The Perpetual Flame at Kildare
And what of Brigit’s flame, this central aspect of her modern cult? In medieval times it was tended by her nuns; now it is kept by lay Christians and Neo-Pagans, as well. As mentioned above, many of us believe that Saint Brigit tended the perpetual flame with her sisters, and that it was a holdover of pagan practice – that she may have been a druid dedicated to the goddess Brigit, possibly one who converted to Christianity.
The evidence against this scenario is substantial, whereas to date, none has been found to support it.1 Classical writers speaking of the Celts nowhere mention the tending of perpetual flames. The earliest “Life” of Saint Brigit, written by Cogitosus, a monk in her tradition, was composed not much later than 650 C.E.,2 around a century after her death. It describes Kildare and St. Brigit’s church in detail, yet no mention is made of fire-tending. Nor is there reference to a Brigidine perpetual flame in any Vitae (“Lives”), hymns, prayers, annals, or texts of any kind until the late 12th c., approaching seven centuries after Brigit died.
We learn of the practice of tending a perpetual flame in Kildare from the Romanised Welsh Briton, Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales). In the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland, as a royal clerk, he accompanied the son of King Henry II, the future King John, on a military expedition to Ireland from 1185 to 1186. The journey resulted in two books, Topographia Hibernica (Topography of Ireland) and Expugnatio Hibernica (Conquest of Ireland). He wrote of Kildare:
“The nuns there, nineteen in number, take turns tending a perpetual flame in a sacred place surrounded by a hedge, a place which no man may enter without risking madness or worse. On the twentieth day, though no one touches it, the fire burns on and no ash builds up, for it is tended by the long dead founder of the order, Saint Brigit herself.” Topographia Hibernica Giraldus Cambrensis
Various writers have pointed out that Cambrensis or his informant seems to have relied on stories of the Vestal Virgins for some of his details of Brigit’s nuns in this description. Seán Ó Duinn wrote, “It is difficult to know if Giraldus Cambrensis was influenced by the Classics when describing St. Brigid’s perpetual fire, but it is strange that he mentions the number 20 as the number of nuns – the same number from which the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome were chosen. In Ireland, one would expect the number 9 to predominate.”3
Seven other perpetual flames are known from 12th and 13th century Ireland; all of these were tended by monks, rather than nuns.4 Ritual and household fires were lit from them: if a household’s fire was accidentally extinguished, it would be relit from the fire at the church. Of the hearthstone at Inishmurray, W.G. Wood-Martin wrote that “… fire was always kept burning by the monks for the use of the islanders. In later times, when monks no longer inhabited the cashel, whenever a householder wanted kindling for the family fire, a sod of turf or a piece of wood deposited on this holy hearth ignited spontaneously.”5
As it is in many religions, fire is important in Christian iconography. It represents both the Holy Spirit and light. Jesus describes his followers as the light of the world and God is a “consuming fire.” It’s not surprising then, that Saint Brigit’s fire associations have equivalents in the Lives of male Irish saints.
“Lord who enterest my members
Like the embers Thou dost shine,
Take my soul from out my bosom,
Cleanse from stain and make it Thine.”
from “Thanksgiving After Communion”6
The Religious Songs of Connacht, Douglas Hyde, ed.
Taken together, the evidence strongly implies that the perpetual fire tended at Kildare was of very late date, part of a more common Christian practice that emerged long after the death of Saint Brigit, not a practice that she, let alone previous worshippers of the goddess Brigit, would have taken part in.
Nevertheless, Kildare’s perpetual fire was tended for centuries. It was first extinguished in 1220 by order of Henry de Londres, archbishop of Dublin, only three decades after Gerald of Wales wrote about it. It was later renewed and continued to be tended until ca. 1540 when, during King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was once again snuffed out.
In time, the Sisterhood of Saint Brigit died away, to be revived at the invitation of Daniel Delany, Bishop of Kildare, in 1807. Brigidines nuns soon spread from Ireland to Wales, England, the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. In 1992 Sisters Mary Minehan and Phil O’Shea were, in Sister Mary’s words, “asked to come to Kildare and to explore our Celtic Heritage – to reclaim Brigid of Kildare in a new way for a new millennium.”7 They called their home there Solas Bhríde (Brigit’s Light). On Imbolc 1993 Brigit’s flame was rekindledin Kildare by Sister Mary Teresa Cullen, then leader of the Brigidine sisters, at the opening of a conference, “Brigid: Prophetess, Earthwoman, Peacemaker,” organised by Action from Ireland, a justice, peace, and human rights group.
Since that day, Neo-Pagans, Christians, and Christo-Pagans of many stripes have tended Brigit’s flame, and no longer only women, but men and non-binary folk, too. So, however and whenever Brigit’s flame came into being, and whatever the original boundaries that surrounded it, it has broken through those bounds to burn in countless and varied hearts.
Endnotes
1. If one day an archaeological dig were conducted in Kildare, at the site of the fire temple, perhaps some of our uncertainties could be answered at last.
2. Connolly and Picard (1987) pg. 5.
3. Ó Duinn (2005) pg. 64.
4. Harrington (2002) pg. 66.
5. Wood-Martin (1902). See Laurie, Erynn Rowan (2015) for a fuller discussion of the matter.
6. Hyde (1906) pg. 401.
7. Interview with Mary Minehan. http://www.tallgirlshorts.net/marymary/sistermary.html
Image: Perpetual flame at Solas Bhride, Kildare, Ireland (2023). Photo by Mael Brigde.
Credit: This post was first published in A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars by Mael Brigde (Moon Books, 2021).
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