GERALD MORGAN

In Pursuit of Saint David

Patron Saint of Wales

A Digest of Rhygyfarch's Life of ST David

33 - 41) David performed a host of miracles. He prayed for a spring to give water to the monastery, and for wine for mass. He obtained another spring for a farmer whose land was dry. His follower Aidan saved the oxen and cart which had fallen into the sea, before he went to Ireland to establish a monastery there. When Aidan heard that two of David's servants were planning to poison him, he warned him by supernatural means. David gave some of the food to animals, which died, but he ate some himself without difficulty. He gave his own horse to the Irish visitor Bairre to return to Ireland: he rode it over the waves, meeting Saint Brendan on the back of a whale before reaching the island. David saved the life of his follower Modomnoc when he had been attacked.