Easter Cross and Bishop Wilfrid

Summary.  A folded gold cross found in the Staffordshire Hoard has zoomorphic imagery which is decoded and explained. It has profound iconography conveying the Easter message of crucifixion and resurrection that heals with eternal life. A 7th century cross emphasising Easter could be the work of Bishop Wilfrid of Mercia. It could have adorned the cover of the St Chad’s Gospels. It is a national treasure.

     An incomplete, jewelled gold cross,[1]now called ‘The Great Gold Cross,’ was recovered within the Staffordshire Hoard together with five roundel attachments, two garnets and a ‘D’ shaped stone.[2]  Parts have been reassembled and a replica made with the few missing bits added. It is extraordinary for its explicit depiction of Easter and salvation and for its time in Early Medieval zoomorphic imagery. It emphasises Easter for the early English, Roman church at the time when it was being established. This links with Bishop Wilfrid and adds to its significance.

 

Drawing of the recovered cross with the replica held by Lichfield Cathedral. The cross unfolded is c. 300mm (12 inches) tall. Another slightly different reconstruction has been given.[3]

 

Understanding its appearance

 The ends of the arms have leaf-shaped extensions which are most likely vine leaves illustrating a ‘tree-of-life’ motif symbolising spiritual growth.[4] Vine motifs are seen on Acca’s stone at Hexham, Northumberland and the standing crosses at Bewcastle, Cumbria, and Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire.[5] Such crosses have been linked with the reforms of Bishop Wilfrid and his mission to connect the northern churches especially with the Church of Rome.[6] It is argued the gold cross is contemporary with free-standing stone high crosses in the Early Medieval kingdom of Northumbria and churches of southern Ireland having grapevine motifs and espousing communion with Rome. This is not original; the three stone crosses have previously been envisaged as monuments imitating gold, jewelled crosses, of which some are displayed in mosaics in Rome churches.[7] Between the roundels and garnets of the cross are five incised panels containing non-figurative, semi-naturalistic zoomorphs.[8] This animal art is interpreted as having cryptic biblical references rooted in the seventh century. The explanation begins with deciphering panels from the bottom stem of the cross and continues by moving upwards and then outwards along the arms of the cross.

 

Lower Stem

The lowest stem panel has five ribboned zoomorphs, each identifiable with a single eye. The five figures refer to the five days from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday in Holy Week. The bottommost zoomorph is small and represents Palm Sunday, this being the Lord’s Day with an avoidance of activity, including dietary restriction. The zoomorph has a large hand above the head and has the appearance of waving, such as with a palm leaf. The uppermost fifth zoomorph has an extra limb to its sinuous body and is taken to be showing an upturned foot washed on Maundy Thursday (John 13 v5). The hind leg has an upturned, trailing paw and is repeated in the next panel, showing all remain washed and spiritually unsullied.

Lower stem

 The panel above has two more zoomorphs and symbolically presents crucifixion. At the bottom of this panel is a chain of four linked rings which could be a skeuomorph to show the arrest and shackling of Christ at the end of the fifth day. A raised, sharp point at the bottom left side of this panel has to denote the spear of the Roman soldier, (John 19 v34). The top zoomorph under the large garnet has a distinct tilted-ring around the body close to the head. The position of this ring is either the crown of thorns, or is a nimbus and tilted to show Jesus is dead. The eye of this zoomorph is indistinct. There is a total of thirteen feet in the two panels below the central garnet which presumably represents Christ and the twelve disciples. 

 Upper Stem

 

Panel above the central garnet

 Above the central garnet is a small panel separated by a crossline from the top panel. It shows two sinuous appendages, taken to be arms with rings and ending in three fingers. It has the general shape of the letters ‘IHS’, or nearer still the alternative ‘JHS’, a Christogram using the first three capital letters of the name for Jesus in Greek. The name was incised on Cuthbert’s oak coffin, c. 698, in runic letters,[9] and the zoomorph panel is similar in shape to the three incised runic letters. The small panel would reflect Christ in a small rock tomb on Holy Saturday and its shape resembles the headpost added to many crucifixes. Using arms to signify the name of Jesus would not be unusual, there is considerable Biblical[10] reference to portray him as the arm of God. A ring around the arm recalls the Early Medieval signature for kingship and must be significant.

Above the line in the top panel are two entwined ribbon animals with mouths touching. The bodies of these animals have simpler ornamentation; studs along the body are absent and eyes are again indistinct. If this panel characterised Easter and resurrection, their appearance is inevitably schematised and a biblical context is offered. Interpreting the two zoomorphs as touching in an embrace recalls reference to John 13 v34, I give you a new commandment that you love one another. This is elaborated in Galatians 5 v14-15, “For the whole law is summed up in one commandment. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another”.

Zoomorphs biting bodies, tails and legs are numerous in Early Medieval artwork, but these two zoomorphs are unusual in having touching mouths. The south side of the Ruthwell cross near to the top has two figures in an embrace. A pair of remarkably similar zoomorphs with interlocking jaws were carved on the jambs of the entrance porch to St Peter’s church, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland. These late 7th-century figures appear to be embracing each other and their ribbon bodies intertwine to form a tau cross.[11] They could have reminded all who enter the church to love one another.

Monkwearmouth zoomorphs. Image thanks to N. Platts.

A similar representation is on an early 8th-century grave cover or marker known as the Herebericht stone[12], also at Monkwearmouth, with two confronted animals (birds?) above a cross with squared arms.[13] Did the gold worker of the cross know the sculpture at the church at Monkwearmouth and if this was so, a date of late-7th or early-8th century could be given.

 

Ó Carragáin thought the paws of the two animals on the Bewcastle cross originally crossed over to form a Chi- ‘X’ shape for the first Greek letter of Christ, but weather had obliterated this. It is more obvious in a panel on the north side of the Ruthwell cross.[14] The sinuous bodies of the zoomorphs in the top panel of the gold cross clearly show an ‘X’ shape. If the gold cross imagery was contemporary with the two stone crosses, a date in the first half of the 8th-century is recalled.[15] Finally, the two hands, each with three digits, of the two sinuous zoomorphs point upwards to the top garnet, as if holding high a ‘living stone’[16]; a theophany. Bede viewed the living stones metaphor as the faithful in the new temple or church.[17] Christ holds the equivalent trope of a ‘Book of Life’ on the Bewcastle cross.

 

Side arms

If the stem of the cross showed zoomorphic representation of the days leading to crucifixion and resurrection then the side arms show imagery of salvation.[18]

Side arm panels and its iconography labelled for the figurative river and associated fruits.

 

The two side panels refer to Psalm I. v3 and particularly to a vision expressed in the Book of Revelation 22 v1-2.^[19] This vision consists of a river which proceeds from the throne of God that flows to the people of the church who are embraced by the side arms. The river-of-life is envisaged with a fruit tree growing on each side of the bank producing 12 kinds of fruit.^[20] The fruit tree is the tree-of-life and underlines the whole cross being a tree-of-life allegory. The ribbon body is deciphered as a river because it has two lines of raised studs that are tear-shaped eliciting the appearance of flowing water.^[21] The elbow pieces are analogous in shape to a stalked fruit and there are 12 on the cross; 4 on each side arm and 4 on the top panel. There are animal heads at the ends looking outwards and this suggests they have a protective function.^[22] It fits with a following verse in Revelation 22 v15, outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolators and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Dogs symbolically guarded against those who sin and by extension harm the fidelity of the church. The inside dog on the left arm has its ear missing and this could artistically refer to three verses later in which everyone is exhorted to hear the words of Revelation 22 v18, otherwise they lose their share in the tree of life. To illustrate this trope of dogs looking outwards see St Chad’s Gospels in which Luke, on page 218, sits on a chair with finials shaped as dog heads looking outwards.^[23]

 

Dog looking outwards on Luke’s Incipit page of St Chad’s Gospel.

 

Bede, in his ‘Commentary on Revelation,’ c. 703, emphasised the fruit as the reward for Christian obedience, Romans 6 v21–22 and Galatians 5 v22, and is a metaphor for all time, that is 12 months with 12 fruits. In Bede’s words the Lord gives eternal health and the eternal food of life.^[24] The arms of the cross are stretching outwards and healing all by offering everlasting life. This sentiment was in Tatwine’s riddle 9 describing a cross using the words, “Now I appear iridescent; my form is shining now. Whoever enjoys my fruit will immediately be well for I was given the powers to bring health to the unhealthy”.^[25] Tatwine, c. 670-734, was a monk at Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, 731-4, by King Æthelbald of Mercia. He could, like Bede, have been concerned with the healing of people out of reach of the Mercian church. A similar animal ornamentation occurs on the impressed silver-gilt foils around the rim of a Maplewood bottle found amongst the grave goods in the Sutton Hoo ship burial, c. 620–30.^[26] This similarity does not necessarily make the two items contemporaneous or make the bottle decoration explicitly Christian,^[27] but could be an image that was well-known, loved and copied over several generations.[28]

 

The cross conveys the Easter message that belief in crucifixion and resurrection will heal with eternal life. Most crux gemmata are eschatological and have crucifixion imagery, sometimes on the reverse side.^[29] It could have been inspired by the gemmed cross^[30] set up, year 417, by Theodosius II, 408-50, on the altar of the true cross in the Sepulchral complex in Jerusalem.^[31] The same imagery, that is Christ crucified, Paradise, Tree-of-life, and Revelation, is evident in the Byzantine mosaics of various Italian churches from the 6th-century^[32] and would most likely have been seen by bishops on their pilgrimage to Rome. This suggests the sponsor could have been Bishop Wilfred of Ripon and Hexham, 634-710, who went on three pilgrimages to Rome and presumably visited these churches. The Easter trope associates with someone adhering to the canonical laws decreed in 672 after the Synod of Whitby, 664.[33] Wilfrid believed strongly in the centrality of Easter and his fervent promotion for Roman observance throughout much of England.[34] After Wilfrid was exiled from Northumbria, he turned to Æthelred of Mercia, 690–2, and was acting bishop for the Middle Angles.[35] Then, with Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691-716–27, a close relationship with Mercia continued and lasted for eleven years, 691/2 to 703.[36] By the end of Wilfrid’s life there existed a large network of monasteries in Mercia owned and influenced by him.[37] Wilfrid, aged c. 76 in early 710, in front of ten witnesses at Ripon, including two Mercian monks, ordered his treasurer to open the church treasury, spread out the gold, silver and precious jewels and distribute them to his abbeys and monasteries in Northumbria.[38] Around this time, after 709, Wilfrid made his last journey to Mercia, met Mercian abbots and gave away endowments.[39]  It is possible he passed on jewelled objects to his Mercian brethren before he died at Oundle, 24 April, 710, [40] with burial at Ripon. Foot concluded material prosperity seems both to have marked out the Wilfridian houses and to have bound them to their patron. There is good reason Lichfield would have been in his, ‘kingdom of churches’ and perhaps a beneficiary of liturgical objects.[41] Wilfrid was at the centre of Romanising England as well as developing the cathedral-church at Lichfield. This cross could be his work.

 

[1] It measured folded 114 mm long, 74 mm wide and 1.3 mm thick, see catalogue No. 539 online at Archaeology Data Service (ADS), The Staffordshire Hoard: An Anglo-Saxon Treasure. The hoard contained five cross-shaped objects and other objects with crosses displayed on them.

[2] C. Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory: the great gold cross from the Staffordshire Hoard’, Barbaric splendour. The use of image before and after Rome, ed. T. F. Martin and W. Morrison (Oxford, 2020), 78–86.

[3] C. Fern, T. Dickinson and L. Webster eds. The Staffordshire Hoard. An Anglo-Saxon treasure. Research Report of the Society of Antiquaries, No. 80. (London: 2019), 100.

[4] Refers to the tree in the middle of paradise according to the visions of Ezek 17 v22–4 and Dan 4 v7–14. Also, the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden, Gen. 2 v15. The cross as a tree is poetically described in The Dream of the Rood, c. 8th-century, R. Hamer, A choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (London, 1970), 160-1. Lines 7 and 8 state it is covered in gold and gleams with jewels. The extensions have been described as animal ears, possibly equine, Fern ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory’, 84 and 94.

[5] Acca’s Cross is in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture,1, 174–176. The Bewcastle cross is in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, 2, 61–72, see <http://www.ascorpus.ac.uk>.

[6] W. Herren and S. A. Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity, (Woodbridge: 2002), 207.

[7] J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford, 2005), 137.

[8] Fern described the cross as combining a Christ-in-victory message with animal art of northwest Europe rooted very probably in pagan pre-Christian belief. See note 2. Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory.’ 78.

[9] R. Page, An introduction to English Runes (Woodbridge, 2006), 171–2.

[10] Isaiah 51 v9 is one of around 40 references to the arms of Jesus.

[11] Animal shown in E. Wamers, ‘Behind animals, plants and interlace: Salin’s Style II on Christian objects.’  Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations before the Vikings ed. J. Graham-Campbell and M. Ryan (Oxford 2009), 182, is described as a crane bird zoomorph in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, 1, 125–6 is labelled reptilian. There is a superficial resemblance to the main zoomorph in the Durham Gospels (Durham A. II. 17, fol. 2r), late seventh century.

[12] The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, 1, Monkwearmouth, 5. 1040 x 530 x 180 mm.

[13] J. Hawkes, ‘Symbolic lives: the visual evidence’ The Anglo-Saxons from the migration period to the eighth century: an ethnographic perspective. (Woodbridge, 1997), 322.

[14] É. Ó Carragáin, ‘The periphery rethinks the centre: inculturation, Roman Liturgy and the Ruthwell Cross’. Rome across time and space. Cultural transmission and the exchange of ideas, c. 500–1400 ed. C. Bolgia, R. McKitterick and J. Osborne. (Cambridge, 2011), 4, 79.

[15] It is generally thought the two crosses were produced by the same team of sculptors who were foreign and importing Continental artistic concepts, Herren and Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity, 237–9. A Statement of Significance for Historic Environment Scotland, 2019, dates the Ruthwell Cross to c. 730s.

[16] I Peter 2 v 4, ‘Come to him, a living stone’.

[17] From Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels, Book 2, 24.

[18] The explanation was first published in a book, R. Sharp, The Hoard and its History. Staffordshire’s secrets revealed (Studley: 2016).

[19] Ibid R. Sharp, (2016), 56. Biblical references are from the Biblia Sacra Vulgata, 5th edition Bible.

[20] “And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of the street, and on both sides of the river, the tree bearing fruit twelve months, yielding its fruit and leaves are for the healing of nations”. The alternative to the Vulgate in the N.R.S.V. Bible is found at 258.

[21] The rivers could allude to the four rivers which watered the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2 v10–14. The rivers were named as the Phison, Geon, Tigris and Euphrates. On the cross arms are 4 rivers each ending in four animal heads. Four rivers frequently appear in the Rome apse mosaics issuing from Christ’s throne or from below His feet, see P. Murray and L. Murray, The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture (Oxford, 1996), 433. The tear-shaped studs have been suggested to be hair on an animal’s body, see C. Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory: the great gold cross from the Staffordshire Hoard’, Barbaric splendour. The use of image before and after Rome, ed. T. F. Martin and W. Morrison (Oxford, 2020), 85.

[22] The bears at the end of hogback stones might have had a similar protective role, see M. Carver, Formative Britain. An Archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century AD (London and New York, 2019), 555. A cat forms the border to Luke’s incipit page of the Lindisfarne Gospels, fol. 139r, and is thought to be a guardian at the entrance of the underworld, see M. P. Brown, Painted labyrinth. The world of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, 2003), 30. F. Wallis, Bede: Commentary on Revelation (Liverpool, 2013), 284 gives Bede’s comment on Revelation 22, v15 as ‘the savage ferocity of shameless men assaulting the church from the outside’.

[23] See page 218. <https://lichfield.ou.edu/content/luke-portrait-pg-218> [accessed February 2020].

[24] See note 22, Wallis, Bede: Commentary on Revelation, 280.

[25] M. J. B. Allen and D. G. Calder, Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry. The Major Latin texts in translation (Cambridge, 1976), 56.

[26] London, British Museum object 1939,1010.122–7,1, see K. Hoilund Nielson, ‘Style II and all that: the potential of the hoard for statistical study of chronology and geographical distribution’. Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard Symposium ed. H. Geake (London, 2010).

[27] There is no justification in labelling any of the burials, Sutton Hoo horse, ship and bed burials, as Christian, see Carver, Formative Britain. An Archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century, 34.

[28] It is feasible the bottle contained a drink, Comey thought sweet mead or ale, which would give healing of a sort. Placement in the middle of the burial chamber must have had a funerary significance. See, M. G. Comey, ‘The wooden drinking vessels in the Sutton Hoo assemblage: Materials, morphology and usage’. Trees and timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Medieval History and Archaeology, ed. M. D. J. Bintley and M. G. Shapland (Oxford, 2013), 117.

[29] The recently installed cross icon hanging above the nave at Lichfield Cathedral has jewels on the east side representing the Staffordshire Hoard.

[30] The existence and form of this monumental cross has been questioned, see C. Milner, ‘Lignum Vitae or Crux Gemmata? The Cross of Golgotha in the Early Byzantine Period. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20, (1996), 77–99.

[31] J. Hawkes, ‘Venerating the Cross around the year 800 in Anglo-Saxon England’ The Jennifer O’Reilly Memorial Lecture (Cork, 2018), 4.

[32] M. Baghos, ‘Christ, Paradise, trees and the Cross in the Byzantine art of Italy’ J. of Orthodox Theology, 9, (2018).

[33] At the Synod of Whitby, AD 664, it was established how Easter should be fixed, made distinct and kept separately. It had to be restated in the first of ten decrees at the Council of Hertford (Herutford), 672. A meeting on 24 September, convoked by Archbishop Theodore with Bishop Winfrith of Mercia, 672-76, present and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon attending by a proxy.

[34] M. Laynesmith, ‘Anti-Jewish rhetoric in the Life of Wilfrid’, Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013).

[35] C. Cubitt, ‘Appendix 2: The Chronology of Stephen’s Life of Wilfrid’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 345–347.

[36] M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.

³⁷ S. Foot, ‘Wilfrid’s monastic Empire. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 31. At least six have been suggested between AD 691/2 and 703, see P. Coulstock, The Collegiate Church of Wimborne Minster (Woodbridge, 1993). Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles, 263, mentioned Bath, Oundle, Ripple, possibly Inkberrow and Chester. Evesham and Wing have some claim, see D. Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, fifth ed.’ (Oxford, 2011), 448. Also, Worcester, Leicester and Medeshamstede (Peterborough) with its satellite minsters at Breedon-on-the-hill, Woking, Bermondsey and perhaps Hoo (Kent) and Brixworth, see Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, 83. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c. 600–900, 258–269, included Repton and Thorney. Mercian monks were regarded as part of the Ripon Community according to Stephen, Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, chapter 64,138.

[38] Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, 63, 136–137. See A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid, his cult and his biographer.’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 10.

[39] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford: 2005), 96.

[40] C. Stancliffe, Dating Wilfrid’s death and Stephen’s life’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 21.

[41] S. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c. 600–900, 26. See note 37.

Chad's grave-the evidence

Summary. Archaeological excavation at the east end of the nave in 2003 revealed the foundation to a shrine tower and within it a grave. Eight reasons are given for believing this was Chad’s grave. It should be marked.

 Context

King Wulfhere gained overlordship of Mercia c. 657-9, possibly by paying tribute to King Oswiu of Northumbria.[1] He then assisted in appointing the third and fourth bishops of Mercia, who came from the north, and most likely built their timber church in the vicinity, perhaps, along the Trent washlands.[2] Bishop Wilfrid, acting as bishop of Mercia, and Wulfhere, between 667 and 669, fixed a new site for a mother church-cathedral beside a stream on a Mercian mudstone slope for the fifth bishop of Mercia (Chad). They called the location Licitfelda, meaning the approved field. Bede 17–19 years later, confirmed the event.[3] See the posts, ‘Wilfrid, creator of the first cathedral’ and ‘Reasons why Lichfield (Licitfelda) had approval’. Bede recorded when Chad died in 672 two churches were present.[4] See the post, ‘Understanding Chad’s grave site’. This is the documentary evidence for two churches, St Peters and St Marys at Lichfield by at the year 672 when Chad was buried at Licetfelda.

Bede stated Wilfrid became the Bishop of the Middle Angles, ?690–692.[5] Then, with Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691 x 716–27, a close relationship with Mercia continued and lasted for eleven years, between 691/2 to 703.^[6] Almost certainly Wilfrid encouraged the cult of Chad, its pilgrimage and Licetfelda as a sacred landscape. This was repeated with Cuthbert at Lindisfarne and in time with Wilfrid at Ripon. Major ecclesiastical centres had noted saints in special shrines.

 

Archaeological evidence

          In 2003, an octagonal hole, 7.5m wide, was dug in the floor at the east end of the nave to install a rising platform.[7] A foundation for a building c. 7 m wide north-south[8] and possibly the same length east-west was found. The walls mostly a metre thick suggested the building was relatively tall.[9] The east end had a tongue of natural clay and this was thought to have been steps into the shrine. Inside was a sunken, possibly lined, pit, 0.8m deep, c. 2m wide and slightly longer[10]; clearly a burial pit or hypogeum (underground tomb). Alternatives, such as a baptistry, were ultimately dismissed.[11]  Rodwell published the outcome of the dig for the cathedral library and later in a magazine.[12] Since the dig there have been implausible suggestions on whether the chamber was much longer and it attached to a church 20m away.[13] Bunce[14] has concluded local burial practices of saint’s graves between c. 600 and 850 in Britain and Ireland explain the variation in the types of shrines including unique Insular shrines. This might be a grave with Insular features. Crook has linked the shrine to that at Jouarre Abbey, northern France, which connects with St Columbanus and his Celtic mission, c. 630. 

 

Reconstructed diagram of the shrine tower enclosing the sunken chamber and showing how it was offset to the north. Only the left half of the shrine tower foundation (brown) was uncovered. Only three-quarters of the left side of the pit was excavated.

 

 

Photograph of the excavation area and the grave (outlined in red). Foundation wall is outlined in blue. The midline of the chamber is in yellow.

 

 

 Position of the grave in the current cathedral, 3.5m from the north pillar of the second bay.

The size and shape resembled shrine towers known in Ireland and dated 8th to 9th-century. Such buildings were well under 12m square and usually had a west-facing door.[15] Carver said they were narrow and tall, employed megalithic construction for the walls, enclosed a single room rarely larger than 6 x 4m and had a single western door with an east window.[16] A somewhat similar layout occurred for the Hexham and Ripon crypts.[17]

St Kevin's shrine tower at Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland.

 

Reasons for accepting this was Chad’s burial site.

1.     Every aspect suggests a shrine tower built to house the grave of someone special.[18] The shrine resembled those, at least 4, in Ireland[19] each dedicated to hold the remains of a saint. The archaeologist suggested burial offset to the north in a small room 5m square had some resemblance to Christ’s tomb chamber (2.5m long, 1.2m wide and 2.5m high) reconfigured in Constantine’s church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (which was different from the original rock tomb). The cobbled stone floor suggests many attended the grave. The possible east end door is characteristic for such monuments.

 

Adomnan’s 7th-century drawing of the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

2.     Bede recorded Chad’s relics were within a ‘wooden house’, on (ibidem) the original grave.[20] It is entirely plausible the wooden house was exchanged later with a stone sepulchre-chest, see the post ‘Chad’s relics.’ Within the grave and close by were found three pieces of stonework which fitted together to make what is now called ‘The Lichfield Angel’. The head of the angel Gabriel is very similar to the head of King Offa on his coins suggesting he ordered the new shrine chest. Its fine painted detail and being best stone from Ancaster, Lincolnshire, suggests wealth typical of Offa and his archbishopric. The style of Gabriel, especially his Romanesque tunic, closely resembles the incised Gabriel on the left end of Cuthbert’s wooden coffin buried and now exhibited in Durham Cathedral. This equates Offa’s shrine chest for Chad with the shrine and coffin of Cuthbert. See the post, ‘Lichfield Angel.’

3.     A substantial socketed, sandstone block was found next to the sunken chamber and could have been the base to a standing cross.[21] Alternatively, it could have supported an eternal flame from an oil lamp; this has been noted elsewhere with saintly burials such as with Brigid at Kildare in 5th century. Leviticus 6 v13 states "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out." It was clearly an extra to the grave and a marker of some kind.

4.     Of the 22 people, some were priests, found above the shrine tower foundation in the 2003 excavation, some had requested burial near St Chad. For example. William Berford who died in 1450 requested burial near his uncle, Dean Stretton, and St Chad. The sunken chamber was not cut by later graves.[22] Rodwell noted broken fragments of incised floor slabs with indents of Purbeck marble and bluestone to show the high status of burials. This was a special grave site. It seems that even in medieval times there was an understanding where Chad was buried and this was largely forgotten, or ignored, until the discoveries of 2003.

5.     It makes sense that when the current cathedral was built the remains of Chad were removed from the nave area to be housed in St Peter’s Head Chapel on the south side of the choir. The nave then became an open area for the attendance of worshippers kept separate from the main church to the east of the crossing. Pilgrims and penitents could be ushered from the south door, along the south choir aisle to St Peter’s Head Chapel and then returned to the doorway. This explains the medieval practice of exhibiting relics, not graves, and why the grave was empty of bones in 2003.

6.     The sunken chamber had been infilled with soil and rubble and a tiled floor laid across. On top was a board, possibly a coffin lid, and on this was a little twisted skeleton of an aged man. He was thought to have been a pilgrim and the depth of burial suggested 15th century. Across his pelvis and legs was a tree branch around 3cm thick thought to have been his staff. By his right side of his thigh was the remains of a large round pouch or scrip and around his waist was a hint of a leather belt. It is either an odd coincidence or a deliberate burial of perhaps a distinguished pilgrim on top of Chad’s grave. No other pilgrim has been found.

7.     The grave is positioned in the centre of the current cathedral and close to the centre of the Close and therefore the middle of the 7th century settlement. If the layout of the monasterium was a series of rings as seen in Irish-Celtic monasteries and thought to be at Iona, see the post ‘A sacred layout for the first cathedral,’ then it is central to the site.

8.     A recent review of features seen in the excavation has supported the notion this was an early grave.[23] Rodwell[24] in 2006 wrote, “We now have fair reason to believe we have found the secondary burial place, that is after translation,[25] of St Chad.” No one has disputed this.

     Surprisingly, the location of the grave has not been marked or noted in the cathedral and visitors sometimes remark on this. Instead, pilgrims have finished their journey with prayers at the shrine at the east end of the cathedral. It would be fitting to have a portable cross or eternal candle above the site of the grave. There is no other ecclesiastical centre in England where the grave site of the patron saint is unmarked. This is important if it is thought significant to establish the cult in the way it was. Crook expressed it as, early Christian writers (in Roman times) knew the devout visited holy graves because in a mysterious way they believed the saint, though dead in body, continued to maintain contact with the earthly sphere through the physical remains that they had left behind.[]26The bones (and grave) provided a channel of communication between earth and heaven. The grave provided a source of spiritual power, such as healing infirmities.

[1] No battle or skirmish is known. Three ealdormen proclaimed Wulfhere king of the Mercians. See F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 1989), 84. Perhaps, Christian King Oswiu had an arrangement with Christian King Wulfhere.

[2] The cathedral seems fond of stating a church on the site since the year 700, but in fact there must have been a church on or close by in 659 and certainly one by 669. That is, over 1350 years ago.

[3] Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. The ecclesiastical history of the English People, 731. Bede listed this work as Historiam ecclesiasticam nostræ insulæ ac gentis in libris V, which translates to, The ecclesiastical history of our island and nation in five books.

[4] Ibid, Book 4 chapter 3.

[5] HE Book 4, chapter 23. This is often stated to be centred on Leicester, but there is no evidence for a see at Leicester before 737. It is unclear why Bede confined Wilfrid’s activity to the Middle Angles in the early 690s. See A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid, his cult and his biographer.’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 8.

[6] M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.

[7] A four-lobed shaped area of floor, 38 m², can be raised 300 mm in two stages to form a platform for the altar table to be higher and seen from the end of the nave. The eight-tonne floor uses six electrically operated, precision, screw jacks, not hydraulics. The perimeter stone is 170 mm thick, but the inner stone is only 20 mm thick. Manchester Cathedral copied the mechanism.

[8] Drawing shows a width of c .6.7 metres (22 feet or 1.5 short perches), see W. Rodwell, ‘Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral’. (Unpublished report held in Lichfield Cathedral Library, 2003), 15.

[9] A modern term for such a building is a shrine chapel. However, a shrine in Medieval Latin was called a cappella, which translated to chapele and by the 13th-century became a chapel. The word is therefore relatively recent. It is not known what the shrine tower might have been called.

[10] A squarish grave was not thought to be unusual, especially if it was a crypt-shaped chamber like that at Repton.

[11] No lead lining was found. Often baptism used a large lead pot. The river south of the cathedral was probably more likely to be used for baptism,

[12] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield, Unpub. report in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2003). Also W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave Sanctuary. 67th Annual Report to the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral held in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2004). Also W. Rodwell, ‘The forgotten cathedral.’ Current Archaeology, (2006), 18, 1 (205), 9–17.

[13] Rodwell thought the distance between the choir foundations and the nave foundations, c. 20m, was considerable and belonged to two separate buildings in an east-west alignment.[13] Sargent repeated the notion of one long church with the sepulchral of Chad at the west end and the altar of St Peter at the east end.[13] There is a difficulty with the alignment and the length of this church. Also implausible is the housing of a saint’s shrine at the west end of a church in the 7th-century; elsewhere the saint was buried in a porticus on the side of the nave and near the altar.

[14] M. Bunce, Shrines and special graves in Britain and Ireland c.600-850, (2022). PhD thesis University of Oxford.

[15] T. Ó Carragáin, ‘The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland’ The J. of the Royal Soc. of Antiquaries of Ireland, 133 (2003) 66.

[16] M. Carver, Formative Britain. An archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century A.D. (London and New York, 2019), 569. Carver cites Iona (beneath St Columba’s House), Tighlagheany (Co. Galway), Teach Molaise (on Inishmurray) and St Columb’s (Co Meath) as examples, p. 570.

[17] R. N. Bailey, ‘St Wilfrid – a European Anglo-Saxon’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 122.

[18] Rodwell, ‘Lichfield Cathedral. Archaeology of the Sanctuary’, 4.

[19] Possibly also Patrick’s chapel at Heysham on the Morecambe coast.

[20] Were the dimensions those of Christ’s tomb chamber at Jerusalem, namely, 2.5m long, 1.2m wide and 2.5m high?

[21] Rodwell conjectured it was one of four uprights with a canopy on top, but this is very speculative. Finding one post-hole cannot justify claiming a canopy needing several supporting columns.

[22] Around half of the 22 graves found were 13th to 15th-century. The youngest grave was 1810.

[23] A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield, 2020), 117.

[24] See note 10, Rodwell (2006), 13

[25] Bede is clear the ‘constructa’ or wooden house was ‘ibidem’ on the same spot as the grave. Some Latinists of Bede have mis-translated this description. His relics would not have been taken into St Peter’s church, unless the church had a side chamber and Chad was a minor saint.

[26] J. Crook, English Medieval Shrines. (Woodbridge: 2011), 5.