Detail of Stained Glass of St. Brigid
St. Mary of the Rosary, County Mayo, Ireland
Photograph by: Andreas F. Borchert
As we find with many Saints who lived over a thousand years ago, we do not know exact facts about the life of St. Brigid. What we know is what has been passed down in stories told from parents to children, from priests to parishioners. While there is definitely some truth in these stories, some parts of them might have been embellished to make them more interesting and inspiring.
The facts we do know do not need embellished, as St. Brigid was an amazing woman. She was born in Ireland to a slave mother and a rich father. She spent her childhood moving back and forth between being a slave with her mother and living in her father’s home. In both homes, Brigid showed a great generosity to the poor. She would give away as much as she could to those in need. One story says that she once gave away all of the butter her mother had saved up, but when Brigid prayed asking God for help, the butter was miraculously replaced. At another time, Brigid gave away a very expensive sword of her father’s to a man in great need. Her father was very angry and granted her freedom so that he would not have to take care of her anymore.
Brigid chose to dedicate her life to God and to remain pure, but her father was not happy with this plan as he had plans for her to marry. Brigid prayed that God would make her very ugly so that no man would marry her. God granted this request and, finding no man willing to marry such an ugly girl, Brigid’s father allowed her to take the vows of religious life. When she had taken her final vows, God restored Brigid’s great beauty.
At the time, there were not any organized religious communities in Ireland. Along with 7 friends, Brigid organized the first religious community in Ireland. This monastery was named “Kildare” which means “Church of the oak” because the altar was located on an old oak tree which had been important to the ancient Irish society before Christians came to Ireland. She would also go on to found many more communities which housed thousands of men and women throughout the country.
Brigid’s community was a double monastery: there were both men and women living in the community. Brigid was the abbess, the leader, of both the men and women in the community. At the time, it was normal for a woman to lead the double monastery, as the men would be looked at as having a lower social standing because of the manual labor they performed.
Unlike leaders who held their positions because they showed power over others, Brigid was chosen to lead the community because of the mercy and compassion she showed to others. As an adult, she continued the generosity which she displayed throughout her childhood, giving everything she could to those in need. The other religious in her community looked up to her because of this.
Two symbols are often associated with St. Brigid. The first is fire. In her monastery at Kildare there was a perpetual fire. This means that the fire was kept burning all of the time. The fire began burning before Christianity came to Ireland, but Brigid and her sisters saw its importance and incorporated it into their community. To Brigid, this fire symbolized the light of Christ which was spreading across Ireland at that time. The fire resisted many attempts to extinguish it until it was finally put out in the 1500s. The Brigidine Sisters in Kildare relit the fire in 1993 and keep it lit to this day.
The second symbol is St Brigid’s cross. At one time, Brigid was caring for a sick chief of a local clan (community). As she prayed, she made a cross from hay on the floor of his home. She used this cross to teach him about Christ, and he became a Christian before his death. St. Brigid’s cross grew in popularity and became a symbol of peace and friendship. It can be seen in many Irish homes and businesses today.
