fear of
the divine judgments, that as often as it thundered he went to the
church and prayed prostrate all the time the storm continued, in
remembrance of the dreadful day in which Christ will come to judge the
world. By the bounty of king Wulfere, he founded a monastery at a place
called Barrow, in the province {498} of Lindsay, (in the northern part
of Lincolnshire,) where the footsteps of the regular life begun by him
remained to the time of Bede. Carte conjectures that the foundation of
the great monastery of Bardney, in the same province, was begun by him.
St. Chad governed his diocese of Litchfield, two years and a half, and
died in the great pestilence on the 2d of March, in 673. Bede gives the
following relation of his passage. "Among the eight monks whom he kept
with him at Litchfield, was one Owini, who came with queen Ethelred,
commonly called St. Audry, from the province of the East Angles, and was
her major-domo, and the first officer of her court, till quitting the
world, clad in a mean garment, and carrying an axe and a hatchet in his
hand, he went to the monastery of Lestingay, signifying that he came to
work, and not to be idle; which he made good by his behavior in the
monastic state. This monk declared, that he one day heard a joyful
melody of some persons sweetly singing, which descended from heaven into
the bishop's oratory, filled the same for about half an hour, then
mounted again to heaven. After this, the bishop opening his window, and
seeing him at his work, bade him call the other seven brethren. When the
eight monks were entered his oratory, he exhorted them to preserve peace
and religiously observe the rules of regular discipline; adding, that
the amiable guest who was wont to visit their brethren, had vouchsafed
to come to him that day, and to call him out of this world. Wherefore he
earnestly recommended his passage to their prayers, and pressed them to
prepare for their own, the hour of which is uncertain, by watching,
prayer, and good works." The bishop fell presently into a languishing
distemper, which daily increased, till, on the seventh day, having
received the body and blood of our Lord, he departed to bliss, to which
he was invited by the happy soul of his brother St. Cedd, and a company
of angels with heavenly music. He was buried in the church of St. Mary,
in Litchfield; but his body was soon after removed to that of St. Peter,
in both places honored by miraculous cures, as Bede me