Summary. Chad’s bones were translocated to the surface of his grave and kept in a ‘wooden house.’ They moved to a chapel built early13th-century. His skull was on the altar and arm bones inside a reliquary casket. For two centuries they were in a sumptuous shrine, before removal at Reformation. Many bones have been lost.
An archaeological dig over five days in 2003 revealed Chad’s grave dug in 672.[1] It was found offset to the north inside the foundation of a shrine tower located under the floor at the east end of the nave. His relics were later placed on his grave (ibidem) inside a small, wooden house (domuncula feretrum).[2] Assuming three decades passed for the body to decay means the translocation must have been at the start of the eighth century. Originally the grave was near to the church of St Mary and on the site of the main church called St Peters, but these churches have not been discovered. It is assumed the relics were on display on this spot in the tenth, eleventh or even the twelfth-century.
Chad’s grave and shrine tower described in 2003. The red ring was an area undetermined because of the constraints of the area agreed for examination. The description is from Rodwell 2004.
During excavation a King Edgar
silver penny was found within a pit.[3] This
suggested Chad’s relics were being accessed, and perhaps relocated, during or
after this king’s reign (10th-century). Lepine conjectured “towards the
end of the 10th century, for reasons not understood, the shrine over Chad’s
grave was deliberately dismantled, buried and replaced by a new shrine on the
same site, but if so, nothing is known about the replacement”.[4]
King Edgar
silver penny. Obverse has +EADGAR RE around a small cross pattée within an
inner circle. Reverse has INGEL-RI for the moneyer Ingelrics based at Derby. He
minted coins showing a rosette and with MO in the field which means money, coin
or die and is a feature of Mercian mints. Little is known on this moneyer which
makes it unusual. Thanks to Dane Kurth of wildwinds.com.
Lepine wrote with the building of
the current nave the shrine was incorporated into the present cathedral
building. Unfortunately, he placed this change of the shrine in the time of Bishop
Limesey (1085–1117) and this is without any evidence and contrary to the best
idea of when the second cathedral was built. It also ignores the suggestion of
the shrine being moved to a chapel behind the high altar.[5]
An endowment in 1176 for six shillings was given for a light to be kept burning
at the saint’s shrine.[6] Therefore
this was either at Chad’s grave site in the nave, or in a chapel behind the
high altar (Victorian suggestion), or in an early chapel on the south side of
the choir, see the post ‘Two early
chapels’. The justification for moving Chad's relics, presumably bones in a
reliquary box, from the nave to a dedicated chapel nearer the high altar is
based on the presumption of having a shrine within the inner church near the
high altar. It is in line with practice elsewhere.
Sometime early in the 13th-entury the relics are thought to have been moved to a suite of secure rooms added to the south side of the choir, c. 1230. Lepine rightly noted the surviving written sources of the 11th to 13th-centuries and the account of this period in the cathedral chronicle make no mention of any translation or remodelling of Chad’s shrine in this period. In particular, there is no evidence that the shrine was moved in either 1148 or 1296 as suggested in the entry for Chad in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[7] This relocation is simply based on what happened to relics in other cathedrals. For example, the relocation is reminiscent of the earlier movement of Thomas Becket’s relics at Canterbury. Becket’s tomb was originally located in the eastern part of the western crypt, then as part of the rebuilding programme after a fire, it was relocated to the centre of the eastern crypt. Finally, his remains were moved to a new shrine in the Trinity Chapel on 7 July 1220. However, there is no evidence for Chad’s relics being housed at the eastern high altar and were probably in St Chad’s Head Chapel for a comparatively short time before being ultimately being placed in Langton’s shrine facing the Lady Chapel.
Recreated Chad’s shrine much based on Becket’s shrine. If similar, pulleys lifted a pitched, wooden chest canopy upwards to expose the casket on an elaborate oblong plinth. On the plinth was a model church, presumably the cathedral. It was decorated with 6 rubies, 5 sapphires, 15 large emeralds, 16 pearls and many small stones. Some jewels were set in an image of Chad. It is unclear which relics were kept in the casket, if relics were still in St Chad’s Head Chapel. It is presumed there was an aperture to view the relics. Pilgrims would have left many valuable offerings around the shrine, such as rings, brooches and necklaces. Permission given from The Centre for the study of Christianity and Culture, University of York, 2018.
A sacrist’s roll for 1335 showed
the relics had been divided into at least three parts;[8] it
is not known when this division occurred.[9] His skull, now thought to be lined in gold,
was in a painted, shaped wooden box, called a chef, stored in the Chapel
of St Chad, late 14th-century.[10] Head
reliquaries also occurred at Canterbury (St Swithun, Blaise, Fursa and
Austroberht), Lincoln (St Ursula), Chichester (St Richard), York (St Thomas and
Hugh), Worcester (St Oswald and Wulfstan) and Perranzabuloe (St Piran). At
Lichfield there was a special shrine keeper for Chad's relics, attested in
1481. Alongside the head was the right arm encased in a silver-gilt reliquary
shaped as a hand and arm with the fingers placed to give a blessing. An
inventory of artefacts held by the cathedral was made in 1445, but then lost. The
arm reliquary weighed 4.5 lbs. The arm would have been used to touch the
sick. Some of his bones were in a portable box shrine shaped like a church and
encrusted with jewels, and kept in the sacristy. This could have been the
reliquary used in the liturgy, displayed in processions and sometimes taken
around the diocese to raise funds. Lepine makes the point it is likely that the
portable relics were used to enhance the liturgy on principal feast days,
especially those of the Virgin Mary, the cathedral’s co-patron, and on Chad’s death
day of March 2nd. Possibly some bones were kept by the high altar. On feast
days the skull would be removed from its box and displayed to pilgrims. Chad’s
grave site was also venerated by pilgrims and there are citations in the years
1325, 1426 and 1450 of requested burial or prayer next to the tomb of St Chad.
Deans tended to be buried in the nave close to the original shrine.
In
1534, Reformation proscribed the use of relics. In 1538, Chad's shrine was
destroyed, presumably soon after Becket’s shrine was dismantled. Although the
gold and precious jewels at Langton’s shrine near the Lady Chapel were removed
(most likely Chad’s gold skull as well?), Bishop Lee petitioned the king to
keep part of the shrine for the cathedral’s use. Despite this some bones were
apparently lost. Arthur Dudley, a cathedral prebendary, secretly removed[11] some
of Chad's bones and left them with two nieces of his family, in Russell’s Hall,
Dudley.[12] It
is said the two sisters were afraid of holding onto proscribed relics because
soldiers were hunting Catholic Priests in the area. They entrusted the bones to
Henry and William Hodgetts (Hoodsheeds[13]),
Catholic recusants of High Arcal Farm in Woodsetton Sedgley, between Dudley and
Wolverhampton. William died in 1649 and his widow gave his relics to his
brother Henry.[14]
Just before Henry died in 1651, he gave some bones to the Jesuit priest, Peter
Turner, who was administering the Last Rites.[15] It
is thought the brothers had given bones to their wider family and in time were
lost. On Peter’s death the remaining fragments, together with a written
description, were given to a royalist and recusant member of the Leveson family
in Willenhall, Wolverhampton.
A
priest securing the casket of Chad’s relics. Reconstructed from a window
in St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
In 1658, a soldier’s raid on
the Leveson house resulted in the loss of some of the bones. Why only some are
taken is a mystery. The remaining bones and paperwork were added in 1665 to a
new casket with a dome lid, covered in red velvet and with silver hinges and
locks. By c.1667, they were at a house called Boscobel owned by the
Fitzherbert’s family. In 1667, a visitor from St Omer, France, was given ‘a
particle of St Chad’s relics.’ By the mid-18th century, they were in the hands
of Basil Fitzherbert of Swynnerton Hall, near Stoke-on-Trent, for safe-keeping.
Basil died in 1797 and in time the family moved back to Aston Hall, near Stone,
and left the casket in its closed chapel. There is a narrative that a key was
found in Swynnerton Hall with a label stating the relics of Chad were now at
Aston Hall. On investigation the key opened a chest in which lay six bones. In
1837, the chapel was reopened by Benjamin Hulme and he discovered a casket
underneath the altar containing six bones wrapped in silk with the
paperwork stating what they were. The bones were taken to Oscott, Birmingham,
for examination. After careful consideration a report was sent to Rome
where Pope Gregory XVI confirmed that these were the bones of St Chad and
instructed, they be enshrined in the new cathedral in Birmingham. They were
placed in a shrine designed by Pugin above the High Altar on the day of
consecration on 21 June 1841.[16] The high altar reliquary contained a box with five incomplete
bones. A sixth bone was housed in a separate reliquary displayed on the altar
of St Edward’s side-chapel.
In 1995, Archbishop Couve de
Murville arranged for a fresh examination of the bones by the University of
Oxford Archaeology Unit.[17] The
report concluded that one bone was eighth or ninth century, but the other five
were all of the mid-seventh century. Cut marks on the bones were evident and
there was much degradation. The viability of DNA analysis was explored, but considered
impracticable. Two of the bones were left femurs. It was thought a left femur,
two tibiae and part of a humerus belonged to one body. The church holds it is
reasonably certain that at least one and possibly three of the bones are those
of Chad. In 1997, a Decree required the bones should be kept together and
venerated collectively. However, one bone in November
2022 was returned to the cathedral and kept in a reordered shrine.
New shrine of Chad
It has been claimed some more bones were held by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) and eventually archived at Stonyhurst College, Clitheroe, Lancashire.
Why were Chad’s relics important?
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.[18]
The 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]
W. Rodwell, ‘Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave
Sanctuary’, (Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 67th Annual
Report: 2004) 25.
[2]
According to Bede, Book 4, Chapter 3 of his history book – Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, (731)
[3]
See note 1.
[4]
D. Lepine, ‘Glorius Confessor: The cult of St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral
during the Middle Ages’. SAHS transactions, (2021), 52,
31.
[5]
R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings
recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral. The Archaeological J. (1861),
18, 1–24. See also W. Rodwell, ‘The Development of the Choir’, in Maddison
(ed.), Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield, 17–35.
[6]
See note 4. Lepine thought the light shone in the nave by Chad’s grave site.
[7]
H. E. Savage (ed) The Great Register of
Lichfield Cathedral known as Magnum Registrum Album. (being SHC, 3rd
series, 1924), no. 740.
[8]
D. H. Farmer, ‘Ceadda (d. 672)’ ODNB, online ed.
ref/odnb/4970 (accessed 18 November 2019); D. H. Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of
Saints (Oxford, 1979), 75. No source is clearly cited by Farmer but it seems to
have come from R. Hyett Warner, Life and Legends of St Chad, Bishop of
Lichfield (669–72) (London and Cambridge, n.d.), 129–30. Thanks to D. Lepine
for this full reference.
[9] There are references to various bones of St Chad
being at churches around the country.
[10] Lepine (2021) stated this was probably a gilt
bust reliquary, described in the 1445 inventory as ‘gilded and well decorated
with various precious stones’, including collars and other gold jewels weighing
256 ounces, and made up of two parts which could be divided. Accompanying it
was a ‘precious’ mitre which was hung above it.
[11]
Often the story is dramatized with removal of
the bones in the middle of the night.
[12] According to a document written by a Jesuit
priest in mid-17th century.
[13]
J. Hewitt, ‘The keeper of Saint Chad’s Head in Lichfield Cathedral and other
matters concerning the Minster in the fifteenth century’. Archaeological
J. (1876), 33, 72–82.
[14] It is said the two brothers handed bones to
members of their family and in time they were lost.
[15]
His account was published in the Records of the English province of the Society
of Jesus (Foley 1875, III, 230–33).
[16]
This account of Chad’s relics was given by Hewitt, see note 13.
[17]
A. Boyle, ‘The bones of the Anglo-Saxon bishop and saint, Chad’. Church
Archaeology (1998), 2, 35–8
[18] J. Crook, English Medieval Shrines. (Woodbridge: 2011), 5.