An Ecclesiastical Identity in the Making: the Medieval Cathedral and Bishopric of St David's (Wales)

This article discusses the repeated attempts made by churchmen in medieval Wales to elevate the bishopric of St David’s to metropolitan status. Drawing on often dubious “historical” evidence and an alleged precedent, several churchmen set about creating a tradition of St David’s distant past as archbishopric. The focus is on the cleric Giraldus Cambrensis, keen if ultimately unsuccessful aspirant to the bishopric, thanks to whose writings we know of the mechanisms used in the creation of an identity for St David’s, which plays in particular on the links of the site with Wales’s patron saint David. We moreover see the ways in which the various attempts at promoting St David’s over the centuries can be linked directly to the political situation in Wales in each case.