How Holiness is Timeless
Beirdd

Fri Dec  1 20:25:21 2000
How Holiness is Timeless*p*It goes without saying that there is a timelessness to goodness. The good acts of good people, as an expression of the world of the spirit, transcend place and time.*p*Here is a true story, the gist of which you may have recently heard, but whose details are worth reading.*p*In the seventh century, in the kingdom or Northumbria, were born and raised four brothers who all grew up to be priests with a special reputation for holiness. Two of these brothers were eventually consecrated as bishops. These two brothers were trained under Aiden at Lindesfarne. The elder was Cedd; the younger was Ceadda.*p*After the death of Aiden, Ceadda went to Ireland and spent several years at Rathmelsigi.  He was recalled to England in order to take charge of the abbey at Lastingham, which his brother had founded. Lastingham was in a wild, secluded place on the Yorkshire moors, not far from Whitby. This suited Ceadda, who preferred to dwell in nature, close to God.*p*His spiritual retreat was, however, short-lived. King Osric  had ceded a portion of his kingdom, including York, to his son Alcfrid. Alcfrid had chosen Wilfred to be the new Bishop of York, and sent Wilfred to France to be consecrated as a bishop by Agilbert, who had recently left Britain to become bishop of Paris. There is a possibility that King Oswy suspected that Wilfred would also eventually be tempted to take a French See, and he preferred to choose a man who would be more inclined to stay at home in Britain. *p*According to Bede, King Oswy sent Ceadda to be consecrated by Archbishop Deusdedit of Kent, but the old bishop had recently died and the See was still vacant. Upon receiving this news, Oswy sent Ceadda to the province of the West Saxons, where he was consecrated bishop along with two other men who were “of the British Nation,” or Celts, who followed the Celtic dating of Easter, and not the accepted Roman dating. The new Bishop Ceadda returned to York and set out to totally devote himself to spiritual virtues and truth for the benefit of his flock. Among his habits were his practice of walking and never riding, preaching in the country villages and in the open countryside, and personally visiting his people living in cottages and castles.*p*Then, as today, the Archbishop of Canterbury had primacy over all the sees of England. When the new Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in England in 669, he immediately traveled to Northumbria and judged that Wilfred was the true bishop of York. He also judged that Ceadda’s consecration had been invalid, since it had included the consecration of bishops not in union with Rome. Upon this judgment, Ceadda humbly replied, “If you consider that I have not been properly consecrated, I willingly resign this charge of which I never thought myself worthy. I undertook it, though unworthy, under obedience.”*p*The Archbishop was so impressed with the depth of the man’s spirituality as witnessed in his humility and obedience that, before sending him home to Lastingham, he himself consecrated Ceadda a bishop. Because Ceadda was now an old man, the Archbishop forbade him to walk to visit his people, and lifted the new bishop onto a horse with his own arms. Shortly thereafter, Ceadda was appointed to be the Bishop of Mercia. *p*Bishop Ceadda went on to build a monastery at his see in Lichfield which eventually became the Abbey of Bardney. He died there, about two years later, leaving such an impression on the people of that country that thirty one churches were dedicated to him, along with several wells.*p*In one legend associated with Bishop Ceadda, he was once praying by a stream in a wood when a deer being chased by hunters leapt into the water. He calmed it and sent it to graze in the wood. When the huntsmen arrived, they turned out to be the two sons of King Wulfhere, who were intent on their goal. But first, Ceadda had them sit while he preached to them about the virtues practiced in showing kindness to animals. The two young men were immediately converted to the faith, and Ceadda baptized them in the stream. When their father, a renegade Christian who had returned to his older beliefs, heard that his sons had been baptized, he murdered them both. When his rage subsided, he was filled with remorse and went in search of Ceadda to seek forgiveness. Having received the sacraments again from the holy man, Wulfhere went on to return to the faith of his own father and built several abbeys as a penance.*p*St. Ceadda’s relics are kept at the Cathedral at Birmingham which bears his name. A seventh century manuscript of the Gospels bearing his name is kept in the cathedral library at Lichfield. His feast day is March 2 and he is venerated as the Patron Saint of Gracious Losers. However, when you look him up, you need to seek him out under the English pronunciation of his name, because Saint Ceadda is better known as Saint Chad.*p*--Beirdd*p**br*