THE STORY OF ST. CHAD Graeme Restorick
“Chad” is a popular given name in the US (although not, strangely enough, in his own country in modern times) that has become associated with the Chad vs. Virgin meme, where Chad is depicted as hyper-masculine alpha male and ‘dudebro’ whose success in life and popularity in society is contrasted with the failure and weakness of his virgin counterpart. It is thought that this meme originated amongst the self-loathing ‘incel’ community of ‘involuntary celibates’ who typically associate their own virginity with being losers, which is ironic, given that St Chad himself was almost certainly a virgin himself who lived a humble and saintly life who was notable for his advocation of aesthetic virtues including chastity and abstention from the sensual pleasures of life. But who was St Chad, the man whose existence is probably the reason why his given name is still a relatively popular given name down to the present day? The name ‘Chad’ means ‘battle’ in the old Brythonic Celtic tongue
(Brythonic being part of the family of languages that include Welsh and Cornish). Chad was one of four brothers, including his elder brother St Cedd, and his younger brothers Caelin and Cynibil, all of whom had Romano-British names despite them coming from the ranks of the Northumbrian nobility The reasons for them having Celtic names instead of Anglo Saxon ones is unclear. It may be that the Romano-British peoples were already Christianized by this time whereas the Anglo-Saxons were still largely pagan, and their parents wanted names that were associated with Christianity rather than their heathen compatriots, although this is merely speculation. Most of what is known today about Chad and his brothers is known from the writings of the Venerable Bede, an Anglo Saxon monk whose book “An Ecclesiastical History of the English People” is one of the main sources of information about the history of this period. Bede himself was taught by Trumbert, who was himself taught by St Chad and thus Bede had access to
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