1 MARCH – ST. DAVID OF WALES (Bishop)

Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould:

St. David, or Dewi, as the Welsh call him, was born about 446, at Mynyw, which was named St David’s after him. His father was Sandde, son of Ceredig, who was the son of Cunedda, the great conqueror of North Wales. His mother's name was Non; she was the daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch. Giraldus says he was baptized at Forth Clais by Alveas, Bishop of Munster, “who by divine providence had arrived at that time from Ireland.” The same author says he was brought up at Henmenen, which is probably the Roman station Menapia.

St. David was educated under Iltyt at Caerworgon. He was afterward ordained priest, and studied the Scriptures for ten years with Paulinus at Ty-gwyn-ar Daf, or Whitland, in Caennarthenshire. He then retired for prayer and study to the Vale of Ewias, where he raised a chapel, and a cell on the site now occupied by Llanthony Abbey. The river Honddu furnished him with drink, the mountain pastures with meadow-leek for food. His legendary history states that he was advised by an angel to move from under the shadow of the Black Mountains to the vale of Rhos, and to found a monastery at Mynyw, his birth place.

He built a monastery on the boggy land which forms nearly the lowest point of that basin-shaped glen: on, or near its site stands the present Cathedral of St. David. He practised the same rigorous austerities as before. Water was his only drink, and he rigorously abstained from animal food. He devoted himself wholly to prayer, study, and to the training of his disciples. He, like many other abbots at that time, was promoted to the episcopate. A wild legend makes him to have started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and to have received consecration at the hands of the patriarch John III. This tale was invented by some British monk to show that the Welsh bishops traced their succession to the oldest, if not the most powerful, of the patriarchates. Except when compelled by unavoidable necessity he kept aloof from all temporal concerns. He was reluctant even to attend the Synod of Brefi. This was convened by Dubricius about 519 at Llandewi Brefi, in Cardiganshire, to suppress the Pelagian heresy, which was once more raising its head. The synod was composed of bishops, abbots, and religious of different orders, together with princes and laymen. Giraldus says, “When many discourses had been delivered in public, and were ineffectual to reclaim the Pelagians from their error, at length Paulinus, a bishop with whom David had studied in his youth, very earnestly entreated that the holy, discreet, and eloquent man might be sent for. Messengers were therefore despatched to desire his attendance: but their importunity was unavailing with the holy man, he being so fully and intently given up to contemplation, that urgent necessity alone could induce him to pay any regard to temporal or secular concerns. At last two holy men, Daniel and Dubricius, persuaded him to come. After his arrival, such was the grace and eloquence with which he spoke, that he silenced the opponents, and they were utterly vanquished. But Father David, by common consent of all, whether clergy or laity, (Dubricius having resigned in his favour), was elected primate of the Cambrian Church.” Dubricius retired to the Isle of Bardsey.

A beautiful yet wild legend tells us:—“While St. David’s speech continued, a snow white dove descending from heaven sat upon his shoulders; and moreover the earth on which he stood raised itself under him till it became a hill, from whence his voice was heard like a trumpet, and was understood by all, both near and far off: on the top of which hill a church was afterwards built, and remains to this day.”

St. David at first strenuously declined the primacy; at last he accepted it on the condition that he was to be allowed to transfer the archiepiscopal chair from the busy city of Caerleon upon the Usk—the former capital of Britannia Secunda—to the quiet retreat of Mynyw. Arthur, the famous king, and Pendragon, who is said to have been a nephew of our saint, assented to this. Doubtless the advances westward which the heathen English were making, filled St. David with dread lest the seat of the primacy should one day fall into their hands. So he thought it prudent to remove it to the iron-bound shores of Pembroke, where the English could not so easily land. After his elevation, St. David, in spite of his retiring disposition, proved a vigorous and hard-working prelate. He occasionally resided at Caerleon, and in 529 he convened a synod, which exterminated the Pelagian heresy, and was in consequence named “The Synod of Victory.” It ratified the canons and decrees of Brefi, as well as a code of rules which he had drawn up for the regulation of the British Church, a copy of which remained in the Cathedral of St. David’s until it was lost in an incursion of pirates. Giraldus says, “In his times, in Cambria, the Church of God flourished exceedingly, and ripened with much fruit every day. Monasteries were built everywhere; many congregations of the faithful of various orders were collected to celebrate with fervent devotion the Sacrifice of Christ. But to all of them Father David, as if placed on a lofty eminence, was a mirror and pattern of life. He informed them by words, and he instructed them by example; as a preacher he was most powerful through his eloquence, but more so in his works. He was a doctrine to his hearers, a guide to the religious, a light to the poor, a support to the orphans, a protection to widows, a father to the fatherless, a rule to monks, and a path to seculars, being made all things to all men that he might bring all to God.”

He founded several churches and monasteries. It is also generally agreed that Wales was first divided into dioceses in his time.

Geoffrey of Monmouth states that he died in his monastery at Mynyw, St. David’s, where he was honourably buried by order of Maelgwn Gvvynedd. This event is recorded by him as if it happened soon after the death of Arthur, who died 542. According to the computations of Archbishop Usher, St. David died 544, aged 82. The Bollandists agree with Usher on the date of his death, but they put his birth back as far as 446, so that according to their calculation he lived to the age of 98. Numerous legends have gathered round the history of St. David. Thus an angel is said to have foretold his birth thirty years before to his father in a dream. “On the morrow, said the angelic voice, thou wilt slay a stag by a river side, and wild find three gifts there, to wit, the stag, a fish, and a honeycomb. Thou shalt give part of these to the son who shall be born thirty years hence. The honeycomb proclaims his honied wisdom, the fish, his life on bread and water, the stag his dominion over the old serpent.” The mention of the stag doubtless arose from the old fancy that that animal kills serpents by trampling on them: thus did David trample the Pelagian heresy under foot. When St. Patrick settled in the vale of Rhos, a voice bade him depart, for it was reserved for the abode of a child who should be born thirty years after. At his baptism, St. David splashed some water on to the blind eyes of the bishop who was baptizing him, and restored their power of sight. His schoolfellows at Henmenen saw a dove teaching him, and singing hymns with him. After studying with Paulinus, he journeyed to Glastonbury. He was intending to dedicate afresh the church which had been re-built, when the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him that He had already dedicated it: as a sign that He had spoken unto him He pierced the saint’s hand with His fingers. So our saint contented himself with building a Lady Chapel at the east end. He is said to have founded twelve monasteries on this journey. He returned to Wales, and then established a monastery at Mynyw, which was soon filled with monks and disciples. They worked hard with their own hands in the fields; they harnessed themselves to the plough instead of using oxen for that purpose; they tended bees that they might have some honey to give to the sick and the poor. The bees became so attached to one monk, Modemnoc, that they followed him on board ship when he was about to set sail for Ireland. He returned to the monastery and made several attempts to embark unobserved by his winged friends; but all his efforts failed. So at last he asked St. David’s leave to take them with him; the saint blessed the bees, and bade them depart in peace, and be fruitful and multiply in their new home. Thus Ireland, where bees had been hitherto unable to live, was enriched by their honey.

He opened many fountains in dry places, healed many brackish streams, raised many dead to life, and had many visions of God and of Angels. In one of these visions he was warned that he should depart, March 1st. Thenceforth he was more zealous in the discharge of his duty: on the Sunday before his death he preached a sermon to the assembled people, and after consecrating and receiving the Lord’s Body, he was seized with a sudden pain: then turning to the people he said, “Brethren, persevere in the things which ye have heard of me: on the third day hence I go the way of my fathers.” On that day, while the clergy were singing the Matin Office, he had a vision of his Lord; then, exulting in spirit, he exclaimed, “Raise me after Thee.” With these words he breathed his last. He was canonized by Pope Callixtus II, A.D. 1120; who is also said to have granted an indulgence to all those who made a pilgrimage to his shrine. Three kings of England—William the Conqueror, Henry II., and Edward I.—are said to have undertaken the journey, which when twice repeated was deemed equal to one pilgrimage to Rome; whence arose this saying:— Roma semel quantum, dat bis Menevia tantum. A noble English matron, Elswida, in the reign of Edgar, transferred his relics, probably in 964, from St. David’s to Glastonbury. St. David’s plain but empty shrine stands now in the choir of St. David’s Cathedral to the north of Edward Tudor’s altar tomb.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, two hundred and sixty holy martyrs condemned for the name of Christ. Claudius II ordered them to dig sand beyond the Porta Salaria, and then to be shot dead with arrows by soldiers in the amphitheatre.

Also the birthday of the holy martyrs Leo, Donatus, Abundantius, Nicephorus and nine others.

At Marseilles, the holy martyrs Hermes and Adrian.

At Heliopolis, in the persecution of Trajan, St. Eudoxia, martyr, who, being baptised by bishop Theodotus and fortified for the combat, was put to the sword by the command of the governor Vincent and thus received the crown of martyrdom.

The same day, St. Antonina, martyr. For deriding the gods of the Gentiles in the persecution of Diocletian, she was, after various torments, shut up in a cask and drowned in a marsh near the city of Cea.

At Kaiserswerth, the bishop St. Swithbert, who, in the time of Pope Sergius, preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Friesland and Holland, and to other Germanic peoples.

At Angers, St. Albinus, bishop and confessor, a man of most eminent virtue and piety.

At Le Mans, St. Siviard, abbot.

At Perugia, the translation of St. Herculanus, bishop and martyr, who was beheaded by order of Totila, king of the Goths. Forty days after his decapitation his body, as Pope St. Gregory relates, was found as sound and as firmly joined to the head as if it had never been touched by the sword.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

1 MARCH – SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The subject offered to our consideration on this Second Sunday is one of the utmost importance for the holy Season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His Apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.

Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the Feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even to those who were, in a manner, strangers to him. But as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways?

Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew xvi. 16). Despite this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put, was to be of such a terrible kind that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace. The Cross was to be a scandal and stumbling block (1 Corinthians i. 23) to the Synagogue, and, alas, to more than it. Jesus said to His Apostles at the Last Supper: “All of you will be scandalised in me this night” (Matthew xxvi. 32).

Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and He doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the High Priests and Pharisees, who had till now been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him — what a shock to their confidence! But, there was to be something more trying still: the people who but a few days before greeted him so enthusiastically with their hosannas would demand His execution, and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the Cross, amid the insults of His triumphant enemies.

Is it not to be feared that these disciples of His, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years, but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled — will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? — Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to him: Peter, whom He has made the Rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the Keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of Thunder, who is to be the first Martyr of the Apostolic College; and John, James’s brother, and His own Beloved Disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside and show them a glimpse of that glory which until the day fixed for its manifestation He conceals from the eyes of mortals. He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth and goes in company with the three privileged ones, towards a high hill, called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the Psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the Name of the Lord (Psalm lxxxviii. 13) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain than the three Apostles observe a sudden change come over Him: His face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He was about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver. The other is Elias, the Prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot, without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish Religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three Apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their Divine Master, but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus’s human nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the Eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: “This is my beloved Son!” This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments. His mission was not on Thabor.

It was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire, and when He came to the three Apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear —they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone. Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed on them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! — is it possible that when the hour of trial comes they will forget it and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them. A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His Last Supper with His disciples. When the Supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the Garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay here and watch with me.” He then retires some little distance from them and prays to His Eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to his three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with blood. The Apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked are they keeping watch? Are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him. They are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy (Matthew xxvi. 38). Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him, and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the man.

After the Resurrection our three Apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy with which Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them his glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him. Let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the Apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of Divine Justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Psalm xxi. 7) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows (Isaias liii. 3, 4). We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Hhim by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the Eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity. We must join our acclamations with those of the Angels and the Four-and-Twenty Elders, whom St. John, (one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration), heard crying out with a loud voice: “The Lamb that is slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!” (Apocalypse v. 12).

The Second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.

Epistle – 1 Thessalonians iv. 1‒7

Brethren, we pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of his lust, like the Gentiles that know not God: and that no man overreach nor circumvent his brother in business; because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before, and have testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Here the Apostle shows what manner of life should be followed by Christians, and the Church, by repeating his words, exhorts the faithful to profit of the present season of grace, and regain all the beauty of the image of God, which the grace of Baptism first gave them. A Christian is a vessel of honour, formed and enriched by the hand of God; let him therefore shun whatever would degrade his noble origin and turn him into a vessel of dishonour, fit only to be broken and cast with the unclean into the sink of hell. The Christian religion has so far ennobled man, that even his very body may share in the soul’s sanctity. On the other hand, she teaches us that this sanctity of the soul is impaired, yes altogether effaced, by the loss of the body’s purity. The whole man, therefore, both body and soul, is to be reformed by the practices of this holy Season. Let us purify the soul by the confession of our sins, by compunction of heart, by the love of God. And let us give back its dignity to the body by making it bear the yoke of penance, that so it may be, henceforth, subservient and docile to the soul, and, on the day of the general Resurrection, partake in her endless bliss.

Gospel – Matthew xvii. 1‒9

At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” As he was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And the disciples hearing this fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them, and said to them, “Arise, and fear not.” And they lifting up their eyes saw no-one but Jesus. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man has risen from the dead.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus did Jesus encourage His Apostles when the time of temptation was near. He sought to impress them with His glory that it might keep up theirfaith in that trying time when the outward eye would see nothing in His person but weakness and humiliation. Oh! the loving considerateness of divine grace, which is never wanting, and shows us, in so strong a light, the goodness and the justice of our God! Like the Apostles, we also have sinned. Like them, we have neglected to profit of the help that was sent us from heaven. We have shut our eyes against the light. We have forgotten the fair vision that was granted us, and which made us so fervent and happy — and we fell. We have not, then, been tempted above our strength (1 Corinthians x. 13), and it is indeed our own fault that we committed sin. The three Apostles were exposed to a terrible temptation when they beheld their Divine Master robbed of all His majesty, but how easy for them to resist the temptation by thinking of what they had seen but a few days before? Instead of that, they lost their courage and forgot prayer which would have brought their courage back ; and thus the favoured witnesses of Thabor became cowards and deserters in the Garden of Mount Olivet. There was but one thing left them to do — throw themselves on the loving mercy of their Jesus, as soon as He had triumphed over His enemies; they did so, and His generous Heart pardoned them.

Let us imitate them here too. We have abused the grace of God and rendered it fruitless by our want of correspondence. The fountain of this grace, is not yet dried up. As long as we are in this world we may always draw from this source which comes from the Blood and merits of our Redeemer. It is grace that is now urging us to the amendment of our lives. It is given to us in abundance during the present time, and it is given mainly by the holy exercises of Lent. Let us go up the mountain with Jesus. There we will not be disturbed by the noise of earthly things. Let us there spend our forty days with Moses and Elias who, long before us, sanctified this number by their fasts. Thus, when the Son of Man will have risen from the dead, we will proclaim the favours He has mercifully granted us on Thabor.

We may close our Sunday by reciting the following beautiful prayer taken from the Mozarabic Breviary:

O JESUS, our God, eternal first beginning of light, who willed that your servants should devote the seventh day to sanctification rather than to work, we come seeking how we may find you, but we are prevented by the habitual darkness of our conscience. We make efforts to arise, but we fall back again and are dejected. Therefore, we beseech you, cast not away from your face those who seek you, for you deigned to show yourself to those who did not seek you. Now is the season of the year when we are offering to your holy Name a tithe of our days. And of these days, seven have passed. Grant us your assistance in the path of this fatiguing journey, so that our proffered homage may be without blemish. Sweeten our toil by filling us with an ardent love of your Majesty, and awaken us from the sluggishness of the body by the fervent abundance of your charity. May our life, being thus in you, know no faltering, and our faith find its reward. Amen.