Bishop_of_St_Davids

Bishop of St Davids

Bishop of St Davids

Welsh bishop

The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids.

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The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, founding St Davids Cathedral. The most recent former bishop of St Davids was Joanna Penberthy,[1] who retired on 31 July 2023. On 17 October 2023, Dorrien Davies, Archdeacon of Carmarthen, was elected to become the next Bishop;[2] the confirmation of his election (where he legally became Bishop) happened on 29 November 2023 and his episcopal consecration took place on 27 January 2024 at Bangor Cathedral.[3]

History

The history of the diocese of St Davids is traditionally traced to that saint in the latter half of the 6th century. Records of the history of the diocese before Norman times are very fragmentary, however, consisting of a few chance references in old chronicles, such as 'Annales Cambriae' and 'Brut y Tywysogion' (Rolls Series).

Originally corresponding with the boundaries of Dyfed (Demetia), St Davids eventually comprised all the country south of the River Dyfi and west of the English border, with the exception of the greater part of Glamorganshire, in all some 3,500 square miles (9,100 km2).

Claim of metropolitan status

The early ecclesiastical organisation of the Welsh church is unclear but scanty references reveal that some form of archbishopric definitely existed, with multiple bishops under the jurisdiction of a senior see. One of the earliest mentions of the religious community at St Davids Cathedral comes in the work of Asser who was trained there. In his Life of King Alfred c. 893 Asser clearly describes his kinsman, Nobis, also of St Davids, as Archbishop. In the Annales Cambriae, Elfodd is termed 'archbishop of the land of Gwynedd’ in his obit, under the year 809.[4]

Rhygyfarch's Life of Saint David (c. 1090) states Saint David was anointed as an archbishop by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a position confirmed at the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi by popular acclaim.

Then, blessed and extolled by the mouth of all, he is with the consent of all the bishops, kings, princes, nobles, and all grades of the whole Britannic race, made archbishop, and his monastery too is declared the metropolis of the whole country, so that whoever ruled it should be accounted archbishop.[5]

Rhygyfarch's claim may be dubious history, but there can be little doubt he was reflecting a pre-existing tradition. It is unclear when St Davids came definitely under the metropolitan jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but about 1115 King Henry I intruded a Norman into the see, Bernard, Bishop of St Davids, who prior to his ordination was confirmed by Canterbury, much to the disgust of the Brut y Tywysogyon which noted that Henry I 'made him bishop in Menevia in contempt of the clerics of the Britons’. Once in place Bernard became convinced that St Davids was a Metropolitan archbishopric (and thus of the same status as Canterbury). Bernard in the 1120s claimed metropolitan jurisdiction over Wales and presented his suit unsuccessfully before six successive popes. Pope Eugenius III was giving the case serious consideration, the issue was to be put to the synod summoned to meet at Rheims in March 1148, but the death of Bernard meant the case lapsed.[6] The idea of Archbishops in Wales was also reflected in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth. The claim was afterwards revived in the time of Gerald of Wales who pressed it vigorously. The failure of Gerald's campaign saw the claim lapse but it was revived by Owain Glyndŵr's plan for an independent Welsh Church. The idea was also revived in the Reformation: Bishop Richard Davies in the 'Address to the Welsh nation' prefixed to the translation into Welsh of the New Testament by him and William Salesbury referred to 'Archbishop David'. It was only in 1920 that an Archbishop of Wales was re-established.

Further history

The building of the present St Davids Cathedral was begun under Bishop Peter de Leia (1176–1198). In the troubled times of the Reformation the former bishop of St Davids, William Barlow (1536–1548), was a consecrator of Archbishop Matthew Parker in 1559.

At the English Reformation the See ceased to be in communion with Rome, but it continued as a See of the Church of England, and, since disestablishment, of the Church in Wales.

List of bishops

Pre-Reformation bishops

Accounts of the early incumbents on the list are conflicting.

Nominal archbishops

More information Pre-Reformation Bishops of St Davids Exerting Metropolitan Authority, From ...

Suffragan bishops

More information Pre-Reformation Bishops of St. Davids Suffragan to Canterbury, From ...

Bishops during the Reformation

More information Bishops of St Davids during the Reformation, From ...

Post-Reformation bishops

Bishops of the Church of England

More information Bishops of St Davids, From ...

Bishops of the disestablished Church in Wales

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Assistant bishops

Prior to serving as Bishop diocesan, Ivor Rees was appointed Assistant Bishop of St Davids and Archdeacon of St Davids in 1988, in order to assist Noakes, by then both diocesan Bishop of St Davids and Archbishop of Wales.[23] Rees was elected diocesan bishop after Noakes' retirement.

References

  1. [1]
    "Canon Joanna Penberthy elected Wales' first woman bishop". BBC News. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  2. [2]
    "New Bishop of St Davids elected". Church in Wales. 17 October 2023. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  3. [3]
    "New Bishop of St Davids consecrated". Church in Wales. 27 January 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  4. [4]
    J. Wyn Evans, 'David (d. 589/601)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  5. [5]
    Rhygyvarch's Life of St David. A.W. Wade-Evans's (Ed.) sections, 48, 53
  6. [6]
    David Walker, 'Bernard (d. 1148)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  7. [7]
    Annals of Wales (B text), p. 10.
  8. [8]
    Hardy, T. Duffus. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae; or, a Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales, and of the Chief Officers in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge from the Earliest Times to the Year MDCCXV, Corrected and Continued to the Present Time, Vol. I, "St. David's". Oxford Univ. Press, 1854. Accessed 18 February 2013.
  9. [9]
    St Davids Cathedral: "Past Bishops & Deans of St Davids". Accessed 16 March 2010.
  10. [10]
    "Historical Successions: St. Davids". Crockford's Clerical Directory. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  11. [11]
    1446, Common Pleas records; 6th entry (starting Thomas Ive), on line 4 in http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no740/bCP40no740dorses/IMG_2043.htm
  12. [12]
    Fryde et al. (1986), pp. 297–298
  13. [13]
    Fryde et al. (1986), p. 298
  14. [14]
    Plant, David (2002). "Episcopalians". BCW Project. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  15. [15]
    King, Peter (July 1968). "The Episcopate during the Civil Wars, 1642-1649". The English Historical Review. 83 (328). Oxford University Press: 523–537. doi:10.1093/ehr/lxxxiii.cccxxviii.523. JSTOR 564164.
  16. [16]
    Fryde et al. (1986), pp. 298–299
  17. [17]
    19th-Century Bishops of the Church of England Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 18 March 2010.
  18. [18]
    Shipmate Bishop Ivor Rees Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. Royal Naval Association Gallery. Retrieved on 18 March 2010.
  19. [19]
    Church in Wales — Election of Wales’ first woman bishop is confirmed Archived 2017-01-06 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed 5 January 2017)
  20. [20]
    "New Bishop of St Davids elected". churchinwales.org.uk. The Church in Wales. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  21. [21]
    "Bishop of St Davids to retire". Church in Wales. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  22. [22]
    Fryde et al. (1986), p. 299
  23. [23]
    "New Welsh bishop". Church Times. No. 6534. 25 March 1988. p. 4. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 22 February 2022 – via UK Press Online archives.

Bibliography

Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
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