07 — Sources and Transmission
Everything known or claimed about St David of Wales (Dewi Sant, c. 500 – 589) reaches us through a textual and cultic tradition that must be examined before any of its content can be weighed. This section sets out that tradition in two parts: the narrative Lives — Rhygyfarch’s Latin Vita Sancti David of c. 1090, its manuscript recensions, Gerald of Wales’s reworking, and the Middle Welsh Buchedd Dewi — and the non-Life evidence of dedications, calendars, martyrologies, and annals that maps the cult independently of the Lives.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic; patron of Wales)
The historian and the faithful reader alike confront the same difficulty with David: a saint of the sixth century whose earliest narrative Life was written about five hundred years after his death, by an author with a vested interest in the dignity of the see of St Davids. Sound use of the David tradition therefore begins not with the stories but with the question of where the stories come from, how they were transmitted, and what independent evidence stands beside them. This section provides that foundation. The first file traces the literary tradition from its single root in Rhygyfarch through the manuscript recensions, Gerald of Wales, and the Welsh vernacular Life, together with the modern critical editions. The second file turns to the cult records — church dedications, the 1 March feast, the Irish martyrologies, the Annales Cambriae obit, and the Norman-era promotion of St Davids — which alone can reach behind Rhygyfarch and which fix, more securely than any vita, the heartland and reach of David’s veneration.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Latin and Welsh Lives | The literary tradition: Rhygyfarch’s Latin Vita Sancti David (c. 1090) and its recensions (the Vespasian text closest to the original; the abbreviated Nero/Digby versions; the Cottonian collections); Gerald of Wales’s late-twelfth-century Latin reworking; the Middle Welsh Buchedd Dewi (Book of the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi, 1346) as a translation of the Latin; and the modern editions of J. W. James (1967), Sharpe and Davies (2007), and D. Simon Evans. |
| The Cult Records | The non-Life evidence: church dedications to David (Dewi) across south Wales, Herefordshire, Devon, Cornwall, and Brittany; the 1 March feast and the calendars; the Irish martyrologies (Tallaght, Oengus) attesting an early Irish cult; the Annales Cambriae obit and the Catalogus Sanctorum Hiberniae; the Dyfed–Ceredigion heartland the dedications reveal; and the Norman-era promotion under Bishop Bernard with the c. 1120 papal recognition. |
See Also
- The Vita Davidis — the contents of Rhygyfarch’s Life, whose transmission this section examines
- The Political Uses of the Life — why the Life was written and the campaign for the see of St Davids
- What Can Be Known — the historical David sifted from the sources surveyed here
- Pilgrimage to St Davids — the shrine that the cult records and Norman promotion brought to prominence
- The Church Calendar — how the Church fixes and keeps a saint’s feast such as the 1 March commemoration of David
References
- Evans, J. Wyn, and Jonathan M. Wooding, eds. St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2007.
- Sharpe, Richard. “Which text is Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David?” In Evans and Wooding, eds., St David of Wales. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007.
- Sharpe, Richard, and John Reuben Davies. “Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David.” In Evans and Wooding, eds., St David of Wales. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007.
- James, J. W., ed. and trans. Rhigyfarch’s Life of St David. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1967.
- Evans, D. Simon, ed. and trans. The Welsh Life of St David (Buchedd Dewi). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1988.
- Charles-Edwards, T. M. Wales and the Britons 350–1064. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Bowen, E. G. The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales. 2nd ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1956.