Saint Brigid

Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland ( ga, Naomh Bríd; la, Brigida; 525) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies, she was an abbess who founded several convents of nuns, most notably that of Kildare, which was one of the most important in Ireland. There are few historical facts about her, and early hagiographies are mainly anecdotes and miracle tales, some of which are rooted in pagan folklore.Farmer, David. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' (Fifth Edition, Revised). Oxford University Press, 2011. p.66 She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. The saint shares her name with a Celtic goddess. Brigid's feast day is 1 February, which was originally a pre-Christian festival called Imbolc, marking the beginning of spring. From 2023 it will be a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the first named after a woman. This feast day is shared by Dar Lugdach, who tradition says was her student, close companion, and successor.

Name

The saint has the same name as the goddess Brigid, derived from the Proto-Celtic "high, exalted" and ultimately originating with Proto-Indo-European . In Old Irish her name was spelled and pronounced . In Modern Irish she is also called . In Welsh she is called (sometimes mutated to ), such as in several places called Llansanffraid, "St. Brigit's church". She is also referred to as "the Mary of the Gael" and the "Mother Saint of Ireland".

Historicity

There is debate over whether Brigid was a real person. There are few historical facts about her, and early hagiographies "are mainly anecdotes and miracle stories, some of which are deeply rooted in Irish pagan folklore". She has the same name and many of the same attributes as the Celtic goddess Brigid, and there are many supernatural events and folk customs associated with her. Like the saint, the goddess in Irish myth is associated with poetry, healing, protection, smithcraft, and domestic animals, according to ''Sanas Cormaic'' and ''Lebor Gabála Érenn''. Furthermore, the saint's feast day falls on the Gaelic traditional festival of Imbolc. Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth, Legend & Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the Irish Folk Tradition''. Prentice-Hall Press, 1991
pp. 60–61
Some scholars suggest that the saint is a Christianisation of the goddess; others that she was a real person whose mythos took on the goddess's attributes. Medieval art historian Pamela Berger argues that Christian monks "took the ancient figure of the mother goddess and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart". Dáithí Ó hÓgáin and others suggest that the saint had been chief druid at the temple of the goddess Brigid, was responsible for converting it into a Christian monastery, and that after her death, the name and characteristics of the goddess became attached to the saint.Wright, Brian. ''Brigid: Goddess, Druidess and Saint''. The History Press, 2011. pp. 36–37. Noel Kissane, in a piece in ''The Catholic Historical Review'', argues she was a historical figure.

Life

Among the most ancient accounts of the life of St. Brigid are two Old-Irish hymns, the first by St. Ultan of Ardbraccan (Ultán of Árd-mBreccáin, died c. 657), ''Brigit Bé Bithmaith'' (Brigid ever-excellent woman) also known as "Ultan's hymn", and the second, also known as "Broccán's hymn", composed by St. Broccán Clóen (died c. 650) at the request of Ultan who was his tutor. Two early Lifes of St. Brigid in Hiberno-Latin prose, the ''Vita Sanctae Brigitae'' I and II, were also written in the 7th–8th centuries, the first one possibly authored by St. Aleran (died in 665) or Aileranus Sapiens, lector of Clonard, the second one authored by Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare. An Old-Irish prose Life, ''Bethu Brigte'', was composed in the 9th century. Several subsequent Latin and Irish Lives of the saint were composed. The ''Vita'' III, in hexameter verse, is sometimes attributed to St. Coelan of Inishcaltra of the 7th–8th centuries, but appears more likely to have been authored by St. Donatus, an Irish monk who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824; in Donatus' prologue, it is referred to the earlier Lives by St. Ultan (see before for his hymn), St. Aleran (see "Vita I") and an Anonymus. A 34-hexameter lyrical Latin poem about Saint Brigid had previously been composed by the Irish Roman cleric Colman c. 800.

Discussion on dates for the annals and the accuracy of dates relating to St. Brigid continues.

Early life

According to tradition, Brigid was born and raised in the year 451 in Faughart, just north of Dundalk in County Louth, Ireland. Because of the legendary quality of the earliest accounts of her life, there is debate among many secular scholars and Christians as to the authenticity of her biographies. Three biographies agree that her mother was Broicsech, a Christian Pict slave who had been baptised by Saint Patrick. They name her father as Dubhthach, a chieftain of Leinster.

The ''vitae'' says that Dubhthach's wife forced him to sell Brigid's mother to a druid when she became pregnant. Brigid herself was born into slavery. Legends of her early holiness include her vomiting when the druid tried to feed her, due to his impurity; a white cow with red ears appeared to sustain her instead.

As she grew older, Brigid was said to have performed miracles, including healing and feeding the poor. According to one tale, as a child, she once gave away her mother's entire store of butter. The butter was then replenished in answer to Brigid's prayers. Around the age of ten, she was returned as a household servant to her father, where her habit of charity led her to donate his belongings to anyone who asked.

In both of the earliest biographies, Dubhthach is portrayed as having been so annoyed with Brigid that he took her in a chariot to the King of Leinster to sell her. While Dubhthach was talking to the king, Brigid gave away his bejewelled sword to a beggar to barter it for food to feed his family. The king recognised her holiness and convinced Dubhthach to grant his daughter freedom.

Religious life

It is said that Brigid was "veiled" or received either by St. Mac Caill, Bishop of Cruachu Brig Ele ( Croghan, County Offaly), or by St. Mél of Ardagh at Mág Tulach (the present barony of Fartullagh, County Westmeath), who granted her abbatial powers. It is said that in about 468, she and a Bishop MacCaille followed St. Mél into the Kingdom of Tethbae, which was made up of parts of the modern counties Meath, Westmeath and Longford.

According to tradition, around 480 Brigid founded a monastery at Kildare (''Cill Dara'': "church of the oak"), on the site of a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid, served by a group of young women who tended an eternal flame. The site was under a large oak tree on the ridge of Drum Criadh.

Brigid, with an initial group of seven companions, is credited with organising communal consecrated religious life for women in Ireland. She founded two monastic institutions, one for men, and the other for women, and invited Conleth (Conláed), a hermit from Old Connell near Newbridge, to help her in Kildare as pastor of them. It has often been said that she gave canonical jurisdiction to Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but Archbishop Healy says that she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us that she chose Saint Conleth "to govern the church along with herself". For centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior general of the monasteries in Ireland. Her successors have always been accorded episcopal honour. Brigid's oratory at Kildare became a centre of religion and learning, and developed into a cathedral city.

Brigid is credited with founding a school of art, including metalwork and illumination, which Conleth oversaw. The Kildare scriptorium made the Book of Kildare, which drew high praise from Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), but disappeared during the Reformation. According to Giraldus, nothing that he ever saw was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".

According to the ''Trias Thaumaturga'' Brigid spent time in Connacht and founded many churches in the Diocese of Elphin. She is said to have visited Longford, Tipperary, Limerick, and South Leinster. Her friendship with Saint Patrick is noted in the following paragraph from the Book of Armagh: ''"inter sanctum Patricium Brigitanque Hibernesium columpnas amicitia caritatis inerat tanta, ut unum cor consiliumque haberent unum. Christus per illum illamque virtutes multas peregit"'' (''Between St. Patrick and St. Brigid, the pillars of the Irish people, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many great works.'') However, given that the 'historical' Brigid was born in 451 and Saint Patrick died circa 461, this is unlikely.

Death

The monk Ultan of Ardbraccan, who wrote a life of Brigid, recounts a story that Darlugdach, Brigid's favourite pupil, fell in love with a young man and, hoping to meet him, sneaked out of the bed in which she and Brigid were sleeping. However, recognising her spiritual peril, she prayed for guidance, then placed burning embers in her shoes and put them on. "Thus, by fire", Ultan wrote, "she put out fire, and by pain extinguished pain." She then returned to bed. Brigid feigned sleep but was aware of Darlugdach's departure. The next day, Darlugdach revealed to Brigid the experience of the night before. Brigid reassured her that she was "now safe from the fire of passion and the fire of hell hereafter" and then healed her student's feet. So devoted was the student to her teacher that when Brigid lay dying Darlugdach expressed the wish to die with her, but Brigid replied that Darlugdach should die on the anniversary of her (Brigid's) death.

St. Brigid is said to have been given the last rites by Saint Ninnidh of the Pure Hand when she was dying. Afterward, he reportedly had his right hand encased in metal so that it would never be defiled, and became known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand". Tradition says she died at Kildare on 1 February 525.

Upon St. Brigid's death, Darlugdach became the second abbess of Kildare. Brigid's prediction has traditionally been considered to have been realised in as much as the Catholic Church records Darlugdach's date of death as 522 and Brigid's as 521 and has assigned 1 February as the feast day of both saints. (The name Darlugdach (also spelled Dar Lugdach, Dar Lugdacha, or Dar Lughdacha) means "daughter of the god Lugh".)

Miracles associated with Brigid

Brigid is celebrated for her generosity to the poor. In her case, most of the miracles associated with her relate to healing and household tasks usually attributed to women.

*After Brigid promised God a life of chastity, her brothers were annoyed at the loss of a bride price. When she was outside carrying a load past a group of poor people, some began to laugh at her. A man named Bacene said to her, "The beautiful eye which is in your head will be betrothed to a man though you like it or not." In response, Brigid thrust her finger in her eye and said, "Here is that beautiful eye for you. I deem it unlikely that anyone will ask you for a blind girl." Her brothers tried to save her and wash away the blood from her wound, but there was no water to be found. Brigid said to them, "Put my staff about this sod in front of you", and after they did, a stream came forth from the ground. Then she said to Bacene, "Soon your two eyes will burst in your head", and it happened as she said.
*Brigid, who had a reputation as an expert dairywoman and brewer, was reputed to turn water into beer.
*In one story, Brigid protected a woman from a nobleman who had entrusted a silver brooch to the woman for safekeeping but then secretly had thrown it into the sea. He charged her with stealing it, knowing that he could take her as a slave if a judge ruled in his favour. The woman fled and sought refuge with Brigid's community. By chance, one of her fishermen hauled in a fish which, when cut open, proved to have swallowed the brooch. The nobleman freed the woman, confessed his sin, and bowed in submission to Brigid. A similar story is told of Saint Mungo.
*On an occasion when Brigid was travelling to see a doctor for a headache, she stayed at the house of a Leinster couple who had two mute daughters. The daughters were travelling with Brigid when her horse startled, causing her to fall and graze her head on a stone. A touch of Brigid's blood healed the girls of their muteness.
*One of the more commonly told stories is of Brigid asking the King of Leinster for land. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect spot for a convent. It was beside a forest where the members could collect firewood and berries, there was a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed and asked God to soften the king's heart. Then she smiled at the king and said, "Will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?" The king thought that she was joking and agreed. She told four of her sisters to take up the cloak, but instead of laying it flat on the turf, each sister, with face turned to a different point of the compass, began to run swiftly, the cloth growing in all directions. The cloak began to cover many acres of land. "Oh, Brigid!" said the frightened king, "what are you about?" "I am, or rather my cloak is about covering your whole province to punish you for your stinginess to the poor." "Call your maidens back. I will give you a decent plot of ground." The saint was persuaded, and if the king held his purse-strings tight in the future, she had only to allude to her cloak to bring him to reason. Soon afterward, the king became a Christian, began to help the poor, and commissioned the building of the convent. Legend has it, the convent was known for making jam from the local blueberries which were sought for all over Ireland. A new tradition is to eat jam on 1 February in honour of this miracle.
*She is associated with the preservation of a nun's chastity in unusual circumstances. Liam de Paor (1993) and Connolly & Picard (1987), in their complete translations of Cogitosus, give substantially the same translation of the account of Brigid's ministry to a nun who had failed to keep her vow of chastity, and become pregnant. In the 1987 translation: "A certain woman who had taken the vow of chastity fell, through the youthful desire of pleasure and her womb swelled with child. Brigid, exercising the most potent strength of her ineffable faith, blessed her, causing the child to disappear, without coming to birth, and without pain. She faithfully returned the woman to health and to penance." The Brigid Alliance, an American NGO that assists people seeking abortions, was named after St. Brigid, in reference to this miracle.
*The prayers of Saint Brigid were said to still the wind and the rain.
*When Brigid was of marital age, a man by the name of Dubthach maccu Lugair came to woo her. Since Brigid had offered her virginity to God, she told the man that she could not accept him but that he should go to the woods behind his house where he would find a beautiful maiden to marry. Everything that he said to the maiden's parents would be pleasing to them. The man followed her instructions and it was as she said.
*When on the bank of the River Inny, Brigid was given a gift of apples and sweet sloes. She later entered a house where many lepers begged her for these apples, which she offered willingly. The woman who had given the gift to Brigid was angered by this, saying that she had not given the gift to the lepers. Brigid was angry at the nun for withholding from the lepers and cursed her trees so they would no longer bear fruit. Yet another woman also gave Brigid the same gift, and again Brigid gave them to begging lepers. This woman asked that she and her garden be blessed. Brigid then said that a large tree in the virgin's garden would have twofold fruit from its offshoots, and this was done.

Veneration

Brigid is said to have been buried at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb raised over her "adorned with gems and precious stones and crowns of gold and silver". Over the years her shrine became an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, 1 February. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, Brigid's purported relics were taken to Downpatrick and reburied in the tomb of St. Patrick and St. Columba. The relics of the three saints were discovered in 1185, and on 9 June of the following year John de Courcy had their remains solemnly transferred and reburied in Down Cathedral.

Relics

St. Brigid's relics, together with the ones of St. Patrick and St. Columba, remained in Downpatrick Cathedral until 1538, when the relics of the saints were desecrated and destroyed during the deputyship of Lord Grey, excepting Brigid's head which was saved by some of the clergies who took it to the Franciscan monastery of Neustadt, in Austria. In 1587 it was presented to the church of the Society of Jesus in Lisbon by Emperor Rudolph II, that is the Igreja de São Roque (Church of St Roch), where a frontal part of her skull is still venerated. However, an occipital part of the skull could already have reached Portugal in the 13th century, preserved in the Igreja São João Batista (Church of St. John the Baptist), on the Lumiar (near Lisbon Airport), where it is venerated on 2 February (not 1 February, as in Ireland). According to the local tradition of the latter church, St. Brigid's head would have been carried to King Dinis of Portugal in 1283 by three Irish knights travelling to the Aragonese Crusade. A commemorative inscription on the northern facade of the church, in 16th-century characters, reads: "Here in these three tombs lie the three Irish knights who brought the head of St. Brigid, Virgin, a native of Ireland, whose relic is preserved in this chapel. In memory of which, the officials of the Altar of the same Saint caused this to be done in January AD 1283." It is in fact only from the mid-16th century onwards that this church assumed the invocation of Saint Brígida, when a new side chapel was built and dedicated to her.

In 1884, Francis Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of Sydney, obtained a relic of the saint's tooth from
the parochial church of St. Martin of Tours in Cologne in the German Empire and gave it to the Brigidine Sisters in Melbourne. Cardinal Moran wrote about the circumstances in which he obtained the tooth in a letter to the Rev. Mother of this Convent dated 13 March 1906:

In 1905, Sister Mary Agnes of the Dundalk Convent of Mercy took a purported fragment of the skull to St. Bridget's Church in Kilcurry. In 1928, Fathers Timothy Traynor and James McCarroll requested another fragment for St. Brigid's Church in Killester, a request granted by the Bishop of Lisbon, António Mendes Belo.

The city of Armagh had several associations with St. Brigid. In the twelfth century, the city had two crosses dedicated to Brigid, though, according to the ''Monasticon Hibernicum'', purported relics of the saint reposing in Armagh were lost in an accidental fire in 1179. In the seventeenth century, Armagh also had a street named Brigid located near Brigid's church in the area called "Brigid's Ward."

The Old Saint Peter's Church, Strasbourg contains also (unspecified) relics of St. Brigid, brought by the canons of St. Michael in 1398 when they were forced to leave their submerged abbey of Honau-Rheinau, itself founded by Irish monks.

Iconography

In liturgical iconography and statuary Saint Brigid is often depicted holding a reed cross, a crozier of the sort used by abbots, and a lamp. Early hagiographers portray Brigid's life and ministry as touched with fire. According to Patrick Weston Joyce, tradition holds that nuns at her monastery kept an eternal flame burning there. Leitmotifs, some of them borrowed from the apocrypha such as the story where she hangs her cloak on a sunbeam, are associated with the wonder tales of her hagiography and folklore. Cogitosus' circa 650 ''Vita Sanctae Brigidae'' portrays Brigid as having the power to multiply such things as butter, bacon, and milk, to bestow sheep and cattle, and to control the weather.

Plant motifs associated with St. Brigid include the white ''Lilium candidum'' popularly known since medieval times as the Madonna Lily for its association with the Virgin Mary, and the Windflower ''Anemone coronaria'', called the "Brigid anemone" since the early 19th century. Kildare, the church of the oak ''Quercus petraea'', is associated with a tree sacred to the druids. The colour associated with Brigid is white, worn not only by the Kildare United Irishmen during the 1798 rebellion but also by Kildare sports teams in more recent times.

Placenames

Ireland

Kilbride ("Church of Brigid") is one of Ireland's most widely found placenames, there are 43 Kilbrides located in 19 of Ireland's 32 counties: Antrim (2), Carlow, Cavan, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny (3), Laois, Longford, Louth, Mayo (5), Meath (4), Offaly (4), Roscommon (2), Waterford, Westmeath (2), Wexford (4), and Wicklow (8) as well as two Kilbreedys in Tipperary, Kilbreedia and Toberbreeda in Clare, Toberbreedia in Kilkenny, Brideswell Commons in Dublin, Bridestown and Templebreedy in Cork and Rathbride and Brideschurch in Kildare. A number of placenames are derived from ''Cnoic Bhríde'' ("Brigid's Hill"), such as Knockbridge in Louth and Knockbride in Cavan.

Wales

There are many traditions associating the saint with Wales, with dedications and folklore found across the country. As such, villages are often named for either a church or "Llan" associated with Bridget. These include the village, castle and parish of St Brides in Pembrokeshire (near St Brides Bay), the churches and villages of St. Brides-super-Ely and St Brides Major in the Vale of Glamorgan, the church and village of St. Brides Netherwent in Monmouthshire and the church of St Brides, in Newport, the village of Llansanffraid Glan Conwy in Conwy, Llansantffraid in Ceredigion, and the villages of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain and Llansantffraed in Powys.

Scotland

In Scotland, East Kilbride and West Kilbride are called after Brigid. Lhanbryde, near Elgin, Scotland is thought to be Pictish for "Church of Brigid". In Toryglen, on Glasgow's southside, there is a Chapel and a Primary School named for St. Brigid; the stained glass windows of the chapel depict St. Brigid's cross.

England

In Fleet Street, City of London stands St Bride's Church, substantially rebuilt since its foundation in the 600s (7th century).

Isle of Man

In the Isle of Man, where the first name Breeshey, the Manx form of the name is common, the parish of Bride is named after the saint.

Outside the Islands of the North Alantic

* In the United States, in Marshall County, Kansas, is the unincorporated community (or township) St. Bridget, described by some accounts as an extinct town.
* St. Bride's, Newfoundland and Labrador, at the southwest tip of the Avalon Peninsula, is named for St. Brigid, reflecting historical ties to southeastern Ireland
* St. Brigid Island in Antarctica is named after Brigid of Kildare.

Biddy's Day Festival, Killorglin

The Biddy is honoured every year at the weekend closest to the feast day of St. Brigid, 1 February in the mid-Kerry region, with Biddy groups visiting rural and public houses. They carry a hay-stuffed ''Brídeóg'' doll with them to ensure evil spirits are kept away from humans and animals for the coming year. The Biddy heritage is a mixture of Christianity (St. Bridgid) and ancient Celtic traditions (Imbolc). Imbolc is one of the four Celtic festivals, along with Lá Bealtaine (Mayday), Lughnasa (1 August), and Samhain (1 November).
Traditionally, a visit from the Biddy guaranteed good luck, fertility, prosperity and to not receive a visit was considered a slight. In 2017 a festival was created in Killorglin, Co.Kerry to celebrate the age-old Biddy tradition. The highlights of the festival are the Torchlight Parade of the Biddys, Traditional Irish music sessions, and the King of the Biddies competition.

Other

St. Brigid's popularity made the name Brigid (or its variants such as Brigitte, Bridie, and Bree) popular in Ireland over the centuries. One writer noted that at one time in history "every Irish family had a Patrick and a Brigid". In the nineteenth century as many Irish women emigrated to England seeking jobs as housemaids, the name Brigid became virtually synonymous with the word "woman".

Judy Chicago's epic feminist artwork ''The Dinner Party'' features a place setting for Saint Brigid on the triangular table's second wing, designated for iconographic women from the beginnings of Christianity to the Reformation.

In Haitian Vodou, Saint Brigid (along with the goddess Brigid and Mary Magdalene) is worshipped as the death loa Maman Brigitte, the consort of Baron Samedi.

Brigid is honored on the calendars of the Church of England and Episcopal Church on 1 February.

Links with Glastonbury

St. Brigid has long been linked to Glastonbury. Sites that depict her include Glastonbury Tor, where a stone carving of her milking a cow can be seen above one side of the entrance. She also appears in a fresco painting that adorns the interior of St. Patrick's Chapel on the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey depicting the saint with a spindle, a bowl of fire, and a cow in the background.

It is also documented by William of Malmesbury that ‘Wherefore the report is extremely prevalent that both Saint Indract and Saint Brigid, no mean inhabitants of Ireland, formerly came over to this spot. Whether Brigid returned home or died at Glastonbury is not sufficiently ascertained, though she left here some of her ornaments; that is to say, her necklace, bag, and implements for embroidering, which are yet shown in memory of her sanctity, and are efficacious in curing divers diseases.’

The Benedictine Monk John of Glastonbury wrote in the mid-fourteenth century that the chapel which was excavated in Beckery was named after her; 'Saint Brigid made a stay of several years on an island near Glastonbury, called Bekery or Little Ireland, where there was an oratory consecrated in honour of Saint Mary Magdalene. She left there certain signs of her presence—her wallet, collar, bell, and weaving implements, which are exhibited and honoured there because of her holy memory—and she returned to Ireland, where, not much later, she rested in the Lord and was buried in the city of Down. The chapel on that island is now dedicated in honour of Saint Brigid; on its south side there is an opening through which, according to the belief of the common folk, anyone who passes will receive forgiveness of all his sins.’

Brides Mound in Beckery is also linked to St. Bridgid and in 2004 'Brigadine sisters, Mary and Rita Minehan, bring the perpetual Brigid flame (restored in 1993) from Solas Bhrde, in Kildare, during a Glastonbury Goddess Conference ceremony on Bride's Mound.'

See also

* Catholic Church in Ireland
* St. Bride's Church
* St. Brides Bay

Notes

Further reading

*

De Blacam, Hugh. "Saint Brigid: The Mary Of The Gael", ''The Saints of Ireland: The Life-Stories of SS. Brigid and Columcille'', The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brigid Of Kildare
451 births
525 deaths
5th-century Irish nuns
5th-century Christian saints
5th-century Irish abbots
6th-century Irish nuns
6th-century Irish abbots
Female saints of medieval Ireland
Irish Roman Catholic abbesses
Late Ancient Christian female saints
Medieval saints of Leinster
People whose existence is disputed
Anglican saints