Which Irish saint had the greatest following in Europe? Was it Patrick or Columban?
In fact it was Brigid. I discovered that fact in north Italy, in Piacenza, last June. In the Piazza Borgo, which in Roman times was the western entrance to the city, there is a church dedicated to St Brigid. Beside it once stood a hostel for Irish pilgrims set up in her name in 850, by Donatus, an Irish bishop, scholar and pubic figure in Fiesole near Florence.
He had two reasons: one was to help Irish pilgrims on their way to nearby Bobbio, the shrine of his fellow Irishman, Columban. He also wanted to draw attention to Brigid whose story had already been spread by the Irish criss-crossing Europe.
Donatus saw the need to show people that saints did not have to be eminent scholars, bishops or men. One of the attractions of Brigid, in Ireland and Europe, was her ‘closeness to people’ –she is the patron saint of midwives, healers, poets, brewers, blacksmiths and dairy workers, as well as a figure associated with creativity and womanhood.
In Germany, as in Ireland, her feast day was a day of hope, marking the end of the harsh weather and arrival of Spring.
Churches with her name can be found in England, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, northern and eastern France, Spain, the Low Countries, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy.
Brigid was honoured in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland until the canonization of St Bridget of Sweden in 1391. From then on the ‘local‘ Bridget took over in the Nordic countries and, for some reason, also in southern Italy.
In German art Brigid is shown as a nun dressed in a long robe, a girdle, mantle and veil, with a long staff or, occasionally, a book of religious rules in her hand. After the fifteenth century a small cow is shown lying at her feet.
Back in Piacenza, a modern church has been built on the site of the Irish hostel but Brigid’s name remains on it. Inside it I joined a talk by Prof Damian Bracken on the phenomenon of Brigid in Europe. Those who attended were mainly local scholars and townspeople.
In 2023, Brigid’s feast day was finally made a public holiday in Ireland though some would rather refer to it as Imbolc. .
댓글