lived a monastic life in convents for several years, at the age of 47 he received as a legacy the cowl of Symeon, and established his pillar 4 miles N. of Constantinople. The patriarch Gennadius ordained him presbyter against his will, standing at the foot of his column. Then the patriarch, by means of a ladder, administered the Eucharist, and received it in turn from the Stylite. He lived on his pillar for 33 years, and died at the age of 80. He was visited with reverence by kings and emperors as an oracle; but discouraged all who brought complaints against their bishops. Towards the end of his life, solicited eagerly by both sides, he took part in the dispute between the emperor Basiliscus, a Monophysite, and Acacius patriarch of Constantinople. Descending from his pillar, he appeared in the city, denounced Basiliscus, and inflamed the people with such zeal that Basiliscus published an orthodox edict. The following is his prayer before he began his life on the pillar: "I yield Thee glory, Jesus Christ my God, for all the blessings which Thou hast heaped upon me, and for the grace which Thou hast given me that I should embrace this manner of life. But Thou knowest that in ascending this pillar I lean on thee alone, and that to Thee alone I look for the happy issue of mine undertaking. Accept, then, my object; strengthen me that I finish this painful course; give me grace to end it in holiness." In his last will to his disciples, after commending them to the common Father of all, and to the Saviour Who died for them, Daniel bade them "hold fast humility, practise obedience, exercise hospitality, keep the fasts, observe the vigils, love poverty, and above all maintain charity, which is the first and great commandment; avoid the tares of the heretics; separate never from the church your mother: if you do these things your righteousness shall be perfect." Baronius places his death in A.D. 489. Vita S. Daniel, ap. Surium, ad diem ii. decemb. cap. xli. xlii. xliii.; Robertson, Ch. Hist. ii. 41-43, 274; Ceillier, x. 344, 403, 485. Baronius, ed. Theiner, vol. viii. ad an. 460, § 20; 464, § 2; 465, § 3, 12, 13; 476, § 48, 50, 51, 53; 489, § 4.
Dativus (3), celebrated senator, martyred under Diocletian Feb. 11, A.D. 304. In spite of orders to the contrary, a company of the faithful met in the town of Abitina, in the proconsulate of Africa, to celebrate Christian worship and communion, at the house of one Felix Octavius. Forty-nine men and women were surprised by the official and magistrates of the town. They marched cheerfully to their destination, chanting hymns and canticles, having at their head Dativus the senator and Saturninus the presbyter. They confessed Jesus Christ, were chained, and sent to Carthage. There the proconsul Anulinus examined them. Dativus, refusing to say who was the chief of their company, was tortured. As he lay under the iron, at a second examination, Dativus was accused by Fortunatianus, advocate, brother of the martyr, Victoria one of the arrested, of enticing her and other young girls to Abitina. Victoria, however, indignantly denied that she had gone there but of her own accord. The executioners continued tormenting Dativus, till the interior of his breast could be seen. He went on praying and begging Jesus Christ for patience. The proconsul, stopping the torture, asked him again if he had been present. "I was in the assembly," he answered, "and celebrated the Lord's Supper with the brethren." They again thrust the irons into his side; and Dativus, repeating his prayer, continued to say, "O Christ, I pray Thee let me not be confounded." And he added, "What have I done? Saturninus is our presbyter." Dativus was carried to gaol. Here he soon afterwards died. Many of his companions were also tortured, and most of them were starved to death in prison. Ruinart, Acta Sinc. Mart. p. 382; Ceillier, iii. 20, etc.; AA. SS. Bolland. Feb. ii. p. 513.
David (5), St. (Degui; Welsh, Dewi), the most eminent Welsh saint.
His Period.—The Annales Cambriae, our earliest authority for his existence, date his death A.D. 601; and one reading, which the Monumenta only gives in brackets, under A.D. 458, is: "St. Dewi nascitur anno tricesimo post discessum Patricii de Menevia" (M. H. B. 830, 831). Geoffrey of Monmouth dates his death A.D. 542, and William of Malmesbury A.D. 546. Ussher argues that he died A.D. 544, at the age of 82 (Brit. Eccl. Ant. Works, 1847; vi. 43, 44, Chron. Index, ad ann. 544); but Rice Rees, who has followed him in his computations, places his birth 20 years later, and fixes A.D. 566 as the last date possible for his death. The A.D. 601 of the Ann. Camb. is the date adopted by Haddan and Stubbs (Councils, i. 121, 143, 148), who remark that David would thus come into view just as the history of Wales emerges from the darkness that conceals it for a century after the departure of the Romans.
A résumé of authorities for his Life is given by Jones and Freeman (Hist. of St. David's, 240), and a full and careful list of all known materials, manuscript and printed, by Hardy (Descr. Catal. i. 766).
The Story of his Life.—The asserted facts of St. David's life, omitting such as are clearly legendary, meet with various degrees of credence from authors of repute. Rees, in his Essay on Welsh Saints, while rejecting several circumstances as manifestly fabulous or incredible, such as his going to Jerusalem to be consecrated, is disposed to accept enough to make a biographical narrative.
His father was (in medieval Latin) Xantus or Sanctus, prince of Keretica—i.e. modern Cardiganshire. David is said to have been educated first under St. Iltutus in his college (afterwards called from him Llanilltyd Fawr, or Lanwit Major), and subsequently in the college of Paulinus (a pupil of Germanus and one of the great teachers of the age), at Tygwyn ar Dâf (Rees, Welsh Saints, 178), or at Whitland in Carmarthenshire (Jones and Freeman); and here he spent ten years in the study of Holy Scripture. In course of time David became head of a society of his own, founding or restoring a monastery or college at a spot which Giraldus calls Vallis Rosina (derived, as is generally supposed, from a confusion between Rhos, a swamp, and Rhosyn, a rose), near Hen-Meneu, and this institution was subsequently named, out of respect to his
