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It's a bit late in the day, but it's still February 1st, which means there's still time to discuss St Brigid's Day!

Saint Brigid

Saint Brigid is one of those very versatile saints with a huge range of topics under their patronage. Brigid is the patron saint of babies; blacksmiths; boatmen; cattle; chicken farmers; children whose parents are not married; dairymaids; dairy workers; fugitives; infants; Ireland; Leinster; mariners; midwives; milk maids; newborn babies; nuns; poets; poultry farmers; poultry raisers; printing presses; sailors; scholars; travellers; watermen; and, I believe, the Douglas clan of Lowland Scotland.

Above all, she is one of the patron saints of Ireland. Known as "Mary of the Gaels," she is especially revered by the Irish, the Scottish, and their wayward descendants in the USA.

Like many saints, one frequently reads that "little is known about her history." Of course this isn't true; we have many stories and legends about Brigid, and if people who teach history classes at universities don't "believe in" them, that isn't our problem, now is it?

On one occasion, a nun gave Brigid a bushel of apples from her tree. Brigid promptly gave the apples to a colony of lepers. The nun was angry, because she hadn't intended the apples to be given to lepers, after all, but to Brigid, who was an abbess at this point. Brigid cursed the nun's tree, so that it would bear no more apples. But then another nun gave her a bushel of apples, and Brigid once again gave the apples the lepers. This second, smarter nun thanked Brigid for her generosity, and Brigid blessed the nun's tree, so that it bore twice as many apples as an ordinary tree.

On another occasion, Brigid asked a king for land on which to found a convent. The king refused. Finally, Brigid got him to agree to give her as much land as her cloak could cover. Not knowing he was in a fairy tale, the king scoffed and agreed. So Brigid and 3 of her nuns took hold of the 4 corners of her cloak, and began running in each direction. The cloak, which knew what it was about, grew and expanded until it covered the entirety of the king's realm. The king turned pale, agreed to give Brigid land for a convent, and got himself baptized for good measure.

Brigid was also known for calming winds and waters, curing various diseases and-- the finest miracle of all?-- turning water into beer!

Goddess or Saint?

When researching Brigid, one often encounters the claim that she was really a pagan goddess who was "stolen" by the Christians. Of course, Christians counter that no, she was a nun of the Fifth Century who knew Saint Patrick, and the mere fact that there was a pagan goddess of similar attributes worshiped in the same country has nothing to do with anything, so shut up.

I think that both of these points of view are wrong-- or anyway, that they're probably wrong. There does seem to be good evidence that Brigid, along with a number of other saints (not "most" or "all" as Protestant and atheist detractors claim, but some) were originally pagan gods, whose stories were Christianized.

Now, one way of looking at this is, indeed, that the Christians "stole" the god from the pagans, or that they allowed "paganism" to continue under a Christian guise. But this has one major flaw-- it assumes that the god in question, or its equivalent saint, does not exist. If one is an atheist or a Protestant-- but I repeat myself-- this makes perfect sense. From the perspective we're using here, it makes no sense at all. Human cultures and institutions are themselves formed by higher powers, the angels, saints and "gods" that govern them. One of the ways that the gods make themselves understood by humans is through myths; the myth is, in a sense, the god speaking to us. Proclus wrote that mythology is one of hte methods through which we know the gods, similar to mathematics-- we no more "make up" a myth than we "make up" a mathematical theorem! Both are ways of expressing an eternal pattern that underlies our reality in a way that the human mind can understand.

So what does that have to do with Brigid? Well, this: If the foregoing is correct, what does it mean when a myth changes? If a myth, which is one of the means through which a god expresses itself to humanity, suddenly changes and becomes a story about a woman who converts to Christianity, becomes a nun, and is canonized after her death; and if that story is then handed down through the generations by people who then encounter that saint through the usual methods of visionary experiences and answered prayers, can we not say that the god itself has converted to Christianity?

Suggestions for Practice

Among the most common traditional methods of celebrating St Brigid's Day is the making of Brigid's crosses. These take a bit of planning and a bit of craftiness, which is a major reason that I haven't made one myself. They were traditionally hung over the door to the home to ward off fire and lightning, and to prevent evil spirits from entering.

This was also traditionally a day for cleaning the house, and eating special meals including colcannon and apple cakes.

As is so often the case, it was also common for people to go door to door with an effigy of the saint or a person dressed as her, and who could doubt that that person was, at that time, the saint herself? As usual, children accompanied the saint and did some trick-or-treating. In the old world of lost Christendom, nearly every day of the week was a mishmash of Christmas, Halloween, and Saint Patrick's Day.

For those of us who don't live in Ireland-- where Brigid's Day is now a national holiday once again-- how can we celebrate St Brigid's Day?

A party is always an option, and so is a craft project. The Irish and those who can tolerate it might have colcannon for dinner.

Prayer is always an appropriate method, of course. If you wish to form a relationship with any saint, the best time to do so is their feast day.

A General Method For Contacting Saints

1. Prepare a space for prayer, as previously discussed. In a pinch, you don't need any tools, but they really do help. At minimum, I suggest an altar or prayer table which should have a crucifix, a statue or icon of the saint you wish to contact, a candle, incense, and holy water. Most Catholic holy cards have an image of a saint on one side and a prayer on the other, and these are ideal for this practice; if not, you will also need to have a traditional prayer to the saint either written down or memorized.

2. Start by lightning the candle. Then make the sign of the cross, as discussed in an earlier post. Purify your space with holy water and bless it with incense, also as previously discussed.

3. Now, while looking at the image of the saint if possible, read or recite their traditional prayer. Pray slowly and deliberately, and try to mean every word. Here is an example from a prayer card for Saint Brigid:

4. The prayer is an invocation of the saint; you can know that they are now present in your space with you. Take a moment to simply be aware of their presence. Now, if you don't have a relationship with the saint in question, this is not the time to start asking for things. Saints aren't gumball machines. Instead, you can talk to the saint, and tell them why you want to have a relationship with them, or you can simply spend some time breathing slowly, and be aware of their presence.

5. Eventually, you will come to a point where it feels appropriate to end the session. Thank the Saint, and then offer one of the closing prayers that I've suggested here previously-- I like the Come Holy Spirit, the Fatima Prayer, and the Prayer of Saint Francis, but you can use another prayer that you prefer. (This part really is individual-- you could use the Saint Patrick's Breastplate, the AA Third Step Prayer, the Gorsedd Prayer or anything else that works for you.)

6. Close with the Sign of the Cross.