CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. V. — S. DAVID. 157 



David was the son of Sandde, or Xantus, King of Ceretica, a 

 province of South Wales. Thirty years before his birth S. Patrick 

 passed through the country, and, being struck with the beauty of 

 the vale of Ehos, or Rosina, the subsequent site of David's 

 monastery, he determined to spend the rest of his days there ; but 

 supernatural intimation was given to him that GoD had designed 

 that spot, not for him, but for an illustrious saint not yet born. 

 Whatever we may think of this alleged prophecy, it was so 

 commonly believed in the middle ages that reference to it was 

 made in the Collect for S. David's day in the Sarum Missal. 

 David's mother, Non or Nonnita by name, is usually designated 

 a nun ; but in the oldest and most consistent life of the saint, and 

 also in the life given by Colgan, she is spoken of as a lovely and 

 beautiful girl, whom the chieftain met as he journeyed into Demetia, 

 and of whom, he became passionately enamoured. She seems to 

 have been a woman of great Christian zeal, for there are four 

 religious edifices in Wales dedicated to her memory, all of which, 

 like her church in Cornwall, are situated in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of churches ascribed to her son. David spent his 

 early days in a place called in Welsh, "Henmenew," and in 

 Latin, " Vetus Menevia," and he was educated in the College of 

 S. Iltutus at Lantwit Major ; Samson, who afterwards occupied a 

 cell at no great distance from his abode in Cornwall, being one of 

 his fellow students. After his ordination he sought further in- 

 struction from Pawl Hen, or Paulinus,^vho at that time was in 

 high repute as a teacher of divinity at Ty-gwyn, or Whiteland, in 

 Carmarthenshire, His most intimate associates there were Teilo 

 and Padarn ; and when, after ten years sojourn, he left that j)lace, 

 he travelled about the country with those renowned men, uprooting 

 error, and sowing the good seed of the Word of GoD. Hence 

 those three fellow-labourers are called in the Triads "the three 

 blessed visitors of the Isle of Britain," because "they went a3 

 "guests to the houses of the noble, the plebeian, the native, and 

 " the stranger, without accepting either fee or reward, or Adctuals 

 "or drink, but what they did was to teach the faith in Christ to 

 " every one without pay or thanks. Besides which, they gave to the 

 " poor and needy gifts of their gold and silver, their raiment and 

 "provisions."^ It is said that they visited Jerusalem together, and 



• Myv. Arch., ii. 12, 61. 



