Feast day: March 2
St. Chad
A humble English bishop of Lichfield, trained at Lindisfarne, who traveled his vast diocese on foot until the archbishop ordered him to ride for his health.
Chad — in older spelling Ceadda — was a Northumbrian of the seventh century, one of four brothers who all became priests. He was trained at Lindisfarne under St. Aidan, in the gentle Celtic monastic tradition, studied for a time in Ireland, and then governed the monastery of Lastingham.
His life fell in the years when the English Church was knitting its Celtic and Roman strands together, and he was caught in the tangle. Made bishop of York during the long absence of St. Wilfrid, he was later found to have been irregularly consecrated; when Archbishop Theodore pointed this out, Chad humbly offered to resign at once, saying he had never thought himself worthy of the office.
His humility so impressed Theodore that the archbishop regularized his ordination and soon appointed him bishop of the Mercians. Chad fixed his see at Lichfield, where he built a church and small monastery, and — though now responsible for a vast territory — insisted on travelling to preach on foot until Theodore ordered him to ride.
He governed for only about three years before dying in 672, but his reputation for holiness and humility made Lichfield a great place of pilgrimage. He is honoured as an apostle of the English midlands.
So determined was he to preach to everyone that he walked everywhere, until Archbishop Theodore personally lifted him onto a horse.
Image: SKopp & others (see upload log) (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/03470c.htm
Get a story like this every Sunday.