Tag: 1954

Advocate (Melbourne) 18th February 1954 p 17.
(abridged)

The 1st February is the feast day of St. Brigid, who with Patrick and Colmcille, is venerated as one of the patron saints of Ireland.
St. Brigid, who flourished in the fifth century, is remembered in tradition for her goodness and charity, and her name is still a common one in Irish families. Many towns have been called after her, such as Kilbride (the Church of Brigid).The great monastery of the saint was at Kildare (Cill Dara—the Church of the Oak Tree), which became known far and wide as a great centre of religion and learning.
St. Brigid enjoys a remarkable popularity through all western Europe due to the work of Irish missionaries on the Continent from the 6th century onwards. Many churches and chapels are dedicated to her, and in Strasbourg, the seat of the Council of Europe, her cult is associated with the collegiate church of Saint Pierre-le-Vieux.
The main significance of the feast of St. Brigid, writes Mr. Sean O’Suilleabhain, of the Irish Folklore Commission, would seem to be that it was a christianization of one of the focal points of the agricultural year, the starting point of preparations for the spring sowing.
Every manifestation of the cult of the saint or of the pagan deity she replaced closely bound up in some way with food production. At the feast of St. Brigid in olden times when people looked forward to the sowing of the crops and to the increased produce of milk and butter, food was exposed for the Saint for her use and to ask her blessing.
The Irish Folklore Commission has accounts from many parts of Ireland of the exposure of a cake(or in some places a sheaf), at the doorstep or near the house on the eve of the feast. In Co. Galway a potato was impaled on the roof of the house on that evening and later used as seed. Shell-fish were brought from the shore and scattered on the floor in the Aran Islands and in some of the fishing districts of Galway.
The custom of making St.Brigid’s crosses is still found in many parts of Ireland. They are made usually from straw or rushes; sometimes straw and rushes are combined in the one cross to give an ornamental effect with contrasting colours. The crosses vary considerably in pattern, in fact, several of the types have no elements of a cross at all and it is likely that they represent a pagan custom christianized by association with a saint.(The adoption of deeply rooted pagan customs by early Christian missionaries has perhaps its best example in the holy wells which are found in every part of Ireland.)
In the Aran Islands on the 1st February the old women get some straw and some clothing and dress up in the image of St. Brigid. They then go from house to house, saying a prayer as they enter. Each person takes some of the straw and makes a St. Brigid cross, which is nailed to the rafter inside the roof in remembrance of the saint. This is the ceremony of the “Brideog.” In other parts of the country the crosses are made on St. Brigid’s Eve. A simple ceremonial meal precedes the introduction of the necessary material, consisting mainly of sowans or flunnery (kinds of porridge). Crosses, as well as being placed in dwelling houses, are also put in byres and stables to bring a blessing on the animals during the year ahead.