Early Life and Formation
Chad was born in Northumbria near the beginning of the seventh century, one of four brothers who all entered the monastic life: Saint Cedd, Saint Cynebil (Cynibil), Caelin, and Chad himself, the youngest. His name is of British Celtic origin.
All four brothers studied under Saint Aidan at the monastery of Lindisfarne. Chad later completed his education in Ireland at Rath Melsigi (Rathmelsige) in County Carlow, an Anglo-Saxon monastery, where he studied scripture intensively with companions including Egbert of Ripon.
With his brother Cedd, Chad helped establish the monastery of Lastingham in Yorkshire. When Cedd died of plague in 664, Chad succeeded him as its abbot.
Episcopal Ministry
In 664 King Oswiu appointed Chad Bishop of the Northumbrians. Because plague had left few bishops available to consecrate him, he was ordained by Bishop Wini together with British bishops. In 669 Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus judged this consecration irregular and removed Chad from the see so that Wilfrid could take it; Chad yielded without protest.
That same year King Wulfhere requested Chad as bishop for Mercia. Impressed by Chad's humility, Theodore recalled him and consecrated him Bishop of the Mercians and of the people of Lindsey. Chad established his see at Lichfield, making him the first Bishop of Lichfield, and staffed a new minster there with monks from Lastingham. He founded monasteries at Barrow upon Humber and elsewhere. Bede relates that Theodore, concerned for Chad's endurance on long journeys, ordered him to travel by horse rather than continue his practice of going everywhere on foot.
Chad's missionary labors advanced the conversion of the Mercians. Tradition, recorded in the OrthodoxWiki account, relates that the sons of King Wulfhere asked about Jesus and were baptized; the king killed them in a rage but afterward repented and built churches in penance.
Relics and Shrines
Chad died on 2 March 672 at Lichfield. He was regarded as a saint immediately after his death, and miracles and cures were reported at his well and reliquary.
His relics passed through a complex history. During the Reformation under Henry VIII, in 1538 Prebendary Arthur Dudley of Lichfield Cathedral removed them and passed them to his nieces. They eventually reached the Seminary at Saint-Omer in France, and by 1837 were presented to the Roman Catholic Vicar Apostolic; they were enshrined in Saint Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, in 1841. Radiocarbon dating in 1985 authenticated the remains as seventh-century. In November 2022 one bone was returned to a new shrine at Lichfield Cathedral.
Veneration
Chad is commemorated on 2 March. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Celtic Orthodox churches, and is noted as a saint in a new edition of the Eastern Orthodox Synaxarion.
