Saint Bridget's Holy Well Restored

Michael Fortune writes of the restoration during lockdown of St. Bridget’s Holy Well in Artramon, Crossabeg, Co. Wexford. (Click here for the full post.)

"Brigid and the Cailleach" by Caitlin Brehm and Dr. Karen Ward

Caitlin Brehm of Roots of Lore podcast has done a wonderful job of not simply interviewing Moon Mná's Karen Ward (celebrant of Women's Celtic Circles in Ireland). She weaves poetry, background info, and her own thoughts beautifully into Karen's words, painting with her subject these evocative pictures of the Cailleach and Brigid. 

President Michael D. Higgins St. Brigid's Day Letter

President of Ireland / Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D. Higgins

· 17 hrs · 

 

Tomorrow, 1 February, is St Brigid’s Feast Day, Lá Féile Bríde.

The day marks the start the pagan festival of spring, and celebrates Brigid, one of Ireland’s patron saints and also a fertility goddess in Celtic mythology.

Read the Message from President Michael D. Higgins:

Make Imbolc a National Holiday!

"Brigid of Eire" has a campaign going on My Uplift to make Imbolc a bank holiday in Ireland. If you want to know more about the campaign, or if you are a resident of Ireland and want to put your name on the petition, follow the link below.

To: Minister for Business, Enterprise, Innovation, Heather Humphries TD

Make Brigid's Day a national holiday

“Becoming Mary of the Gael”: a Note on the Paper (& Other Works) by D.A. Bray

“Becoming Mary of the Gael” was published in MEDIEVALISTS.NET: WHERE THE MIDDLE AGES BEGIN  – APRIL 19, 2013

The Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Meeting – The University of Toronto, April 18-21, 2013

Dorothy Ann Bray (McGill University)

The second paper of the opening session moved away from archaeology and towards religious devotion and saint’s cults. Dorothy Ann Bray presented a paper on the background of St. Brigit’s association with the Virgin Mary in Ireland. St. Brigit is often represented as the Virgin Mary in Irish worship – this paper explored the reasons behind this phenomenon.

Texts offer a lengthy eulogy of the saint. This term, “Mary of the Gael”, has been firmly attached to St. Brigit. The Middle Irish version is based on an even earlier version and there is long tradition comparing St. Brigit to the Virgin Mary,

‘A fair both, fair dignity which will come to thee thereafter from thy children’s descendants, who shall be called from her great virtues truly pious Brig-eoit; she will be another Mary, mother of the Lord.” (‘The Old Irish Life of Saint Brigit’, Irish Historical Studies 1:2 (1938): 348)

Brigit has had a constant, insistent comparison to Mary but only in vernacular texts. The first instance appears in a ninth century biographical hymn. Naming of Brigit as the Mother of Jesus is bold and audacious but this has not received much mention by scholars. Bray has not found any women outside of Ireland so closely associated with Mary as Brigit. There was nothing heretical or especially devious about it but Bray wondered, ‘How did this arise?’. The assertion of Brigit as the mother of Christ was explained in 1955 as an Irish convention of symbolically sharing in motherhood. However, this doesn’t explain why other Irish saints are not associated with the mother of God. Some saints are associated as a sister but not Mother.

What about the laity? They would be the most likely audience of these hymns. When the cult of Mary in Ireland began is indeterminate but there is an indication that there was worship of Mary as early as the sixth century in Ireland and that a cult was well in place by the seventh century. Devotion to Mary carried Eastern influences; she was often referenced to the Queen of Sheba. Sheba became interpreted as a kind of Mary. In the East, she is celebrated more as the Queen of Heaven, in the West, she is worshipped more as the Mother of Christ. Jerome, Augustine and other theologians reinforced Mary’s role as a mother. Augustine grounded his thoughts on Mary in scripture, and the new “Eve” was the Church, not Mary. Under the influence of Ambrose, Augustine regards Mary as a model disciple. The emphasis on Mary as the Mother of Jesus is in line with earlier medieval views of martyrology. Most hymns to Brigit were heavy on praise and light on biography and in Latin hymns she is described “like” Mary but not taken to the complete level of identification as in Irish texts. Mary as the Mother of Christ was a powerful symbol in Irish devotion.

Related articles of interest by D. A. Bray:

• Bray (Dorothy Ann):, "Secunda Brigida: Saint Ita of Killeedy and Brigidine Tradition." In: Cyril J. Byrne, Margaret Harry, and Pádraig Ó Siadhail (eds.), Celtic Languages and Celtic Peoples: Proceedings of the Second North American Congress of Celtic Studies held in Halifax August 16–19, 1989, 27–38. Halifax 1992.
• Bray (Dorothy Ann): "Saint Brigit and the fire from heaven." In ÉtC 29 (1992), pp. 105-113.
• Bray (Dorothy Ann): "Further on white read-eared cows in fact and fiction." In Peritia 19 (2005), pp. 239-255. On the possible association  of the red-eared fairy cows of the Irish Otherworld and the wild cattle of Chillingham. 
• Bray (Dorothy Ann): "Ireland's other apostle: Cogitosus' St. Brigit." In CMCS 59 (Summer 2010), pp. 55-70
• Bray (Dorothy Ann): "The Vita prima of St. Brigit: a preliminary analysis of its composition." In Narrative in Celtic Tradition (2011), pp. 1-15
• A pithy review of Christina Harrington's Women in a Celtic Church, Oxford University Press, 2002. This review includes reference to other important Brigit papers of recent years. Published in the Medieval Review.
• The full text of "The Image of St Brigit in the Early Irish Church" may be found at the Monastic Matrix site. The Image of St. Brigit in the Early Irish Church in Études celtiques (1987). 24 (1987): 209-215.
• For a fuller list of her publications, click here. 

Seeking Brigid: Sacred Well, Holy Flame -- Pilgrimage

The Sisterhood of Avalon has chosen Erynn Rowan Laurie as feature presenter at this year's pilgrimage to Ireland. Erynn is an original member of the Daughters of the Flame, and has been serving Brigit for many years. How I would love to accompany her and the Sisters on this journey!

From the blurb for the pilgrimage: she "is a poet and writer and one of the many founders of the Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan path. She has been keeping Brigid’s flame with the Daughters of the Flame since 1993 and is working on a book on Brigid and flamekeeping. Her particular interests are filidecht, the sacred poetic tradition of Gaelic Ireland, and the sacred madness of the geilta, figures like Myrddin, Muirgeilt, Mís, Lailoken, and Suibhne Geilt.

"Erynn’s books include A Circle of Stones: Journeys & Meditations for Modern Celts, Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom, and contributions to a number of other publications, including a paper on the geilta and PTSD in the academic anthology Disability and Religious Diversity: Cross-Cultural and Interreligious Perspectives. Her first poetry collection, Fireflies at Absolute Zero, is due out from Hiraeth Press in October, 2012. " (For more of Erynn's writing follow this link.)

Seeking Brigid: Sacred Well, Holy Flame
Pilgrimage to Ireland, 2012
July 11-18, 2012

Join author and poet Erynn Rowan Laurie and the Sisterhood of Avalon for a seven day pilgrimage to Ireland, exploring our connections with the Goddess Brigid, patron of poetry, smith craft, and healing. With the breathtaking landscape of Ireland as our backdrop, our time together will be spent engaged in conscious sight-seeing, scholastic inquiry, and spiritual exploration inspired by Gaelic tradition. All over 18 are welcome. Only 12 openings are available.

"I hope you'll join me as we explore Ireland and our relationships with Brigid this summer!"

http://www.seanet. com/~inisglas/ pilgrimage- 2012-FINAL.pdf

The link will download a PDF file of the information packet.

Please spread the info far and wide!