This Week's Feasts and Saints

Lent

Taking its name from the Middle-English “Lenten”, or “spring”, the origins of Lent itself are particularly obscure. It seems possible that in some parts of the early Church there was a commemoration of Christ’s forty day fast in the wilderness and which followed immediately on from the celebration of the Baptism of Christ. The forty days attached to Easter began to appear in Rome and elsewhere shortly after the Council of Nicea in 325 and although the records of the Council make no mention of the establishment of such a fast it is possible that it was ordered by the assembled bishops.

In the New Testament there is no mention of a determined period of fasting amongst the early Christian Community, although, in the Acts of the Apostles, in the account of the shipwreck of St. Paul, it states that, "A great deal of time had been lost, and navigation was already hazardous, since it was now well after the time for the Fast" (27: 9). In the immediate post-apostolic age there is a general sense of some sort of fast being observed in the period before Easter. The early Christian writer and apologist, Tertullian (c. 160 - c. 225) mentions a period of fasting to commemorate the period when the spouse, Jesus Christ, was taken away. Another early writer, Irenaeus, (c. 130 - c. 200) [right] in a letter to Victor, the Bishop of Rome from about 190 until 200, speaks of the fast before Easter and of the different methods of its observance in different places stating that the difference of observance was not a new thing but that it had arisen "even long before, in a past generation". It is clear from Tertullian that from very early times the Lenten fast, whatever its duration may have been, was considered obligatory and passages to the same effect are found in the later literature of the Church. The Council of Gangra, in the middle of the fourth century, anathemizes those who neglected to keep the fasts "observed by the Church". St. Jerome (c. 341 - 420) lays down strict obligations in the keeping of the Lenten fast. During the first three centuries of the history of the Church, most Christians prepared for Easter by only fasting for two or three days. In some places this "paschal fast" was extended to cover the entire week before Easter, the period now known as Holy Week. In Rome, this pascal fast may have lasted for as long as three weeks, but by the fourth century ad developed into the forty day Lent as it is observed today.

The Roman Lent, in its three week form, was linked to the pastoral and liturgical preparation of catechumens for baptism at the Easter Vigil and until recently this baptismal motif was thought to explain the origins of Lent, a practice restored by the Second Vatican Council.

Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son’s death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

2nd March - Feast of St. Chad, Bishop, Patron of the Diocese.

Born c. 634, Northumbria

Died 2 March 672, Lichfield, Staffordshire

Buried Lichfield Cathedral

Attributes Bishop, holding a triple-spired cathedral (Lichfield)

Patronage Mercia; Lichfield; Diocese of Birmingham

Shrines Lichfield Cathedral now destroyed. Modern shrine on site. Part of Saxon shrine was discovered in 2006 and St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, where bones attributed to Chad were installed in 1841.

The first bishop of Mercia and Lindsey at Lichfield Chad succeeded his brother Cedd as abbot of Lastingham in North Yorkshire and a disciple of Aidan who sent him over to Ireland for part of his education. Chad’s first Episcopal appointment was in controversial circumstances in Northumbria. While Wilfred, who had also been chosen for the see, was in Gaul seeking consecration, Chad underwent a dubious consecration to the vacant diocese. Upon his return to England Wilfred found Chad in occupation of his diocese. However, in 669 Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, deposed Chad, who retired to Lastingham. Soon afterwards Chad was reconsecrated as bishop to the Mercians. This was due both to a new opening for Christianity in Mercia and to Chad’s excellent character. Chad’s new appointment lasted only a brief three years until his death in 672 but during that time he laid the foundations of the see of Lichfield according to Theodore’s council at Hertford which established diocesan organisation. According to Bede, Chad was venerated immediately after his death and cures were claimed by those who visited his relics. According to Bede his first shrine was like: a wooden coffin in the shape of a little house with an aperture in the side through which the devout can . . . 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.” At the Reformation, Rowland Lee, Bishop of Lichfield, pleaded with Henry VIII to spare the shrine but only succeeded in postponing the inevitable. However, at some unknown date the head and some other bones had become separated from the main shrine. Some of these were preserved by recusants and would become the relics of St. Chad currently in the cathedral in Birmingham that bears his name.

Butler has the following account of St. Chad's life, He was brother to St. Cedd, Bishop of London, and the two holy priests, Celin and Cymbel, and had his education in the monastery of Lindisfarne, under St. Aidan. For his greater improvement in sacred letters and divine contemplation he passed into Ireland, and spent a considerable time in the company of St. Egbert till he was called back by his brother, St. Cedd, to assist him in settling the monastery of Lestingay, which he had founded in the mountains of Deiri, that is, the Wolds of Yorkshire. St. Cedd being made Bishop of London, or of the East Saxons, left to him the entire government of the house. Oswi having yielded up Bernicia, or the northern part of his kingdom, to his son Alcfrid, this prince sent St. Wilfrid into France that he might be consecrated to the bishopric of the Northumbrian kingdom, or of York; but he stayed so long abroad that Oswi himself nominated St. Chad to that dignity, who was ordained by Wini, Bishop of Winchester, assisted by two British prelates. Bede assures us that he zealously devoted himself to all the laborious functions of his charge, visiting the diocese on foot, preaching the gospel, and seeking out the poorest and most abandoned persons to instruct and comfort in the meanest cottages and in the fields. When St. Theodorus, Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in England, in his general visitation of all the English churches, he adjudged the see of York to St. Wilfrid. St. Chad made him this answer: "If you judge that I have not duly received episcopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never thought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to undertake in obedience." The archbishop was charmed with his candour and humility, would not admit his abdication, but supplied certain rites which he judged defective in his ordination: and St. Chad, leaving the see of York, retired to his monastery of Lestingay, but was not suffered to bury himself long in that solitude. Jaruman, Bishop of the Mercians, dying, St. Chad was called upon to take upon him the charge of that most extensive diocese. He was the fifth bishop of the Mercians, and first fixed that see at Lichfield, so called from a number of martyrs slain and buried there under Maximianus Herculeus; that name signifying the field of carcasses. Hence this city bears for its arms a landscape, covered with the bodies of martyrs. St. Theodorus, considering St. Chad's old age, and the great extent of his diocese, absolutely forbade him to make his visitations on foot, as he used to do at York. When the laborious duties of his charge allowed him to retire, he enjoyed God in solitude with seven or eight monks, whom he had settled in a place near his cathedral. He was so strongly affected with the fear of the divine judgements that often as it thundered he went to the church and prayed prostrate all the time the storm continued, in remembrance of the dreadful day in which Christ will come to judge the world. By the bounty of King Wulfere, he founded a monastery at a place called Barrow, in the province of Lindsay (in the northern part of Lincolnshire). St. Chad goverened the diocese of Lichfield two years and a half, and died in the great pestilence on the 2nd of March, in 673. Bede gives the following relation of his passage: "Among the eight monks whom he kept with him at Lichfield, was one Owini, who came with Queen Ethelred, commonly called At. Audry, from the province of the East Angles, and was her major-domo, and the first officer of her court, till quitting the world, clad in a mean garment, and carrying an axe and a hatched in his hand, he went to the monastery of Lesingay, signifying that he had come to work, and not to be idle; which he made good by his behaviour in the monastic state. The monk declared that he one day heard a joyful melody of some persons sweetly singing, which descended from heaven into the bishop's oratory, filling the same for about half an hour, then mounted again to heaven. After this, the bishop opening his window, and seeing him at his work, bade him to call the other seven brethren. When the eight monks were entered into his oratory, he exhorted them to preserve peace, and religiously observe the rules of regular discipline; adding that the amiable guest who was wont to visit their brethren had vouchsafed to come to him that day, and to call him out of this world. Wherefore he earnestly recommended his passage to their prayers, and pressed them to prepare for their own, the hour of which is uncertain, by watching, prayer, and good works." The bishop fell presently into a languishing distemper, which daily increased, till, on the seventh day, having received the body and blood of our Lord, he departed to bliss, to which he was invited by the happy soul of his brother St. Cedd and a company of angels with heavenly music. He was buried in the Church of St. Mary, in Lichfield; but his body was soon after removed to that of St. Peter, in both placed honoured with miraculous cures, as Bede mentions. His relics were afterwards translated to the great church which was built in 1148, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin and St. Chad, which is now the cathedral, and they remained there till the change of religion.

Almighty and ever living God, through the ministry of your servant and Bishop Chad the people of this diocese first turned to Christ your Son, grant, we pray, that through his intercession, we may imitate him in a peaceful and humble spirit and a prayerful life and so commend to others the faith that we ourselves profess.

Saints and Feast Days this week.

Beginning Sunday, 1st March 2026, The Second Sunday of Lent, Day of Prayer for the Candidates for the Sacraments.