Biography
Brother of Saint Cedd and Saint Cynibild. Missionary monk to Ireland with Saint Egbert. Ordained in 653. Studied Latin and astronomy. Abbot at Lastingham monastery, Yorkshire, England; abbot to Saint Owen. Not long after Chad became abbot, Saint Wilfrid of York was chosen Bishop of Lindisfarne, a see which was soon moved to York. Wilfrid went to Gaul for consecration, and stayed so long that King Oswiu declared the see vacant and procured the election of Chad as bishop of York. Chad felt unworthy, but threw himself into the new vocation, travelling his diocese on foot, evangelizing where he could. When Wilfrid returned in 666, Saint Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, decided that Chad's episcopal consecration was invalid, and that Chad must give up the diocese to Wilfrid. Chad replied that he had never thought himself worthy of the position, that he took it through obedience, and he would surrender it through obedience. Theodore, astonished at this humility, consecrated Chad himself, and appointed him bishop of the Mercians in Lichfield in 669. He founded monasteries, including those at Lindsey and Barrow-upon-Humber, evangelized, travelled and preached, reformed monastic life in his diocese, and built a cathedral on land that had been the site of the martyrdom of 1,000 Christians by the pagan Mercians. Miraculous cures reported at the wells he caused to be dug for the relief of travellers. Legend says that on one occasion two of the king's sons were hunting, were led by the Born: c.620 in Northumbria, England Died: • 2 March 672 at Lichfield, England of natural causes after a brief illness, probably the plague • his initial tomb was in the form of a small wooden house • some relics preserved in the cathedral of Saint Chad in Birmingham, England