St. David's Anglican Church

It was during the middle of the fifth century A.D.--so the story goes--that St. Patrick came to Wales to convert the Welsh people to the Christian faith. While there an angel appeared to him saying, "Not to you has God assigned this place, but to a son who is not yet born, and will not be born until thirty years have passed." This grieved Patrick, but the angel went on to tell of the work God had for him in Ireland; but that is another story. Patrick left this prophecy with Sant, the king of Ceredigion in Wales and then departed for Ireland. Thirty years later St. David was born; the son of Sant and St. Non. He grew to become a man of spiritual prowess, purity, and devotion, converting many to the Gospel faith in the land of Wales, where he would later become their patron saint.

St. David spent a large part of his life in St. David’s, or Mynyw as it was then called, and there founded his monastery. The date of his birth is not known, but the date generally accepted for his death is 1 March 589, which has since been celebrated as his saint’s day, Dydd Ddewi, followed on 2 March by that of his mother, St. Non. St. David’s body was buried in the grounds of his own monastery where the Cathedral now stands.

All the traditions about the saint agree that he was tall (his height was 4 cubits— 2 metres or 6 feet) and that he was physically strong: he was able to bear a yoke and pull a plough as well as any team of oxen, yet his diet was mainly bread and herbs. A herb widely used at the time and which formed an important part of the diet of early Christian communities, was watercress. Water was also an important feature in the life of David: not only were major events in his life marked by the appearance of springs of water (later to become holy wells) but he was also one of several Welsh saints known as ‘watermen’ (the Welsh word for waterman is dyfrwr, and the Latin word is aquaticus). David only drank water and, as a self-imposed penance, would stand up to his neck in cold water reciting the psalms. A medieval couplet celebrates the Waterman: Dewi the Waterman, faithful is he Dafydd the chief saint of Christendom. David was attractive in appearance and always had an angel with him. Like all other Celtic saints, he possessed healing powers and could work miracles, a few of which are described here. The medieval scribes wished to stress the ways in which the lives of the saints imitated the life of Christ, and miracles, particularly those of healing, have both a literal and a symbolic significance as have the words of Isaiah, foretelling the coming of the Messiah: Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened.

David was, perhaps, the most charismatic of all the Welsh saints. As a person, he was a mystic and an ascetic, firm in the ruling of his monastery, but a man of profound godliness, humility and perhaps reticence. He was a linguist and a scholar, establishing an important teaching monastery in St. David’s which sent missionaries to Ireland and, in turn, attracted holy men and women from other Celtic lands, especially Ireland. David spoke an early form of Welsh at a time when the language known as British was in the process of dividing into separate Celtic languages. He would have spoken Latin and probably an early form of Irish as well. David’s settlement in the valley would have been a simple one, consisting of circular huts with an oratory and preaching crosses and surrounded by a wall. Nothing of this survives today, although a church would have stood on the spot until the first Norman cathedral was built in 1131.

David’s biographer, Rhygyfarch, gives a vivid account of life in a Celtic monastery. The day began with early prayer followed by manual labour in the fields. When these tasks were finished, the monks returned to reading, writing and prayer ‘until stars are seen in heaven bringing the day to a close’. The daily tasks also involved caring for the sick, the needy and the pilgrim. Clothes, except those worn for the services of the church, were made of animal skins. All property was held in common; it was customary for families of men entering a monastery to make gifts of land to the monastic establishment concerned, but David did not accept such gifts from those entering his own monastery which imposed a particularly difficult and demanding novitiate.

The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

David was drawn to make pilgrimages to the great and holy shrines of Christendom. He is said to have travelled to Rome, but his best-known pilgrimage was to the Holy Land. Under the direction of an angel, three Welsh saints, David, Teilo and Padarn, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem together. An index of early bardic lore, preserved in a collection of sayings called the Triads of the Isle of Britain, in Welsh, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, called them the Three Blessed Visitors of the Isle of Britain. St. David, who was granted the gift of tongues for the journey, acted as interpreter. At Jerusalem, they had audience with the Patriarch who consecrated David as Archbishop, and presented them with four gifts: a bell, a staff, a tunic woven with gold, and an altar.

The achievement of David’s career which made him first among the bishops of Wales, giving all churches dedicated to him supreme rights of sanctuary, took place in Llanddewi Brefi (the church of David on the Brefi stream), in the remote and wooded hill-country of Cardiganshire.

A meeting of churchmen (synod) and the people had been called to denounce Pelagianism, a doctrine regarded as heresy. Pelagius, a fourth-century Irish monk, who lived in Rome, had denied the Church’s teaching that a man was born in sin and redeemed by Christ. He taught that man was responsible for his own sin and thus, by his own efforts, for his own salvation. This heresy caused much anxiety amongst Church leaders and so the synod was held. At first, little progress was made, so Paulinus, David’s early teacher, urged that David, who was not present, should be brought to speak. When first approached, David was doubtful of his ability to convince the multitude when such a learned assembly had failed. He was finally persuaded by two leading churchmen, Deiniol (Bishop of Bangor) and Dyfrig, or Dubricius, traditionally Archbishop of Caerleon.

On the way to Brefi, one of David’s most- acclaimed miracles took place: he restored life to the dead child of a widow. A spring, Ffynnon Ddewi, near the church, marked the site. The child followed David to Brefi as a young disciple. When David reached Brefi, he spread a ‘handkerchief’ (the Latin word used also means ‘a shroud’) on the ground on which he stood to preach. With clarity and conviction, David denounced the heresy and as he did so, the ground rose under him to form a mound and a snow-white dove settled on his shoulder. The white dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and David is often depicted with a dove on his shoulder. From this point on, David’s fame and reputation grew.

The Death of David

David acquired the image of earlier Celtic heroes and gods, including a legendary life span of 147 years. The year which has been accepted as the date of his death is 589 but it is not known how old he was when he died. His last words to his deeply-grieving followers were ‘do the little things that you have heard and seen through me’. On a Tuesday, the first day of March, the monastery was filled with angels as Christ received his soul.

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Why St. David's as the name of this church? Because St. David--like so many of the Celtic saints-- combined in his life the qualities to be lived out in the today’s Church. He, and his followers, saw the importance of the sacramental nature of the church. He, with evangelical fervor, sought to convert the unsaved, and to bring the Gospel to all whom he encountered. And he functioned in the power of the Holy Spirit: healing the sick, raising the dead, miracles, and prophecy. St. David was also a defender of the faith against a paganism and rising humanism in the church, for it was St. David who led the fight against a wave of humanism--known as Semi-Pelagianism--that was sweeping the church of Christ in his day; a battle St. David won on the hill of Llandewi Brefi in Wales. Today we face many of the same challenges, but with the Spirit of Christ, and the example of St. David, we too can participate in God's renewal of our lives and our society.

We praise thy name all-holy Lord,

For him the beacon-light,

That shone beside our western sea

Through mists of ancient night;

Who sent to Ireland’s fainting church

New tidings of thy Word.

For David, Prince of Cambrian Saints,

We praise thee holy Lord.

E. J. Newell