Saint David

The rule that David gave to his monks was very austere. They worked continuously with their hands in a spirit of penance, never making use of animals suitable for plowing, and this so that their labor would be more arduous. Necessity alone could authorize them to break the silence. Uninterrupted prayer, at least mentally, sanctified all their external actions. Towards the end of the day, they returned to the monastery to attend to reading and vocal prayer. Bread and roots, of which salt was the only seasoning, made up all their food, and they had no other drink than water mixed with a little milk. After their meal, they spent three hours in orison; they then gave some time to sleep. They rose at the cock's crow, and returned to prayer until the moment for work had arrived. Their clothes were coarse and made of animal skins. When someone asked to be received into the monastery, he remained ten days at the door; and during that time he was tested by harsh words, by repeated refusals, and by arduous tasks, in order to accustom him to dying to himself. If he endured this trial with constancy and humility, he was admitted into the house. As for his possessions, he left them in the world, the rule of the monastery forbidding the receipt of anything for entry into the religious life. All the brothers were obliged to make their inner life known to the abbot and to reveal to him their most secret thoughts and temptations.

Pelagianism having appeared a second time in Great Britain, the bishops, in order to root it out entirely, assembled in 512, or rather in 519, at Brefi, in Cardiganshire. Saint David was invited to attend the synod. He appeared there with distinction, and confounded the heresy by the combined force of his knowledge, his eloquence, and his miracles. Saint Dubricius, Archbishop of Caerleon, took advantage of this circumstance to resign the government of his church to him. David, alarmed by the proposal made to him, burst into tears and protested that he would never take upon himself a burden that was far above his strength. In vain were the most pressing reasons alleged to determine him: he would never have yielded had the Fathers of the council not expressly ordered him to acquiesce in the choice of Dubricius. He obtained, however, the transfer of the see from Caerleon, then a very populous city, to Menevia, t oday Sa int Davids, a retired and solitary place.

Shortly after, he assembled a synod at Victoria, where the acts of the previous synod were confirmed. Several canons of discipline were also made there, to which the Roman Church later set the seal of its approval. It was from these two synods that the churches of Great Britain formerly drew their rules of conduct.

However, the reputation of our Saint increased day by day: he was at once the ornament and the model of the pastors of his century. He possessed the gift of speech to an eminent degree; but his eloquence had even less efficacy than the strength of his examples; thus he has always been regarded as one of the brightest lights of the British Church. By the foundation of his various monasteries, he was the spiritual father of a great number of Saints, who illustrated England and Ireland, their homeland. Finally, after a long and laborious episcopate, he died in peace, around the year 544, at a very advanced age. Saint Kentigern saw angels carrying his soul into heaven. His body was buried in the church of Saint Andrew, which has since taken the name of Saint David, as have the city and the diocese of Menevia. Near this church are several chapels where devotion attracted a great concourse of people in the Middle Ages. The principal one is that of Saint Non, mother of our Saint. Another is dedicated under the invocation of Saint Lily, surnamed Gwas-Dewy, that is to say, the man of Saint David, because he was one of his dearest disciples. He is honored there on the 3rd of March. As for Saint Non, who had trained several women withdrawn from the world to perfection, she is honored on the 2nd of the same month. Formerly, the southern Welsh celebrated the first three days of March in honor of Saint David, Saint Non, and Saint Lily; today, only the first is celebrated throughout Wales. In 962, the relics of our Saint were solemnly transferred to Glastonbury, along with a portion of those of Saint Stephen, th e first mar tyr.

Alban Rottier. — See in the martyrology, for this day, some marvelous facts that this author, following his habit, has passed over in silence.