St. Brigid: Uncovering the Legacy of Ireland's only female Patron Saint
(WWTI) – Saint Patrick's Day is around the corner, but there is another Irish Saint that you may not know too much about.
The charitable Saint Brigid is who we are talking about. She is the only female among the three patron saints in Ireland and she's a figure associated with creativity and womanhood. Saint Brigid is the patron saint of Ireland, dairymaids, cattle, midwives, Irish nuns and newborn babies, according to Catholic Online.
St. Brigid is a unique character in Irish history. She was born in 451 and was the daughter of a Christian woman baptized by Saint Patrick named Brocca and Dubthach, a Leinster chieftain. As Brocca was a slave so was Brigid, when Dubthach's wife found out that Brocca was pregnant, Brocca was sold to a Druid landowner.
Brigid's early years are not without legends. Apparently baby Brigid would vomit any food the Druid attempted to feed her as he was impure, however a cow became her source for food instead. Stories also say the Saint Briged was incapable of not feeding the poor and healing them.
Brigid's charity was well known including giving away all of her mother's butter, the butter was replenished later after she prayed. After moving and living with her father, she donated his possessions to anyone who asked for them.
Dubthach was, understandably, annoyed by this behavior and tried to sell her to the king of Leinster. Even while the king and her father spoke Brigid's charity was seen as she gave a jeweled sword to a beggar so he could barter it for food for his family. The king seeing this and being Christian convinced Dubthach to grant her freedom by saying, 'Her merit before God is greater than ours.'
Brigid's charity didn't end there. She later returned to her mother and the Druid, took over the Druid's dairy farm, made a profit all while giving away milk to those in need. Her mother was eventually freed by the Druid.
Brigid wasn't just charitable but chaste as well. She even prayed that her beauty be taken away so no man would want to marry her. Legend goes that her beauty did not come back until after she made her final vows to the church.
She may also have been accidentally ordained as a priest, not a nun. Saint Patrick supposedly accidentally used the form for ordaining priests, when he was informed of his error he said, 'So be it, my son, she is destined for great things.'
Later in life she founded a monastery in Kildare, two monastic institutions and a school of art that included metalwork and illumination. Many miracles are attributed to her, one miracle says that she transformed a lake into beer to serve a leper colony and her prayers were said to calm winds and stop rain.
She died on February 1 525, at 73-74 years old. According to Europeana, she is celebrated in Ireland on her death date every year, by people participating in creative activities, music, storytelling and artistic expressions that pay tribute to her creative spirit. In parts of Ireland, there are parades dedicated to Saint Brigid, which include making and carrying Saint Brigid's Crosses.
You can find instructions on how to make your own Saint Brigid's Cross HERE.
Saint Brigid's skull can be found in two places, the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, Portugal and St. Brigid's Parish Church, Kildare. However, a little closer to home, Saint Bridget has an exhibit in The Brooklyn Museum.
Democratic leaders bash GOP's spending plan: 'Not acceptable'
$400M in federal grants to Columbia University canceled amid antisemitism probe
NNYCF grants available for nonprofit organizations
Second-largest bank in Mexico calls Trump 'biggest risk to Mexican economy'
Calling All Young Musicians: ONNY Offers Unique Performance Opportunity
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
The faith-related surprise in a new survey on famous quotes
The United Kingdom may no longer be a majority Christian country, but 8 in 10 people there still recognize a famous Christian prayer, according to new research from the Church of England. The survey found that more people in the U.K. recognized an excerpt from the Lord's Prayer than recognized quotes from William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and the British national anthem. 'Overall, the phrase from the Lord's Prayer was recognised correctly by the largest number of people (80.3%), just ahead of Star Wars (79.9%),' per a Church of England press release. The survey, which was fielded by Savanta among more than 2,000 people in the United Kingdom from May 23 to May 26, tested participants' knowledge of popular phrases from religion, sports, politics and culture. People were given seven famous phrases — including 'May the force be with you' from 'Star Wars' — and asked to match them to their source from a list of correct answers. 'Give us this day our daily bread' was the phrase used from the Lord's Prayer. As the press release noted, survey participants were particularly good at recognizing the quotes from religion and pop culture. They were particularly bad at identifying 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' a quote from Dickens. 'A minority of those surveyed (39%) correctly identified the opening line from Dickens's 'A Tale of Two Cities,'' the Church of England reported. The Lord's Prayer comes from the Bible, where it appears twice: in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. It's widely used in Christianity, but different Christian traditions use slightly different versions of it, in part because of disagreements over how to translate the Bible passages. Here is the text of the traditional version of the Lord's Prayer that's used by the Church of England: 'Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.' The new survey also investigated which parts of the Lord's Prayer stand out to people in the U.K. Survey respondents were given the text and asked to identify which lines were most meaningful to them. 'The most commonly selected line was '… and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us' with 43% overall and more than half (56%) of Christians surveyed," the Church of England reported. The Lord's Prayer survey was released just ahead of a new Pew Research Center report showing that Christianity is declining in the United Kingdom. Pew found that the U.K. is one of four countries that stopped being majority Christian from between 2010 and 2020. 'As of 2020, Christians were a majority in 120 countries and territories, down from 124 a decade earlier. Christians dropped below 50% of the population in the United Kingdom (49%), Australia (47%), France (46%) and Uruguay (44%). In each of these places, religiously unaffiliated people now account for 40% or more of the population,' Pew reported.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
A personal journey: Tracing Richmond's roots back to the Nicholl family
RICHMOND, Calif. - Nicholl is a prominent name in Richmond. There is beautiful Nicholl Park. Nicholl Nob boasts amazing views of the bay. And that's not too far from Nicholl Avenue, where Erika Madsen has lived just a block away for 23 years. It's named after John Nicholl, who was a farmer-turned-East Bay-real estate maven and philanthropist. In the late 1800s, Nicholl bought most of what is now Point Richmond, betting the railroad would be coming thru to San Francisco. It paid off. He taxed the Sante Fe Railroad $80,000 for the right away, and cashed in, putting both Richmond and Nicholl family on the map in the early1900s. "He was domineering and is considered the father of Richmond," historian James Cheshareck said. "He was also the Duke of Richmond. How much was he worth when he passed? Around $3 million. What is that in today's money? Around $94 million." That got me curious. Because tucked away in my storage was an 1895 photo of my mother's grandmother, Ruth Ann Nichol Wells of Richmond. I also have a family portrait of Mary E. Nicholl dating back to the 1800s. So I took the portrait to the Richmond museum of history to donate it and get confirmation. Could these two women be a relative of John Nicholl? Richmond's historian said yes. "This has to be the mother," Cheshareck said. "I've seen pictures of Mary Emma. People aged quicker back then. She has a resemblance to him. The expression is similar." That portrait that has hung in my family home for decades is John Nicholl's Irish mother, Mary. So that would make her my great-great-great grandmother, which makes John Nicholl my great-great-grandfather. Who knew?! The final piece of the Nicholl puzzle was my great-grandmother, Ruth Anne Nicholl Wells, who was Nicholl's fourth of eight children. She had five children of her own including my grandfather, R.A. Wells. And, as fate would have it, we discovered inside the museum a photo of my then 10-year-old grandfather and his siblings circa 1909 – a photo I had never seen before. John Nicholl died in 1914 at age 92 and is buried in Oakland's Mt. View Cemetery along with many of his children.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Reader wonders where Rochester's traditional baccalaureate went
Jun. 9—Dear Answer Man. Do the Rochesters schools still do baccalaureate? If not, when did the practice end and why? Growing up in Rochester, it was a tradition back in my day. The religious service was paired with graduation — I'm a 1977 Mayo High School grad — that took place mid-week prior to graduation ceremonies. The baccalaureate program back then was held at Mayo Civic Auditorium and all three high schools attended (Mayo, John Marshall and Lourdes — this was pre-Century, I think) took part. The students wore their graduation caps and gowns and even the high school bands played for the ceremony. — We All Need Prayer. Dear Prayer, First, the big joint baccalaureate service is a thing of the past. Not that no one does it. I reached out to both Rochester Public School and Rochester Catholic Schools on this one. Let's start with Lourdes High School Principal Mary Spring. Spring said, yes, Lourdes still holds a baccalaureate service each year, COVID notwithstanding. The Catholic high school makes a point to send its graduates away with a little help from the Lord. As for when Lourdes stopped pairing its service with the public high schools, Spring did not know for certain. However, Rochester School Board Vice Chair Julie Workman previously worked in the district as a teacher when these services were still offered. Here's what Workman recalls: * The baccalaureate included students from Lourdes, JM, Mayo and — once it was built — Century high schools, and was held in late May each year. Since Workman started teaching at JM in 1982, the joint — or all-city — ceremonies extended into the 1980s. * For JM and Mayo choirs and orchestras, the performance and attendance were part of their final grade. The musicians and singers rehearsed on the day of the baccalaureate, which meant those students missed a half day of school. * Rochester's faith community determined who the adult religious speaker would be for the service. Though, in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was strictly a Christian church service and the hymns and message reflected that. As Rochester became more diverse religiously — or just less religious in general — changes started to come. But other roadblocks popped up as well. For example, as the baccalaureate grew each year, there wasn't enough room for the 200-plus orchestra students. Rehearsals for students from different schools were hard since they all had to learn to perform together in one afternoon. All this happened at the end of May, a hectic time for students and staff. Later, a survey of music students showed many were either indifferent or opposed to participation. Some objected for religious reasons, though if they did, they were excused with a note from a parent, Workman said. Then, there was the fact public school funds were being used to support a religious service — bus transportation, purchase of music books. Though teachers were not compensated for the extra duty assignment. Workman said, as a teacher she stopped participating in 2002, and she believes the whole thing ended after 2004. The district finally agreed that music students couldn't be coerced into attending, with many only doing so because it was part of their grade. Workman said after the district bowed out, SEMYO and the Honors Choir (not district-affiliated) provided the music for a year or two, and the Area Council of Churches organized it. However, it was still difficult to get enough students from SEMYO and the Honors Choir to participate since a large number of them were RPS students. Eventually, Workman said, the people who tried to run it gave up, and it just faded away as part of RPS's graduation festivities, though, as noted above, RCS still holds a baccalaureate each year. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to play some Beetles songs to get "Pomp and Circumstance" to stop playing in my head. Send questions to Answer Man at answerman@ .
