His Famous Life

Caernarfon Castle, May 2011

On Tuesday the first day of March in the grave
to die he went to lie.
There were on his grave, good end,
fine clergy singing a gloria,
angels of heaven on the bank of a stream
after his funeral.
The soul of a man who is buried
in the cemetery of David of Menevia
above all other land, it is not vain,
will not be condemned to the pit of hell;
no filthy devil will ever tread
on his land for all the world’s wealth.
 
If there were in a book of paper
every day as on a long summer’s day
one of the same nature as a public notary
with ink and steel-tipped pen
writing, it was profit,
his famous life,
hardly, however good he were,
would he ever manage to write
in three days and a full year
all the miracles which he performed.

from Mawl i Ddewi Sant: In praise of Saint David, c.1380-1400
by Iolo Goch (1320-1398), edited by Dafydd Johnston (b.1955)

O Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant David to be an apostle to the people of Wales, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: grant us, by his intercession, so to walk in that light; that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. - Divine Worship: The Missal.