St. Eustasius, or Eustachius, Abbot............. 675
St. Gundleus, Confessor......................... 673
St. Mark, Bishop and Confessor.................. 675

30.
St. John Climacus, Abbot........................ 677
St. Zozimus, Bishop of Syracuse................. 681
St. Regulus, or Rieul........................... 681

31.
St. Benjamin, Deacon, Martyr.................... 691
St. Acacias, or Achates, Bishop of Antioch in
Asia Minor, Confessor......................... 683
St. Guy, Confessor.............................. 685

{491}

MARCH I.

SAINT DAVID, ARCHBISHOP,

PATRON OF WALES.

See his life by Giralduc Cambrensis, in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, t. 2;
also Doctor Brown Willis, and Wilkins, Conc. Britain. & Hibern. t. 1.

About the year 544.

ST. DAVID, in Welsh Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of Ceretice, now
Cardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and, being
ordained priest, retired into the Isle of Wight, and embraced an ascetic
life, under the direction of Paulinus, a learned and holy man, who had
been a disciple of St. Germanus of Auxerre. He is said by the sign of
the cross to have restored sight to his master, which he had lost by old
age, and excessive weeping in prayer. He studied a long time to prepare
himself for the functions of the holy ministry. At length, coming out of
his solitude, like the Baptist out of the desert, he preached the word
of eternal life to the Britons. He built a chapel at Glastenbury, a
place which had been consecrated to the divine worship by the first
apostles of this island. He founded twelve monasteries, the principal of
which was in the vale of Ross,[1] near Menevia, where he formed many
great pastors and eminent servants of God. By his rule he obliged all
his monks to assiduous manual labor in the spirit of penance: he allowed
them the use of no cattle to ease them at their work in tilling the
ground. They were never suffered to speak but on occasions of absolute
necessity, and they never ceased to pray, at least mentally, during
their labor. They returned late in the day to the monastery, to read,
write, and pray. Their food was only bread and vegetables, with a little
salt, and they never drank any thing better than a little milk mingled
with water. After their repast they spent three hours in prayer and
adoration; then took a little rest, rose at cock-crowing, and continued
in prayer till they went out to work. Their habit was of the skins of