St Augustine brought the Christian faith from Rome to southern England, and St Aidan brought it from Scotland to northern England. Now it is time to hear something about the lands in between. In the seventh century Anglo-Saxon England was made up of many small kingdoms. To understand this story you need to know five of these. You have already heard of Northumbria, far up in the north-east. Slightly further south was a sub-kingdom of Northumbria known as Deira, roughly where Yorkshire is now. In the West Midlands was the kingdom of Mercia ruled by the pagan King Penda; to the east of Mercia was the land of the Middle Angles, ruled by Penda’s son Peada. South and east of Middle Anglia was the kingdom of the East Saxons. If you squeeze these two words together you get its modern name: Essex.
Under St Aidan, the monastery of Lindisfarne had become a centre for study and the training of priests and monks. Among the many boys sent to Lindisfarne were four brothers whose names all began with the letter C: Cedd (pronounced Ched), Cynibil, Caelin and Chad. All four became priests, three became saints, and two – Cedd and Chad – became bishops and preached the Christian faith in central and eastern England. The conversion of the midlands began when the Middle Anglian ruler Peada married a Northumbrian Christian princess. He accepted her faith and four missionaries were sent from Lindisfarne to preach to his people. These included one of the four priestly brothers, Cedd. Two years later King Penda was killed and Christianity was able to spread west into Mercia. One of Cedd’s fellow missionaries, St Diuma, was consecrated bishop of both Mercia and the Middle Angles.
Further south, Christianity had gained a toe-hold among the East Saxons soon after the arrival of St.Augustine, but was pushed back again by paganism. In the middle of the seventh century, King Sigebert of the East Saxons was friendly with the Christian King Oswy of Northumbria and visited him often. During these visits Oswy and Sigebert argued about God. How, said Oswy, could the idols made of wood or stone worshipped by pagans possibly be gods? The same materials were used to make everyday items and were sometimes even thrown away as junk. Worst of all, they were easy to destroy. Oswy explained that the true God was invisible, all powerful, the Creator of everything, and indestructible. Didn’t this make more sense than a “god” that could be made and destroyed by men? In time Sigebert was convinced and was baptised by Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne, the successor of St. Aidan. The king asked for Christian missionaries to be sent from Lindisfarne to convert his people. King Oswy called Cedd back from the Middle Angles and sent him to the East Saxons instead, along with another priest. Soon the two priests had established a successful mission. Cedd was consecrated bishop of the East Saxons and founded two monasteries. The chapel of his monastery at Bradwell in Essex survives to this day and is one of the oldest churches in the British Isles.
Despite being so busy in Essex, Cedd still found time to visit Northumbria regularly. On one of these visits he was asked by the ruler of Deira to found a monastery there. Cedd chose an isolated and hilly site at Lastingham (Yorkshire) and prepared to build. He wanted a give the place a special spiritual preparation before starting to build, and decided to spend the whole of Lent praying and fasting there. During the day he ate nothing; in the evening he allowed himself a small portion of bread, a single hen’s egg and some watered down milk. After thirty days Cedd was interrupted by a messenger summoning him to the king. Cedd obeyed the summons, but left his brother Cynibil to take over the last ten days of his vigil and begin work on the monastery buildings. For the rest of his life Cedd laboured both as bishop of the East Saxons and abbot of Lastingham, until in 664 he died of a plague that struck his monastery.
After Cedd’s death his place as abbot was taken by his brother Chad. At this time a new bishop, Wilfrid, was appointed and his see was moved from Lindisfarne to York. Wilfrid went to Gaul to be consecrated, but was gone for so long that King Oswy decided to appoint Chad bishop instead. When Wilfrid finally returned Chad was told that he must give up his post and return to Lastingham, which he did obediently and humbly. The archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore, was so impressed by this humility that he consecrated him bishop of Mercia instead. In other ways, however, Theodore thought Chad took humility too far. Like St Aidan before him, Chad preferred to walk everywhere rather than ride a horse. Theodore felt that this was beneath the dignity of a bishop, and on at least one occasion lifted him onto a horse and insisted that he must ride, like it or not. Chad set up his episcopal church at Lichfield where he died in 672. Many miracles were said to have occurred after his death; even the dust from his tomb was said to work miracles when mixed with water and drunk.
PRAYERS:
O Almighty God, who willest to be glorified in thy Saints and didst raise up thy servants Cedd and the Saints of Essex to shine as lights in the world: Shine we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praises who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ, you called your servant Chad
to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people: give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature, humble spirit and prayerful life, that we may truly commend to others the faith which we ourselves profess; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[Collect for the Feast of St Chad]
ST CHAD ON THUNDERSTORMS AND FEAR OF THE LORD: Whenever there was a thunderstorm St Chad would go to the church and pray until the storm had passed. Why? This is the explanation he gave to his monks:
‘God stirs the air and raises the winds; He makes the lightning flash and thunders out of heaven, to move the inhabitants of the earth to fear Him, and to remind them of judgement to come … Therefore we should respond to His heavenly warnings with the fear and love we owe Him, and whenever He raises His hand in the trembling air as if to strike, yet spares us still, we should hasten to implore His mercy, examining our inmost hearts and purging the vileness of our sins, watchful over our lives lest we incur His just displeasure.’
FEAST DAYS:
St.Cedd – 7th January
St.Chad – 2nd March
TIMELINE:
St.Cedd – died 26th October 664 at Lastingham
St.Chad – died 2nd March 672 at Lichfield
HISTORICAL NOTE: Bede, the first great English historian, tells us a great deal about Cedd and Chad. He was born only a year after Chad died and would have known people who had themselves known the brothers.
FURTHER READING:
Sea Stranger, Fire-Brother and Earth-Father by Kevin Crossley-Holland – historical fiction about a boy converted by St.Cedd
© Kathryn Faulkner 2005. All rights reserved.
