Chad: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Chad (Ceadda) was the youngest of four Northumbrian brothers who all served God; one of them, St Cedd, was also a bishop. As a boy he learned the faith at Lindisfarne from St Aidan, and after Aidan’s death he went to Ireland to pray, fast and study the Scriptures. Returning about 664, he followed his brother as abbot of Lastingham and was made bishop at York. When Archbishop Theodore found fault with his consecration, Chad answered with great humility that he would gladly resign, for he had never thought himself worthy. Theodore instead completed his ordination and later sent him to the Mercians, and Chad made Lichfield his see. Like Aidan, he went about his people on foot, preaching from village to village, until Theodore himself lifted him onto a horse for the long journeys. Near his cell was a well, whose water he used for baptism. St Bede tells how angels were heard singing over his oratory and how Chad said they would return in seven days to call him; he died of the plague on 2 March, in 672 or 673. Bede also records healings of people and cattle at his tomb. The Church keeps his memory on 2 March (15 March on the Old Calendar). The English have long loved him as the Apostle of Mercia, and the faithful ask his prayers for humility, for the sick, and for those who carry the faith to others.

What the faithful pray for

• humility and obedience
• the sick and those caring for them in times of epidemic
• bishops, missionaries and all who preach the Gospel
• a peaceful and holy death
• the land and people of the English Midlands