Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brigit
BRIGIT, Saint, of Kildare (453–523), was born at Fochart, now Faugher, two miles north of Dundalk, a district which was formerly part of Ulster. Her father, Dubhthach, was of the race of Eochaidh Finnfuathairt, grandson of Tuathal Teachtmhar, monarch of Erinn. Her mother Brotsech, or Broiccseach, who belonged to the Dal. Conchobar of South Bregia, was the bondmaid and concubine of Dubhthach. Dr. Lanigan will not hear of this, but the whole early history of Brigit, as told in the Irish life, rests on this fact. It may be observed that in this (as in other cases) there is a notable difference between the story told by Colgan and Lanigan from the Latin lives and the story given in the Irish life. In the former Brigit is a highly educated young lady of noble birth, whose acts are in accordance with the ecclesiastical and social usages of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. In the latter we breathe the atmosphere of an early age, where all is simple and homely, and peculiar customs in church and state meet us, nor did it appear to the writer that the accident of Brigit's birth should lessen our respect for her character and labours. It was an age when slavery existed in Ireland, and the relations between Dubhthach and his bondmaid excited the jealousy of his wife, in consequence of which he had eventually to sell her, retaining, however, a right to her offspring. Bought by a wizard, she was taken by him to Fochart, and there in due time Brigit was born A.D. 453. Here a legend is related, which is of some interest. The mother having gone out one day and left the child covered up in the house, 'the neighbours saw the house wherein was the girl all ablaze, so that the flame reached from earth to heaven ; but when they went to rescue the girl the fire appeared not.' This is one of those references to fire which occur so frequently in connection with St. Brigit as to lead to the conclusion that we have here 'incidents which originally belonged to the myth or ritual of some goddess of fire' (Stokes). A similar conclusion has been drawn by Schröder from the legend of the demon smiths in the 'Navigation of St. Brendan,' which 'rests, he thinks, on the ground of a Celtic myth of Fire-giants.' It is suggestive that a goddess of the Irish pantheon who presided over smiths was named Brigit, which is interpreted in Cormac's 'Glossary' breo-shaigit, 'the fiery arrow.' Giraldus Cambrensis tells us that at Kildare St. Brigit had a perpetual ashless fire watched by twenty nuns, of whom herself was one, blown by fans or bellows only, and surrounded by a hedge, within which no male could enter.
As the child Brigit grew up, 'everything her hand was set to used to increase and reverence God ; she bettered the sheep ; she tended the blind ; she fed the poor.' But when she came to years of reflection she wished to go home, and the wizard having communicated with her father, he came for her and took her home. There her first care was for her foster mother, but she was not idle; she tended the swine, herded the sheep, and cooked the dinner, and it is characteristic that when 'a miserable greedy hound came into the house' she gave him a considerable part of the repast. And now the thought of her mother in bondage troubled her ; she asked her father's leave to go to her, but 'he gave it not,' so she went without it. 'Glad was her mother when she arrived,' for she was toil-worn and sickly. So Brigit took the dairy in hand, and all prospered, and in the end the wizard and his wife became Christians. Her success in the conversion of the people, then chiefly heathen, is referred to in Broccan's hymn, where she is said to be 'a marvellous ladder for pagans to visit the kingdom of Mary's Son.' On becoming a Christian the wizard generously said to her : 'The butter and the kine that thou hast milked I offer to thee ; thou shalt not abide in bondage to me, serve thou the Lord.' 'Take thou the kine,' she replied, 'and give me my mother's freedom.' But he gave her both, and so she dealt out the kine to the poor and needy, and returned with her mother to Dubhthach's house.
Some time after, Dubhthach and his consort determined to sell her, as 'he liked not his cattle and wealth to be dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do.' Taking her in his chariot to the king of Leinster, he offered to sell her to him. 'Why sellest thou thine own daughter ?' said the king. 'She stayeth not,' replied Dubhthach, 'from selling my wealth and giving it to the poor.' The king said, 'Let the maiden come into the fortress.' When she was before him he said, 'Perhaps if I bought you you might do the same with my property.' 'The Son of the Virgin knoweth,' she replied, 'if I had thy might, with all Leinster, and with all thy wealth, I would give them to the Lord of the Elements.' The king then said 'her father was not fit to bargain for her, for her merit was higher before God than before men.' And thus the maiden obtained her freedom.
Dubhthach then tried to get her married, but she refused all offers, and at last he had to consent to her 'dedicating herself to the Lord.' On the occasion of her taking the veil 'the form of ordaining a bishop was read over her by Bishop Mel.' What this means it is not easy to say ; but it is probably intended to convey that he invested her with a rank corresponding with that of bishop in point of authority, for that it was only a nominal title appears from her associating with herself, as we shall see presently, a bishop who is described as 'the anointed head and chief of all bishops, and she the most blessed chief of all virgins' (Todd, p. 12). Some time after, having gone to King Dunlaing to make a request, one of his slaves offers to become a Christian if she will obtain his freedom. She therefore asks the two favours, saying, 'If thou desirest excellent children, and a kingdom for thy sons, and heaven for thyself, give me the two boons I ask.' The answer of the pagan king is quite in character: 'The kingdom of heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it is, I seek not; and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not myself be extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of life and victory always over the Húi Néill.'
The great event of her life was the foundation of Kildare (cill dara, 'the church of the oak'). Cogitosus (830-835) has left us a description of this church as it existed in his time, from which it appears that it was divided by a partition which separated the sexes, her establishment comprising both men and women. The tombs of Bishop Condlaed and Brigit were placed, highly decorated with pendent crowns of gold, silver, and gems, one on the right hand, and the other on the left of the high altar. The Irish bishops, it should be mentioned, wore crowns after the custom of the eastern church instead of mitres (Warren). After gathering her community she found she required the services of a bishop, and she accordingly chose (elegit) a holy man, a solitary, named Condlaed, 'to govern the church with her in episcopal dignity.' Condlaed was thus a monastic bishop under the orders of the head of the establishment as in the Columbian monasteries mentioned by Bæda (Todd, p. 13).
The death of Brigit took place at Kildare on 1 Feb. 523, which is her day in the calendar, and she was undoubtedly buried in Kildare, as already mentioned. On the other hand, a tradition current for many centuries has it that she was buried in Downpatrick with St. Patrick and St. Columba. This is now known to have been a fraud of John de Courcey, lord of Down, got up by him in the hope that the supposed possession of their bodies would conciliate the Irish to his rule (Annals of Four Masters). The Irish life in conclusion says that Brigit is 'the Mary of the Gael,' or, as it is in Broccan's hymn, 'she was one mother of the king's son,' which the gloss explains 'she was one of the mothers of Christ.' This strange manner of speaking which Irish ecclesiastics made use of, not only at home, but on the continent, to the astonishment of their hearers, is explained in a poem of Nicolas de Bibera (Schröder), by a reference to Matthew xii. 50: 'Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.' Looking through the haze of miracles in which her acts are enveloped, we discern a character of great energy and courage, warmly affectionate, generous, and unselfish, and wholly absorbed by a desire to promote the glory of God, and to relieve suffering in all its forms. Such a personality could not but impress itself on the imagination of the Irish people, as hers has done in a remarkable degree.
[Life of Brigit in Three Middle Irish Homilies, Whitley Stokes (Calcutta); Eollandi Acta SS. 1 Feb.; Todd's St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, pp. 10-26; Warren's Liturgy and Kitual of the Celtic Church; O'Keilly's Irish Dictionary, Supplement (voce 'Brigit'); Petrie's Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland; Giraldi Cambrensis Topog. Hib. chaps. 34-36; O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters at A.D. 1293, iii. 456; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. i.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.37
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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