Celebrate St David 900

This year St Davids Cathedral is marking a very special anniversary. It is 900 years since it was granted a privilege from the Pope that two pilgrimages to the Cathedral were equal to one to Rome. St David was recognised as an “international saint”.

As part of St David 900, a series of both television and radio programmes is being broadcast between now and Easter, featuring the Cathedral and also other places which had significance for St David.

The 27 programmes include prayers and reflections by the Dean of St Davids, Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, from Jerusalem, a pilgrimage with the BBC Songs of Praise presenter Katherine Jenkins and an Easter service with the Archbishop of Wales.

Dean Sarah says, “900 years of international recognition – of St David himself, and of the value of pilgrimage to his home – is a journey to celebrate in itself. These programmes enable us to share more widely the wonderful story of St David and invite people to travel with us on our continuing pilgrimage of faith. They have been a joy to record and I hope our reflections, prayers and praise will inspire people to follow Dewi in his instruction to ‘be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things’”.

A full list of the programmes follows

BBC One SONGS OF PRAISE

Sunday 26 February, 13.15

St Davids Pilgrimages

Katherine Jenkins joins pilgrims following the ancient trail to St Davids Cathedral. Katherine meets Janet Ingram, who has been leading pilgrimages along the coastline of Wales for more than a decade, and finds out how the diocese is celebrating 900 years since the route was officially recognised by Pope Callixtus II in 1123. The group stops at places of significance to Wales’s patron saint, including the well where David was baptised as a baby. Includes hymns from St Davids Cathedral.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jp1c

ITV WALES - COAST AND COUNTRY

Friday 10 March, 19.30

Presenter Ruth Dodsworth visits St Davids Cathedral, its historic library and its new community garden. She meets the Dean, Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, the librarian Mari James and pilgrimage officer Janet Ingram, as well as volunteers at the Erw Dewi garden.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY: BBC Radio 4, 5.43am

St David 900: A Saint for Today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jchm

Join in the daily reflection and prayer.

25 February - from Jerusalem with Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral

27 February - from Brittany with Canon Edwin Counsell, who leads the Glamorgan Heritage Coast Ministry Area for the Church in Wales.

28 February - with the Revd Delyth Liddell, Coordinating Chaplain at Cardiff University.

1 March - from Rome with Fr Matthew Roche-Saunders, Catholic Priest at Welsh Martyrs Church in Aberystwyth.

2 March - from Llandewi Brefi with Jonathan Thomas, Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Abergavenny.

3 March - from St Davids with Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral

SUNDAY WORSHIP: BBC Radio 4, 8.10am

26 February – Sunday Worship is presented from Jerusalem by the Dean of St Davids, Sarah Rowland-Jones, featuring reflections from contemporary Welsh pilgrims in Jerusalem, Rome and Brittany.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnds

DAILY SERVICE: BBC Radio 4 Longwave

3 April, 9.45am - led from Jerusalem by the Dean of St Davids

CHORAL EVENSONG: BBC Radio 3

Join Choral Evensong from St Davids Cathedral on St David’s Day.

March 1, 4pm, repeated Sunday March 5 at 3pm.

The service includes the premiere of Alan Llewelyn Thomas’ responses as well as Oliver Tarney’s ‘Give us the wings of faith’, commissioned for the St Davids Cathedral Festival in 2022.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jcv7

CELEBRATION: BBC Radio Wales

On February 26, the Dean of St Davids, Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, leads a service of worship about St David, and how having purpose is a reason to ‘be joyful’, as he taught. Further Celebration programmes on the six following Sundays through to Easter consider other reasons that we can learn from Dewi for being joyful. They culminate with an Easter Day service led by the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, from St Deiniol's Cathedral, Bangor. Tune it at 7.30am or 19.28.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079fvx/broadcasts/upcoming

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: BBC Radio Wales

Discussion and reflection on St David and pilgrimage, every Sunday through to Easter, starting on 26 February, at 9am, repeated the following Tuesday 5.30am

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jhlf

WEEKEND WORD: BBC Radio Wales

7 April 7.25am – a Good Friday reflection by the Dean of St Davids.