Ireland is blessed with not one, not two, but three patron saints: St. Patrick and St. Columba, and today’s saint, Saint Brigid. Much of what we know about her comes from legend and folklore. She was the daughter of a Christian slave mother, Brocca, who was baptized by St. Patrick, and a chieftain of Leinster, Dubthach in the 5th century, dying in A.D. 525. As slaves, she and her mother were sold to a druid. She then returned to her father’s household and gave away his belongings as acts of charity. He took her to the king of Leinster, who was Christian, to sell her. As Dubthach spoke to the king, St. Brigid gave his sword to a beggar. The king convinced her father to free her because of her holiness. She eventually became the founder and abbess of a convent in Ireland at Kildare, as well as a men’s monastery, having authority over both and being considered the chief authority of all convents in Ireland.
St. Brigid is not only patroness of Ireland, but also patroness of children whose parents are not married, dairy workers (for her work as a youth), and scholars. She is called Mary of the Gaels, meaning Our Lady of the Irish. St. Brigid is portrayed with a reed cross, which she used to convert a man to Christianity on his deathbed, or an abbot’s crozier, for her ministry as abbess of Kildare.
St. Brigid is a blessing to us for her strength, her faith, her tenacity, her spirit, and her love of God. She is a gift to the Irish and through them to the United States, which benefitted greatly from the influx of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. St. Brigid of Ireland, pray for us.
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