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Saint Brigid of Kildare

Our venerable Mother Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (Brigit, Bridget, Bridgit, Bríd, or Bride; Irish: Naomh Bhríde) (c. 451-525) was an Irish nun, abbess, and founder of several convents. St. Brigid’s feast day is February 1, and with St. Patrick of Ireland and St. Columba of Iona, is one of the three patron saints of Ireland. The three are buried together in Downpatrick in County Down, deep within the famous Hill of Down.

The earliest extensive life of Brigid is the Vita Brigitae of Cogitosus and is thought to have been written no later than AD 650.

According to tradition, Brigid was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. According to her biographers her parents were Dubhthach, a pagan chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by St. Patrick.

Whether she was raised a Christian or converted in 468, as some accounts say, is unknown, but she was inspired by the preaching of Saint Patrick from an early age. Despite her father’s opposition she was determined to enter religious life. Numerous stories testify to her piety. She had a generous heart and could never refuse the poor who came to her father’s door. Her charity angered her father: he thought she was being overly generous to the poor and needy when she dispensed his milk, butter, and flour to all and sundry. When she finally gave away his sword to a leper, Dubhthach realized that perhaps her disposition was best suited to the life of a nun. Brigid finally got her wish and she was sent to a monastery.

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Saint Brigid of Kildare

Brigid was tonsured into monasticism by St. Mael of Ardagh. She is believed to have founded a convent in Clara, her first; other foundations followed. But it was to be in Kildare that her major foundation would emerge. Around 470 she founded a double monastery, for nuns and monks, on the plains of Kildare or Cill-Dara, “the church of the oak,” her cell being made under a large oak tree. As abbess of this foundation she wielded considerable power, but proved to be a wise and prudent superior.

Brigid was famous for her common-sense and most of all for her holiness: in her lifetime she was regarded as a saint. The Abbey of Kildare became one of the most prestigious monasteries in Ireland, famed throughout Christian Europe. In the scriptorium of the monastery, for example, the lost illuminated manuscript the Book of Kildare may have been created—if it was not the existing Book of Kells, as many suppose.

The saint died at Kildare around 525 and was buried in a tomb before the high altar of her abbey church. After some time her remains were exhumed and translated to Downpatrick to rest with the two other patron saints of Ireland, St. Patrick of Ireland and St. Columba of Iona. Her skull was extracted and brought to Lisbon, Portugal, by two Irish noblemen, where it remains. There is widespread devotion to her in Ireland where she is known as the “Mary of the Gael” and the veneration of St. Brigid was brought to Europe by Irish missionaries, such as Foillan, in the centuries after her death.