RICCARDO di WYCHE (di CHICHESTER), saint. —
Bishop of Chichester, born at Droitwich (Worcestershire) around 1197, died at Dover on 3 April 1253.
He studied at Oxford and Paris, then law at Bologna, with the highest reputation for intelligence and learning. On returning to his homeland, he was elected chancellor of the University of Oxford. Requested as a trusted chancellor by s. Edmondo Rich, archbishop of Canterbury, he followed him faithfully even into exile at Pontigny and assisted him until his death. When the bishop of Chichester died in 1244, R. was elected by the Chapter to succeed him; but King Henry III, outraged, installed his favourite Roberto Passalese there and deprived R. of the temporalities of the see. R. brought the matter before Innocent IV, then at Lyon, who embraced his cause, personally consecrated him bishop (2 March 1245), and sent him back to England. But Henry III would not accept this; consequently R. had to remain for about two years as the guest of a private family. Nevertheless, he neglected nothing of his ministry; he promulgated statutes to regulate the life of the clergy, divine worship, the administration of the Sacraments, and the privileges of the Church; he encouraged the growth of the religious Orders and their activity among the people. In 1246, the King, also induced by the Pope’s threats of spiritual penalties, restored the temporalities to R., which enabled him to increase the scale of his almsgiving to the poor, while he himself lived in austere poverty.
In 1250 he was appointed collector of subsidies for the Crusade, and in 1252 preacher of the Crusade in London. At Dover, where he had gone to consecrate a church to s. Edmondo, he was seized by a mortal fever and, having been admitted to the hospital called « Maison Dieu », was overtaken by death.
Among his writings, a report of the dispute between s. Edmondo and Riccardo III concerning the benefices of vacant sees, published by M. Paris in his Historia maior (ed. Madden, in Rolls series, II and III, London 1266), is noteworthy. He was solemnly canonized at Viterbo by Urban IV on 22 January 1262. Feast on 3 April.