To the average American, Irish spirituality pretty much boils down to one towering figure: Saint Patrick, the fifth-century Christian evangelist who supposedly evicted the snakes from Ireland and today is commemorated on a day associated more with parades and pub crawls than with piety. But American knowledge of Celtic spirituality and culture is too often limited to the basics. Sure, Patrick may be Ireland's most prominent patron saint, but he's not the only one. Of the three (!) patrons affiliated with Ireland, one is a woman who has a powerful and fascinating history that links her not only with Christian spirituality but with the ancient mysticism of the pagan Celtic past. This figure is Brigit, the Abbess of Kildare.
Understanding Brigit-you'll see her name spelled in a variety of ways, including Brigid, Brighid, Bride, and Bridget-means understanding two different figures who may in fact be the same persona-although they are seen in very different ways by different groups of people. The holy abbess and premiere Irish woman saint is only one aspect of Brigit. She shares her name, characteristics, and personality with an ancient goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a mythic race of ancestral or spiritual beings who gave Ireland her rich heritage of mythology (as well as her pantheon of pagan deities). To fully know Brigit, therefore, means getting to know the pagan goddess as well as the Christian saint.
Brigit the Goddess
Brigit means "Sublime One" or "Exalted One," suggesting that the name may have originally been a title for a major goddess of the pagan Celts. Goddess Brigit ruled over poetry, magic, the healing arts, and smithcraft; she was associated with fire, water, cattle and milk, dandelions, and agriculture. Her role as a fire deity is reflected in her name (for fire, of all the elements, is the most exalted) and in her attributes: for poetry comes out of the "fires" of inspiration, smithcraft relies on the fires of the forge, and healing takes place in the vicinity of the hearthfire.
There are actually several Irish saints named Brigit, but the most famous is clearly the abbess of Kildare, said to have lived from approximately 450 CE to 525 CE. The earliest written records of her, from about the year 650, contain almost no verifiable biographical information, but instead features legends and stories that are remarkably similar to the lore of Brigit the goddess. Like her divine namesake, the saint of Kildare was associated with cattle and agriculture as well as with fire and holy wells. Indeed, to this day countless wells in Ireland are dedicated to Brigit, while her connection with fire manifested in a most unusual way.
Brigit means "Sublime One" or "Exalted One," suggesting that the name may have originally been a title for a major goddess of the pagan Celts. Goddess Brigit ruled over poetry, magic, the healing arts, and smithcraft; she was associated with fire, water, cattle and milk, dandelions, and agriculture. Her role as a fire deity is reflected in her name (for fire, of all the elements, is the most exalted) and in her attributes: for poetry comes out of the "fires" of inspiration, smithcraft relies on the fires of the forge, and healing takes place in the vicinity of the hearthfire.
There are actually several Irish saints named Brigit, but the most famous is clearly the abbess of Kildare, said to have lived from approximately 450 CE to 525 CE. The earliest written records of her, from about the year 650, contain almost no verifiable biographical information, but instead features legends and stories that are remarkably similar to the lore of Brigit the goddess. Like her divine namesake, the saint of Kildare was associated with cattle and agriculture as well as with fire and holy wells. Indeed, to this day countless wells in Ireland are dedicated to Brigit, while her connection with fire manifested in a most unusual way.
For centuries, the nuns of Kildare tended a sacred fire dedicated to Brigit on a 20-day cycle. Each of nineteen nuns would watch over the fire for a day, while on the twentieth day the fire was left for Brigit to tend herself. The practice continued until the seventeenth century, when nervous church officials attacked it as a pagan practice. Although the flame was extinguished for some 260 years, a small community of Brighidine nuns returned to Kildare in the early 1990s, and relit the flame, where it continues to burn as a beacon of hope and peace.
The Festival of Brigit
As a figure of significant spiritual import, Brigit is honored each year with a holiday known in Gaelic as Lá Fhéile Bríde (the Festival of Brigit). This event is associated with the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc (or Oímealg), which marked the beginning of spring. Etymologically, the word "Oímealg" is related to "lactation," and indeed the festival occurred when pregnant ewes began lactating: a sign not only of impending lambs, but also of the coming of spring (and an honoring of the milky nature of Brigit). Lá Fhéile Bríde has been Christianised as the feast of St. Brigit on February 1, the eve of the feast of the presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Candlemas.
As a figure of significant spiritual import, Brigit is honored each year with a holiday known in Gaelic as Lá Fhéile Bríde (the Festival of Brigit). This event is associated with the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc (or Oímealg), which marked the beginning of spring. Etymologically, the word "Oímealg" is related to "lactation," and indeed the festival occurred when pregnant ewes began lactating: a sign not only of impending lambs, but also of the coming of spring (and an honoring of the milky nature of Brigit). Lá Fhéile Bríde has been Christianised as the feast of St. Brigit on February 1, the eve of the feast of the presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Candlemas.
Just as the lines separating the goddess and the saint are fuzzy and indistinct, so too the line between the ancient pagan agricultural festival and the Christian holy day is both blurry and thin. Many folk customs survive in traditional Gaelic regions of Ireland and Scotland associated with the Festival of Brigit; while such traditions have for centuries been practiced within a clearly Christian framework, they appear to have ancient Celtic roots, thus linking the observance with the goddess of old.
Whether you consider her a saint or a goddess (or both), if you are interested in Brigit you will find her energies very much a part of Ireland today. Two locations particularly connected with her are Kildare (obviously enough) located southwest of Dublin, and a holy well in the small village of Liscannor, located on the west coast just south of the Cliffs of Moher.
Kildare features a statue of Saint Brigit in the town square, which in turn is located in the shadow of a small but lovely cathedral. On the cathedral close is a magnificently preserved medieval round tower and the restored foundations of the site believed to be where Brigit's fire was tended for over a thousand years. Several blocks from the cathedral is the Solas Bhríde Community, where Brighidine sisters continue to tend a sacred flame in honor of Brigit, and minister according to her example, offering hospitality and witnessing for peace.
Many holy wells in Ireland are dedicated to Brigit (including two beautiful ones in Kildare), but perhaps the most famous is the lovely well of Liscannor in County Clare. The grounds of the well feature a cemetery on a hilltop, a garden with a statue of the saint, and a small building that houses the well itself. In this building pilgrims and supplicants leave various statues, rosaries, and other "offerings" to Brigit and the healing powers of her holy waters. At certain times of the year, devotees to Brigit gather at this and other holy wells for "patterns," rituals dedicated to honoring the sacred energies of the well. Although such patterns usually involve the rosary and other Catholic devotions, they undoubtedly have their roots in similar rites performed by the pagans of ancient times.
Brigit for tomorrow
From the sacred fire of Kildare, to the folk customs of Imbolc, to the promise of healing associated with holy wells, many aspects of Brigit's traditions cross the line separating pagan from Christian. Is the saint just the goddess having undergone a Christian "makeover"? Or does she represent a pious historical figure who drew inspiration from both her pagan heritage and the Christian gospel? We'll never know for sure, and perhaps the true value of Brigit lies not in trying to determine how "Christian" or "pagan" she is, but rather to honor her for the way in which she bridges both worlds (pardon the pun).
From the sacred fire of Kildare, to the folk customs of Imbolc, to the promise of healing associated with holy wells, many aspects of Brigit's traditions cross the line separating pagan from Christian. Is the saint just the goddess having undergone a Christian "makeover"? Or does she represent a pious historical figure who drew inspiration from both her pagan heritage and the Christian gospel? We'll never know for sure, and perhaps the true value of Brigit lies not in trying to determine how "Christian" or "pagan" she is, but rather to honor her for the way in which she bridges both worlds (pardon the pun).
When I visited Kildare in 2002, I met Sister Mary Minehan, one of the Brighidine nuns who tend the current flame. She showed me where the fire is kept, in a humble shrine at the corner of a meditation room. Above it is a beautiful painting of a balance set of scales. I brazenly asked the Sister point blank, "So do you believe Brigit is a goddess or a saint, or both?" She smiled and directed me to look at the picture of the scales. "I think it's all a matter of balance, now, don't you?" Humbled by her eloquent refusal to take sides on an old spiritual squabble, I silently nodded my agreement.
