Page 82 - Demo

82 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
Brighid. Brighid then returned to the house of Dubhtach, her father, as a slave, albeit one who enjoyed the privileges of family. She grew in beauty it is told, was given to solitude and wan- dered the woods constantly befriending all the wild animals she encountered. In time she journeyed to Connacht to find her mother whom she then freed from bondage and returned with her to her father’s house.
Brighid was renowned for her generosity, giving much of her father’s fortune to the poor, so much so that a tale grew up around it. The story goes that she was giving so much of his wealth to the poor that her father became not only alarmed, but also greatly angered, and took her in his chariot to Dun Ailinne, the fort of Aillinn the Christian King of Leinster, to sell her into bondage. When he left her in the chariot outside Aillinn’s fort, he left his sword there also and on returning with the king, her father discovered that she had bestowed the valuable sword upon a leper who had passed that way. The tradition tells that when he heard this King Ailinn said to her father: “This maiden should not belong to me. She is greater than both of us, and belongs to God”.
So it came to pass that Brighid gave herself over to a life of piety. It is told that she was veiled with seven other virgins all of whom were priestesses or hand-maidens of the pagan Goddess Bríd, and that when she was taking her vows, a wooden rail on which she rested her hand became green and bloomed again and fire appeared over her head. So was born Ireland’s first Christian community of women.
Brigid Passes by
(By Winifred Mary Letts)
The dandelion lights its spark
Lest Brigid find the wayside dark.
And Brother Wind comes rollicking For joy that she has brought the spring. Young lambs and little furry folk
Seek shelter underneath her cloak.
It is recounted that Brighid began her religious work in the Province of Connacht from which reports of her success quickly spread over the entire land. As a result, her own Lein- ster people besought her to return to them and in due course she came to Kildare where she changed a heretofore pagan sanctuary into a Christian Shrine, which later gave its name
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