To the average American, Irish spirituality pretty much boils down to one towering figure: Saint Patrick, the fifth-century Christian evangelist who supposedly evicted the snakes from Ireland and today is commemorated on a day associated more with parades and pub crawls than with piety. But American knowledge of Celtic spirituality and culture is too often limited to the basics. Sure, Patrick may be Ireland's most prominent patron saint, but he's not the only one. Of the three (!) patrons affiliated with Ireland, one is a woman who has a powerful and fascinating history that links her not only with Christian spirituality but with the ancient mysticism of the pagan Celtic past. This figure is Brigit, the Abbess of Kildare.
Understanding Brigit-you'll see her name spelled in a variety of ways, including Brigid, Brighid, Bride, and Bridget-means understanding two different figures who may in fact be the same persona-although they are seen in very different ways by different groups of people. The holy abbess and premiere Irish woman saint is only one aspect of Brigit. She shares her name, characteristics, and personality with an ancient goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a mythic race of ancestral or spiritual beings who gave Ireland her rich heritage of mythology (as well as her pantheon of pagan deities). To fully know Brigit, therefore, means getting to know the pagan goddess as well as the Christian saint.
Brigit the Goddess
Brigit means "Sublime One" or "Exalted One," suggesting that the name may have originally been a title for a major goddess of the pagan Celts. Goddess Brigit ruled over poetry, magic, the healing arts, and smithcraft; she was associated with fire, water, cattle and milk, dandelions, and agriculture. Her role as a fire deity is reflected in her name (for fire, of all the elements, is the most exalted) and in her attributes: for poetry comes out of the "fires" of inspiration, smithcraft relies on the fires of the forge, and healing takes place in the vicinity of the hearthfire.
