The growing trend of promoting Brigid as a goddess who later adopted Christianity does not hold water. The goddess status is a popularised belief without any real foundation. To claim Bridget was once a goddess, is to align her with fallen angels, who are unclean spirits and fairies. Jesus came to drive out unclean spirits, who are the implacable enemy of God. Perhaps people see her as a goddess for the miracles she performed in her day. But there again we can consider St. Peter in the book of Acts 10:24-26, when he suffered a similar fate…It recounts: ”The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting anxiously for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. So when Peter came in, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter helped him up, saying, “Stand up. I too am a mere mortal”.
Lets take a look at St. Bridget. Who was she?
Bridget is the virtuous woman and saint, born of human stock and generated from Christian parents. Ancient sources tell us that Brigid belonged to the early age of Christianity in Ireland as St. Patrick himself baptised St. Brigid. She is known as Mary of the Gaels. Her parents were Catholics of noble birth. Brigid was born at Faughart, Dundalk formerly of the province of Ulster. She lived 80 years, a life of virtue from the cradle to the grave. The name Brigid means virtuous in Irish. She travelled by chariot, establishing religious houses in Ireland, gaining thirteen thousand nuns under her rule.
She founded a monastery in Kildare, the place name which means church of oak. The ancient book called ”Leabhar Breac” mentions the building of this monastery at the time of St. Brigid. At this monastery the religious wrote some things of note about their Brigid’s life. These various testimonies were later compiled and fully published one hundred years after she passed from this world. Her biography ‘’The Life of St. Brigid’’ was written by Cogitosus and here are some points of interest on St. Brigid:
1) She milked one cow three times a day to feed three abbots. 2) She replaced a king’s lost fox with another one, who miraculously knew the same tricks as that fox that was lost. 3) Brigid found a secret store of honey under the floor boards just in time to give to a beggar who was came knocking at her door. 4) A leper came to Brigid’s door looking for beer, but Brigid had no beer to offer him. So she got some water and called down God’s blessing on the water. With her faith in Jesus Christ, the water became changed into a fine beverage.
St. Brigid was so virtuous, its easy to see how she recieved the venerated title of Mary of the Gaels. In the 8th century her feast day was celebrated in Luxemburg. Her feast day is recorded in the Calendar of St. Willibrord. Her relics are Venerated in the abbey of San Maurice in Switzerland. Also, Bridewell in London is named after Brigid, for Bride is the anglicised form of Brigid.
The story of St. Brigid’s Cross
Brigid was attending to a dying pagan noble, who was falling in and out of sleep. Brigid at one point took some rushes from the ground and began to weave them into a Cross. The noble man was curious, and in his feeble condition wanted to know what she was making? He somehow felt better in the presence of Brigid’s Cross. She used her Cross to explain Christianity and the salvific power of Christ, so that men could reach salvation. This noble pagan was open to hearing more, and he became baptised before he died.
St. Brigid foretold St. Patrick of St. Colmcille who would convert the Gaels in the north west of Ireland. These three saints are now buried together in Downpatrick in Ulster.
St. Brigid is Mary of the Gaels, and no goddess or fairy of the Gaels. Her feast day is celebrated on the 1st February, she is a national patron saint of Ireland
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