Brigid: Goddess and saint

The lowdown on our very own Saint Brigid.

Through the mists of legend and history, Brigid has travelled with us to the present day, first as a Celtic goddess, then a Christian saint.

Folk customs, religious beliefs and ancient tradition have passed down through countless generations relating to her. But who was the real Brigid and how did she become such a popular saint?

The Brigid of Christian origin was born in Faughart, outside Dundalk, Co. Louth around 453 A.D. Her birth happened at a time when the people of Ireland began converting to Christianity. As a girl Brigid witnessed St. Patrick preaching and is said to have fallen into a sublime spiritual trance.

As a young woman, Brigid decided not to marry and instead chose religious life. She was held in great respect as a holy nun and helped set up a Christian community at Croghan, Co Offaly.

Her popularity continued to grow and the chieftains of Leinster offered her a site anywhere in the province to set up her own Christian foundation. She chose a place beside a sacred oak tree near the river Liffey in what is now Kildare town.The county gets its name from the church that Brigid built there from the Irish ‘Cill Dara’ (The Church of the Oak Tree).

The community flourished at Kildare and was unique in that both nuns and monks lived and worshipped side by side. It is a also said that a sacred fire was lit there in Brigid’s time and was tended both day and night by nuns of her order for over a 1000 years. The annals tell us that Brigid died at the age of 70. The first life of St Brigid was written in 650, which records both history and fascinating stories about her. ‘The life of Brigid’ revealed that she was neither a missionary saint nor well travelled.

How then did Brigid become almost as popular as Patrick throughout Ireland and northern Britain? To understand this, we must go back to a time of pagan Celtic gods and worship.

Dana was the greatest of the Celtic goddesses and was known as Bríd the poetess. When Ireland converted to Christianity many of the priests were sympathetic to the old religions and knew that the ordinary people would not give up their most important gods peacefully.

A way around this was to absorb these gods as local Christian saints and change rituals such as well and sun worship into Christian customs. Therefore, the practice of making Brigid’s crosses with green rushes or straw on the eve of the first of February might well be connected to ancient sun worship.

The centre of the cross may symbolise the sun and rays of light coming from it in the shape of arms of the cross. A story of St. Brigid hanging her clothes to dry on a sunbeam may also have its origin in an older tradition of sun worship.

We can see a coming together of the pagan Celtic goddess Bríd and the Christian saint Brigid on the first of February. St Brigid’s feast day falls on the festival of Imbolg, one of the most important dates in the ancient Celtic calendar when the coming of spring, fertility in the land and the renewed power of the sun were celebrated.

Despite the huge influence of Anglo-American popular culture in modern Ireland many people will still honour this ancient and special tradition of making crosses on St. Brigid’s Eve. Crosses are then hung up in homes, sheds or stables to protect people and animals against sickness, misfortune and mischievous spirits.

By Keith Corcoran