How the first Welsh Bible finally came to Wales
Mari James, St Davids Cathedral Library Development Officer, tells the story of how a Welsh Bible from the year of the Spanish Armada came to Wales for the first time.
June and July 2025 was a remarkable time in St Davids Cathedral. We have long been members of the community of cathedral libraries and collections (CALCA) across UK and Ireland. They were very supportive to us when we were reviving our cathedral library a few years ago. So we were pleased to host CALCA’s three-day conference when first held in Wales.
Themes in the conference included the history and development of the first Bibles in Welsh and in Irish. It can be difficult and expensive to loan rare books between institutions – and we do not have the funds of the big museums. But it was really uplifting and supportive to work with Westminster Abbey.
The Westminster Abbey Bible was given to their Library in November 1588 by Revd William Morgan. Legislation passed under Elizabeth I had given orders for “a Bible in Welsh in every village in Wales”. The printing had to be done in London. To oversee this, William Morgan stayed with his friend from St John’s Cambridge and north Wales, Gabriel Goodman, who had become Dean of Westminster Abbey.
It was a turbulent time with the invading Spanish Armada threatening to come back the next spring. So William Morgan would not have known for sure that the Welsh Bibles would have got to every village in Wales. By giving a copy to Westminster Abbey Library, he ensured that one copy, at least, would be cared for securely and professionally.
That Library is also a member of CALCA and confirmed they still had William Morgan’s Bible safe and sound. It also became clear that, before St Davids Cathedral, no-one in Wales had asked to borrow it! Although he had wanted it to be lodged in Westminster Abbey Library, we don’t think William Morgan would have minded it being publicly displayed in Wales over 400 years later.
After the June conference, and throughout July, the 1588 Bible was publicly displayed in the Cathedral. Hundreds of people came to see it and join in the various tours and talks we held. Over a million people around the world also saw it on broadcasts and websites.
Equally important is the research the Library teams in St Davids and Westminster are now undertaking. First results on this will be reported in a Cathedral presentation on Thursday 9th October, for which tickets are available online via www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk/discover/library.
More information from: Library@StDavidsCathedral.org.uk