ST. DAVID'S DAY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21412, 2 March 1935, Page 8

ST. DAVID'S DAY

.— A CAMBRIAN SOCIETY'S RECOGNITION LIFE OF WELSH PATRON SAINT Yesterday was St. David's Day, the festival of the patron saint of Wales. This evening the Cambrian Society will hold a special gathering in honour of the day. Addresses will be given by Mr C. E. Jones, president of the society, on "Wales in the Modern World," and by the Rev. E. Llywelyn Williams, of Chalmers Church, Timaru. To-morrow the society's seventeenth annual Welsh service will be held in the Cathedral at 3 p.m., the preacher being the Rev. E. Llywelyn Williams. A special order of service has been prepared, some of the hymns and the Lord's Prayer being printed in Welsh. St. David is believed to have nourished in the sixth century A.D., and according to the most generally accepted authority he died in the year GOl. By one account, that of Rice Rees, St. David was the son of Sandde, prince of Ceretica (Cardiganshire) and was born at Menevia (now St. David's). After spending a number of years under a celebrated teacher, Paulinus, he founded a college or monastery near to his native place, which was noted

for the severity of its rule. Later, in a dispute with the Pelagian heretics—who claimed that man was able to find salvation without Divine help—David acquitted himself so well that he was made Bishop of Caerleon and Primate of Wales. He died at an advanced age, and his shrine is still to be seen in the existing Cathedral of St. David's. St. David was canonised by Pope Calixtus 11., in the twelfth century.