Brigid of Kildare

From New World Encyclopedia

For Saint Bridgid of Sweden, see Bridget of Sweden.

Brigid of Kildare
Stbrigid.jpg

Virgin, abbess, inspirer
Born 453
Died 524
Venerated in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism
Feast February 1
Patronage babies; blacksmiths; boatmen; cattle; chicken farmers; children whose parents are not married; dairymaids; dairy workers; fugitives; infants; Ireland; Leinster, Ireland; mariners; midwives; milk maids; newborn babies; nuns; poets; poultry farmers; poultry raisers; printing presses; sailors; scholars; travelers; watermen[1]

Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (also: Brigit, Bridget, Bridgit, Bríd or Bride - c. 451–525) was an Irish nun, abbess, and founder of several convents and a school, who is venerated as a saint.

Named after the most powerful pagan goddess, she is considered one of Ireland's three patron saints along with saints Patrick and Columba. Her feast day is February 1, the traditional first day of spring in Ireland. She is venerated by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans. At the Kildare Abbey, the beautifully illuminated Book of Kildare was created, although some think this lost book is actually the existing Book of Kells.

Biography

Because of the legendary quality of the earliest accounts of her life, there is much debate among many scholars and even faithful Christians as to the authenticity of her biographies. The earliest extensive life of Brigid is the Vita Brigitae of the monk Cogitosus of Kildare, which is variously thought to have been written between the mid-seventh and early centuries.

Early life

Brigid is traditionally believed to have been born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. According to her some accounts, her father was Dubhthach, a pagan (possibly Druid) chieftain of Leinster, and he mother was Brocca, a Christian Pict who had been baptized by Saint Patrick. Other sources, however, suggest that Brigid's mother was in fact Portuguese, kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave in much the same way as Patrick had been.

Brigid was named after one of the most powerful pagan deities, Brigid, the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song, craftsmanship, and poetry, which the Irish considered the "flame" of knowledge.

Whether she was raised a Christian or converted in 468, as some accounts say, is uncertain, but she is said to have been inspired by the preaching of Saint Patrick from an early age. Despite her father's opposition she was determined to enter religious life. Numerous stories testify to her piety. She reportedly had a generous heart and could never refuse the poor who came to her father's door, dispensing milk and flour to all and sundry. Her charity angered her father, however, who thought she was being overly generous to the poor and needy. When she finally gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper, Dubhthach realized that her disposition was indeed best suited to the life of a nun. Brigid thus finally got her wish and she was sent to a convent.

Brigid and professed vows dedicating her life to Christ and received the nun's veil from Patrick's nephew Saint Mel. About 468, she followed Mel to the kingdom of Teathbha which was comprised of sections of modern Meath, Westmeath and Longford.

Bronze statue of Saint Brigid of Kildare (1850)

Brigid is believed to have founded her first convent in Clara, County Offaly. Other foundations followed. Around 470 she founded Kildare Abbey, a double monastery, for both nuns and monks, on the plains of Cill-Dara, "the church of the oak." There, her cell was made under a large oak tree.

According to the legend, the elderly Bishop Mel, as he was blessing Brigid as abbess, inadvertently read the rite of consecration of a bishop, which could not be rescinded under any circumstances. The story spread that Saint Mel was inspired by God to make her a bishop, and Brigid thus became known as the only female bishop of the early Catholic Church. When the legend is true or not, Brigid and her successor abbesses at Kildare held an authority equal to that of a bishop until the Synod of Kells-Mellifont in 1152, which reformed the administration of the Irish churches.

Sainthood

Madonna and Child from the Book of Kells, either a similar illuminated book or the same book as the Book of Kildare

Brigid's small oratory at Cill-Dara (Kildare) became a center of religion and learning and eventually developed into a cathedral city. She appointed the future Saint Conleth as pastor over the monastery, although it is disputed whether she also made him bishop of Kildare. Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superioress-general of the convents in Ireland.

Brigid also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the lost Book of Kildare (unless it was the existing Book of Kells, as many suppose), which elicited high praise from chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146 – c. 1223). According to Giraldus, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, leaving the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill."

Brigid was famous for her common sense and most of all for her holiness. Even in her lifetime she was already regarded as a saint.

Death and remains

"La chapelle Sainte-Brigide" in Fosses-la-Ville

She died at Kildare around 525 and was buried in a tomb before the high altar of her abbey church. After some time her remains were exhumed and transported to Downpatrick to rest with the two other patron saints of Ireland, Patrick and Columba (Columcille). Her skull was extracted and brought to Igreja de São João Baptista (Lumiar) Lisbon, Portugal by three Irish noblemen, where it remains. There is widespread devotion to her in Ireland where she is known as the "Mary of the Gael" and her cult was brought to Europe by Irish missionaries, such as Foillan, in the centuries after her death. In Belgium there is a chapel (7th-10th century) dedicated to Sainte-Brigide at Fosses-la-Ville and Sint Brigid is the patron saint of the Dutch city of Ommen.

Saint Brigid's Cross

Legend has it she made the cross from rushes she found on the ground beside a dying man in order to convert him. It is interesting that this legend does not appear in any of the oldest sources and to this day its origin remains lost in the oral tradition.[2]

Saint Brigid's Cross or Crosóg Bhríde

Nonetheless, it remains the custom in many houses in Ireland to have a Saint Brigid's Cross in honor of the saint. The cross takes many forms and is technically classed by folk crafts experts as a "'plaited corn dolly," although the technologies utilized can extend beyond plaiting to weaving and other forms.

Other of these forms such as, the "God's eye," appear in other cultural contexts.[3] According to tradition a new cross is made each Saint Brigid's Day (February 1), and the old one is burned to keep fire from the house, yet customs vary by locality, and family. Many homes have multiple crosses preserved in the ceiling-the oldest blackened by many years of hearth fires. Some believe that keeping a cross in the ceiling or roof is a good way to preserve the home from fire which was always a major threat in houses with thatch and wood roofs.

Connection with pagan Brigid

That she shares both her name and her feast day with those of the earlier pagan goddess Brigid may indicate that Saint Brigid is partially a fictional creation based on the pagan figure in order to convert Celts to Christianity; the euhemerization of pagan figures and tradition was a common practice of Christian missionaries. However she may merely have been named after her. Given the struggle Christian missionaries faced in their efforts to preach the Gospel in Ireland, even though they Christianized some elements, the adoption of a pagan goddess into the Communion of Saints may have been an effort to Christianize one of the most enduring pagan goddesses. Most historians say that she was a real person whose life was embellished by imaginative hagiographers, and this seems the most likely scenario. Evidence for a political purpose and function of the stories comes from detailed political analysis which demonstrates that they have been created or at least manipulated to document the power of Kildare over surrounding regions.

Differing biographies

Pilgrim's prayer, from St. Brigid's well, Near Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland

Various biographies written by different authors, give conflicting accounts of her life, however three of those biographies agreed that she had a slave mother in the court of her father, Dubhthach, a king of Leinster. Perhaps the most ancient account of her life is by Saint Broccan Cloen:

Saint Brigid was not given to sleep,
Nor was she intermittent about God's love;
Not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek for
The wealth of this world below, the holy one.

One of these accounts, the "Life of Brigid," dates from the closing years of the eighth century, and is held in the Dominican friary at Eichstatt in Bavaria. It expounds the metrical life of Saint Brigid, and versified it in Latin.

Another life of the saint is attributed to Coelan, an Irish monk of the eighth century, and it derives a peculiar importance from the fact that it is prefaced by Saint Donatus, also an Irish monk, who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824.

A text page from the Book of Armagh, describes Brigid's friendship to Saint Patrick.

When dying, Brigid was attended by Saint Ninnidh, who was afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent it ever being defiled after administering the last rites to "Ireland's Patroness."

As to the historical Brigid, it seems that Faughart was the scene of her birth. Faughart Church was founded by Saint Moninne in honor of Brigid. The old well of Brigid's adjoining the ruined church still attracts pilgrims. 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 Elphim. Her friendship with Saint Patrick is attested by the following translated paragraph from the Book of Armagh, "Between Patrick and Brigid, the columns of the Irish, 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 miracles."

Legacy

Brigid died leaving a cathedral city and school that became famous all over Europe. In her honor, Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan wrote a hymn commencing:

Christ was made known to men
On our island of Hibernia
by the very great miracles
which he performed
through the happy virgin of celestial life,
famous for her merits
through the whole world.

She was known as "the Patroness of Ireland" and "Queen of the South: the Mary of the Gael" by a writer in the "Leabhar Breac."

Brigid was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her. Over the years her shrine became an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, February 1. 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 June 9 of the following year were reinterred in Downpatrick Cathedral. At Armagh there was the little abbey church known as "Regles Brigid," which contained some relics of the saint, destroyed in 1179, by William Fitz Aldelm.

Brigid is known for being the only bishop of the early church in Ireland.

Statue of St. Brigid at St. Martin's church (Cologne)

In addition, Brigid is highly venerated by many Orthodox Christians as one of the great Western saints prior to the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. Her feastday, as in the West, is February 1, although churches following the Julian calendar (as in many Orthodox countries) celebrate her feast on February 14, the corresponding date on the Julian calendar.

In Ireland today, after 1500 years, "Mary of the Gael" remains a popular saint, and Brigid remains a common female Christian name. Moreover, hundreds of place-names in her honor are to be found all over both Scotland and Ireland, e.g. East Kilbride, Kilbride, Brideswell, Tubberbride, Templebride, etc. Places named Brideswell and Tupperbride commemorate in their names the presence of a sacred well ("Tobar" in Gaelic) dedicated to Brigid or her pre-Christian antecedent. Brigid's hand is preserved at Lumiar near Lisbon, Portugal, since 1587, and another relic is at St. Martin's in Cologne.

See also

Notes

  1. Saint Brigid of Ireland at Patron Saints Index
  2. Bladey, 2000.
  3. Ibid.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bladey, Conrad. Brigid of the Gael. Linthicum, Maryland: Hutman Productions, 2000. ISBN 9780970238603
  • Connolly, S.J. The Oxford Companion to Irish History, Oxford University Press, USA, 2007. ISBN 9780199234837.
  • Esposito, Mario. "On the Early Latin Lives of St. Brigid of Kildare," Hermathena 24, Dublin: Ireland, Trinity College, 1873-1935. OCLC 1752025
  • Harrington, Eileen M. Brigit: goddess and saint, examining Cogitosus' Life of Brigit, Thesis/dissertation: Manuscript Archival Material, Pacific School of Religion, 2000. OCLC 48105100
  • McCone, Kim. "Brigit in the Seventh Century: A Saint With Three Lives?," in Peritia 1, (journal) Medieval Academy of Ireland, 1982. OCLC 9271498
  • Meehan, Bridget Mary, Gail Donovan, Mary Minehan, and Dolores T Whelan. Holy women - healing wells a Celtic sacred journey: St. Brigit of Kildare, a woman ablaze with God's womb-compassion, (DVD video) Falls Church: Va, GodTalk Foundation, c 200. OCLC 197335963
  • This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

External links

All links retrieved November 25, 2008.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.