Much of the history surrounding saints is often vague, sensationalized, or at the very least overstated. Such is the case with St. Brigit, Mary of the Gaels (450-524,5,6,8?). Myth and history combine to present us with the image we have of her today. Little reliable information is known about the person of Brigit ni Dubhtach. What information we do have about her is found in the annals of. Much of the biographical information was written on handed down tales that began with little or no research backing them up besides the stories monks and nuns that knew her could tell. In this orally passed down history, many of the actual facts were embellished due to a lack of historical fact.
The writings of a monk named Cogitosus from the late seventh century tell of the influence which the monastery she founded, Cell-Dara, had but read as though they were written by a devotee of Brigit rather than by a historian. Most scholars agree that there may have been one other biography before Cogitosus. Two other biographies exist from the ninth century written by Ult n bishop of Ardbreacan (d.657) and Aileran the Wise (d.665).
Regardless of the source, the actual facts are blended together with the myths of the Celtic goddess Brigit. Though they render an inaccurate picture of who precisely St. Brigit was, in the blending we can see the rich culture and tradition of the Celts that is enshrouded by the religious piety of the Catholic church. First we will take a brief look at the Celtic druidic lore of Brigit and follow with the more widely known Catholic tales of the saint Brigit.
Her name connotates a meaning of goddess or the exalted one in the Celtic tradition and is known from Gaul to Britain.. Literally it translates to Fiery Arrow which may be derived from her cult's association with fire and the sun. She was the patroness of learning, healing, craftsmanship, poetry and fertility and is often associated with Dana the mother of the gods. In other Celtic lore, Brigit is the daughter of the Dagda and is referred to at times as both one and three goddesses. She married a half Fomorian named Bres who was ruler over the Tuatha D‚ Danaan. They had three sons named Brˇan, Iuchar and Iucharba.
St. Brigit was venerated throughout the whole of Ireland. She was invoked for divination, prophecy and women in childbirth. In Leinster she was the territorial goddess (Green, p50). Her cult was well known for fertility rights. On Imbolc (February 1) her feast day is celebrated which has carried over into the Catholic tradition.. This is date is one of the four annual Celtic celebrations that coincided with the bringing in of the ewes for milking and the festival of spring.
Where the line between Celtic and Catholic traditions is drawn is so vague that it is nearly indistinguishable. What we are able to notice clearly is the alteration from pagan practices in worship of her to Christian traditions of emulating her, but even this is not fool proof in its scope. Many Celtic cultural nuances remain in the legends surrounding her.
St. Brigit was born to a slave of Dubhtach, a chieftain and druid in Faughart Louth in Connacht during 450. She is said to have been born on the first day of Spring neither inside, nor outside of a house which appeared to be ablaze to onlookers. Angels came down to visit, baptize and name her which they did with the name meaning Fiery Arrow. After recognizing her as his daughter, Dubhtach sent her to a female druid's house to be raised. While there she was fed only on the milk of a red-eared cow that was set aside by the druid. This is important as the animal is a druidic symbol from Tir na Nog or the Otherworld where the fairies lived.
Brigit settled at the bottom of Crogham Hill where St. Mel of Ardagh gave her abbatical powers in 468. It was here that she founded the monastery of Cell-Dara (Kildare, or church of the oak tree, another strong Celtic symbol) in 460 with the help of a monk named Conl ed. Cell-Dara was the only location with a double monastery, housing both nuns and monks, in Ireland. Though this location may well have been a pagan site before this, Cell-Dara soon became a regional center for learning and piety and grew into a cathedral city. St. Brigit based many of her travels from there out into the countryside to give aid to the poor and sick.
At Cell-Dara the Celtic custom allowing women to teach was followed and St. Brigit oversaw the monastery as abbess. She and nineteen other nuns tended a sacred fire there that was not allowed to go out from her time until the 1180's. The line of abbesses itself continued only until 1171.
On a visit to a sick friend, St. Brigit while ministering to them reached down and picked up two pieces of straw from the floor of the cottage. As she prayed for healing she wove a simple square-braided cross and hung it in the rafters over the bed. Soon after the friend recovered and the whole household was protected from disease. This simple cross design is now often duplicated and called St. Brigit's cross.
Her well, which is near the sea, was the sight of pilgrimages of sick or crippled people from Corcomruadh, Kinvara, Burren and other cities from western Ireland. Contained in this well was a small spotted fish that only came out every seven years. Those who saw it were healed of everything that ailed them. (Lady Gregory, p21)
St. Brigit, like many other saints, was celebrated for visions, and miracles. Tales are told of her ability to make the amounts of foods multiply without end. Once as a young girl at her father's house she was fixing five pieces of bacon for an important visitor when a hungry dog came to the smell of the cooking bacon. Feeling sorry for the animal, St. Brigit gave it one of the pieces. This of course did not satisfy the poor beast's hunger and so she fed it another. When her father came to check on her progress and saw her feeding the dog he asked her if she had finished preparing the meal. St. Brigit had him count the number of pieces of bacon and they found the original number still cooking (Lady Gregory, The Coole Edition, p15).
A tale is told of her being able to make beer that was so plentiful at Easter time that one measure of it was enough for seventeen churches. Though she swore herself to virginity, the goddesses influence added a very strong symbol of fertility in her.
Another story is told of her filling butter dishes up with a small portion of butter she had churned until there remained no more vessels and still the small churning remained. At another time she received the Seven Bishops to her house but had nothing to feed them with. She prayed for help since she felt sorry she could not offer such visitors some sort of food. Angels appeared to her telling her to milk her cows for the third time that day. When she did so, she filled all of the milk pails and more that were brought to her and they overflowed so much that the Lake of Milk was made from the extra. (Lady Gregory, p16)
Besides feeding multitudes like her beloved Saviour, St. Brigit healed those sick that were brought to her as she could. When a leper came to ask her to pray for a cow for him, she asked if he wouldn't rather be healed. No sooner did St. Brigit pray to God than the leper was healed. She was also credited with weaving the first cloth in Ireland with white threads that could heal.
Other than healing, St. Brigit was able to do other miracles. She is said to be able to detect those who were especially corrupt sinners by smelling sulphur when near them. There was also a time when a woman came to her and asked for salt. Not having any, St. Brigit prayed and turned and turned a stone into salt to give the woman. When her cloak became wet as she travelled from her flock of sheep to greet St. Brennian, another saint of the Gael, she took her cloak off and hung it upon a sunbeam to dry and soon after, St. Brennian hung his servant's cloak in the same way.
When St. Brigit died on February 1, 525 (some texts cite her death as early as 523 and others as late as 528) her body and relics remained only a short time at Cell-Dara before they were exhumed and moved to Downpatrick in 878. There they were buried with St. Patrick whom she had met at Telltown only shortly before her death, and St. Colmcille (Columbkill). Her cult was started by missionaries and pilgrims who involved her name in ecclesiastical calendars, folk beliefs, martyrologies, and practices that affected areas of Scotland, Brittany, Northern France and Belgium, Southern Germany and Switzerland and into Northern Italy. This cult blending of pagan and Catholic traditions helped to further blur the line of Christian and Celtic personalities.
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