Dewi Sant
The single most important saint of the Welsh nation, whose very name is nigh synonymous with præ-Schismatic Britain, is celebrated on the first of March in the Orthodox Church. Saint David, or Dewi Sant as he is popularly known in his native Welsh tongue, the Bishop of Mynyw (today St Davids) in southern Wales, is still celebrated throughout the country. His feast-day is the national day of Wales: a day for tea and speckled bread, a day bedecked with leeks (a symbol closely associated with Dewi Sant) and daffodils. A gentle and frugal ascetic, severe upon himself but merciful and kind to others, Dewi Sant is justly considered one of the spiritual giants of Welsh history.
Almost everything we know about Dewi [also David or Degui] comes from his Vita, which was written by his eleventh-century successor, Bishop Rhygyfarch ap Sulien of St Davids. This Vita, by Bishop Rhygyfarch’s assertion, draws upon earlier sources no longer extant. It is therefore to be taken with a few grains of salt, but no more than that – the broad contours of his hagiography may be taken to be historically accurate. It is Bishop Rhygyfarch’s hagiography that I follow below.
Saint Dewi was born to a woman named Non ferch Cynyr of Mynyw, a saint in her own right, and a certain prince of middle Wales named Sant (literally, ‘Saint’) ap Ceredig. His birth and holiness were foreseen both by his own father and by Saint Padrig, the Brythonic enlightener and patron of Ireland. It fell out that Sant ap Ceredig, who had resolved to quit the world and his throne to become a hermit, was warned away from this vocation by an angel. The angel told him to go out and hunt a stag, and where the stag fell he would also find a fish and a hive of bees. For his son he was to take these three – the stag, the fish and the honeycomb – as gifts.
The symbolism of these gifts was as follows. The honeycomb represented the sweetness and light that his gentle wisdom would bring to Wales. The fish represented his future asceticism; he would drink only water and never touch mead or wine or ale. For this reason he would come to be called Ddyfrwr, or ‘of the Water’. And the stag – specifically the antlers and the hooves, capable of killing serpents – would represent Dewi’s Christ-given power over the Evil One and his works. The antlers were his gift of tears; and the hooves his constant repentance. Sant did everything as the angel bade him, and found and took everything that the angel described to him.
Saint Padrig, in the meanwhile, who was then returned from his captivity and enslavement in Ireland and had been made a priest, found himself wandering through Ceredigion and Dyfed in the Welsh southeast, and sought to build himself a hermitage in a lea, namely that of Rhosson Uchaf near Mynyw, seeing that it was both pleasant and isolated, and ideal for a hermit to live in solitary contemplation. However, an angel of the Lord appeared to the saint, and said: ‘God hath not disposed this place for thee, but for a son who is not yet born, nor will he be born until thirty years are past.’
Upon hearing this Padrig became angered, like Jonah after God had withered his shade-tree, and complained aloud to God why he had been so despised as to be cast out of his own country in favour of a child yet thirty years from being born. Padrig began to despair, and railed against God that if he despised the service of Padrig then he would flee from God and abandon Him. But God, who took pity upon Saint Padrig, gave the angel to speak gently to him. The angel said again: ‘Rejoice, Padrig! The Lord hath sent me to thee that I may show thee the whole of the island of Ireland. Exult, Padrig! Thou shalt be the apostle of the whole of that island which thou seest, and thou shalt suffer many things in it for the name of the Lord thy God, but the Lord will be with thee in all things which thou shalt do.’
Hearing this, Padrig no longer felt the worldly sting of envy in his soul against his unborn brother Dewi, and departed Rhosson Uchaf gladly and at peace that the Lord might prepare it for him. Instead, Padrig took the road to Whitesands, where he prayed to the Lord and raised the long-dead bones of an ancient sailor named Cruimther, who became his companion and disciple. Cruimther was the one who bore him across the Irish Sea.
Thirty years did indeed pass, and Sant ap Ceredig, now in his middle age, went from Ceredigion into Dyfed, and came to Ty Gwyn – very close to the place which Padrig had left thirty years before. He met there a virginal anchoress, graceful and beautiful – the daughter of Cynyr. Overwhelmed with lust, Sant either seduced or forced himself upon Saint Non, who conceived by him. It is said that as she conceived, the earth thrust up two sandy hillocks where she lay – one above her head and one below her feet – both to comfort her and to show forth her innocence. Ever afterward Saint Non did not know another man but committed herself to a celibate life.
While Saint Non was still pregnant she went into a church in Dyfed to beg and to receive alms. She was seen in the doorway by a young priest who may or may not have been Saint Gildas the Historian. Upon seeing her, Gildas – who was normally as voluble and as sound in his preaching as in his writing – was at once stricken utterly dumb. The anchoress went and hid herself in a corner of the church. Saint Gildas tried to descend from the amvon and preach again, but as before his throat would make no sound. Reverting to his ordinary style of speech, he commanded whoever was hidden in the church to come forth. The anchoress, her belly large with child, appeared before Gildas. Gildas asked her to remain outside the church until the homily was over, and she did so – once she was out of the church Gildas finished his homily, his voice ringing as clearly as a bell. When the folk of the church asked the meaning of this, Gildas bade them call Saint Non back inside.
When she was again within, Saint Gildas surprised the whole of the parish and prostrated himself before Saint Non and her unborn child. ‘The son in this nun’s womb has grace and power and rank greater than I, and shall be numbered greatest among the British saints,’ Gildas prophesied. This was the reason why his voice had left him, for he had been unworthy to preach in his presence.
On the day of his birth, a storm of frightful proportions blew up, with thunder and hail such that none dared stir foot out of doors. Saint Non, however, was without, and went into labour by a certain stone at Caerfai. In the pain of her childbirth she pressed hard against the stone, and her handprints were left in it as though it were wax. As she birthed, the stone split in two. This split stone later became the site of a church, with the stone serving as the altar table. When his mother brought Dewi to be baptised, it was the site of two miracles. A holy well sprang up in which the little boy was immersed, which also had curative properties. Also: a blind monk’s sight was restored, who held the newly-baptised Dewi in his arms.
Saint Dewi grew up at Henfynyw in Ceredigion. It was clear quite early that he would grow up to be strong and hale of body, pleasing of countenance and quick of mind – yet these things never became in him the cause of pride. He learned his letters, and to recite from the Psalter, the order of the Liturgy and the lives of the saints. His mother sent him to learn first from Saint Germain of Auxerre and then from Saint Illtud, and subsequently from his fellow student under both men, Saint Peulin – who may be the same man as Saint Paol Aorelian of Brittany. It happened at one time that an illness caused Peulin to fall blind, with agony in his eyes; and among all the disciples of Saint Illtud the only one who could heal him was Dewi – who until that time had behaved so modestly that he had never once looked up into his elder Peulin’s face.
Dewi went around the country founding monastic communities all throughout Western Britain – including not only southern Wales but also Cornwall and what would become the English West Country. He engaged in a prolonged spiritual conflict with a pagan druid who lived nearby – a man named Bwya whose rule held in the Alun Valley. Bwya first sent men to slay Dewi and his monks, but they fell into a fever and could not attack him. Thereafter Bwya’s cattle died, and Saint Dewi restored them to life. Bwya’s wife sent her maidservants to seduce Dewi by playing naked in the river and flirting with him; however, he held fast to his discipline, and they went home defeated. Bwya’s wife even sacrificed her own stepdaughter Dunod in order to drive Dewi off. Bwya made one further attempt to attack Dewi’s hermitage, but he was consumed by ‘fire from heaven’ within his castle.
Saint Dewi and his disciples practised a severe ascetic discipline, half-monastic and half-eremitical, borrowed from the Desert Fathers. His spiritual grounding was in the Palestinian and Ægyptian models of desert spirituality. They renounced all worldly possessions, with even the words ‘mine’ or ‘my’ being subject to censure and penitence, and laboured hard in the field with hoes and rakes and ploughs. They kept all their offices, and what time was not spent in hard labour was spent in reading, writing or prayer – with only short periods allotted to eating (bread, herbs and water) and sleep. Saint Dewi himself would, true to his cognomen, spend hours submerged to his neck in ice-cold water while he recited the Psalms. Holy wells would spring up in answer to his prayers, as one in particular did to some poor herdsmen who were caught in a drought and had no food or water for their stock. This monastic life apparently appealed even to kings – one of whom, Saint Custennin of Cornwall (often confused with Saint Custennin of Strathclyde) came to join him at Mynyw.
On another occasion the prior, the deacon and the cellarer of Saint Dewi’s monastery grew jealous, and attempted to poison the saint with a deadly atter dosed in the bread. Saint Dewi took this bread gladly, having been warned beforehand that it was poisoned, and divided it into three parts. The first he gave to a dog, which died. The second he gave to a raven, which died also. The third he prayed over himself, and then ate. The poison did him no harm, even as all the monks watched in amazement for three hours. The treachery of the three who tried to poison him was discovered, and the three of them were cast out of the monastery.
Saint Dewi later undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land together with Saint Teilo, who had once been a monk at Mynyw, and Saint Padarn. The three of them journeyed together as equals, each one taking turns serving the other two. Saint Dewi found upon reaching Gaul that he had been given the gift of tongues, and served as the interpreter for the other two whenever they ventured among foreign peoples.
After they came to Jerusalem, the three of them met with Peter, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, who welcomed them grandly and gave them seats of honour. Patriarch Peter conversed long with the three saints, and being impressed with their holiness, sent them back not only with his blessing, but bestowing them with omophoria. Thus when they embarked on their return journey to their homeland in 544, they were all of them consecrated bishops under the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Patriarch Peter also gifted Saint Dewi with four gifts: a blessed altar-cloth on which to serve the Liturgy; a bell; a bishop’s staff; and vestments woven through with gold. Saint Dewi’s staff, which was given to him by Patriarch Peter, became the instrument of many wonders.
When the three saints returned to Wales, they found that despite the best efforts of Saint Germain, the heresy of Pelagius had taken root there again. Alarmed at this development, the bishops of Britain called a synod, to be conducted fully in the public eye, at Brefi. The synod had gone ahead for some time without success, before Saint Peulin called out that the newly-minted Bishop Dewi should be brought forth to speak, as he had a fine voice and a tall stature of the sort perfect for addressing crowds. The Synod sent forth messengers to fetch Dewi there, but he demurred several times. However, when Saints Dyfrig and Deiniol were sent to claim him, he joined them gladly. The three of them set out, and Dewi attempted without success to convince Saint Cenydd to join them as well.
Along the way they also met a grieving woman whose son had died. She saw the three holy men on the road and flung herself at their feet, begging them to have mercy upon her son and restore him to life. Dewi Sant took pity on the poor woman, and washed the body of the dead lad in his tears, and invoked the names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as he prayed for such mercy. The woman’s son began, wondrously, to stir, with the warmth of life returning to his arms and legs. The woman gave her son into the care of Saint Dewi, and the lad would go on to become a monk himself. But as it was, he accompanied the three holy men to the Synod at Brefi, bearing Saint Dewi’s copy of the Gospels.
When he arrived at the Synod, Saint Dewi went to the centre of the gathering and began to proclaim the Orthodox doctrines in the stentorian strength and in the fluency which Saint Gildas had prophesied, All who were present could hear him, both those who were near and those who were far off. As he spoke, a white dove stooped from heaven and lit on his shoulder, and the ground beneath his feet began to swell. Soon he was standing upon a tall hillock, and all who beheld him trembled with awe at the saint of Christ.
The bishops who were there lauded Saint Dewi, and Saint Dyfrig resigned his episcopacy on the spot and tendered it into Dewi’s hands. For his part, Saint Dewi settled back into his old monastery at Mynyw, which from then on became a metropolitan seat in Wales. It was after this that Dewi met and paid homage to Saint Iestyn, and also undertook a journey to Glastonbury Abbey which had purportedly been founded by Saint Joseph of Arimathæa.
The saint reposed in the Lord on the first of March in the year 589, having first been given by angelic messengers to know the date and manner of his repose. He received this news with joy, and continued his preaching to the last days of his advanced old age. He exhorted his brethren to persist in the doctrines and the disciplines they had learned from him, made his peace with all of them, and departed this life in sanctity. His relics still rest and are venerated at the cathedral in Mynyw, now called St Davids. Holy father Dewi, gentle monastic and right divider of the word of truth, pray unto Christ our God to grant us great mercy!
Orthodoxy’s guide, Teacher of piety and reverence,
Pastor of Menevia, greatest protector of all Wales.
Wonderworker Dewi, by your teaching
You have enlightened all, O Herald of grace.
Intercede with Christ God, that our souls may be saved.
St Davids Cathedral, Dyfed, Wales
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