Wednesday, March 01, 2006
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Saint David's Day

Today is the national holiday of Wales, St. David's Day, and also an opportunity to celebrate anyone else sharing his name. Although I don't exactly come from a background that practices any sort of veneration of saints (in fact, I vaguely recall a sermon or perhaps a Sunday school lesson in which the term "idolators" was repeatedly used to describe those of a Popish persuasion), I would hope that readers will at least consider honoring ME (if not any Saint David) in a manner appropriate for the day (especially since it's very close to being my half-birthday as well). Just in case you're not aware of what might be appropriate, I thought I'd provide a few details.

St. David is best known for, well, being the patron saint of Wales. According to legend, St. David instructed Welsh soldiers battling against the Saxons to wear leeks on their helmets so they could be easily identified. Whether this is true or not, the leek remains a national emblem of Wales, and Welsh citizens (supposedly) wear leeks on St. David's day. St. David is also known for the usual saintly activities (pilgrimages, establishing monasteries, denunciation of pelagianism). His most famous miracle occurred while he was preaching to a large crowd; he caused a hill to rise under him so that more people could see. This hill remains to this day (although the village is now perhaps better known for other things these days).

However, today is not strictly reserved for St. David; March first has plenty of other saintly commemorations (calendar; Catholic Forum lists many more including Herculanus [patron saint of enlarged sphincters I believe]):
St. Antonina, who derided heathen gods and was thus "variously tormented" then put in a cask and drowned
St. Herculanus (Perugia) who was beheaded by Goths, but 40 days later his head was rejoined to his body
Saints Swidbert and Albinus, who were all around good guys and had good names
260 martyrs in Rome, forced to dig sand by Claudius and then shot with arrows
And a bunch of other miscellaneous martyrs

The Welsh St. David is by no means the only saintly David. Of course the legendary giant-killer was the original St. David (or just "David"). But there are loads and loads more, all of whom seem to have been swept into sainthood by the giant broom of John Paul II: David Oghlou David (one of the Armenian martyrs of 1895), Toros Oghlou David (another Armenian martyr, 1895), David Galván-Bermudez (Mexican martyr, 1915), David Roldán-Lara (another Mexican martyr, 1926), David Uribe (yet another Mexican martyr, 1927), David Okelo (Ugandan martyr, 1918), Vicente Vilar David (Spanish martyr, 1937). Surely there are other St. Davids (saints David?) but I didn't come across them.

Other important events in history occurring on March 1 but not saintly or Davidly:
1692: Salem witch trials begin
1914: the Republic of China joined the Universal Postal Union
1941: Bulgaria joins the Axis
1954: Catherine Bach, actress who played "Daisy Duke" is born
Also 1954 (and surely not a coincidence), US hydrogen bomb tests in Bikini
1978: Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 1:17:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [2]  |