Richard of Chichester

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Saint Richard of Chichester (also known as Richard de Wych or variations thereof) (born Droitwich 1197, died Dover 1253) is a saint (canonized 1262) who was Bishop of Chichester. His shrine in Chichester Cathedral was a richly-decorated centre of pilgrimage which was destroyed in 1538.

He was born in the town of Wyche (modern Droitwich) and was an orphan. He took up farming his elder brother's estates, and, according to legend, the brother offered him all of the lands and a marriage arrangement, but Richard refused them for the life of study and the church. Educated at Oxford, he soon began to teach in the university, of which he became chancellor, probably after he had studied in Paris and in Bologna. About 1235 he became chancellor of the diocese of Canterbury under Archbishop Edmund Rich, and he was with the archbishop during his exile in France.

Richard supported Edmund in exile and the rights of the Rome over the king. Having returned to England some time after Edmund's death in 1240 he became vicar of Deal and chancellor of Canterbury for the second time. In 1244 he was elected Bishop of Chichester, being consecrated at Lyons by Pope Innocent IV in March 1245, although Henry III refused to give him the temporalities of the see, the king favouring the candidature of Robert Passelewe (d. 1252). By seizing all the revenues of the see, Henry thus forced Richard into the same struggle over legal priority that Edmund had fought.

In 1246, however, Richard obtained the full rights of his see. The new bishop showed much eagerness to reform the manners and morals of his clergy, and also to introduce greater order and reverence into the services of the church. Richard overruled Henry on other occasions as well. A nobleman who had become a priest was accused of fornication, and Richard defrocked him, turning aside a petition from the king in the priest's favor. He was militant in protecting the clergy from abuse. The townsmen of Lewes violated the right of sanctuary by seizing a criminal in church and lynching him, and Richard made them exhume the body and give it a consecrated burial. He also imposed severe penance on knights who attacked priests. His term of office was also marked by the favour which he showed to the Dominicans, a house of this order at Orléans having sheltered him during his stay in France, and by his earnestness in preaching a crusade. After dedicating St Edmund's Chapel at Dover, he died at the Maison Dieu on April 4, 1253, where he had been ordered by the Pope to preach a crusade.

It was generally believed that miracles were wrought at his tomb in Chichester cathedral, which was long a popular place of pilgrimage, and in 1262 he was canonized at Viterbo by Pope Urban IV. His feast day is April 4th in the west, June 16 in the Anglican communion. Richard furnished the chronicler, Matthew Paris, with material for the life of Edmund Rich, and instituted the offerings for the cathedral at Chichester which were known later as "St Richard's pence."

Saint Richard is best remembered today for the popular prayer ascribed to him:

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly,
Day by day.

This prayer was adapted for the song Day by Day in the musical Godspell.

His life by his confessor, Ralph Bocking, is published in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, where a later and shorter life by John Capgrave is also to be found.

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Biography of St Richard of Chichester

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