Saint Richard of Chichester

This was a favorable opportunity for him to embrace a better condition and to devote himself to studies. He began them at Oxfor Oxford City in England of which Frideswide is the patron saint. d, a famous university in England, and came to continue them in Paris. He lodged there in a room with two other students; but the three of them were so poor that, having only one cloak between the three of them, they only went to take their lessons one after the other. They had bread and wine only in small quantities, and as for meat or fish, they only ate it on Sundays. However, he later asserted that he had never been so content, and that the affection he had for study made him forget all reflection on this misery. As his mind was beautiful, subtle, and penetrating, he made very great progress in a short time; so that, having returned to his country and to the University of Oxford, he was declared Master of Arts there with much applause, and taught the humanities there.

The desire to become more learned led him to undertake a journey to Italy. He stopped in Bologna, spent seven y ears th Bologne City of birth and return after the Blessed's conversion. ere in jurisprudence, and made himself so skilled in both canon and civil law that his professor, having fallen ill, chose him to hold his chair and to teach his own fellow students in his place. The reputation he acquired during the six months of his employment made the same professor, after his recovery, wish to retain him at his university. But although he offered him his only daughter in marriage, and the ownership of all his property after his death, he could not succeed.

Scarcely had he returned to Oxford, when his modesty, chastity, gentleness, and devotion, attracting the respect and love of everyone, led to his election as Chancellor of the univer sity. Saint Edme, or Edmund, Archbishop of Cant Saint Edme, ou Edmond, archevêque de Cantorbéry Archbishop of Canterbury and mentor to Richard. erbury, and Saint Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, both desired to have him for their church; but Saint Edme anticipated Saint Robert and prevailed. He therefore placed his seals in his hands and gave him the stewardship of all his affairs. Richard discharged all these duties with great wisdom and fidelity, and remained attached to this holy archbishop, not only in his prosperity but also in his adversity, following him into his exile in France, and never leaving him until his death, which occurred i n the Abbey of Pon abbaye de Pontigny Former Cistercian abbey where the Society of the Fathers of Saint Edmund was founded. tigny in 1240.

It was a great source of sorrow for Richard to be deprived of such a good master; but he derived a great advantage from it elsewhere: for, seeing himself released from the administration of a diocese, he resolved to apply himself seriously to the study of theology; which he did at Orléans, in the school of the Dominican Fathers. After having studied there sufficiently and received the order of priesthood, he returned to England to serve a parish with which Saint Edmund had provided him. But as his virtue continually cast new splendors, the see of Chichester having become vacant by the death of Ralph de Neville (1244), the Archbishop of Canterbury, Boniface, successor to Saint Edmund, and his suffragans, after having annulled the election of the canons who had nominated one of their confreres, a courtier devoid of the qualities necessary for a dignity of this importance, placed ou r Saint Richard Le roi Henri III King of England who opposed the election of Richard. in this see. King Henry III was extremely indignant at this nomination, first because it had been made to the exclusion of a person who was dear to him, and whose elevation he had himself favored, and secondly, because he did not like the priest Richard, knowing that he had always followed the party of Saint Edmund against him. He eve n sent to Rome, pape Innocent IV 13th-century pope who testified to the saint's miracles. to Pope Innocent IV, to have it annulled, and to have the election of his courtier confirmed. But the Saint having also gone there to support his right, he made the justice of it so well understood that His Holiness ruled in his favor and consecrated him with his own hands. He therefore returned with his bulls, and with an order for his diocese to recognize no other bishop but him. The King, full of fury, had all the temporalities of his bishopric seized; his houses were occupied, his farms pillaged, and all his goods dissipated by the ministers of the prince's vengeance; so that the poor Bishop was obliged to lodge in a borrowed house and to eat at the table of others.

Nevertheless, all these obstacles did not prevent him from faithfully discharging the duties of his office, and although he did not have the revenues, he did not fail to take on all the burdens. He visited his parishes, preached to his people, administered the Sacraments to them, and did what was the obligation of a good shepherd. The persecution lasted two years, after which the King, overcome on one side by the threats of the Pope, and on the other by the remonstrances of the bishops of his kingdom, and by the humble prayers of Richard, put him in peaceful possession of all the temporalities of his Bishopric, as he had himself predicted to his canons, seeing them all dismayed because of the violence of the officers of this prince.

When he found himself in full liberty, he redoubled his fervor toward God, his severity toward himself, and his mercy for the poor. When he went into the towns and villages of his diocese, he inquired about the sick and the poor who were there; for the former, he honored them with his visit, in order to encourage them to patience and to prepare them for death, if their illness was dangerous; and, for the latter, he had large alms distributed to them. His elder brother, of whom we have already spoken, upon whom he had offloaded the care of his temporal affairs, pointed out to him that his income could not suffice for such great profusion; but he replied that it was better to sell his horse and his silver plate than to suffer that the poor, the members of Jesus Christ, should be in misery. He was not content with giving alms to those who asked for them; he even anticipated those who did not ask for them; and when he was asked why he acted in this way, he replied, because it is written: "Lord, you have anticipated him with the blessings of your sweetness"; and that, moreover, it is buying a thing very dearly to have to solicit it. He also had a hospital built to take in the elderly, the crippled, and other persons incapable of earning their living, especially ecclesiastics who were in need; and he took great care that they lacked nothing of the things necessary for life. This did not happen without a miracle, for, one day, while distributing a bread that he had blessed, he had enough to satisfy three thousand poor people, and he still had enough left over for a hundred others who arrived after this first distribution. His historian assures that he performed similar miracles several times.

Such were the sentiments of mercy of this good pastor; but, moreover, he did not fail to be just and severe in the punishment of his scandalous ecclesiastics. He could never be swayed, neither by the prayers of the Archbishop of Canterbury and several other prelates and lords of the kingdom, nor by the entreaties of the King himself, regarding a sentence passed against a cleric convicted of having abducted and violated a sacred person. He deprived three others of their benefices for keeping suspicious women in their homes. He took extreme care to instruct his stewards and bailiffs to render justice faithfully and to demand nothing unjustly from those who were under their jurisdiction. One day, fire having consumed one of his houses, along with many goods that belonged to him, he was not in the least troubled, but on the contrary, he consoled his people, telling them that they still had enough to live on, and that this accident had happened for not having given enough alms; he therefore commanded them to redouble them.

He never wished to confer benefices upon any of his relatives, even though they were capable: "Because," he said, "the Prince of Pastors, Jesus Christ, did not give the keys of heaven to Saint John, his cousin, but to Saint Peter, who was not a relative of his at all." He honored good religious and usually embraced them, saying as a reason: "How good it is to kiss the lips that exhale the pleasant incense of holy prayers offered to God with devotion."

It would not be easy to write of the various journeys and arduous labors that this fervent Prelate undertook, not only for the good of his diocese, but also for that of the universal Church, principally in the war that was waged in the Levant, towards the middle of the 13th century, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the infidels; for, having received the order from His Holiness to publish the crusade throughout England, he applied himself to it with such great zeal that there was no city, town, or village that he did not visit for this purpose. Finally, intending to go to Dover, he felt hi Douvres Place of death of Richard. mself seized by a fever ten days before arriving there. He went there nonetheless, and, stopping first at the Hôtel-Dieu, he blessed a church and a cemetery there for the burial of the poor, under the name of Saint Edmund. But seeing the end of his days approaching, and feeling that he must leave this world, he commanded his chaplain to prepare everything necessary for his funeral; then, having asked for a crucifix, he kissed it with great fervor. And, after having commended his spirit to God, with the words that Jesus Christ addressed on the cross to his Father, he made this prayer to the Blessed Virgin: "Mary, Mother of God and of mercy, defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death"; which he ordered his priests to repeat until he had rendered his blessed soul, on or about April 3, in the year of Our Lord 1253, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and the ninth of his episcopate.

Although during his life his body had always appeared extremely emaciated by the fasts, vigils, hair shirt, and frequent disciplines he used to torment himself, it was nevertheless found after his death as beautiful and fresh as if it had already received the marks of the resurrection. He was transported to his church in Chichester, according to the provision of his last will, and was buried there before the altar of Saint Edmund, which he had himself consecrated. God honored his memory with several miracles, among others the resurrection of three dead persons which took place at his tom b. Pope Urban pape Urbain IV Pope who canonized Felix in 1262. IV issued the decree of his canonization in the year 1269.

Saint Richard is represented 1° driving his father's plow: in a distant horizon one sees the miter and the mozzetta appearing; 2° with a chalice at his feet, because, it is said, at the beginning of his episcopate, he dropped a consecrated vessel without the contents spilling; 3° surrounded by the poor and giving them alms; 4° blessing the church of Dover, of which a plan is before him; 5° dying while tenderly embracing a crucifix.

The Roman Martyrology and that of Usuard make mention of Saint Richard. The continuators of the Bollandists report two lives: one taken from the Legend of England, by John Capgrave, and the other composed by a religious of the Order of Saint Dominic: we have used both for the composition of this one.