Saint Brigit

Irish abbess

• Born: c. 450
• Birthplace: Faughart, near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland
• Died: February 1, 0525
• Place of death: Kildare, Ireland

Brigit founded the first Christian religious community of women in Ireland at Kildare which became the most important religious center in Ireland and was a leader in the Irish church.

Early Life

Brigit was named after the chief Celtic goddess Brid (or Brig), the goddess of fire and wisdom, who was also the patron of song and poetry, the flames of knowledge. Unlike the biographies of some other saints, the biographical data on her life is inferior. What is known comes from the tradition found in hymns and poetry. Saint Ultán’s hymn from the seventh century devoted to Brigit is perhaps the oldest hymn in the Irish language. The oldest life of Brigit was composed in Irish and in meter by Saint Broccan, who died in 650. A Latin verse version was composed between 650 and 690 by a Kildare monk and Brigit’s biographer, Cogitosus (Vita prima sanctae Brigitae; On the Life of St. Brigit, 1878). This is the earliest extant life of any Irish saint and possibly the first written, but it consists principally of a collection of pre-Christian folktales dealing with the marvels of the goddess Brid retold in a Christian context. Subsequent lives of Brigit are attributed to Saint Ultán, Saint Aileran, and the monk Coelan.

Most of the history of Brigit’s life must be drawn from these miracle stories, many of which mirror the miracles of Jesus, albeit with an Irish touch. She is said to have healed lepers, restored sight to the blind, and helped to speak those who previously could not. The religious kernel of the stories, however, is Brigit’s faith and trust in God and her tremendous compassion for and care of the needy. The miracle stories also are replete with accounts of wonder-working associated both with animal and human fertility. These legends could have been incorporated to embellish the life of Brigit or to transform Brigit into a Christian replacement for Brid. In Cormac’s Glossary (ninth century; Sanas Chormaic; 1868), Brigit is transformed into a pre-Christian Celtic goddess. She is identified as the daughter of Dagda, the “good god,” and referred to as the goddess of poetry. Also, according to Cormac’s Glossary, Brigit’s sisters were the goddesses of smithing and healing, two activities ascribed to the patronage of Saint Brigit by the Christian tradition. The imagery of sun and fire in early Brigitine sources leads some to assert a connection with traditions of a goddess of sun or fire. However, sun and fire have an important role in Christian symbolism.

Though the stories of Brigit are partly made of Irish legend, she certainly existed as a person. The church at Kildare was for centuries an important episcopal center under female governance, under her leadership and, later, her influence.

Even though there are discrepancies in the early accounts of Brigit’s life, several seventh century sources claim that her mother, Brocca, was a Christian slave in the court of her father, Dubthach, a chieftain of Leinster. A late eighth or early ninth century life of Brigit in both Irish and Latin, which Oliver Davies called “The Irish Life of Brigit,” asserts that Brigit was raised in the house of a Druid and through her piety and miracles not only freed her mother from slavery but also affected the conversion of the Druid. Brigit, according to “The Irish Life of Brigit” and in accord with aspects of the saga tradition of pre-Christian Ireland, was brought by her father to Dúnlang in Leinster to be sold as a slave to the king because Brigit had angered her stepmother by giving too much to the poor. While her father was meeting with the king, Brigit gave his prized sword to a leper. When her father took her to task for giving away the sword, Brigit responded, “Even if I had the power to give the whole of Leinster, I would give it to God.” When the enslaved Brigit was miraculously restored to her father, the king of Leinster affirmed “Truly, Dubthach, this girl can neither be sold nor bought.” After returning to her father’s house, Brigit, according to “The Irish Life of Brigit,” rejected a suitor but told him where to find a suitable replacement and bestowed on him the gift of blarney to enable him to win her heart. When Brigit’s brothers, anxious to obtain a dowry, insisted that she marry, she defaced herself. Her father then relented and consented to her taking the veil as a consecrated virgin and dedicating her life to the Lord.

Life’s Work

Brigit took the veil from Saint Mac Caille, a disciple of Saint Mel of Armagh, either at Uisnech, a place with mythological associations as the “navel of Ireland,” or at Croghan (now in County Offaly). She lived with seven other virgins at the foot of Croghan Hill. She took her vows before Saint Mel. Also, “The Irish Life of Brigit” claimed that Mel, “intoxicated by the grace of God,” did not realize that he was reading the wrong rite and instead of consecrating Brigit as a virgin “consecrated Brigit with the orders of a bishop.” Mel then affirmed, “Only this virgin in the whole of Ireland will hold Episcopal ordination.” Cogitosus described Brigit journeying across the plain of Mag Breg “in the manner of a bishop.” Nevertheless, when a pagan, who had offered Brigit and her companions hospitality, agreed to be baptized, Brigit said “there is no man in orders with me.” It is said that she sent a messenger to Saint Patrick so that a bishop or priest might baptize him. Patrick then told Brigit not to go about without a priest serving as her driver. (This story is meant most likely as an assertion of patriarchy. Patrick, who died in 461, would have been unable to give Brigit this directive.)

Around 468 Brigit and Mel’s pupil Mac Caille went with Mel to Teffia in Meath. About two years later she moved to Druin Criadh, in the plains of Magh Liffe, where under a large oak tree, the site of a Druid sanctuary, she built her convent of Cill Dara (church of the oak), now in County Kildare. She extinguished the ritual fire of Brid and kindled a Christian replacement dedicated to Christ, Light of the World. This replacement was faithfully tended until it was extinguished by agents of Henry VIII. Brigit, who had been given the authority of abbess by Mel, founded two monasteries, one for females and another for males. Under the leadership of Brigit, Cill Dara became a religious center and eventually a cathedral city. Cogitosus wrote that the church founded by Brigit was “the head of almost all the churches of Ireland.”

Brigit undoubtedly played a unique role in the Irish church. She selected Saint Conleth, a hermit, and called him from his solitary life to serve as bishop of Kildare. Some have asserted that it was she who gave him canonical jurisdiction. Cogitosus unambiguously stated that Brigit selected Conleth “to govern the Church along with herself.” He wrote that they “established their chief church in felicitous and mutual cooperation.” Her actions and authority established the precedent for the church in Kildare to be led jointly by the abbot-bishop and abbess. Because of Brigit’s prestige among the Irish, the abbess of Kildare was regarded as the superior of all religious houses for females in Ireland. The abbess of Kildare also exercised jurisdiction over the monasteries in the southwest of Ireland until the suppression of the monasteries by the English after the Reformation.

Brigit made Kildare a center of scholarship and a school of art that produced both ironwork and remarkable illuminated manuscripts. The most famous of these was the Book of Kildare (sixth century; English translation, 1911). In the twelfth century Giraldus Cambrensis praised the book as incomparable. Unfortunately, the book disappeared following the Reformation.

Brigit died at Kildare on February 1, 525. Saint Ninnidh gave her the last sacraments and was thereafter known as Ninnidh of the Clean Hand, because he reputedly had his right hand encased in metal after he had used it to anoint the dying Brigit. Brigit was buried on the right side of the high altar of the cathedral in Kildare, and her tomb became a popular pilgrimage site. Around 878, because of Viking raids, Brigit’s remains were moved to Downpatrick in County Down in the north of Ireland, where they were placed, as legend tells it, with the remains of Saint Patrick and Saint Columcille. In 1185, the relics of Brigit, Patrick, and Columcille were solemnly entombed in Downpatrick cathedral.

Significance

Through the school she founded at Kildare, Brigit contributed to the preservation of literate culture in Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Because of Brigit’s powerful personality and the role she played in the founding of Kildare, her successors as abbesses at Kildare continued to play a significant role in the church in Ireland. Brigit, whose recognition for sanctity preceded her death, was venerated from her death as a saint and became with Saint Patrick and Saint Columcille one of the three most important saints of Ireland. The ninth century Book of Armagh (Liber Ardmachanus; 1913) considered Brigit and Patrick “the columns of Ireland.” The veneration of Saint Brigit became an integral part of the social and cultural life of Ireland. Her feast day, February 1, occurs at the time of the ancient Irish festival imbolc, a fertility festival, fertility being intimately connected with her veneration. Many rituals and articles of folk art, such as the brideog, a figurine of Brigit, are associated with the arrival of spring in the Irish countryside.

Bibliography

Catháin, Séamas Ó. The Festival of Brigit: Celtic Goddess and Holy Woman. Dublin: DBA, 1995. Discusses Saint Brigit’s Day and Brigit as a Celtic deity.

Curtayne, Alice. St. Brigid of Ireland. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954. A traditional saint’s life that does a very good job of placing Brigit in the context of the Ireland of her day.

Davis, Oliver, trans. Celtic Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. A very useful sourcebook with a good historical introduction. Includes chapters on the tradition of Brigit and the power of women within Celtic spirituality.

De Paor, Liam. Saint Patrick’s World: The Christian Culture of Ireland’s Apostolic Age. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993. Contains a translation of Cogitosus’s On the Life of St. Brigit and an informative chapter, “Women Founders of Churches.”

Sharpe, Richard. Medieval Irish Saints’ Lives: An Introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Connects Brigit’s life to traditions of earlier pre-Christian Irish mythology.

Staunton, Michael. The Story of Christian Ireland: From St. Patrick to the Peace Process. Dublin: Emerald Press, 2001. Discusses Ireland before Christianity and the lives of Brigit and other saints.