Richard was born in 1197, in the little town of Wyche, near Worcester, England. He and his elder brother were left orphans as they lost both their parents when young. Richard had to give up what he loved the most, his studies, to farm his brother’s impoverished estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard’s successful care, proposed to make him heir to the estate. However, he refused both the estate and an offer of a brilliant marriage. Richard then proceeded ahead to study for priesthood at Oxford, where he studied under the famous Robert Grossteste and became friends with St. Edmund Rich.

Richard earned a doctorate in law from the University of Bologna. He was appointed chancellor of Oxford in 1235 and then chancellor to Edmund Rich, who by then was archbishop of Canterbury.

When Edmund was retired, Richard accompanied him to Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, France. After the death of Edmund, Richard left the community and started teaching at the Dominican house in Orkans and was ordained there in 1243. Upon going home to England, he was named chancellor to Edmund's successor, St. Boniface of Savoy. In 1244, Boniface appointed him to the see of Chichester.

Richard insisted upon strict adherence to discipline among the clergy, aided the poor and fearlessly denounced the corruption and vices of the contemporary Church and even the royal court. He was merciless towards money lenders, corrupt clergy and priests who mumbled during the Mass.

Richard was an ascetic and kept a simple diet. He rigorously excluded animal flesh, having been a vegetarian since his days at Oxford. Young and old alike loved St. Richard. He gave all he had and worked miracles, to feed the poor and heal the sick.

Where the rights or purity of the Church were concerned, he was inexorable. Once, when a priest of noble blood polluted his office by sin, Richard deprived him of his benefice and refused the king’s petition in his favor. On the other hand, when a knight violently put a priest in prison, Richard compelled the knight to walk around the priest’s church with the same log of wood on his neck to which he had chained the priest; and when the townsmen of Lewes seized a criminal from the church and hanged him, Richard made them dig up the body from its unconsecrated grave and bear it back to the sanctuary to give it a proper burial in consecrated ground.

Saint Richard died in 1253 at Dover, Kent, England, while preaching a crusade against the Saracens, at the Pope’s command.

Other Saints of the Day

1. Saint Luigi Scrosoppi of Udine
2. Saint Liutberga of Windenhausen
3. Pope Saint Sixtus I
4. Saint Joseph the Hymnographer
5. Saint Urbicius of Clermont

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