprics and Benedictine monasticism had become established throughout the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, including Northumbria. Bede is concerned to validate the Church practices and structures of his own time. However, he also wants to present as flattering a picture as possible of the earlier Northumbrian church and monarchy: a difficult balancing act because, as Bede himself has constantly to acknowledge, they actually constituted the backbone of resistance to Roman norms for many decades.
Bede's treatment of Chad is particularly problematic because it is impossible for him to conceal that Chad departed from Roman practices in vital ways – not only before the Synod of Whitby
, which Bede presents as a total victory for the Roman party and its norms, but even after it. However, Chad was the teacher of Bede's own teacher, Trumbert
, so Bede has an obvious personal interest in rehabilitating him, to say nothing of his loyalty to the Northumbrian establishment, which not only supported him but had played a notable part in Christianising England. This may explain a number of gaps in Bede's account of Chad, and why Bede sometimes seems to attribute to Chad implausible motives. Chad lived at and through a watershed in relations between the Anglo-Saxons and the wider Europe. Bede constantly tries to ellide the ambiguities of Chad's career, but not always successfully.
. 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 Merewalh
in Mercia in the following generation.
, probably the elder brother, had become a very prominent figure in the Church while Chad was in Ireland. Probably as a newly ordained priest, he was sent in 653 by Oswiu on a difficult mission to the Middle Angles
, on the request of their sub-king Peada, part of a developing pattern of Northumbrian intervention in Mercian affairs. After perhaps a year, he was recalled and sent on a similar mission to the East Saxons, 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.
Caelin, the brother of Cedd and Chad, had been appointed as a chaplain to Ethelwald, a nephew of Oswiu, who had been appointed to administer the coastal area of Deira. Caelin suggested to Ethelwald that it would be a good idea to found a monastery
, in which he could one day be buried, and in which prayers for his soul would continue. Caelin introduced Ethelwold to Cedd, who happened to need just such a political base and spiritual retreat. Ethelwald, according to Bede, practically forced a gift of land on Cedd. This wild place was at Lastingham
, near Pickering
in the North York Moors
, close to one of the still-usable Roman road
s. Bede explains 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 whole incident shows not only how closely the brothers were linked with Northumbria's ruling dynasty, but how close they were to each other. A fast by Cynibil was even felt to be equivalent to one by Cedd himself. Lastingham was handed over to Cedd, who became abbot
. It 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. Notably, however, Chad is not mentioned in this context until he succeeds his brother as abbot.
, when a large number of Church leaders was wiped out by the plague – among them Cedd, who died at Lastingham itself. On the death of his elder brother, Chad succeeded to the position of abbot at Lastingham.
Bede seldom mentions Chad without referring to his regime of prayer and study, so these clearly made up the greater part of monastic routine at Lastingham. Study would have been collective, with monks carrying out exegesis
through dialectic
. Yet not all of the monks were intellectuals. 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
, 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.
in 663/4, which he shows resolving the main issues of practice in the Northumbrian Church in favour of Roman practice. Cedd is shown acting as the main go-between in the synod
because of his facility with all of the relevant languages. Cedd was not the only prominent churchman to die of plague shortly after the synod. This was one of several outbreaks of the plague, all of which left the ranks of the Church leadership especially badly hit, with most of the bishops in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms dead, including the archbishop of Canterbury. Bede tells us that Colmán
, the bishop of the Northumbrians at the time of the Synod, had left for Scotland after it went against him. He was succeeded by Tuda, who lived only a short time after his accession. The tortuous process of replacing him is covered by Bede briefly, but in some respects puzzlingly.
, a particularly zealous partisan of the Roman cause. Because of the plague, there were not the requisite three bishops available to ordain him, so he had gone to the Frankish
Kingdom of Neustria
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.
Chad was invited then to become bishop of the Northumbrians by King Oswiu. Chad is often listed as a Bishop of York. Bede generally uses ethnic, not geographical, designations for Chad and other early Anglo-Saxon
bishops. However at this point, he does also refer to Oswiu's desire that Chad become bishop of the church in York
. York later became the diocesan city partly because it had already been designated as such in the earlier Roman-sponsored mission of Paulinus
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, overriding 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 Deusdedit
was dead and his replacement was still awaited. Bede does not tell us why Chad diverted to Canterbury. The journey seems pointless, since the archbishop had died three years previously – a fact that must have been well known in Northumbria, and was the very reason Wilfrid had to go abroad. The most obvious reason for Chad's tortuous travels would be that he was also on a diplomatic mission from Oswiu, seeking to build an encircling alliance around Mercia, which was rapidly recovering from its position of weakness. From Canterbury he travelled to Wessex
, where he was ordained by bishop Wini
of the West Saxons and two British, i.e. Welsh, bishops. None of these bishops was recognized 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 in order 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 counseling.
. 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. 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.
requested a bishop. Wulfhere and the other sons of Penda had converted to Christianity, although Penda himself had remained a pagan 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. Bede tells us that Chad was actually the third bishop sent to Wulfhere, making him the fifth bishop of the Mercians. Lindsey, meaning more or less the whole of modern Lincolnshire
was under Mercian control, although it had in the past sometimes fallen under Northumbrian control. Later Anglo-Saxon episcopal lists sometimes add the Middle Angles
to his responsibilities. They were a distinct part of the Mercian kingdom, centred on the middle Trent
and lower Tame – the area around Tamworth
, Lichfield and Repton
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.
for Chad to build a monastery. It was because of this that the centre of the Diocese of Mercia
ultimately became settled at Lichfield
. The Lichfield monastery was probably similar to that at Lastingham, and Bede makes clear that it was partly staffed by monks from Lastingham, including Chad's faithful retainer, Owin. Lichfield was very close to the old Roman road
of Watling Street
, the main route across Mercia, and a short distance from Mercia's main royal centre at Tamworth
.
Wulhere also donated land sufficient for fifty families at a place in Lindsey, referred to by Bede as Ad Barwae. This is probably Barrow upon Humber
: where an Anglo-Saxon
monastery of a later date has been excavated. This was easily reached by river from the Midlands and close to an easy crossing of the River Humber, 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.
Chad worked in Mercia and Lindsey for only two and a half years before he too died during a plague. 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.
. Bede relates the death story as that of a man who was already regarded as a saint
. In fact, 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 tells us 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 writes 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 actual brothers.
churches, and is also noted as a saint in a new edition of the Eastern Orthodox
Synaxarion
(Book of Saints), in response to increasing attention to pre-Schism western saints. His feast day is celebrated on 2 March.
According to St. Bede, Chad was venerated as a saint
immediately after his death, and his relic
s were translated to a new shrine. He remained the centre of an important cult, focussed 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 Russells Hall. In 1651, they reappeared when a farmer Henry Hodgetts of Sedgley
was on his death-bed and kept praying to St Chad. When the priest hearing his last confession, Fr Peter Turner SJ, asked him why he called upon Chad. Henry replied, "because his bones are in the head of my bed". He instructed his wife to give the relics to the priest, whence they found their way to the Seminary at St Omer
, in France. After the conclusion of penal times, in the early 19th century, they found their way into the hands of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes of Aston Hall, near Stone, Staffordshire
. When his chapel was cleared after his death, his chaplain, Fr Benjamin Hulme, discovered the box containg the relics, which were examined and presented to Bishop Thomas Walsh, (RC) Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1837 and were enshrined in the new St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, opened in 1841, in a new ark designed by Augustus Pugin
.
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.
's Roman Catholic cathedral, where there are some relic
s of the saint: about eight long bones. It is the only cathedral in England that has the relics of its patron saint enshrined upon its high altar. The Anglican Lichfield Cathedral
, at the site of his burial, is dedicated to Chad, and St Mary
, and still has a head chapel, where the skull of the saint was kept until it was lost during the Reformation
. The site of the medieval shrine is also marked.
Chad also gives his name to a parish church
in Lichfield
(with Chad's Well, where traditionally Chad baptised converts: now a listed building).
Dedications are densely concentrated in the West Midlands
. The city of Wolverhampton
, for example, has two Anglican churches and a Roman Catholic secondary school
dedicated to Chad, while the nearby village of Pattingham
has both an Anglican church and primary school. Shrewsbury had a large medieval church of St Chad which fell down in 1788: it was quickly replaced by a circular church in Classical
style by George Steuart, on a different site but with the same dedication. Further afield, there is a considerable number of dedications in areas associated with Chad's career, like the churches in Church Wilne in Derbyshire
and Far Headingley
in Leeds
, as well as some in the Commonwealth, like Chelsea
in Australia. There is also a St Chad's College
within the University of Durham, founded in 1904 as an Anglican hall.
One toponym with a good claim to derivation from the saint's name is Chadkirk Chapel in Romiley
, Greater Manchester
, which dates back to the 14th century – although the site is much older, possibly dating back to the 7th century when it is believed St Chad visited to bless the well there. Cameron points out that -kirk toponyms more frequently incorporate the name of the dedicatee, rather than the patron, so there is every reason to believe that Chadkirk really was dedicated to St Chad in the Middle Ages. It is not so certain that Chadsmoor in Staffordshire, Chadwich in Worcestershire, or Chadwick in Warwickshire, were named after the saint.
St Chad's Well near Battle Bridge on the river Fleet
in London
was a celebrated medicinal well and had a new pump house built in 1832. It was destroyed by the Midland Railway company, and is remembered in the street name of St Chad's Place. There is no independent evidence of Chad's visiting the site, but it clearly is named after him, and he certainly did travel in southern England. His association with wells seems ancient, and no doubt stems from the St Chad's Well at Lichfield, visited by pilgrims and probably the water supply of his monastery. This is the most likely explanation of the name.
Numerous place-names like Cheadle and Cheddleton, in the Midlands suggest a link with Chad. However "suggestions" based on late forms of the name count for little: a hypothesis should be framed instead from documentary and topographical evidence. Mostly names of this sort are derived from other Celtic roots, generally ced, cognate with modern Welsh coed, signifying a wood or heath. Cheadle, for example, is generally reckoned a tautonym
, with the Old English leah, also meaning a wood, glossing the original Celtic term. This means that the origins of its name are closely related to those of Lichfield
(originally derived from the Celtic for "grey wood"), to which it bears little superficial resemblance, rather than Chad or even his brother, Cedd.
Kidderminster
, in Worcestershire, is sometimes said to be a corruption of the name of 'St Chad's Minster'. However, place-names do not "corrupt" randomly, but evolve according to principles inherent in the history of the language. Chad or Ceadda would not normally evolve into Kidder. The existence of a minster dedicated to Chad in this town seems to be a legend traceable to Burton's 1890 History of Kidderminster, in which the author acknowledges that the only evidence for such a place is the name of the town. Later writers seem to assume the existence of the monastery and then explain the name of the town from it – a circular argument that collapses if a plausible alternative explanation is available for the name. A grant of land by Ethelbald of Mercia
in 736 to one Cyneberht is generally accepted as the origin of the settlement. Cameron suggests that the minster was named after a lay benefactor (normal with -minster formations) and hypothesises Cydela, a suggestion that has found general acceptance. Another possibility might be the later Mercian dux Cydda. Certainly it seems that there was a dynasty of Mercian noblemen, all with similar names beginning Cy and connected to the area. These provide a more plausible explanation for the name of the town than St Chad or his non-existent minster.
The settlement of St Chad's (population 57) in Newfoundland
was previously named "St Shad's" (after originally being "Damnable"),but was renamed after postal confusion with nearby "St Shott's" http://www.centralnewfoundland.com/stchads.php3.
, an Anglican priest and social activist, whose father was vicar of Barton-upon-Humber
– the probable site of Chad's monastery in the north of Lindsey.
' – small pieces of ballot papers punched out by voters using voting machines – in the 2000 US Presidential Election it has been jocularly suggested that Chad is the patron saint of botched elections. In fact there is no official patron saint
of elections, though Thomas More
is the one of politicians.http://www.snopes.com/religion/chad.asp
The Spa Research Fellowshiphttp://www.thespasdirectory.com/discover_the_spa_research_fell.asp states that Chad is the patron saint
of medicinal springs
, although other listings (e.g. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintc24.htm) do not mention this patronage.
St. Chad's Day (2 March) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow broad beans in England.
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
churchman, who became abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People
Bishop of Lichfield
The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 4,516 km² of the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed...
. He was later canonized as a saint. He was the brother of Cedd
Cedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
, also a saint. He features strongly in the work of Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
the Venerable and is credited, together with Cedd, with introducing Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.
Sources
Most of our knowledge of Chad comes from the writings of BedeBede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
. Bede tells us that he obtained his information about Chad and his brother, Cedd, from the monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of Lastingham
Lastingham
Lastingham is a village and civil parish which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, five miles north east of Kirkbymoorside, one and a half miles to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early missionaries to the...
, where both were abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
s. Bede gives this attribution great prominence, placing it in the introduction to his work. This may indicate that the brothers had become controversial figures: certainly Bede must have thought that his material about them would be of more than usual interest to the reader. Bede also refers to information he received from Trumbert, "who tutored me in the Scriptures and who had been educated in the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
by that master", 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.
Family links
Chad was one of four brothers, all active in the Anglo-Saxon church. The others were CeddCedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
, Cynibil
Cynibil
Cynibil was one of four Northumbrian brothers named by Bede as prominent in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were Chad of Mercia, Cedd and Caelin....
and Caelin
Caelin
Cælin was one of four brothers named by Bede as active in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were Cedd, Chad, and Cynibil.Bede portrays Cælin as a chaplain at the court of Ethelwald, a nephew of King Oswiu of Northumbria. Ethelwald was appointed to administer the coastal area of Deira...
. Chad seems to have been Cedd's junior, arriving on the political scene about ten years after Cedd. It is reasonable to suppose that Chad and his brothers were drawn from the Northumbrian nobility: They certainly had close connections throughout the Northumbrian ruling class. However, the name Chad is actually of British Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
origin. It is an element found in the personal names of many Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
princes and nobles of the period and signifies "battle". This may indicate a family of mixed cultural and/or ethnic background, with roots in the original Celtic population of the region.
Education
The only major fact that Bede gives about Chad's early life is that he was a student of AidanAidan of Lindisfarne
Known as Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Aidan the Apostle of Northumbria , was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the Anglicised form of the original Old...
at the Celtic
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
at Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
. In fact, Bede attributes the general pattern of Chad's ministry to the example of Aidan and his own brother, Cedd
Cedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
, who was also a student of St. Aidan.
Aidan was a disciple of Columba
Columba
Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...
and was invited by the King Oswald of Northumbria
Oswald of Northumbria
Oswald was King of Northumbria from 634 until his death, and is now venerated as a Christian saint.Oswald was the son of Æthelfrith of Bernicia and came to rule after spending a period in exile; after defeating the British ruler Cadwallon ap Cadfan, Oswald brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of...
to come from Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
to establish a monastery. Aidan arrived in Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
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
Chad later travelled to IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
as a monk, before he was ordained as a priest. Bede's references to this period are the only real evidence we have for dating the earlier part of Chad's life, including his birth.
Cedd is not mentioned as Chad's companion in this stage of his education. Probably Cedd was considerably older than Chad, and was ordained priest some years earlier: certainly he was already a priest by 653, when he was sent to work among the Middle Angles
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
. Chad's companion was Egbert, who was of about the same age as himself. The two travelled in Ireland for further study. Bede tells us that Egbert himself was of the Anglian nobility, although the monks sent to Ireland were of all classes. Bede places Egbert, and therefore Chad, among an influx of English scholars who arrived in Ireland while Finan
Finan of Lindisfarne
Finan of Lindisfarne , also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona in Scotland, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661. Originally from Ireland, he founded a cathedral on Lindisfarne and converted the kings Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to...
and Colmán
Colmán of Lindisfarne
Colmán of Lindisfarne also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. He succeeded Aidan and Finan. Colman resigned the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby called by King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to calculate Easter using the method of the First...
were bishops at Lindisfarne. This means that Egbert and Chad must have gone to Ireland later than the death of Aidan, in 651.
Bede gives a long account of how Egbert fell dangerously ill in Ireland in 664 and vowed to follow a lifelong pattern of great austerity so that he might live to make amends for the follies of his youth. His only remaining friend at this point was called Ethelhun, who died in the plague. Hence, Chad must have left Ireland before this. In fact, it is in 664 that he suddenly appears in Northumbria, to take over from his brother Cedd, also stricken by the plague. Chad's time in Ireland, therefore must fit into period 651–664. Bede makes clear that the wandering Anglian
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
scholars were not yet priests, and ordination to the priesthood generally happened at the age of thirty – the age at which Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
commenced his ministry. The year of Chad's birth is thus likely to be 634, or a little earlier, although certainty is impossible. Cynibil and Caelin were ordained priests by the late 650s, when they participated with Cedd in the founding of Lastingham. Chad was almost certainly the youngest of the four, probably by a considerable margin.
The Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
rule was slowly spreading across Western Europe, with encouragement from Rome. Chad was educated in an entirely distinct monastic tradition, indigenous to Western Europe itself, and tending to look back to the saint and monastic founder Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...
as an exemplar, although not as founder of an order. As Bede's account makes clear, the Irish and early Anglo-Saxon monasticism experienced by Chad was peripatetic, stressed ascetic
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
practices and had a strong focus on Biblical exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
, which generated a profound eschatological consciousness
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
. 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. The practice of loaning books freely seems to have been a distinctive feature of Irish monastic life: it was a violent dispute over rights to copies of a borrowed psalter which had allegedly led to Columba
Columba
Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...
's exile from Ireland many years before.
The struggle for political hegemony
Britain had no secure state structures even at a regional level. 7th century rulers were trying to create larger and more unified realms within defensible boundaries and to legitimate their power within the culture of their time. The central contest of Chad's lifetime was between NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
and Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
. Penda, the pagan king of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, continually campaigned against Northumbrian rulers, usually with the support of the Christian Welsh princes. Defeat in this struggle tended to unhinge the fragile unity of the competing states. In 641, Penda inflicted a crushing defeat on the Northumbrians, killing King Oswald. Northumbria broke into its component parts of Bernicia (north) and Deira, and its rival factions were easily manipulated by Penda. Northumbria was not fully reunited by Oswald's successor, Oswiu, until 651. Conversely, Oswiu defeated and killed Penda in 655, causing Mercia to descend into disunity for a more than a decade, and allowing the Northumbrian rulers to intervene in Mercian affairs throughout that period.
The dispute over apostolic legitimacy in the Church
Christianity in the south of Britain was closely associated with Rome and the Church in continental Europe. This was because its organization grew out of the missions of AugustineAugustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
of 597, sent by Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
. However, the Churches of Ireland and of western and northern Britain had their own distinct history and traditions. The Churches of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
had an unbroken tradition stretching back to Roman times. Ireland traced its Christian origins to missionaries from Wales, while Northumbria looked to the Irish monastery of Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
, in modern Scotland, as its source. Although all western Christians recognised Rome as the ultimate font of authority, the semi-independent churches of Britain and Ireland did not accept actual Roman control. Considerable divergences had developed in practice and organization. Most bishops in Ireland and Britain were not recognized by Rome because their apostolic succession
Apostolic Succession
Apostolic succession is a doctrine, held by some Christian denominations, which asserts that the chosen successors of the Twelve Apostles, from the first century to the present day, have inherited the spiritual, ecclesiastical and sacramental authority, power, and responsibility that were...
was uncertain and they condoned non-Roman practices. Monastic practices and structures were very different: moreover monasteries played a much more important role in Britain and Ireland than on the continent, with abbots regarded as de facto leaders of the Church. Many of the issues crystallized around disputes over the dating
Computus
Computus is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, as it was one of the most important computations of the age....
of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
and the cut of the monastic tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
, which were markedly and notoriously different in the local churches from those in Rome.
These political and religious issues were constantly intertwined, and interacted in various ways. Christianity in Britain and Ireland largely progressed through royal patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
, while kings increasingly used the Church to stabilize and to confer legitimacy on their fragile states. A strongly local church with distinctive practices could be a source of great support to a fledgling state, allowing the weaving together of political and religious elites. Conversely, the Roman connection introduced foreign influence beyond the control of local rulers, but also allowed rulers to display themselves on a wider, European stage, and to seek out more powerful sources of legitimacy.
These issues are also crucial in assessing the reliability of sources, Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
being the only substantial source for details of Chad's life. Bede wrote about sixty years after the crucial events of Chad's episcopate, when the Continental pattern of territorial bishoprics and Benedictine monasticism had become established throughout the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, including Northumbria. Bede is concerned to validate the Church practices and structures of his own time. However, he also wants to present as flattering a picture as possible of the earlier Northumbrian church and monarchy: a difficult balancing act because, as Bede himself has constantly to acknowledge, they actually constituted the backbone of resistance to Roman norms for many decades.
Bede's treatment of Chad is particularly problematic because it is impossible for him to conceal that Chad departed from Roman practices in vital ways – not only before the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
, which Bede presents as a total victory for the Roman party and its norms, but even after it. However, Chad was the teacher of Bede's own teacher, Trumbert
Trumbert
Trumbert was a monk of Jarrow, a disciple of St. Chad and later Bishop of Hexham.-Life:He was educated at Lastingham by Ceadda, and was a teacher of Bede. He was the Bishop of the See of Hexham from 681 until he was deposed in 685 and was succeeded by Eata. He had previously been a monk at Ripon...
, so Bede has an obvious personal interest in rehabilitating him, to say nothing of his loyalty to the Northumbrian establishment, which not only supported him but had played a notable part in Christianising England. This may explain a number of gaps in Bede's account of Chad, and why Bede sometimes seems to attribute to Chad implausible motives. Chad lived at and through a watershed in relations between the Anglo-Saxons and the wider Europe. Bede constantly tries to ellide the ambiguities of Chad's career, but not always successfully.
The rise of a dynasty
The course of Chad's life between his stay in Ireland and his emergence as a Church leader is unknown. In fact, 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 LastinghamLastingham
Lastingham is a village and civil parish which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, five miles north east of Kirkbymoorside, one and a half miles to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early missionaries to the...
. 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 Merewalh
Merewalh
Merewalh Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire...
in Mercia in the following generation.
The rise of Cedd
CeddCedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
, probably the elder brother, had become a very prominent figure in the Church while Chad was in Ireland. Probably as a newly ordained priest, he was sent in 653 by Oswiu on a difficult mission to the Middle Angles
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
, on the request of their sub-king Peada, part of a developing pattern of Northumbrian intervention in Mercian affairs. After perhaps a year, he was recalled and sent on a similar mission to the East Saxons, 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.
The founding of Lastingham
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
, in which he could one day be buried, and in which prayers for his soul would continue. Caelin introduced Ethelwold to Cedd, who happened to need just such a political base and spiritual retreat. Ethelwald, according to Bede, practically forced a gift of land on Cedd. This wild place was at Lastingham
Lastingham
Lastingham is a village and civil parish which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, five miles north east of Kirkbymoorside, one and a half miles to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early missionaries to the...
, near Pickering
Pickering, North Yorkshire
Pickering is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of the county of North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North York Moors National Park. It sits at the foot of the Moors, overlooking the Vale of Pickering to the south...
in the North York Moors
North York Moors
The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of , and it has a population of about 25,000...
, close to one of the still-usable Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s. Bede explains 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 whole incident shows not only how closely the brothers were linked with Northumbria's ruling dynasty, but how close they were to each other. A fast by Cynibil was even felt to be equivalent to one by Cedd himself. Lastingham was handed over to Cedd, who became abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
. It 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. Notably, however, Chad is not mentioned in this context until he succeeds his brother as abbot.
Chad as abbot of Lastingham
Chad's first appearance as an ecclesiastical potentate occurs in 664, shortly after the Synod of WhitbySynod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
, when a large number of Church leaders was wiped out by the plague – among them Cedd, who died at Lastingham itself. On the death of his elder brother, Chad succeeded to the position of abbot at Lastingham.
Bede seldom mentions Chad without referring to his regime of prayer and study, so these clearly made up the greater part of monastic routine at Lastingham. Study would have been collective, with monks carrying out exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
through dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
. Yet not all of the monks were intellectuals. Bede tells us of a man called Owin (Owen), who appeared at the door of Lastingham. Owin was a household official of Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth is the proper name for the popular Anglo-Saxon saint often known, particularly in a religious context, as Etheldreda or by the pet form of Audrey...
, an East Anglian princess who had come to marry Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Northumbria
King Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat in which he lost his life.-Early life:...
, 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
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
consciousness and its effect on others is brought to life in a reminiscence attributed to Trumbert
Trumbert
Trumbert was a monk of Jarrow, a disciple of St. Chad and later Bishop of Hexham.-Life:He was educated at Lastingham by Ceadda, and was a teacher of Bede. He was the Bishop of the See of Hexham from 681 until he was deposed in 685 and was succeeded by Eata. He had previously been a monk at Ripon...
, 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
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
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
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
preoccupation but a determination to read in it the mind of God, particularly in relation to the last things.
The need for a bishop
Bede gives great prominence to the Synod of WhitbySynod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
in 663/4, which he shows resolving the main issues of practice in the Northumbrian Church in favour of Roman practice. Cedd is shown acting as the main go-between in the synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
because of his facility with all of the relevant languages. Cedd was not the only prominent churchman to die of plague shortly after the synod. This was one of several outbreaks of the plague, all of which left the ranks of the Church leadership especially badly hit, with most of the bishops in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms dead, including the archbishop of Canterbury. Bede tells us that Colmán
Colmán of Lindisfarne
Colmán of Lindisfarne also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. He succeeded Aidan and Finan. Colman resigned the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby called by King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to calculate Easter using the method of the First...
, the bishop of the Northumbrians at the time of the Synod, had left for Scotland after it went against him. He was succeeded by Tuda, who lived only a short time after his accession. The tortuous process of replacing him is covered by Bede briefly, but in some respects puzzlingly.
The mission of Wilfrid
The first choice to replace Tuda was WilfridWilfrid
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...
, a particularly zealous partisan of the Roman cause. Because of the plague, there were not the requisite three bishops available to ordain him, so he had gone to the Frankish
Frankish Empire
Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century...
Kingdom of Neustria
Neustria
The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...
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
Compiègne
Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...
for the ceremony. Bede tells us that he then lingered abroad for some time after his ordination.
The elevation of Chad
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 Bishop of York. Bede generally uses ethnic, not geographical, designations for Chad and other early Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
bishops. However at this point, he does also refer to Oswiu's desire that Chad become bishop of the church in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
. York later became the diocesan city partly because it had already been designated as such in the earlier Roman-sponsored mission of Paulinus
Paulinus of York
Paulinus was a Roman missionary and the first Bishop of York. A member of the Gregorian mission sent in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, Paulinus arrived in England by 604 with the second missionary group...
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, overriding 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 Deusdedit
Deusdedit of Canterbury
Deusdedit , perhaps originally named Frithona, Frithuwine or Frithonas, was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death, probably from...
was dead and his replacement was still awaited. Bede does not tell us why Chad diverted to Canterbury. The journey seems pointless, since the archbishop had died three years previously – a fact that must have been well known in Northumbria, and was the very reason Wilfrid had to go abroad. The most obvious reason for Chad's tortuous travels would be that he was also on a diplomatic mission from Oswiu, seeking to build an encircling alliance around Mercia, which was rapidly recovering from its position of weakness. From Canterbury he travelled to Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, where he was ordained by bishop Wini
WINI
WINI 1420 AM is a radio station broadcasting a news talk format. Licensed to Murphysboro, Illinois, the station is currently owned by Southern Illinois Radio Group ....
of the West Saxons and two British, i.e. Welsh, bishops. None of these bishops was recognized 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 in order to preach the Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
. Clearly, the model he followed was one of the bishop as prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
or missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
. Basic Christian rites of passage, baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
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 counseling.
The removal of Chad
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 RiponRipon
Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...
. He did, however, assert his episcopal rank by going into Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
and even Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
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
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury....
, sent by Pope Vitalian
Pope Vitalian
Pope Saint Vitalianus was Pope of the Catholic Church from July 30, 657, until January 27, 672.He was born in Segni, Lazio, the son of Anastasius.-Reign:...
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. 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.
The recall of Chad
Later that same year, King Wulfhere of MerciaWulfhere of Mercia
Wulfhere was King of Mercia from the end of the 650s until 675. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere...
requested a bishop. Wulfhere and the other sons of Penda had converted to Christianity, although Penda himself had remained a pagan 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
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury....
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
Kingdom of Lindsey
Lindsey or Linnuis is the name of a petty Anglo-Saxon kingdom, absorbed into Northumbria in the 7th century.It lay between the Humber and the Wash, forming its inland boundaries from the course of the Witham and Trent rivers , and the Foss Dyke between...
people. Bede tells us that Chad was actually the third bishop sent to Wulfhere, making him the fifth bishop of the Mercians. Lindsey, meaning more or less the whole of modern Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
was under Mercian control, although it had in the past sometimes fallen under Northumbrian control. Later Anglo-Saxon episcopal lists sometimes add the Middle Angles
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
to his responsibilities. They were a distinct part of the Mercian kingdom, centred on the middle Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
and lower Tame – the area around Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
, Lichfield and Repton
Repton
Repton is a village and civil parish on the edge of the River Trent floodplain in South Derbyshire, about north of Swadlincote. Repton is close to the county boundary with neighbouring Staffordshire and about northeast of Burton upon Trent.-History:...
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
Wulfhere donated land at LichfieldLichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
for Chad to build a monastery. It was because of this that the centre of the Diocese of Mercia
Diocese of Lichfield
The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers 4,516 km² The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England...
ultimately became settled at Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
. The Lichfield monastery was probably similar to that at Lastingham, and Bede makes clear that it was partly staffed by monks from Lastingham, including Chad's faithful retainer, Owin. Lichfield was very close to the old Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
of Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
, the main route across Mercia, and a short distance from Mercia's main royal centre at Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
.
Wulhere also donated land sufficient for fifty families at a place in Lindsey, referred to by Bede as Ad Barwae. This is probably Barrow upon Humber
Barrow upon Humber
Barrow upon Humber is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. Many of the buildings in the centre of the village are of 18th and 19th century origin. There are several buildings of note including Down Hall, Barrow Hall, Forester's Hall and West Cote Farm. There are two public...
: where an Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
monastery of a later date has been excavated. This was easily reached by river from the Midlands and close to an easy crossing of the River Humber, 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.
Chad's 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 and a half years before he too died during a plague. 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.
The death of Chad
Chad died on 2 March 672, and was buried at the Church of Saint Mary which later became part of the cathedral at LichfieldLichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
. Bede relates the death story as that of a man who was already regarded as a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
. In fact, 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 tells us 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 writes 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 actual brothers.
Cult and Relics
Chad is considered a saint in the Roman Catholic and AnglicanChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
churches, and is also noted as a saint in a new edition of the Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Synaxarion
Synaxarium
Synaxarion, Synexarion, pl. Synaxaria —Latin: Synaxarium, Synexarium—the name given in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches to a compilation of hagiographies corresponding roughly to the martyrology of the Roman Church.There are two kinds of synaxaria:*Simple...
(Book of Saints), in response to increasing attention to pre-Schism western saints. His feast day is celebrated on 2 March.
According to St. Bede, Chad was venerated as a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
immediately after his death, and his relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s were translated to a new shrine. He remained the centre of an important cult, focussed 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
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
.
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 Russells Hall. In 1651, they reappeared when a farmer Henry Hodgetts of Sedgley
Sedgley
Sedgley is an urban village within the West Midlands county of England. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Sedgley was formerly an ancient manor composed of several smaller villages, including Gornal, Gospel End, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley...
was on his death-bed and kept praying to St Chad. When the priest hearing his last confession, Fr Peter Turner SJ, asked him why he called upon Chad. Henry replied, "because his bones are in the head of my bed". He instructed his wife to give the relics to the priest, whence they found their way to the Seminary at St Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
, in France. After the conclusion of penal times, in the early 19th century, they found their way into the hands of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes of Aston Hall, near Stone, Staffordshire
Stone, Staffordshire
Stone is an old market town in Staffordshire, England, situated about seven miles north of Stafford, and around seven miles south of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is the second town, after Stafford itself, in the Borough of Stafford, and has long been of importance from the point of view of...
. When his chapel was cleared after his death, his chaplain, Fr Benjamin Hulme, discovered the box containg the relics, which were examined and presented to Bishop Thomas Walsh, (RC) Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1837 and were enshrined in the new St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, opened in 1841, in a new ark designed by Augustus Pugin
Augustus Pugin
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, and theorist of design, now best remembered for his work in the Gothic Revival style, particularly churches and the Palace of Westminster. Pugin was the father of E. W...
.
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.
Portrayals of St Chad
There are no portraits or descriptions of St Chad from his own time. The only hint that we have comes in the legend of Theodore lifting him bodily into the saddle – possibly suggesting that he was remembered as small in stature. All attempts to portray him are based entirely on imagination, and nearly all are obviously anachronistic, with a heavy stress on vestments from other periods.Churches
Chad gives his name to BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
's Roman Catholic cathedral, where there are some relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s of the saint: about eight long bones. It is the only cathedral in England that has the relics of its patron saint enshrined upon its high altar. The Anglican Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
, at the site of his burial, is dedicated to Chad, and St Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
, and still has a head chapel, where the skull of the saint was kept until it was lost during the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. The site of the medieval shrine is also marked.
Chad also gives his name to a parish church
The Church of St Chad, Lichfield
The Church of St Chad is a parish church in the area of Stowe in the north of the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. It is a Grade II* Listed Building. The church is located to the north of Stowe Pool on St Chad's Road...
in Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
(with Chad's Well, where traditionally Chad baptised converts: now a listed building).
Dedications are densely concentrated in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
. The city of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, for example, has two Anglican churches and a Roman Catholic secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
dedicated to Chad, while the nearby village of Pattingham
Pattingham
Pattingham is a village in South Staffordshire, close to the border with Shropshire. The village is seven miles to the west of Wolverhampton and seven and a half miles east of Bridgnorth....
has both an Anglican church and primary school. Shrewsbury had a large medieval church of St Chad which fell down in 1788: it was quickly replaced by a circular church in Classical
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
style by George Steuart, on a different site but with the same dedication. Further afield, there is a considerable number of dedications in areas associated with Chad's career, like the churches in Church Wilne in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
and Far Headingley
St Chad's Church, Far Headingley
St Chad's Church, Far Headingley is the parish church of Far Headingley in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The dedication is to Chad of Mercia, who was bishop of York and died in AD 672....
in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, as well as some in the Commonwealth, like Chelsea
Chelsea, Victoria
Chelsea is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 30 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston. At the 2006 Census, Chelsea had a population of 6694....
in Australia. There is also a St Chad's College
St Chad's College
St Chad's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. One of the smallest of Durham's colleges in terms of student numbers , it has the largest staff, the most extensive college library facilities, and consistently the highest academic results in Durham...
within the University of Durham, founded in 1904 as an Anglican hall.
Toponyms
There are many place names containing the element chad or something similar. In many cases, reference to the early forms of the name suggests that the derivation is not from the name Chad, but from some other word. It is possible that even where a name might reasonably be thought to derive from Chad that the individual is some other of the same name. Hence great caution needs to be exercised in explaining ancient toponyms by reference to St Chad.One toponym with a good claim to derivation from the saint's name is Chadkirk Chapel in Romiley
Romiley
Romiley is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. In Roman times there is thought to have been a settlement along Sandy Lane...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, which dates back to the 14th century – although the site is much older, possibly dating back to the 7th century when it is believed St Chad visited to bless the well there. Cameron points out that -kirk toponyms more frequently incorporate the name of the dedicatee, rather than the patron, so there is every reason to believe that Chadkirk really was dedicated to St Chad in the Middle Ages. It is not so certain that Chadsmoor in Staffordshire, Chadwich in Worcestershire, or Chadwick in Warwickshire, were named after the saint.
St Chad's Well near Battle Bridge on the river Fleet
River Fleet
The River Fleet is the largest of London's subterranean rivers. Its two headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath; each is now dammed into a series of ponds made in the 18th century, the Hampstead Ponds and the Highgate Ponds. At the south edge of Hampstead Heath these two streams flow...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
was a celebrated medicinal well and had a new pump house built in 1832. It was destroyed by the Midland Railway company, and is remembered in the street name of St Chad's Place. There is no independent evidence of Chad's visiting the site, but it clearly is named after him, and he certainly did travel in southern England. His association with wells seems ancient, and no doubt stems from the St Chad's Well at Lichfield, visited by pilgrims and probably the water supply of his monastery. This is the most likely explanation of the name.
Numerous place-names like Cheadle and Cheddleton, in the Midlands suggest a link with Chad. However "suggestions" based on late forms of the name count for little: a hypothesis should be framed instead from documentary and topographical evidence. Mostly names of this sort are derived from other Celtic roots, generally ced, cognate with modern Welsh coed, signifying a wood or heath. Cheadle, for example, is generally reckoned a tautonym
Tautonym
-In biology :In biology, tautonym is an informal term to indicate a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, for example Bison bison...
, with the Old English leah, also meaning a wood, glossing the original Celtic term. This means that the origins of its name are closely related to those of Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
(originally derived from the Celtic for "grey wood"), to which it bears little superficial resemblance, rather than Chad or even his brother, Cedd.
Kidderminster
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...
, in Worcestershire, is sometimes said to be a corruption of the name of 'St Chad's Minster'. However, place-names do not "corrupt" randomly, but evolve according to principles inherent in the history of the language. Chad or Ceadda would not normally evolve into Kidder. The existence of a minster dedicated to Chad in this town seems to be a legend traceable to Burton's 1890 History of Kidderminster, in which the author acknowledges that the only evidence for such a place is the name of the town. Later writers seem to assume the existence of the monastery and then explain the name of the town from it – a circular argument that collapses if a plausible alternative explanation is available for the name. A grant of land by Ethelbald of Mercia
Ethelbald of Mercia
Æthelbald was the King of Mercia, in what is now the English Midlands, from 716 until 757. During his long reign, Mercia became the dominant kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, and recovered the position of pre-eminence it had enjoyed during the seventh century under the strong Mercian kings Penda and...
in 736 to one Cyneberht is generally accepted as the origin of the settlement. Cameron suggests that the minster was named after a lay benefactor (normal with -minster formations) and hypothesises Cydela, a suggestion that has found general acceptance. Another possibility might be the later Mercian dux Cydda. Certainly it seems that there was a dynasty of Mercian noblemen, all with similar names beginning Cy and connected to the area. These provide a more plausible explanation for the name of the town than St Chad or his non-existent minster.
The settlement of St Chad's (population 57) in Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
was previously named "St Shad's" (after originally being "Damnable"),but was renamed after postal confusion with nearby "St Shott's" http://www.centralnewfoundland.com/stchads.php3.
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. Obviously, only some of its bearers are named directly after Chad of Mercia. Perhaps the best-known Chad of modern times who was so-named was Chad VarahChad Varah
Reverend Prebendary Edward Chad Varah, CH, CBE was a British Anglican priest. He is best remembered as the founder of The Samaritans, established in 1953 as the world's first crisis hotline organisation, offering non-religious telephone support to those contemplating suicide.-Life:Varah was born...
, an Anglican priest and social activist, whose father was vicar of Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...
– the probable site of Chad's monastery in the north of Lindsey.
Patronage
Due to the somewhat confused nature of Chad's appointment and the continued references to 'chadsChad (paper)
Chad refers to paper fragments created when holes are made in a paper, card or similar synthetic materials, typically computer punched tape or punched cards. Sometimes chad has been used as a mass noun or as a countable noun, and the plural is commonly either "chad" or "chads"...
' – small pieces of ballot papers punched out by voters using voting machines – in the 2000 US Presidential Election it has been jocularly suggested that Chad is the patron saint of botched elections. In fact there is no official patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of elections, though Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
is the one of politicians.http://www.snopes.com/religion/chad.asp
The Spa Research Fellowshiphttp://www.thespasdirectory.com/discover_the_spa_research_fell.asp states that Chad is the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of medicinal springs
Mineral spa
Mineral spas are resorts developed around naturally occurring mineral spring locales.- Origins :Spas grew in reputation in the nineteenth century on into the late middle-twentieth century for their purported healing or healthful benefits to those wealthy enough to partake of their waters...
, although other listings (e.g. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintc24.htm) do not mention this patronage.
St. Chad's Day (2 March) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow broad beans in England.
Background 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.
- Mayr-Harting, HenryHenry Mayr-HartingProfessor Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford and Lay Canon of Christ Church, Oxford from 1997 until 2003....
. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 1991. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-00769-4.. - Rudolf VleeskruijerRudolf VleeskruijerRudolf Vleeskruijer was a Dutch professor in the English language and Old English literature at the Utrecht University....
The Life of St.Chad, an Old English Homily edited with introduction, notes, illustrative texts and glossary by R. Vleeskruyer, North-Holland, Amsterdam (1953)