St. David\u2019s, formerly Menevia<\/a>, is a gem of church architecture, with its\u00a0 gorgeously colored stone. I should warn you that few photos ever catch its shifting colors, which vary so much at different times of day and seasons of the year\u00a0 \u2013 you just have to go there to see it yourself.<\/p>\nUltimately, David became the Welsh national saint, and the symbol of patriotism. As early as 930, patriotic poets were talking of raising David\u2019s pure banner against the English. When the Kings of England started naming their eldest sons Prince of Wales, David\u2019s Day became part of British royal symbolism and celebration. In Shakespeare\u2019s Henry V<\/em>, the Welsh Fluellen says to the King:<\/p>\nI do believe your majesty takes no scorn<\/em><\/p>\nTo wear a leek upon St Davy\u2019s Day. <\/em><\/p>\nAs I say, we really know very little about David that is historically solid and can only guess at his dates, or his main areas of activity. A death about 590 is a reasonable guess, but we could easily slip fifty years either way. Oddly though, we can be sure that he died on March 1, whether in (say) 532 or 632 AD. So how can I be so certain? Through the Middle Ages, hagiography was a vast area of cultural effort, when almost any outrageous achievements could be credited to a saint. (No, David did not really make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he was ordained by the Patriarch). The one thing that we know these writers did keep faithfully was the death day \u2013 the date of the day, not the year \u2013 because that marked the hero\u2019s ascension to glory, the promotion to heaven. In a particular church or community, those days were critical, as marking the annual celebration of the beloved local saint.<\/p>\n
Argue as much as you like, then, about precise years, achievements, martyrdoms and areas of activity, about the number of lepers cured and tyrants opposed \u2013 but don\u2019t quarrel with death days.<\/p>\n
Death days.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an interesting term. I know my birthday. I also know that at some future point I will die, and that that will befall on a particular date. Let me be optimistic and assume that it will be a distant event, say on July 23, 2049. Each year, then, I pass through July 23 happily unaware that I am marking my Death Day, surely as significant a milestone as my birthday, but not one I can ever know with certainty until it occurs. Nor is it something we really ever contemplate, as we all know, in our hearts, that we are immortal.<\/p>\n
This is something we can learn from those medieval monks, that the Death Day is not just a key event in anyone\u2019s life, but literally the only one we can take with absolute confidence.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am adapting this from a post at this site that I wrote many centuries ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
March 1 is the feast of David, the early medieval bishop and missionary who became patron saint of Wales. We actually know strikingly little of David apart from that date, of March 1, but I\u2019m going to suggest that represents a good deal in its own right. And I will use that fact to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[591,277],"class_list":["post-69407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philip-jenkins","tag-st-david","tag-wales"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n