Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was born in Caerfai, south west Wales into an aristocratic family.[1][2] He was reportedly a scion of the royal house of Ceredigion,[3] and founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire (Welsh: Sir Benfro) at the spot where St David's Cathedral stands today.[4]
David's fame as a teacher and his asceticism spread among Celtic Christians, and he helped found about 12 monasteries.[1] His foundation at Glyn Rhosyn became an important Christian shrine,[5] and the most important centre in Wales. The date of Saint David's death is believed to be 1 March 589.[6] His final words to the community of monks were: "Brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfil."[7]
For centuries, 1 March has been a national festival. Saint David was recognised as a national patron saint in the 12th century[2] at a peak time of Welsh resistance to the Normans.[8] He was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1120. The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys noted how Welsh celebrations in London for Saint David's Day would spark wider counter-celebrations amongst their English neighbours: life-sized effigies of Welshmen were symbolically lynched,[9] and by the 18th century the custom had arisen of confectioners producing "taffies"—gingerbread figures baked in the shape of a Welshman riding a goat—on Saint David's Day.[10]
