and cattle. As an infant, Brigit refused to eat the druid’s
food; she would eat only the milk of a white, red-eared
cow milked by a holy virgin. As a young girl, she too
worked in the dairy and produced vast quantities of
butter and cheese. Later, as abbess of Kildare, she
entertained a group of bishops for whom she milked
her cows three times in one day. In modern iconogra-
phy, Brigit is often depicted with a cow.
Brigit was renowned for her charity and her hos-
pitality. As a child, she gave away so much of her
father’s goods that he tried to sell her but was pre-
vented by the local king, who was impressed by the
girl’s piety and virtue. As an abbess, she continually
gave to the poor, even giving away the bishop’s vest-
ments; owing to her sanctity, she received perfect
substitutes just in time for the celebration of the mass.
At Easter, she miraculously provided ale for all of
her churches from a small amount of malt. A poem
attributed to Brigit (“St. Brigit’s Alefeast”), from no
later than the ninth century, expresses her desire to
provide a lake of ale for Christ.
Brigit’s hagiographers present her as a powerful and
influential leader in both the ecclesiastical and secular
communities. She receives bishops, including her con-
temporary, St. Patrick, and negotiates with local rulers.
In the Old Irish Life, the anonymous author relates
how, at Brigit’s consecration as a nun, the presiding
bishop mistakenly read over her the orders of a bishop
instead. This incident has led to speculation that Brigit
was a female bishop, but this idea cannot be supported;
in the same text, Brigit must call upon her priest to
perform some necessary sacerdotal functions. The
abbess of Kildare, however, did hold a high status
within the early Irish church, which may have included
the honors and privileges held by a bishop, but histor-
ically the bishop of Kildare performed all the requisite
episcopal functions.
St. Brigit is often associated with a pagan Irish
goddess, also named Brigit, whose own traditions have
influenced the saint’s. The goddess Brigit appears to
be the same as the pan-Celtic deity Brigantia, the tute-
lary goddess of the Brigantes. In Irish mythology, she
was the daughter of the great god, the Dagda, and was
the patron of smithying, healing, and poetry; she was
also identified with a fire cult. A tenth-century text,
Cormac’s Glossary (Sanas Cormaic) calls the goddess
whom the poets (the filid) worshipped; she had two
sisters, also named Brigit, and from these all goddesses
in Ireland were named Brigit. Other sources make her
the wife of Bres, a mythological king; when their son,
Rúadan, is killed, Brigit reportedly keened the first
lament heard in Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald
of Wales), in his Topographia Hiberniae(The Topog-
raphy of Ireland, c.1185), recounts that nineteen nuns
at Kildare, each in turn, watched over a perpetual fire
in St. Brigit’s honor; on the twentieth night, the nuns
left the fire to St. Brigit to tend. This fire never pro-
duced any ash and was kept within an enclosure that
no man was permitted to enter. St. Brigit’s feast day
coincides with the pagan Celtic festival of Imbolc, a
fertility celebration and one of the four great festivals
of the Celtic year. St. Brigit, too, in her tradition is
revered as the patron of smiths, healers, and poets.
Based on these associations, some have considered the
saint to be a euhemerized and Christianized version of
the goddess, but the strict relationship is inconclusive.
A revival of the cult of the goddess in the twentieth
century generated further speculation regarding the saint;
however, although Brigit the saint has many of the
same attributes as the goddess Brigit, her overall tra-
dition is within a Christian milieu.
St. Brigit became closely associated with the Virgin
Mary. The renowned bishop Ibor, as related in the Old
Irish Life, saw Brigit appear in a dream as Mary and
prophesied her arrival. Her Middle Irish Life cele-
brates her as the “Queen of the South, the Mary of
the Gael.” In a later Scottish tradition, Brigit appears
as the midwife of Christ.
Brigit’s cult spread into Scotland and England, where
she is often referred to as St. Bride, and into Wales,
where she is known as St. Ffraid. Several dedications
to her exist in place-names such as St. Bride’s and
Bridewell. Her cult also spread to continental Europe.
Although her historicity remains a matter of debate, the
veneration of St. Brigit continues to the present day.
DOROTHY ANN BRAYReferences and Further Reading
Bray, Dorothy Ann. “The Image of St. Brigit in the Early Irish
Church.” Etudes Celtiques24 (1987): 209–215.
———. “Saint Brigit and the Fire from Heaven.” Etudes Celt-
iques29 (1992): 105–113.
Connolly, Seán, ed. and trans. “Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae.”
(The First Lifeof St. Brigit.) Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland119 (1989): 5–49.
———, and Jean-Michel Picard, eds. and trans. “Cogitosus:
Life of Saint Brigit.” Journal of the Royal Society of Anti-
quaries of Ireland117 (1987): 5–27.
Davies, Oliver, trans. “Ultán’s Hymn.” In Celtic Spirituality,
edited and translated by Oliver Davies, with Thomas
O’Loughlin, 121. New York: Paulist Press, 1999.
Greene, David, ed. and trans. “St. Brigid’s Alefeast.” Celtica 2
(1954): 150–153.
Harrington, Christina. Women in a Celtic Church: Ireland,
450–1150.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Kenney, James F. The Sources for the Early History of Ireland:
Ecclesiastical. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929.
McKenna, Catherine. “Between Two Worlds: Saint Brigit and
Pre-Christian Religion in the Vita Prima.” InIdentifying the
Celtic: CSANA Yearbook 2, edited by Joseph F. Nagy, 66–74.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002.
Ó hAodha, Donncha, ed. and trans. Bethu Brigte. (Life of
Brigit.) Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.BRIGIT (c. 452–c. 528)