The seventh century was a time of expansion and development for Christianity in Britain. Columba had been dead for two hundred years but his message had been carried across the land by his successors. On the island of Lindisfarne Aidan, a former monk of Iona, was training Anglo-Saxon boys to become missionary monks. It was to him that four brothers Cedd, Chad, Cynebill and Caelin, came to dedicate themselves to God and to prepare themselves for a life in his service. All of them became priests and two of them. Cedd and Chad, became bishops. What we know of Chad and his elder brother Cedd, we know from the writings of Saint Bede who completed his History about sixty years after Chad’s death.

As part of his education Chad was sent by Aidan to Ireland so he was a priest trained in the Celtic tradition of Columba’s lona. His ministry took place at a time of upheaval in the Church. The great debate at the Synod of Whitby over the precise dating of Easter took place in 664. In effect, the Church was split into two factions, the Celtic branch and that of Rome. The Roman church triumphed and the Celtic tradition of Columba and Aidan gradually faded away. Chad completed his ministry in a church that now followed Roman practice.

The lives of the two brothers followed a similar pattern. Cedd, ordained as bishop of the East Saxons, established a monastery at Lastingham in North Yorkshire in a place deemed "more suitable for the dens of robbers and wild beasts". He and Chad attended the Synod of Whitby acting as an interpreter. Sadly, on his return to Lastingham he fell ill with the plague and died there. Chad then became abbot of the monastery and continued his brother’s work. The Church at this time was expanding widely and bishops were needed to carry out the work of evangelising. They were, however, often at the beck and call of kings!. Shortly after the Synod of Whitby, Wilfred, the Bishop of York, was dispatched into France by King Alcfrith, a sub-king of Northumbria, to be consecrated bishop "for himself and his people". In his absence, King Oswy, Alcfrith’s father and king of Northumbria, sent Chad to Kent to be ordained as bishop to replace Wilfred at York. On his arrival Chad discovered that Deusdedit, the Archbishop of Canterbury had recently died and had not been replaced. He, and a companion priest, Eadhaed (who was later to become Bishop of Ripon) continued on to Winchester in the kingdom of the West Saxons. Here he was ordained by Wine who was assisted by two other bishops, but unfortunately for Chad, Wine was believed to have been guilty of simony (the buying and selling of benefices) and the bishops who had assisted at Chad’s ordination were suspect. It would appear that they kept Easter Sunday "contrary to the canonical manner". In 666 Wilfred, returning from Gaul to find Alcfrith either dead or deposed (such was the politics of the time) and Chad in his place, He retired to Ripon.

In 669 Theodore, the new Archbishop of Canterbury restored Wilfred to York and Chad was deposed. His time as bishop over and doubt having been cast upon his ordination, Chad retired to his old abbey at Lastingham and probably thought that this would be where he would end his days.. Bede describes Chad as one "who laboured for ecclesiastical truth and purity of doctrine and who applied himself to humility, self-denial and study". Possibly it was these qualities that Chad had displayed during his brief time at York that led to his change of circumstance and the third period of his ministry. King Wulhere of the Mercians approached Theodore, asking that a bishop should be given to him and his people. Rather than ordain a new one, Theodore approached King Oswy and requested that he might take Chad out of retirement and send him to Mercia. Bede tells us that Chad, like Aidan and Cedd before him, followed the tradition of the Apostles and travelled on foot to perform his ministry. Theodore instructed him to undertake long journeys on horseback, and (to quote Bede) "finding him very unwilling, in his zeal and love for his pious labour, he himself, with his own hands, lifted him on horseback" Chad went into Mercia and established his see at Lichfield and built a monastery close to Lichfield cathedral. King Wulfhere also gave him land in Barrow in Lincolnshire for a monastery. Having received the bishopric of the Mercians and Lindsey, he took care "to administer it with great perfection of life" His three year episcopate laid the foundations of the see of Lichfield according to the decrees of the Synod of Hertford in 672, the first Synod of the Anglo-Saxon church.

Chad died on 2nd March in 672 and was buried in the church of St Mary. At once, according to Bede, he was venerated as a saint and his relies were translated to the cathedral church of St Peter. Cures were reported at both churches and pilgrims visited his first shrine which was built in the shape of a little house with an opening in the side through which they could take some of the dust. This was placed in water and when given to men or cattle and drunk, restored them to full health. In 1296 his relies were moved to the Lady Chapel within the cathedral. In the fourteenth century, a splendid shrine of marble, gold and precious stones, was built for him by Robert Stretton, the then bishop of Lichfield. During the upheavals under Henry VIII, the bishop Rowland Lee implored the king to spare St Chad’s shrine. Chad rested in peace for only a short time. At some unknown later date the relies were disturbed and separated. Four large bones in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Birmingham are believed to be his.

Associated with Chad’s shrine is a fine Mercian illuminated Gospel Book called the Gospels of St Chad which was produced during the eight century and is now housed in Lichfield Cathedral Library. Thirty-three ancient churches and several wells are dedicated to him, mainly in the Midlands and there are also some modern dedications.

"Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod"