Early Life
By tradition Brigid was born around 450–451, most likely at Faughart north of Dundalk in County Louth, though some accounts place her birth near Kildare. Her father, Dubhthach, was a pagan chieftain of Leinster; her mother, Broicsech (also called Brocca or Brocessa), was an enslaved Christian woman who, according to the sources, had been baptized by Saint Patrick.
Accounts relate that Brigid was born into slavery after her mother was sold to a druid's household, and that she showed exceptional piety from childhood. Around the age of ten she was returned to her father's service, where her habit of giving away his possessions to the poor became a recurring theme of her early life.
The synaxarion relates that when Brigid gave away her father's jeweled sword to a beggar, the King of Leinster recognized her holiness; according to the accounts the king declined to purchase her and she was granted her freedom.
Monastic Foundation at Kildare
Brigid received the monastic veil, or tonsure, from Saint Mael (Mel) of Ardagh. She first established a small convent at Clara before her major foundation.
Around 470–480 she founded a double monastery for nuns and monks at Kildare — Cill Dara, meaning 'church of the oak' — on the plains of Leinster, on land granted by the King of Leinster. The sources describe this as a beginning of women's cenobitic monasticism in Ireland. She became the first Abbess of Kildare and appointed the hermit Conleth as the first Bishop of Kildare and spiritual pastor of her communities.
The Abbey of Kildare became one of the most prestigious monasteries in Ireland and a center of learning and artistic achievement. Its scriptorium is said to have produced the Book of Kildare, an illuminated manuscript praised by Gerald of Wales for its extraordinary decoration. By tradition a perpetual fire was kept at Kildare by nineteen nuns in honor of Brigid, with the belief that on the twentieth night Brigid herself would tend it.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: The sources record a strong and enduring devotion to Brigid across Ireland and beyond, attested by her liturgical commemoration and by hundreds of Irish and Scottish place names that bear her name (such as East Kilbride, Brideswell, and Tubberbride). The tradition of the Saint Brigid's Cross — a cross woven from rushes on her feast day — continues as a recognized devotional practice.
Traditional Accounts: A wide body of tradition surrounds Brigid. The accounts relate that she healed the blind nun Dara by making the Sign of the Cross over her eyes; by tradition Dara then asked for her blindness to be restored, saying that when the world is visible to the eyes, God is seen less clearly by the soul. Other traditional miracles include multiplying food and dairy products, healing illnesses, controlling weather, turning water into beer, and miraculously expanding her cloak to cover acres of land to secure property for her monastery.
Death
Brigid died at Kildare around 523–525, the sources note, after receiving Holy Communion. By legend Ninnidh of the Pure Hand administered her last rites and afterward encased his right hand in metal to preserve its sanctity.
She was originally buried before the high altar of Kildare Cathedral.
Relics & Shrines
According to the sources, around 878 Brigid's remains were translated to Downpatrick to rest with Saints Patrick and Columba during the period of Viking raids. Relics were said to have been discovered in 1185 and reinterred on June 9, 1186, at Downpatrick Cathedral, where the three patron saints of Ireland are traditionally held to lie together.
The accounts further relate that her skull was brought to Lisbon, Portugal, by Irish noblemen, and that her hand has been preserved at Lumiar near Lisbon since 1587; another relic is recorded at St. Martin's in Cologne. Portions of her relics are said to have returned to Ireland in 1929.
Legacy
Brigid is honored as one of Ireland's three patron saints alongside Patrick and Columba, and is traditionally called 'Mary of the Gael,' as well as 'Patroness of Ireland' and 'Queen of the South.' She is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a Venerable (monastic) saint, with OrthodoxWiki recording troparia and kontakia attesting to a liturgical cult.
Devotion to Brigid has remained strong in Ireland and is recorded also in northern Italy, France, and Wales. As a pre-schism Western saint, she is venerated as Orthodox.
