"Brigid: A Woman, A Life, A Legacy” (a four part lecture series)

Mount St Anne’s in collaboration with Solas Bhride Centre, Kildare offer a Spring Online Course — 

“Brigid: A Woman, A Life, A Legacy”

This 4-week online course takes place each Wednesday evening for 7pm – 9pm (Irish time)

6th March: ST BRIGID AND HER FEAST DAY IN IRISH TRADITION (Bairbre Ní Fhloinn)
Dr Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, is recently retired as Associate Professor of Irish Folklore and Ethnology at UCD. She was Director of the MA in Irish Folklore and Ethnology in UCD, a programme she established. She has written widely on many aspects of Folklore and Ethnology.

13th March: THE SPIRIT OF ST. BRIGID IN OUR CONTEMPORARY WORLD (Rita Minehan)
Sr. Rita Minehan is a Brigidine Sister and founding member of Solas Bhride Spirituality Centre in Kildare. She is the author of Rekindling the Flame, a Pilgrimage in the footsteps of Brigid of Kildare.

20th March: DECODING ST. BRIGID (Eoghan Corry)
Eoghan Corry is the lead travel commentator in Ireland, as well as being a historian, author and broadcaster. Eoghan will draw on his historical background and his travel experience to present a picture of St. Brigid as a saint and demonstrate how her influence and relevance still echoes today.

27th March: ST BRIGID: THRESHOLD WOMAN TO JUSTICE AND COMPASSION (Doris Testa)
Dr Doris Testa is a Brigidine Sister located in Melbourne, Australia. Having a fifty year background in education and social work, she has taught at first and third levels, worked in Child Protection and Community Development. She has held positions of leadership within the Brigidine Victorian Province.

Cost:  Full Course €50

To book a place, please email secretary@mountstannes.com or phone 057-8626153

Pause for Peace on Saint Brigit’s Day AND Rekindling the Flame is Out!

 The Sisters of Saint Brigid in Kildare are promoting a pause for peace on Saint Brigid's Day 2023, at mid-day, wherever in the world you are, with the hope of engendering a twenty-four hour pause in all. This will be on the day of their thirtieth anniversary of tending Brigit’s flame. More details later, I'm sure!

In other news, Sister Rita Minehan's book, Rekindling the Flame: A Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of St. Brigid, revised edition, is now out. Contact.

Images courtesy of Solas Bhríde.

And speaking of books about Brigit! At long last, the sisters at Solas Bhríde are releasing an updated version of Sister Rita Minehan‘s book, Rekindling the Flame -  a Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Brigid of Kildare.

From their newsletter:

Dear Friends, The news you've been waiting on...a revised edition of 'Rekindling the Flame' is about to be published and will be available from Solas Bhríde from mid-December. The original book written by Rita Minehan csb has been hugely popular with pilgrims as it offered them a reflective guide to accompany them on their pilgrim journey in Kildare, from St Brigid's Cathedral to St Brigid's Garden and Wayside Wells. Rita's updated edition includes a history of the developments that have occurred in Kildare Town since 1999, in particular the opening of Solas Bhríde Spirituality Centre & Hermitages on Tully Road. The revised edition will appeal to those coming on pilgrimage to Solas Bhríde and Kildare Town but also to the many who have visited and wish to reflect on that journey through the story, legend, poems and meditations the book presents. The book will be officially launched on February 26th 2023, but more on that anon!!

Plans for Féile Bríde 2022 – January 31st to February 6th – at Solas Bhríde

 

Féile Bríde 2022 – January 31st to February 6th

Our collaboration with Kildare Town Library, Kildare Heritage Centre, Fáilte Kildare and others promises a full and enriching programme of events for Féile Bríde 2022. We are planning to host a candlelight pilgrimage to St. Brigid’s Well on 31st January.  Plans are also afoot for a Guided Walk on the Curragh Plains, and the delivery of in-person and online workshops on the Traditions and Customs associated with Brigid, Annual Celtic Lecture, Musical and Cultural events and much more.

Keep an eye on our website as details for each event unfold.

Image: from Solas Bhríde newsletter, 24 December 2021.

Webinar Available to Support Solas Bhride Center in Kildare, Ireland

The following is from Amy Panetta's website:

Last year, in 2017, so many people were so generous to support me in my crowdfunding campaign to go to Ireland to continue my research in the music that is written and performed in dedication to Brigid.  This research was later shared at The Celtic Studies of North America Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia in April of 2017 and is continually shared on The Celtic Feminine Podcast.  With the money raised from the original crowdfunding campaign, I was able to get a flight and lodging in Ireland!  In addition, it was my pleasure to be able to present a 150€ donation in person to the Solas Bhride Centre in Kildare Ireland.

This year, in honor of St. Brigid's Feast Day, I would like to have a fundraiser to donate most of the funds to the Solas Bhride Centre for the excellent work that they do in promoting St. Brigid's values of peace, justice, and compassion.  Solas Bhride Centre and Hermitages is a Spirituality Centre dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare, Patroness of Ireland. The centre caters to the large number of pilgrims and visitors, local, national and international, interested in the traditions, values and customs associated with Brigid of Kildare.  Please visit http://www.solasbhride.ie for more information.  

I have created a webinar that I would love to send you as a gift donation.  The webinar is about 50 minutes long and is like a class I would give in person where I offer a few words to center us in the season, share my story in how I came to be inspired by Brigid, discuss the life of Brigid the Saint and Goddess, show a short video clip of the variety of music dedicated to Brigid, and teach you the song, Gabhaim Molta Bride!  

Click here to donate.  Any amount, big or small, is a big help!  Once I get the notification of your donation, I will send you the link to the webinar!

A small percentage of donations will be used to offset costs to produce The Celtic Feminine Podcast and ongoing research projects dedicated to Brigid.

Féile Bríde 2018: Light out of Darkness

Féile Bríde 2018: Light out of DarknessSaturday 3rd February 2018
Solas Bhríde, Kildare Town
Registration at 10.20am

"Life has given me many challenges, which I choose to take as opportunities to learn and grow. This is my choice. I learned this on death row. I chose life, health, forgiveness, and love. That choice saved me from bitterness and hatred that would have destroyed me from within. I have dedicated myself to an end to violence – in all its forms. This is the way I honour the lives that were sacrificed along the way. This is the way I give back to the universe. Love is the answer. Fear is the enemy. We must choose the world we want and work towards making it happen every day in our own lives."

These are the inspiring words of death row survivor, Sunny Jacobs, whose life reads like a Shakespearean tragedy, with injustice heaped upon further injustice, creating circumstances that would have crushed many people. An innocent woman wrongfully convicted of murder, her husband was executed, she lost other family members and she spent many years awaiting her own execution. But Sunny came shining through it all with dignity, strength, courage, compassion and hope. She is the perfectly encapsulation of this year’s Féile Bríde’s theme: ‘light out of darkness’.

Sunny and Peter Pringle, the last person to have been on death row in Ireland, have devoted themselves to promoting healing, peace and reconciliation. Together they have established The Sunny Centre – a sanctuary for others who suffer injustice, especially people who are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit and have spent time under sentence of death. We will hear their extraordinary stories at Féile Bríde this year.

Other speakers include the distinguished academic and activist Peadar Kirby, who plays a leading role in the Cloughjordan Eco-Village; UCC Professor Emeritus and life-long peace activist John Maguire; Hanny Van Geel of La Via Campesina, which promotes the rights of peasant communities around the world, and who describes herself as ‘rooted in farming’; and Rose Hogan who has a life-long commitment to agro-ecology and sustainable agriculture.

In a world marred by war and the woeful destruction of our exquisite planet, Féile Bríde is but one example of the many, many people and groups throughout our world who hope for and work towards a better future, a more just world and for the light to overcome the darkness.

And as the Spring birdsong heralds the end of another winter, we will also have music because, as Hans Christian Anderson said, “where words fail, music speaks”.

For more information, including the programme, go here: http://www.afri.ie/news-and-events/date-for-your-diary-feile-bride-2018/

Upcoming Events at Solas Bhríde

There are some tantalizing events coming up at Solas Bhríde, the home of the Brigidine Sisters in Kildare, Éire. The new centre and hermitages are up and running, so if you are going to be in Ireland over the next couple of months, you might want to try securing a place there and attending.

Date/Time	Event
23/04/2016 10:00 am - 1:00 pm	Spring Awakening  COMPLETED Solas Bhride, Kildare Town Co. Kildare
29/04/2016 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm	A Celebration of Bealtaine Solas Bhride, Kildare Town Co. Kildare
10/05/2016 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm	An Introduction to the Mystics Solas Bhride, Kildare Town Co. Kildare
14/06/2016 10:30 am - 12:30 pm	Sacred Dance Solas Bhride, Kildare Town Co. Kildare
21/06/2016 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm	A Celebration of the Summer Solstice Solas Bhride, Kildare Town Co. Kildare

New sculpture of St Brigid unveiled at Féile Bríde (2014)

By the artist who brought us--

St. Brigid of Kildare - This sculpture of St. Brigid captures that moment where she gave her father’s treasured sword to a leper in the the presence of the King of Leinster. Before her father was able to strike her down, she explained that she had given the sword to God through the leper. The King, being a Christian, forade her father to strike her and granted her freedom saying “her ment before God is greater then our own”

--a new sculpture is unveiled. Or was, a year and a bit ago. How did I miss this one? Wish I could get a clearer image.

New sculpture of St Brigid unveiled

at Féile Bríde

By Ann Marie Foley - 04 February, 2014

New 9ft bronze of Ireland’s famous female saint created

by Canadian sculptor, Timothy Schmalz.

Sculpture of St Brigid with artist Tim Schmalz

A new sculpture of St Brigid by an internationally renowned artist is to be unveiled at this year’s Féile Bríde festival in Kildare which continues this week.

Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, who created the 9ft bronze of Ireland’s famous female saint, hit the headlines in Co Mayo last March when he proposed erecting a 100ft statue of St Patrick on top of the Reek.

However, the sculptor abandoned his plans for that sculpture, which would have been higher than the Christ the Redeemer statute in Rio, due to strong local opposition.

His life-sized sculpture ‘Jesus the homeless’ depicting Jesus as a homeless man sleeping on a park bench recently found favour with Pope Francis who blessed it.

Now a permanent home is being sought for it in Rome near the Vatican.

The arrival of his latest sculpture in Kildare has been delayed by poor weather conditions. The statute of St Brigid was commissioned and donated by Fr Dennis O’Neill from St Martha’s Catholic Church in Morton Grove (a northwest suburb of Chicago), Illinois, USA.

Read more:

Solas Bhride Centre & Hermitages Officially Opened

Large crowds gathered to celebrate the Official Opening of Solas Bhride Centre and Hermitages, Tully Road, Kildare town on Friday, January 30th, 2015 at 2.30 p.m.

Ann Riordan, chairperson of Science Foundation Ireland was MC for the occasion. Eimear Quinn cut the tape and Bishop Denis Nulty, Kildare & Leighlin, and Rev. John Marsden, Dean of St. Brigid’s Cathedral, blessed the Centre. The tape cutting ceremony was followed by a musical celebration which included music, song and dance as guests were entertained by Eimear, Luka Bloom and local musicians and dancers.

Mayor Fiona O’ Loughlin addressed the assembled guests and referred to the rich legacy of St. Brigid and the heritage of Kildare town and went on to say how the Solas Bhride Centre “will undoubtedly help us to remember that heritage, reflecting our place in society and in the world, while considering our future path; both personally and as a community… This new facility will develop not only into a national location for spirituality and reflection, but also internationally giving our local and wider community and visitors to the area a unique experience, particularly in the areas of education, ecology, spirituality and healing”.

Tributes were paid to the Design team which included Brian O’Brien of Solearth Ecological Architecture who designed the unique ecologically sustainable Spirituality Centre, in the shape of a St. Brigid’s cross, with the centre of the cross featuring an internal garden and circular and semi-circular rooms, Manley Construction Ltd. who built the Centre and have already received two national awards for the building. A special acknowledgement to the Quantity Surveyor, George Fitzpatrick, Gilltown, Kilcullen, for delivering the project within budget.

Rita Minehan csb, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, expressed her gratitude to the Design Team, to the Brigidine Sisters for their huge financial contribution which ultimately made the Centre possible, Kildare Leader Partnership for their generous grant, Kildare County Council, Public Representatives and Kildare Failte for their support with planning and many other issues, and to all who made donations to the Centre, supported the fund raising campaign and organised fund raising events.

“It is truly a magnificent Centre” said Sr. Rita “and it is our hope that all who come to the new Solas Bhride will be facilitated in their search for a meaningful spirituality through the unfolding of the legacy of St. Brigid of Kildare and its relevance for the 21st century.”

Further information on Centre available on: http://www.icatholic.ie/solas-bhride-unfolding-legacy-st-brigid/  or on : http://www.brigidine.org.au/our-focus/index.cfm?loadref=27

Solas Bhríde Development Project

It is worth noodling back now and again to websites you think you know. I was surprised a while back to learn that Solas Bhríde is planning a grand development. In response to the great influx of pilgrims over the last few years, a centre with hermitages will be created on land purchased in 2007, costing a projected €4.75 million. (Follow the above link for a quick computer-graphic tour of the proposed facility.)

It will have:

• Reception and exhibition space
• Conference room
• Four self-catering hermitages
• Spirituality education and library area
• Hospitality room
• Chapel / prayer room
• Spiritual accompanying / counselling room
• Meeting room
• Residential facilities for two staff members
• Ancillary service and utility spaces

"The Hermitages will provide an opportunity for pilgrims to stay and experience solitude and quiet in a nurturing atmosphere.

"The design of the Centre is inspired by the evocative imagery of Brigid’s legacy and legends and is centred on ecological concerns. The Centre and gardens will be integrated into a natural landscape with a meditative garden, labyrinth and cosmic walk.

"The many thousands of pilgrims and visitors who come to Kildare and experience the rituals and celebrations at St Brigid’s Wells will be further enriched by the new landscape and its meditative and uplifting features."

I have to admit that, although I'm sure it will be very valuable, it sounds a bit overwhelming in comparison to the small house and welcoming attention of the two individuals I met there years ago. The experience would be a very different one indeed. On the other hand, it promises to give back to the sisters some of the privacy and solitude needed for a life of prayer, as opposed to a life of tour-guiding. : )

The sisters had hoped to turn the sod this past Imbolc, but insufficient funds held them back. Not for long though. They plan to sign the contract and turn the sod by the beginning of summer.

To see where they are at in the fund-raising (not too bad!) click here and to make a contribution, click here.

Best of luck to the sisters and the many Brigidines who are working on this project. I hope one day to visit the new centre, which though different will no doubt be wonderful.