In 669, Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians, died. King Wulfhere asked Theodore to send them a bishop. The archbishop did not wish to consecrate a fresh one, so he begged King Oswy to let Chad, who was then at Lastingham, be their bishop. Theodore knowing that it was Chad's custom to go about the work of the gospel on foot, rather than on horseback, bade our saint ride whenever he had a long journey to perform, but, finding Chad unwilling to comply, the archbishop with his own hands lifted him on horseback, for he thought him a holy man, and obliged him to ride wherever he had need to go.
Though Chad was bishop of Lindisfarne for so short a time, he left his mark on the affections of the people, for we find that at least one chantry was dedicated in his name at York Minster. Soon after his election to the bishopric of the Mercians, he set out for Repton in Derbyshire, where Diuma, the first bishop of the Mercians, had established his see.
Whether our saint desired a more central position for the episcopal see, or was influenced by the wish to do honour to a spot enriched with the blood of martyrs, Bede does not tell us, but Chad established the Mercian see at Lichfield, then called Licetfield, or the Field of the Dead, where one thousand British Christians are said to have been put to death.
His new diocese was not much less in extent than that of Northumbria. It comprised seventeen counties, and stretched from the banks of the Severn to the shores of the German Ocean. Theodore, years afterwards, detached from it the sees of Worcester, Leicester, Lindesey (in Lincolnshire), and Hereford. Though it was far beyond the power of one man to administer it effectually, yet Bede witnesses that "Chad took care to administer the same with great rectitude of life, according to the example of the ancients. King Wulfhere also gave him land of fifty families to build a monastery at the place called Ad Barve, i.e., 'At the wood,' in the province of Lindesey, wherein monks of the regular life instituted by him continue to this day." "Ad Barve" is conjectured by Smith, of Durham, to be Barton-on-Humber, where there is still standing a very ancient church, admitted by Rickman to be partly Saxon, dedicated to S. Peter.
After fixing his see at Lichfield, Bede tells us "he built himself a habitation not far from the Church, wherein he was wont to pray and read with seven or eight of the brethren, as often as he had any spare time from the labour and ministry of the Word. When he had most gloriously governed the Church in that province two years and a half, in the dispensation of the Most High Judge, there came round the time of which Ecclesiastes speaks. "There is a time to cast stones, and a time to gather them together," for a deadly sickness sent from heaven came upon that place, to transfer, by the death of the flesh, the living stones of the Church from their earthly abodes to the heavenly building. And after many of the Church of that most reverend prelate had been taken out of the flesh, his hour also drew near wherein he was to pass out of this world to our Lord. It happened that one day, Owini, a monk of great merit, the same that left his worldly mistress to become a subject of the heavenly king, at Lastingham, was busy labouring alone near the oratory, where the bishop was praying, the other monks having gone to the Church, this monk, I say, heard the voice of persons singing most sweetly, and rejoicing, and appearing to descend from heaven. He heard the voice approaching from the south-east, till it came to the roof of the oratory, where the bishop was, and entering therein, filled the same and all about it. After a time he perceived the same song of joy ascend from the oratory, and return heavenwards the same way it came, with inexpressible sweetness. Presently the bishop opened the window of the oratory, and, making a noise with his hand, ordered him to ask the seven brethren who were in the church, to come to him at once. When they were come, he first admonished them to preserve the virtue of peace among themselves, and towards all the faithful, also to practise indefatigably the rules of regular discipline, which they had either been taught by him or seen him observe, or had noticed in the words or actions of the former fathers. Then he added that the day of his death was at hand: 'For,' said he, 'that amiable guest who was wont to visit our brethren, has vouchsafed to come to me also to-day, and to call me out of this world. Return, therefore, to the church, and speak to the brethren, that they in their prayers recommend my passage to the Lord, and that they be careful to provide for their own, the hour whereof is uncertain, by watching, prayer, and good works.' When they, receiving his blessing, had gone away in sorrow, Owini returned alone, and casting himself on the ground prayed the bishop to tell him what that song of joy was which he heard coming to the oratory. The bishop, bidding him conceal what he had heard till after his death, said, 'They were angelic spirits, who came to call me to my heavenly reward, which I have always longed after, and they promised they would return seven days' hence, and take me away with them.' His languishing sickness increasing daily, on the seventh day, when he had prepared for death by receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord, his soul being delivered from the prison of the body, the angels, as may justly be believed, attending him, he departed to the joys of heaven.
"It is no wonder that he joyfully beheld the day of his death, or rather the day of our Lord, which he had always anxiously looked for till it came; for notwithstanding his many merits of continence, humility, teaching, prayer, voluntary poverty, and other virtues, he was so full of the fear of God, so mindful of his last end in all his actions, that, as I was informed by one of the brothers, who instructed me in divinity, and who had been bred in his monastery, whose name was Trumhere, if it happened that there blew a strong gust of wind, when he was reading or doing anything else, he at once called upon God for mercy, and begged it might be extended to all mankind. If it blew stronger, he, prostrating himself, prayed more earnestly. But if it proved a violent storm of wind or rain, or of thunder and lightning, he would pray and repeat Psalms in the church till the weather became calm. Being asked by his followers why he did so, he answered, 'Have ye not read,—'The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave forth His voice; yea, He sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them.' For the Lord moves the air, raises the winds, darts lightning, and thunders from heaven to excite the inhabitants of the earth to fear Him; to put them in mind of the future judgment; to dispel their pride and vanquish their boldness, by bringing into their thoughts that dreadful time when, the heavens and the earth being in a flame, He will come in the clouds with great power and majesty, to judge the quick and the dead. Wherefore it behoves us to answer His heavenly admonition with due fear and love.'
"Chad died on the second of March, and was first buried by S. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the Church of the most Holy Prince of the Apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it. In both which places as a testimony of his virtue, frequent miraculous cures are wont to be wrought. The place of the sepulchre is a wooden monument, made like a little house covered, having a hole in the wall, through which those that go thither for devotion usually put in their hand and take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to drink, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity and restored to health."
We have told the life of S. Chad in the reverent language of Bede, who, as he says, had some of the details direct from those who had studied under the saint. Though his episcopate was short, it was abundantly esteemed by the warm-hearted Mercians, for thirty-one churches are dedicated in his honour, all in the midland counties, and either in or near the ancient diocese of Lichfield. The first church ever built in Shrewsbury was named after him, and when the old building fell, in the year 1788, an ancient wooden figure of the patron escaped destruction, which is still preserved in the new church. The carver has represented him in his pontifical robes and a mitre, with a book in his right hand, and a pastoral staff in his left.
His well is shown at Lichfield. There was one in London called Chad's Well, the water of which was sold to valetudinarians at sixpence a glass. Doubtless, from the miracles alleged to have been wrought by mixing a little dust from his shrine with water, he got the character of patron saint of medicinal springs. At Chadshunt there was an oratory and well bearing his name. The priest received as much as £16 a-year from the offerings of pilgrims. Chadwell—one source of the New River—is, perhaps, a corruption for S. Chad's Well.
No writings of our saint have survived, but in Lichfield Cathedral library there is a MS. of the 7th century in Anglo-Saxon character, containing the Gospels of S. Matthew, S. Mark, and part of S. Luke, which is known by the name of Chad's Gospel.