Summary. At the end of the 7th-century, Chad’s bones were moved to the surface of his grave and kept in a ‘wooden house.’ They were then kept in a chapel built early in 13th-century. His skull and arm bones were inside reliquaries. Between 14th to 16th- centuries, the relics were in a sumptuous shrine. Most bones have been lost.
An archaeological dig over five days in 2003 revealed Chad’s grave dug in 672.[1] It was under the floor at the east end of the nave. Around the year 700, his relics were placed on his grave (ibidem), and inside a small, wooden house (domuncula feretrum),[2] which was inside a shrine tower.
AI rendition of a 'little wooden house' with Chad's relics inside a shrine tower.
Chad’s grave and shrine chapel foundation wall described in 2003. Rodwell 2004. The foundation was mortared, but an adjacent wall was not. T. O Carragain believes the shrine chapels in Ireland are the earliest mortared buildings,
During excavation a King Edgar silver penny was found within a pit. This suggested Chad’s relics were being accessed, perhaps relocated, perhaps kept in a new shrine, during or after this king’s reign in the 10th-century.[3]
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.
It is presumed the relics, now
known nationally, were moved from the nave when the cathedral was built early
in the 13th century.[4]
Willis suggested they were 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] This
could be at Chad’s grave site in the nave, in a chapel behind the high altar,
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 seen elsewhere.[7]
Sometime early in the 13th-entury,
the relics were moved to a suite of secure rooms added to the south side of the
choir, c. 1230.[8] 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.[9] This relocation is simply based on what happened to relics in
other cathedrals.[10] Therefore, the best interpretation is the relics
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 by
1345. This shrine was sumptuous and cost Langton over £2K in 1303.
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.
AI gen Chad's medieval shrine
AI Chad's skull reliquary in St Chad's Head Chapel
A sacrist’s roll for 1335 showed the relics had been divided into at least three parts;[11] it is not known when this division occurred.[12] His skull, now thought to be lined in gold, was in a painted, shaped like a church, wooden box, called a chef, stored in the Chapel of St Chad, late 14th-century.[13]
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.
AI gen. arm reliquary being used to bless the sick
An inventory of artefacts held by
the cathedral was made in 1445, but then lost; an extract, however, exists.[14] The
arm reliquary weighed 4.5 lbs. 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. It is likely 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. On feast days the skull would be removed from its box and displayed
to pilgrims. Possibly, some bones were kept by the high altar. 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. If
this was Chad’s grave it shows the location was known in the 15th-century and
subsequently forgotten.
AI gen. of a priest holding Chad’s skull from St Chad’s Head
gallery to show pilgrims below in the south choir aisle. It is not certain
whether this ever happened.
In
1534, Reformation proscribed the use of relics. Chad's shrine was destroyed,
presumably soon after Becket’s shrine was dismantled in August 1538. 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[15] some
of Chad's bones and left them with two nieces of his family, in Russell’s Hall,
Dudley.[16] 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[17]),
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.[18]
Just before Henry died in 1651, he gave some bones to the Jesuit priest, Peter
Turner, who was administering the Last Rites.[19] 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; it suggests the bone collection had been split up again and
were held in different reliquaries. 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 story 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.[20] 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.[21] The
report concluded that one bone was 8th or 9th-century, but the other five were
all of the middle 7th-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 leg 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 they had left behind.[22]
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]
D. Lepine, ‘Glorius Confessor: The cult of St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral
during the Middle Ages’. SAHS transactions, (2021), 52,
31. 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]
Ibid. Lepine (2021) 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 accepted dating 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]
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]
Lepine (2021), 31. See note 4. He quotes the following shrines moved to be near
the high altar, St Richard at Chichester in 1276, St Hugh at Lincoln in 1280,
St William at York in 1284, St Alban at St Albans between 1302 and 1308, and St
Erkenwald at St Paul’s between 1313 and 1326.
[8]
Ibid, Lepine (2021) 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.
[9]
H. E. Savage (ed) The Great Register of
Lichfield Cathedral known as Magnum Registrum Album. (being SHC, 3rd
series, 1924), no. 740.
[10]
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.
[11]
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.
[12] There are references to various bones of St Chad
being at churches around the country.
[13] 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.
[14]
R. N. Swanson, ‘Extracts from a Fifteenth-Century Lichfield Chapter Act Book’,
in A Medieval Miscellany (being SHC, 4th series, XX, 2004), 129–70 (at 142–3).
[15]
Often the story is dramatized with removal of
the bones in the middle of the night.
[16] According to a document written by a Jesuit
priest in mid-17th century.
[17]
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.
[18] It is said the two brothers handed bones to
members of their family and in time they were lost.
[19]
His account was published in the Records of the English province of the Society
of Jesus (Foley 1875, III, 230–33).
[20]
This account of Chad’s relics was given by Hewitt, see note 13.
[21]
A. Boyle, ‘The bones of the Anglo-Saxon bishop and saint, Chad’. Church
Archaeology (1998), 2, 35–8
[22] J. Crook, English Medieval Shrines. (Woodbridge: 2011), 5.