St Chad’s Relics

The relics of St Chad, the Bishop of Litchfield between 669 and 672, are now in a reconstructed shrine above the high altar in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham city centre just outside the Queensway inner ring road.

St. Chad’s Cathedral was built to the design of Augustus Pugin, the renowned nineteenth century English Architect, in the style of a brick hall church or "hallenkirke”. Pugin also design the shrine which contains St. Chad’s relics.

The Cathedral when it opened in 1841 was the first Roman Catholic church to be consecrated in England since the reformation.

The Cathedral is thought to be unique as the only English Cathedral to have its patron saint’s relics in a shrine above the high altar.

Source: Britain’s Pilgrim Places by Nick Mayhew-Smith and Guy Hayward (ISBN: 978-0-9544767-8-6)