Richard of Chichester

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"Saint Richard" redirects here. For other saints with this name, see Saint Richard (disambiguation)
Saint Richard of Chichester
A wall painting of St. Richard of Chichester
Bishop and Confessor
Born c. 1197, Droitwich, Worcestershire, England
Died April 3, 1253, Dover, Kent, England
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Canonized 1262, Viterbo, Lazio, Papal States by Pope Urban IV
Major shrine Chichester Cathedral
Feast April 3 (Roman Catholic Church), June 16 (Anglican Communion)
Attributes Confessor; Bishop with a chalice on its side at his feet because he once dropped the chalice during a Mass and nothing spilled from it; kneeling with the chalice before him; ploughing his brother's fields; a bishop blessing his flock with a chalice nearby
Patronage Coachmen; Diocese of Chichester; Sussex, England
Saints Portal
Saint Richard of Chichester
Denomination Roman Catholic
Senior posting
See Chichester
Title Bishop of Chichester
Period in office 1244–1253
Predecessor Robert Papelew
Successor John Climping
Religious career
Previous post Vicar of Deal
Personal
Date of birth 1197
Place of birth Droitwich
Place of death Dover, England

Saint Richard of Chichester (also known as Richard de Wych or variations thereof) (Droitwich, 1197 – 1253 in Dover) 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.

Contents

[edit] Life

St. Richard was born in the town of Wyche (modern Droitwich, Worcestershire)[1] and was an orphan member of a gentry family. 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 Pope 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,[2] 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 favour. 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 proper burial in consecrated ground. He also imposed severe penance on knights who attacked priests. His episcopate 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 there at midnight on April 3, 1253,[2] where he had been ordered by the Pope to preach a crusade. His internal organs were removed and placed in that chapel's altar, before Richard's body was carried to burial at Chichester.

[edit] Shrine

It was generally believed that miracles were wrought at Richard of Chichester's 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 on April 3 in the West, but because this date generally falls within Lent or Eastertide this is normally translated to June 16 in the Anglican Communion, which venerates St. Richard more widely than does Rome, i.e. (the Roman Catholic Church).

Richard furnished the chronicler, Matthew Paris, with material for the life of St. Edmund Rich, and instituted the offerings for the cathedral at Chichester which were known later as "St. Richard's pence."

During the episcopate of the first Anglican bishop of Chichester, Richard Sampson, King Henry VIII of England ordered the destruction of the Shrine of St. Richard in Chichester cathedral in 1538. For that purpose, and as a test of loyalty to his royal supremacy over the Church of England (1534), King Henry sent members of the previously-staunch Catholic Sussex gentry to carry out the removal of the Shrine and the despatch of its jewels and ornaments to the Crown, including William Ernle, esquire, whose family, the Ernle's of Earnley in Sussex, had long made contributions to the Shrine in honor of the saint for which it was established. In the case of William Ernle, he was expected to show his enthusiasm for the new Supreme Head of the Church of England by carrying out the cæsaropapal commands for the destruction of the Shrine and the discarding of the bones of his own family's patron saint, a saint for whom he had named his son and heir. The Shrine of St. Richard had, up to this point, enjoyed a level of popularity approaching that accorded to St Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. It seems that someone associated with the parish of West Wittering in Sussex, possibly William Ernle himself, using his position as royal commissioner for the destruction of St. Richard's Shrine, may have spirited away the relics and bones of St. Richard and hidden them in their own parish church there as there are persistent legends of the presence there of the remains of the saint:

"The Lady Chapel not only contains the Saxon Cross but also an ancient broken marble slab engraved with a Bishop's pastoral staff and a Greek cross believed to have come from a reliquary containing the relics of St. Richard of Chichester, a 13th century bishop who often visited West Wittering. Part of his story is shown in the beautiful red, white and gold altar frontal presented by Yvonne Rusbridge in 1976. On the left St Richard is shown feeding the hungry in Cakeham and on the right leading his followers from the church, his candle miraculously alight despite the gust of wind which blew out all the other candles."

Since the Anglo-Catholic revival within the Church of England in the nineteenth century, St Richard's Shrine at Chichester cathedral has been re-established, culminating in the adoption of his translated Anglican feast day, June 16, as Sussex Day in 2007.

[edit] Prayer

Saint Richard is best remembered today for the popular prayer ascribed to him as his last words on his deathbed where, surrounded by the clergy of his diocese, he prayed:

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.

[edit] Current Patronal Festival and Patronship

St Richard of Chichester is the patron saint of the county of Sussex in England. Since 2007, his translated saint's day, June 16 has been celebrated as Sussex Day[3].

[edit] Notes

Day of Saint Richard, February 7

  1. ^ British History Online Bishops of Chichester accessed on October 21, 2007
  2. ^ a b Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 239
  3. ^ West Sussex County Council A Day To Show You're Proud Of Sussex accessed on August 25, 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Robert Papelew		 Bishop of Chichester
1244–1253		 Succeeded by
John Climping
Academic offices
Preceded by
John de Rygater		 Chancellor of the University of Oxford
1240		 Succeeded by
Ralph de Heyham
Persondata
NAME Richard Wich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richard of Chichester, St. Richard of Chichester
SHORT DESCRIPTION Bishop of Chichester, Saint
DATE OF BIRTH 1197
PLACE OF BIRTH Droitwich
DATE OF DEATH 1253
PLACE OF DEATH