Happy Saint David's Day... "and Saint David!"

Yesterday, March 1st was Saint David's Day. Saint David is the patron Saint of Wales. The United States Marines commemorate the annual tradition whereby the Marine Corps and the Royal Welch Fusiliers exchange the message “And St. David” in honor of the RWF regiment and the patron Saint of Wales.

At the turn of the last century (1901), British and American forces in China fought side by side with other nations in the "Boxer Rebellion" to defend the legation against the Boxers and managed to hold out until a relief column arrived. Historical Marine Corps notables such as Dan Daly and Smedley Butler took part in this famous battle.

"Brothers - in - Arms" 1st "Leff"tenant Paul Maugh, Royal Marines and 1st Lieutenant Paul McBride, US Marines. "Bootneck - Leatherneck" Exchange program, 1985... "Per Mare, Per Terram" (By Sea and By Land)... "Semper Fidelis" (Always Faithful).

It is widely regarded that British and American forces forged a close bond that continues today. John Philip Sousa even wrote a march, “The Royal Welch Fusiliers” in dedication to the RWF. 

Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was born in Caerfai, south west Wales into an aristocratic family. He was reportedly a scion of the royal house of Ceredigion, and founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire (Welsh: Sir Benfro) at the spot where St David's Cathedral stands today.

David's fame as a teacher and his asceticism spread among Celtic Christians, and he helped found about 12 monasteries. His foundation at Glyn Rhosyn became an important Christian shrine, and the most important centre in Wales. The date of Saint David's death is believed to be 1 March 589. His final words to the community of monks were: "Brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfil."

For centuries, 1 March has been a national festival. Saint David was recognised as a national patron saint in the 12th century at a peak time of Welsh resistance to the Normans. He was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1120. The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys noted how Welsh celebrations in London for Saint David's Day would spark wider counter-celebrations amongst their English neighbours: life-sized effigies of Welshmen were symbolically lynched, and by the 18th century the custom had arisen of confectioners producing "taffies"—gingerbread figures baked in the shape of a Welshman riding a goat—on Saint David's Day.

Unlike Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland, Saint David's Day is not a national holiday, though there is strong support for it becoming a bank holiday in Wales.

In the poem Armes Prydein (The Prophesy of Britain), composed in the early to mid-10th century, the anonymous author prophesies that the Cymry (the Welsh people) will unite and join an alliance of fellow-Celts to repel the Anglo-Saxons, under the banner of Saint David: A lluman glan Dewi a ddyrchafant ("And they will raise the pure banner of Dewi").

Although there were occasional Welsh uprisings in the Middle Ages, the country was briefly united by various Welsh princes before its conquest at different times, and it arguably had a very short period of independence during the rising of Owain Glynd?r, but Wales as a whole was never an independent kingdom for long. Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond, who was born in Pembroke Castle as a patrilineal descendant of the Tudor Dynasty of North Wales, became King Henry VII of England after his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, to end the Wars of the Roses.

Henry's green and white banner with a red dragon became a rallying point for Welsh patriotism with the memory of Saint David on his Feast Day. Henry was the first monarch of the House of Tudor, and during the reign of that dynasty the royal coat of arms included the Welsh Dragon, a reference to the monarch's origin. The banner from Henry's victory was not adopted as the official Flag of Wales until 1959. The flag of Saint David, however, a golden cross on a black background, was not part of the symbolism of House of Tudor.

About the author. Paul McBride is a former Marine Officer and the Founder and President of American Military Society Press. You can contact him at [email protected]