St Richard of Chichester

Richard of Chichester is one of those English bishops whose holiness becomes clearer the more pressure is laid upon it. Born Richard of Wyche, he might easily have had a distinguished academic or legal career, yet his life keeps turning him away from ease and toward service. Early on he helped recover his family's fortunes by manual labor, then pursued study with unusual success, served closely beside St Edmund Rich, and at last entered the priesthood. The decisive public trial came with his election to Chichester. King Henry III resisted it, seized the revenues of the see, and left Richard almost a bishop without a home.

What makes the life memorable is Richard's answer. He neither broods nor schemes. He visits, preaches, reforms, restores discipline, and governs with simplicity and real tenderness for souls, even when the outward apparatus of office is denied him. The learning never disappears, but it is wholly absorbed into pastoral work. Richard is compelling because he shows how a holy bishop can remain exacting without harshness and courageous without self-display.