New Monument in Offaly

From Offaly Heritage's Facebook page:

Offaly Heritage

30 August at 07:59 · 

Stonecarver Ciaran Byrne is working away on the new stone piece which will be erected where the old damaged trig station was on Croghan Hill summit. The same dimensions as the trig station, each side will reflect an aspect of the area's heritage, following community discussions this summer - St Patrick's well, St Bridget and her veil, the volcano and Croghan Man.

To see him at work:



Ciaran Byrne Stone Carver from newpark movies on Vimeo.

Another Stunning Brigit Sculpture by Denisa Prochazka

The Red Maple Grove of Ár nDraíocht Féin (A Druid Fellowship) has installed a beautiful Brigit shrine at Raven's Knoll in Eganville, Ontario.

The bust was created by Denisa Prochazka, (see her plaque for Saint Brigid's Church, Ottawa, here) and Leo Lanoy Dit Watier built the stone base.

Brigit's shrine joins those of Lugh and Manannán mac Lir. A pilgrimage to this site (camping allowed!) is definitely something to consider.

Images (above): Courtesy of Red Maple Grove of ADF. (below): Photo by Lisa Wasilkowsky Malik.

Brigit - Bless and praise her.

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:

Brigit & Her Sister

To my surprise my nonreligious mother last week requested that I get her a statue of Brigit because she likes mine so much. So here she is.

Blessings of Imbolc!

It's come again to the northern realms--the festival of Imbolc--and many of us are busily preparing to welcome Brigit into our homes for another year. The spring image above (borrowed from my sister's blog) may be more typical than my own experience. Here we are well into spring already, with the fleet moments of snow long past, though the air is still chill and bracing in the middle of the night.

Here she peeks, like the snowdrop pressing her first green shoots above the ground. In my case the snowdrops came from the garden store, but they are eagerly on duty, one to go into the ground to sew anew, and one to greet me on my little deck.

This afternoon I am going to scoop my youngest and most meditative nephew to spend the weekend here. Together we can plant the snowdrops, cook the Irish stew and colcannon, and welcome Brigit in from the cold to her place at the table.

May Brigit bless your home and friends, this night and every night, and may her flame burn brightly on your hearth.

Welcome! Eye of my eye!

I went to St Andrew's Church Supply here in Vancouver today to pick up refills for the votive candles I use for my flame-tending shift. As I like to do, I noodled around looking at the statuary and cards and surplices and such. To my surprise there were two St Brigit statues--there have never been St Brigit statues there before. These two statues were nearly identical, except for the painting of the eyes. The one had perfectly symmetrical, belladona-widened eyes, giving her a pretty face. The other had one eye lower than the other, its pupil wider than its mate's, and the brow of that eye was arched.

She was not, of course, typically pretty. She was unique, and her face was a little startling. As I looked longer at it, I began to get a sense of a life behind these eyes, a history, wisdom perhaps, and pain.

It of course made me think of the story in Leabhar Breac of St Brigit's self-mutilation in order to avoid being married off when she wanted to be a monastic. It's a tad horrifying: be warned.

Shortly after that came a certain man of good kin unto Dubthach to ask for his daughter (in marriage). Dubthach and his sons were willing, but Brigit refused. Said a brother of her brethren named Beccán unto her: ‘Idle is the fair eye that is in thy head not be on a pillow near a husband.’ ‘The Son of the Virign knoweth,’ says Brigit, ‘it is not lively for us if it brings harm upon us.’ Then Brigit put her finger under her eye, and drew it out of her head until it was on her cheek, and she said: ‘Lo, here for thee is thy delightful eye, O Beccán!’ Then his eye burst forthwith. When Dubthach and her brethern beheld that, they promised that she should never be told to go unto a husband. Then she put her palm to her eye and it was quite whole at once. But Beccán's eye was not whole till his death.

Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

On the Life of St. Brigit (Leabhar Breac) (Author: Translated by Whitley Stokes)

It will not surprise you which statue I chose. Leaving the perfect one for another Brigidine who may wander in and find her with delight, I brought my new friend to the counter and from there, to my home.

Handmade St. Brigid Statue

I have to admit this statue doesn't appeal to me personally--I am a lover of iconography and sacred statuary, yet somehow I have never found a statue of Brigit, either as goddess or as saint, which really satisfies my aesthetic sense of her. That's me. You may take to this one.
Said to be handmade, though not specifying what material (it looks like plastic to me), the figure is made by Hank Schlau and painted by his wife Karen. 9" high, she stands holding a four-armed rush cross, a fire burning at her feet and a halo round her head.
Available for 50$ from the Catholic Company. (Check out Schlau's figure of St Francis with Medieval Trees, as well.)