The Story of St. Brigid
Ffrom St. Brigid's Shrine Page
http://pantheon.nuit.ca/celtic/brigid.html
St. Brigid was born at Faughart near Dundalk in Co. Louth around 452.She was baptised by St Patrick. Her father was Dubhtach, a powerful pagan nobleman. Her mother was Brocassa. Some say she was a beautiful slave-girl in Dubhtach's household. Although her father selected a man of high rank to marry her, she preferred to follow the religious
way of life. She started the first official community of nuns in Ireland. She did not believe in locking herself away but travelled
the countryside helping the poor. Her most famous convent was set up in Kildare marked by a huge oak tree which inspired the name Kildare (Cill Dara) Church of the Oaks. She handed over her father's treasured sword to the poor. The convent dinners were given to those who needed it more than they did. There were lots of miracles attributed to her including the changing of water into beer and making lots of food out of little. It was said that her cows gave milk three times daily which is why she is the patron saint of dairying.
One legend states that she was the patron saint of the knights of chivalry who began the custom of calling the girls they
married their 'brides' after her.The tradition of St. Brigid's cross still remains to this day. The legend surrounding the cross was that the saint converted a pagan to on his death bed by plaiting the rushes on the floor into the shape of the Cross of Calvary. St. Brigid died in 525 and her feast day is on the 1st of February and is celebrated throughout Ireland.
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St Brigid ? Goddess or Saint?
mirrored from www.theword.ie/cms/publish/printer_28.shtml
February is the month in which Winter begins to lift. Crocuses begin to push up through the dank soil to herald the new season of Spring, the splash of colour suggesting that the earth is overjoyed as the cycle switches from survival to re-growth. It is also the month of St. Brigid, one of Ireland's earliest and best loved saints. Traditionally the Church has celebrated her feast day on the very first day of the month.
According to legend, this ancient saint was born in 452 A.D. in County Louth to Dubthach, a pagan chieftain and his Christian slave. Known also as "Mary of the Gael", Brigid has received a lot of scholarly attention in recent years and the ongoing debate over Brigid's identity as a goddess or a saint has reached no definitive conclusion and therefore continues to rage. Some commentators have cast doubt on the very existence of a historical St. Brigid, while others have concluded that Brigid was really a pagan goddess whom Christian hagiographers transformed into a national saint.
There is plenty of evidence that there was a goddess called Brigid in pre-Christian Ireland. An early definition of Brigid from Cormac's MacCuillenain's glossary, (a ninth century text) defines her thus: "Brigid; a learned woman, daughter of The Dagda, from whose name, among all the Irish, a goddess used to be called Brigid. Worshipped by poets, her sisters were also called Brigid; women of healing and woman of smithcraft." Comac MacCuillenain's Brigid may have been the goddess of the Brigantiae, one of the great Celtic tribes of Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe.
While it is undeniable that St. Brigid of Kildare absorbed many characteristics of the mythological Brigid, it is not necessary to deny the historical existence of the Christian saint in order to acknowledge the existence of a goddess Brigid in pre-Christian Ireland.
It is however impossible to reconstruct an accurate history of Brigid in her role as fifth century abbess of Kildare, due to the scant historical record. We do know that St. Brigid, the historical woman came from the Fotharit tribe of Leinster. She was reputed to have replaced a pagan sanctuary in Kildare, founding the first convent in Ireland sometime around 470A.D.
She built her monastery on the plains of Mag Liffe on the firm foundation of faith. It is the head of almost all the Irish Churches. There are three extant biographical works on the saint. The best known of which is Cogitosus's 'Life of Saint Brigid', which dates to the seventh century. It describes the activities of a Christian woman, called Brigid, who was abbess of a double monastery in Kildare in the fifth century.
According to the Life of St. Brigid, there were two separate communities in the Kildare monastery. The monks were ruled over by Bishop Conleth and the nuns were ruled over by the Abbess Brigid.
Those who would argue that the figure of St. Brigid was invented by the Church using the elements of the more ancient pagan goddess Brigid, point to the folklore/'fertility goddess' aspects in the various miracles associated with St. Brigid. For instance in some of the miracles attributed in the following passage:
'The garment thrown over a sunbeam'
'Of the dry harvesting on a rainy day'
'Of the cow milked three times in one day'
'Of the silver chalice divided into three parts'
'Of the churning of the butter and given away to the guests'. What can be said about many of the miracles attributed to St. Brigid is that a number of them echo the miracle in the Gospel of the five loaves and four fish or Cana in their multiplication of raw materials to produce more to eat or drink, particularly for the poor.
Furthermore to read such extracts seeking pagan symbolism misses the Christian purpose of its author. The Christian Church in Ireland was almost two centuries old when Cogitosus wrote his Life of St. Brigid. It seems that, Cogitosus himself was a member of the monastic community at Kildare. In recounting Brigid's "outstanding and innumerable miracles" Cogitosus was trying to instruct his readers on the power of God's interaction with his most faithful servants through an imagery and symbolism which a pastoral community could have identified with.
The central theological virtue associated with St. Brigid in the Cogitosus' biography is faith. "All things are possible for those who believe" (Mark 9:22) is a key theme that keeps recurring throughout the Life of St. Brigid and her miracles are always attributed to her faith. Many of the healing miracles also echo the Gospels. In the miracle in which Brigid is instrumental in healing the blind man, we are told that: "after the Lord's example, she too opened the eyes of a man born blind because although the Lord said of himself: 'I am the light of the world", nevertheless He says of his disciples: "You are the light of the world and the works which I do, they also will do."
On a more humorous note, the Life of St. Brigid regales an episode where the saint changed water into excellent ale for some lepers. According to the general narrative she did this by "blessing it with the power of faith. For He who changed the water into wine at Cana in Galilee, also changed water into ale through the faith of this most blessed woman." It is a miracle likely to endear any saint to the general Irish populace!
The other major Christian virtue associated with St. Brigid is that of charity. There are a number of stories demonstrating Brigid's concern for the poor, the oppressed or just simply guests at the monastery. It is clear that she looked on every guest as a potential encounter with 'Christ' and so she never allowed guests or the poor to go away empty handed.
Monasteries in early Ireland were places of refuge for those fleeing persecution or injustice in the wider society. Kildare is frequently referred to as 'the safest city of refuge'. Meanwhile pilgrims began to be attracted to Kildare even within her own lifetime on account of the stories they were hearing of Brigid's miracles, her generosity and keen sense of justice.
Whether the Brigid we celebrate in February is an amalgam of myth and historical fact is difficult to determine from such a remove. The Church actually struck St Brigid off the official list of saints in the 1960s, following Vatican II reforms. Perhaps what we should concentrate on these days is Brigid's role in the early Irish Church. Furthermore in our world, where religion can play a role in sparking dissention, we should remember that there was no forced or bloody conversion to Christianity in fifth century Ireland. Brigid represents the bringing together of the old and the new through peaceful means. That this powerful and venerated holy Irish woman, who is believed to have died around 524AD in Kildare, is still challenging the boundaries of our knowledge and understanding so many centuries later, is almost a miracle in itself.
