The Times reports that Lichfield Church in the United Kingdom is preparing to welcome a particularly important relic after 500 years of wandering. The British Daily tells the story beginning with the life of Saint Chad, born in 634 and died in 672, a monk from the kingdom of Northumbria in medieval England. His life is known thanks to the famous chronicle of the Venerable Bede.
Chad was the abbot of several monasteries and later also became a bishop. He then died in Lichfield and was immediately honored by the people as a saint. His body was preserved in a wooden stele and then moved to a richly decorated metal stele.
During the English Reformation, King Henry VIII sent his men to seize the Church's treasures, but before they reached Lichfield church, a clergyman took the relics of St. Chad and fled. The relics were hidden for centuries and were eventually divided, some sent to France and others to the Catholic Church of St. Chad in Birmingham.
On November 7, the relics of Saint Chad were returned in a brand new silver stele.