The Holy Shrines of Glastonbury in Somerset, Part 6
By David Nash Ford

BONES
FROM WALES
Supposedly Translated to Glastonbury

Glastonbury has also tried to claim the bones of two major Welsh saints. St. David, it was asserted, had been translated from St. Davids Cathedral to Glastonbury in AD 962, when the tiny city had been devastated by Saxon invasions. A noble matron named Aelswitha brought his bones to Somerset for safekeeping. The story was always unconvincing and the relics at St. Davids gained widespread approval, especially from Rome. St. Illtud of Llantwit Major Priory was supposedly acquired in a similar manner but, again, the claim appears to have never caught on.