The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
(ABOUT A.D. 460.)
[Greek Menologium. Authority:--Theodoret.]
Theodoret, after relating the virtues of S. Maro the hermit, (Feb.
14th) goes on to tell of a holy virgin, named Domnina, who lived in
a small shed, and attended prayers in the Church at cock-crow. She
was emaciated with continuous fasting; she neither looked at any one,
nor suffered her own face to be seen. Whenever she took the hand of
Theodoret, the bishop, to kiss it, he drew it away moistened with her
tears. She spent her time, when not engaged in prayer, in ministering
to the necessities of travellers.
S. DAVID, ABP. OF MENEVIA, AND PATRON OF WALES.
(A.D. 544.)
[Roman, Irish, Scotch, and ancient Anglican Martyrologies. His
festival was celebrated in England with rulers of the choir, and nine
lessons. Pope Callixtus II. ordered him to be venerated throughout the
Christian world. There are no very ancient accounts of S. David, The
oldest is a life existing in MS. at Utrecht, which was not known to
Usher or Colgan. Usher cites Ricimer, Giraldus, and John of Tynemouth,
a Durham priest, who collected the Acts of the English, Scottish,
Welsh, and Irish Saints, and who lived in 1360. Ricimer was Bishop
of S. David's about 1085, and died about 1096. His life of S. David
seems to have been the foundation of all subsequent biographies of
that saint. Several MSS. of this life are extant; and a portion of it
containing matter not found in the life of the same saint by Giraldus
Cambrensis, was printed by Wharton in the Anglia Sacra. Giraldus
Cambrensis wrote his life of S. David about 1177. S. Kentigern (d.
590) mentions S. David, and there are numerous allusions to him in the
lives of contemporary Welsh and Irish saints.]
S. David, or Dewi, as the Welsh call him, was born about 446, at Mynyw,
which was named S. David's after him. His father was Sandde, son of
Ceredig, who was the son of Cunedda, the great conqueror of N. Wales.
His mother's name was Nôn; she was the daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch.
Giraldus says he was baptized at Porth Clais by Alveas, Bishop of
Munster, "who by divine providence had arrived at that time from
Ireland." The same author says he was brought up at "Henmenen," which
is probably the Roman station Menapia.
S. David was educated under Iltyt at Caerworgon. He was afterward
ordained priest, and studied the Scriptures for ten years with Paulinus
at Ty-gwyn-ar Dâf, or Whitland, in Caermarthenshire. He then retired
for prayer and study to the Vale of Ewias, where he raised a chapel,
and a cell on the site now occupied by Llanthony Abbey. The river
Honddu furnished him with drink, the mountain pastures with meadow-leek
for food. His legendary history states that he was advised by an
angel to move from under the shadow of the Black Mountains to the vale
of Rhos, and to found a monastery at Mynyw, his birth place.
[Illustration: S. DAVID.
March 1.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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