Richard of Chichester

RICHARD of Chichester, St. b. Droitwich (Wyche), Worcestershire, ca. 1197; d. Dover, 3 April 1253. Born Richard Wyche (at Wyche), he was educated at either Oxford or Paris, probably the former, where he was ‘regent’ in arts and then in canon law, and where ca. 1235 he was elected Chancellor of the University. He left, ca. 1236 to become Chancellor to (Saint) Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rich, who died in 1240, was in disfavour with the king, Henry III, who attempted to seize church lands and make church appointments; and after Rich’s death Richard left England to study with the Dominicans in France. He was consecrated Bishop of Chichester by the Pope in 1245, in opposition to the...