Chad, fact and fiction

 Abstract

Much is known about St Chad because of extensive entry in Bede’s book, 'The ecclesiastical history of the English people.' Inevitably, much has been over-interpretated or exaggerated and this is an attempt to sort fact from fiction. Chad was a major 7th and 8th century saint and his cult endured. He was the first bishop of Licitfelda or Lichfield in 669.

   

Chad on the west front of the cathedral.                                                                                        2021 Chad statue

  Little is known on the early life of Chad, or ceadda according to Bede.[1] 

He had three brothers[2] Cedd, Cynebill, and Cælin,[3] and their names appear to be Celtic. All were prepared for priesthood by Bishop Aidan at Lindisfarne, 635‑51 and this would mean learning the ways of a Celtic church.

 

Chad and his three older brothers, Cedd, Cynebil and Caelin being taught by Aidan. From a window in the Chapter House of the cathedral.

 

His next mention is when he followed his brother Cedd as Abbot of Lastingham (Bede’s Læstingau) in North Yorkshire, c. 664.^[4] Cedd was a married man with a son who was baptised well into his youth, so it can be presumed Chad, as the abbot, would have looked after Cedd’s widow and possibly his nephew.

 

Location of Lastingham. OpenStreetMap® is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License by the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

 

Crypt at Lastingham, probably original. 

                         Chad and Cedd at Lastingham church.

 

          Bede stated Chad journeyed extensively preaching the gospel to ‘high and low’ (to oppida, rura, casas, vicos, castella – meaning to towns, villages, cottages, roads and castles). He appears to have travelled long distances through Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern England, but his precise route is unclear.[5]

 

The following in the frame has been written as factual, but is derived and is uncertain.

He was born in 634. A date with obvious difficulties since it does not fit with dates for being a bishop and when he was most likely to have been priested.[6] Chad and his brothers were drawn from the Northumbrian nobility; an assertion because all the early priests appear to have had some standing. He became a novice at Lindisfarne aged 12 (thus c. 646) since this is thought to be the age when novices started. It has been suggested Chad and Cedd visited north Perthshire, based on church and chapel dedications.[7] Aidan is thought to have sent him as a missionary to Ireland with his friend Egbert of Ripon, c. 651, aged 17 or 18,[8] based on the custom that most priests appear to have completed their preparation in Ireland or Iona, but again there is no hard evidence. If true, the monastery of Rath Melsigi (Rathmelsh or Clonmelsh) is considered to have been his base. The inference is he returned to England in 653 or 4. A supposition is he then spent around 2½ years in Mercia and this has been said to explain the many churches dedicated to the saint.[9] In 664, he was consecrated a bishop for the first time[10] and Bede wrote it as being ‘consecrated bishop of the church of York’.[11] Many writers have assumed this was as Bishop of York[12], but more likely he became the Bishop of Northumbria. It is quite clear that King Oswiu intended Chad to be bishop over the entire Northumbrian people; his predecessor, Wilfrid, had been consecrated with this title. He was consecrated a bishop in the Celtic rite.

 

Chad’s Celtic training meant he viewed the dating of Easter in the Celtic way, becoming a bishop was done with one other bishop present and his hair cut and simplified dress would presumably have showed this persuasion.

Chad’s appearance would presumably be like the middle figure.

 The account of his installation as Bishop of Northumbria is complicated and probably incomplete. After the Synod of Whitby, 663/4, and a change from Celtic worship to a Roman form of worship, the Bishop of Northumbria resigned. King Oswiu wanted Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon to have the post and he accepted with the condition of going to Paris to be consecrated in style with many bishops attending. Unfortunately, he lingered abroad and then spent much time at Canterbury. Consequently, he did not arrive back for at least two years, that is, in 666. During his prolonged absence there was much trouble within the diocese so Oswiu asked Chad of Lastingham to be the bishop. Chad set out for Canterbury to be consecrated and ended up in Winchester. It is strange Chad did not go to Bishop Berhtgisl of East Anglia for consecration. At Winchester the bishop had to engage two Celtic bishops to licence Chad.[13] This was uncanonical for the Roman Church which held three Roman Bishops had to be present. Whether Chad kept his personal faith in a Celtic rite or changed to a Roman observance is unknown. Perhaps, his observance of both Celtic and Roman worship was useful to the King governing a large diocese that had just become Roman and needed time in transition. When Wilfrid finally returned, he found his see now occupied and so retired to Ripon. Chad, the stand-in bishop of Northumbria, lasted for three years.

 The following was recorded by Bede. In 669, the Mercian King Wulfhere, under some obligation to the Christian Northumbrian King Oswiu and receiving advice from Bishop Wilfrid, arranged for Chad to be sent to Lichfield as a way to further good relations. The new Archbishop, a Greek called Theodore, agreed for Chad to be moved out of Northumbria and away from Wilfrid. It was almost certainly managed by the kings, approved by Canterbury and Rome, and apparently accepted by Chad. Before this occurred, Theodore arranged for Chad to be re-consecrated in the Roman custom and this was undertaken in York; probably Wilfrid was present with Theodore. This conversion by Chad to Roman theology occurred three years before Chad’s death. Bede’s description of his last hours suggested he kept a preference for the Celtic rite. Essentially, he was a Celtic saint prepared to accommodate Roman worship and help grow the church in every way.

 

Archbishop Theodore consecrating Chad for a second time shown in a floor roundel.

 The location of Lichfield moved the see away from wherever the previous bishop’s churches were located. The notion the Mercian See was moved from Repton to Lichfield[14] is unattested, though plausible. Similarly, the notion the early church was on St Michael’s hill is also speculative. In Stephen of Ripon’s biography of Bishop Wilfrid,[15] he claimed Wilfrid and King Wulfhere identified the site at Lichfield (Licitfelda).[16] This shows Wilfrid as being a founding priest of Lichfield cathedral.[17]

 

In the short time Chad presided at Lichfield, 2½ years, he was, according to Bede, greatly loved for his humility and asceticism.[18] He had seven or eight brothers to help with developing the church site.[19] The site would be a monasterium or religious community and this name translates to mynster or minster. One of his pupils called Trumbercht (Trumbert) went on to instruct Bede, which must be a good reason why Bede’s account of Chad was so fulsome.[20] There is reason to think the early church at Lichfield grew in size and importance under Chad’s direction. Chad was never recorded as being the bishop of Lichfield. Indeed, Lichfield or Licitfelda, almost certainly was a field on the bank of a river and not seen as a settlement. Instead, Chad was Bishop of Mercia, an area larger than Northumbria and growing in importance militarily and by the next century nationally. The diocese of Lichfield starts later with the breakup of the diocese of Mercia around 680 by Archbishop Theodore.[21]

Chad died in 672, 1352 years ago. He died probably from a variant of plague, but smallpox and yellow fever have also been implicated. Bede described it as a progressive bodily weakness which grew worse over seven days.[22] Chad had foreseen he was soon to die and told his fellow monks he had been visited by the beloved guest who has been in the habit of visiting our brothers. All this indicated the plague bacterium, but he was surrounded by others and there is no record of them succumbing to the disease, which would be incongruous. He was buried near to his church of St Mary and Bede recorded miracle cures occurring close to his grave leading to him being besainted by the priesthood. Sargent[23] has suggested the narrative of Chad as a saint was established by the monks at Lastingham.

 

Chad from the north door of the cathedral.

 The cult of St Chad

It has been said in the age of saints, 7th and 8th century, every monastery had a saint and over 100 Saxon sites with a cult have been identified. Chad at Lichfield was one of the earliest, proved to be one of the most enduring and in terms of numbers of pilgrims was exceptional. However, it is also clear Bishop Wilfrid, later bishop of Mercia, with the assistance of Headda, Bishop of Lichfield over eleven years of working together promoted and established the cult and subsequent pilgrimage to his grave site. It is difficult to understand the life of Chad without considering alongside the influence of Wilfrid and to a lesser extent Bishop Headda.

Chad died on March 2 672 and this day might well have been kept for a special service every year and could be one of the oldest acts of patronal remembrance in England. In the 14th-century, following the Sarum missal, the translation of Chad’s relics to a shrine was on Rogation Sunday in May.

 

Chad at St Chad’s church, Hanmer, near Wrexham, Wales, and close to the route for Irish pilgrims journeying down the Wirral, across Cheshire, along the Trent River and finally to Lichfield.

 Chad is a recognised saint in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Celtic Orthodox churches. He is mentioned in The Synaxarion; a book containing the lives of the saints of the Orthodox Church.[24] The cathedral needs to review whether they sufficiently honour the legacy of St Chad. Enshrining one bone might be seen as insufficient, especially when the grave site is not marked.

 

[1] The Saint Chad's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints has no mention of his early life. The Victorian County History avoids his biography.

[2] J. Mclure and R. Collins, Bede. The ecclesiastical history of the English people. (Oxford: 2008), 149 (Historia Ecclesiastica- HE- 3, 23.).

[3] Their suggested dates have been Cedd c. 620–664, unknown for Cynebill and Cælin and Chad c. 634–672. These dates are derived, see note 6.

[4] See McClure and Collins (2008),149, (HE 3, 23).

[5] A. Breeze, ‘Bede’s castella and the journeys of St Chad’, Northern History, (2009), 46, 1, 137–9.

[6] This does not make sense if Chad is traditionally priested when 30 years old, around 664, since this would mean he became a bishop before a priest! It is logical if Chad’s birth date was in the late 620s.

[7] I. Styler, ‘Understanding and illustrating the influence of the Cult of St Chad of Lichfield’, The Journal of the Historical Association, (2020), 105, 367, 591.

[8] Ibid 161–2 (HE 3, 27). Chad is not explicitly named as amongst the nobles and commons who left for Ireland. Bede’s HE (4, 3) states Ceadda adulescente et ipse adulescens in Hibernia (Chad is a young man in Ireland). Adulescens can mean a youth, but for Romans this was the age of 14/15–27/30. A young man would normally be in his 20s. Chad is much more likely to be in Ireland c. 651 in his early 20s which makes his birth date 627–631. He is then priested 657–661 and becomes a bishop in 664 aged 33–37. He dies aged 41–45.

[9] H.E. Savage, Life of St Chad. (Unpub. Article in Cathedral Library, reprint dated 1972), 15. Savage mentions 31 churches with ancient dedication to Chad, but none can trace back their origins to the 7th-century. It is more likely churches with Chad as patron were situated on pilgrimage routes.

[10] This is the same year as being made Abbot of Lastingham.

[11] See McClure and Collins (2008), 163, (HE, 3, 28).

[12] Ibid. 17.

[13] This is the year 664, but some accounts have different dates.

[14] O. Mosley, A short account of the Ancient British Church. (London: 1858), 109. This reference to Repton surprisingly once appeared in the Wikipedia account for Lichfield Cathedral.

[15] Written sometime between July 712–March 714. Called ‘Vita Sancti Wilfrithi’.

[16] See the post ‘Reasons why Lichfield (Licitfelda) had approval’

[17] See the post ‘Wilfrid, creator of the first cathedral’.

[18] See McClure and Collins (2008), 174, (HE, 4, 3).

[19] Bede mentions brothers several times. When announcing his impending death, he urged Owine, a brother, to fetch seven brothers from the church. (Book 4 Chapter 3) McClure and Collins (2008), 176.

[20] It was in stark contrast to Bede’s lesser treatment of Mercia and its Christian development, knowing it could potentially rival and threaten Northumbria.

[21] F. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 1989), 134, wrote by 680 Theodore had created the diocese of Worcester and Hereford. Bishops of Leicester were recorded. This left the Diocese of Lichfield.

[22] See McClure and Collins (2008),177, (HE, 4, 3).

[23] A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad, University of Hertfordshire Press Volume 19 (2020).

[24] See https://www.orthodoxbritain.co.uk/st-chadd-biography