#saint brigit

[the-luvwitch]

[lyfarun]

Brighid and Bee swarms: I will not molest the swarm queen, nor will the swarm queen molest me.

"Carmichael (1928), in his review of Scottish customs attaching to the Feast of Saint Brigit, speaks of what he calls 'a propitiatory hymn' sung to 'a serpent' which 'is supposed to emerge from it's hollow among the hills on St Bride's Day'. Some of the versions of the 'hymn', describe what emerges from a tom, 'the knoll', as rigen ran, 'a noble queen', and, on the basis of my argument hitherto, I take this to be a clear reference not to any serpent, but rather to the queen bee and, therefore, by implication, to Brigit herself.

La Bride nam brig ban On the day of Bride of the white hills Thig an rigen ran a tom The Noble Queen will com from the Knoll, Cha bhoin mise ris an rigen ran I will not molest the Noble Queen, 's cha bhoin an rigen ran rium Nor will the noble queen molest me.

By way of further support for this reading, an emendation of Carmichael's interpretation of a tom as 'the knoll' can easily be made, substituing for 'knoll', 'round heap', 'conical knoll', 'ant-hill', dictionary definitions of tom (Dwelly, 1918), one or all of which readily could be taken as referring to a bee-nest or bee-hive. Likewise, Carmichael's reading of rigen ran as 'noble queen' may also be open to an interpretation other than that offered by him here: the qualifying element ran, taken by Carmichael to be the adjective ran 'noble', constitutes a suitable soubriquet for a royal personage, to be sure, but it is also a word which might easily be confused with ràn meaning, among other things, 'melancholy cry', 'drawling, dissonant roar or cry' (Dwelly, 1918). Needless to say, the idea of a 'noisy' rather than a 'noble' queen slots in well with the tumult which accompanied swarming according to early writers (...)"

—Hearth-prayers and other traditions of Brigit: Celtic goddess and holy woman. Article by Ó Catháin (Séamas) in JRSAI 122 (1992), pp. 12–34.

[moonstonemommytarot]

Happy Imbolc To my witches

[dianasson]

Imbolc Festivities

Lá Fhéile Bríde Sona Duit!!!

(Law leh BREEJ-uh SUN-uh ditch) Happy St. Bríd’s Day To You!

Gabhaim molta Bride Ionmhain í le hÉireann Ionmhain le gach tír í Molaimis go léir í Lóchrann geal na Laighneach ‘Soilsiú feadh na tire Ceann ar óghaibh Éireann Ceann na mban ar míne

Tig an gheimhreadh dian dubh Gearradh lena ghéire Ach ar Lá ‘le Bríde Gar dúinn Earrach Éireann Gabhaim molta Bride Ionmhain í le hÉireann Ionmhain le gach tír í Molaimis go léir í I praise Brigid Beloved in Ireland Beloved in all countries Let us all praise her The bright torch of Leinster Shining throughout the country The pride of Irish youth The pride of our gentle women The house of winter is very dark Cutting with its sharpness But on Brigid’s Day Spring is near to Ireland

– traditional Gaelic song for Bríd Today is the Feast Day of Saint Bríd! The festival date of Imbolc on February 1 stretches back to the Iron Ages in Ireland, but the ancient context of the festival is relatively enigmatic. It is very likely a celebration of the beginning of the pastoral season as this is when the ewes start to produce milk. However, being one of the four ancient feast days, the 1st of February and the night before are the focus of many supernatural occurrences and ceremonial traditions.  In the last few hundred years these now focus on St. Bríd – who shares a name with a preChristian figure – who is worshipped and petitioned for blessings and favor. This would include a large feast of primarily dairy-based dishes in honor of the new agricultural season, so whip out the butter and cheese!  There are many legends about St. Bríd in Ireland, legends that mix the values of ancient Irish heroes with the pious and monastic values of early Irish Christianity. “Brigit is the perfect example of Irish hospitality: she can (by a miracle) milk her cows three times in one day to provide a meal for visitors; she can outwit a king (in the cause of charity), as well as any pagan hero could have done and with far more charm.” (Hughes) She is a great leader of women “Indeed St Brigit’s foundation at Kildare was unique in sixth-century Ireland in being a double monastery for both men and women, each group following the same rule and using a common church, with the government of the whole community held jointly by the Abbess and the bishop-abbot.” (Hughes) 

One way of celebrating her was to make a doll or Brideog in her image, which was escorted into or around the house in various manners varying village to village. Usually she was laid to rest inside the house, and divination ensued.  “There [in Ireland] the churn staff, not the corn sheaf, is fashioned into the form of a woman, and called 'Brideog,' little Bride. The girls come clad in their best, and the girl who has the prettiest dress gives it to Brideog. An ornament something like a Maltese cross is affixed to the breast of the figure. The ornament is composed of straw, beautifully and artistically interlaced by the deft fingers of the maidens of Bride. It is called 'rionnag Brideog,' the star of little Bride. Pins, needles, bits of stone, bits of straw, and other things are given to Bride as gifts, and food by the mothers.Customs assume the complexion of their surroundings, as fishes, birds, and beasts assimilate the colours of their habitats. The seas of the 'Garbh Chriocha,' Rough Bounds in which the cult of Bride has longest lived, abound in beautiful iridescent shells, and the mountains in bright sparkling stones, and these are utilised to adorn the ikon of Bride. In other districts where the figure of Bride is made, there are no shining shells, no brilliant crystals, and the girls decorate the image with artistically interlaced straw.The older women are also busy on the Eve of Bride, and great preparations are made to celebrate her Day, which is the first day of spring. They make an oblong basket in the shape of a cradle, which they call 'leaba Bride,' the bed of Bride. It is embellished with much care. Then they take a choice sheaf of corn, generally oats, and fashion it into the form of a woman. They deck this ikon with gay ribbons from the loom, sparkling shells from the sea, and bright stones from the hill. All the sunny sheltered valleys around are searched for primroses, daisies, and other flowers that open their eyes in the morning of the year. This lay figure is called Bride, 'dealbh Bride,' the ikon of Bride. When it is dressed and decorated with all the tenderness and loving care the women can lavish upon it, one woman goes to the door of the house, and standing on the step with her hands on the jambs, calls softly into the darkness, 'Tha leaba Bride deiseal,' Bride's bed is ready. To this a ready woman behind replies, 'Thigeadh Bride steach, is e beatha Bride,' Let Bride come in, Bride is welcome. The woman at the door again addresses Bride, 'A Bhride! Bhride thig a stench, tha do leaba deanta. Gleidh an teach dh’an Triana,' Bride! Bride, come thou in, thy bed is made. Preserve the house for the Trinity. The women then place the ikon of Bride with great ceremony in the bed they have so carefully prepared for it. They place a small straight white wand (the bark being peeled off) beside the figure. This wand is variously called 'slatag Bride,' the little rod of Bride, 'slachdan Bride,' the little wand of Bride, and 'barrag Bride,' the birch of Bride. The wand is generally of birch, broom, bramble, white willow, or other sacred wood, 'crossed' or banned wood being carefully avoided. A similar rod was given to the kings of Ireland at their coronation, and to the Lords of the Isles at their instatement. It was straight to typify justice, and white to signify peace and purity--bloodshed was not to be needlessly caused. The women then level the ashes on the hearth, smoothing and dusting them over carefully. Occasionally the ashes, surrounded by a roll of cloth, are placed on a board to safeguard them against disturbance from draughts or other contingencies. In the early morning the family closely scan the ashes. If they find the marks of the wand of Bride they rejoice, but if they find 'long Bride,' the footprint of Bride, their joy is very great, for this is a sign that Bride was present with them during the night, and is favourable to them, and that there is increase in family, in flock, and in field during the coming year. Should there be no marks on the ashes, and no traces of Bride's presence, the family are dejected. It is to them a sign that she is offended, and will not hear their call. To propitiate her and gain her ear the family offer oblations and burn incense. The oblation generally is a cockerel, some say a pullet, buried alive near the junction of three streams, and the incense is burnt on the hearth when the family retire for the night.” (Carmichael - SLOINNTIREACHD BHRIDE)

Another tradition on Imbolc is to create a Cros Bríde or Bríd cross out of reeds that were pulled on the eve of the festival. These grant protection throughout the end of winter and the rest of the year until new crosses are made in their place the following Imbolc.  “But the entire round of the year is liberally sprinkled with days of festival, and if we begin with St. Briget it is not merely because she was Irish-born but because her feast marks the beginning of the pastoral year. The blessed Bridie was a cowherd and is therefore associated with cattle and with such flowers as the dandelion–the Plant of Bride–yielding a milky juice which was believed to nourish the young lambs in spring. St. Briget’s Feast was very popular and many superstitious practices, more or less Christianized, cling to the preparations made on St. Briget’s Eve, the last day of January. On that day rushes are fashioned into protective charms known as Briget’s Crosses, a name which illustrates how the church has won over pagan symbols*, for the ‘crosses’ take the form of either [sun wheels] or lozenges, and comparative evidence suggests that they are magic symbols of suns or eyes...A three legged [sun wheel], presumably an old form, is reserved for use in the byre: its shape may be compared with the Celtic triskele. The lozenge-shaped charms have their counterparts in many parts of the world... Briget’s Crosses are believed to protect the house and the livestock from harm and from fire. No evil spirit could pass the charm, which was therefore hung above the door of the house and byre. The rushes must be pulled, not cut, on St. Briget’s Eve, and care must be taken to fashion the crosses from left to right, with the sun. As a rule they are left in position until replaced the following year, though I have seen byres with many crosses thrust into the underthatch, the decaying accumulation of annual offerings. In Co. Galway similar crosses made of wood or straw were also placed in the rafters at Hallowe’en, and the discovery of a partly burnt rush cross which had been deposited in a megalith in Co. Limerick points to a more general cult of the ‘cross’. A ‘love-knot’ of similar shape, fashioned out of sedge leaves, is known from South Wales.

It was popularly believed that the saint wandered through the countryside on the eve of her feast day. Bread was left on the doorestep, and in some districts it was the custom to prepare a small bed of rushes or birch twigs and place it by the fire so that Bridie might come in and rest. Sometimes the last sheaf of harvest was used for the purpose. In south-western Ireland a doll made of straw–or decorated churn-staff–was carried from house to house by ‘Biddy Boys’, wearing straw masks such as are used by mummers and by strawboys at weddings, and singing songs in honour of the saint. they would solicit gifts and end the day in jollification. The evening was celebrated by a supper of pancakes [bannocks] taken from a plate laid on a rush cross, and as on the other quarter-days prognostications were made. A ribbon or piece of cloth exposed on St. Briget’s Eve became endowed with curative powers. It was believed that no work which involved the turning of a wheel should take place on the saint’s day. The placing of a periwinkle in each corner of the kitchen likewise hints at a remote pre-agricultural origin for the festival,* but it came to be associated with the pastoral promise of spring, of warmth, new grass, lambs and milk. It is said that the saint placed her foot in water on her feast day so that on that day it begins to warm up each year.” (Evans) *presumptuous  *no it doesn’t The * above are obviously my notes on the passage, which is valuable but yikes. 

It is traditional to observe the weather on the morning of Imbolc to divine the coming seasons. If it is rainy and cold then the winter crone, An Cailleach, will not be able to gather enough fire wood for her to continue her foray in this world, creating the sharp winds and snows of winter. Winter would be shorter, and the following seasons would bring good fortune! However, if it is warm and sunny the firewood supply of An Cailleach will be great, and she will continue her reign over winter for many more weeks until she turns back to stone before Summer. This could also mean sickness and trouble for the household.  Sing the saint a song today, recite her genealogy and tell her stories. Make a cross, or a dollie for her, and eat lots and lots of cheese. Lá Fhéile Bríde Sona Duit!!!  References:  The Golden Age of Early Christianity in Ireland (7th and 8th centuries) by Dr Kathleen Hughes, in The Course of Irish History ed. Moody and Martin.  Irish Folk Ways, by E. Estyn Evans The Carmina Gadelica Vol.I, by Alexander Carmichael

[scottishhighlandtraditions]

Brigit and Imbolc

These are Bride’s Crosses or Saint Brigit’s Crosses. They are part of the spiritual traditions of the Gaeltachd (Gàidhlig speaking areas) particularly the west of Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland.

The three pictured crosses are for my wedding couples this coming year as “Brides’ Crosses”. They were woven during the storms around Imbolc this year, the beginning of February.  With flooded roads and driving rain outside, sitting by the fire and catching up on Bride’s Cross making seemed appropriate.  In hindsight, my timing may have been more of an archetypal response than I realised.

Who or what is Bride or Brigit?

Brigit is the only Celtic pre-Christian deity to be canonized and brought into Catholic Christianity as Saint Brigit. The reason she was ‘permitted’ seems to be that they could not get rid of her!  In the Celtic culture she is / was the Goddess of so many aspects of daily life that she could not be substituted for another saint.  She was almost as omnipresent and the Christian God.

Perhaps a further reason that she retained her status was that she is so very like the qualities associated with Mary, Mother of Jesus.  Indeed, within the Gaeltachd, the two women are often interchangeable, as found in this blessing collected by Alexander Carmichael in the Western Isles in the 1800s.

Brigit of the Mantles, Brigit of the Peat Heap, Brigit of the Twining Hair, Brigit of the Augury.

Brigit of the White Feet, Brigit of Calmness, Brigit of the White Palms, Brigit of the Kine.

Brigit woman comrade, Brigit of the peat heap, Brigit woman helper, Brigit woman mild.

I shall not be slain, I shall not be wounded, I shall not be torn asunder, I shall not be despoiled.

Nor sun shall burn me, nor fire shall burn me, nor beam shall burn me, nor moon shall burn me.

I am under the keeping of my Saint Mary, My companion beloved is Brigit.

And again in this blessing, also found within Carmichael’s collection (which is available online in sacred-texts.org)

As an annotation to the text , Carmichael writes:

“The nun referred to is Brigit, of whom Broccan's Hymn says, 'She was not a milkmaid of a mountain-side; she wrought in the midst of a plain.' ”

On name

She has a number of name-versions, many found in Ireland as names for women, such as Bride, Bridie, Brìd (pron. Breej), Birgit (in Germany) and Brighd. If you know of anyone of these names, then it is for Her that she is named.

Calendars

February 1st or 2nd is Imbolc or Oimelle in the pagan calendar.  It is one of the four cross-quarter days of the year (the quarter days are the equinoxes and solstices; the cross-quarters sit between these dividing the year into eight parts).

As anyone who lives above 50° latitude will know, the middle of winter is not December 31st, but Imbolc, February 1st or 2nd : the coldest winds, the deepest snow, the drivingest rains are in February.  This is the time when we stay indoors; this is Brigit’s time.  It might perhaps be an appropriate day to sit making Bride’s Crosses

February second is also the “Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin” in the Catholic calendar. Yet again, making association of Mary with Brigit.  

Brigit’s Blessings on the Home

In the Gaeltachd, Brigit’s Cross is often placed in the home to bring in her blessing.  Small three or four armed crosses are placed above the door, above the fireplace, or tucked into the eaves.

It is for this purpose that some brides at weddings request a cross from me. Those whom I have married, and who received a cross during the ceremony, will know that there is a blessing or two that go along with it, requesting the inspiration, the qualities of Brigit (“Brigit of the Mantles, Brigit of the Peat Heap, Brigit of the Meal Chest, Brigit of the Hearth Fire...”)  I always give the Cross to the Groom of Bride, reminding him of his role and responsibilities in the domestic arrangement.   At this point you might have noticed that a woman about to be married is called Bride, just like the Goddess. This is not a coincidence.  On that day, the woman is the daughter of, the acolyte of Brigit, the personification of the the Goddess.  You could call the bride a “Domestic Goddess”, literally.

Brigit’s Shrines 

There are many sites in the west dedicated to Brigit (and a few to Mary) which are clearly pagan, Celtic Christian or Catholic (and probably all three).   In Scotland there are just over 300 known about today, from wells to churches. Cille Bhrìde, Kilbride and Kirkbride are all variations on the name.

This picture from the national monuments record is of St Bride’s Chapel in a somewhat remote part of Argyll, not far from where I used to live.  Little is known about this church, but it is speculated to be from the 1300s and to have fallen into disuse when the national religion changed from Catholicism to Protestantism in the reformation of 1560.

A theme of interest from my tour guests over the years, particularly the women, has been “the Goddess in the Landscape”, meaning the earlier venerations of female deities found in the grander canvas of Scotland’s west coast.  Brigit strikes one as being the last expression of a feminine-centred appreciation of mountains, rivers and glens.  I have and will continue to take pilgrims to tucked-away shrines to the Goddess / Saint in our ventures into the remote parts of Scotland (Western Isles, Inner Isles and so on).

(Pic: A roadside shrine to Mary in Ireland, from RoaringWaterJournal)

Depictions of the Goddess

Much of this description of Brigit sounds historical, but the resilient nature of this feminine force means she is alive today.  

This is Brigit depicted by Hamish Douglas Burgess, Celtic artist and piper.   Some of you have had the benefit of his artistic perspective on our tours recently as a co-guide.  In writing about this artwork, Hamish says

“Tradition has it that she walks the earth Imbolc eve, and the portrait shows Bride with her white wand and open mouth said to “breathe life into the mouth of dead Winter, and bring him to open his eyes to the tears and smiles, the sighs and laughter of Spring” (Carmina Gadelica Vol.1).”

and

“Brigid is the triple goddess of Smithcraft (with Celtic warriors invoking her protection before battle) represented here by the hammer and tongs; Healing represented by the serpent (still seen on the medical staff of today); and Poetry and the Arts represented by the smoke coming from the fire of inspiration on her head.”

You can find more about Hamish’s art here:  http://mauiceltic.com/gallery.htm

At this time of year, I particularly like the temporal notion of Brigit that Hamish describes here

“Another symbol of Brigid is the Serpent, who at this time of year was said to come out of her hole, like the badger, to see if the warming weather will affect her winter sleep.  A fine frosty day forbode more winter ahead, but a cloudy day meant the quick end of winter. This tradition continued in the Americas, with European settlers seeing this habit from a new animal, and is now Groundhog Day.”

May Brigit hold you in the palm of her hand this spring.

(Pic: St Bride’s Kirk, Atholl, from Undiscovered Scotland)

(Pic: gathering luachar for making Bride’s Crosses.)

[elementalbird-blog]

Saint Bride

St. Bride  1913 John Duncan (1866-1945)

Studies and finished Work

[yesyouwantthis]

St. BRIGID Brigit of Kildare Patron Saint of Ireland, Babies, Midwives, scholars, infants hand pressed metal CABOCHON in Brass Charm / Pendant by Yesware11 on Etsy!

[esperinos-gr-blog]

Νέο άρθρο δημοσιεύθηκε στο ΕΣΠΕΡΙΝΟΣ ☦

New Post has been published on http://esperinos.gr/is-saint-brigid-really-a-celtic-goddess/

Is Saint Brigid Really a Celtic Goddess?

I recently enjoyed a very nice post for Saint Brigid’s Day, on the New Liturgical Movement website. Yet I was saddened to see the first comment stating that the person thought the cult of Saint Brigid of Kildare had a pagan origin. Not that I am criticizing the individual who raised the issue, for the notion that Saint Brigid is really a Celtic goddess has become such an accepted and unquestioned “fact” that when I first began my research a few years ago, I fully expected to find a body of irrefutable evidence for the link between the two. I was, therefore, genuinely surprised to find that when the sources and origins of this thesis are examined there is actually no firm evidence behind it, certainly none that would constitute the “smoking gun” that puts it beyond dispute. Instead, the sources on which it is based do not inevitably lead to the conclusion that Brigid the saint inherited the name, festival and attributes of the pagan goddess. Moreover, the idea that saint and goddess are the same entity can be traced back, not to far bygone ages, but to Victorian scholars heavily influenced by the historical and cultural factors that shaped their own age. The concept has even been given iconographic expression in our own times in the illustration above, originally sourced here, , from an article entitled Goddess or Saint, Multi-tasking Brigid is a True Inspiration. The image shows a prayer card of Saint Brigid, printed in Italy and widely available in Ireland, which shows her dressed as a nun, holding her abbatial staff, clasping the cross close to her heart and framed by a scene of her church and the floral emblems of white lilies and roses to symbolize her purity. Although it is not shown here, the reverse of this card contains a quotation from the closing paragraphs of the Homily on Saint Brigid from the Lebahar Breac, describing her as “the prophetess of Christ and the Mary of the Gael”. The other image shows a modern pagan illustration of the “triple goddess”, a title which the author explains arises from her subject’s patronage of “three important skills: poetry, healing and smithcrafting”. So, let’s begin with this “triple goddess” and try to see whether the evidence does in fact confirm the link between the saint and the goddess suggested by the picture.

The main source for the triple goddess is the 9th-century text, Sanas Cormaic, Cormac’s Glossary, attributed to the King-bishop of Cashel, Cormac ua Cuilennain, who died in 908. The 19th-century scholar Whitley Stokes published an edition of this text in 1862, which includes the gloss on Brigit:

Brigit, i.e. a female poet, daughter of the Dagda. This Brigit is a poetess, or a woman of poetry, i.e. Brigit a goddess whom poets worshipped, for very great and very noble was her superintendence. Therefore they call her goddess of poets by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit, woman of healing, Brigit, woman of smith-work, i.e. goddesses, from whose names with all Irishmen Brigit was called a goddess. Brigit then, i.e. breo-saigit, a íiery arrow. [1]

On the face of it, this goddess does not seem to have any obvious link to the Christian foundress of Kildare. Indeed, there is a separate entry for Sanct Brigit in the Glossary which reads Sanct Brigit .i. naem Brigit indsin, “Sanct Brigit i.e. St. Brigit this”. Might not this suggest that rather than identifying the goddess with the saint, Cormac instead distinguishes between them?

Cormac’s Glossary is also often quoted in connection with the pagan festival of Imbolc. The author of the article on the multi-tasking goddess saint confidently asserts that “Brigid played an important role in the Celtic festival of Imbolc..” Yet in reality, evidence to back up this statement is lacking. As my 2009 post Saint Brigid and Imbolc looking at the analysis by Christina Harrington, pointed out:

The saint’s feast day fell in Imbolc, the official start of spring in the native Irish calendar. Cormac’s Glossary has an entry on imbolc, defining it as ‘the time the sheep’s milk comes”, but does not identify the festival with Brigit. Care of sheep was a specifically women’s activity in early Ireland, and there are stories of Saint Brigit shepherding and making dairy products, but it must be remembered that the girl, as the daughter of a slavewoman, is portrayed doing what non-noble girls would do normally. Nowhere, in fact, is Imbolc said to be the festival of the goddess Brigit, and beyond that, the goddess’s attributes do not include sheep care. It is only the connection to women that is marked. [2] [Emphasis mine]

A similar note of caution is sounded by Professor Ronald Hutton in his examination of the ritual year. He cites as a source a secular tale, Tochmarc Emire, the wooing of Emer, which although dealing with the pre-Christian hero Cú Chulainn, was composed in the 10th or 11th century. At one point in the tale Emer has occasion to name the main seasons of the calendar and one is named as “Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring’s beginning”. Hutton goes on to add:

The festival must be pre-Christian in origin, but there is absolutely no direct testimony as to its early nature, or concerning any rites which might have been employed then. There is, in fact, no sign that any of the medieval Irish writers who referred to it preserved a memory of them, and some evidence that they no longer understood the meaning of the name itself.[3]

Once again the claims that the goddess Brigid was central to the festival of Imbolc, or that the customs once associated with Saint Brigid’s Day in Ireland are direct pagan survivals, cannot readily be substantiated from the sources.

Another common claim, which supposedly proves our saint’s true pagan origin, centres around the burning of a perpetual fire at Kildare, tended by 19 virgins and with a protecting hedge around it which prevents men from entering. The source of this information is the 12th-century Norman chronicler, Gerald of Wales. Gerald claimed that this fire had been going since the days of Saint Brigid herself. Now other sources do testify to the existence of a fire in the later medieval period, which was extinguished first on the orders of the Archbishop of Dublin in 1220 and finally as part of the Reformation suppression of the monasteries. I would accept, therefore, that it is entirely plausible that Gerald saw a fire at Kildare in the 12th century. We have only his word, however, that it went back to the time of Saint Brigid and his claim, written six centuries later, is not confirmed independently by any of her Lives or by any other other source. If fire was such an important part of the cult the saint supposedly inherited from the goddess, why should this be? Professor Hutton, who otherwise agrees with the basic premise that Saint Brigid became conflated with a pagan goddess of the same name, is nevertheless as a professional historian rightly cautious about going beyond what the sources support. Noting that the goddess, contrary to the claims neo-pagans make, “was not especially associated with fire” and noting the absence of any mention of the fire from the 7th-century Life by Cogitosus, suggests that “it is possible, therefore, that it grew up between the 7th and the 12th centuries as a derivation from the meaning of the saint’s name”. [4] Here it is important to remember that fires are recorded in the medieval hagiography of other Irish saints, some of whose names also have a link to fire, as for example Saint Molaise. It is thus possible that for some reason, as yet unresearched, there was something going on in the 12th century which brought the burning of fires at the shrines of Irish saints into focus in the sources. If that is so, it might provide a different context for the fire at Kildare, one free of the pagan overtones inevitably associated with vestal virgins and men entering the sanctuary at their peril, despite the fact that Kildare was once a double monastery for both men and women.

Where the sources are frustratingly silent, imagination has, and still continues, to fill in the gaps. One of the most extraordinary examples is to be found in the writings of R.A.S. Macalister (1870-1950), a pioneering Irish archaeologist. In a 1919 paper on the remains of the pre-Christian site, the Hill of Tara, he mentions that some of our native saints, whilst he does not deny their historicity, nevertheless have had their names “confused with other names which by reason of a much longer history, stretching far back into the unknown abysses of pagan ages, had made a deeper impression on popular memory”. Having started off his discussion with two male examples (Saints Ibar and Senan), he moves on to the example par excellence:

A case even more remarkable than the two above cited is that of the foundress of the nunnery of Kildare. There was doubtless here, in pagan times, a college of priestesses who tended a perpetual fire, and who (presumably with orgiastic rites resembling those of the Gaulish priestesses of Sena) honoured the fire-goddess Brigid, this divinity being immanent in the sacred sun-oak which gave to the place the name that it still bears. Probably the head of the college was regarded as an incarnation of the goddess, and so bore her name, as the kings of Temair bore the name of Eochu. But one of the succession came under Christian influence, and, embracing the Faith of the Cross, she accomplished the tremendous feat of converting the pagan sanctuary into a Christian religious house a work in its way far more wonderful than the miracles with which her biographers credit her. It is no detraction from the honour due to her for this achievement, that she could not quite rid the establishment over which she presided of all its pagan vestiges; «the bright lamp that lay in Kildare’s holy fane» still «burnt through long ages,» not, as Moore foolishly says, of «darkness and storm,» but of Christian Faith and Works. And though it is most probable that she herself changed the official name «Brigid» which hitherto she had borne (for no Christian lady would willingly continue to bear a name so heathenish while paganism was still a force), it was too deeply rooted in the folk-memory, and continued to be used locally to designate her. [5]

With his use of the terms “priestesses”, “orgiastic rites”, “sun-oaks” and “fire-goddesses”, we can see the clear influence of the Victorian scholarly conviction that early Irish Christianity preserved “primitive survivals”. What is striking, however, is that Macalister produces not one shred of hard evidence to back up his view of Kildare as a place where paganism lived on beneath a thin veneer of Christianity. He says that there was “doubtless” a college of priestesses who “presumably” had Gaulish-style orgiastic rites and whose head was “probably” considered the incarnation of the fire-goddess. These are some pretty big assumptions.

In a fascinating examination of the changing fortunes of Saint Brigid in the 19th century, modern scholar Catherine McKenna has traced the origins of the type of thinking that lies behind Macalister’s views. She identifies the continental Celticist, Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville (1827-1910), as instrumental in placing the figure of Brigit in a mythological rather than a hagiographical or historical setting. His 1884 work,Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique marks the first time that Dr McKenna has seen an explicit identification of the triple goddess with the saint of Kildare made in print. Page 145 of this text makes what is now a familiar claim:

… Brigit, goddess of the pagan Irish, was supplanted in the Christian era by Saint Brigit, and the Irish of the Middle Ages transferred in some way to this national saint the cult that their pagan ancestors had addressed to the goddess Brigit. [6]

I can’t help noting the use of the vague term “in some way” (en quelques sorte) to describe the transference of the pagan cult to the Christian saint by the medieval Irish. It seems to me that right from the start this “dual Brigit” thesis has been set forward with a great deal of imprecision. Sadly, this has not prevented it from being embraced wholeheartedly ever since, but things may at last be changing. Dr McKenna makes this valuable suggestion to other scholars:

A recognition of the historical conditions that give rise to our current assumptions about the origins and development of the cult and hagiography of St Brigit, of course, tells us nothing about their actual origin and development. It does, however, suggest that we might profitably re-examine the concepts that have become axiomatic, and question the usefulness of repeating the commonplace that Saint Brigit is a euhermerized divinity. [7]

I believe that this is sound advice for Christians too. Let’s stop unthinkingly throwing in references to the goddess when speaking of our national patroness. Instead, let’s firmly separate her from the unsubstantiated claims of neo-pagans and stand up for our Saint Brigid, the Prophetess of Christ and Mary of the Gael.

References

[1]Whitley Stokes (ed.), Three Irish Glossaries (London and Edinburgh, 1862). Translation from the preface, xxiii-xxiv.

[2] Christina Harrington, Women in a Celtic Church – Ireland 450-1150 (Oxford University Press, 2002), 63-4.

[3] Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun – A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford University Press, 1996), 134.

[4] Ibid, 135.

[5] R.A.S. Macalister, “Temair Breg: A Study of the Remains and Traditions of Tara”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 34C (1919), 340-341.

[6]Translation from Catherine McKenna, “Apotheosis and Evanescence: The Fortunes of Saint Brigit in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” in J. F. Nagy ed., The Individual in Celtic Literatures, CSANA Yearbook 1 (Dublin, 2001), 79.

[7] Ibid, 97.

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