Feasting on the story of St. Bridget
In Ireland, we celebrate St. Bridget’s Day on February 1st – the first day of spring. Her legacy is a cross of reeds, but there was much more to the woman and myth than we know.
Author Felicity Hayes-McCoy unravels St Bridget’s story of Irish legend, tradition and girl power.
Saint Brigid’s cross. Photo: Wikipedia
As a child in Dublin I remember searching for the first primroses in the garden, and making a St. Bridget’s cross each year to hang above the hall door. Traditionally, the crosses are woven from rushes but, being an urban child, I suspect mine may occasionally have involved bendy plastic drinking straws.
In truth, St. Bridget’s Day is a festival more associated with the countryside than the cities. And it’s a perfect example of how myth and legend mingle and survive in Ireland, and how shared memories, reaching back across millennia, still preserve an oral culture rooted in Irish earth.
It’s said that Bridget was a pagan, the daughter of a slave, who was baptised by St. Patrick, became a nun and, because of her great piety, was appointed abbess of Kildare. Her Christian story is full of miracles and wonders. She lives on the milk of a pure white cow. She cures infertility in women and animals. She miraculously doubles a housewife’s store of butter and increases a farmer’s herds of cattle and sheep.
Embroidery of a fire goddess
There are stories in which Bridget controls the weather and others in which water touched by her hand can heal the sick. And her Christian legend is full of images of fire. As a child I was told she could hang her cloak on a sunbeam. Later I read about a flame that kept burning for centuries in St. Bridget’s shrine in Kildare. Wonder tales like these are often associated with medieval saints. But in Bridget’s case they’re also links and clues to St. Bridget’s ancient genesis in Ireland’s Celtic past.
There may have been a real St. Bridget, or several holy women who shared that name. But the stories associated with the saint are echoes of the ancient, international, story of the Good Goddess, who appears in Celtic myths under many names. Where I live now, on the Dingle Peninsula, she’s called Danu, and her name survives in the Irish language name for the end of the peninsula, which is Corca Dhuibhne. It translates as The Territory of The People of The Goddess Danu.
The ancient beauty of Coumeenoole Beach on the Dingle Peninsula
Danu’s people were tribal Celts who brought her worship with them to Ireland along with their skill as herdsmen and their knowledge of farming crops. Danu was their fertility goddess whose powerful energy revitalised the earth each year in spring. There are stories of seeds waking to the pressure of her feet, and flowers springing up where her cloak touches the fields. She was a powerful personification of fertility and in Celtic mythology, her marriage to the shining sun god Lugh combined the elements of light, heat and water which brought life to the fields in springtime. Danu’s name means ‘water’. Without water nothing can grow so, for the Celts, she was an image of the essence of life itself. And she’s the prototype of the medieval St. Bridget, who controlled the weather, cured infertility, blessed the housewives’ labour and increased the farmer’s herds.
St Brigid’s Cathedral Grounds, Kildare
St. Bridget’s crosses woven from rushes are still hung over doorways in Ireland. For thousands of years they’ve invoked protection and blessing on households and animals. In the Christian tradition, the cross has four arms and recalls Christ’s crucifixion. But in some early images of Bridget the cross has three arms, recalling more ancient votive tokens that represented the sun. Linked by powerful images of fire and water, generosity and hope, Danu and Bridget symbolize patience and certainty in the face of anxiety and apprehension. Their stories enshrine Ireland’s centuries-old respect for the earth and traditions of food production and farming.
As a child looking for the first primroses of spring on St. Bridget’s day, I was enchanted by the idea of a saint who hung her cloak up on a sunbeam. Now I’m fascinated by the fact that the Christian legend of St. Bridget preserves the deep respect for balance that informed the pagan Celtic worldview. According to legend, St. Bridget founded two monastic institutions in Kildare, one for men and the other for women. They were equally important and co-dependent as centres for worship, art and scholarship. It’s a perfect echo of the balance expressed in the marriage of the sun god and the earth mother.
Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s memoir of her personal relationship with the Dingle Peninsula, The House on an Irish Hillside, is out now. You’ll find chat about the Irish language, myth and life in Dingle on the book’s Facebook page.
Lovely. Someday, I will get to Ireland, land of my ancestors.
That was a lovely story. I had always heard the name, but never the story. Thank you, Felicity.
Isn’t her name spelled “Brigid”?
Brigid, Brigit, Danu, St. Brigit has been worshipped longer than any other figure in modern history. As a Pagan Goddess of fertility, the keeper of the home fires and armory, to the Saint we know today. While visiting Ireland be sure to visit “Brigit’s Well and take home a “Brigit’s Cross,” to hang above your doorway!
I have been three times and especially felt a presence of Irish “history” and myth on visiting Dingle. I hope to move someday soon and Dingle would be my choice! Thanks for such a lovely story. It’s sealed my decision!
Having visited the magical, mystical Dingle Peninsula two years ago, I can understand the spiritual pull of this beautiful land. All around I felt the melding of pagan and Christian traditions. I felt my Irish grandmother with her lilting Irish brogue and the tradition of strong women.
My grandparents who hailed from County Monaghan told me many stories of Eire. The tale of St. Bridgid was one of those. I have seen many variations on her name throughout my life, so I am not certain as to which is actually accurate. I did however enjoy reading this.
Oh, lovely article
We visited Dingle and Ireland, and when we visited the Cliffs of Moher, a local told us of a St Brigid’s well a few miles south, we drove down and there was a statue of her in glass overlooking the water. Underneath was a well, stone walls were lined with things people left behind. Anyone know the name of the place we were?
My youngest daughter had made her confirmation two years before and taken Brigid as her confirmation name. She had been suffering my unknown arm pains, etc and gotten to the point of wearing a wrist brace. We went and prayed and she dipped her arm and medal in the well, next day she felt much better.
My mother was born & raised in Ireland & her name is Bridget Macklin. My first trip to Roscommon was on an Air Lingus flight, the plane’s name was St.Bridget. I was told my mother seeing me off was left standing while crying, saying ‘she’s (me) in good hands’.
memories of St. Bridgit’s well outside Ardmore
I see Brigid as part of the Great Goddess and Earth Mother, ‘St Bridget’ being Christianity’s attempt to cover up and, at least, sanitise the pagan rituals and ways of life linked to a more elemental, natural-earth way of living.
To answer Marleneaa’s question above…sounds like you were in Liscannor, Co. Clare. I have a photo of that glass covered statue/well taken while on vacation in 2005.
My grandmother Bridget Gavin Sarsfield was born in Ballina, Ireland. I never met her but heard about her life from my mother, who
was number 12 of Bridget’s children. I would so like to know more about her family. It has been a long time since I tried to research her family but when I did I found very little and no one in Ireland seemed to be able to help either. Hoping that things have changed, I’d be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
Gerrie (Geraldine) Power Sears
[...] Ireland our St Bridget is celebrated on 1 February. According to Feasting on the story of St. Bridget she was a pagan, the daughter of a slave, who was baptised by St. Patrick, became a nun and, [...]
A lovely Story I never heard it so well said.
Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Gerry, regarding your grandmother, Bridget Gavin Sarsfield from Ballina.
We publish a monthly free genealogy eMagazine, if you go to http://www.irishlivesremembered.com and click on MAGAZINE tab at the top, scroll down to the August edition (photo of a married couple on the front) and this has many pages on tracing your MAYO ancestors, if you go to page 35 there is a list of links/resources and many other articles from Mayo to help with your family research. Good luck with your endeavours. Eileen Munnelly, Publisher of Irish Lives Remembered Genealogy eMagazine.
Dear Gerry: l loved reading about Saint Bridget.. Living in the U.S.. I’m just now starting to trace my Irish family roots on my Mothers side. I know that my Great grandparents came from county Cork and I think there was a Bridget in the bunch. I picked Bridget for my Confirmation name.
It was lovely reading about her. I have never been to Ireland, but it is on my bucket list! Thank you so much for the story. After reading it I am even happier that I chose so wisely and so well. Jennifer