Richard of Wyche (of Chichester), Saint

RICCARDO DI WYCHE (DI CHICHESTER), SANTO

Feast day: 3 April

RICHARD OF WYCHE (of Chichester), Saint. -
Bishop of Chichester, b. at Droitwich (Worcestershire) ca. 1197, d. at Dover on 3 April 1253.

He studied at Oxford and at Paris, then jurisprudence at Bologna with the highest reputation for intellect and learning. Having returned to his homeland, he was elected chancellor of the University of Oxford. Requested as trusted chancellor by St. Edmund 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, indignant, intruded his favourite Robert Passelewe and took from R. the temporalities of the see. The latter brought the question before Innocent IV, then at Lyon, who embraced his cause, consecrated him bishop personally (2 March 1245) and sent him back to England. But Henry III would not hear of it; therefore R. had for ca. 2 years to remain the guest of a private family. Nonetheless he neglected nothing of his ministry; he promulgated statutes to regulate the life of the clergy, divine service, the administration of the Sacraments, the privileges of the Church; he favoured the growth of the religious Orders and their activity among the people. In 1246, the King, induced also by the Pope's threats of spiritual penalties, restored to R. the temporalities, which served him to increase the scale of his alms to the poor, while he himself lived in austere poverty.

In 1250 he was appointed collector of the subsidies for the Crusade and in 1252 preacher of the Crusade in London. At Dover, where he had gone to consecrate a church to St. Edmund, a fatal fever seized him and, taken into the hospital called « Maison Dieu », death overtook him.

Of his writings there remains worthy of note an account of the dispute between St. Edmund and Richard III, regarding the benefices of vacant sees, published by M. Paris in his Historia maior (ed. Madden, in Rolls series, II and III, London 1266). He was solemnly canonized at Viterbo by Urban IV on 22 Jan. 1262. Feast on 3 April.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: a brief life of R. was written by his confessor shortly after the canonization, another briefer one was published by J. Capgrave in Nova legenda Anglia, London 1516, p. 269 f.; both in Acta SS. Aprilis, I, Paris 1865, pp. 282-316. Cf. also: A. Baker, Vie de st Richard, évêque de Chichester, in Revue des langues romanes, 53 (1910), pp. 245-396 (Anglo-Norman poem composed by P. de Peckam ca. 1270); R. Capes, Richard of W., London 1913.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec10_riccardo_di_wyche_di_chicheste, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Riccardo di Wyche (Di Chichester), santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {864--865}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/riccardo-di-wyche-di-chichester-santo} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry