By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

Vice-President Al Gore wasn't the first person in history to concede a hotly disputed election. In the fifth century, a monk named Cedda, brother of St. Cedd and St. Cynibild, was born around 620 A.D. in Northumbria, England. Cedda was educated at the great abbey of Lindisfarne on Holy Island, off the coast of Northumbria, under the abbey's founder, Abbot St. Aidan.

Later he studied with St. Egbert, a monk at the Irish monastery of Rathmelsigi, before being recalled to England to assist in the establishing of a monastery, in Laestingaeu, now present day Lastingham, North Yorkshire. Cedda's brother Cedd, was the monastery's abbot and, upon his death, Cedda became the second abbot of the monastery.

In 664, the king of Northumbria, King Oswy, requested that Cedda be consecrated a bishop. The service was scheduled and Cedda was installed as the bishop of the Northumbrians with his see (or headquarters) at York. And herein lies the rub.

It seems that an ecclesiastical dispute arose because Wilfrid had already been chosen bishop of York and had gone to Gaul for his consecration, a terrible mix-up that was recorded in Venerable Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People."

In 669, the new archbishop, St. Theodore of Canterbury, arrived in England and charged Cedda with improper ordination. St. Wilfrid returned to England the same year and Cedda resigned his bishop's orders, left York, and retired to Laestingaeu. It was reported that Cedda remarked, "The Church needs unity much more than I need to be a bishop." Cedda told the archbishop that he never thought himself worthy of the position, that he took it through obedience, and he would surrender it through obedience.

The archbishop was so impressed with Cedda's humility that, in 669, he consecrated Cedda as a bishop himself, and appointed him as the bishop of the Mercians in Litchfield. As soon as Cedda had been consecrated bishop, he began to devote himself to ecclesiastical truth, purity of doctrine, and to give attention to the practice of humility, self-denial, and study. Bishop Cedda determined to travel about, not on horseback, but on foot, after the manner of the Apostles, preaching the gospel in the towns, in the open country, in cottages, in villages, and in castles. He attempted to instruct his hearers by the demonstration of his life.

Cedda founded several monasteries and built a cathedral on land that had been the site of the martyrdom of 1,000 Christians at the hands of the pagan Mercians. One account says that, on one occasion, two sons of King Wulfhere were hunting and came upon Cedda praying. Wulfhere had ordered that Cedda be hunted down and killed but, when the sons of the king came upon him, they were so impressed by the sight of the frail old man praying, his face glowing with rapture, that they knelt, asked his blessing, and converted to Christianity.

The pagan King Wulfhere was so infuriated that he slew his sons and hunted down Cedda to kill him. But as the king approached the bishop's cell where he was praying, a great light shone through the window and the king was almost blinded by its brightness. He abandoned his plan for revenge.

Cedda went on to be credited with the Christianization of the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. On March 2, 672, following a brief illness, probably the plague, Cedda died in Litchfield. But, in the history books, he is not often referred to as Cedda.

The brother of St. Cedd and St. Cynibild, would eventually be canonized himself by the church he loved so much. This man of humility who stepped down from a disputed election in order to preserve unity would be known to ecclesiastical history as St. Chad.

Today, some of his relics, which were originally in the Cathedral of Litchfield, were saved by the Roman Catholics during the Reformation and are currently preserved in the Cathedral of St. Chad of Birmingham.

The next time you think of "chad," remember this servant of God who, rather than allow disruption and disunity to afflict the Church he loved, stepped aside for the greater good and stepped into the halls of greatness.

(Many thanks to Citizen reader Alison Dawson who provided much of the information on St. Chad and inspired further study. Ms Dawson is the mother of a 32-year-old son named Chad.)

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Church in Peachtree City. He may be reached at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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