Saint of the Week: Brigid
2/5/2025
St. Brigid of Kildare
Feast Day: February 1
St. Brigid, along with St. Patrick and St. Columba, is one of Ireland’s three patron saints. Named for the Druid goddess of wisdom, healing and poetry, Brigid was born out of wedlock, the daughter of Dubthach, a pagan chieftain, and Broicsech a Christian slave woman. The chieftain sold the child's pregnant mother to a Druid landowner but contracted for Brigid to eventually return to him. Baptized as an infant & raised as a Catholic by her mother, Brigid’s faith was well-formed before leaving Broicsech's slave-quarters, at age 10, to live with Dubthach and his wife. Within the chieftain's household, Brigid's faith found expression in feats of charity. Her generously to the poor from her father's food and possessions enraged Dubthach. Seeking to sell Brigid, he appealed to the King of Leinster. But the Christian king understood Brigid's acts of charity and convinced Dubthach to grant his daughter’s freedom. Freed from servitude, Brigid was expected to marry. But she had other plans, which involved serving God in consecrated life. She disfigured her face to dissuade suitors. Realizing he could not change her mind, Dubthach granted Brigid permission to pursue her plan & ensured she had the material means to do so. Thus, a pagan nobleman, through this gift to an illegitimate daughter, played an unintentional but key role in God's plan for Ireland. Consecrated religious life was part of the Irish Church before Brigid's time, but among women, vows of celibacy were often lived in an impromptu manner. Enlisting an initial group of seven companions, Brigid is, thus, credited with organizing communal consecrated religious life for Irish women. St. Patrick's nephew, Bishop Mel of Ardagh, accepted Brigid's profession as a nun. Irish tradition, maintains her self-inflicted disfigurement faded that day & her beauty returned. In 488, her community relocated to Kildare, building a monastery—the Church of the Oak—atop an ancient Druid shrine. The monastery she built was unique in that it as the only known Irish “double monastery,” including a separately-housed men's community, led by Bishop Conleth. Brigid's movement spread throughout Ireland, playing a major role in its successful Christianization. Dying of natural causes, her remains were kept to the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral. In 878, during a wave of Viking raids, her relics were moved to the tomb of Sts. Patrick and Columba.
