Saint Brigid of Ireland

Who Is Saint Brigid?

Brigid is one of the patron saints of Ireland, the only female patron saint. This fascinating woman was born February 1st, 451 AD, in the Southeast of Ireland, in the Kingdom of Leinster. Her father was Dubhthach, a chieftain of Leinster who wooed his slave Broicsech until she became pregnant. The Book of Lismore, a late fifteenth-century manuscript written in Gaelic, says Brigid was born in the doorway of a barn on the dawn of February 1st. Many writers have recorded that she was born between indoors and outdoors, winter and spring, and night and day. Ancient tales remain that Brigid became a peacemaker because of her birth date and location. She was born on Imbolc, the ancient pagan holiday of the beginning of spring, the start of new life. Scribes say Brigid’s entire life is a threshold or a portal between realms. Cormac, a 9th-century monk, recorded that ‘Brij’ means ‘Fiery, Flaming.’ In the Irish language, ‘Brigid’ is exalted and ‘the fiery one.’

Brigid’s Cow

The story of Brigid’s Cow is a favorite. According to written accounts, Brigid could not drink breast milk. A red-eared cow wandered up to the barn where Brigid lived with her mother. Brigid’s mother milked the cow and gave some to the infant who immediately regained color and strength. From then on, Brigid became the patron saint of farmers, dairy workers, and agriculture. Red-eared cows do exist in Ireland, although not in large herds since they are bred for small farms and families.

Lore and Legends

Christianity came to Ireland around 400AD where it began to meld with paganism. The Druid whom Brigid’s mother, Broicsech, served had a supernatural dream of three figures in hooded robes baptizing a newborn baby. They proclaimed in this dream that “You will name her Brigid.” Scholars debated about the three robed figures in the Druid’s dream and wondered who they could be. Opinions varied with the favorite being that the Druid may have believed they were members of his religious caste. A Druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals, and political advisors. So any dream the Druid had, would have been respected and believed as true.

It’s thought that the monks who began recording history at that time compared the Druid’s dream in Christian terms. Ancient manuscripts, still surviving, reveal how the monks used the story in Genesis when “three men” come to visit Abraham in the desert to teach the pagans about Christianity. The three visitors in Genesis are the Holy Trinity! So, the monks used the dream to explain that the Triune God baptizes and names Brigid.

Brigid’s Life

Brigid had a very generous nature and kept giving away the Druid’s possessions to the poor. She lived with her mother who was still in slavery to the Druid. By the time she was 10 years old, he’d had enough and returned Brigid to her father. She began giving away her father Dubhthach’s possessions too so he took her to the king of Leinster, to sell her. While he was negotiating a price with the king, Brigid gave away her father’s bejeweled sword to a beggar so he could barter it for food to feed his family. The king recognized her holiness and convinced Dubthach to grant his daughter her freedom.

The King granted land to Brigid where she built herself a cell under a big oak tree which she called Kill-dara, ‘cell of the oak.’ She established a monastery after other girls soon joined her. They were likely orphans and girls turned out of their homes or those escaping violence. Brigid’s monastery of Kill-dara would later become the cathedral city of Kildare.

Brigid performed many miracles. She could drive out demons simply by making the sign of the Cross. She healed the sick, converted sinners, and even once hung her cloak on a sunbeam. Brigid also founded a school of art for metalwork and illumination. As a mother figure to the girls, Brigid taught them skills so they could go out on their own and possibly marry and raise a family. Brigid raised dairy cattle where she taught the girls to make cheese, and butter and also sell milk to villagers. Stories of Brigid’s brewery where she made and sold beer are legendary as also gardening, sewing, nursing the sick, and housing abandoned children. Education was an important part of Brigid’s monastery and school where she trained young women to read.

Brigid’s Relics

In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past, usually consisting of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person. Relics are preserved for veneration as a tangible memorial. Brigid was buried at Kildare, but her relics were transferred to Downpatrick in County Down during the Viking invasions, along with those of Saint Patrick and Saint Columba.

The relics remained as a shrine at the church until it was destroyed by an appointee of King Henry VIII, the monarch who ordered all Catholic buildings to be destroyed after he broke from the Church when it wouldn’t grant him a divorce. For centuries, Brigid’s relics were carried all over Europe and far corners of the world. However, a portion of the relic, a piece of St Brigid’s skull, was returned to Ireland in the 1930s by the Brigidine Sisters in Tullow, County Carlow, and it was later moved to St Brigid’s parish church in Kildare.

“St Brigid, the patroness of Ireland, has come home to Kildare town 1,500 years after her death.” Sun Jan 28 2024 The Irish Times

Saint Brigid’s Well (Sacred/Holy Well)

Kildare, County Westmeath, Ireland is located about 500 metres west of the mythological centre of Ireland, the Hill of Ui

Collect for St Brigid’s Day (1st February)
Father,
by the leadership of your blessed servant Brigid
you strengthened the Church in this land:
As we give you thanks for her life of devoted service,
inspire us with new life and light,
and give us perseverance to serve you all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

*I found a Brigid in my Irish family tree while doing geneology!
Brigid Russell Bergin b. 1854 d. 1904 Rathdrum, Ireland My Great-Great Grandmother

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