The Life of Saint Chad of Lichfield, Apostle of Mercia

by Father Athanasios (Ledwich)

Living in Birmingham you soon become aware of how much St Chad has been venerated in these parts over the centuries. Even if modern citizens have little or no idea who he was, his name remains everywhere. Chadbrook, Chadbury, Chadshurst, Chadsmoor, Chadstone, Chadwell, Chad Valley all feature in the A to Z. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is dedicated to him, and houses part of his relics. Wards are named after him in local hospitals. In the city and surrounding countryside, over thirty ancient churches, and many more Victorian and modern ones, are dedicated to his memory. Further afield, too, there are many traces of his life and bishopric. In Middlesmoor, near Pateley Bridge, in his old diocese of York, the remains of an old cross were dug up in 1919, with the inscription reading CROS SCE CEADA, "Saint Chad's Cross." My own love for St Chad began in my years at the College dedicated to him in Durham University.

It is all very remarkable from an Orthodox point of view, for we are dealing here with a great saint and hierarch, whom we can recognise to be so typically Orthodox. In the seventh century, Britain was in full communion with the Orthodox Church; for example, St Maximos the Confessor was Chad's elder contemporary. He was also profoundly Orthodox in spirit, radiating the humility and self-abasement and that combination of the monastic ascetical life with the pastoral that is still characteristic of the Orthodox world.

The date of his birth is uncertain, but we know that he was ordained in 653, at what was probably no younger than the canonical age of 30. This put his birth no later than 623. Celtic schools of the time were run by the monasteries, so Chad and his three brothers, Cedd (also later a saint), Cynebil and Caerwin all went to Lindisfarne Monastery, possibly aged 12, while St Aidan was Abbot there. He learned Latin; he could recite some at least of the Gospels and the Psalms by heart, and studied arithmetic and astronomy.

After leaving Lindisfarne, he was sent to an unknown monastery in Ireland to study for the priesthood and was ordained there. On his return he came directly to Mercia, and began active pastoral and missionary work, working both with new Anglo-Saxon settlers and with the indigenous Britons.

Chad and Cedd were involved in a controversy which overshadowed the whole life of the English Church at the time. The issue, hotly disputed then as in modern Orthodoxy, was the Church calendar: should they follow the Celtic way of calculating Easter, or that laid down by the Council of Nicaea and followed by the rest of the Church at this time, including, of course, Rome? Again, just as the Orthodox Church in our own day especially here in the west, is afflicted with tension between national jurisdictions, so too there arose tension between the Roman and Celtic bishops. Chad and his brothers became inevitably caught up in this too. A leading protagonist in the controversy was Wilfrid, a monk trained in Lastingham and now Abbot of Ripon. Early in 664, Wilfrid decided that the matter of the date of Easter would have to be resolved. He summoned a synod in Whitby, and persuaded them to accept the universal date. In some Orthodox circles, as well as among Protestants, it has been fashionable to romanticise the Celtic Church, and to see Whitby as a victory for papal power: in fact it was much more a victory for the unity of the Church around the discipline of Nicæa, which Chad and Cedd, as well as most other Celtic bishops, accepted readily.

In 659, Chad's brother had founded the monastery of Lastingham, in what is now North Yorkshire. In 664 the area was struck by the plague; several of the monks caught it, including Cedd and Cynebil. Cedd called his brother Chad and pleaded with him to take over as Abbot after his death. In the same year Wilfrid was appointed Bishop of York, and went for his consecration in Paris. He did not come back to the wild moors of his new diocese for two years. Meanwhile, it was not strange that the King of Northumbria, Oswy, should have despaired of the new bishop's return and decided to look for another. Knowing the holy Abbot of Lastingham, he believed him to be an ideal choice. Chad was reluctant to take on such a responsibility and felt himself unworthy, but was persuaded under obedience. However, when he arrived, the Archbishop Deusdidit had died of the plague; then his successor died also. Three bishops were needed for the consecration: there was only one bishop, Wini, of the Roman tradition to be found. Two others, Celts who had apparently rejected the decision of Whitby, and who were therefore out of communion with the Church, also appeared and seemed willing to take part, and the consecration went ahead at Winchester. It seems probably that Chad was quite unaware that two of the bishops who had taken part in his ordination would be regarded as uncanonical.

After his consecration, the new bishop returned to his diocese and monastery to continue living his exemplary life. According to Bede, as a Bishop, Chad immediately devoted himself to maintain the truths of the Church, and set himself to practise humility and chastity and to study. He was a holy man, modest in his ways, learned in the Scriptures, and one who was careful to practise all that he found in them.

In 666, Wilfrid returned from Paris to discover that Chad had been ordained to his own diocese in his absence, and we can imagine that he was not pleased. However, nothing was done until 669, when Theodore of Tarsus, by then Archbishop of Canterbury, took the matter up. Theodore summoned Chad and pointed out three serious flaws in his ordination as bishop. Two of the bishops were out of communion with the Church; the one canonical bishop who had taken part had been charged with simony; and finally Chad had been consecrated to a see that was in fact not vacant, since Wilfrid had already been appointed and ordained. Chad's response in the face of episcopal ordination is reminiscent of that of St Gregory the Theologian, St John Chrysostom, and many others. He replied that he had never felt himself worthy of ordination and he was more than happy to return to Lastingham as a simple monk. So impressed was Archbishop Theodore by Chad's saintly humility that he offered to ordain him canonically to the episcopacy (perhaps he had this idea in mind from the start). This was done, but Chad insisted that he would surrender the diocese of York to Wilfrid.

In 669, King Wulthere of Mercia asked Theodore for a bishop to his kingdom. Theodore must have immediately thought of Chad who was already a bishop and who had proved to have been such a saintly and energetic pastor. He was therefore appointed to be bishop in the area where he had been an active priest as a young man. He first lived at Repton, but then moved to Lyccidfelth (modern Lichfield), accompanied by Owini, who had been a faithful monk and companion at Lastingham. There Chad wanted to carry on his mission on foot as he had always done, following the example of Aidan; but Theodore insisted on his riding a horse, and noticing Chad's reluctance, physically lifted him onto the horse's back.

In 672, the plague which had brought death to Chad's brothers now caught up with Chad himself. Bede has a lovely description of his death: seven days before his abbot's death, his friend and disciple Owini heard the sound of sweet and joyful singing coming down from heaven to earth. As Owini stood astonished, wondering what this might portend, he was summoned into the oratory by Chad, who told him to bring the other seven brothers. Having urged them all to live in the peaceful and loving spirit of the monastic life, he told them that he would soon be summoned out of this world. Chad then told Owini in secret, in answer to his question, that the voices were those of angels who would come in seven days to take him away to the heavenly reward that I have always hoped and longed for. In seven days one may rightly believe he was taken by the angels to the joys of heaven.

Source: Orthodox Outlook, Vol. X, No. 4 (May/June 1997).

Prayer on the Feast of Saint Chad

Almighty God, whose servant Chad, for the peace of the Church, relinquished cheerfully the honours that had been thrust upon him, only to be rewarded with equal responsibility: Keep us, we pray Thee, from thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and ready at all times to step aside for others, that the cause of Christ may be advanced and thy blessed kingdom enlarged; in the name of Him who washed His disciples' feet, even Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.