Legend of Brighid
Pronunciation: Bridget
Meaning: Brighid is derived from the Gaelic noun brigh meaning power, strength, vigour and virtue; it also means exalted one.
Legend:
Brighid (Brigit, Bríd) is traditionally the goddess of fire, poetry, and wisdom from pre-Christian Ireland.
She appears in Irish mythology as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the daughter of the Dagda and wife of Bres, with whom she had a son named Ruadán. Her sacred tree appears to have been the birch, given some older Imbolc-related traditions.
She is associated with wisdom, poetry, healing, protection, smithing and domesticated animals. Cormac's Glossary, written in the 9th century by Christian monks, says that Brigid was "the goddess whom poets adored" and that she had two sisters: Brigid the healer and Brigid the smith. This suggests she may have been a triple deity. She is also thought to have some relation to the British Celtic goddess Brigantia.
Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (c. 451 – 525) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies, she was an abbess who founded the important abbey of Kildare (Cill Dara), as well as several other monasteries of nuns.
There are few documented historical facts about her, and her hagiographies are mainly anecdotes and miracle tales, some of which are Christianisations of tales from Irish mythology. It is said that St. Brigid was the daughter of an Irish clan chief and an enslaved Christian woman, and was fostered in a druid's household before becoming a consecrated virgin. She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. In her honour, a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare for centuries.
Saint Brigid shares many of the goddess's attributes and her feast day, 1 February, was originally a pagan festival called Imbolc. It has thus been argued that the saint is a Christianization of the goddess, or that the lore of the goddess was transferred to her.
Saint Brigid's Day now a bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the first to celebrate a woman.
Sources: Wikipedia: Brighid (goddess) | Brigid (saint)
