The Irish Goddess Brigid vs. Saint Brigid

Pop quiz:

What do Brigid, the Irish goddess of poetry and fertility, and Brigid of Kildare, the patroness saint of Ireland, have in common?

Welp, in addition to having the same name, they might be the same person.

Or rather, the former inspired the creation of the latter.

Yes, the idea here is that the Christian Saint Brigid didn’t actually exist.

She was, instead, a purely legendary or hagiographical figure.

A Christian iteration, if you will, of an earlier mythical figure, the pagan goddess Brigid.

Hence, the same name, Brigid—or Bríd in Irish—and the same feast day: February 1st.

The ancient Gaelic-speaking Celts would have celebrated that date as Imbolc, a pastoral festival which, as I explored in an earlier video, had close associations to the goddess Brigid.

Then, when the Christians came along, they reimagined the goddess Brigid as a saint, or at the very least they grafted the goddesses’ characteristics onto a Christian abbess. (We’ll get into it.) 

And they redubbed Imbolc as St. Brigid’s Day, and bada-bing bada-boom, another of the Celtic Cross-Quarter days was (nominally) Christianized, just as Samhain became All Hallows and Lughnasadh became Lammas and Beltane became Saint Walpurgis Night.

Or so the theory goes.

Pssst. You can watch a video adaptation of this essay right here. Text continues below.

To clarify, this is not my theory.

So before you run to the comments section to let me know that Saint Brigid did one -hundred-percent exist and that it’s blasphemy to suggest otherwise and that your grandmother has an authentic Saint Brigid relic on her mantle right next to pictures of the Pope and JFK…

(Is it too late? It’s probably too late.)

…Let me walk you through what we’re gonna do here:

We’re going to examine the Brigid(s) theory.

Then we’re going to evaluate the theory.

But before we do either of those two things, we’re going to get some background info on our two Brigids.

First up, the goddess.

What Is Brigid the Goddess Of?

One of the earliest references to the Irish goddess Brigid can be found in the Sanas Cormaic, or Cormac’s Glossary, which is popularly attributed to the 9th-century Irish bishop and King of Munster, Cormac mac Cuilennáin.

And I quote:

“Brigit i.e. a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom, i.e. Brigit the goddess whom poets adored, because very great and very famous was her protecting care. It is therefore they call her goddess of poets by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit the female physician [woman of leechcraft,] Brigit the female smith [woman of smithwork] ; from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigit.”

A couple things to unpack here.

Firstly, the Dagda, as you may or may not know, is the father of the Irish gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he’s the Irish god of druidism—keep that in mind for later.

Secondly, the aforementioned reference to Brigid’s sister goddesses, also named Brigid, has led some to believe that Brigid was worshipped as a triune or triple goddess, and indeed some neopagans carry on that tradition to this very day. 

Assuming it was ever a tradition to begin with. 

Turns out a lot of popular notions about ancient Celtic paganism aren’t rooted in any actual ancient evidence.

But I digress.

Brigid also gets a shout-out in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, or the Book of the Taking of Ireland, popularly known as the Book of Invasions, in which it is noted that she owns Triath, a boar-king; Cirb, the king of the wethers (a wether being a male castrated sheep); and two royal oxen, Fe and Men.

The Lebor Gabála Érenn also credits Brigid and her menagerie with producing the “three demoniac shouts after rapine [or pillage] in Ireland, whistling and weeping and lamentation.”

Sooo essentially Brigid created an island-wide alarm system.

Granted, in another text, the Cath Maige Tuired or Second Battle of Mag Tuired, these three sounds are described somewhat differently. 

During the titular battle, Brigid’s son Rúadán is struck by a spear, or, if you want to get technical, the spear goes right through him, courtesy of a great throw by the Irish smith-god Goibniu.

Rúadán dies in the presence of his father, Brigid’s husband, the half-Fomorian Bres, a one-time ruler of the Tuatha Dé Danann, albeit a contentious one, as the Fomorians are the sworn enemies of the Tuatha Dé Danann and Bres’s crowning, in part, is what leads to the battle between the two tribes.

It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, here’s what happens next: 

“Brigid came and keened for her son. At first she shrieked, in the end she wept. Then for the first time weeping and shrieking were heard in Ireland. (Now she is the Brigid who invented a whistle for signalling at night.)”

Is it possible that Brigid’s keening at the sight of her deceased son inspired tales of other wailing Irish women, who would use their woeful warbling to warn of impending deaths in a family?

That’s a topic for another essay/video. (This one. Right here. On banshees.)

One final tidbit about the goddess Brigid:

While I’m referring to her as an Irish deity, it might be more accurate to call her a Gaelic/Goidelic deity, as she was also worshiped in Scotland and the Isle of Man. 

And I’d be remiss not to mention that Brigid likely has a pair of cognates in the Brythonic/Brittonic goddess Brigantia, who was worshiped in Britain, and the Gaulish goddess Brigindo, who was worshiped in—you guessed it—Gaul.

Now, let us turn our attention to Saint Brigid.

What Is Brigid the Patron Saint Of?

Along with Saint Patrick and Saint Columba, Saint Brigid of Kildare is one of the three national saints of Ireland. 

What’s more, Brigid is the patron saint of learning, poetry, protection, healing, blacksmithing, livestock, and dairy work.

And right off the crozier, the connections to the goddess are obvious.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not coincidentally, the two Brigids are patronesses of all the same stuff.

And if you’re wondering how dairy work fits into the picture, Imbolc, the festival associated with the goddess Brigid, originally marked the period when ewes (female sheep), came into their milk.

In fact, according to Cormac’s glossary, the word Imbolc comes from the Irish Óimelc, meaning “beginning of spring,” which in turn was derived from ói-melg, meaning “ewe milk.”

We’ll return to the connection between Imbolc and Saint Brigid’s Day in a bit, but for now, let’s get back to the Saint herself.

Brigid of Kildare is traditionally assigned a birth year of 451 or 452 CE, and a death date of February 1st, 524 or 525 CE.

Her place of birth isn’t universally agreed upon.

Some sources say Ummeras in what is now County Kildare.

Others say Faughart in what is now County Louth. Hence, she is occasionally referred to as Brigid of Faughart.

According to tradition, she would go on to earn her more common moniker, Brigid of Kildare, after founding the monastery of Cill-Dara, or Church of the Oak, around the year 480.

Meanwhile, the earliest extant reference to Brigid appears in a rosc—an ancient form of non-rhyming Old Irish verse—that the Irish Celtic scholar James Carney dated to the year 600.

The rosc details the origin of the Fothairt a.k.a Fotharta people, who counted the “truly pious Brig-eoit” amongst their ranks and believed her to be “another Mary,” as in the Virgin Mary.

But according to Irish folklore professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, there may have been an ulterior motive for Brigid’s exaltation. And I quote:

“The early development of [Brigid’s] cult was closely connected with the rise to power in Leinster of a new sept, the Ui Dhunlainge. The sept’s leader, Faolán mac Colmáin, seized the kingship of the province around the year 633. He was married to a woman of the Fotharta, his brother was bishop of Kildare, and it would thus have been of great benefit to this new king to stress the importance of Brighid.

“At the request of the Kildare church, a Latin biography of the saint, Vita Brigitae, was compiled in or about the year 650 by a cleric known as Cogitosus. A striking feature of this work is the lack of real information on the historical Brighid, who had lived in the previous century. It is basically a compendium of miracles, and the most valuable part of it is the description of Kildare as an ecclesiastical centre. It can be inferred from this that very little personal memories survived of the holy woman of the Fotharta who had founded the convent.”

Ó hÓgáin goes on to note that the miracles described in the Vita Brigitae betray the “synthesis of paganism and Christianity under the name of Brighid.”

Specifically, Brigid is portrayed as having the power to control the weather, bestow cattle and sheep, and multiply bacon, milk, and butter. 

The text also associates Saint Brigid with thermal waters, light, and fire—imagery that is commonly associated with Celtic goddesses.

Was Saint Brigid a Real Person?

Now, it’s important to recognize that most hagiographies are glow-ups of the saints they’re documenting, so it’s to be expected that they be peppered with tales of supernatural wonder-workings.

That being said, there is usually other evidence available to ground these saints in history. 

For example, in Saint Patrick’s case, we have his letters. 

With Saint Columba, we have three early-medieval Latin hymns attributed to him, as well as the Psalter or Cathach of St. Columba, which is Ireland’s oldest extant manuscript.

The closest thing we have for Saint Brigid in this regard is a tag that may have been attached to some of her relics that came to be stored in an abbey in Switzerland.

This according to Celtic Studies scholar Dr. Niamh Wycherley, who, while acknowledging that “we do not have much firm historical information for Brigit,” argues that Brigid’s association with the ”fairly low key” Fothairt dynasty is a compelling piece of evidence for her existence.

And I quote:

“Some Irish saints were given patently phony family trees by later authors keen to associate their local patron with famous kings and legendary figures from the past. If Brigit did not exist, or was a goddess, they would have invented a better story for her!”

Of course, this line of reasoning ignores the aforementioned motive the Fothairt might have had for wanting to invent or at least exalt such a figure, as laid out by Ó hÓgáin.

What’s more, it ignores the fact that in the descriptions we do have of Saint Brigid’s family tree, Brigid’s mother is said to have been baptized by the man himself, Saint Patrick—that’s a pretty good story, I’d say—and Brigid’s step-father is a druid!

And who else had a druidic father figure?

That’s right, the goddess Brigid, daughter of The Dagda, the god of druidism.

Sure, this could just be another coincidence.

But when we start adding up all of these potential coincidences, it’s hard to ignore the possibility that the saintly Brigid is a Christian reimagining of the divine Brigid.

The Saint Brigid’s Day—Imbolc Connection

To quote art history professor Pamela C. Berger:

“Saint Brigid shows an incredible likeness to the Celtic goddess from whom she takes her name, Brigid, the great guardian of fertility and the land…Prayers and sacrifices would have been offered to Brigid, though the druidic liturgy and oral formulas were not set down by the medieval monks who recorded the mythology. Instead, they recast the pagan Brigid’s legends and perhaps even some of her ritual (such as processions and pilgrimages) in a manner acceptable to the church.

“Folk culture, however, preserved the links between Saint Brigid and her pagan forerunner. The folk traditions surrounding Imbolc highlight these affinities. Straw and grain from the previous harvest are central to Saint Brigid’s Day celebrations: Until modern times, on Imbolc/Saint Brigid’s Day, a small quantity of specially preserved seed grain was mingled with the first crop to be sown. The straw or stalks of the grain seed were used to make crosses and girdles that were blessed with holy water, hung up in houses, or set in the thatch of cottages…Brigid’s associations with the grain plant and the seed must predate the Celts’ conversion to Christianity.

“These customs connecting Saint Brigid with tillage and sowing at Imbolc surely reflect the linkage between the saint and the Celtic goddess from whom she got her name,” (source: The Goddess Obscured).

To clarify, my goal here isn’t to erase the presence of a powerful woman from Irish history.

Just as I didn’t set out to erase chariots from Irish history in my essay/video on the chariots of Irish myth and legend.

(Wait, did I just compare Saint Brigid to a chariot? I’m really digging myself a hole here.)

Was Saint Brigid a Pagan?

The point is that I’m simply following the evidence and seeing where it takes me. 

And where I’ve landed on the Saint Brigid / goddess Brigid question is that there are three plausible explanations for all of the aforementioned similarities and connections between the two figures:

1) The Quasi-Historical Explanation: Saint Brigid was a real, historical, Christian person who founded the monastery at Kildare, but the overwhelming majority of details we have about her life were fabricated and/or lifted from stories and traditions connected to the goddess Brigid.

2) The Pagan Explanation: The Kildare Monastery started out as as pagan sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Brigid, which was overseen by a druidess who was named—or at least bore the title—Brigid.

When Christians arrived on the scene, they retroactively claimed this druidess as one of their own in their stories, reimagining her as a saint. 

Or, as Ó hÓgáin has theorized, a Fothairt woman was responsible for Christianizing the druidic site at Kildare and then adopted the Brigid title for herself.

3) The Mythicist Explanation: There was no historical person—Christian, pagan, or otherwise—behind the figure of Saint Brigid. She was invented whole cloth for religious and/or political purposes, with the goddess Brigid serving as the primary inspiration for her fictitious being.

Truth be told, I’ve yet to make up my mind as to which explanation I find most convincing.

So please, sound off in the comments below and let me know which of the three you think makes the most sense given the evidence—or lack of evidence, as it were.

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