Don’t count Chad out at election time
By Jan Nunley, Episcopal News Service, December 4, 2000
Never let it be said that Anglicans lack a saint for every occasion – even election disputes. And his name, appropriately enough, is St. Chad.
An abbreviated version of St. Chad’s story has been circulating on the Internet and was featured on National Public Radio’s coverage of the presidential election controversy and in reports by national news services. Here, for the benefit of hagiography fans, is – as radio’s Paul Harvey would say – the rest of the story.
St. Chad, or Ceadda, was the youngest of four brothers, all priests. He was an Angle, born of noble parents in Northumbria around 623 A.D. According to the English historian known as the Venerable Bede, Chad and his brothers were pupils of St. Aidan at Lindisfarne. Upon Aidan’s death in 651, the four were sent to Ireland to complete their training.
Chad’s brother, Cedd, returned to England and evangelized the East Saxons.
In 658, Cedd established a monastery at Lastingham in Yorkshire. Upon his death-bed in 664 he bequeathed the care of the monastery to Chad, who was still in Ireland.
Chad arrived back in Northumbria during a period of religious change and political upheaval. Having exchanged the ways of the Irish church for Rome at the Synod of Whitby, the diocese found itself short of a bishop. Eventually, the pro-Roman Wilfred was made bishop and traveled to France for consecration.
While Wilfred was still abroad, King Oswiu of Northumbria became impatient and decided to send Chad to Canterbury to be ordained bishop of the northern church. Upon arrival in Canterbury, Chad found no one available to perform the consecration. Archbishop Deusdedit had died of the plague. His successor, Wigheard, was en route to Rome for consecration. Bishop Ithamar of Rochester was close to death. Chad turned to Bishop Wine of Dorchester-on-Thames, the only canonically ordained bishop available in England. The ceremony demanded three, so Wine called upon two Welsh bishops to help him and Chad was consecrated bishop of York.
An election challenge
Wilfred, deposed, returned to England in 666 and retired to his Abbey at Ripon. He remained an opponent of Chad, now challenged for the manner of his consecration. Three years later, Theodore of Tarsus, a new archbishop, arrived in Canterbury. He soon charged Chad with holding office uncanonically. Chad replied, “If you judge that I have not duly received the episcopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never thought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to undertake in obedience.” Theodore was so moved that he completed Chad’s ordination himself. Nevertheless, Chad resigned in favor of Wilfred and retired to Lastingham.
In AD 669, Bishop Jaruman of Mercia died and King Wulfhere asked Archbishop Theodore to send his people a new bishop. Theodore persuaded King Oswiu to release Chad from Lastingham to be the new Mercian bishop. Chad removed the center of the diocese to Lichfield.
After two and a half years, plague began to ravage the Midlands, and it was not long before Chad fell ill. He died on March 2 , 672. His relics reside in the present Roman Catholic cathedral in Birmingham.
(Parts of this story were edited from S. Baring-Gould’s The Lives of the Saints [1877]).
- A Collect for the Feast of St. Chad
- Almighty God, whose servant Chad, for the peace of the Church, relinquished cheerfully the honors 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.