Chad of Mercia

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Saint Chad of Mercia
Bishop of York
Chad in The Little Lives of the Saints illustration
Enthroned	664
Ended	669
Predecessor	Paulinus
Successor	Wilfrid
Consecration	664
Born	c. 634 Northumbria
Died	March 2, 672 Lichfield, Staffordshire, England

Saint Chad of Mercia
Bishop
Born	c. 634
Died	March 2, 672
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Lichfield Cathedral, now destroyed. Modern shrine on site. Part of Saxon shrine was discovered in 2006.
Feast	March 2
Attributes	Bishop, holding a triple-spired cathedral (Lichfield)
Patronage	Mercia; Lichfield; of astronomers
Saints Portal

Saint Chad of Mercia (Anglo-Saxon Ceadda) (died March 2, 672) was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and later Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People.

Contents 1 Sources 2 Early life and education 3 Key issues 4 Abbot of Lastingham 5 Bishop of the Northumbrians 6 Bishop of the Mercians 7 Death 8 Portrayals of St Chad 9 Notable dedications 10 Patronage 11 References 12 Background reading 13 Versions of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People 13.1 Original Latin text 13.2 Wikisource translation 13.3 Fordham Medieval Sourcebook 13.4 Christian Classics Ethereal Library 14 External links 15 Key facts

[edit] Sources

Most of our knowledge of St. Chad comes from the writings of St. Bede the Venerable.^[1] St. Bede tells us that he obtained his information about Chad and his brother, Cedd, from the monks of Lastingham,^[2] where both were abbots. St. Bede the Venerable gives this attribution great prominence, placing it in the introduction to his work. This may indicate that the brothers had become controversial figures: certainly Bede must have thought that his material about them would be of more than usual interest to the reader. St. Bede also refers to information he received from Trumbert, "who tutored me in the Scriptures and who had been educated in the monastery by that master"^[3], i.e Chad. In other words, Bede considered himself to stand in the spiritual lineage of Chad and had gathered information from at least one who knew him personally. This means that we have good reason to believe both that Bede had good sources of factual information and that he had interests of his own in the presentation and interpretation of those facts.

[edit] Early life and education

The only major fact that Bede gives about St. Chad's early life is that he was a student of St. Aidan at the Celtic monastery at Lindisfarne^[4]. In fact, St. Bede the Venerable attributes the general pattern of Chad's ministry to the example of St. Aidan and his own brother, St. Cedd, who was also a student of St. Aidan.

St. Aidan was a disciple of St. Columba and was invited by the King Oswald of Northumbria to come from Iona to establish a monastery. St. Aidan arrived in Northumbria in 635 and died in 651. Chad must have studied at Lindisfarne some time between these years.

St. Chad was one of four brothers, all active in the Anglo-Saxon church. The others were Cedd, Cynibil and Caelin.^[5] Chad seems to have been Cedd’s junior, arriving on the political scene about ten years after Cedd. It is reasonable to suppose that Chad and his brothers were drawn from the Northumbrian nobility:^[6] They certainly had close connections throughout the Northumbrian ruling class. However, the name Chad is actually of British Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon origin. It is an element found in the personal names of many Welsh princes and nobles of the period and signifies "battle". This may indicate a family of mixed cultural and/or ethnic background, with roots in the original Celtic population of the region.

St. Chad later travelled to Ireland as a monk,^[7] before he was ordained as a priest. Cedd is not mentioned as Chad’s companion in this stage of his education. Probably Cedd was older than Chad, and had been ordained priest some years before: certainly he was already a priest by 653, when he was sent to work among the Middle Angles^[8]. Chad's companion was Saint Egbert, who was of about the same age as himself. The two travelled in Ireland for further study. Bede tells us that Egbert himself was of the Anglian nobility, although the monks sent to Ireland were of all classes. St. Bede places Egbert, and therefore Chad, among an influx of English scholars who arrived in Ireland while Finan and Colmán were bishops at Lindisfarne. This means that Egbert and Chad must have gone to Ireland later than the death of Aidan, in 651.

St. Bede the Venerable gives a long account of how Egbert fell dangerously ill in Ireland in 664^[9] and vowed to follow a lifelong pattern of great austerity so that he might live to make amends for the follies of his youth. His only remaining friend at this point was called Ethelhun, who died in the plague. Hence, Chad must have left Ireland before this. In fact, it is in 664 that he suddenly appears in Northumbria, to take over from his brother Cedd, also stricken by the plague. Chad's time in Ireland, therefore must fit into period 651-664. Bede makes clear that the wandering Anglian scholars were not yet priests, and ordination to the priesthood generally happened at the age of thirty - the age at which Jesus commenced his ministry. St. Chad's birth date is likely to be 634, or a little earlier, although certainty is impossible. Cynibil and Caelin were ordained priests by the mid-650's, when they participated with Cedd in the founding of Lastingham. Chad was almost certainly the youngest of the four, probably by a considerable margin.

St. Chad was educated in a monastic tradition distinct from the Benedictine rule, which was slowly spreading across Western Europe, with encouragement from Rome. As Bede's account makes clear, the Irish and early Anglo-Saxon monasticism experienced by Chad was peripatetic, stressed ascetic practices and had a strong focus on Biblical exegesis, which generated a strong eschatological consciousness. Egbert recalled later that he and Chad "followed the monastic life together very strictly - in prayers and continence, and in meditation on Holy Scripture". Some of the scholars quickly settled in Irish monasteries, while others wandered from one master to another in search of knowledge. Bede says that the Irish monks gladly taught them and fed them, and even let them use their valuable books, without charge. The practice of loaning books freely seems to have been a distinctive feature of Irish monastic life: it was a dispute over a borrowed book which allegedly led to Columba’s exile many years before. Since books were all produced by hand, with painstaking attention to detail, this was astonishingly generous.

[edit] Key issues

The major political religious issues shaping the careers of Chad and his brothers were

• The Struggle for Political Hegemony. Britain had no secure state structures even at a regional level. 7th century rulers were trying to create larger and more unified realms within defensible boundaries and to legitimate their power within the culture of their time. The central contest of Chad's lifetime was between Northumbria and Mercia. Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, continually campaigned against Northumbrian rulers, usually with the support of the Christian Welsh princes. Defeat in this struggle tended to unhinge the fragile unity of the competing states. In 641, Penda inflicted a crushing defeat on the Northumbrians, killing King Oswald. Northumbria broke into its component parts of Bernicia (north) and Deira, and was not reunited by Oswald's successor, Oswiu, until 651. His defeat of Penda in 655 caused Mercia to descend into disunity for a more than a decade.

• The Issue of Apostolic Legitimacy in the Church. Christianity in the south of Britain was closely associated with Rome and the Church on the Continent. This was because its organization grew out of the missions of St. Augustine of 597, sent by Pope Gregory I. However, the Churches of Ireland and of western and northern Britain had their own distinct history and traditions. The Churches of Wales and Cornwall had an unbroken tradition stretching back to Roman times. Ireland traced its Christian origins to missionaries from Wales, while Northumbria looked to the Irish monastery of Iona, in modern Scotland, as its source. Although all western Christians looked to Rome as the ultimate font of authority, considerable divergences had developed in practice and organization. Most bishops in Ireland and Britain were not recognized by Continental Christians. Monastic practices and structures were very different: moreover monasteries played a much more important role in Britain and Ireland than on the continent, with abbots regarded as de facto leaders of the Church. Many of the issues crystallized around disputes over the dating of Easter and the cut of the monastic tonsure.

The political and religious issues were constantly intertwined and interacting in various ways. Christianity largely progressed through royal patronage, while kings increasingly used the Church to stabilize and to confer legitimacy on their fragile states.

These issues are also crucial in assessing the reliability of sources, St. Bede the Venerable being the only substantial source for details of St. Chad's life. Bede wrote about sixty years after the events, when the Continental pattern of territorial bishoprics and Benedictine monasticism had become established in Northumbria. He is concerned both to validate the Church practices and structures of his own time and to present a picture flattering to the earlier Northumbrian church monarchy: a difficult balancing act. The treatment of Chad is particularly problematic for St. Bede because it is impossible for him to conceal that Chad departed from Roman practice in vital ways not only before the Synod of Whitby, but also after it. However, St. Chad was the teacher of Bede's own teacher, Trumbert, so Bede has an obvious interest in rehabilitating him. This may explain why Bede leaves a number of lacunae in his account of Chad. It is certainly important in assessing Bede's account of Chad's motivation.

[edit] Abbot of Lastingham

The course of St. Chad's life between his stay in Ireland and his emergence as a Church leader is unknown. In fact, it is possible that he had only recently returned from Ireland when prominence was thrust upon him. However, the growing importance of his family within the Northumbrian state is clear from Bede's account of the founding of their monastery at Lastingham.^[10]

Ethelwald, a nephew of Oswiu, had been appointed to administer the coastal area of Deira. On his staff was the priest Caelin - the brother of Cedd and Chad. Caelin suggested to Ethelwald that it would be a good idea to found a monastery, in which he could one day be buried. He then introduced him to brother Cedd, who happened to need such a retreat. Cedd regularly returned from Essex, where he laboured as a missionary bishop, to the North for spiritual refreshment. Ethelwald, according to Bede, practically forced a gift of land on Cedd. This wild place was at Lastingham, near Pickering in the North York Moors, close to one of the still-usable Roman roads. Bede explains that Cedd "fasted strictly in order to cleanse it from the filth of wickedness previously committed there". On the thirtieth day of his forty-day fast, he was called away on urgent business. Cynibil, another of his brothers, took over the fast for the remaining ten days. The whole incident shows not only how closely the brothers were linked with Northumbria’s ruling dynasty, but how close they were to each other. A fast by Cynibil was even felt to be equivalent to one by Cedd himself. Lastingham was handed over to Cedd, who became abbot. Notably, however, Chad is not mentioned in this context until he succeeds his brother as abbot. This occurred in 664, when a large number of Church leaders was wiped out by the plague - among them Cedd.

St. Bede the Venerable seldom mentions St. Chad without referring to his regime of prayer and study, so these clearly made up the greater part of monastic routine at Lastingham. Study would have been collective, with monks carrying out exegesis through dialectic. Yet not all of the monks were intellectuals. Bede tells us of a man called Owin (Owen), who appeared at the door of Lastingham. Owin was a household official of Æthelthryth, an East Anglian princess who had come to marry Ecgfrith, Oswiu’s younger son. He decided to renounce the world, and as a sign of this appeared at Lastingham in ragged clothes and carrying an axe. He had come primarily to work manually. He became one of Chad's closest associates.

St. Chad's eschatological consciousness and its effect on others is brought to life in a reminiscence attributed to Trumbert,^[11] who was one of his students at Lastingham. Chad used to break off reading whenever a gale sprang up and call on God to have pity on humanity. If the storm intensified, he would shut his book altogether and prostrate himself in prayer. During prolonged storms or thunderstorms he would go into the church itself to pray and sing psalms until calm returned. His monks obviously regarded this as an extreme reaction even to English weather and asked him to explain. Chad explained that storms are sent by God to remind humans of the day of judgement and to humble their pride.

[edit] Bishop of the Northumbrians

St. Bede gives great prominence to the Synod of Whitby^[12] in 663/4, which he shows resolving the main issues of practice in the Northumbrian Church in favour of Roman practice. Cedd is shown acting as the main go-between in the synod because of his facility with all of the relevant languages. Cedd and numerous other prominent churchmen died of plague shortly after the synod and Chad duly succeeded his brother at Lastingham.^[13]

St. Chad was invited then to become bishop of the Northumbrians^[14] by King Oswiu of Northumbria. Chad is generally listed as a Bishop of York. Bede generally uses ethnic, not geographical, designations for Chad and other early Anglo-Saxon bishops. However at this point, he does also refer to Oswiu's desire that Chad become bishop of the church in York. York later became the diocesan city partly because it had already been designated as such in the earlier Roman-sponsored mission of Paulinus to Deira, so it is not clear whether Bede is simply echoing later practice or whether Oswiu and Chad were considering a territorial basis for his episcopate.

The first choice for the position had been Saint Wilfrid. Because of the plague, there were not the requisite three bishops available in to ordain him, so he had gone to the Frankish Kingdom of Neustria to be seek ordination. This was on the initiative of Alfrid, sub-king of Deira. Bede implies that Oswiu decided to take further action because Wilfrid was away for longer than expected. It is unclear whether Oswiu changed his mind about Wilfrid or whether he simply despaired of his return.

St. Chad faced the same problem over ordination as Wilfrid and so set off to seek ordination amid the chaos caused by the plague. Bede tells us that he travelled first to Canterbury, where he found that Archbishop Deusdedit was dead and his replacement was still awaited. Bede does not tell us why Chad diverted to Canterbury. The journey seems pointless, since the archbishop had died three years previously - a fact that must have been well-known in Northumbria, and was the very reason Wilfrid had to go abroad. The most obvious reason for Chad's tortuous travels would be that he was also on a diplomatic mission from Oswiu, seeking to build an encircling alliance around resurgent Mercia. From Canterbury he travelled to Wessex, where he was ordained by bishop Wini of the West Saxons and two British, i.e. Welsh, bishops. None of these bishops was recognized by Rome. He returned from Wessex to Northumbria to take up his duties.

St. Bede describes St. Chad at this point as "a diligent performer in deed of what he had learnt in the Scriptures should be done." Bede also tells us that Chad was teaching the values of Aidan and Cedd. His life was one of constant travel. Bede says that Chad visited continually the towns, countryside, cottages, villages and houses in order to preach the Gospel. Clearly, the model he followed was one of the bishop as prophet or missionary. Basic Christian rites of passage, baptism and confirmation, were almost always performed by a bishop, and for decades to come they were generally carried out in mass ceremonies, probably with little systematic instruction or counseling.

In 666, Wilfrid returned from Neustria, freshly consecrated as Bishop of York in a ceremony at Compiègne, near Paris, and "bringing many rules of Catholic observance", as Bede says. He found Chad already occupying the same position. It seems that he did not in fact challenge Chad’s pre-eminence in his own area. Rather, he would have worked assiduously to build up his own support in sympathetic monasteries, like Gilling and Ripon. He did, however, assert his episcopal rank by going into Mercia and even Kent to ordain priests. Bede tells us that the net effect of his efforts on the Church was that the Irish monks who still lived in Northumbria either came fully into line with Catholic practices or left for home. In 669, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore, instructed Chad to step down and Wilfrid to take over.^[15] According to Bede, Theodore was so impressed by Chad's show of humility that he confirmed his ordination as bishop, while insisting he step down from his position. Chad retired gracefully and returned to his post as abbot of Lastingham, leaving Wilfrid as bishop of the Northumbrians at York.^[16]

[edit] Bishop of the Mercians

Later that same year, King Wulfhere of Mercia requested a bishop. Wulfhere and the other sons of Penda had converted to Christianity, although Penda himself had remained a pagan until his death (655). Penda had allowed bishops to operate in Mercia, although none had succeeded in establishing the Church securely without active royal support.

Impressed by St. Chad's humility (he refused to ride a horse, preferring to walk as Jesus had), Archbishop Theodore sent Chad. Chad was consecrated bishop of the Mercians (literally, frontier people) and of the Lindsey people. Bede tells us that Chad was actually the third bishop sent to Wulfhere, making him the fifth bishop of the Mercians.^[17] Wulfhere donated land at Lichfield for Chad to build a monastery. It was because of this that the centre of the Diocese of Mercia ultimately became settled at Lichfield.^[18]

The Lichfield monastery was probably similar to that at Lastingham, and Bede makes clear that it was partly staffed by monks from Lastingham, including Chad's faithful retainer, Owin. Lichfield was very close to the old Roman road of Watling Street, the main route across Mercia, and a short distance from Mercia's main royal centre at Tamworth. Wulhere also donated land at a place in Lindsey, referred to by Bede as Ad Barwae. This is probably Barrow upon Humber: where an Anglo-Saxon monastery of a later date has been excavated. This was easily reached by river from the Midlands and close to an easy crossing of the River Humber, allowing rapid communication with Lastingham. Chad remained abbot of Lastingham throughout his life, as well as heading the communities at Lichfield and Barrow.

St. Chad then proceeded to carry out much missionary and pastoral work within the kingdom. Bede tells us that Chad governed the bishopric of the Mercians and of the people of Lindsey ‘in the manner of the ancient fathers and in great perfection of life’. He continued to journey on foot instead of horseback, no matter how great the distance involved. The horse was regarded in Chad's tradition as a symbol of power and might. St Aidan was celebrated for giving away to the poor a horse he received as a gift from the king of Northumbria. Chad’s insistence on walking was rejected by Theodore. He ordered Chad to use a horse for long journeys. Bede tells us that there was a direct confrontation about the issue and that Theodore actually lifted Chad into the saddle.

St. Chad worked in Mercia and Lindsey for only two and a half years before he too died during a plague. Yet St. Bede could write in a letter that Mercia came to the faith and Essex was recovered for it by the two brothers Cedd and Chad. In other words, Bede considered that Chad’s two years as bishop were decisive in Christianizing Mercia.

[edit] Death

St. Chad died on March 2, 672, and was buried at the Church of Saint Mary which later became part of the cathedral at Lichfield.

St. Bede relates the death story as that of a man who was already regarded as a saint. He tells us that Owin was working outside the oratory at Lichfield. Inside, Chad studied alone because the other monks were at worship in the church. Suddenly Owin heard the sound of joyful singing, coming from heaven, at first to the south east, but gradually coming closer until it filled the roof of the oratory itself. Then there was silence for half an hour, followed by the same singing going back the way it had come. Owin at first did nothing, but about an hour later Chad called him in and told him to fetch the seven brothers from the church. Chad gave his final address to the brothers, urging them to keep the monastic discipline they had learnt. Only after this did he tell them that he knew his own death was near. He asked them to pray, then blessed and dismissed them. The brothers left, sad and downcast.

Owin returned a little later and saw Chad privately. He asked about the singing. Chad told him that he must keep it to himself for the time being: angels had come to call him to his heavenly reward, and in seven days they would return to fetch him. So it was that Chad weakened and died after seven days - on March 2, which remains his feast day. Bede writes that: "he had always looked forward to this day - or rather his mind had always been on the Day of the Lord". Many years later, his old friend Egbert told a visitor that someone in Ireland had seen the heavenly company coming for Chad’s soul and returning with it to heaven. Significantly, with the heavenly host was Cedd. Bede was not sure whether or not the vision was actually Egbert's own.

Bede's account of St. Chad's death strongly confirms the main themes of his life. Primarily he was a monastic leader, deeply involved in the fairly small communities of loyal monks who formed his mission teams, his brothers. His consciousness was strongly eschatological: focussed on the last things and their significance. Finally, he was inextricably linked with Cedd and his other actual brothers.

According to St. Bede, he was immediately venerated as a saint and his relics were translated to a new shrine. He is considered a saint in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, and is also noted as a saint in a new edition of the Eastern Orthodox Synaxarion (Book of Saints), in response to increasing attention to pre-Schism western saints. His feast day is celebrated on March 2.

[edit] Portrayals of St Chad

There are no portraits or descriptions of St Chad from his own time. The only hint that we have comes in the legend of Theodore lifting him bodily into the saddle - possibly suggesting that he was remembered as small in stature. All attempts to portray him are based entirely on imagination, and nearly all are obviously anachronistic, with a heavy stress on vestments from other periods.

St Chad, Peada and Wulfhere, as portrayed in 19th century sculpture above the western entrance to Lichfield Cathedral.

The St Chad Cup, a modern imagining in silver.

Icon used devotionally at the site of the shrine of St Chad in Lichfield Cathedral.

[edit] Notable dedications

Saint Chad gives his name to Birmingham's Roman Catholic cathedral, where there are some alleged relics of the saint. The Anglican Lichfield Cathedral, at the site of his burial, is dedicated to St Chad and St Mary, and still has a Head Chapel, where the skull of the saint was kept until it was lost during the Reformation. Chad also gives his name to the parish church of Lichfield (with St Chad's well where, traditionally, Chad baptised converts: now a listed building). Dedications are densely concentrated in the West Midlands. The city of Wolverhampton, for example, has two Anglican churches and a Roman Catholic secondary school dedicated to Chad, while the nearby village of Pattingham has both an Anglican church and primary school. Further afield, there is a considerable number of dedications in areas associated with Chad's career, like the churches in Church Wilne in Derbyshire and Far Headingley in Leeds, as well as some in the Commonwealth, like Chelsea in Australia. Chadkirk Chapel in Romiley, Greater Manchester dates back to the 14th century, although the site is much older, possibly dating back to the 7th century when it is believed St Chad visited to bless the well there. Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, is said to derive its name from Chad's Minster. St Chad's College is a college of the University of Durham.

St Chad's Well^[19] near Battle Bridge on the river Fleet in London was a celebrated medicinal well and had a new pump house built in 1843. It was destroyed by the Midland Railway company, and is remembered in the street name of St Chad's Place.

The settlement of St Chad's (population 57) in Newfoundland was previously named "St Shad's" (after originally being "Damnable"),but was renamed after postal confusion with nearby "St Shott's" [1].

[edit] Patronage

Due to the somewhat confused nature of Chad's appointment and the continued references to 'chads' – small pieces of ballot papers punched out by voters using voting machines – in the 2000 US Presidential Election it has been jocularly suggested that St Chad is the patron saint of botched elections. In fact there is no official patron saint of elections, though Thomas More is the one of politicians.[2]

The Spa Research Fellowship[3] states that Chad is the patron saint of medicinal springs,^[20] although other listings (eg [4]) do not mention this patronage.

St. Chad's Day (March 2) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow broad beans in England.

[edit] References

[edit] Background reading

Bassett, Steven, Ed. The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester University Press, 1989. ISBN 9780718513672. A ground-breaking set of studies on state formation that quickly became a classic and is indispensable for understanding the political background to the conversion.

Fletcher, Richard. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386. . HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0002552035. This allows the reader to place the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in the widest possible context, and poses key issues of interpretation.

Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 1991. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271007694. First published in 1972, but updated several times, this is the accepted starting point for understanding the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. It places the conversion squarely in its political and cultural context, but also has a strong narrative drive.

[edit] Versions of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People

St. Bede is the major source for the lives of Chad and his brothers, as well as for the Synod of Whitby and the issues surrounding it. The Penguin edition is readily available but idiomatic. It is wise to consult several editions and translations.

[edit] Original Latin text

Bede: Ecclesiastical History, Books I-III (Loeb Classical Library No. 246), J. E. King (Translator). ISBN-10: 0674992717 ISBN-13: 978-0674992719

Bede: Ecclesiastical History, Books IV-V. Lives of the Abbots. Letter to Egbert. (Loeb Classical Library No. 248) J. E. King (Translator). ISBN-10: 0674992733 ISBN-13: 978-0674992733

This is the standard Latin edition with facing translation. Books 3 and 4 contain Bede's references to the life of Chad.

• HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM On-line Latin text without translation at the Latin Library.
• HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM LIBRI III, IV Download Latin text of Books 3 and 4 in PDF, TXT and other formats from Internet Archive. Note that the PDF version on this site is simply scanned from a 19th century edition and so is not searchable.

[edit] Wikisource translation

• Bede's Ecclesiastical History This gives access to all five books of Bede's ecclesiastical history. Books 3 and 4 are most relevant. Note that this appears to have been produced by OCR and there are some strange misprints in the text. It also has some very odd translations. Best checked against other translations or the Latin text.

[edit] Fordham Medieval Sourcebook

John Halsall's excellent document collection is a good place to find an alternative way of accessing the same translation. It is mercifully free of misprints but is harder to navigate, lacking internal links.

• Bede Book 3 This has references to Chad's life up to his ordination as bishop.
• Bede Book 4 Covering Chad's demotion by Theodore, his subsequent work in Mercia and his death.

[edit] Christian Classics Ethereal Library

• Table of Contents This has an old translation, but is easy to navigate, with a linked contents page and an outline pane.

[edit] External links

• An Orthodox Akathist to Saint Chad the Wonderworker
• The life of Saint Chad of Lichfield from Orthodox wiki
• Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England entry for Chad

[edit] Key facts

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Jaruman	Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People 669–672	Succeeded by Winfred
Preceded by Tuda	Bishop of the Northumbrians 664–669	Succeeded by Wilfrid

v • d • e List of Archbishops of York Pre-reformation Paulinus1 · Chad1 · Wilfrid1 · Bosa1 · John of Beverley1 · Wilfrid II1 · Egbert · Ethelbert · Eanbald I · Eanbald II · Wulfsige · Wigmund · Wulfhere · Æthelbald · Hrotheweard · Wulfstan · Oskytel · Edwald · Oswald · Ealdwulf · Wulfstan II · Aelfric Puttoc · Cynesige · Aldred · Thomas of Bayeux · Gerard · Thomas the Younger · Thurstan · William FitzHerbert · Henry Murdac · William FitzHerbert · Roger de Pont L'Evêque · Geoffrey Plantagenet · Simon Langton · Walter de Gray · Sewal de Bovil · Godfrey Ludham · William Langton · Bonaventure · Walter Giffard · William de Wickwane · John le Romeyn · Henry of Newark · Thomas of Corbridge · William Greenfield · William Melton · William Zouche · John of Thoresby · Alexander Neville · Thomas Arundel · Robert Waldby · Richard le Scrope · Thomas Langley · Robert Hallam · Henry Bowet · Philip Morgan · Richard Fleming · John Kemp · William Booth · George Neville · Lawrence Booth · Thomas Rotherham · Thomas Savage · Christopher Bainbridge · Thomas Wolsey Post-reformation Edward Lee · Robert Holgate · Nicholas Heath · Thomas Young · Edmund Grindal · Edwin Sandys · John Piers · Matthew Hutton · Tobias Matthew · George Montaigne · Samuel Harsnett · Richard Neile · John Williams · Accepted Frewen · Richard Sterne · John Dolben · Thomas Lamplugh · John Sharp · William Dawes · Lancelot Blackburne · Thomas Herring · Matthew Hutton · John Gilbert · Robert Hay Drummond · William Markham · Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt · Thomas Musgrave · Charles Thomas Longley · William Thomson · William Connor Magee · William Dalrymple Maclagan · Cosmo Lang · William Temple · Cyril Forster Garbett · Arthur Michael Ramsey · Frederick Donald Coggan · Stuart Yarworth Blanch · John Stapylton Habgood · David Hope · John Sentamu 1 Bishops of York

Persondata
NAME	Chad of Mercia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ceadda
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Archbishop of York; Bishop of Lichfield
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH	March 2, 672
PLACE OF DEATH	Lichfield, Staffordshire