March 2nd, the Feast of St. Chad

St. Chad, the Apostle of the Midlands, is honored today on both Catholic and Anglican calendars in England. The Cathedral in Birmingham, England, designed by A.W.N. Pugin is under his patronage so it seems appropriate to highlight the feast and the cathedral the day after remembering Pugin's birth.

The relics of St. Chad were authenticated in 1995 centuries after the destruction of his shrine during the reign of Henry VIII and are honored in the cathedral, which was built between 1839 and 1841--the first Catholic cathedral constructed in England since the English Reformation (although it was not named formally a cathedral until the hierarchy--with a bishop and a diocese in Birmingham--was restored in 1850).