Blessed by Fr Gregory on 27th July 2024 for the people of Chadkirk who have maintained this old English Orthodox Christian tradition - thanks be to God!
It is most fitting that this blessing of the dressed well should have taken place this year according to Orthodox rites, notably of course because, God willing, we shall have a new mission community established and dedicated to the Saint in the Heywood area of south Lancashire in the Autumn.
St Chad, together with his brother St Cedd were raised as Christians and trained to be missionaries by their spiritual father St Aidan in his monastery at Lindisfarne off the far north east coast of England (the Farne Islands). Such was St Chad's progress in sanctity that he was soon made Bishop of York, only to be relieved of that post by St Theodore of Canterbury when his position was contested by St Wilfrid. With great humility, St Chad stepped aside and returned to his own monastery in Lastingham.
St Theodore later called him out of retirement to establish a diocese for the newly christianised Mercian kingdom, based in Lichfield. St Chad had only two and a half years in this post before he died of plague. In this short period Mercia was so thoroughly evangelised that, to this day, numerous towns, villages and churches bear his name. His relics are enshrined in the Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham. St Chad reposed in the Lord in AD 673 and is commemorated annually on 2nd March.
Kommentare