Saint ChadArticle Free Pass Saint Chad, also called Ceadda (died
March 2, 672, Lichfield, Mercia, England; feast day, March 2),
monastic founder, abbot, and first bishop of Lichfield, who is
credited with the Christianization of the ancient English
kingdom of Mercia. With his brother St. Cedd, he was educated at
the great abbey of Lindisfarne on Holy Island (off the coast of
Northumbria) under its founder, Abbot St. Aidan, and later
apparently studied with St. Egbert, a monk at the Irish
monastery of Rathmelsigi. Cedd recalled Chad to England to
assist in establishing the monastery of Laestingaeu (now
Lastingham, North Yorkshire). Upon Cedd’s death in 664, Chad
succeeded him to become the second abbot of Laestingaeu, and,
probably late in the same year, at the request of King Oswiu
(Oswy) of Northumbria, he was consecrated bishop of the
Northumbrians (with his see at York). An ecclesiastical dispute
arose because St. Wilfrid had already been chosen bishop of York
and had gone to Gaul for his consecration, a m