Editing Saint David (section)

==Hagiography==
[[File:Clonard RC Church St Finian 02 Detail 2007 08 26.jpg|thumb|left|150px|St. David as the teacher of [[Finnian of Clonard]] in a stained glass window restored to its 1181 appearance at [[Clonard, County Meath|Clonard]]]]
[[File:StDavidsCathedral.jpg|thumb|[[St David's Cathedral]], [[St Davids]], [[Pembrokeshire]]]]
Many of the traditional tales about David are found in the ''Buchedd Dewi'' ("Life of David"), a [[hagiography]] written by [[Rhygyfarch]] around 1090.{{sfn|Wooding|2017|p=667}} Rhygyfarch claimed it was based on documents found in the cathedral archives. Modern historians are sceptical of some of its claims: one of Rhygyfarch's aims was to establish some independence for the Welsh church, which had refused the [[Roman Rite|Roman rite]] until the 8th century and now sought a metropolitan status equal to that of Canterbury (this may apply to the supposed pilgrimage to [[Jerusalem]] where he is said to have been anointed as an archbishop by the [[Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem|patriarch]]).

The tradition that he was born at [[Henfynyw]] (Vetus-Menevia) in [[Ceredigion]] is not improbable.<ref name=Toke/> He became renowned as a teacher and preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, [[Dumnonia]], and [[Brittany]]. [[St David's Cathedral]] stands on the site of [[Monastery of Saint David, Wales|the monastery he founded]] in the [[Glyn Rhosyn valley]] of [[Pembrokeshire]]. Around 550, he attended the [[Synod of Brefi]], where his eloquence in opposing [[Pelagianism]] caused his fellow monks to elect him primate of the region. As such he presided over the synod of [[Caerleon]] (the "[[Synod of Victory]]") around 569.<ref name=Foley/>

His best-known [[miracle]] is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Brefi: the village of [[Llanddewi Brefi]] stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. [[John Davies (historian)|John Davies]] notes that one can scarcely "conceive of any miracle more superfluous" in that part of Wales than the creation of a new hill.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Davies
 | first = John
 | author-link = John Davies (historian)
 | title = A History of Wales
 | publisher = Penguin
 |orig-year=1993|year=2007
 | location = London
 | page = 74}}</ref> David is said to have denounced [[Pelagianism]] during this incident and he was declared archbishop by popular acclaim according to Rhygyfarch,{{sfn|Wade-Evans|1923|loc= §48, §53|pp=107–}} bringing about the retirement of [[Dubricius]]. St David's [[Bishop of St David's#Claim of metropolitan status|metropolitan status]] as an archbishopric was later supported by [[Bernard, Bishop of St David's]], [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], and [[Gerald of Wales]].

The [[Monastic rule|Monastic Rule]] of David prescribed that monks had to pull the [[plough]] themselves without draught animals,<ref name="Foley">{{Cite web|date=2016-03-01|title=Saint David of Wales|url=https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-david-of-wales/|website=Franciscan Media|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008085450/https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-david-of-wales/|archive-date=8 October 2020|access-date=2025-05-18|language=en}}</ref> and must eat only bread with salt and herbs and drink only water<ref>Roberts, Holly. (2004). ''Vegetarian Christian Saints''. Anjeli Press. p. 131. {{ISBN|0-9754844-0-0}} "David and his fellow members within this community believed hard manual labor was the duty of all, thus preferring not to use cattle to help them plow the fields. They resolved to maintain a diet of bread and vegetables, with just a sprinkling of salt, so as not to inflict unnecessary suffering upon any creature by taking its life for food."</ref> getting them the name "watermen".{{sfn|Wooding|2017|p=667}} The monks spent their evenings in prayer, reading and writing. No personal possessions were allowed: even to say "my book" was considered an offence. He lived a [[simple living|simple life]] and practised [[asceticism]], teaching his followers to [[vegetarianism|refrain from eating meat]] and drinking [[beer]]. His symbol, also the symbol of Wales, is the [[leek]] (this inspires a reference in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s [[Henry V (play)|Henry V]], Act IV scene 7):
<blockquote>Fluellen: "If your Majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their [[Monmouth cap]]s, which your Majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service, and I do believe, your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day". King Henry: "I wear it for a memorable honour; for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman".</blockquote>

===Connections to Glastonbury===
[[Rhigyfarch]] counted [[Glastonbury Abbey]] among the churches David founded.{{sfn|Wade-Evans|1923|loc= §13|pp=80–}} Around forty years later [[William of Malmesbury]], believing the Abbey older, said that David visited [[Glastonbury]] only to rededicate the Abbey and to donate a travelling altar including a great [[sapphire]]. He had had a vision of [[Jesus]] who said that "the church had been dedicated long ago by Himself in honour of His Mother, and it was not seemly that it should be re-dedicated by human hands". So David instead commissioned an extension to be built to the abbey, east of the Old Church. (The dimensions of this extension given by William were verified archaeologically in 1921.) One manuscript indicates that a sapphire altar was among the items [[Henry VIII of England]] confiscated from the abbey during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] a thousand years later.