Understanding and Illustrating the Influence of the Cult of St Chad of Lichfield

Abstract

AbstractModern‐day activity relating to the veneration of the Anglo‐Saxon saint Chad is concentrated on two sites: the cathedral at Lichfield where he was buried in 672, and the cathedral in Birmingham which has housed his relics since the middle of the nineteenth century. The geographical extent to which his cult spread in the 800 years between his death and the dispersal of his relics at the time of the Reformation have not, however, been explored in any detail. This article collates a range of evidence types that exist for the saint, including the hagiographic texts of his life, material culture from archaeological excavations and extant buildings, parish church dedications, and place‐name evidence. This evidence base is used to build up a comprehensive picture of Chad's influence from the time Bede described his life and death in his Ecclesiastical History until the Reformation, highlighting significant periods in the shrine's history. The use of GIS techniques to record, analyse and illustrate the range of evidence types allows the patterns and distributions and their significance to be demonstrated cartographically, thus revealing the reach of Chad's cult throughout the Middle Ages.