Music for Brigid of Ireland: Saint & Goddess

Moch maduinn Bhride
Thig an nimhir as as toll
Cha bhoin mise ris an nimhir
Cha bhoin an nimhir rium.

Early on Bride's morn
The Serpent shall come from the hollow
I will not molest the serpent
Nor will the serpent molest me.

This old Scot's invocation is recounted in THE EARTH GODDESS: CELTIC AND PAGAN LEGACY OF THE LANDSCAPE, by Cheryl Straffon (Blandford Books, 1997). Bhride is the Christian saint and Celtic goddess Bridget/Bride (pronounced Breed) and means "Exalted One."

According to Cheryl Straffon:

"Who was this ancient Goddess of spring...? Disentangling the point where the Goddess ends and the saint begins is virtually impossible... In the 'Life of St. Brigid,' written by Cogitosus in 650 CE, she is of course a Christian saint, but one with many pagan attributes. Her feast day is 1 February, the Celtic festival of Imbolic, which probably means 'in the belly,' referring to the pregnancy of the ewes or of Mother Earth. The iconography associated with her includes cows, which are elsewhere linked with Mother Goddesses, serpents, sheep, vultures, baths, milk and the sun and the moon, all symbols linked with several other Celtic goddesses. Three of her most common symbols -- the vulture, serpent and cow -- were also symbols of the Roman-Egyptian Goddess Isis, and the rites practiced at her shrine at Kildare in Leinster, in Ireland, were said to resemble those of the Romano-British Goddess Minerva, being concerned with crafts and healing...

"The production of food, the fertility of the land and the fecundity of Mother Nature were all key functions of Bridget, and they underlie the tradtions associated with her day. The country people always regarded the advent of Feile Bride (Bride's Feast Day) as marking the end of nature's sleep during winter and her reawakening to the fresh activity of life. In Scotland on the island of Uist the flocks were dedicated to Bride on her sacred day:

On the Feast Day of beautiful Bride,
The flocks are counted on the moor,
The raven goes to prepare the nest,
And again goes the rook.

Song of Saint Bridget's

The day of rejoicing is come,
In which the holy virgin Brigid
From the shadows of misery
passes to the realms of light.

From a modest station
She strove to serve God,
Mighty in the gift of purity
She was pleasing unto the Bridegroom on high.

As a sign of her virtue
The wood of the altar which had dried out
By a touch of the hand of the virgin
Was at once made green again.

This is Ireland's laurel
Whose green verdure never fades,
Filled with loving kindness
She fails none who entreat her aid.

For ages without end
To God alone be glory,
Who by the prayers of such a virgin
Leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven.