Brigid

A Goddess and a Saint

Brigid is a deity who can be seen in many different cultures. She is believed to have been Brigantia in England, Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Wales and France. She is thought to be the same goddess who was worshipped at Bath in ancient Britain as well as the patroness of countless springs and wells in Ireland. The Romans were quick to identify in Brigit their own favored goddess Minerva, or Pallas Athene, the maiden aspect of Athena. Indeed, she is still worshipped widely in Ireland under the veil of Saint Bridget.
Brigit was born in the instant between night and day and as she rose with the sun, a beam of flame was said to have sprung from her forehead. It is this legend that hints that perhaps she was once considered to be a sun deity. That she was born on a threshold is a very import aspect of the legend. The ancient Celts were fascinated by in-between places such as shores, the instant of sunrise, the instant season change, doorways, and other places that lay instantaneously between two places while being in neither.
Despite her image as a mother goddess, Brigid is seen as the daughter of Dagda, "The Good God." She was married to Bres, who had a brief and tragic stint as the king of the Tuatha. Together, the two produced a son, Ruadan, who was slain by the goldsmith Govannon.

Brigit is a goddess of fire, smith craft, childbirth, poetry, water, and healing. She is sometimes seen as a warrior, spear in hand. She was known as "Bright Arrow," "The Bright One," "the High One," "the Powerful One," "Lady of the Shores," and, because of her associations with spring, "Brigid of the Green Mantle." It was Brigid who was credited with originating Ogham, whistling, and after the death of her son, the custom of keening for the dead. The Irish Banshees that wail for the deaths of men are said to embody part of Brigid's soul.

All these responsibilities can be a touch overwhelming, even for a goddess. It is said that she had the aide of her two sisters, who also went by the name of Brigid. It is said that one sister is in charge of poetry and inspiration. It is this sister that is said to have created the Ogham alphabet. The second sister rules over the healing arts, herb crafts, and midwifery. It is this sister who bestows fertility, brings life to the Earth every spring, and guards children. The third sister holds sway over the fires of the hearth, smithies, and other similar crafts. It would be this sister who would forge and carry her spear into battle.
Everywhere that the goddess walks, it is claimed, she leaves behind a trail of newly sprung shamrocks and flowers. It is said that in her shrine it was always springtime and that her cows were never dry. These latter things reflect her connection to fertility.

Her connections to healing connect her to waters, as does her cauldron of inspiration. It is for this reason that Celtic countries, particularly Ireland, are filled with springs and wells baring the name of Brigid. Offerings to Brigid, such as coins or rings, were cast into these wells (leading to the modern tradition of making a wish and casting a penny into a fountain) to bring luck and the lady's blessing.
One popular tale of Brigid's springs and her healing powers involves two lepers who came to one of her sacred wells to be cured. The goddess met the men and instructed that one was to bathe his companion until the other's skin healed at which point they would switch tasks. The first leper then bathed his companion until his friend's skin grew well again. However, the second leper was now repulsed by the disease that he had just been cured of and refused to touch his companion to bathe him. At this point, the goddess struck the man again with leprosy and cured his companion.

The most famed temple of Brigid was located in Kildare, Ireland. It was serviced by nineteen priestess who took turns attending her perpetual flame for one day apiece. (The number nineteen is significant for the are nineteen years in the Celtic Great Year when the color and lunar calendars coincide.) On the twentieth day the fire is said to have been miraculously tended by the goddess herself. Some claim that the priestess were life long virgins who never came into any contact with men as even their supplies were brought by women. Others write that they were not this extreme and though the priestesses never married they were allowed to chose men to "associate" with and to have children. This shrine was to become a nunnery dedicated to Saint Brigit in later years.

When the Catholic Church came to Ireland, they encountered great resistance in the name of the goddess Brigid. Since they could not maintain hope of converting the island by telling them that their beloved goddess was a foul demon, they decided instead to accept her as Saint Bridgit, patroness of smith craft, poetry, and healing. She was not the first deity to be canonized by the Catholic Church, nor is it odd that many of the myths attributed to the goddess now became deeds of the saint. Saint Brigid of Ireland bears much resemblance to Saint Ffaid of Wales and Saint Bride of Scotland.

The Catholic Church explained that Brigit was never a goddess but an early missionary sent into Ireland. The common people misunderstood her saintly miracles and hence misconstrued her to be a deity herself rather than a servant of God.

Such was the Irish love of Brigit even after the Catholic conversion that they would have placed her as the mother of god. Of course, everybody knew that the mother of god was Mary, so Brigit was portrayed as his foster mother. She had maintained her connection to childbirth and hence it became a common tale that she had been Mary's midwife at the birth of Christ even if the Bible had somehow overlooked her presence. It was even told that when Mary went to church for purification after the birthing she was met by a mass of curious well wishers and in her shyness managed to slip into the building only after Brigit donned a crown of candles and provided a distraction.

The officially sanctioned story was that Brigit had been an Irish woman, possibly a daughter of nobility or druidry, who had foreseen the coming of Christianity, converted early, and been baptized by Saint Patrick. She went on to become a nun and to found the Abbey at Kildare. Oddly, she is said to have held the power of naming local Bishops and, even more curious, to require her Bishops to be goldsmiths.

One of the most popular tales of Saint Brigit deals with a trip to the local king to beg for land for her abbey. The king made a rather rude jest and snidely told her that she could have all the land her cloak could enclose. Saint Brigid went to the site she had chosen and unraveled her cloak to encircle the lands she wanted. The king was vastly annoyed by this, but stood by his word to the woman who had outwitted him.
In the Brigit's Abbey, the nuns continued the practice of perpetual flame that had presided over the old temple. This continued for hundreds of years, until in 1220, a certain Bishop took offense at the no-male pollicies of the nunnery. He held that men are superior to women and hence the nuns must open their Abbey to the leadership of priests. Charging that they must be inspected, said Bishop attempted to force his way into the Abbey. The nuns refused him entry insisting that any such inspections be held by female officials, not males. With the support of Rome, the Bishop decreed that the eternal flame kept in the Abbey at Kildare was a pagan atrocity and that it must be extinguished. Eventually he won, the flame was doused, and the nuns became the subjects of priests.

In the 1960's the Vatican undertook a major "house cleaning" movement to remove some of the Saints. Brigit was among this number. The Church argued that there was insufficient proof of Brigit's sanctity or even her existence and so she was decanonized. This has done little to deter the love the Irish hold for her and although it has now become difficult to obtain images of the Saint outside of Ireland, they still abound in Ireland.

A Good Source for More Information on this Goddess and Her Holiday, Imbolc on February 2nd.