March I

Saint David, Archbishop,

patron of wales

See his life by Giraldus Cambrensis, In Wharton’s Anglia Sacra, t. 2; also Doctor Brown Willis and Wilkins, Conc. Britan. & Hibern. t. 1.

About the year 544.

St. David, in Welsh Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of Ceretice, now Cardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and, being or dained 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 Glastenbury, 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 labor 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 labor. 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 any thing 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 labors, 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 519.¹ St. David, being invited to it, went thither, and in that venerable assembly confuted and silenced the infernal monster by his eioquence, 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 honored there on the 3d, and St. Nun, who lived and died the spiritual mother of many religious women, on the 2d of March. The three first days of March were formerly holidays in South Wales in honor of these three saints; at present only the first is kept a festival throughout all Wales. John of Glastenbury² 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 Glastenbury, 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 enamored 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 fervor 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 and greatness.’ It is the divine grace,” goes on this holy doctor, “which first excites a man to praise God, and he only returns to God his own gift: yet by his continually blessing God, the Lord pours forth his divine blessings upon him, which are so many new increases of charity in his soul.”³

St. Swidbert, or Swibert, the Ancient, B. C.

He was an English monk, educated near the borders of Scotland, and lived some time under the direction of the holy priest and monk, St. Egbert, whom he accompanied into Ireland. St. Egbert was hindered himself from passing into Lower Germany, according to his zealous desire, to preach the gospel to the infidels: and Wigbert, who first went into Friesland upon that errand, was thwarted in all his undertakings by Radbod, prince of that country, and returned home without success. St. Egbert, burning with an insatiable zeal for the conversion of those souls, which he ceased not with many tears to commend to God, stirred up others to undertake that mission. St. Swidbert was one of the twelve missionaries, who, having St. Willibrord at their head, sailed into Friesland, in 690, according to the direction of St. Egbert. They landed at the mouth of the Rhine, as Alcuin assures us, and travelled as high as Utrecht, where they began to announce to the people the great truths of eternal life. Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the French palace, had conquered part of Friesland, eighteen months before, and compelled Radbod, who remained sovereign in the northern part, to pay an annual tribute. The former was a great protector and benefactor to these missionaries, nor did the latter oppose their preaching. St. Swidbert labored chiefly in Hither Friesland, which comprised the southern part of Holland, the northern part of Brabant, and the countries of Gueldres and Cleves: for in the middle age, Friesland was extended from the mouths of the Meuse and the Rhine, as far as Denmark and ancient Saxony. An incredible number of souls was drawn out of the sink of idolatry, and the most shameful vices, by the zeal of St. Swidbert. St. Willibrord was ordained archbishop of Utrecht by pope Sergius I., at Rome, in 696. St. Swidbert was pressed by his numerous flock of converts, and by his fellow-laborers, to receive the episcopal consecration: for this purpose he returned to England soon after the year 697, where he was consecrated regionary bishop to preach the gospel to infidels, without being attached to any see, by Wilfrid, bishop of York, who happened to be then banished from his own see, and employed in preaching the faith in Mercia. Either the see of Canterbury was still vacant after the death of St. Theodorus, or Brithwald, his successor, was otherwise hindered from performing that ceremony and St. Swidbert had probably been formerly known personally to St. Wilfrid, being both from the same kingdom of Northumberland. Our saint invested with that sacred character, returned to his flock, and settled the churches which he had founded in good order: then leaving them to the care of St. Willibrord and his ten companions, he penetrated further into the country, and converted to the faith a considerable part of the Boructuarians, who inhabited the countries now called the duchy of Berg, and the county of La Marck. His apostolic labors were obstructed by an invasion of the Saxons, who, after horrible devastations, made themselves masters of the whole country of the Boructuarians. St. Swidbert, being at length desirous to prepare himself for his last hour, in retirement, by fervent works of penance, received of Pepin of Herstal the gift of a small island, formed by different channels of the Rhine, and another river, called Keiserswerdt, that is, island of the emperor; werdt, in the language of that country, signifying an island. Here the saint built a great monastery, which flourished for many ages, till it was converted into a collegiate church of secular canons. A town, which was formed round this monastery, bore long the name of St. Swidbert’s Isle, but is now called by the old name, Keiserswerdt, and is fortified: it is situated on the Rhine, six miles below Dusseldorp: a channel of the Rhine having changed its course, the place is no longer an island. St. Swidbert here died in peace, on the 1st of March, in 713. His feast was kept with great solemnity in Holland and other parts where he had preached. Henschenius has given us a panegyric on him, preached on this day by Radbod, bishop of Utrecht, who died in 917. His relics were found in 1626 at Keiserswerdt, in a silver shrine, together with those of St. Willeic, likewise an Englishman, his successor in the government of this abbey; and are still venerated in the same place, except some small portions given to other churches by the archbishop of Cologne.* See Bede, Hist. l. 5, c. 10, 12, and the historical collection of Henschenius, l. Mart. p. 84; Fleury, l. 40; Batavia Sacra; and the Roman Martyrology, in which his name occurs on this day. His successor, St. Willeic, is commemorated on the 2d of March, by Wilson, in his English Martyrology, of the first edition, an. 1608, (though omitted in the second edition, an. 1628) and is mentioned among the English saints, by F. Edward Maihew, Trophiea Congregationis Anglicanæ Bened. Rhemis, 1625; and F. Jerom Porter, in his Flores Sanctorum Angliæ, Scotiæ, et Hiberniæ. Duaci, 1632.

St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, C.

He was of an ancient and noble family in Brittany,^† and from his childhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly disengaged from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic state at Cincillac, called afterwards Tintillant, a place somewhere near Angers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, especially of prayer, watching, universal mortification of the senses, and obedience, living as if in all things he had been without any will of his own, and his soul seemed so perfectly governed by the Spirit of Christ as to live only for him. At the age of thirty-five years, he was chosen abbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards, bishop of Angers. He everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortifications, or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by all the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity. Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others, as he was in those of his own humility. By his courage in maintaining the law of God and the canons of the church, he showed that true greatness of soul is founded in the most sincere humility. In the third council of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the council of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to contract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 549. His relics were taken up and enshrined by St. Germanus of Paris, and a council of bishops, with Eutropius, the saint’s successor, at Angers, in 556; and the most considerable part still remains in the church of the famous abbey of St. Albinus at Angers, built upon the spot where he was buried, by king Childebert, a little before his relics were enshrined. Many churches in France, and several monasteries and villages, bear his name. He was honored by many miracles, both in his lifetime and after his death. Several are related in his life written by Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, who came to Angers to celebrate his festival seven years after his decease; also by St. Gregory of Tours, (l. de Glor. Confess. c. 96.) See the Notes of Henschenius on his life.

St. Monan, in Scotland, M.

St. Adrian, bishop of St. Andrews, trained up this holy man from his childhood, and when he had ordamed him priest, and long employed him in the service of his own church, sent him to preach the gospel in the isle of May, lying in the bay of Forth. The saint exterminated superstition and many other crimes and abuses, and having settled the churches of that island in good order, passed into the county of Fife, and was there martyred; being slain with above 6000 other Christians, by an army of infidels who ravaged that country in 874. His relics were held in great veneration at innerny, in Fifeshire, the place of his martyrdom, and were famous for miracles. King David II. having himself experienced the effect of his powerful intercession with God, rebuilt his church at Innerny of stone, in a stately manner, and founded a college of canons to serve it. See King’s calendar, and the manuscript life of this martyr in the Scottish college at Paris and the Breviary of Aberdeen.

* This denomination was given to the valley from the territory where it was situated, which was called Ross. Frequent mention is made of this monastery In the acts of several Irish saints, under the name of Rosnat or Rosnant.

¹ See Wilkins, Conc. t. 1.

² In his History of Glastenbury, p. 130, published by Mr. Thomas Hearne, in 1726.

³ Maximes de S. Etienne de Grandmont, ch. 105, p. 228. Item 1. Senentiarum S. Stephani Grand. c. 105, p. 103.

* The acts of St. Swidbert, under the name of Marcellinus, pretended to be St. Marchelm, a disciple or colleague of the saint, extant in Surius, are a notorious piece of forgery of the fifteenth century. We must not, with these false acts and many others, confound St. Swidbert of Keiserswerdt with a younger saint of the same name, also an Englishman, first bishop of Verden or Ferden, in Westphaly, in 807, in the reign of Charlemagne; whose body was taken up at Verden, together with those of seven bishops his successors, in 1630. St. Swidbert the younger is mentioned in some Martyrologies on the 30th of April though many moderns have confounded him with our saint. Another holy man, called Swidbert, forty years younger than our saint, whom some have also mistaken for the same with him, is mentioned by Bede, (l. 4, c. 32,) and was abbot of a monastery in Cumberland, upon the river Dacore, which does not appear to have been standing since the Conquest. See Leland, Collect. t. 2, p. 152, and Camden’s Britannia, by Gibson, col. 831. Tanner’s Notitia Mon. p. 73.

^† It is proved by Leland in his Itinerary, published by Hearne, (t. 3, p. 4,) that the ancestors of St. Albinus of Angers came from Great Britain, and that two branches of his family flourished long after, the one in Cornwall, the other in Somersetshire.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) I, 491-495.