St Non in sight by ajisaac

St Non in sight

Out on some of the coastal walk around St David's (the smallest city in the UK) and ventured open the site of St Non's chapel, well and this 'shrine' to St Non, at the end of a small narrow lane and in a pasture field.

Who was St Non you may well ask?!

Non (also Nonna or Nonnita) was, according to Christian tradition, the mother of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

The Life of St David was written around 1095 by Rhigyfarch, and is our main source of knowledge for the lives of both St David (died c. 589) and his mother. Rhigyfarch was a Norman cleric whose father had been Bishop of St David's for 10 years.

He states that she was a nun at Ty Gwyn ("the white house") near Whitesands Bay (Pembrokeshire), (although she may have become a nun later as a widow).

Tradition holds that Nonita was raped and that the product of that rape was David – she was "unhappily seized and exposed to the sacrilegious violence of one of the princes of the country".

Rhigyfarch recounts the tradition that the rapist was Sanctus, King of Ceredigion, who came upon Non while travelling through Dyfed (in South Wales). After conceiving, Nonita, who remained celibate both before and afterwards, lived on bread and water alone. When a preacher found himself unable to preach in the presence of her unborn child, this was taken as a sign that the child would himself be a great preacher. A local ruler learned of this pregnancy and feared the power of the child to be born. He plotted to kill him upon birth, but on the day of her labour a great storm made it impossible for anyone to travel outdoors. Only the place where Nonita groaned with birth-pangs was bathed in light. The pain was said to have been so intense that her fingers left marks as she grasped a rock and the stone itself split asunder in sympathy with her. A church was built in the place of David's birth and this stone is now concealed in the foundations of the altar.

Variations on her story state that:

-Non may have been the daughter of the nobleman Cynyr of Caer Goch (in Pembrokeshire).
-The chieftain who fathered David may have been named Xantus, Sandde or Sant.(Rees points out that names meaning 'Holy' and 'Nun' might be seen as fitting for the parents of a great saint.)
-Non may have been married to Sant before David's birth or after the birth of the saint.
-She brought the boy up at Henfeynyw near Aberaeron and founded a convent nearby at what is now called Llanon (the village being named after her).

Subsequently, Non may have travelled to Cornwall and ultimately ended her days in a Breton convent.

In some sources, Non is commemorated as a male companion of David.

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