From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   March 1st - Dewi Sant/Saint David   
      
   ST DAVID, in Welsh Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of Ceretica, now   
   Cardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and, being ordained   
   priest, retired into the Isle of Wight and embraced an ascetic life, under the   
   direction of Paulinus, a learned and holy man, who had been a disciple of St.   
   Germanus of Auxerre. He is said by the sign of the cross to have restored sight   
   to his master, which he had lost by old age and excessive weeping in prayer. He   
   studied a long time to prepare himself for the functions of the holy ministry.   
   At length, coming out of his solitude, like the Baptist out of the desert, he   
   preached the word of eternal life to the Britons. He built a chapel at   
   Glastonbury, a place which had been consecrated to the divine worship by the   
   first apostles of this island. He founded twelve monasteries, the principal of   
   which was in the vale of Ross, near Menevia, where he formed many great pastors   
   and eminent servants of God. By his rule he obliged all his monks to assiduous   
   manual labour in the spirit of penance: he allowed them the use of no cattle to   
   ease them at their work in tilling the ground, They were never suffered to   
   speak   
   but on occasions of absolute necessity, and they never ceased to pray, at least   
   mentally, during their labour. They returned late in the day to the monastery,   
   to read, write, and pray. Their food was only bread and vegetables, with a   
   little salt, and they never drank anything better than a little milk mingled   
   with water. After their repast they spent three hours in prayer and adoration;   
   then took a little rest, rose at cock- crowing, and continued in prayer till   
   they went out to work. Their habit was of the skins of beasts. When any one   
   petitioned to be admitted, he waited ten days at the door, during which time he   
   was tried by harsh words, repeated refusals, and painful labours, that he might   
   learn to die to himself. When he was admitted, he left all his worldly   
   substance   
   behind him, for the monastery never received any thing on the score of   
   admission. All the monks discovered their most secret thoughts and temptations   
   to their abbot.   
      
   The Pelagian heresy springing forth a second time in Britain, the bishops, in   
   order to suppress it, held a synod at Brevy, in Cardiganshire, in 512, or   
   rather   
   in 519. St. David, being invited to it, went thither, and in that venerable   
   assembly confuted and silenced the infernal monster by his eloquence, learning,   
   and miracles. On the spot where this council was held a church was afterwards   
   built called Llan-Devi Brevi, or the church of St. David near the river Brevi.   
   At the close of the synod, St. Dubritius, the Archbishop of Caerleon, resigned   
   his see to St. David, whose tears and opposition were only to be overcome by   
   the   
   absolute command of the synod; which, however, allowed him at his request the   
   liberty to transfer his see from Caerleon, then a populous city, to Menevia,   
   now   
   called St. David's, a retired place, formed by nature for solitude, being as it   
   were almost cut off from the rest of the island, though now an intercourse is   
   opened to it from Milford Haven. Soon after the former synod, another was   
   assembled by St. David at a place called Victoria; in which the acts of the   
   first were confirmed, and several canons added relating to discipline, which   
   were afterwards confirmed by the authority of the Roman church; and these two   
   synods were, as it were, the rule and standard of the British churches. As for   
   St. David, Giraldus adds that he was the great ornament and pattern of his age.   
   He spoke with great force and energy, but his example was more powerful than   
   his   
   eloquence; and he has in all succeeding ages been the glory of the British   
   church. He continued in his last see many years; and having founded several   
   monasteries, and been the spiritual father of many saints, both British and   
   Irish, died about the year 544, in a very advanced age. St. Kentigern saw his   
   soul borne up by angels into heaven. He was buried in his church of St. Andrew,   
   which hath since taken his name, with the town and the whole diocese. Near the   
   church stand several chapels, formerly resorted to with great devotion; the   
   principal is that of St. Nun, mother of St. David, near which is a beautiful   
   well still frequented by pilgrims. Another chapel is sacred to St. Lily,   
   surnamed Gwas-Dewy, that is, St. David's man, for he was his beloved disciple   
   and companion in his retirement. He is honoured there on the 3rd, and St. Nun,   
   who lived and died the spiritual mother of many religious women, on the 2nd of   
   March. The three first days of March were formerly holidays in South Wales in   
   honour of these three saints; at present only the first is kept a festival   
   throughout all Wales. John of Glastonbury informs us that in the reign of King   
   Edgar, in the year of Christ 962, the relics of St. David were translated with   
   great solemnity from the vale of Ross to Glastonbury, together with a portion   
   of   
   the relics of St. Stephen the Protomartyr.   
      
   By singing assiduously the divine praises with pure and holy hearts, dead to   
   the   
   world and all inordinate passions, monks are styled angels of the earth. The   
   divine praise is the primary act of the love of God; for a soul enamoured of   
   his   
   adorable goodness and perfections summons up all her powers to express the   
   complacency she takes in his infinite greatness and bliss, and sounds forth his   
   praises with all her strength. In this entertainment she feels an insatiable   
   delight and sweetness, and with longing desires aspires after that bliss in   
   which she will love and praise without intermission or impediment. By each act   
   of divine praise the fervour of charity and its habit, and with it every   
   spiritual good and every rich treasure, is increased in her: moreover, God in   
   return heaps upon her the choicest blessings of his grace. Therefore, though   
   the   
   acts of divine praise seem directly to be no more than a tribute or homage of   
   our affections which we tender to God, the highest advantages accrue from these   
   exercises to our souls. St. Stephen of Grandmont was once asked by a disciple,   
   why we are so frequently exhorted in the scriptures to bless and praise God,   
   who, being infinite, can receive no increase from our homages. To which the   
   saint replied: "A man who blesses and praises God receives from thence the   
   highest advantage imaginable; for God, in return, bestows on him all his   
   blessings, and for every word that he repeats in these acts, says: 'For the   
   praises and blessings which you offer me, I bestow my blessings on you; what   
   you   
   present to me returns to yourself with an increase which becomes my liberality   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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