Programme 6: Saints and Stones
Last updated: 03 December 2005
This BBC Wales series, narrated by Huw Edwards, looks at a county which, over centuries, has charmed generations of inhabitants and visitors alike.
This programme first broadcast Tuesday 1 March 2005 The final programme of the series visits St David's Cathedral, featuring the Dean of St Davids Cathedral, Wyn Evans and the Bishop, Carl Cooper.
Over the centuries, people have always come to St Davids. But far from the crowds that flock to the tiny city over the summer months, the early saints were attracted not by the beauty of the area but by its bareness. What they were seeking was hardship.
"There almost seems to be a palpable spiritual quality to this area that is easy to experience because it's very evident," says Bishop Carl Cooper. "There's always a connection between beauty and holiness and I think the beauty of this area speaks in its very self of God. The fact that St David himself blesses this area with his presence, with his teachings, with his ministry, gives that beauty an extra significance, certainly for us in Wales and indeed in the Christian church throughout the world.
"St David has become a figure that represents Welshness. Someone who brings Welsh people together in a unified way. And of course he is the great bishop, and the great monk and the great preacher and the great evangelist and so he's not just a figure who represents Welshness but somebody who represents Welsh Christianity and Welsh spirituality. So he is someone who unites us in a way that very little else does."
St Davids Cathedral is often admired for its stonework, and Dean Wyn Evans discusses the origins of the cathedral building, the wonderful stone that changes with the varying light of the day. It is the same stone as the nearby cliffs.
"The first thing these particular rocks signifies is the fact that they've been here such a very very long time," explains Dean Wyn Evans. "It puts every human achievement and endeavour into a huge perspective. The second thing is obviously this fantastic range of colours here from the sort of mud-coloured right through to these wild pinks and these purples."
In the time of David and his contemporaries this corner of Pembrokeshire was a place to be close to God, and landscape wasn't important. But St David's legacy is now as much a part of the landscape as the cliffs themselves.
Land of Dreams is an Element production for BBC Wales.