Our Patron Saint

Saint David was born in Wales about the year 500 and died close to the end of the 6th century.  He was the most famous of the saints in the early church of the British Isles.

             He was the son of noble parents and studied in the region of Cardigan.  Soon after David became a priest he traveled to a lonely island to study with a blind teacher named Paulinus.  There he learned to preach eloquently.  One day while preaching many people could not see nor hear him.  To help them the ground under David rose up to become a hill, and a snow-white dove appeared upon his shoulder. Statues and images show him with a dove, the emblem of peace.

             David went on to found monasteries, the last of which in Menevia, a coastal town on the western edge of Britain, where he remained to become its bishop.  He was a strict spiritual director.  Admission to the monastery was only after ten days of demanding self-denial.  At the beginning of the “Dark Ages” when people were being drawn away by pagan religions, he maintained the flame of Christian faith during an age of despair and confusion.  He was a patron of education and founded a library in the city.  The present cathedral still standing in the ancient city of St. David’s was built on the site of David’s original one.  A piece of stone from that city is anchored at the base of our altar here in Wellington.

Flag of Wales

St. David, Patron of Wales — Feast Day March 1st

St. David’s-in-the-Pines

Episcopal Church

Coat of Arms

Diocese of St. David’s