Welsh Journals

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Life of the saint should be seen. It was written by Rhigyfarch, member of aprestigious native Welsh ecclesiastical family based at Llanbadam and St. David's.5 Despite frequent repetition of the claim, there is no evidence that David was canonized by Calixtus II in 1123; papal canonization was an infrequent and costly process.6 The oft repeated indulgence also said to have been issued by Calixtus Roma semel quantum dat bis Menevia tantum two journeys to St. David's equal to one to Rome was recorded as being in the cathedral archives at the time of Archbishop Pecham's Visitation of 1284, but was derived from the papal privilege of 1123 confirming the possessions of the see. Bishop Bernard, the first Norman bishop of St. David's (1115-1128) introduced many changes in the organization of the native Welsh church. But like the other Norman bishops in Wales he 'harnessed the legends and cults of the Welsh in the service of their ambitions and created a pact which would sustain those ambitions'.7 Revising Rhigyfarch's Life of St. David was part of Bernard's process of 'historical manipulation'. The new Norman marcher aristocracy of west Wales, who soon intermarried with Welsh families, also adopted David as their patron saint. It is David who is the particular champion of the Anglo-Welsh conquerors of Leinster, in the 12th century French poem Dermot and the Earl which glorifies that conquest.8 Even today the environs of St. David's preserve a remarkable ecclesiastical topography. There has been no modem, large-scale excavation on any of the early cemetery or chapel sites or the cathedral and its close, so most information comes from essentially antiquarian sources. Work on the early Christian archaeology of western Britain over the last 30 years or so provides a range of models with which to interpret this rich archaeological landscape.9 The site types, as far as we can perceive them cist cemeteries, holy wells, chapels, some associated with Early Christian Monuments (henceforth ECMs) are common in south-west and north- west Wales. But the persistence, the preservation and the development of earlier sites into the high Middle Ages in the St. David's area must have been partly created by, and in response to, the demand of pilgrims. In a symbiotic relationship local details were added to the various recensions of the saints' lives to explain and exploit the topographical associations with the traditions of St. David and his followers. The recognition of some earlier