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There are many different theories about St. Brigid's life. We did extensive research in the local library. We had a guided tour of the graveyard where St. Brigid's Well in Faughart is located. We also visited St. Brigid's Shrine, where we heard the different myths about St. Brigid, which are explained below. These tours were given by local historian and guide, Mr Hugh Smyth.

One Possibility.....

Brigid's story begins in 453 AD. She was born the illegitimate daughter of Brocessa, a slave girl, and Dubthach, a pagan chieftan of Faughart, which is situated just 2 miles from Dundalk. Both Brigid and her mother were banished from Faughart after she was born, but she returned as a young woman to be reclaimed by her father as was customary in those times, but Brigid was never accepted by her stepmother who tried to sell her to the King of Leinster.

The King of Leinster, himself a Christian, persuaded her father to grant her freedom, which he did and on gaining her freedom Brigid went in search of her mother Brocessa. On finding her ill, Brigid insisted on taking over her mother's role as a slave of the household. Her master, a druid, was amazed at this and granted her mother her freedom, so Brigid, having arranged to have her mother looked after, returned to Faughart.



St. Brigid's Shrine


Stone with imprint of St. Brigid's eye

 

Brigid was extremely beautiful and had many suitors, among them a poet whose rank in Celtic Ireland was next to roytalty. Her father, who was arranging the marriage, would not listen to Brigid's protests, so she prayed that God would take away her beauty and tradition relates that Brigid's skin was destroyed by a horrible disease. Legend has it that she cast her eye and fired it against a stone, which left an imprint.

It is also said that her long hours kneeling in prayer left the marks of her knees in the rock.

Faughart became a place of pilgrimage by people of a Christian faith. The rite of episcopal conservation was read over Brigid by mistake so she became, in a sense, a female bishop. This rite was never revoked, as the bishop who professedher said that it was an act of God. She became abbess of her monastery in Kildare and died on the 1st of February 524 AD at the age of 71. Her remains are now entombed in the same grave as St. Patrick and St. Columcille in Downpatrick.


Split in stone wfrom whip meant for St. Brigid


Visiting the Shrine
The custom of making St. Brigid's crosses may have been a christianised version of a celtic ceremony connected with food production at the beginning of Spring. The crosses were usually made from straw and rushes, although reeds and wood were occasionally used. When Irish people converted to Christianity they sometimes brought ancient traditions with them. Myths surrounding St. Brigid's life have similarities to those of Brigid, the celtic godess of fertility.

 

The actual making of the cross came about while Brigid was attending the sick bed of a pagan chieftain. She was trying to convert him to Christianity and used the rushes from which his bed was made, to make a cross. The fact that her well is said to rise on her feast day may also be connected back to Celtic mythology.


Source: Hugh Smyth, County Museum, Dundalk


One type of St. Brigid's Cross - from County Derry

 

Another Possibility....

The main significance of the feast of Saint Brigid's on February 1st would seem to be that it was a christianisation of one of the focal points of the agricultural year in Ireland, the starting point of preparations for the spring sowing. A relaxation of the rigours of winter weather was expected at this time, for, according to tradition, the saint had promised.

"Gach ré lá go maith
ó'm lá - sa arnach
agus leath mo lae féinigh."

Every second day fine
From my day onward
And half of my own day

St. Brigid was one of the great trio of saints - along with Patrick and Columba - who laid the foundations of the Celtic Church. She was born about 453 near Umeras, in Co. Kildare and died about 523. Her father was a pagan prince named Dubthach and her mother was Brocerna, a Christian slave in his household.

The cult of St. Brigid is still vigorous in Ireland. She is known as the patron of farmers, of artists and of students. On the eve of her feast day, February 1st crosses made of rushes woven together are placed in Irish homes, blessed and hung up in cow-sheds or byres to invoke her protection for the following year.

For those who lived near the sea the spring tide nearest to her festival was known as "Rabhastha na féile bride" and was believed to be the greatest spring tide of the year, and the people were quick to take the opportunity of cutting and gathering seaweed to fertilize the crops and collecting shellfish and other shore produce.

In many places certain kinds of work were prohibited on the feast day and instead the inhabitants of parishes dedicated to the saint usually kept the day as a holiday and instead preformed devotions at the local shire of the saint.

The housewife made sure that the house clean and tidy for the occasion and no matter how poor the household, always provided a festive supper or at least some tasty dish on St. Brigid's Eve - apple-cake dumplings and colcannon were favourite foods at this time.

There were various ways of indicating that her visit to a house or farmyard was welcome. There are traditions of placing a cake, bread and butter, water or pieces of meat on the willow-sill outside as offering to her. After she had passed by there acquired curative properties and were kept to relieve sickness.

The lengthening day too, was welcome to people whose artificial lighting was limited. There was a saying which ran "On St. Brigid's day, you can put away the candlestick and half the candle."


The most common type of St. Brigid's Cross


Source: The Year in Ireland - Kevin Donagher

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