Today is the Feast Day of the Holy Venerable St. Brigid of Kildare, Ireland so I thought I’d post some background information and some of her hagiography I have found along with a variety of icons I’ve collected in my photos.

I enjoyed reading the following quote that came in one of my email newsletters/blogs I subscribe to mentioning her feast day.

“Brigid’s feast day is February 1st which in the Celtic calendar is also the feast of Imbolc and the very beginning of springtime….She is the first sign of life after the long dark nights of winter. She breathes into the landscape so that it begins to awaken. Snowdrops, the first flowers of spring are one of her symbols.” ~ Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat

Her Feast Day is most commonly celebrated around the world on February 1st. However in some Eastern Orthodox Churches which follow the Old Julian Calendar, her Feast Day is celebrated on February 14th.

The tradition of making Saint Brigid’s crosses from rushes and hanging them in the home is still followed in Ireland, where devotion to her is still strong. (More on St. Brigid’s Cross is below).

She is also venerated in northern Italy, France, and Wales.

St. Brigid is the Patron Saint of: Ireland, poets, brewers, blacksmiths, dairymaids, cattle, midwives, Irish nuns, fugitives, and newborn babies.

She was born in 451 a.d., and died in 525 a.d.

Saint Brigid’s likeness is often depicted holding a reed cross, a crozier, or a lamp.

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The following hagiography is from the Orthodox Church of America’s website: Venerable Brigid (Bridget) of Ireland – Orthodox Church in America

Saint Brigid, “the Mary of the Gael,” was born around 450 in Faughart, about two miles from Dundalk in County Louth. According to Tradition, her father was a pagan named Dubthach, and her mother was Brocessa (Broiseach), one of his slaves.

Even as a child, she was known for her compassion for the poor. She would give away food, clothing, and even her father’s possessions to the poor. One day he took Brigid to the king’s court, leaving her outside to wait for him. He asked the king to buy his daughter from him, since her excessive generosity made her too expensive for him to keep. The king asked to see the girl, so Dubthach led him outside. They were just in time to see her give away her father’s sword to a beggar. This sword had been presented to Dubthach by the king, who said, “I cannot buy a girl who holds us so cheap.”

Saint Brigid received monastic tonsure at the hands of Saint Mael of Ardagh (February 6). Soon after this, she established a monastery on land given to her by the King of Leinster. The land was called Cill Dara (Kildare), or “the church of the oak.” This was the beginning of women’s cenobitic monasticism in Ireland.

The miracles performed by Saint Brigid are too numerous to relate here, but perhaps one story will suffice. One evening the holy abbess was sitting with the blind nun Dara. From sunset to sunrise they spoke of the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and of the love of Christ, losing all track of time. Saint Brigid was struck by the beauty of the earth and sky in the morning light. Realizing that Sister Dara was unable to appreciate this beauty, she became very sad. Then she prayed and made the Sign of the Cross over Dara’s eyes. All at once, the blind nun’s eyes were opened and she saw the sun in the east, and the trees and flowers sparkling with dew. She looked for a while, then turned to Saint Brigid and said, “Close my eyes again, dear Mother, for when the world is visible to the eyes, then God is seen less clearly by the soul.” Saint Brigid prayed again, and Dara became blind once more.

Saint Brigid fell asleep in the Lord in the year 523 after receiving Holy Communion from Saint Ninnidh of Inismacsaint (January 18). She was buried at Kildare, but her relics were transferred to Downpatrick during the Viking invasions. It is believed that she was buried in the same grave with Saint Patrick (March 17) and Saint Columba of Iona (June 9).

Late in the thirteenth century, her head was brought to Portugal by three Irish knights on their way to fight in the Holy Land. They left this holy relic in the parish church of Lumiar, about three miles from Lisbon. Portions of the relic were brought back to Ireland in 1929 and placed in a new church of Saint Brigid in Dublin.

The relics of Saint Brigid in Ireland were destroyed in the sixteenth century by Lord Grey during the reign of Henry VIII.

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The following is from the Catholic Online website: St. Brigid of Ireland – Saints & Angels – Catholic Online

Saint Brigid was born Brigit, and shares a name with a Celtic goddess from whom many legends and folk customs are associated.

There is much debate over her birthparents, but it is widely believed her mother was Brocca, a Christian baptized by Saint Patrick, and her father was Dubthach, a Leinster chieftain. Brocca was a slave, therefore Brigid was born into slavery.

When Dubthach’s wife discovered Brocca was pregnant, she was sold to a Druid landowner. It is not clear if Brocca was unable to produce milk or was not present to care for Brigid, but legend states Brigid vomited any food the druid attempted to feed her, as he was impure, so a white cow with red ears sustained her instead.

Many stories of Brigid’s purity followed her childhood. She was unable to keep from feeding the poor and healing them.

One story says Brigid once gave her mother’s entire store of butter, that was later replenished after Brigid prayed.

When she was about ten-years-old, Brigid was returned to her father’s home, as he was her legal master. Her charity did not end when she left her mother, and she donated his possessions to anyone who asked.

Eventually, Dubthach became tired of her charitably nature and took her to the king of Leinster, with the intention of selling her. As he spoke to the king, Brigid gave his jeweled sword to a beggar so he could barter it for food for his family. When the king, who was a Christian, saw this, he recognized her heart and convinced Dubthach to grant her freedom by saying, “Her merit before God is greater than ours.”

After being freed, Brigid returned to the Druid and her mother, who was in charge of the Druid’s dairy. Brigid took over and often gave away milk, but the dairy prospered despite the charitable practice, and the Druid eventually freed Brocca.

Brigid then returned to Dubthach, who had arranged for her to marry a bard. She refused and made a vow to always be chaste.

Legend has it Brigid prayed that her beauty be taken so no one would want to marry her, and the prayer was granted. It was not until after she made her final vows that her beauty was restored.

Another tale says that when Saint Patrick heard her final vows, he accidentally used the form for ordaining priests. When the error was brought to his attention, he simply replied, “So be it, my son, she is destined for great things.”

Little is known about Saint Brigid’s life after she entered the Church, but in 480 she founded a monastery in Kildare, called the Church of the Oak. It was built above a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid, which was beneath a large oak tree.

Brigid and seven friends organized communal consecrated religious life for women in Ireland and she founded two monastic institutions, one for men and one for women. Brigid invited a hermit called Conleth to help her in Kildare as a spiritual pastor.

Her biographer reported that Brigid chose Saint Conleth “to govern the church along with herself.”

She later founded a school of art that included metalwork and illumination, which Conleth led as well. It was at this school that the Book of Kildare, which the Gerald of Wales praised as “the work of angelic, and not human skill,” was beautifully illuminated, but was lost three centuries ago.

There is evidence that Brigid was a good friend of Saint Patrick’s and that the Trias Thaumaturga claimed, “Between St. Patrick and Brigid, the pillars of the Irish people, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many great works.”

Saint Brigid helped many people in her lifetime, but on February 1, 525, she passed away of natural causes. Her body was initially kept to the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, with a tomb “adorned with gems and precious stones and crowns of gold and silver,” but in 878, during the Scandinavian raids, her relics were moved to the tomb of Patrick and Columba.

In 1185, John de Courcy had her remains relocated in Down Cathedral. Today, Saint Brigid’s skull can be found in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, Portugal. The tomb in which it is kept bears the inscription, “Here in these three tombs lie the three Irish knights who brought the head of St. Brigid, Virgin, a native of Ireland, whose relic is preserved in this chapel. In memory of which, the officials of the Altar of the same Saint caused this to be done in January AD 1283.”

A portion of the skull was relocated to St. Bridget’s Church and another was sent to the Bishop of Lisbon in St. Brigid’s church in Killester.

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Troparions and Kontakions chanted in Eastern Orthodox Churches:

Troparion, Tone 1:

O holy Brigid, thou didst become sublime through thy humility, and didst fly on the wings of thy longing for God. When thou didst arrive in the Eternal City and appear before thy Divine Spouse, wearing the crown of virginity, thou didst keep thy promise to remember those who have recourse to thee. Thou dost shower grace upon the world, and dost multiply miracles. Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

Another Troparion, Tone 4:

Instructed by the words of Holy Pádraig, thou didst journey far to the west, proclaiming the Orient which has visited us from on high. Wherefore we bless thee, Venerable Mother Brigid, and we cry out to thee: Pray in behalf of our souls.

Kontakion, Tone 6:

Rejecting thy noble rank, and loving the godly monastic life, from the wood of the oak didst thou raise up a convent, the first in thy land and having there united a multitude of nuns to God, thou didst teach the surrounding lands to cry to the Lord: Have mercy on us!

Another Kontakion, Tone 4:

The holy virgin Brigid full of divine wisdom, went with joy along the way of evangelical childhood, and with the grace of God attained in this way the summit of virtue. Wherefore she now bestoweth blessings upon those who come to her with faith. O holy Virgin, intercede with Christ our God that He may have mercy on our souls.

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From the Old Sarum Rite Missal (c) 1998 St. Hilarion Press, Austin, Texas

Collect for the Feast of St. Brigid of Ireland:

O Creator and Governor of the heavens and the earthly regions, Almighty God, in Thy fatherly love help Thy people praying to Thee: and grant that we who carry out the solemn feast of this day in honour of the holy Brigid may by her interceding prayers inherit the glory which hath no end. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God through all the ages of ages. Amen.

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Courtesy of the website: Saint Brigid of Kildare Catholic Faith Community Society of Calgary, Alberta Canada

Saint Brigid Hearth Keeper Prayer

Brigid of the Mantle, encompass us,

Lady of the Lambs, protect us,

Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us.

Beneath your mantle, gather us,

And restore us to memory.

Mothers of our mother, Foremothers strong.

Guide our hands in yours,

Remind us how to kindle the hearth.

To keep it bright, to preserve the flame.

Your hands upon ours, Our hands within yours,

To kindle the light, Both day and night.

The Mantle of Brigid about us,

The Memory of Brigid within us,

The Protection of Brigid keeping us

From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness.

This day and night,

From dawn till dark, From dark till dawn.

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Other interesting websites about St. Brigid of Kildare, Ireland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid_of_Kildare?wprov=sfti1

St. Brigid of Ireland | Britannica.com

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St. Bridget’s Cross

A Christian symbol, usually made from rushes or, less often, straw. It comprises a woven square in the centre and four radials tied at the ends. Bridget’s crosses are traditionally made on February 1st, which in the Irish language is called Lá Fhéile Bhríde (St Bridget’s feast day), the day of her liturgical celebration. Many rituals are associated with the making of the crosses. It was traditionally believed that a Bridget’s Cross protects the house from fire and evil. It is hung in many Irish and Irish-American kitchens for this purpose.

St. Bridget and her cross are linked together by a story about her weaving this form of cross at the death-bed of either her father or a pagan lord, who upon hearing what the cross meant, asked to be baptized. One version goes as follows:

A pagan chieftain from the neighbourhood of Kildare was dying. Christians in his household sent for Bridget to talk to him about Christ. When she arrived, the chieftain was raving. As it was impossible to instruct this delirious man, hopes for his conversion seemed doubtful. Bridget sat down at his bedside and began consoling him. As was customary, the dirt floor was strewn with rushes both for warmth and cleanliness. Bridget stooped down and started to weave them into a cross, fastening the points together. The sick man asked what she was doing. She began to explain the cross, and as she talked, his delirium quieted and he questioned her with growing interest. Through her weaving, he converted and was baptized at the point of death. Since then, the cross of rushes has existed in Ireland.

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I was going through a difficult trial in my every day life stresses, when I got the call on a Sunday afternoon that my brother was killed in a tragic automobile accident.  It was such an unexpected blow; I still remember the wailing that erupted from the core of my being.  All my previous difficulties seemed so trivial compared to this.  As I was driving to the funeral home, I began to listen to a CD, “My Utmost for His Highest”, based on the writings of Oswald Chambers, that I recently received.  One of the songs was entitled: “Sometimes He Comes in the Clouds” (sung by Steven Curtis Chapman).  The chorus went like this: “Sometimes He comes in the clouds.  Sometimes His face cannot be found.  Sometimes the sky is dark and gray.  But some things can only be known and sometimes our faith can only grow when we can’t see, so, sometimes He comes in the clouds.”
Somehow that song ministered to me and helped me get through the indescribable pain and loss I was experiencing and all the unanswered questions of “Why God?”  I knew that somehow my faith would grow through this painful time.
Since then I have discovered in the Bible, clouds are connected with God.  “Look He is coming with the clouds…” (Revelation 1:7a)
Although I knew those familiar passages, about the coming of the Lord, I had pictured Him returning with white, fluffy clouds against a beautiful blue-sky backdrop and the sun gloriously shining.  This may all still be true, I do look forward to the day of the Lord’s return.
Nevertheless, the clouds in the song I mentioned before and often the clouds that come in my life, are storm clouds… dark, thick and black as smoke.  Where is God in all those kinds of clouds?  These are the times in my life I feel God has abandoned me.  The rain pounds (stress, pain, loss, discouragement, failures), the lightning flashes (angry outbursts, persecution, gossip, enemy attacks), the thunder crashes (fear, failed dreams, set backs, broken relationships), and sometimes the storms sends hail the size of Golf balls (death, divorce, tragedy, loss of health) to pound me down.  These are the times that cute, little, catch phrases are thrown around to try to bring comfort.  Sayings like, “behind every cloud there is a rainbow” or “the sun is still shining above the clouds, even though you can’t see it”.  For many years, I clung to those phrases for a single ray of hope.  They did help but not really ministering to me at my deepest point of need as I patiently endured the storm and waited until the clouds finally blew away.
I know some of us have heard the phrase,  “sometimes the Lord calms the storm, but sometimes He calms His child in the midst of the storm”.  However, I still looked at the clouds as some sinister presence or something trying to destroy me and only by the grace of God would I get through it somehow.  My outlook about clouds and storms changed when I discovered that sometimes God comes in the midst of the clouds that he even brings the clouds.  This means I do not have to wait until the end to see the sun, but that I have the SON with me in the midst of my storm.
“Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.”  (Psalm 97: 2)  No matter what clouds or darkness surrounds me I am comforted that God’s righteousness and justice will prevail.  “He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under His feet.”  (2 Samuel 22:10)  No matter what clouds come in my life, the Lord has it under His feet; He is Lord over all; He has it under control.  “See the LORD rides on a swift cloud”.  (Isaiah 19:1I)  “He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.”  (Psalm 104:3b)  “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.”  (Deuteronomy 33:26)  If God can ride the clouds no matter how swift, I can be assured of His ever present help in my time of need and ride them out to as long as I hold onto His saving hand.  “His way is in the whirlwind and the storm and clouds are the dust of his feet.”  (Nahum 1:3)  I know that His ways are higher than mine, and that He can use the storms to perfect His plan for me, and these temporary circumstances and afflictions are but a speck of dust compared to the treasures of all eternity that He has stored up for me.
Then, I received the news that my 56-year-old mother had lung cancer.  The storm clouds came in big, heavy and dark.  After months of radiation and chemotherapy, leaving her body weak, she contracted pneumonia.  She was released from the hospital at the end of March, to go home and die, thinking she only had a few days to a couple of weeks left.  The cancer and the treatments left her with incredible nausea, so that even the slightest smell, the least bit of cough, she would get sick or have the dry heaves.  She was unable to eat anything and eventually subsisted on water.  She was in pain, barely able to breathe even with oxygen.  She would rally a bit for a week or two, and then she would plummet again and be at death’s door.
During this time, I cried out to God, “either heal my mother or let her die”.  No answer would come.  I would cry out to God, “then at least alleviate her suffering, make her stop vomiting.”  No answer would come.  We had all kinds of ministers, priests and chaplains from many denominations come and pray over her.  My sister and I would fast and have all night prayer vigils, we took mom to healing prayer meetings, we anointed her with oil, and all the other “formulas” that we could think of.  Perhaps we were praying wrong, perhaps we had sin in our life; perhaps this is a demon, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.  Where was God in all of this?
Oswald Chambers said, “Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God.  It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith.  If there were no clouds, we should have no faith.  The clouds are a sign that He is there.  What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are the clouds that come along with God!  Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God’s character, we do not yet know Him.  Is there anyone ‘save Jesus only’ in your cloud?  If so, it will get darker; you must get to the place where there is ‘no one any more save Jesus only.’”  (My Utmost for His Highest)
I remember talking with someone who was not a Christian.  She asked question, “I don’t understand how God could let your mother suffer as she is, when she has served Him and loved Him so much?”  I remember sharing with her a truth that I am only beginning to understand.  It is easy to believe in God, when things are going our way, however, real faith believes in God when things are hard.  It is hard to believe God is a god of love, when you see someone suffer.  It is hard to believe in the character of God, His love, peace, joy and hope, when life is showing you the exact opposite.  Faith believes when you cannot see or understand.  It is there, in the midst of the cloud that God meets you.  It is like jumping off a cliff and finding the Lord there to catch you.
I need to learn to embrace suffering and accept it as a gift, an instrument to cause me to grow.  The Orthodox Christians have a saying that when you are suffering God is visiting you.  The Russian Christians would often go and ask for prayer from the one who is suffering, because they believed that person was closer to God in those times of sickness and trials.  The clouds are not there to block my view of God, but to block my view of everything else but God.  It is in the clouds that I can have intimacy with the Almighty.  I can hear His voice and be in His presence.
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear Me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.’ …On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast.  Everyone in the camp trembled.  Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire.  The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.  The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.  So Moses went up.”  (Exodus 19:9,16-20)
It is hard to imagine that God could be in the midst of thunder, lightning, and thick dark clouds.  However, clouds are a symbol of God’s Holy presence.  Some people trembled with fear, but Moses was invited to go up into the cloud.  To be invited into the cloud with God, is a privilege that is given only those who are found worthy.  When Moses was invited up to the mountain within the cloud, it was by invitation only.  The rest of the people of Israel were told not even to come close to the mountain or touch it, lest they be destroyed.  Later, the tabernacle was built.  The presence of God would come down in the form of a cloud into the Holy of Holies.  Even there, the high priest could not approach unless the sacrifice had been made, and God had given approval.  “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.”  (Leviticus 16:2)  When Solomon dedicated the temple scriptures say, “When the priest withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.  Moreover, the priest could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled His temple.  Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that He would dwell in a dark cloud…” (I Kings 8:10-12).  To enter the cloud of God’s presence is by invitation and only those that God says are holy can enter in.
The cloud of His presence was displayed when “Jesus took Peter, James and John, with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.  As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning… while he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.  A voice came from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; Listen to Him!”  (Luke 9:28-29,34-35)
Because of Jesus, we can now enter the cloud without fear, enter into His presence and hear the voice of the Lord, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  (Hebrews 4:14-16)
In the midst of the clouds, we can now hear the voice of the Lord; we can now have guidance and direction for our lives.  We can receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Another assurance that clouds are actually a symbol of God’s guidance is found in Exodus 13:21-22.  “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night.  Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”
Who would have thought, clouds and fire could be the instruments that God would use to guide our lives and provide direction in the daytime or the nighttime?  “Beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” (I Peter 4:12-13)  In Daniel chapter 3, remember the 3 Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were thrown in a fiery furnace so hot that the blaze killed the soldiers who threw them in.  Yet, when Nebuchadnezzar looked in, he said in amazement, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?  Look!  I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God.”  You see Jesus was with them in the midst of the fire.
He is with us in the midst of our clouds, in the midst of the fires, in the floods, all things.  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”  (Isaiah 43:1-4)
Walk into the clouds, the fires, and the rivers and let them be instruments for you to hear the voice of God and come to know Him more intimately than ever before.  “Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”  (Isaiah 30:20,21)
The amazing thing about many of the heroes of the faith is that they had no idea how the outcome would turn out in the midst of their trials.  Abraham had no idea what God would do when he sacrificed Isaac, he just clung to the promise of God.  Daniel had no idea that the lions’ mouths would be shut, he clung to his faith in God.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had no assurance that they would not be destroyed.  But may I, and all of us who trust in the Lord, be able to say with their same conviction, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.  But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:17-18)
I could not promise my mother would be healed.  I cannot promise that God will deliver neither me nor anyone else from pain or suffering.  I can cling to the promise of God’s word that He will never leave nor forsake us; and nothing will ever separate us from the love of God.  “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  When these things take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  (Luke 21:27-28)  When the Lord comes in the clouds, His redemption is near.
When the clouds come continue to serve the Lord, to trust in the Lord.  Let us be like Moses and enter the clouds.  Let the clouds teach you and be your time of hearing the voice of the Lord.  Let us approach the Almighty Holy God.  His Holy Fire will cleanse and purify us, His clouds will teach us, and His presence will embrace us.
“The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in Him.”  (Nahum 1:7)