St. David of Wales (P 001) Banner 1

Saint David (or Dewi Sant in Welsh; c. 542-c. 601) was archbishop of Mynyw, Wales, during the 6th century. A native son descended from Welsh royalty, St. David became a monk and a priest noted for his teaching and preaching. Invited to speak at the Synod of Brefi though only a minor abbot, his vigourous arguments against Pelagianism, a heresy that denied original sin and affirmed the ability of humans to be morally good on their own without God’s grace, earned him election by acclamation as archbishop. He founded numerous monasteries in Britain and Brittany (western coastal France) which adhered to an austere rule based in part on practices of the Desert Fathers of Egypt. According to some sources, he travelled to the Holy Land where he was anointed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem confirming his archiepiscopacy. Today, Mynyw is known as St. David’s, Wales, after its most famous bishop and beloved saint. And, his feast day, though not an official British national holiday, is celebrated throughout Wales by wearing leeks or daffodils, flying St. David’s flag, eating traditional Welsh foods, putting on school concerts, and holding civic parades. + Here, St. David, clad in episcopal garb and carrying his crosier, is accompanied by his principal attribute the Holy Spirit in the guise of a dove. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the archbishop is emblematic of St. David’s authority to teach and preach. The small hillock on which St. David stands is actually an element of his iconography too. According to tradition, as St. David began to speak to the crowd at the Synod of Brefi a spectator on the fringes yelled out: “We can’t hear you!” And, the ground rose up to form a hill--an earth dais--from which St. David was able to be heard by all in attendance! It is his best-known miracle. + St. David is patron saint of Wales, doves, and vegans and vegetarians. + Feast: March 1 + Image Credit (P 001): Antique image of St. David of Wales from a late 19th-century devotional print in chromoxylography, originally published by Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg, New York, and Cincinnati. From the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.