Brigid

Brigid, the saint of Kildare, is a figure of legend more than history. She was claimed by the Fothairt, a subordinate population in north Leinster, and a very early poem refers to her: ‘Splendid the child, splendid the dignity that will come to you after a time from the lineages of your kindreds. She will be called on account of her virtues “Power of zeal”, truly godly. She will be a second Mary, mother of the great Lord.’ By the mid‐7th century Kildare was a major church with a shrine to Brigid described in the Life of the saint by Cogitosus. It seems clear that neither he nor the other writers of her Lives had any clear historical information, and there is evidence already from the 10th century to suggest that the cult began from the Christianization of a pagan goddess. None the less devotion to St Brigid spread widely outside Ireland, so that already in the 9th century she was the most widely known Irish saint.

Richard Sharpe