DUBLIN – The aligned festivals (one Christian and one Pagan), of Candlemas and Imbolc, have just passed and in Eire, some of the relics of St Bridget have been returned to Kildare for the first time in a thousand years.
As we noted in our Imbolc edition of Pagan Community Notes, Ireland now celebrates the new bank holiday, St. Brigid’s Day or Imbolc, which symbolizes the beginning of spring. The holiday was declared official two years ago by Taoiseach (then Tánaiste) Leo Varadkar saying, “The first Monday in February will be a new public holiday, Imbolc or Saint Brigid’s Day.” The Taoiseach added, “It’s the first public holiday to be named after a woman, also a Christian saint and marks the traditional start of the Celtic new year” and that public workers will have “the day off and full pay for the day.”
St Bridget and the Irish deity Bride, celebrated by modern Pagans, are closely related, although their origins, and the exact relationship that they bear to one another, are lost in the mists of history, although conventional understanding has it that much of the lore around St Bridget comes from an earlier goddess, co-opted when Ireland became Christianised. As the Irish goddess of healing, smithcraft, poetry and fire, Bride’s festival is the 1st February, or Imbolc. Her centre is at Kildare in Ireland, where a sacred flame is still lit in her honour, and some believe that she had a human incarnation in the form of St Bridget, who is said to have spent time in Glastonbury before returning to Ireland. Many Christians, however, believe that St Bridget and Bride are separate entities (and do not, obviously, believe that Bride is a goddess).
St Bridget, Eire’s first native-born saint, is said to have died in 524 CE and was buried in Kildare. As befits a saintly individual, there are many stories of Bridget’s generosity to the poor and afflicted during her lifetime, for example, giving her father’s jewel-encrusted sword to a passing leper to sell. She was granted permission to become a nun rather than marrying, and when the King of Leinster granted her some land, equivalent to the amount that her cape would cover, he found to his dismay that Bridget’s cape magically expanded to encompass a large area, sufficient to build a large monastery. She was also renowned for being the inventor of brewing beer.
A Saint Brigid’s cross, made from rushes from County Down [Culnacreann, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0
Her grave, along with that of St Conleth, became a popular shrine for many years and a number of holy wells around the country bear her name. Later, however, her remains were moved an unmarked grave, close to those of St. Patrick and St. Columba in Downpatrick, County Down, after the Vikings arrived in Ireland around 800 CE. Clerics feared an attack on Kildare and the desecration of Bridget’s remains, hence the move. The location of the grave was then lost, being rediscovered in the 12th C by the Bishop of Down, and Bridget’s remains went on tour, being taken to Europe. Part of those remains, a fragment from the saint’s skull, went to Portugal with three Irish knights. In the 1930s, part of this fragment returned to the Brigidine Sisters elsewhere in Ireland and was stored in a little metal reliquary, in the form of an oak tree (a tree linked with Bridget), and it is this relic which has come home to Kildare.
The relic was due to return to Kildare on Sunday, January 28, with a procession starting from the Solas Bhride Centre in Tully at 10:30 a.m. led by three girls on ponies, representing the Irish knights who are said to have taken the bone fragment to Portugal, and arriving at St. Brigid’s Parish Church in Kildare Town for a special mass at 11 a.m. The relics are now on permanent display in the parish church. Solas Bhride itself is a Christian spirituality centre organised by the Brigidine Sisters in Kildare, and its mission is to welcome “people of all faiths and of no faith.”
Brigid’s Well – Kildare – courtesy s. bustamonte 2006
The Chairman of Kildare tourism board, David Mongey, told the press that bringing the relics back to Kildare had been a “long process.” Mongey commented “The relics of St. Brigid have not been in County Kildare for nearly 1,000 years. This year is the 1500th year of the passing of the saint and what could be more special than to bring St. Brigid’s relics home, where she belongs? She built her church in Kildare and her legacy as a peacemaker and a protector of nature is still as relevant today as ever. It has been a long process to finally bring her relics back to the county and together with my colleagues at Into Kildare, we would like to thank Kildare County Council and the Brigidine sisters for their great work in bringing Brigid home.”
Mongey also told the press, “What amazes me is, 1,500 years later, she’s still remembered with love in Kildare and Ireland. Her words, her wisdom, and her actions mean more today than they ever did, when you think about how we treat our land, how we treat our environment, how we treat our animals, how we treat each other, and how we treat ourselves.”
The return of the relics marks part of the celebrations of Brigid 1500; observances around the globe which focus on 1st February, commemorating the 1500th anniversary of the saint’s death.
Brigidine Sister Rita Minehan, one of the founders of Solas Bhride, said “We are sending out a message that we actively oppose warfare in our world and the proliferation of arms. It’s rather frightening what’s happening in our world. It’s sorely in need of peace, and Brigid was renowned as a peacemaker.”
Herstory Logo
Other events in honour of St Bridget are being organised in Eire in 2024 by the artistic and educational group Herstory, a multi-disciplinary storytelling group that promotes female role models and has succeeded in establishing Brigid’s Day as an Irish national holiday. Interfaith minister Reverend Treacy O’Connor noted, “Brigid is the bridge, crossing the threshold from Goddess to Saint, Celtic to Christian, North and South, winter and spring, water and fire, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern.”
In addition, as part of the celebrations, there have been minutes of silence and the formation of a large Bridget’s Cross on the Curragh Plains, formed by thousands of students. But the celebrations have not just been Christian, with Wiccans and other Pagans also marking Imbolc and the 1500th anniversary of Bridget’s death in their manner.
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