St Chad's Day

Today is the feast of St Chad, who died in 672, and who is seen as the Apostle of Mercia, founder of the ancient see of Lichfield and patron of the Catholic archdiocese of Birmingham. His surviving relics are now housed above the High Altar in St Chad's Cathedral. The cathedral website has a piece about them and their survival at The Relics of St Chad.

The reliquary containing the bones of St Chad in front of the altar at the

Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of St Chad, Birmingham,
on the Solemnity of St Chad, March 2nd.

Image:clasmerdin.blogspot.com 

Many churches, both medieval and modern are under his patronage in the counties of the west midlands and Lancashire, the southern half of which was in the Lichfield diocese until 1541. I have posted about some of them previously in my post Churches of St Chad.

This year the church of St Chad at Uppermill in the moorland township of Saddleworth, historically in Yorkshire until the mangling of boundaries  in 1974, but looking more towards Lancashire in terms of its local economy, is celebrating its 800th anniversary, originating as a chapel established by Whalley Abbey. The parish website is at St Chad's (Uppermill) — Saddleworth Churches.

Saddleworth was the one piece of Yorkshire not in the medieval diocese of York, but in that of Lichfield and its successor dioceses of Chester and Manchester. 

 

Saddleworth Parish Church of St Chad

 

    Image: Geograph/© Copyright David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The church as it is today is a rebuilding of 1831-33, and typical of the style known as a "Waterloo Church." The smaller previous building, which looks to have been largely seventeenth and eighteenth century in date, the tower being rebuilt in 1746, can be seen below:

Rushcart Festival at Saddleworth Church, Yorkshire 

Painted circa 1826 by John Holland before the old church of St Chad was rebuilt from 1831 to 1833. This depicts the annual rushbearing ceremony, which has  recently been revived when rushcarts processed from the various villages and assembled outside the church. 

Image: Saddleworth Museum/BBC My Pictures website

There is more about the history and revival of the of the Saddleworth Rushcart here, and about the Rushcarts in general here.

It was at St Chad's that many of my ancestors must have worshipped before my branch of the family (and there are many branches of the Whiteheads in Saddleworth) became Wesleyan in the late eighteenth century, and eventually moved away to Manchester. The man who was the apparent founder of our family in Saddleworth, Henry Whitehead, sometime bailiff of the lands of Roche Abbey there, was recorded in the 1546 Chantry survey as one of the Churchwardens of St Chad's. I wonder how much his experience of parish life in those years mirrored that of The Voices of Morebath?

St Chad's Day

Were it not Quinquagesima today would be the feast of St Chad, who died in 672. Formerly Bishop of York he became the apostle of Mercia, founded the mother church of the western part of the kingdom at Lichfield, where he was enshrined until the reformation and is today the principal patron of the Catholic archdiocese of Birmingham, in whose cathedral his surviving relics are preserved above the High Altar.

 St Chad - a modern icon 

Image:aidanharticons.com

My previous posts about him can be seen at St Chad and his relics, Relics of St Chad,The Lichfield Angel, St Chad at York and on devotion to him in Churches of St Chad.

May St Chad continue to intercede for the Church in England.

Churches of St Chad

Today is the feast of St Chad, the seventh century bishop first of York and then, after the return of St Wilfrid to that see, he became the founding bishop of Lichfield. There is an account of his life here. Lichfield cathedral became the centre of his cult until the reformation. At that time some of his relics were rescued and in the nineteenth century re-enshrined in St Chad's Catholic cathedral in Birmingham. I have posted about those in previous years in St Chad and his relics and Relics of St Chad.

He is a popular patron of churches in the territory of the ancient diocese of Lichfield, including the chapel founded by the early thirteenth century (now a parish church and a nineteenth century rebuilding) of Saddleworth where my Whitehead forebears lived from the sixteenth century, and of the ancient parish church of the area in Rochdale.

The old church at Saddleworth circa 1826

A painting by John Holland of the Rushcarting ceremony, now in Saddleworth Museum.

Image: BBC

St Chad Rochdale

Image:Genuki

The handsome nineteenth century Catholic church of St Chad in Cheetham Hill in Manchester has become the new home of the Manchester Oratory.

St. Chad's Catholic Church on Cheetham Hill Road

Image:Manchesterhistory.net

St Chad's was built between 1846 and 1847 and was designed by the architectural practice of Weightman and Hadfield, who designed a number of  Catholic churches including Salford Cathedral.  

 

 Image:Manchesterhistory.net

St Chad's is associated with Sister Elizabeth Prout.  As a young woman Elizabeth attended a talk given by Bl. Dominic Barberi, who was a Passionists.  She was so inspired that she converted to Catholicism and then, on the advice of another Passionist, Father Gaudentius Rossi, she joined a Sisterhood in Northampton.  When Rossi was given a parish mission at St. Chad's he persuaded Sister Elizabeth to move there to teach in the parish church.  In the years that followed she worked among the poor of the community and founded a group that was known as the "Institute of the Holy Family" and she became known as Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus.  In 1864 at the age of 43 she died of tuberculosis at the Sutton Convent in Lancashire.  In more recent times she was put forward for canonisation, based on evidence of miraculous cures of people with cancer and severe brain damage.

In recent years the church was in the care of the Premonstratensian canons (Norbertines), but now has been assigned to the Oratorians who used to be at  the church of Holy Name in the city. The website of the new Oratory can be seen here.

St Chad at York

Rather as I observed in my post about St Oswald of Worcester so also St Chad does not appear to have had much of a cult at York where he had served as Bishop in the absence of St Wilfrid, making way for him on his return from the continent and going as a missionary to Mercia. It was at Lichfield that devotion to him flourished in later centuries. However that there was continuing devotion at York can be seen in this early fifteenth century window from the north choir aisle of the Minster.

A window given by Robert Wolvenden, Treasurer of York Minster 1426-1432. (The borders contain RW with lion's heads and suns).

Left light: St Chad and below him three scenes:
1) Chad saves a hart with crucifix between antlers with king and queen looking on;
2) King Wulfere slays his sons
3) Chad on his deathbed.

Centre light: St Paulinus and below him three scenes:
1) Paulinus consecrated bishop;
2) Paulinus preaching before King Edwin and nobles;
3) the donor, Robert Wolvenden, at prayer.

Right light: St Nicholas and below him:
1) Steward pours money into bag;
2) Conversion of Jew: dishonest Christian under cart;
3) St Nicholas rescues three boys in tub.

Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr

The fact that St Chad is placed alongside St Paulinus, the founder of the see of York, and St Nicholas, a paradigm of episcopal ministry, does suggest a continuing appreciation of St Chad's achievements and holiness at York.

The Lichfield Angel

Whilst it is still St Chad's feast day, and indeed the 1340th anniversary of his death, it seems a good opportunity to draw attention to the eighth century carving now known as the Lichfield Angel.

It was discovered, in three pieces, in 2003 beneath the floor of the nave of the present cathedral and recognised as an outstanding survival. Not only is it work of high quality, but unlike much surviving Anglo-Saxon sculpture from standing crosses it has not suffered from weathering, and has retained substantial portions of its original paintwork.

The Lichfield Angel

Image: Lichfield Cathedral website

It is thought to be the left hand side of a representation of the Annunciation - the other portion with Our Lady may still lie under the present cathedral - and may well have formed part of the early tomb or shrine of St Chad. The pigment on it has been compared with that in the St Chad Gospels, also preserved at the cathedral, which date from 730, but the Angel is usually dated to circa 800 - that is from the end of the reign of King Offa, the Mercian overlord of England south of the Humber, who died in 796, and who had secured the temporary elevation of the see of Lichfield to the status of an Archbishopric.

Not only is the carving an indicator of the quality of craftsmanship in a cathedral such as Lichfield but the indications of colour show how splendid the interior must have been. For too long peiopel have had a view of the Anglo-Saxon church as 'home-spun' and impoverished - other than the surviving altar books. Here is proof of a rich decorative tradition that stands fully in the tradition of Catholic worship and devotion.

There is more about the Angel on the Lichfield Cathedral website which can be viewed here.

The Angel and St Chad's Gospels can be seen on display in the chapter house of the cathedral.

Relics of St Chad

Today is the feast of St Chad, the apostle of Mercia, founder of the see of Lichfield and patron of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The cathedral, designed and decorated by A.W.Pugin, is dedicated to him and his relics are enshrined above the High Altar.

There is a good account of his life and times here. The Oxford DNB biography by D.H.Farmer can be read here, and it includes some details as to the history of his relics.

Statue of St Chad in his cathedral in Birmingham
He is holding a model of Lichfield cathedral

The reliquary holding the relics of St Chad above the High Altar of the cathedral

I have adapted and developed the section about his relics from the article above as follows:

According to St. Bede, Chad was venerated as a saint immediately after his death, and his relics translated to a shrine. He remained the centre of an important cult, focussed on healing, throughout the Middle Ages. Indeed it was the presence of the relics that probably led in the twelfth century to the re-establishment of a co-cathedral at Lichfield following its removal to Coventry in the late eleventh century. Bythe later middle ages the cult had twin foci: his tomb, in the apse, directly behind the high altar of Lichfield cathedral, and, more particularly, his skull, kept in a special Head Chapel, above the south aisle, with a balcony from which the reliquary could be displayed.

The transmission of the relics after the Reformation was tortuous, and a testimony to the faith of recusant families in the centuries that followed. At the dismantling of the Shrine on the instructions of King Henry VIII in about 1538, Prebendary Arthur Dudley (d.1577) of Lichfield Cathedral removed and retained some relics. These eventually passed to his nieces, Bridget and Katherine Dudley, of Russells Hall, near the town of Dudley.

In 1651, they reappeared when a farmer, Henry Hodgetts of Sedgley, was on his death-bed and kept praying to St Chad. When the priest hearing his last confession, Fr Peter Turner SJ, asked him why he called upon Chad. Henry replied, "because his bones are in the head of my bed". He instructed his wife to give the relics to the priest, whence they found their way to the Seminary at St Omer, in France. After the penal times, in the early 19th century, they found their way into the hands of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes of Aston Hall, near Stone in Staffordshire. When his chapel was cleared after his death, his chaplain, Fr Benjamin Hulme, discovered the box containg the relics, which were examined and presented in 1837 to Bishop Thomas Walsh, the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, and were enshrined in the new St Chad's Birmingham, opened in 1841, in a new casket designed by Pugin. In 1850 the church became the cathedral of the new diocese.

The relics, which comprise some long bones, were examined by the Oxford Archeological Laboratory by carbon dating techniques in 1985, and all but one of the bones (which was a third femur, and therefore could not have come from Bishop Chad) were dated to the seventh century, and were authenticated as true relics by the Vatican.

In 1919, an Annual Mass and Solemn Outdoor Procession of the Relics was inaugurated at the cathedral in Birmingham. This observance which was at on epoint discontinued because of the redevelopment of the road system round the cathedral has been revived in recent years, on the Saturday nearest to his feast Day, 2 March. There are more pictures of last year's St Chad's Day on the website of St Chad's Cathedral Birmingham.

The Shrine lies in front of the nave altar on St Chad's day 2011

Images: St Chad's cathedral website

St Chad and his relics

Today is the feast of St Chad, bishop of York and then of Lichfield, who died in 672. He is the patron of the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Birmingham and a secondary patron of the diocese.

There is a good account of his life here. His episcopal centre at Lichfield became his shrine church, and the present thirteenth and fourteenth century cathedral housed his relics until the reformation. Lichfield Cathedral Image:Wikipedia Today they are enshrined above the High Altar in St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, seat of the Catholic Archbishop of the see, and the cathedral's website has a section on the survival of the relics. St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham Designed by AW Pugin in 1840 Image:Wikipedia

Juventutum Oxford - Mass for St Chad

Juventutem Oxford is being launched on Wednesday this week at SS Gregory and Augustine in Woodstock Road.

There will be a polyphonic Sung Mass for the feast of St Chad, patron of the cathedral and Archdiocese of Birmingham, at the church at 6 pm. The intention of the Mass will be for the Pro-Life organization, the Good Counsel Network.

Afterwards there will be a meal after for young Catholics 18-35 attached or intrigued by the traditional Mass at a restaurant of as yet unknown location in central Oxford.

For more information there is a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190204841010689

Please support this, even if you are outside the Juventutum age category, either (or both) by attending or in your prayers.