_Patron of Wales._
St. David, or, in Welch, Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of
Cardiganshire, brought up a priest, became an ascetic in the Isle of
Wight, afterwards preached to the Britons, founded twelve monasteries,
ate only bread and vegetables, and drank milk and water. A synod being
called at Brevy, in Cardiganshire, A. D. 519, in order to suppress the
heresy of Pelagius, “St. David confuted and silenced the infernal
monster by his learning, eloquence, and miracles.” After the synod, St.
Dubritius, archbishop of Caerleon, resigned his see to St. David, which
see is now called St. David’s. He died in 544. St. Kentigern saw his
soul borne by angels to heaven; his body was in the church of St.
Andrew. In 962, his relics were translated to Glastonbury.[13]
Butler conceals that St. David’s mother was not married to his father,
but Cressy tells the story out, and that his birth was prophecied of
thirty years before it happened.
One of the miracles alleged of St. David is, that at the anti-Pelagian
synod he restored a child to life, ordered it to spread a napkin under
his feet, and made an oration; that a snow white dove descended from
heaven and sat on his shoulders; and that the ground whereon he stood
rose under him till it became a hill, “on the top of which hill a church
was afterwards built, which remains to this day.” He assembled a
provincial synod to confirm the decrees of Brevy; and wrote the
proceedings of both synods for preservation in his own church, and to be
sent to the other churches of the province; but they were lost by age,
negligence, and the incursions of pirates, who almost every summer came
in long boats from the Orkneys, and wasted the coasts of Cambria. He
invited St. Kined to this synod, who answered that he had grown crooked,
distorted, and too weak for the journey; whereupon ensued “a double
miracle,” for “St. Kined having been restored to health and straightness
by the prayers of St. David, by his own prayers he was reduced again to
his former infirmity and crookedness.” After this synod he journeyed to
the monastery of Glastonbury, which he had built there and consecrated,
with intent to repair it, and consecrate it again; whereupon “our Lord
appearing to him in his sleep, and forbidding him to profane the sacred
ceremony before performed, he, in testimony, with his finger pierced a
hole in the bishop’s hand, which remained open to the view of all men
till the end of the next day’s mass.” Before his death “the angel of the
lord appeared to him, and said to him, Prepare thyself.” Again: “When
the hour of his departure was come, our Lord Jesus Christ vouchsafed his
presence, to the infinite consolation of our holy father, who at the
sight of him exulted.” More to the same purpose is alleged by the
catholic writers respecting him. Such as, that at his death “being
associated to a troop of angels, he with them mounted up to heaven,” and
that the event was known “by an angel divulging it.” This is Cressy’s
account.
According to another biographer of St. David, he was uncle to the famous
prince Arthur, or, strictly speaking, half uncle, if St. David’s
illegitimacy be authentic. The same author relates of him, that on his
way from building the church of Glastonbury he went to Bath, cured an
infection of the waters, and by his prayers and benediction gave them
the perpetual heat they still retain. On the same authority, St. David’s
posthumous virtue, in the reign of king Stephen, occasioned the brook
above the church-yard of St. David’s church to run wine, by miracle: the
well near it, called Pisteldewy or the conduit of David, sent forth milk
instead of water. Also a boy, that endeavoured to take pigeons from a
nest in St. David’s church at Lhannons, had his fingers miraculously
fastened to the stone, till by his friends’ watching, fasting, and
praying before the altar three days and nights, the stone fell from his
hand. “Manie thousands of other miracles have been wrought by the
meritts of this holy man, which for brevities sake we omitt. I only
desire all true hearted Welchmen allwaies to honour this their great
patrone and protector, and supplicate the divine goodnes to reduce his
sometimes beloved countrey out of the blindnes of _Protestancie_,
groveling in which it languisheth. Not only in Wales, but all England
over is most famous in memorie of St. David. But in these our unhappie
daies the greatest part of his solemnitie consisteth in wearing of a
greene leeke, and it is a sufficient theme for a zealous Welchman to
ground a quarrell against him, that doeth not honour his capp with the
like ornament that day.” So saith Porter.
This legend has been the theme of successive writers, with more or less
of variation, and much of addition.
_Inscription for a monument in the Vale of Ewias._
Here was it, stranger, that the _Patron Saint_
Of _Cambria_ past his age of penitence,
A solitary man; and here he made
His hermitage, the roots his food, his drink
Of Hodney’s mountain stream. Perchance thy youth
Has read, with eager wonder, how the knight
Of Wales, in Ormandine’s enchanted bower
Slept the long sleep: and if that in thy veins
Flow the pure blood of Britain, sure that blood
Hath flowed with quicker impulse at the tale
Of DAVID’S deeds, when thro’ the press of war
His gallant comrades followed his _green crest_
To conquest. Stranger! Hatterill’s mountain heights
And this fair vale of Ewias, and the stream
Of Hodney, to thine after-thoughts will rise
More grateful, thus associate with the name
Of David, and the deeds of other days.