[MR] Wikipedia: Lichfield Angel

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

One of today's Wikipedia "Did you know ... " teasers mentions the Lichfield
Angel. I had to know more, and found a fascinating story.

The Lichfield Angel is an 8th century bas relief religious sculpture
depicting Archangel Gabriel. The piece was found beneath the nave during
reconstruction work at Lichfield Cathedral in 2003. It was part of a
possible tomb shrine to St. Chad, one of the saints to whom the cathedral
was dedicated.

The panel was purposefully broken into three pieces and buried, possibly to
hide the tomb and St. Chad's relics from the Vikings. The burial is what
preserved the stone so well. It has been carefully reassembled and is now
on display in the cathedral. The rest of the tomb shrine is thought to be
buried elsewhere under the cathedral nave, but nobody is in a hurry to dig
up the current church floor, which is a Grade II listed building.

More about the Angel is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichfield_Angel .

Chad of Mercia is one of the more important Anglo-Saxon saints. He was
Bishop to the Mericians, and is prominently discussed in Bede's history.
His remains had a remarkable and tortuous survival after Henry VIII's
reformation. The bones are once again enshrined in the current Lichfield
Cathedral: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_of_Mercia .

St. Chad's Cathedral is located in Birmingham, and is a Catholic basilica
built in 1841 on the site of the medieval cathedral:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Chad%27s_Cathedral,_Birmingham .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆