Brighid’s return from the Otherworld

Today 1st February is Lá Fhéile Bríde, Brighid’s Day. It is of course also the traditional Gaelic festival of Imbolc or Imbolg, marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and the first day of spring.

The festival was Christianised and adapted as the feast of St Brigid yet many rituals still associated with the Saint’s Day clearly betray their pagan Celtic origins. 

Brighid is said to return from the Otherworld on 31st January, the eve of Brighid’s Day; after sunset she will emerge to walk the land bestowing protection, fertility and health on people and animals. But it is not only Brighid who returns after dark. 

It is also the night the Good People will emerge from the hills as the veil between the two worlds is breached. In some areas of Ireland a sheaf of corn or an oat cake were left outside on Brighid’s Eve to thank the Good People for the harvest and to ensure forthcoming good luck. 

On the dawn of Imbolc light from the rising sun enters several Neolithic mounds (passage tombs) including the Mound of the Hostages at Tara and strikes a slab at the back if the tomb as if opening a doorway to the world of the ancestors.

Brighid is said to be the only saint to return annually and her appearance on the eve of the fire festival, Imbolc, is testament to her roots going back to the ancient Celtic goddess.

There are many folk traditions associated with her return on Brighid’s Eve in Ireland, one well known custom is the Brideog procession in which a straw doll is paraded from house to house.

Brideog procession by Niamh Ní Ruairc (Wytchwood Creations) 

Another tradition is that a piece of cloth, known as the Brát Bhride (Brigid’s cloak), that is put outside at sunset on 31st January. The Brát Bhride which consisted of a ribbon, a garment, or a piece of linen, was typically placed on a nearby bush, or a window sill or tied to the handle of the front door. The colour of the Brát Bhride varied on the area, often it was a piece of red ribbon tied outside the door.

The brát is left over night and at sunrise, damp with the dew, is said to have been touched by Brighid during the night who would bestow it with healing properties which remained in the cloth, becoming more powerful over time.  The brat must be lifted before sunrise and in some areas washing it was forbidden. The brát would be laid on people to heal various ailments, curing infertility in women and easing childbirth. It is also said that wearing the brát would prevent young children from being carried off by the Good People. 

This tradition of a cloth being bestowed by the Goddess as she sweeps the land on her annual return from the Otherworld on the eve of her festival day may have a basis in the claim that it was Brighid who wove the first cloth in Ireland and worked into it white healing threads which were said to have kept their healing power for centuries. 

Sources:
Seán Ó Duinn, The Rites of Brigid: Goddess and Saint, Columba Press, 2005.
Brian Wright, Brigid: Goddess, Druidess and Saint, The History Press 2009. 

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St Brigid and the Blue Glass Bowl

St Brigid
Brigid personifies the remarkable survival of a pagan Goddess into the 21st century. Born in the mid-5th Century as daughter of a Druid she developed into a Goddess yet today, the 1st February, she is celebrated as Saint Brigid, patron to many including blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, held in such high esteem in Ireland She is second only to Saint Patrick. In the Celtic calendar it is Imbolc and marks the start of the light half of the year when days begins to lengthen and grow warmer. It is a favourite time of the year when nature awakes after the long dormant dark days of winter; bulbs are starting to come into flower, buds are ready to burst on trees and shrubs.

The night before, St Brigid's Eve, 31st January, corn dollies known as the Brideog (little Brigid) would be made by young girls and unmarried women, adorned with ribbons. They would all gather in one house and stay all night with the Brideog. The following day the Brideog would be carried through the neighbourhood, calling at house to house, where the girls would receive offerings such as food or coins. Households would leave a piece of cloth outside for Brigid to bless as she walked the earth. In the morning the cloths are brought inside and believed to possess powers of healing and protection recived from the Goddess. St Brigid Crosses would be manufactured from rushes and placed above the door on the outside of the house to provide protection from fire and evil.

We find Brigid sites predominantly in Ireland but also across the British Isles from the many churches dedicated to Her, but also ancient burial chambers such as the Bridestones on the Staffordshire-Cheshire border. But one of the most peculiar stories associated with a St Brigid site is at Bride’s Well near Glastonbury in Somerset.

This land between The River Brue and Wearyall is known as Beckery, granted to Glastonbury Abbey by the Saxon king Cenwealdh in 670AD. Debate continues to the origin of the name; it may be derived from the Old English name for ‘Bee-keeper’s Island’ (Beocere) or from the Gaelic for ‘Little Ireland’ (Becc-Eriu). The later explanation fits well with the story of St Brigid at Glastonbury a tradition that the Saint stayed at Beckery for a short period and left relics behind. A stone marks the site of Bride’s Well and  a gentle rise is named Bride’s Mound. 

Archaeological excavation has uncovered a Chapel at Beckery with evidence indicating a monastic community lived there. Arthurian legend claims King Arthur visited the chapel at Beckery after experiencing a recurring dream while staying at a nunnery on Wearyall. At the chapel he met the Virgin and Child, an encounter which led to the change of his coat of arms as described in the account of King Arthur’s eighth battle at Guinnion from the Historia Brittonum.

The Blue Bowl
However, the strangest story associated with Beckery is a mysterious blue glass bowl found in Bride’s Well, which some have described as the true Grail of Glastonbury.

Dr. John Arthur Goodchild qualified as a medical practitioner in 1873 and started his practice in Cannes, France. In 1877 Goodchild moved his practice to Bordighera in Italy. It is here he purchased a blue glass bowl and platter in 1885. He took these to a glass specialist at the British Museum in London who was puzzled by the techniques used in the manufacture and their origin but thought it was indeed very ancient. He took them to his father’s house at Hampstead and locked them away in a cupboard where they remained for the next ten years.

Goodchild had a strong interest in spirituality and religion and believed that the Divine was feminine and the West would witness a spiritual revival led a woman, or group of women. This was published in his book “The Light of the West” (1898).

A year earlier in 1897 Goodchild had a psychic experience while in Paris. He found himself paralysed, unable to move he heard a voice which informed him that Jesus had actually owned the bowl, still in his father’s cupboard. The voice told Goodchild to take the blue bowl to Bride’s Hill, Glastonbury, but not until after his father’s death. The objective was, he was told, for the bowl to pass into the possession of a woman when new spiritual truths were to be revealed.

Shortly after, on his return to Bordighera, Goodchild received news that his father had died. He returned to England in 1898. The platter he passed on a family in Italy but kept the bowl which he duly took to Glastonbury. He followed the instructions received in the vision and placed the blue glass bowl in a muddy pond at Glastonbury. This was a lost well near the rising ground at Beckery known today at Bride’s Mound. He returned to Hampstead and told no one of what he had done.

Beckery (www.friendsofbridesmound.com)

Goodchild journeyed back to the pond at Glastonbury every year between 1899-1906, except 1905, and was convinced the blue bowl was no longer there but never checked the location where he had hid it in a hollow under a rock. He stayed in the town trying to pick up on any local news of such a discovery. He visited the pond to find the spring there had a reputation as a healing well and visitors had tied pieces of material to the nearby trees and bushes containing prayers. He noticed one tied to a Holy Thorn tree there was from one Katherine “Kitty” Tudor Pole.

In August 1906 Goodchild experienced a vision of a sword floating in the eastern sky. He didn’t understand its meaning and simply made a note of it. Then in early September he experienced a vision of a cup suspended in the western sky. He felt compelled to send a drawing of the sword to his friend Wellesley Tudor Pole, brother of Kitty, in Bristol and simply asked that it be passed on to the two pilgrims who had recently visited the well. It is not clear how Goodchild knew about the "two pilgrims" but his information was correct.

He received no further communications from the voice he had heard in Paris and was not aware that other people were starting to receive psychic messages about the blue glass bowl.

In 1902 Wellesley Tudor Pole, a young man from Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, experienced visions while ill in which he saw himself as a monk at Glastonbury. Believing that a pre-Christian culture from Ireland had spread to Glastonbury he became convinced, around 1904, that he needed to move to Glastonbury believing he would find a sacred object. He believed that the discovery would require the assistance of three maidens.

Wellesley duly passed on Goodchild’s message to Janet and Christine Allen, friends of the Tudor Poles, who had recently been to Glastonbury. Later in September they visited Goodchild in Bath and revealed how their friend  Wellesley had received a psychic message saying that they should go to a well at Glastonbury and search the waters for something. They had actually visited Glastonbury some two or three weeks before this meeting with Goodchild, around the same time he had received his visions of the sword and cup.  On the occasion of their visit to Glastonbury Janet and Christine had searched the well at Beckery and found the blue bowl in the well at Bride’s Mound, Beckery, but sensing the great sacredness of the object they placed it back in the muddy waters. On returning to Bristol they told Wellesley what had happened.

Wellesley and Kitty visited Goodchild in Bath later that month, 29th September, and he explained the whole story of the blue glass bowl. On 1st October Kitty went to Beckery and removed the bowl from the well, and with Goodchild’s consent, took it to a shrine in her family home in Bristol. They were convinced that they had found the Holy Grail.

Today at Beckery a stone showing the cross of St Brigid marks the place where the blue bowl was found at Bride’s Well. The blue glass bowl is now held by the Trustees of Chalice Well at Glastonbury, a charity founded by Wellesley Tudor Pole in 1959.




Further reading:
Brian Wright, Brigid: Goddess, Druidess, Saint, The History Press, 2009.
Steve Blamires, The Little Book of the Great Enchantment, Skylight Press, 2013.
Patrick Benham, Avalonians, Gothic Image Publications, 2nd Edition, 2006.

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St Brigid's Cross

Imbolc, synonymous with Saint Brigid's Day, is celebrated annually on 1st February. One of the four major seasonal festivals along with Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain, Imbolc is one of the oldest feasts celebrating the arrival of spring in Celtic mythology. Since the earliest of times Imbolc has been associated with the goddess Brigid, the goddess of the dawn.

Imbolc is thought to have been significant in Ireland since the Neolithic period as attested by the alignment of some Megalithic monuments.

The illumination of the passage and chamber by the sunrise on the winter solstice at the Neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange is world famous. Similar solar alignments can be found at many other passage tombs.

Newgrange

Significant that at Newgrange it is only the light that enters through the light box above the main passage entrance that reaches the back of the chamber. Recently Michael Gibbons has claimed that the light box was “fabricated” during reconstruction by Michael O’Kelly in the 1960s. But when considered with solar alignments at other passage tombs in Ireland this claim seems nonsensical.

Today celebrated on 1st February, Imbolc is considered to mark a Cross Quarter Day indicating the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, astronomically calculated to fall between the 2nd & 7th of February.

At the 5,000 year old Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara the rising sun at Imbolc enters the passageway and illuminates the chamber.

At Loughcrew a cluster of megalithic cairns are aligned to display tricks of light at certain solar festivals. A beam of light at sunrise on the spring and autumnal equinoxes illuminates the passage and strikes the backstone of the chamber at Cairn T.

But on St Brigid's Day at Loughcrew Cairn L a beam of light from the Imbolc sunrise illuminates the passage and chamber and strikes a six-foot tall limestone standing stone in the cairn.

Perhaps memory of Brigid stretches back to the days of the construction of these Neolithic mounds. Her cult is certainly ancient. Saint Brigid's Cross is one of the archetypal symbols of Ireland, while today it is considered a Christian symbol, it seems to have its roots in the pre-Christian goddess Brigid.

Brigid's Cross was traditionally made of rushes on the eve of Brigid's feast and hung on kitchen walls, over doorways and windows to protect the the household from harm, a custom that can be found surviving in many Irish homes today, although it is likely far older than Christianity.

However the tale of the creation of Brigid's Cross is somewhat confused, and there are various versions, one story goes like so:

"There was an old pagan Chieftain who lay delirious on his deathbed in Kildare (some tales say this was her father) and his servants summoned Brigid to his beside in the hope that the holy woman may calm his restless spirit. Brigid is said to have sat by his bed, consoling and calming him and it is here that she picked up the rushes from the floor and began weaving them into the distinctive cross pattern. Whilst she weaved, she explained the meaning of the cross to the sick Chieftain. It is thought her calming words brought peace to his soul; he was so enamoured by her words that the old Chieftain requested he be baptised as a Christian just before his passing.

Since that day, and for the centuries that followed, it has been customary on the eve of her Feast Day (1st February) for the Irish people to fashion a St. Brigid's Cross of straw or rushes and place it inside the house over the door."

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St Brigid at Beckery

1st February St Brigid's Day

The Causeway
The A39 road from Street to Glastonbury crosses the River Brue at Pomparles Bridge following an artificial “Causeway” through the Somerset marsh. It is here, according John Leland antiquary to Henry VIII, that King Arthur's sword Excalibur was cast into the water as he crossed to the Isle of Avalon after being mortally wounded at the battle of Camlan. The name of the bridge is said to have derived from the French pont perilleux, or “perilous bridge.”

The first stone bridge was constructed in the 12^th century to transport local Blue Lias stone from quarries at Street to rebuild the Abbey at Glastonbury after the fire of 1184. In 1881 while drains were being laid in the fields to the east of this Causeway a long forgotten ancient road was discovered running parallel to it at a distance of 50 or 60 yards. Local antiquarian John Morland observed massive horizontal oak beams and deeply-sunk oak piles just south of the river, which he considered to be the southern causeway onto the peninsula of probable Roman origin as suggested by the name Street, from the Latin 'strata' for a paved road. Roman pottery was recovered from beneath the structure and a 12th -13th century spur from the road surface.

However, carbon dating suggests that construction of the Causeway took place between 650 AD and 780 AD. From the date of Pomparles Bridge it is concluded that a Medieval causeway, connecting Street with Glastonbury island, replaced an earlier causeway crossing the Brue at the North end.

The earliest known name for the settlement at Street was “Lantokay” meaning the sacred enclosure of the Celtic saint Kea. The parish churchyard is on the first flood-free ground near the river Brue and considered one of the oldest churches in Somerset. The oval form of the large churchyard suggests a “llan” a sacred enclosure typical of an early 6th century construction surrounded by marshland.

Situated southwest of Glastonbury, below the ridge of Wearyall Hill, is a small mound known today as “Bride's Mound” where the remains of an ancient chapel have been found. Both Beckery Chapel and Street church stand 10m above sea level, significantly it would seem, at each end of the ancient causeway.

Brigid's Bell
 It is claimed that Brigid left relics here when she returned to Ireland; her purse, collar, bell and weaving instruments. Stories tell of Gildas making a bell for Brigid at her request, although it is not necessarily identified as the bell she left at Beckery. The Life of St Kea states he also received a bell from Gildas before he left Somerset for Cornwall.

In the early 20^th century a Glastonbury man purchased a wooden box in local sale which was found to contain a small bell wrapped in linen. He took the bell to the British Museum where experts described it as an ancient Celtic bell. In the 1920s the bell passed to the man's great niece who lent it to Alice Buckton who was impressed by the possibility that it may have belonged to St Brigid. In 1907 Buckton became interested in the spiritual and creative movements in Glastonbury after meeting Wellesley Tudor Pole, an occultist and visionary. In 1913 Buckton purchased Glastonbury's Tor House from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and transformed the old schoolhouse and former inn into “The Chalice Well”.  Dion Fortune, perhaps the most important figure in the revival of occultism in Britain, stayed here with Buckton and wrote about her in her book “Avalon of the Heart”. Buckton used the bell in ceremonies at Chalice Well but after her death in 1944 its whereabouts are unknown.

Alice Buckton with Bride's Bell (L) compare with St Patrick's Bell from National Museum, Dublin

Beckery
The area today known as “Beckery” (from the earliest recorded name of Beckeria) has been variously called “Bride's Hay”, “Bride's Hill” or “Bridget's Island”. However, the etymology of Beckery has caused much debate over the years. Both William of Malmesbury and John of Glastonbury call it “Beckeria, which is called Little Ireland”. Modern scholars accept this meaning giving the origin of the name as “Becc-Eriu” from the Irish “Little Ireland”. Yet, not all agree and suggest an English origin derived from the Old English “beocere” and “eg” meaning simply bee-keeper's island.

In deciding which of these derivations may be correct we need to consider why Brigid would come to Beckery. It is argued that Brigid came to visit St Patrick at Glastonbury who the Abbey claims as its own and was buried there; there is certainly a strong argument that Patrick may have been born in Somerset before being taken to Ireland by raiders. A strong Irish presence is known to have existed at Glastonbury, indeed the biographer of St Dunstan, known simply as “B”, claims that Dunstan was educated by Irish monks in the 10th century. In addition, Glastonbury sat conveniently on the pilgrimage route from Ireland to Rome.

Beth Frances makes the suggestion that monks from Wexford in south-east Ireland may have fled to Glastonbury following attacks by Vikings on their monastery. Beggerin (or Beggery) Island near Loch Garman harbour (Wexford town) shares a number of commonalties with Beckery. Frances states both are sites of early Christian monasteries, both are on islands in marshy areas but with access to important river routes and the coast.

On a mound at Beggerin is a small 13th century stone chapel surrounded by a graveyard. This island is thought to be a monastic settlement founded by St Ibar in the late 5th century. The monastery was raided by Vikings in 819/821 and closed during the middle of the 12th century. Ibar was a bishop working in Ireland around the same time as St Patrick and came into conflict over who should be the leader of the church in Ireland. However, legends associated with Beggerin Island in Wexford, appear to be as muddled as those attached to Beckery.

In the 5^th century the area around Wexford was apparently under the control of the clan Ui Bairrche and their neighbours the Fortharta. St Brigid was from the Kildare section of the Fortharta, where she founded her community at “the sacred place of the oak tree” (Cill Dara). Reports claim that a very old oak tree grew on the island at Beckery. An island in Loch Garman was known as Oak Island.

There is ample evidence of an Irish presence in south-west Wales during the 5th century, such as the Déisi. Brigid may have travelled from the Loch Garman area and arrived in south-west Wales where there is a church dedicated to the saint in the Pembrokeshire village of St Brides, the traditional spot for her arrival in Britain. It is claimed by some that she may have established a convent at St Brides, the remains of which can be seen on either side of the driveway to St Brides castle. The church as St Brides dates from the 13th century replacing an earlier chapel and cemetery that stood closer to the sea and has now been eroded away.

St Bridget's Church Brean

At Brean on the Somerset coast there is another church dedicated to St Brigid, also dated to the 13th century, but the dedication to the Irish saint suggests a possible early Celtic Christian settlement. The isolation of the church and the presence of a sacred spring coupled with its association with Brigid supports an early foundation. About a mile from the church is what appears to be a Dark Age cemetery, dated to about 650 AD, although possibly not connected to the church.

Frances suggests that Irish monks fleeing to Britain to escape the Viking raids at Wexford in the 9^th century may account for the dedication of these churches to the Irish saint, bringing with them the memory of the name of their “Little Ireland” and providing an explanation for the Irish monks who educated St Dunstan at Glastonbury.

Yet the question remains unanswered as to whether these Irish monks came to Somerset because of the Glastonbury associations with St Patrick and St Brigid, or if the monks brought tales of these saints with them?

Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/

Source:
Beth Frances, Did Saint Bridget Visit Glastonbury, 2008 (privately published).
Profits go to the Friends of Bride’s Mound.

Edited once or twice

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Brigid's Eternal Flame

One of the most complex Goddesses of the Celtic pantheon, yet Brigid is one of the most powerful religious figures of Irish history. The tales of Brigid the Goddess and Christian Saint are irrevocably entwined and impossible to separate out as fact or fable, but from elements of her Christian story we find clear indications towards a pagan origin. In the story of Saint Brigid she was said to be a Druid's daughter who predicted the coming of Christianity and was then baptised by St. Patrick. She became a nun and later an Abbess who founded the Abbey at Kildare. As Abbess, Brigid was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her area, a role not usually delegated to such a rank, oddly her bishops were also required to be practising goldsmiths.

There can be little doubt that Saint Brigid is based upon a Celtic Goddess who was presented in Christian attire by the early church fathers in order to win over her pagan Irish followers. As a pagan Goddess She is known by her many names, Bride, Bridey, Brighid, Brigit, Briggidda, Brigantia; the traditional patroness of healing, poetry and smithcraft. Her name meaning literally “the high one” or "the exalted one”.

Veneration of St Brigid appears to have incorporated many elements of a much older, possibly pre-Celtic, tradition. Sun and fire are particularly stressed in the early lives of the Saint which were no doubt based upon older sources which appear to reflect traces of ancient lore relating to the Goddess. Significantly, the Gaelic word for Kildare is 'Cill Dara', which means the 'Cell, or Church, of the Oak'. Here Saint Brigid built her Abbey around 480 AD, on a hill beside a great oak tree. This was always an important gathering place and pilgrimage site in earlier centuries; the site became the centre of a great cult of the Goddess Brigid, who presided over healing, inspiration, poetry and smithcraft. She is provider of plenty, giver of life and identified with fertility and fire. Priestesses are thought to have gathered on this hill at Kildare to tend their ritual fires while invoking the Goddess to protect their herds and to provide a fruitful harvest.

Tradition tells us that Brigid kept a shrine at Kildare, Ireland, with a perpetual flame tended by nineteen virgin priestesses, later called Daughters of the Flame. No one knows how long the flame had been tended by the priestesses, however, it is likely to have pre-historical origins. This perpetual flame was said to have been tended by nineteen Virgins symbolising the nineteen-year, metonic, lunar cycle; a period of 235 lunar months, or 19 years at the end of which the phases of the moon repeat in exactly the same order and on the same days as the preceding cycle. Needless to say, the moon was very important to astronomer-priests of pagan religions, the number 19 being found again and again throughout pagan mythologies and megalithic sites around the world. For example, at the world famous megalithic monument at Stonehenge we find 56 Aubrey Holes about a metre inside the ditch.1 Throughout mythology we find a cauldron possessing magical properties on an Otherworld island tended by nine maidens, the number nine being half a metonic cycle to the nearest whole number.

With the advent of Christianity in Ireland it quickly became apparent that the Goddess Brigid was so deeply etched on the Irish people that it would be impossible to eradicate her. The Christian solution was to make her a Saint and in the 6th century, a monastery was built on the site of the temple where the vigil of the eternal flame had been held. Consequently, a sacred fire continued to burn in Kildare from early Christian times and the custom of keeping the fire alight continued; the fire representing the new light of Christianity, the Daughters of the Flame kept her flame eternally lit, ensuring it was never extinguished.

On the north side of St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare, are the restored foundations of
Brigid's ancient fire temple. The fire was lit on the 1st February, St. Brigid’s day.
This flame was symbolically relit in 1993 and is now tended at Solas Bhride.

In the 12th century the Welsh Chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) visited Kildare and recorded that the fire of Saint Brigid was still burning and attended by twenty "servants of the Lord" a clear reference to the tradition that each day, for nineteen days, a different priestess (or nun), would keep vigil over the sacred fire but on the twentieth day Brigid would tend the flame herself. By the time of Gerald's writing the fire had been burning continuously for at least 600 years, probably several hundred more, yet had apparently never had its ashes cleaned out, yet the ashes never seemed to increase in size.

No male was ever allowed to come near the eternal flame and neither were these women permitted to associate with men, consequently all their supplies were brought to them by women from the nearby village. Thus, surrounding the fire was a hedge that no male could ever cross. One legend recalls of a man who attempted to cross the hedge and ended up going insane. Another tells of an attempt to cross the hedge but just as his leg crossed the threshhold, his comrades pulled him back. Unfortunately the leg that did cross the hedge became maimed and he was crippled for the rest of his life. No trace of this legendary hedge with magical properties has survived today, but it clearly provided protection to the flame from male invaders by cursing them to either go insane, die, become maimed, or even have their penis wither.

However, in 1220 AD, a Bishop disagreed with policy of non-admittance of men to the Abbey of Saint Brigid of Kildare. The Arch-bishop of Dublin, Henry of London, insisted that as nuns were subordinate to priests they must open the abbey to inspection by a priest. They refused and requested the inspections be carried out by a female official such as another Abbess. The Bishop was not impressed with this show of disobedience and decreed that the keeping of the eternal flame was a Pagan custom and consequently demanded that the sacred flame to be extinguished. The flame was thought to have been briefly extinguished but was quickly relit by the local people and the Eternal flame survived up to the suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth century.

It was at this time that King Henry VIII demanded the destruction of many monasteries and the Eternal flame was extinguished but never forgotten. Brigid remained the most popular Irish saint along with Patrick and on Saint Brigid's day, 1st February, in 1807, the Bishop of Kildare, Daniel Delany, commenced the restoration of the the ancient order of the Sisterhood of Saint Brigid with the clear intention to revive her legacy.

During Vatican II, the so-called modernisation of Catholicism in the 1960's, it was declared that there was insufficient proof of Brigid's sanctity or even of her historical existence; consequently the Church's gradual program against Brigid was finally successful and She was de-canonised. Today She is often called just "Brigid of Ireland" and it can be difficult to obtain images or even holy cards of Saint Brigid outside of Ireland.

In 1993 at a conference, entitled “Brigid: Prophetess, Earthwoman, Peacemaker” held in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Saint Brigid’s Peace Cross Project, Mary Teresa Cullen, the then leader of the Brigidine Sisters, re-kindled the Eternal flame in a ceremony in Kildare’s Market Square. Since then, the Brigidine Sisters have tended the flame in their centre, 'Solas Bhride' (Light of Brigid) in Kildare.

In 2005 Kildare County Council commissioned a sculpture to house the flame in Kildare Town Square. The sculpture comprises a twisted column, flourishing at the top into a bronze, acorn cup holding the flame nestled amongst oak leaves. Surely, we have come full circle with the oak leaves symbolising the Druidic element of the legend of Brigid and the name of Kildare, 'Cill Dara', the Church of the Oak.

As Breo-Saighead (Fiery Arrow), Brigid was known as The Flame of Ireland; She is clearly the best example of the survival of an ancient Goddess into Christian times; disowned by the church, dismantled by the very hands that rocked her cradle, yet still held in high reverence by the people.

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Note:
1. The number 56 is the nearest whole number to three metonic cycles; 19 + 19 +18 = 56. More accurately 3 metonic cycles of 18.61 = 55.83.

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Brigid: Goddess of the Dawn

Imbolc: Festival of Purification

The pre-Roman festival of purification known as Lupercalia became subsumed into the festival of Februra, celebrated by the Romans around the middle of the month and derived from Februus, personifying February as the month of purification. Februa was but one of many significant epithets attached to the goddess Juno, who was before other things the goddess of marriage and protector of married women. Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honour of Juno called the Matronalia. As Juno Februtis she was a purifier and fertility Goddess, especially connected with the month of February and the festivities in its latter half. The first days of each Roman month, the calends, were considered sacred to Juno, the month of June named after her. Juno had a long history of worship in Rome and was one of the three supreme deities known as the Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Minerva.

One of Juno's oldest titles carried the epithet Lucetia; as Juno Lucetia, she was the Roman Goddess of light, (Lucetia = 'Giver of Light'), a Moon-Goddess and Goddess of the Dawn and the growing light of the day. As Goddess of the light of heaven, she was by derivation the goddess of childbirth, Juno Lucina, for the new-born child brought into the light of the day for the very first time.

Practically all of the many attributes and epithets attached to Juno, hold strong similarities to the traditions and customs of Brigid, Christian Saint and Gaelic Goddess, born at the dawn, Her feast day, 1st February, synonymous with the festival of Imbolc containing the lighting of fires, purification with well water and the ushering in of the new growing season by the maiden known as the Queen of the Heavens.

Many aspects of the ancient festivals of Lupercalia and the Matronalia, carry strong similarities to the traditions and customs associated with the pre-Christian festival of Imbolc a celebration of the lengthening of the days and the first stirrings of spring to the land. Imbolc, or Imbolg, is the feast marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring usually referred to as “when the ewes are milked at springs beginning”.

In Cormac's Glossary (Sanas Cormaic c.900 AD), we find 'Oímelc', a similar term for Imbolc, denoting "the time the sheep's milk comes, milking, i.e. the milk that is milked". This has led some scholars to state that the pagan festival of Imbolc has something to do with the period of the coming into lactation of sheep. On the other hand other scholars reject this explanation, claiming this to be a false etymology based on a derivation from the term oí-melg ('sheep', and 'milk') and that the feast of Imbolc is based on an old pastoral term which simply means 'milking'. However, apart from the time of year, this does not explain the the role of milk (or milking) in connection with the festival; indeed there appears to be no evidence for sheep having a ritual purpose among the Gaelic people.

It has been argued that the meaning of Imbolc more correctly derives from the Old Irish 'imbolg' meaning "in the belly” a reference to the pregnancy of ewes. Another suggestion is that the word for Imbolc has possibly developed from the original Indo-European root *uts-molgo, meaning 'purification', this in turn developed into *ommolg, which simply means 'milking'. The festival for `purification', at this time of year would appear to have been established by association with various Roman customs, as discussed above, particularly the Lupercalia, and the goddess Juno, whose epithet februa means `purifying'. Significantly, Imbolc is immediately followed by the Christian festival of Candlemass, which marks the end of the season of Epiphany, and is also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, commemorating the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of her son Jesus. The beginning of February is unavoidably associated with purification.

Saint Brigid

Today Imbolc is also known as St Brigid's Day, an Irish festival heralding the beginning of spring. Brigid is associated with milk and is often depicted with a cow and milking stool, perhaps suggesting an ancient tradition now lost to us that linked milk at this time of year with a purification ritual.

Imbolc in the Somerset town of Glastonbury is traditionally known as the Maiden Brigid's Festival in which the Light of Illumination from Her perpetual flame is brought into a darkened room, heralding the coming of spring. Small honey and barley cakes are eaten and milk drunk in Her honour. On the first day, ears of corn gathered from the Lammas Corn Doll are planted in the ground and the dried stalks are burned, the flame releasing the life back into the earth. The ashes are spread upon the ground renewing fertility to the earth.

Brigid holds a special association with Glastonbury and is depicted on Saint Michael's tower on the Tor milking a cow. Brigid also appears on the north door of the Lady Chapel in the Abbey ruins in a carved figure and has traditional connections with the Somerset town. According to Giraldus Cambrensis and John of Glastonbury, She visited Patrick at Glastonbury during the 5th century. William of Malmesbury claimed that Brigid stayed at Beckery on the western side of Glastonbury where she founded a small chapel. Near the foot of Wearyall Hill, made famous by Joseph of Arimathea and the legend of the Glastonbury Thorn, is a small hillock known as Bride's Mound. On this mound was a spring known as Saint Bride's Well. Relics, claimed to be Brigid's, including a spindle and a bell, were left at Bride's Mound where the adjacent fields are called “The Brides.”

The Cult of Saint Brigid of Kildare 
As a saint Brigid of Kildare (c. 451–525) is one of Ireland's most important holy figures along with Saint Patrick. Brigid is associated with Kildare and many other holy wells in the Celtic lands; She is commemorated in both Ireland and the highlands and islands of Scotland. Her feast day is 1st February, the traditional first day of spring in Ireland, significantly the underlying tradition associated with St. Brigid's Day, probably originally held mid-February, is food production as a continuous process and the successful reproduction of livestock as a perennial cycle.

St. Brigid was associated with perpetual, sacred flames, such as the one maintained by 19 nuns at her sanctuary in Kildare, Ireland. According to Giraldus Cambrensis the sacred flame at Kildare was said by to have been surrounded by a hedge, which no man could cross and any who attempted to were said to have been cursed to go insane or die. The tradition of female priestesses tending sacred "eternal flames" is a feature that can be traced back to ancient Indo-European pre-Christian spirituality.

Patrick is undoubtedly a historical figure as attested by his writings, the Confessio and the Letter to Coroticus, which provided his hagiographers with reliable information, whereas writers on Brigid, such as Cogitosus of Kildare and the anonymous Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae (the so-called First Life of St. Brigit from the Leabhar Breac) and Bethu Brigte, were left no such historical texts to work from. Brigid had been commemorated in Ireland by Latin prose vitae from the 7th century onward. However, the surviving texts are known only through the numerous manuscript copies made in continental Europe. Indeed, the Life of Brigid is probably the most-copied of all the Vitae of early medieval women saints in Europe, yet no copy of the early vitae survived in Ireland.

The oldest account of St. Brigid is the hymn of St. Brogan-Cloen, said to have been composed at the request of his tutor, St Ultán of Ardbraccan, who collated all of her miracles in one volume. From this volume St Brogan recorded the miracles of Brigid in verse, which he must have composed prior to the death of St Ultan, recorded as 656 AD in the Martyrology of Donegal.

The Vita Brigitae of Cogitosus is thought to have been written no later than 650 AD, at the request of the Kildare church, and the first life of Brigid, Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae, thought to have followed about a century later. The Bethu Brigte followed in the early 9th century. Cogitosus' account has a mythological feel to it as it is made up of the many miracles Brigid is said to have performed with images of fire and sun being plentiful. In Cogitosus’ Vita he recalls the famous story of her hanging her cloak on a sunbeam, a motif probably taken from an apocryphal Continental story about the Christ child:

“As she was grazing her sheep in the course of her work as a shepherdess on a level grassy plain, she was drenched by very heavy downpour of rain and returned to the house with her clothes wet. There was a ray of sunshine coming into the house through an opening and, as a result, her eyes were dazzled and she took the sunbeam for a slanting tree growing there. So, she put her rain soaked clothes on it and the clothes hung on the filmy sunbeam as if it were a solid tree.” 

Devotion to Brigid was associated with Marian devotion and to the Irish She was popularly known as 'Mary of the Gael', and equated with the Virgin Mary. The worship of Saint Brigid has persisted up until the early 20th century with her Irish cult almost supplanting that of Mary. Indeed, the earliest documentary reference to Brigid, recalls how “She will be another Mary, mother of the great Lord ” and a prophecy of Brigid entering the Irish site of Kildare states, "This site is open to heaven ….and today the girl for whom it has been prepared by God will come to us like Mary”.

According to the Vitae, Brigid has a legendary involvement in the life of Jesus. Brigid being the midwife present at the birth, placed three drops of water on Christ's forehead. No doubt this is a Christianised account of the ancient Celtic myth telling of the Sun of Light upon Whose head three drops of water were placed in order to bestow wisdom. Brigid was said to be the foster-mother of Jesus, emphasising the very special position this Saint held.

The Exalted One
There can be little doubt that Saint Brigid is based upon a Celtic Goddess who was presented in Christian attire by the early church fathers in order to win over her pagan Irish followers. She is perhaps one of the most complex Goddesses of the Celtic pantheon; Brigid can be seen as one of the most powerful religious figures of Irish history with many separate traditions intertwined. She is known by her many names, Bride, Bridey, Brighid, Brigit, Briggidda, Brigantia, as the traditional patroness of healing, poetry and smithcraft. Her name means "exalted one”.

Veneration of St Brigid appears to incorporate many elements of a much older tradition. Sun and fire are particularly stressed in the early lives of the Saint which were no doubt based upon older sources and may reflect ancient lore relating to the goddess Brigid. The perpetual flame at Her shrine at Kildare in Ireland was said to have been tended by nineteen Virgins symbolising the nineteen-year, metonic, lunar cycle.

In Irish mythology, Brigid was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She had two sisters also named Brigid, the attributes of a classic Celtic Triple Goddess:

“Brigit i.e. a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom, i.e. Brigit the goddess whom poets adored, because very great and very famous was her protecting care. It is therefore they call her goddess of poets, by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit the female physician (woman of leech craft), Brigit the female smith (woman of smith work), from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigit.”

Many places in the British Isles bear witness to her name as an ancient Goddess. As “Brigantia” she gave her name to the Celtic lands of the North of England, and to that of the ancient people that bore her name, the Brigantes. She was worshipped especially in Yorkshire, and her name is still echoed in the names of rivers Briant in Anglesey and Brent in Middlesex, seen as the power of rushing rivers and the thrusting hills of the countryside; the Goddess in the ancient landscape.

Goddess of the Dawn
Imbolc, or St Brigid's Day falls on one of the four cross-quarter days of the modern Celtic calendar halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere ultimately indicating its origins as a solar festival. Brigid's attributes are light, inspiration and associations with fire. Indeed, we find one of Brigid's most ancient names is Breo-saighead meaning 'fiery arrow'. This is a reference to Brigid as light from the sun; she was born at the sunrise and is the Goddess of the Dawn. She possesses an unusual status as a Sun Goddess who hangs her Cloak upon the rays of the Sun and whose dwelling-place radiates light as if on fire. Brigid took over the Cult of the Ewes formerly held by the Goddess Lassar who also is a Sun Goddess.

In Irish mythology, Lassar, or Lasair ("Flame"), is the eldest of three sisters, a triple Goddess; together with her sisters, Inghean Bhuidhe and Latiaran, they represent the growing, ripening and harvesting of crops. Lasair, was Goddess of the spring budding. She later also became a Christian saint with her sacred well at Lough Meelagh in Ireland. Lassar's feast day is May 1st, Bealtaine.

History or Myth?
So, was the Christian Saint Brigid a real historical person, or the mythical Celtic pagan Goddess in another form? 

Brigid is arguably the most important Goddess in British history yet most of what we know of her has been passed down through oral tradition. The extant written sources date from several hundred years after Brigid had established her community at Kildare, so we must show caution in re-constructing a Goddess from what we know of the Saint; the two are so interwoven it is virtually impossible to separate them with any certainty.

St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare

Second only to St Patrick in the esteem of the Irish people, yet of all the early Irish saints celebrated in hagiography and cult, Brigid is the most difficult to link to a genuine historical figure; it has been suggested that she was a living person, a Christian woman called Brigid who local people saw as a reincarnation of the Goddess. Sharing both her name and feast day with that of the earlier pagan Goddess Brigid may indicate that Saint Brigid is partially or entirely a fictional creation based on the pagan figure in order to convert pagan Celts to Christianity.

Burial Place of Saints
In Down, three saints one grave do fill, 
Patrick, Brigid and Columcille.

After Brigid's death the monastery at Kildare flourished. The first Life of St Brigid was written not much later than 650 AD, by a monk of Kildare named Cogitosus. The "Life" was a compilation of stories of St Brigid providing a glimpse of life in Kildare from that time. Cogitosus describes the great church of Kildare where the bodies of the Saints Brigid and Conleth were:

"laid on the right and left of the ornate altar and rest in tombs adorned with a refined profusion of gold, silver, gems and precious stones, with gold and silver chandeliers hanging from above and different images presenting a variety of carvings and colours"

The Irish Annals record that in the year 836 AD a Danish fleet of 30 ships arrived in the Liffey and another in the Boyne. They plundered every church and abbey within the territories of Magh Liffe and Magh Breagh, destroying the town of Kildare and carried off the shrines of Saints Brigid and Conleth. It is claimed that in the previous year, 835 AD, the remains of St. Brigid had been removed for safe keeping to Down.

Tradition claims that St. Patrick is buried at Down Cathedral (Cathedral Hill) in Downpatrick, County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven. However, Down suffered too from Viking raids; a further tradition claims her body was removed from Down and buried in a place known only to a few priests so that eventually all knowledge of her resting place was lost.

An alternative version claims that in 1185 St. Malachy, Bishop of Down, in an effort to discover the burial place of St. Brigid prayed to the Lord to reveal the burial place. A beam of light settled over a spot on the floor of the church and sure enough when St. Malachy dug at this spot he found the graves of Saints Patrick, Brigid and Columcille. Malachy petitioned Pope Urban III for permission to move the bodies to Down Cathedral. His request was granted and the remains of the saints moved on 9th June 1186, the Feast day of St. Columcille. During the dissolution of Henry VIII, the sacred shrine was despoiled and the relics of the Saints were scattered. Luckily some were saved and the head of St. Brigid was recovered and said to now rest in a chapel in Portugal, devoted to her in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, near Lisbon.

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Sources:
The Festival of Brigit the Holy Woman - Séamas Ó Catháin
Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy Woman’, and Bone of Contention - Carole M Cusack
Mary Jones - Celtic Encyclopedia

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