Preface

Summary

This volume in the long-established and distinguished series Studies in Celtic History is the fruit of a collaboration between two institutions linked by nearly two centuries of history: the Cathedral of St David and the University of Wales Lampeter (founded in 1822 as St David's College Lampeter, by Thomas Burgess, bishop of St Davids). To mark 175 years since the opening of the college, in 1827, and to commemorate the fourteenth centenary of the death of St David, a slightly less-securely dated event, the Centre for the Study of Religion in Celtic Societies (CSRCS) hosted a four-day conference in Lampeter, with a day excursion to St Davids.

The idea for the present volume arose from that conference, though only twelve of the chapters of this volume were presentations on the occasion. The intent of the editors, respectively the Dean of St Davids and the Director of CSRCS, was to produce a volume which brought together studies of the key questions for research that emerged from that conference. These had been, in particular, the need for renewed attention to be paid to the Vespasian recension of the Vita S. Dauid by Rhygyfarch, which it was suspected was closer to the author's original work than the shorter recension edited by J.W. James; new evidence which had emerged concerning the relics of St David preserved in the cathedral; a wealth of recent research into aspects of the cult of St David pursued in particular through the study of dedications, liturgical texts, and other neglected sources.