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.)

The Name Of Brigid, by Hugh de Blacam

The following is an interesting contemplation of the use of the name Brigit in Irish communities, from the 1942 book The Saints of Ireland: The Life-Stories of SS. Brigid and Columcille by Hugh de Blacam.

Digression: a reader made the following remark, which prompted a reply from me, a point I think is important, about what is correct and not correct when pronouncing Brigit's name.

Thank you for posting this! I've always been pronouncing her name "bridjid"...oops.

Remove

Mael Brigde I don't think it's a mistake to pronounce it Bridget--that is what almost every Irish person says when speaking English. Language changes, and where Hugh would like to turn the clock back, it isn't going to happen. We also have to be careful, those of us who are non-Irish nationals, not to come off holier than thou (Irisher than thou?), which is how it can sound if we insist on older Irish pronunciations and usage, and of course there are many other regional forms of the name, such as Ffraid in Wales. I use the Brigg-it pronunciation because I read this piece a long long time ago, and I wasn't expecting to have anyone hear me say it so there would be no worries about it. But I have to admit it is a bit of an obstacle for me now. I don't want to change it, because I have been saying it for so long, but it irks my Irish friends, and I am not happy about that. So by all means carry on with whatever usage you like. There is no right way, and they all have their up and down sides.

Like

 · Reply · Just now

To which I received this response, also useful info:

Erin Nighean Brìghde Agreed. I would also note a couple other things. One, among the Irish, pronunciation might differ depending on location and dialect anyway, so is not standard, and two, the Scottish and Ulster Irish (to loop back to #1) often write the name, Brìde, which they pronounce, BREEDJ-uh (and is how I spell and say her name, and I say it this way also when spelling it Brighid, or maybe just say BREEDJ.).

SAINT BRIGID: THE MARY OF THE GAEL

Chapter II - BORN IN BONDAGE 1. The Name Of Brigid Until the past half-century, every Irish family had a Patrick and a Brigid. These were the most common names in Ireland throughout the Penal days, when the race bound itself to its persecuted tradition by constantly invoking Patrick, Brigid, and Columcille. Nowadays, Patrick is the second most common man's name in Ireland. The late Rev. John Woulfe, author of the standard work on Irish names and surnames,[1] analysed a baptismal list of 1000 children in County Limerick. In this list, there were 94 Johns and 65 Patricks, with Michael as the third commonest name (51), and William as the fourth (43); Colum did not appear at all, since the name of the third Irish Patron long since has fallen into neglect, save in Columcille's native Donegal. The list, in respect of girls' names, showed Mary 150 times, for our Lady's sacred name is borne by the eldest girl in virtually every family. Margaret came next (75), then Catherine (45), Nora (40), Johanna or Siobhan (35), and Brigid only sixth, with 30 baptisms, the same number as Julia, and only five more than Elizabeth and Ellen, which numbered 25 each. The decline in the popularity of the long-beloved name of Brigid is due to the corruption of the name into the undignified Biddy in the anglicised nineteenth century. In times when what we call the stage—Irish tradition was in vogue, "Irish Paddy" and "Irish Biddy" were figures of fun, symbols used in anti-Irish caricatures by the ill-bred, and it needed the Gaelic revival of the present century to restore the associations of the name which once stood in such high honour. Another circumstance told against the Irish name. In the Penal age and far into the past century, the English-speaking world knew virtually nothing of the saint, whose written records were locked up in the unprinted, forgotten old Gaelic books, and whose traditional memory was cherished only in the secret world of Gaelic speech, by a race that lacked schools, printing press, political freedom, and worldly respect. Accordingly, when there was any mention of St. Brigid in the English-speaking world, it was common to confuse her with St. Bridget of Sweden, who died in 1373; it often happened, for example, that people seeking holy pictures of St. Brigid were supplied from Germany with images of the Scandinavian saint through the ignorance, in continental centres of ecclesiastical art, of the existence of any other saint of such a name. The Scandinavian spelling came into vogue; and Irish children were called Bridget, when the intention was to name them after Brigid. Apparently, the pronunciation of Bridget with a sound came in with the Swedish spelling. It is not agreeable, and the beauty of the Irish name suffered. The Irish name ought to be pronounced with a hard ; that is, as "Brigg-id," not as "Bridjit." In its most ancient form, the name was spelt with a final t, Brigit, and was Latinised Brigitta. From an early time, however, and down the ages, it was spelt Brigid; Latin form, Brigida. However, the complicated matter of orthography is not ended at this point; for in Modern Gaelic—the language as spoken for the past seven centuries—the becomes silent, and the name usually is spelt in Gaelic Brighid ( Brighde), with a pronunciation "Bree-id." From this it will be seen how Kilbride and St. Bride's are derived. Accordingly, in writing English we adhere to Brigid as the correct historic and literary form. Let us pronounce it "Briggid," although we often hear people nowadays, under the influence of the revived Irish language, saying "Breeid," which is, as we have shown, fully permissible. In Munster, the pronunciation "Bride" has come into use, and often the name is written Bride, instead of Brigid. Since this development is native and natural, we can make no objection to it, and would be glad to find children christened Bride as well as Brigid, whenever a due respect for our saint is recovered. The colloquial pet form is not the ugly Biddy, but Bridie... Endnote:

1 Rev. P. Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames (1906).

Quoted from The Saints of Ireland: The Life-Stories of SS. Brigid and Columcille by Hugh de Blacam (1942).

Image: 'Pilgrim's prayer, from St. Brigid's well, Near Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland.' by Alison Cassidy. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

___________________________________

Well, I can't agree that the form "Biddy" is ugly, but I can understand why the writer thought so—how often we reject words that have come to symbolize our own or another's oppression. Now that I am aging up a bit, I think I shall adopt the word "biddy" to refer to myself. I am an old biddy, daughter of Brigit, and proud of it!

Image: Great Expectations: 'Pip and Biddy sitting on a bank in the Marshes', by John McLenan.  License: John McLenan   [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Brigid's Wayside Well: Kildare, with Erynn Laurie

I have lifted the bulk of the text (but not all the directions, and none of the photos) from Erynn Laurie's blog, Searching for Imbas: A Professional Madwoman's Search for Poetic Inspiration. The post is about finding Brigit's Wayside Well in Kildare. Please go to the original posting for the full directions and helpful photos.

One of the more challenging things I had to deal with in preparing for the 2012 Ireland pilgrimage was finding the original Brigid's Well in Kildare Town from five thousand miles away, with only vague hints on the web to go by. I looked for a couple of weeks, only able to find the occasional photo of the well itself, with very vague descriptions of its location that made little sense to me, having never been to Kildare before.

I've been told "oh, well, it wasn't that hard for me to find," by people who had found it when they were in Kildare. Truthfully, once you're in Kildare, you can ask about the Wayside Well and some of the people who live there can tell you where it is pretty easily, but I had a lot of trouble ahead of time. So if you want to go to Kildare and visit the older well, this is how you can find it without having to shanghai some stranger on a Kildare street corner.

Here is the little hand-drawn map from the book Rekindling the Flame: A Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Brigid of Kildare by Rita Minehan, CSB. The book is small and sometimes not easy to find online, but I got a copy for about $17 from Amazon UK. If you look, you might be able to find one yourself. It has photos of the Brigid sites in Kildare, along with a pilgrimage route and some liturgical material primarily geared for a Catholic audience associated with some of the places. 

The Brigidine Sisters who live in Kildare sell the book at their home/shrine, but if you want to visit them, I highly recommend you contact them in advance and arrange for a visit with them. They are very kind and accepting of people of all paths and are well worth talking to. Their ceremony for gifting Brigid's flame to pilgrims is simple but moving, and they are willing to spend time telling stories of Brigid's life and her mission, as well as acknowledging Brigid as the goddess of poets, smiths, and healers.

From Kildare Town, on Bride Street, it's about 2km south of town. Bride Street turns into Tully Road about when it crosses the M7. You'll turn LEFT at the sign for The Curragh, which is the Irish National Stud Farm, and for the Japanese Gardens. Just a little up that road is an entrance for a parking lot. You'll enter and head back toward Tully Road from there. Park at the very end of the parking lot.

Blessings of Lughnasa and the Well at Liscannor

Blessings of (almost) Lughnasa!

Saint Brigit's Well at Liscannor in Co. Clare is a traditional site for Lughnasa celebrations, as described in Máire MacNeill's The Festival of Lughnasa. That festival, held there on the last Sunday in July (Garland Sunday, called by some Garlic Sunday), and her own feast day at Imbolc were the two major days of pilgrimage to the site. At one time the Aran Islanders paddled over in their curraghs and walked the five miles inland to her well, where they spent the night singing to the spellbound locals.

Blessings of Lugh and Brigit on the harvest.

Sitting in drought-kissed British Columbia, where the fires have been raging for weeks and now the air is sweet with one day's rain, I am very aware of the delicate balance of plenty and famine. I pray for rain in healthful quantities in all our countries, for food and nourishment of every kind for all, for the wisdom to steward this planet challenged by our numbers and our ways of life.

Blessings of Lughnasa on you and your families.

George Petrie (1790-1866)

Pilgrims at Saint Brigid's Well, Liscannor, Co. Clare, c.1829-1830

National Gallery of Ireland

Watercolour on paper, 18.5 x 26 cm.
Bequeathed, Miss M. Stokes, 1900.
NGI.2381

St Brigid’s Well at Liscannor, Co. Clare is one of a number of Irish holy wells associated with St Brigid of Kildare, one of Ireland’s patron saints.

The well is a popular site of pilgrimage with great numbers travelling from across Clare and the Aran Islands to participate in the traditional Lughnasa festival on the last Sunday of July (or first Sunday in August).

Petrie shows the well from across a narrow stream. A number of pilgrims perform the various stages of the Rites associated with the well; some kneel in prayer while others circle the well, which is marked by a standing stone inscribed with a cross. The well is depicted in its original location before being moved to a more convenient site in 1853, where it remains today.

Petrie was one of a circle of scholars, antiquarians and artists who, fascinated by Irish history and folklore, toured the country studying and documenting its scenery and antiquities. This is one of his many watercolours depicting locations of Irish cultural significance and is a typical example of his approach to painting. Although romantic and sentimental in style, his work was accurate in its representation of the subject matter. 

  

Adomnán's Holy Well Blog: Saint Bridgid’s Well, Kildare

Holy Well by Adomnán features postings on a small number of significant Irish holy wells, with photographs and in-depth articles. The article on Kildare focusses in large part on Brigit's "role in the establishment of the abbey in Kildare", giving the piece a different perspective than many popular writings on Brigit.

I include it in its entirety here but urge you to see it and the other pieces in their original home.

See also "Saint Brigid’s Well, Liscannor, County Clare."

Holy Well

Finding holy well sites in Ireland and recording both religious practice and lore.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Saint Bridgid’s Well, Kildare

The welcoming hands at the parish of Saint Brigid

“Amid the galaxy of the saints, how lustrous, how divinely 

fair, shines the star of Brigid, the shepherd maiden of 

Faughard, the disciple of Patrick the Apostle, the guardian

of the holy light that burned beneath the oak-trees of 

Kildare! Over all Ireland and through the Hebridean

Isles, she is renowned above any other. We think of

her, moreover, not alone, but as the centre of a great

company of cloistered maidens, the refuge and helper

of the sinful and sorrowful, who found in the gospel that

Patrick preached a message of consolation and

deliverance. Let it be remembered that the shroud of

Patrick is deemed to have been woven by Brigid's hand;

that when she died, in 525, Columcille, the future apostle

of Scotland, was a child of four. So she stands midmost

of that trilogy of saints whose dust is said to rest in Down.”

--Alice Milligan (from ‘Irish Heroines’)

Interior of Saint Brigid's Cathedral

When Saint Brigid was given leave to pursue her religious vocation she is 

said to have gone to Kildare to establish an Abbey where she reigned as

its first Abbess. During the medieval period this abbey became

hugely significant throughout Ireland and its Abbess wielded considerable 

political power. This power was retained right through to the time of the

Flight of the Earls, when it is rumoured that the nuns of the abbey were 

raped as a potent symbol of the final breaking of the religious and

political power of the Abbess. From this time on the famous flame of

Brigid fell into cold ashes until more recent times.

The ancient High Cross in the cathedral grounds

I’ve already written a little of Saint Brigid in other places and I

don’t want to repeat what I have already said.  Here, I would

like to say more of her role in the establishment of the

abbey in Kildare. Saint Brigid first enters Irish history as a

disciple of Saint Patrick, acclaimed by Saint Fiech, also a

disciple of Patrick. Fiech flourished around 520AD and is

said to have written a life of Saint Brigid. This is now lost bar

a few cursory fragments, but his somewhat astonishing

hymn of praise to Saint Brigid – ‘Audite Virginis Laudes’ –

still survives. The hymn is a list of miracles attributed to

Saint Brigid listed in alphabetical order with each line

composed of sixteen syllables. There is a longer and fuller

version in the manuscript of Saint Magnus, but to my

knowledge this has never been reprinted or translated.

In any case even shortly after her death, Brigid was already

being honoured as a Saint and was to prove an incredible

inspiration for many Irish saints of the period, most notably

Saint Brendan, Saint Ultan, Saint Erc, Saint Fiech and Saint

Ninnicíus (her chaplain while she was alive). By the

Middle Ages, Saint Brigid was one of the best known and

greatest loved of all saints throughout all of Europe. She

appears regularly in the Breviaries of the Middle Ages and

continues to be mentioned (although with lessened

materials and hymns attributed to her honour) up until the

printing of the 1522 Venice Breviary and the 1622 Paris

Breviary. Some of the Breviaries of the Middle Ages even

contained an Office of Saint Brigid which was reproduced

in the Kilmoon Breviary here in Ireland (only some very

badly damaged fragments of this manuscript now survive,

but a better copy is preserved in the Antiphonary of

Clondalkin).  Brigid became so greatly honoured in Ireland

that she became known as ‘Mary of the Gael’ and many of

the stories of her life by the early medieval period begin 

to draw strong parallels between her and the Mother of God.

Chapel of the Reserved Sacrament on the parish of Saint Brigid

There has been a persistent rumour that Brigid took up

her religious vocation at the very tender age of fourteen. To

this day the people of Dundalk insist that the church at the

top of Faughart Hill is part of the original foundation of Saint

Brigid. It may be possible they are right, but records point

to it being the dwelling place of a holy woman, who in all

likelihood had a deep influence on Brigid. This woman is not

considered to be a saint and there is some confusion as to

her real name. She does appear to have been honoured in some

way though, because a church was built on the site of what was

supposed to be her home - possibly out of interest in her

possible link to Saint Brigid. Kildare, however, remains

the main site associated with Saint Brigid and her order of

nuns. While abbess there she is described as being fearless,

strong willed and politically astute. She held a deep concern

for the poor and was particularly keen to care for the sick

and ill – hence why so many of her wells are considered to be

healing wells.

 The site of the well and the statue of Saint Brigid

It is now generally believed that in the period of early Christ-

ianity in Ireland, that the native Irish did not hold a

common pagan pantheon of gods and goddesses, but rather

that each area held its own beliefs and practices (this is also

attested to in quite a number of the records of the early Irish

saints); some having a complex order of gods and goddesses,

while other areas practiced something akin to animism or

elemental worship. It is in the area of Kildare and Athlone that

Saint Brigid is said to have found a substantial area where two

main systems of belief held great sway over the people. In

Athlone, worship of the moon prevailed as the dominant form

of belief (‘Ath’ meaning ford and ‘Luan’ meaning moon. Kildare

means ‘place of the oak’). In Kildare, the properties of light and

heat were honoured in the form of fire and a fire temple was

said to have been kept alive by many worshippers. It was at the

fire temple that Brigid is said to have established her commun-

ity, using the site as a new focus for a better light to the people.

This is an incident that demonstrates her political astuteness.

Rather than condemn the people in their fire worship, she

quietly turns it to her advantage and sustains a place of

ancient reverence as a new Christian community and overlays

it with a new symbolism to suit her mission. Saint Brigid is

said to have kept this flame alive as a potent symbol of the

light of Christ, but sadly the flame was to go out. The flame was

snuffed out by a Norman Bishop and then again by Henry VIII -

who was likely the last person to snuff it out. In 1993 the 

Brigidine Sisters (a new order of nuns that associates itself 

with the charism of Saint Brigid) symbolically re-lit the flame

of Saint Brigid and plans were set in place to create an eternal

flame in the heart of Kildare town. On 1^st February in 2006

a well made bronze monument to house Saint Brigid’s flame

was unveiled by President Mary McAleese, but the flame has

since been replaced by a rather horrible plastic flame effect!

Saint Brigid's Holy Well

There are two significant churches in Kildare. The oldest
church is Saint Brigid’s Cathedral and round tower, with the
remains of a high cross and the fire temple in the grounds.
The original foundation would have been a wooden structure,
but the cathedral was built in stone between 1223 and 1230
and even by this stage it had been repeatedly ravaged. By 1500
it was in a semi ruinous state and left completely derelict in

1649. An attempt was made to partially rebuild it in 1686, but

it wasn’t until 1875 that work began in earnest to make it a

functioning and safe church to worship in once again. It’s an

interesting building with many well preserved fine stone

carvings. Tour guides will tell you that a Sheelagh-na-gig can

be found on the Wellesley tomb in the cathedral – it’s a lie!

Unfortunately it is a rather dull cherubic acrobat, unusual,

but no Sheelagh-na-gig (if such things exist at all!)

Saint Brigid's Cathedral

The Roman Catholic parish of Saint Brigid has a modern
interior, which works well in some aspects, but not in others.
It does have some rather beautiful bronze doors with
welcoming open hands as handles! However, even here it
is somewhat disheartening to see a modern myth retold as
if it were fact. Not so very long ago a ‘learned academic’ from
TCD decided to make a pronouncement that Patrick likely
never existed, that Brigid was really the pagan goddess
Brigit and that neither had been properly canonized as Saints
by the Roman Catholic church. As you can imagine it made a
little flurry in the press.  There has been some confusion over
Brigid’s name and its spelling, but this is not uncommon
among Irish saints. She is referred to at times as Saint Bride
by Saint Ninnicíus, as Saint Brigit by Cogitosus and Saint
Ultan and mainly as Saint Brigid by all others. All names
refer to the same person. The idea that there was ever a pagan
goddess with the same name is highly unlikely and hugely
speculative. There is a brief reference to a goddess with the
name of Brí in Cath Maige Tuireadh, a twelfth century
document and some try to cite references to her in ‘The Book
of Invasions’ (Lebor Gabála Érenn), an eleventh century work.
Both of these texts have been repeatedly cited as evidence for
the existence of a pagan goddess by the name of Brigid, Bride
or Bridgit. Maybe I’m too skeptical, but I’m really not convinced
by this at all. None of Brigid’s contemporaries relate that her
name bears a strange closeness to a pagan god, neither do
any of her subsequent biographers – a fact that it would be
very hard to believe would have escaped their notice.

The remains of the fire temple in the grounds of the cathedral

Saint Brigid’s well is actually a little way out of the town of
Kildare towards the National Stud. Legend has it that Saint
Brigid was in fact Abbess over the women’s abbey in Kildare
and also had control and governance of the men’s monastery
which was very close to the site of this well. Whatever the
truth of the matter, by the ninth century the monastery has its
own male Abbot and the well would have been important for
both practical matters and religious ones to the adjoining
monastery. Saint Brigid is said to have used the well to baptize
converts.

The arch marking the point where the underground river surfaces

The well is in a somewhat unusual setting. It’s down a narrow
road towards a modern house near the National Stud. Horses
peer curiously at passing pilgrims. As you enter the area it is
fenced off from the surrounding countryside with trees planted
 - some dedicated to the work of cross community groups and
planted in hope, and others in memory of loved ones and
planted in faith. The well is up at the far end of the enclosure; a
circular and deep well, surmounted by a stone cross. Pilgrims
traditionally say prayers at each of the tiny stone ‘stations’
leading up to the well (the stones are said to mark the course
of the underground river).

 A collection of items left at the shrine during the pattern

The site is maintained by the Brigidine Sisters and they have
done a terrific job. The statue of Saint Brigid by sculptor
Annette McCormack dominates the site a little more than
it should, but otherwise this is a fine area, peaceful and
reflective. The stillness of the water in the well and the sound
of the bubbling water below as it passes under the arch erected
over two ancient stones makes for a rather beautiful place. A
pattern is observed here every 1st February and many events
take place in the churches and in the town of Kildare around
this date. Events are usually posted on the towns website.

 A tree planted in hope

This well is supposed to have a little fish. Lady Gregory, co-
founder with W. B. Yeats of the Abbey Theatre and renowned
folklorist, records a story of a mother whose daughter began
to lose weight just before she reached puberty. The child very
quickly became seriously ill and her mother fretted greatly and
prayed most fervently. She decided in desperation, that she
would find somewhere a place that would bring healing to her
daughter. She endeavoured to bring her ailing child to Saint
Brigid’s well and as she prayed over the face of the wells waters
she saw a little fish and knew in that instant that her prayers
had been answered. The child took some of the waters and was
healed.

 Rags tied to the tree above the well

The idea of a fish in a well as a sign of God’s presence or as a
visitation of God is rather peculiar to Irish Christianity of that
early period. Of course, the fish was the principle Christian
symbol in the early period of Christianity - a much more
dominant symbol than the cross, so it is hardly surprising that
in early Irish Christian tales of the presence of God or of visit-
ations from God that the visions are of fish and not of a cross.
Later – although not much later it must be said – the cross
becomes the dominant symbol of Christianity throughout Ire-
land  and when saints have visitations of God it is sometimes 
accompanied by visions of a cross. Today at the well you will 
certainly see many crosses; perhaps if you are lucky you will 
see a little fish and enjoy the healing peace of this place.

The well waters

Brigit Bé Bithmaith

Bright, eternally good lady,

Golden sparkling flame,

May she lead us to the eternal kingdom,

The dazzling shining sun!

May Brigit deliver us

Past throngs of devils;

may she rout before us

the temptations of each attack.

The dear true virgin

Of immense honour,

I shall always be safe

With my saint from Leinster.

A portion of Saint Ultan’s ‘Hymn to Saint Brigit’, translated by 

Stokes & Strachan in 1901.

How to find it:

From the town head out past the Roman Catholic parish
towards the National Stud, traversing the motorway. After
passing the gates to the National Stud on your left, take the
first turn to the right and the well is signposted to the left,
down the lane.