good works.' When they, receiving his blessing, had gone away in sorrow, Owini returned alone, and casting himself on the ground prayed the bishop to tell him what that song of joy was which he heard coming to the oratory. The bishop, bidding him conceal what he had heard till after his death, said, 'They were angelic spirits, who came to call me to my heavenly reward, which I have always longed after, and they promised they would return seven days' hence, and take me away with them.' His languishing sickness increasing daily, on the seventh day, when he had prepared for death by receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord, his soul being delivered from the prison of the body, the angels, as may justly be believed, attending him, he departed to the joys of heaven.
"It is no wonder that he joyfully beheld the day of his death, or rather the day of our Lord, which he had always anxiously looked for till it came; for notwithstanding his many merits of continence, humility, teaching, prayer, voluntary poverty, and other virtues, he was so full of the fear of God, so mindful of his last end in all his actions, that, as I was informed by one of the brothers, who instructed me in divinity, and who had been bred in his monastery, whose name was Trumhere, if it happened that there blew a strong gust of wind, when he was reading or doing anything else, he at once called upon God for mercy, and begged it might be extended to all mankind. If it blew stronger, he, prostrating himself, prayed more earnestly. But if it proved a violent storm of wind or rain, or of thunder and lightning, he would pray and repeat Psalms in the church till the weather became calm. Being asked by his followers why he did so, he answered, 'Have ye not read, – 'The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave forth His voice; yea, He sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them.' For the Lord moves the air, raises the winds, darts lightning, and thunders from heaven to excite the inhabitants of the earth to fear Him; to put them in mind of the future judgment; to dispel their pride and vanquish their boldness, by bringing into their thoughts that dreadful time when, the heavens and the earth being in a flame, He will come in the clouds with great power and majesty, to judge the quick and the dead. Wherefore it behoves us to answer His heavenly admonition with due fear and love.'
"Chad died on the second of March, and was first buried by S. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the Church of the most Holy Prince of the Apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it. In both which places as a testimony of his virtue, frequent miraculous cures are wont to be wrought. The place of the sepulchre is a wooden monument, made like a little house covered, having a hole in the wall, through which those that go thither for devotion usually put in their hand and take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to drink, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity and restored to health."
We have told the life of S. Chad in the reverent language of Bede, who, as he says, had some of the details direct from those who had studied under the saint. Though his episcopate was short, it was abundantly esteemed by the warm-hearted Mercians, for thirty-one churches are dedicated in his honour, all in the midland counties, and either in or near the ancient diocese of Lichfield. The first church ever built in Shrewsbury was named after him, and when the old building fell, in the year 1788, an ancient wooden figure of the patron escaped destruction, which is still preserved in the new church. The carver has represented him in his pontifical robes and a mitre, with a book in his right hand, and a pastoral staff in his left.
His well is shown at Lichfield. There was one in London called Chad's Well, the water of which was sold to valetudinarians at sixpence a glass. Doubtless, from the miracles alleged to have been wrought by mixing a little dust from his shrine with water, he got the character of patron saint of medicinal springs. At Chadshunt there was an oratory and well bearing his name. The priest received as much as £16 a-year from the offerings of pilgrims. Chadwell – one source of the New River – is, perhaps, a corruption for S. Chad's Well.
No writings of our saint have survived, but in Lichfield Cathedral library there is a MS. of the 7th century in Anglo-Saxon character, containing the Gospels of S. Matthew, S. Mark, and part of S. Luke, which is known by the name of Chad's Gospel.
Among the Bodleian MSS. there is an Anglo-Saxon homily for S. Chad's day, written in the Middle Anglian dialect, which stretched from Lichfield to Peterborough.
His relics were translated from the wooden shrine to the cathedral, when it was rebuilt by Bishop Roger, in honour of SS. Mary and Chad. In 1296, Walter Langton was raised to the see of Lichfield. He built the Lady Chapel, and there erected a beautiful shrine, at the enormous cost of £2,000, to receive the relics of S. Chad. This was spared by Henry VIII.
His emblem in the Clog Almanacks is a branch. Perhaps this was suggested by the Gospel, viz., S. John v., formerly read on the Feast of his Translation, which speaks of the fruitful branches of the vine. This translation was formerly celebrated with great pomp at Lichfield, on August 2nd.
As long as the virtues of chastity, humility, and a forsaking all for Christ's sake are esteemed among men, the name of the apostle of the Mercians ought not to be forgotten.
A beautiful legend formerly inscribed beneath the cloister windows of Peterborough, recorded the conversion of King Wulfhere's sons, Wulfade and Rufine, by S. Chad, and their murder by their father, for he had turned heathen again in spite of the entreaties of Queen Ermenild: —
By Queen Ermenild had King Wulfere
These twey sons that ye see here.
Wulfade rideth as he was wont,
Into the forest the hart to hunt;
Fore all his men Wulfade is gone,
And sought, himself, the hart alone.
The hart brought Wulfade to a well,
That was beside Seynt Chaddy's cell.
Wulfade asked of Seynt Chad,
Where is the hart that me hath led?
The hart that hither thee hath brought,
Is sent by Christ, that thee hath bought.
Wulfade prayed Chad, that ghostly Leech,
The faith of Christ him for to teach.
Seynt Chad teacheth Wulfade the feyth,
And words of baptism over him seyth.
Seynt Chad devoutly to mass him dight,
And hoseled Wulfade Christy's knight.
Wulfade wished Seynt Chad that day,
For his brother Rufine to pray.
The legend goes on to say that Rufine was baptized also by the saint. The king's steward, Werbode (who had been rebuked by the two princes for seeking the hand of their sister, Werburga), told Wulfere of their becoming Christians, and that they were then praying in S. Chad's oratory. The king took horse thither at once, and slew them both with his own hand. Stung with remorse, he fell ill, and was counselled by his queen to ask Chad to shrive him. As a penance the saint told him to build several abbeys, and amongst the number he completed Peterborough Minster, which his father had begun. This legend is told with very full and touching details in a Latin version printed in the Monasticon.3
The Latin version is this. King Wulfere, son of Penda the Strenuous, had been baptized many years before by B. Finan, and promised at the font, and again when he wedded Ermenilda, of the royal house of Kent, to destroy all the idols in his realm. He neglected to do so, and let his three sons, Wulfade, Rufine, and Kenred remain unbaptized. His beauteous daughter, Werburga, had been dedicated to Christ as a virgin by the Queen; yet, when Werbode, his chief councillor, and the chief supporter of idolatry in the realm, sought her hand in marriage, the king consented. The queen, Ermenilda, however, sharply rebuked him for his presumption. The brothers threatened him with their sore vengeance if he again preferred his low-born suit to their sister. Their disdainful words cost them dear.
While Chad was praying by a fountain near his cell, a hart,
Many of these details of S. Chad's life are taken from Mr. Warner's excellent life of S. Chad.
