Saint Brigid of Ireland
Also known as: Brigid of Kildare; Brigid of Cell Dara; Brigid of the Isles; Bride…; Bridget…; Brigit…; Ffraid…; Mary of the Gael
Feast Day
1 February; 10 June (translation of relics)
Born
453 at Faughart, County Louth, Ireland
Died
1 February 523 at Kildare, Ireland of natural causes; interred in the Kildare cathedral; relics transferred to Downpatrick, Ireland in 878 where they were interred with those of Saint Patrick and Saint Columba of Iona; relics re-discovered on 9 June 1185; head removed to Jesuit church in Lisbon, Portugal
Canonized
Pre-Congregation
Biography
Saint Brigid of Ireland, born in the fifth century to Dubtach, a pagan Scottish king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave baptized by Saint Patrick, entered the world under circumstances of profound contrast. Her mother, sold to a Druid landowner just before her birth, raised Brigid until she was old enough to serve her father, Dubtach, as his legal possession. From childhood, Brigid was marked by extraordinary compassion and a tender heart; she could not bear to see others suffer hunger or cold, often giving away Dubtach’s possessions to aid the needy, declaring, “Christ dwelt in every creature.” When Dubtach sought to sell her to the King of Leinster, Brigid, in an act of radical generosity, gave her father’s treasured sword
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