“Chad” is a popular given name in the US (although not, strangely enough, in his own country in modern times) that has become associated with the Chad vs. Virgin meme, where Chad is depicted as hyper-masculine alpha male and ‘dudebro’ whose success in life and popularity in society is contrasted with the failure and weakness of his virgin counterpart. It is thought that this meme originated amongst the self-loathing ‘incel’ community of ‘involuntary celibates’ who typically associate their own virginity with being losers, which is ironic, given that St Chad himself was almost certainly a virgin himself who lived a humble and saintly life who was notable for his advocation of aesthetic virtues including chastity and abstention from the sensual pleasures of life.
But who was St Chad, the man whose existence is probably the reason why his given name is still a relatively popular given name down to the present day?
The name ‘Chad’ means ‘battle’ in the old Brythonic Celtic tongue (Brythonic being part of the family of languages that include Welsh and Cornish). Chad was one of four brothers, including his elder brother St Cedd, and his younger brothers Caelin and Cynibil, all of whom had Romano-British names despite them coming from the ranks of the Northumbrian nobility The reasons for them having Celtic names instead of Anglo Saxon ones is unclear. It may be that the Romano-British peoples were already Christianized by this time whereas the Anglo-Saxons were still largely pagan, and their parents wanted names that were associated with Christianity rather than their heathen compatriots, although this is merely speculation.
Most of what is known today about Chad and his brothers is known from the writings of the Venerable Bede, an Anglo Saxon monk whose book “An Ecclesiastical History of the English People” is one of the main sources of information about the history of this period. Bede himself was taught by Trumbert, who was himself taught by St Chad and thus Bede had access to a firsthand account of St Chad’s life
All of the brothers were monks and clergyman, St Cedd was a saint in his own right, and Caelin and Cynibil were also notable contemporary churchmen. Both Cedd and Chad received their early education from the Irish monk St Aiden of Lindisfarne at the Northumbrian priory on Holy Island he had founded and which much later became infamous due to the Viking raid in 793 AD that heralded the dark days of the Viking era in the British Isles.
St Aiden is widely credited with introducing Christianity to the Northumbrians, and it was probably under his direction that he was sent to the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Rath Melsigi in County Carlow in Ireland to continue his Christian education. Some time in the 650s, after some time studying in Ireland, he returned to England and helped his brother Cedd establish the monastery at Lastingham in what is now North Yorkshire. Cedd died there of the plague in 664, and Chad took over as Abbot of the monastery at this time and also served as Bishop of York from this year until 669. Throughout this period, Chad worked tirelessly to move the Northumbrians away from paganism and towards Christianity.
The Synod at Whitby took place in the same year that Chad took over as Abbot and as Bishop of York. At this Synod the Northumbrian clergy agreed to move away from Celtic practices and conform to the Roman Rite and accept the supreme authority of the pope in ecclesiastical matters. The evidence suggests that St Chad did not wholly conform to the new direction that had been decided, which caused some consternation to Bede who was writing half a century after the Synod and appears to have been somewhat embarrassed about St Chad’s Celtic adherences. St Chad himself was criticised by some of his contemporaries for maintaining some of these Celtic practices and Bede leaves a considerable portion of his life blank, possibly because they contained details not considered flattering to an age when the authority of the papacy over the Northumbrian Church was taken for granted.
Nevertheless, when in 669 the Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus (who had been appointed to this position by Pope Vitalian and thus possessed papal authority) demanded that Chad step down as Bishop of York so that Wilfrid (a key figure at the Whitby Synod who had advocated for the Roman position) be appointed in his place, he humbly obliged without protest or resistance. This humility did however impress Theodore who confirmed his ordination as Bishop although maintained that he should step down as Bishop in order to allow Wilfrid take his place.
Following a brief retirement back to the monastery of Lastingham, Theodore recalled Chad in order to appoint him as Bishop of the Mercians after the Mercian King Wulfhere, a pagan convert to Christianity requested a new Bishop to oversee Mercia’s religious affairs. The humility that had impressed Theodore also became a source of frustration to him when he repeatedly refused to ride a horse to cover the long journey into Mercia and to carry out his ecclesiastical duties in governing a large diocese until Theodore ordered him to be physically lifted onto a horse by his assistants.
From then until his death in 672, Chad travelled around Mercia preaching and converting the local population and establishing several monasteries with the intention of them carrying out missionary work among the local population. Soon after his death he was according to Bede, almost immediately cannonised. A shrine to him was built at Lichfield and eventually the Cathedral of Litchfield was established to house his relics there.
From the time of his death and throughout the Middle Ages, his shrine became a place of pilgrimage for those seeking out the miracles of healing attributed to him. In 1538, in pre-emption of Henry VIII’s destruction of his shrine during the Reformation period Chad’s bones were removed to a place of safety. After ending up in France, they were eventually returned to England and finally, in 1841 they were installed in the new Roman Catholic Cathedral dedicated to St Chad in Birmingham.
Carbon testing of the bones took place in 1985 which confirmed that all except a third femur bone which was present belonged to an individual that lived and died during the 7th century, which provided reasonable confirmation of the authenticity of Chad’s relics. They remain enshrined in the Cathedral to this day.
