David, or Dewi

David, Or Dewi ST., patron saint of Wales, was, according to tradition, the son of the prince of Ceretica (Cardiganshire), and was born about the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century. Having resolved on a religious life, he spent, as was customary in those days, a probationary period in solitude, after which he commenced preaching to his countrymen. He built a chapel at Glastonbury, and founded twelve monasteries, the chief of which was at Menevia, in the vale of Ross. At the synod of Brevy, in Cardiganshire, held in 519, David showed himself a strong opponent of the Pelagian heresy. Subsequently he became archbishop of Caerleon-upon-Usk, but transferred his see to Menevia, now called St. David's, where he died about the year 601. His life was written by Ricemarch, bishop of St. David's, who died about the year 1099. The Historia S. Davidis, by Giraldus Cambrensis, written about 1175, and published in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, is little more than an abridgment of Ricemarch's work. — Butler, Lives of Saints, March 1.