Brigid and the Beasts: Ancient Wisdom for a Planet in Peril

Introduction

As I write, devotees of St. Brigid of Ireland¹ are making preparations for a summer pilgrimage along Brigid's Way, walking nine days from the saint's birthplace in the town of Faughart to her burial site in the city of Kildare. The journey of some seventy miles begins on July 14, 2018 and is fully booked, with pilgrims coming from America, Canada, Australia, Britain, and Ireland.² Though they take part for different reasons, these pilgrims share a common desire to reconnect to the spiritual traditions of Ireland's Celtic and Christian past.

Brigid the saint, revered for her gifts of healing and hospitality, conceivably evolved from Brigid the fertility goddess. Extolled in tales of ancient Ireland, both women are inspiring a new environmental consciousness as attentive to the spiritual dimension of creation as it is to the material. A pilgrim from Dublin, for example, seemed to speak for many when she described her experience of Brigid's Way: "I am awed by the power of walking on our beautiful land with intention, and of honoring the rituals and practices of our ancestors. It is very healing on many levels."³ Elsewhere, in Roscahill, near Connemara, Jenny Beale has given the care of nature its spiritual depth through the creation of Brigit's Garden. Since opening in 2005, the Garden has offered a tranquil space for ecological education and contemplative prayer. Designed around the four seasons of the Celtic agricultural calendar with its own sacred cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, it joins modern knowledge with ancient wisdom to foster and celebrate the human connection with nature.⁴

A growing number of contemporary spiritual seekers visit Brigit's Garden or walk Brigid's Way to rediscover the land through the figures of both goddess and saint. The revival of these traditions reflects what Bernadette Flanagan calls "a contemplative turn in Irish Catholic identity,"⁵ a renewed interest in spiritual practices from the island's early monastic culture. In a recent essay written with Michael O'Sullivan, Flanagan explains that Ireland's indigenous spiritual traditions grow more popular as society becomes more secularized, the Roman Catholic Church becomes less influential, and the ecological crisis becomes more urgent.⁶ People disappointed or disillusioned by these

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developments have begun joining with others committed to the care of creation and looking for spiritual sustenance in the ancient rituals of pilgrimage and prayer. The resurgent devotion to Brigid weaves another contemplative strand into Irish Catholic identity, adapting an age old spiritual direction for a new generation.

What makes Brigid so attractive to spiritual seekers today? The Brigidine Sisters suggest it is her reputation for having "lived the Christian message in a totally unique way."⁷ Different from Patrick and Columcille, her "brothers" in the esteemed triumvirate of Irish saints, Brigid allegedly had pagan roots. The association with a Celtic goddess—to be discussed below—amplified the qualities for which she is so revered. Followers still honor her as creation's divine feminine spirit committed to peace and justice for all its inhabitants. Her compassionate use of healing powers extends to all creatures as a model of earthly stewardship. The men and women who walk Brigid's Way, stroll through Brigit's Garden, or tend Brigid's Flame in Kildare testify to the power of her contemplative spirit to bring inner peace and wisdom and sustain their commitment to environmental justice.

We know of Brigid mainly through a rich narrative tradition of fanciful tales told by Irish monks. Among the earliest texts is one by a seventh century cleric, Cogitosus, whose reverential accounts of Brigid's miraculous deeds are typical of the hagiographic genre. Though his purpose is to show how God has blessed Brigid because of her exceptional virtue, his depiction of her embrace of the natural world also inspires a dynamic theology of creation. Long before Francis of Assisi became the Dr. Doolittle of the Middle Ages, Brigid enjoyed an uncommon partnership with animals that is...