Saint Valentine

Feast Day: 14th February

Virtue: Charity

Valentine was a Roman priest and may have been a Bishop. Together with St Marius and

his family, Valentine assisted the martyrs who suffered during the reign of Emperor Claudius in the third century.

In time, Valentine was arrested and placed in the custody of a judge who had a daughter who was blind. Valentine cured her blindness the judge and all his family became Christians.

Because of this Valentine was sent to the Prefect of Rome who commanded that the holy man should be beaten with clubs and afterwards beheaded. Valentine suffered martyrdom about the year 270.

Today it is the custom to send Valentines to those we love on the feast day of St Valentine. The origin of this custom is not known with certainty.

One explanation given is that the custom began during the Middle Ages because of the belief that birds begin to mate on February 14. Hence people began to send cards on this day. Since it was St Valentine’s feast day, his name came to be associated with the custom.

Saint David

Feast Day: 1st March

Virtue: Faith

St David was born in the year 500, the grandson of Ceredig ap Cunedda, King of Ceredigion. According to legend, his mother St Non gave birth to him on a Pembrokeshire clifftop during a fierce storm. The spot is marked by the ruins of Non’s Chapel, and a nearby holy well is said to have healing powers.

St David became a renowned preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, Brittany and southwest England – including, possibly, the abbey at Glastonbury. St David reputedly made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, from which he brought back a stone that now sits in an altar at St Davids Cathedral, built on the site of his original monastery.

St David and his monks followed a simple, austere life. They ploughed the fields by hand, rather than using oxen, and refrained from eating meat or drinking beer. St David himself was reputed to have consumed only leeks and water – which is perhaps why the leek became a national symbol of Wales.

The most famous miracle associated with St David took place when he was preaching to a large crowd in Llanddewi Brefi. When people at the back complained that they could not hear him, the ground on which he stood rose up to form a hill. A white dove, sent by God, settled on his shoulder.

St David died on 1 March – St David’s Day - in 589. He was buried at the site of , where his shrine was a popular place of pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages. His last words to his followers came from a sermon he gave on the previous Sunday: ‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.’ The phrase ‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd’ - ‘Do the little things in life’ - is still a well-known maxim in Wales.

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