St. Brigid of Kildare. The real History?? 

A! stop! although I would love one right now.

"The heart of her message is essentially one of compassion. " Yes that is my understanding of the day when I had gotten in to the early medieval literature as well.

Thanks so much. I did find reading her life once you pull out all the folklore to be very deep.

Thanks man!

Ya, one wonders where the truth is.

I do love it. Sadly living in Japan am getting none of that this year again 😢

Thanks so much! Ya I see it just the same. Plus Ireland was just going in to the Golden age in 451. I say she was real.

I agree with your assessment and share it. Saint Brigid is my patron saint, and I am Old Calendar Orthodox so I actually celebrate her both on her common day of 1 February, and also 14 February. Aye, I kind of get two Christmases too, hehehe! But I digress, she is seen as a real human who achieved sainthood and holiness in the Orthodox Church. She has been guiding all my life, even before I knew her or knew Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for me blessed Saint Brigid, a sinner. 🙏🏻☦️

I'd like to read more about this new thinking that she was never a god, I've had a quick Google and can't find any sources. Where can I look?

@@aishlnn7150 "Brigid - Debunking the Meta-Myth of an Irish Goddess" by Simon Tuite of Monumental Ireland Although it is generally accepted that Imbolc was originally a pagan festival celebrating the beginning of Spring, there is absolutely no direct testimony as to its original customs or rituals. Most of the traditions we now associate with Imbolc are specifically associated with St Brigid of Kildare, who was the dominant female figure in the late medieval Irish church. While the Christian Saint Brigid does share some of her attributes with a literary/mythological character also called Brigid: this overlap has led many modern writers and scholars to assume that a specific goddess named Brigid also enjoyed similar prominence in pre-Christian Ireland. . . . . . And while many of those same writers and scholars are quick to point out the lack of historical evidence that the Christian St Brigid ever actually existed, they are equally as quick to apply her traditions to a goddess for which there is even less evidence for. The idea that saint and goddess are the same entity can be traced back, not to antiquity, but to the Celtic revivalists of the Victorian age. In fact the first explicit identification of the pagan goddess with the saint of Kildare is made by continental Celticist, Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville in his 1884 work, ‘Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique’, where he makes the now-familiar claim that… “... Brigit, goddess of the pagan Irish, was supplanted in the Christian era by Saint Brigit, and the Irish of the Middle Ages transferred in some way to this national saint the cult that their pagan ancestors had addressed to the goddess Brigit”. This theory has been embraced wholeheartedly by Neo-pagans ever since, often citing dubious texts to back up their claim. While there is no doubt that the traditions associated with St Brigid can be traced back to pre-Christian beliefs, it is likely that many of the ritual sites and customs now associated with her were originally focused on various, local goddess figures, not a singular deity as is the general consensus today. The earliest text that references both the saint and the goddess Brigid is the 10th-century text, ‘Sanas Cormaic’ (Cormac’s Glossary), which refers to each of the Brigids as separate entities; with neither associated with Imbolc. “Brigid, a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigid the female sage or woman of wisdom, Brigid the goddess whom poets adored, for great was her protecting care. It is, therefore, they call her goddess of poets by this name. Whose sisters were Brigid woman of healing and Brigid woman of smith-work; from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigid.” Interestingly the passage indicates that ‘Brigid’ was a name by which all goddesses were known in Ireland. This ties in with the view of many etymologists that the word ‘Brigid’, which comes from the Proto-Celtic word ‘Briganti’ meaning ‘exalted one’, was used as a title and not a name per se. Although we cannot prove her existence, it is possible that the abbey at Kildare was founded by a woman in the late 5th Century who was given the title ‘Brigid’ by the mainly pagan population that she administered to. However, within a hundred years or so of her supposed death on the 1st of Feb c.525, we start seeing hagiographies being written that contain many of the stories and customs we now associate with St Brigid. It is this composite of Christian and pagan traditions that the singular Neo-Pagan goddess Brigid has been over-layed onto, creating a self-referential, meta-mythical narrative that has no real basis in the historical or literary sources.

The idea that the historical St. Brigid was a goddess reimagined is an academic construct from the 19th century, at a time when it was fashionable to imagine that many things in Christianity were originally pagan. This has since proved false on a dillion points, but the idea popularly persists amongst those without knowledge on syncretism.

I agree with all your points man and you bring up great points.

I love it!! Alex the lad we had on last time is amazing with all that history. I could ask him to jump on again and have a chat with us if you like??

@@IrishMedievalHistory Yeah that would be excellent!

If there was any sort of "Celtic christianity" as an independent Episcopal polity, why is there so much evidence of the ritual dependence of the celtic world on the authority of the Papacy?

Nevermind it being it's own polity or not, there are many who now assert "Celtic christianity" had a separate theology of it's own all together - an assertion which is almost completely unsupported.

@@myrmidonesantipodes6982 I think you're taking this a bit further than what I was saying. You're taking it to heart, I was describing a differentiation in the North East of England in partiuclar, which is where I come from.

Thanks for the feedback Tadeusz. Not sure if I've seen that video. I'll have a look as it backs up my view. Glad you enjoyed the video man and have a great weekend ☺️

@@IrishMedievalHistory Thanks

@@TadeuszCantwell your more then welcome!

Great woman!!

@@IrishMedievalHistory She would of been

Would have been a great wife for yourself if she didn't join the church. 😉

@@IrishMedievalHistory Giddy up

@@IrishMedievalHistory I`ve had 2 wives don`t think i`ll go for 3rd time lucky

I found story myself. However that area doesn't really become Christian for the most part until 565. Since it's not for until 600AD that people start to write about the woman, many stories have been added on.

There are many ways to see her. Today is her feast day and my birthday. 🐑🐑🐑🐑🍀🍀🍀🍀