ST DAVID LEWIS AT ABERGAVENNY

As we continue our blogging trip in the footsteps of St David Lewis we come to Abergavenny. A pretty little market town, Abergavenny is the birthplace of St David Lewis and it has many associations with him. Today we will visit just a few of them and leave the rest until we can make a return blogging visit.

St David Lewis was born in Abergavenny in 1616. He was the son of a Catholic mother, Margaret Pritchard, and a Protestant father, Morgan Lewis. Whether through expediency or religious conviction, Morgan made certain that his son, David, was brought up as a Protestant. Strangely, Margaret and Morgan’s other eight children were brought up as Catholics! David, as a Protestant, would have been baptised in St Mary’s Priory Church and attended services there. The beautiful font in the Priory Church is thought to be the one in which David would have been baptised. While the base is more recent, the bowl, with its rope design decoration, dates from the 12th century. During restoration of the church in the late 1800s, this bowl was found buried in the churchyard. It is believed that it was buried there between 1649 and 1660. During those years, the Commonwealth period, neither the adherents of the Old Faith nor those who followed the new Established religion were having an easy time, nor was infant baptism permitted. As a young man, David spent some time in Paris. While there he converted to Catholicism. Around 1636, Morgan Lewis also converted to Catholicism.

David went to the English College in Rome, the training-ground of so many martyrs, and was ordained priest there on 20th July 1642. Following ordination, he decided to join the Society of Jesus. Eventually, Fr David Lewis S J, returned to his native Wales. Apart from a brief period in Rome, he spent the rest of his life ministering to the people of Monmouthshire. He would have traversed the Welsh hills and valleys on foot, and mostly under cover of darkness, to tend to the needs of the persecuted Catholics of the area. One of the places Fr Lewis was known to say Mass was at the home of Thomas Gunter, of Cross Street, Abergavenny, the Jesuit’s home town. Thomas Gunter and Fr David Lewis were relatives and Gunter had a secret chapel in his home. It was reported that more people attended Mass there in Gunter’s Chapel than went to the services at the Established church. In the early 1900s, during work on an old house in Cross Street, workmen discovered a secret room in the attic. On the walls were paintings and religious symbols, notably the Jesuit symbol, and an amazing fresco of the adoration of the Magi. The astonished workmen had stumbled upon Thomas Gunter’s secret attic chapel! The fresco was removed and, although in private hands for a number of years, it is now on display at Abergavenny Museum. The former Gunter Mansion, now a row of shops, is marked by a blue plaque stating that the Martyred Jesuit, St David Lewis, celebrated Mass in the secret chapel there.

During the anti-Catholic frenzy generated by the Popish Plot, fabricated by the lying Titus Oates, Catholics in general and Catholic priests in particular, were in even greater danger than usual. On 17th November 1678, armed dragoons arrived to arrest Fr David Lewis at Llantarnam. It was early on Sunday morning and the priest was preparing to celebrate Mass. He had been pursued by a false friend, John Arnold, and betrayed by a lapsed Catholic and former servant, William James. Fr Lewis was imprisoned in Monmouth Gaol until January 1679. He was then transferred to the new county Gaol at Usk. On 27th August 1679, Fr David Lewis was taken from Usk Gaol and executed for the crime of being a Catholic priest and saying Mass! He was canonised in October 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

The Catholic Church in Abergavenny possesses a small chalice which belonged to St David Lewis. They also have a fine collection of medieval vestments, some of which are thought to have been worn by the martyr.

ST DAVID LEWIS, PRAY FOR US.