One of the most important early English churchmen, St Chad was responsible for introducing Christianity to Mercia, the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Not much is known of his early life, except that he had three brothers, Cedd, Cynibil and Caelin, and that they may have come from Northumbrian nobility. The northern kingdom had converted in the 630s under Edwin, and his successors had quickly established a Christian culture, including Lindisfarne monastery, founded by the Irish St Aidan. It was there that Chad studied between 635 and 651, after which he travelled to Ireland as a monk. In 653 he was sent to preach in Mercia, then under the pagan king Penda, who was soon killed during one of the many squabbles between the kingdoms. The country was also divided over religious issues, and the dispute between the Roman mission, started by St Augustine in Kent, and the Celtic Christianity that had become established in Northumbria (Chad was in the latter camp). A synod was held at Whitby in 664, although disagreements remained; soon after the gathering a bout of plague killed large numbers of churchmen and Chad was promoted to abbot at Lastingham. In 669 a new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Syrian Theodore of Tarsus, was impressed by Chad’s humility; that year the Mercian king converted, and Theodore recalled Chad out of retirement to become bishop of the Mercians. The new king allowed Chad to establish a monastery at Lichfield, where the Diocese of Mercia was established. He died in 672, and was buried in the town. Today the cathedral of Birmingham archdiocese bears his name.