wfn.org | Don't count Chad out at election time

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Jan Nunley
Deputy Director
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http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

2000-217

Don't count Chad out at election time

by Jan Nunley

     (ENS) 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, he 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.

     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.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of the Office of News and Information 
for the Episcopal Church. 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.