The Welshman who Stood in a Valley but Came Down a Hill

Scholars agree that St David was a genuine historical figure, whose ministries as Abbot and Bishop impacted not only Wales but also much of what is now south west England and Brittany on the continent, though the passage of time has made it difficult to bring the details of his life into sharp focus. Some sources for instance give the date of his death as 589 AD, but the only certainty on that account seems to be that he was alive for the best part of the 6^th century. As regards his reputation for holiness; his 11^th century biographer Rhygyfarch reported that, as if to intercept a dove which landed on his shoulder, the ground underneath his feet rose when he was delivering a sermon at the Synod of Brefi in ca. 560. So if one may draw inspiration from the title of a 1990s film about a village near Cardiff, St David was ‘The Welshman who Stood in a Valley but Came Down a Hill’. Incidentally, the target of his denunciations on that occasion was Pelagian heresy, still flourishing in Britain a century after St Germanus of Auxerre’s 5^th century mission, and arguably resurgent in our own times. However the best known of his homilies was his last, in which he appealed to his compatriots:

“Lords, brothers and sisters, be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.”

This injunction to “do the little things in life” (“Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd”) has been a mainstay of Welsh Christianity ever since.