St David’s Day
Happy St David’s Day!
When I was much younger, I always thought that it was odd that the Welsh should have an Old Testament King for their Patron saint. It somehow went together with my prejudice – long since abandoned – that the Welsh are rather different people, with their incomprehensible and Old Testament sounding but nevertheless actually very beautiful language.
Little did I know then that St David was actually a sixth century holy monk, who also went by the name of Dewi, and who founded Menevia (now St David’s) monastery and probably more than a dozen other monasteries in Wales.
He is said to have based his Rule for his monasteries on that of the Egyptian desert monks, with a strong emphasis on hard work, abstinence from alcohol and a refraining from unnecessary speech. He died in about the year 601 and has been regarded as the patron saint of Wales since at least the twelfth century.
Since then, Welsh Christianity has contributed much to our understanding of how our faith can in fact be ‘Good News’ for our lives and for our society around us. Methodism flourished in Wales, with its profound emphasis on the renewal of personal faith and lay leadership in the church. This kind of Welsh Methodism has much to offer when it finally re-merges with our Anglican tradition in due course.
The Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished, and again, we may want to learn from that experience! Contemplating the lives of Christian saints helps me to reflect how it can be that we also – in our contemporary context – need to uphold Christ and be prophets and peacemakers in our own homes and neighbourhoods.
Bernhard Schunemann
1 March 2026
