St Richard of Chichester was not a Sussex man; he was born about 1197, at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and thus gets his name Richard de Wyche.  His father, a man well-to-do, died, however, when Richard was very young, and he being only a younger son fell into poverty.  We find him, according to his fifteenth-century biographer, labouring on his brother’s land, and to such good purpose, it is said, that he quite re-established his family, and withal such love was there between the brothers that the elder would have resigned all his estates in favour of the younger.  But Richard would not consent, preferring to go as a poor scholar to Oxford, where, we learn, that he lived in the utmost poverty sharing indeed a tunic and a hooded gown with two companions, so that the three could only attend lectures in turn.  At Oxford he seems chiefly to have devoted himself to the study of Logic, and for this purpose he presently went to Paris, returning, however, to Oxford to take his degree.  Thence once more he set out, this time to study Canon Law at Bologna, where he not only won a great reputation, but was appointed a public professor of that faculty.  So beloved and respected was he in that great university, where there was always a considerable English contingent, that his tutor offered him his daughter in marriage, and gladly would he have taken her, but that marriage was not for him.  So he set out for England and Oxford, where he was joyfully received and indeed such was his fame that he was made chancellor of the university.  In truth, he was in such great demand that both Canterbury and Lincoln wished to secure him, and at last Archbishop Edmund Rich succeeded where Robert Grosseteste failed, and Richard became chancellor of Canterbury and the dear friend of the Archbishop.  They were indeed two saints together, and even in their lifetime were greeted as “two cherubim in glory.”  Together they faced the king, when he continued to allow so many English bishoprics to remain vacant, and together they went into exile to Pontigny, and later to Soissy, where St Edmund died.  Heart-broken by the loss of so dear a friend Richard retired into a Dominican house in Orleans and immersed himself in the study of Theology.  There he was ordained priest, and there he founded a chapel in honour of St Edmund.  But Boniface of Savoy, who had succeeded St Edmund in the archbishopric of Canterbury, besought him to return.  He obeyed, and was appointed rector of Charing and vicar of Deal in 1243, becoming once more Chancellor of Canterbury.  But still there remained the enmity of the King.  Two good things Henry III. gave us, Westminster Abbey and Edward I.; but he was almost as difficult as Henry II., with regard to investitures.  Fortunately he was not so obstinate, or we might have had a martyr instead of a confessor in Chichester, as we have in Canterbury.