Leading an ascetic life, Saint Brigid was distinguished by her amazing poverty and boundless hospitality. Many people resorted to the generosity and generosity of the saint, from poor lepers to prominent hierarchs of the Church. Saint Brigid performed many healings and other amazing miracles. According to legend, the saint once worked in the pouring rain and got soaked to the skin. Returning home, she hung her clothes to dry in a sunbeam, mistaking it for a tree branch from fatigue. And the clothes of St. Brigid dangled from the beam as if it really were a tree branch.
According to legend, Saint Patrick had special favor with Brigid and called her his most beloved disciple. She founded a monastic community, which began to grow rapidly thanks to the glory of the holy abbess. A huge oak tree also grew there, so the monastery was called Kell-Dara (modern Kildare), which in Irish means the Church of the Oak. Even during the lifetime of Saint Brigid, an episcopal chair was founded in the monastery, on which the righteous elder Conleth was erected.
Brigid's followers founded monasteries throughout Ireland. In order to visit new monasteries, she had to travel a lot, and the appearance of a saint was always accompanied by miracles. With the sign of the cross, she cast out demons, healed diseases, and converted sinners. Her presence inspired people to love God. All celebrities of that time knew and respected St. Brigid.
Having predicted the day of her death, she passed away in the world on February 1st. The saint's death dates back to the twenties of the sixth century. Saint Brigid is revered, along with Saint Patrick, as the patroness of Ireland. After the Mother of God, it is to her that the inhabitants of these lands most often turn with prayer. In the Middle Ages, her veneration spread throughout Europe.
Compiler - Hieromonk Macarius of Simonopetra,
adapted Russian translation - publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery
This commemoration is not included in the Months of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the ancient Irish chronicles it is stated that St. Brigid passed away in 524 or 526. Lives of the saint written in Latin and Irish have survived, but the earliest of them were written more than a hundred years after her death and do not agree with each other in everything. Since the lives do not contain much reliable information about St. Brigid, some doubted her historical existence.
Head of St. Brigid is kept in the parish church in Lumiare near Lisbon (Portugal), where the shrine, according to legend, was brought in the 13th century. three knights from Ireland.
The straw cross, used both as an amulet and as a symbol, is called the "St. Brigid's Cross", linking the tradition of using it with a Christian saint. But we understand that the roots here are much deeper and it is not surprising that the tradition and beliefs associated with a simple straw product are preserved to this day.
Christians called St. Brigitte a woman who, according to legend, wove this cross on her father's deathbed (according to another version, a rich pagan), who, having learned about the meaning of this symbol, decided to be baptized before his death. Over time, the woman was canonized, because she made another many other charitable deeds, a monument to her still stands today. Now Saint Brigid of Ireland is also considered the patron saint of Ireland, like Saint Patrick.
Such a cross has become almost an unofficial symbol of Ireland, and its shape clearly demonstrates the pagan symbolism of the solstice. Usually made from reed stalks or straw, in the center there is a wicker square, from which rounded rays extend.
Many rituals were previously associated with the cross. Sometimes this symbol still decorates the homes of Catholics, especially in rural areas. Many believe that the cross of St. Brigitte protects the house from fires.
Such crosses are traditionally made on February 1; this day in the Gaelic language is called Lá Fhéile Bhríde (the feast of St. Brigid). However, before Christianity appeared in Ireland, another Brigid or Brigid was revered there - a Celtic goddess who is associated with the Imbolc holiday, since this is one of the key sabbats of the year and includes some fire rituals in the celebration, and Brigid is the goddess of fire. This can be seen even in the Christian image at the very beginning of the article - in the hands of the holy bowl with burning coals, although Christians, of course, put a different meaning into this.
However, I was interested in what is the reason for using straw for weaving a cross?
Here we see preserved elements of the Bread magic.
Imbolc on the Wheel of the Year - the cycle of witches' holidays associated with the agricultural calendar - is exactly opposite Lammas, the festival of Bread and harvest, which is celebrated on August 1st. Therefore, the symbols of these two festivities are the Goddess in her two hypostases: the Mother of Bread in August is a mature, prolific woman, the image of the harvested rich harvest that the earth gave people .; The Virgin of Bread in February is a young, virgin goddess, a bride who has yet to wake up to life from sleep under a warm winter snow cover, just as the earth wakes up in spring. It was believed, according to Celtic myths, that in winter, when all living things freeze and nature is silent, the Goddess, personifying nature, dwelt in the Land of Spirits (or Avalon, Annona), where she rested and regained her youth. In Greek mythology, later, we see a similar motif in the story of Demeter being abducted into the underworld.
One of the variants of the "Cross", only three-beam.
If in August, after the harvest, the Celts used straw from the last sheaf to weave a female figurine, the incarnation of the Goddess, then usually this figurine was kept all winter in darkness and silence in the attic, as if reproducing the canvas of the myth. The Goddess slept all winter....
Then by spring, she reincarnated in a new incarnation - like a young Moon, like a young virgin from the image of the Triune, where she is equal and strong, like the Mother, like the Old Woman - and turned into the Virgin of Bread.
It must be said that not only crosses were woven by February 1. It could be any straw figurine, with different names - and similar figurines can still be found at craft fairs to this day, and not only in Ireland. The tradition of honoring bread as the main life-giving culture is also common among the Slavs.
During Imbolc, in principle, the maiden hypostasis of the Goddess can be symbolized even by a simple bunch of ears. In addition, the same figurine, woven from the last sheaf of cereals, can simply be dressed up by the bride. Any other wheat straw figurine was simply called a "bread doll". Before weaving, spikelets in cool water for flexibility.
One of the earliest forms of the bread doll is the vertical spiral. Even simpler options are the "Sign of Love" or the "Beloved Knot", they are made simply by braiding the straws with a pigtail. The most difficult are the "Welsh fans", which are sometimes even more complicated if they are combined in a circle of several pieces.
The point of all these bread mowlets, including St. Brigid's Cross, is to use them as protective and fertility amulets, and according to Rhiannon Ryall, author of West Country Wicca, the men who covered the roof of the house straws, they hung a pair of such figures in opposite roof ridges as protective talismans, and one of the pupae symbolized the Goddess, and the other God.
Based on Pauline Campanelli's The Return of Pagan Traditions.
Goddess Bride (Brigid, Brigid), whose name means "Bride" - a typical image of the universal goddess of fertility.
According to Celtic beliefs, on the next Sabbath, on May 1 or Beltane, the Bride Goddess will unite with her fiance god, or as he was also called the Oak King ... The Oak King has power from Christmas time to the day of the summer solstice, when he is defeated by the King - Holly (holly), symbolizing the waning Sun in the second half of the year.
"Brigita - (in Britain Brigantia), the daughter of Dagda, was an important female deity of Ireland, the patroness of poetry, crafts and healing, helping women in childbirth. Sometimes the name Brigid means three female deities patronizing wisdom, the art of healing and blacksmithing.
There is a tradition to represent Brigid as a bird with a human head, or as three birds - cranes or roosters.
In Ireland, there is a tradition of burying a live chicken at three streams in order to achieve the location of Brigid (later - the Christian Saint Brigid).
In the Irish sagas, Brigit is represented as the wife of Bres, a god of semi-Fomorian origin, some time after the first battle of Moitura with the tribe of Fir Bolg, who was at the head of the Tribes of the Goddess Danu. Brigit gave birth to three sons from Bres.
In the north of England, Brigit is revered under the name Brigantia, which means "peak, queen." She was especially worshiped by the Brigantes who dominated the north of England before the arrival of the Romans. Brigantia is the goddess of prosperity, healing, war and water.
In Gaul, the goddess is known as Brigindo. This indicates the general Celtic basis of the goddess and the antiquity of the tradition of worshiping her.
Brigit is often contrasted with her mother Anu (Dan). Brigit's holiday - Imbolc - is celebrated on February 1, at the time when the sheep have milk.
Perhaps it was her that Caesar called the Gallic Minerva.
About Saint Brigid of Ireland, ibid.:
"There is little reliable information about the life of St. Brigid.
Three lives of St. Brigits preserved in a large number of manuscripts and variants. Two lives are written in Latin, which are usually called Vita I, or Vita Prima, and Vita II. The third life is written in Old Irish - Vita III, or Bethu Brigde (BB). All these texts have a complex handwritten tradition. The First Life (Vita I) was written between 650 and 725. However, the first life, according to medievalists, is not the most ancient. In its style and themes it treats, it is typical of Irish hagiography of the eighth and later centuries. The second life (Vita II), smaller in volume, is one of four works of hagiographic literature of the seventh century that have an author - he was Cogitos (lat. Cogitosus).
According to her life, which is largely legendary, her father was a pagan king of Leinster, and her mother was a Pictish slave converted to Christianity by St. Patrick.
Brigid is famous not only for her miracles, but also for her kindness and mercy: she distributes food to the poor, heals the sick, without refusing to help anyone.
In the hands of Brigit, meat, butter, treats for guests practically do not dry out, there is enough food and drink for everyone.
These plots echo the gospel miracle with five loaves and fishes, on the one hand, and with the properties of the pagan fertility goddess Brigid. To ensure that all the guests have enough milk, her cows are milked three times a day. But her main talent is brewing:
It happened before Easter: “What should we do?” Brigid asked her girls. “We have a bag of malt. We need to put it to ferment, because we cannot be left without beer at Easter. them at Passover, a feast in honor of the Lord, so that it would be drink and not food? Besides, we have no vessels." It was true. There were only one tub and two tubs in the house. "Okay. Let's cook." This is what was done: in one tub the wort was prepared, in another it was placed to ferment; and what was supposed to ferment in the second tub, and from it they filled a tub and carried it to each church in turn and returned back, but, although they returned quickly, the tub had time to fill with beer. Eighteen full buckets were scooped out of the tub and that was enough for Easter. And not a single church had a shortage of holidays from Easter to Fomin Sunday, thanks to the labors of Brigid.
"St. Brigid's Cross" over the doors of the church.
It is known that around 468 she converted to Christianity. Around 480, she founded a monastery in the town of Kildare on the site of the former pagan sanctuary of the Druids (Irl. Cill Dara - Oak Temple). Died St. Brigid in the monastery she founded in 525, but buried in Downpatrick next to St. Patrick, with whom she is considered the patron saint of Ireland.
Veneration of St. Brigid quickly spread first throughout Ireland and then throughout the Western Church. Memory of St. Brigid of Ireland in the Catholic Church - February 1, in the Orthodox Church - January 23, Art. Art."
In the Orthodox tradition, she is called St. Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, Princess of Ireland.
This saint is revered in many countries of the world - in Europe and in Russia. There are temples in her honor in Italy, in Portugal, in Belgium, in England, where there are as many as 19 churches consecrated in honor of St. Brigid, and, of course, in Ireland.
According to legend, St. Patrick, the most revered saint in Ireland, had a special favor with Brigid and called her his most beloved student.
Where and when was she born? Information on this subject is contradictory. One of the legends says that Brigid was born on February 1 in County Kildare, where she later founded the most famous mixed (male and female) monastery in Ireland. According to some sources, her family was noble, according to others - she was the daughter of a slave. Many Irish traditions and legends are associated with the name of this saint.
According to one of them, Brigitte was extremely generous from childhood. She gave people everything she could, even what did not belong to her. Brigitte did not understand what is "own" and "someone else's", and one day she gave someone her mother's entire supply of butter. When the mother was upset, the girl prayed fervently - and the stocks of the valuable product were restored. The girl gave her shoes - so that someone else would not wander over sharp stones, a raincoat - so that someone would not be tormented by the wind ...
Brigit grew up, and the parents wished to marry their daughter. However, the girl - one by one - rejected all the suitors, not wanting to tie the knot of marriage, and chose to take a monastic vow.
According to legend, Brigid once asked the king to allocate land for the construction of a monastery. She also determined the size of the plot: “as much land as I can cover with my cloak.” The naive king happily agreed to this request, not knowing about Brigid's ability to work miracles. And a miracle happened - the open cloak of the Saint covered a huge meadow in County Kildare, where the monastery of St. Brigid soon appeared. The monastic community she founded began to grow rapidly thanks to the glory of the holy abbess. Many people resorted to the generosity and generosity of the saint, from poor lepers to prominent hierarchs of the Church.
Brigit was famous for her miracles and her kindness. She distributed food to the poor, healed the sick and refused to help anyone. She helped people and pitied animals, everyone was drawn to her, feeling that next to the saint they would be warmed by love, treated kindly and understood. In the hands of Brigid, food and drink for the guests practically never dried up, there was always enough for everyone.
According to legend, the saint once worked in the pouring rain and got soaked to the skin. Returning home, she hung her clothes to dry in a sunbeam, mistaking it for a tree branch from fatigue. And Saint Brigid's robes hung on the ray, as if it really were a branch of a tree.
Saint Brigid was buried in Downpatrick next to Saint Patrick. Her veneration quickly spread first throughout Ireland and then throughout the Western Church. The memory of St. Brigid of Ireland in the Catholic Church is celebrated on February 1, in the Orthodox Church on January 23.
Like Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid is considered the patroness of Ireland.
It was believed that on the eve of February 1, Saint Brigid travels around the country, blessing people and their homes. As a symbol of the fact that she was welcome in this house and was looking forward to her visit, a pie or bread and butter was laid out by the window. Nearby were placed several ears of corn for her beloved white cow. And in some counties, bread in the shape of a cross was baked especially for this day.
On this day, you could see hanging strips of fabric or ribbons everywhere (they were called Brigid's mantles). This was done in order to ensure the health of all family members for the whole next year. It was believed that if the saint touches them, they will acquire healing properties.
On the feast of Saint Brigid, any action related to the rotation of the wheel was prohibited. For example, on this day you can not ride bicycles.
They say that one day Saint Brigid visited a dying pagan ruler and christened him with a cross woven right there from a reed. From here came the custom on the day of St. Brigid to weave reed or reed crosses to protect the house throughout the next year.
Two Brigits
On the one hand, the stories about the saint resonate with the gospel miracle with five loaves and fishes, and on the other hand, with the properties of the pagan fertility goddess Brigid. Interestingly, on February 1, the pagans had a feast of the goddess Brigid.
Brigid, Brigantia, Brigid, in Irish mythology, the goddess of healing and fertility, who helped women during childbirth. Her cult seems to have spread throughout Ireland and Britain, where she was more often called Brigantia. In Irish mythology, she is the wife of Bres, a god of semi-Fomorian origin, who led the Tribes of the goddess Danu after the first battle of Moitura against the Thracian tribe of Fir Bolg. Bres was handsome, but, like all famors, despotic, so his reign did not last long. During this time, Brigid managed to give birth to three sons. The goddess is often contrasted with her mother Anu, which suggests two hypostases of the mother goddess. Saint Brida, one of the famous Irish patron saints, may have been a priestess of the goddess Brigid before her conversion to Christianity. The Irish believed that she could feed the animals without reducing the amount of food for people; this makes her related to Brigid, whose feast of Imbolc is usually celebrated on February 1, when the sheep produce milk.
This coincidence gave rise to researchers of Irish Christianity to turn to the study of the connection between the two Brigits. According to one of the researchers, “Brigita is one of the Irish saints, whose connection with the pagan deity is undeniable. Certain traits of her character and activities are based on a myth and ritual dedicated to a goddess - perhaps a goddess associated with the cult of fire ... It can be added that the day of her commemoration, February 1, falls on Imbolc, one of the four great pagan calendar holidays. Even more convincing is the fact that Brigit was the name of an Irish, and in fact, a pan-Celtic goddess ... It is noteworthy that the saint took over some of the attributes attributed to the goddess.
Biography
About the life of St. Brigitte, little reliable information has been preserved.
Three lives of St. Brigits (the author of one of which was Kilian of Ireland), preserved in a large number of manuscripts and variants. Two lives written in Latin, which are commonly called Vita I, or Vita Prima, And Vita II. The Third Life is written in Old Irish - Vita III, or Bethu Brigde (BB). All these texts have a complex handwritten tradition. First Life ( Vita I) was written between 650 and 725. However, the first life, according to medievalists, is not the most ancient. In its style and themes it treats, it is typical of Irish hagiography of the eighth and later centuries. second life ( Vita II), smaller in volume, is one of four works of hagiographic literature of the seventh century that have an author - he was Kogytos of Kildare (lat. cogitosus, commemorated April 18).
According to her life, which is largely legendary, her father was the pagan king of Leinster, and her mother was a Pictish slave converted to Christianity by St. Patrick.
Brigid is famous not only for her miracles, but also for her kindness and mercy: she distributes food to the poor, heals the sick, without refusing to help anyone.
In the hands of Brigit, meat, butter, treats for guests practically do not dry out, there is enough food and drink for everyone. These plots have something in common with the gospel miracle with five loaves and fishes, on the one hand, and with the properties of the pagan fertility goddess Brigid. To ensure that all the guests have enough milk, her cows are milked three times a day. But her main talent is brewing:
It happened before Easter: “What shall we do? Brigid asked her girls. - We have a bag of malt. We must put it to ferment, for we cannot be left without beer at Easter. There are eighteen churches in Mag Talakh. How to give beer to them at Passover, a feast in honor of the Lord, so that it would be drink and not food? Besides, we don’t have blood vessels.” It was true. There were only one tub and two tubs in the house. "Fine. Let's cook." This is what was done: in one tub the wort was prepared, in another it was placed to ferment; and what was supposed to ferment in the second tub, and from it they filled a tub and carried it to each church in turn and returned back, but although they returned quickly, the tub had time to fill with beer. Eighteen full buckets were scooped out of the tub and that was enough for Easter. And not a single church had a shortage of holidays from Easter to Fomin Sunday, thanks to the labors of Brigid.
Died St. Brigid in the monastery founded by her in the city, but buried in Downpatrick next to St. Patrick, with whom she is considered the patron saint of Ireland.
Veneration of St. Brigid quickly spread first throughout Ireland and then throughout the Western Church. Memory of St. Brigid of Ireland in the Catholic Church - February 1, in the Orthodox Church - January 23, Art. Art.
Categories:
- Personalities in alphabetical order
- Irish born
- Deceased in Ireland
- Saints in alphabetical order
- Born in 451
- Deceased February 1
- Deceased in 525
- Saints of the One Church
- Christian saints of the 6th century
- Saints of Ireland
- Medieval women
- Irish
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "Brigit of Ireland" is in other dictionaries:
Brigitte is a female given name of Celtic origin. In some languages it is written with two or one "g". Famous carriers Brigitte Scherzenfeld (1584 1736) Swedish memoirist Brigitte Bardot (born 1934) ... ... Wikipedia
- “Heritage Floor” (Eng. Heritage Floor) a composition that forms a single object with the installation “Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago, which pays tribute to the achievements and hardships of women's work and has the shape of a triangular banquet table for 39 ... ... Wikipedia
The Order of Brigittoque was founded in the 14th century. Saint Brigid Swedish,
and he was female-male. According to a charter similar to the charter of the Benedictine monks, where the main motto was the words “Pray and work” (Ora et labora), the monks of the Order of St. Brigid were also engaged in missionary activities and preached. But unlike the Benedictines, in this order there were not only monks, but also nuns,
who lived in seclusion, spending their lives in work and prayer. Only monks could live outside the monastery, leading a pastoral life. On the territory of the monastery there were gardens where vegetables and medicinal herbs were grown. St. Brigid in her views and deeds very much reminded us of the Blessed One from the abbey of Fontevraud (France). Saint Brigid she also received "misguided" sinners - thieves, prostitutes, gluttons - into the constantly open doors of the monastery. Brigitte
as Robert d'Arbrissel, she founded a medicine for the poor, where, together with the nuns, she nursed and cured the poor. The nuns themselves made potions, ointments, and medicines. Taught poor peasants to read and write. And services in the church were held at the insistence of Brigid in one of the Swedish dialects, which was understandable to the local population, and not in Latin, which was known only to the nobility. Brigid's attire consisted of a black cassock and a white apostle on her head,
But a red braid was tied around the forehead, as a symbol of the bloody trace from the crown of thorns on the forehead of the Savior. The proceeds from the Order were used for books, for the treatment of the poor, for their maintenance within the walls of the monastery, for the purchase of plant seeds, etc. The buildings of the monastery were not pompous, but modest. The lifestyle of the members of the Order was more than ascetic. Brigitte herself, despite the fact that she was an aristocrat, gave preference not to material, but to spiritual values.
