About St. Brigid of Ireland

As a good Irish Catholic girl, I’m not sure why it took until week 16 for me to get to St. Brigid of Ireland, but here we go. How can you go wrong with a friend of St. Patrick?! One source quoted from Triadis Thaumaturgae or Three Wonderworking Saints of Ireland, ” Between St. Patrick and Brigid, the pillars of the Irish people, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many great works.” (para 16)

Childhood

Because she lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries, what is known about St. Brigid is largely dependent on oral tradition. So details are not necessarily reliable, but the big ideas seem to be consistent from one telling to another. We believe that her mother, Brocca, was a Christian slave of her father, Dubtach, who was a Leinster chieftain. When he found out about the pregnancy, he sold Brocca to a Druid, so Brigid lived there for the first 10 years of her life. Still, her mother taught her about the faith.

Evidently, Dubtach had a deal that when she turned 10, she would return to him …as his property. But Brigid couldn’t stand to see anyone hungry or cold, so she kept giving away his possessions to the poor. He was so aggravated by it that he tried to sell her to the king of Leinster. But the king, who was a Christian, recognized in Brigid that “Her merit before God is greater than ours.” (cited here, para 2) Ultimately, her father changed his mind and just gave Brigid her freedom.

Finding Her Calling

From there she went back to the home of the Druid where her mother was running his dairy. When Brigid took over the dairy, it became prosperous, despite the fact that she kept giving away some of the produce to the poor in the area. Because of that success, the Druid even gave Brocca her freedom.

Meanwhile, Dubtach started lining up suitors to give Brigid in marriage, but she wanted to live a chaste religious life. One source claimed that she prayed for her beauty to be taken away, another source says she purposefully disfigured herself, but both agree it was because she wanted to discourage suitors. Her father finally realized that she was determined, so he supported her plan for religious life. Both sources also agree that when she took her final vows, her beauty was immediately restored.

Adult Life

Bishop Mel of Ardagh, who later became Saint Mel and was St. Patrick’s nephew, was supportive of her original religious community. Upon his death, this community moved to Kildare, which remained her home base throughout her life.

Brigid founded the first dual monastic institution with separate spaces for monks and for nuns. After that, she founded more convents all across Ireland. One source claims that, “her many religious communities helped to secure the country’s conversion from paganism to the Catholic faith.” (cited here, para 2)

As a nun, Brigid was primarily devoted to prayer, but she was also a diligent worker. She was known for clothmaking, dairy farming, and raising sheep. Many pilgrims were attracted to her, including prominent clergy and future saints. Whenever she wasn’t traveling and working to establish other convents, the pilgrims would come to Kildare to seek her advice.

Sainthood

Brigid died of natural causes in 523 and was interred at the Kildare cathedral. Her relics have been transferred to Downpatrick, Ireland, where they were interred with St. Patrick. St. Brigid became a saint in the pre-congregation period, so there is no official date of canonization.

In addition to being a patron saint of Ireland, Brigid is also named as a patron saint for many intentions, such as infants, dairy workers, mariners, poets, travelers, and children whose parents are not married. I hope you will stay with us this week as we explore some of the beautiful prayers to St. Brigid and more of the legendary miracles and events of her life.