Categories: just-life
Date: 02 March 2005 15:32:01
Now, I don't know why, but I feel that I have to talk about the Bunny of Death. I'm not going to, I am infact going to speak about St David (Dewi Sant) as it was his day yesterday.
Now, being a sixth century saint there are many legends about him, some which may be true, some may not be. There are however some things that are not disputed....
He really existed (aren't you glad!!!)
He was at the heart of the Welsh church in the 6th century
He came from an aristocratic family in West Wales
His mother was a saint, Saint Non
His teacher was also a saint, St Paulinus
He founded a large monastery in West Wales
He was one of the early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of Western Britain
He became Archbishop of Wales, but remained in his community at Menevia (now called St Davids)
He was active in supressing the Pelagian heresy
His shrine became a great place of pilgrimage; four visits to the shrine at St David's was considered the equivalent of two to Rome, and one to Jerusalem!
which, when you consider he was around 1400 years ago, is a fair bit. It's known that he founded several monasteries in Wales, and that he believed that the monks should work hard and pray hard.
In celebration of his day many children in Wales get to dress up in the national dress. For girls a petticoat and overcoat, made of Welsh flannel, and a tall hat, worn over a frilled bonnet. Boys wear a white shirt, a Welsh flannel waistcoat, black trousers, long wool socks and black shoes (though a Welsh rugby top is more the norm!!). In higher schools Eisteddfods are often held with singing and dancing.
Now a debate that has come up recently is whether St David's day should be a Bank Holiday, like St Patrick's day is in Ireland?? It would give the parents an opertunity to attend these Eisteddfods, though, conversly, the schools would be closed.....
I shall finsih with something that St David is supposed to have said to his monks in his last sermon, and what Archbishop Rowan Williams belieives it means;
"do the little things, the small things you've seen me doing" - Dewi Sant (St David)
Archbishop Rowan Williams thinks that phrase resonates with modern people because...
"...it reminds us that the primary things for us are the relationships around us, the need to work at what's under our hands, what's within our reach."
"We can transform our domestic, our family relationships, our national life to some extent, if we do that with focus and concentration in the presence of God"