Brigit of Kildare

Saint Brigid of Kildare
Stained glass, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Macon, Georgia, 1903
Virgin, abbess, inspirer
Born	c. 453 Perhaps Faughart, Ireland (in modern County Louth)
Died	c. 524 (age about 70) Kildare, Ireland
Venerated in	Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism
Feast	1 February
Patronage	babies; blacksmiths; boatmen; brewers; cattle; chicken farmers; children whose parents are not married; children with abusive fathers; children born into abusive unions; Clan Douglas; dairymaids; dairy workers; fugitives; infants; Ireland; Leinster, mariners; midwives; milk maids; nuns; poets; poor; poultry farmers; poultry raisers; printing presses; sailors; scholars; travellers; watermen

Saint Brigit of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (Irish: Naomh Bríd; c. 451–525) is one of Ireland's patron saints, along with Patrick and Columba. Irish hagiography makes her an early Irish Christian nun,^[1] abbess, and founder of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare in Ireland, which was famous and was revered. Her feast day is 1 February, which was formerly celebrated as a pagan festival (Imbolc) marking the beginning of spring and the lambing season. Her feast day is shared by Dar Lugdach, whom tradition says was her student and the woman who succeeded her.

The saint shares her name with an important Celtic goddess and there are many legends and folk customs associated with her.

Name

Brigit has the same name as the goddess Brigid, derived from the Proto-Celtic *Brigantī "high, exalted." and ultimately originating with Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. In Old Irish her name was spelled Brigit and pronounced [ˈbʲrʲiɣʲidʲ]. In Modern Irish it was spelled Briġid / Brighid and pronounced [bʲɾʲiːdʲ]; it became Bríd with the 1948 spelling reform.

In English her name is variously spelled Brigid, Bridget, Bridgit, Brid, and she is sometimes known as Mary of the Gael. In Welsh she is called Fraid (genitive Ffraid, as in several places called Llansanffraid, "St. Brigit's church/parish").

Historicity

In the controversy about the historical existence of Brigid that erupted in the last third of the 20th century, researchers noted that eleven people with whom Brigid is associated in her Lives are independently attested in annalistic sources, sources that place her death at AD 523 (in the Annals of Tigernach and Chronicon Scotorum) and her birth at 451 (calculated from the alleged age of 72 at death).^[2]

Probably the most ancient life of St. Brigid is that by St. Broccán Clóen (d. 650). Differing biographies, giving conflicting accounts of her life, having considerable literary merit in themselves. A second Vita was written by Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, and is a fine example of Irish scholarship in the mid-eighth century. The Life attributed to Coelan, an Irish monk of the eighth century, derives significance from the fact that it is prefaced by a foreword from St. Donatus, also an Irish monk, who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824. St. Donatus refers to previous lives by St. Ultan and St. Aileran.^[3]

Some scholars have suggested that the saint is a Christianization of the goddess Brigid. Medieval Art Historian Pamela Berger, for example, argues that Christian "monks took the ancient figure of the mother goddess and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart."^[4] Professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin and others suggest that the saint had been chief druidess at the temple of the goddess Brigid, and was responsible for converting it into a Christian monastery. After her death, the characteristics of the goddess became attached to the saint.^[5][6][7]

Life

Early life

Brigid was born in the year 451 AD. Brigid may have been born in Faughart,^[8] near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Because of the legendary quality of the earliest accounts of her life, there is much debate among many secular scholars and even Christians as to the authenticity of her biographies. Three biographies agree that her mother was Brocca, a Christian Pict and slave who had been baptised by Saint Patrick. They name her father as Dubhthach, a chieftain of Leinster.^[9]

The vitae say that Brigid's mother was a slave, and Dubthach's wife forced him to sell her to a druid when she became pregnant. Brigid herself was born into slavery. From the start, it is clear that Brigid is holy. When the druid tries to feed her, she vomits because he is impure. A white cow with red ears appears to sustain her instead.^[9] As she grows older, Brigid performs many 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.^[10] Around the age of ten, she was returned as a household servant to her father, where her habit of charity also led her to donate his possessions to anyone who asked. In two vitae, Dubthach was so annoyed with her that he took her in a chariot to the king of Leinster, to sell her. While Dubthach was talking to the king, Brigid gave away his jewelled sword to a beggar to barter it for food to feed his family. The king recognized her holiness and convinced Dubthach to grant his daughter her freedom.^[11]

Religious life

Saint Brigit as depicted in Saint Non's chapel, St Davids, Wales.

Although Brigid was "veiled" or received by St. Mac Caill at Croghan, yet, it is likely that she was professed by St. Mél of Ardagh, probably at Mág Tulach (the present barony of Fartullagh, Co. Westmeath). Mél also granted her abbatial powers. About 468, she and St. Maughold (Macaille) followed St. Mél into the Kingdom of Tethbae, which was made up of sections of modern Counties Meath, Westmeath and Longford.

Around 480, Brigid founded a monastery at Cell Dara (Kildare), "Church of the Oak", on the site of an older pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid, served by a group of young women who tended an eternal flame. The site chosen was under a large oak tree on the ridge of Drum Criadh.^[12] Brigid, with an initial group of seven companions, is credited with organizing communal consecrated religious life for women in Ireland.^[13] 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 assist her in Kildare as spiritual pastor of them. It has been frequently stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but, as Archbishop Healy points out, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose Saint Conleth "to govern the church along with herself". Thus, 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.^[14] Brigid's small oratory at Kildare became a center of religion and learning, and developed into a cathedral city.

Brigid also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the Book of Kildare, which elicited high praise from Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), but which has disappeared since the Reformation. According to Giraldus, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".^[3]

There is evidence in the Trias Thaumaturga for Brigid's stay in Connacht, especially in County Roscommon and also in the many churches founded by her in the Diocese of Elphin. She also visited Longford, Tipperary, Limerick, and South Leinster^[8] Her friendship with Saint Patrick is attested by 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 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.)

When dying, St. Brigid was attended by St. Ninnidh, who was ever afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent its ever being defiled, after being the medium of administering the viaticum to Ireland's Patroness.^[3] She died at Kildare on 1 February 525.^[15] Her feast day is shared by Dar Lugdach who was the woman who succeeded her and as prophesied by Brigit, Dar Lugdach lived for exactly one more year than Brigid.^[16]

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 domestic tasks usually attributed to women.

• When Brigit was of marital age, a man by the name of Dubthach moccu Lugair came to woo her. Since Brigid offered her virginity to God, she told the man that she cannot accept him but to go to the woods behind his house where he will find a beautiful maiden to marry. Everything that he says to the maiden's father will be pleasing to them. The man followed her instructions and it was as she said.^[9]
• In one story, Brigid protected a woman from a nobleman who had entrusted a silver brooch to the woman for safekeeping but then secretly threw the piece into the sea. He charged her with stealing it, knowing that he could take her as a slave if a judge ruled in his favor. 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.^[11] A similar story is told of St. Kentigern.
• On another occasion, Brigid was travelling to see a physician for her 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 wound her head on a stone. A touch of Brigid's blood healed the girls.^[11]
• When on the bank of 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 irritated by this saying that she had not given the gift to the lepers. Brigid was angered 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 time the second 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.^[9]
• One Easter Sunday, a leper had come to Brigid to ask for a cow. She asked for a time to rest and would help him later; however, he did not wish to wait and instead stated he would go somewhere else for a cow. Brigid then offered to heal him, but the man stubbornly replied that his condition allowed him to acquire more than he would healthy. After convincing the leper that this was not so, she told one of her maidens to have the man washed in a blessed mug of water. After this was done, the man was completely cured and vowed to serve Brigid.
• One of the more commonly told stories of is of Brigid asking the King of Leinster for land. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood and berries. There was also 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 to God and asked him 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 to get rid of her importunity he agreed. She directed four of her sisters to take up the garment, 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 expanding in all directions. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. "Oh, Brigid!" said the frighted 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 on any future occasion she had only to allude to her cloak to bring him to reason. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor and commissioned the construction of the convent. Legend has it, the convent was known for making jam from the local blueberries which was sought for all over Ireland. There is a new tradition beginning among followers of St. Brigid to eat jam on 1 February in honour of this miracle.^[17][18]
• After Brigid promised God a life of chastity, her brothers were grieved 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, Brigit 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.^[9]
• She is associated with the preservation of a nun's chastity in unusual circumstances. Some authors claim that it is an account of an abortion. Both Liam de Paor (1993)^[19] and Connolly & Picard (1987), in their complete translations of Cogitosus, give substantially the same translation^[20] of the account of Brigit'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 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."

Veneration

Brigid was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected 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 relics were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of Patrick and Columba. The relics of the three saints were discovered in 1185, and on 9 June of the following year were reinterred in Down Cathedral.^[15]

In modern Ireland, "Mary of the Gael" remains a popular saint, and Brigid remains a common female Christian name.

Relics

Saint Brigid's Cross or Crosóg Bhríde.

Brigid's skull has been preserved in the Igreja São João Baptista (Church of St. John the Baptist) in Lumiar in Portugal (38°46′29″N 9°09′54″W / 38.7746313°N 9.1649645°W / 38.7746313; -9.1649645.^[21]) (near the Lisbon airport) since 1587 and is venerated on 2 February (not 1 February, as in Ireland).^[22] St Brigid's head was reputedly carried to King Denis of Portugal in 1283 by Irish knights travelling to the Aragonese Crusade. According to Denis Murphy, when the relics of the saints were destroyed, in the sixteenth century, during the deputyship of Lord Leonard Gray, Brigid's head was saved by some of the clergy, who took to the Neustadt, in Austria. In 1587 it was presented to the church of the Society of Jesus in Lisbon, by Emperor Rudolph II.^[23]

The inscription on the tomb in Lumiar 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.”

A fragment of this skull was brought to St Bridget's Church, Kilcurry in 1905 by Sister Mary Agnes of the Dundalk Convent of Mercy and in 1928 another fragment was sent by the Bishop of Lisbon to St Brigid's church in Killester, in response to a request from Fathers Timothy Traynor and James McCarroll.

At Armagh there was a "Templum Brigidis"; namely the little abbey church known as "Regles Brigid", which contained some relics of the saint, destroyed in 1179, by William FitzAldelm.

Iconography

Brigida von Kildare, Gross St Martin, Köln

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 (called a "lamp of learning and wisdom", as lamps and fire were regarded sacred to the Celts and druids). Early hagiographers portray Saint Brigid's life and ministry as touched with fire. According to P.W. Joyce, tradition holds that nuns at her monastery kept a sacred eternal flame burning there.^[8] 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. In her Lives, Saint Brigid is portrayed 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 Winflower 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. Her colour, white, was worn by the Kildare United Irishmen during the 1798 rebellion and is worn by Kildare sports teams.

Placenames

Kilbride 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 Kilbreedy’s 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.^[24] Similarly, there are a number of placenames derived from Cnoic Bhríde ("Brigit's Hill"), such as Knockbridge in Louth and Knockbride in Cavan. In Wales, the villages of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain, Llansantffraed and Llansantffraid, Ceredigion are named after her; "llan" meaning "church of" and "Ffraid" or "Ffraed" being the Welsh for "Bride".

Notes