This year’s St Brigid’s Day service, led by the Kilkenny Gospel Choir, will take place on Friday, 31 January (eve of the Feast of St Brigid) in St Fiacre’s Church, Loughboy, Kilkenny, at 7.30 pm. A first-class relic of Saint Brigid will be available on the night for blessing. Saint Brigid, ‘the Mary of the Gael’, as she has been known to generations of Irish people, commands affection and respect. Brigid was a strong woman who opposed the authoritarian attitudes of her time and fought for the rights of women and the poor, especially those who were victims of abuse and hardship. She is remembered for her hospitality and hard work, as a woman of God and a woman of the people. A powerful personality who appealed to all, from those on high to the humble beggar.
Brigid’s life begins in Faughart, a few miles from Dundalk, County Louth, in the year 453. Her father is a chieftain named Dubthach, and her mother is Brocessa, a Christian bondswoman. Shortly after Brigid’s birth, Dubthach’s wife persuades him to send Brocessa away to Murroe in east Limerick. Brigid is put into fosterage. When she comes of an age to be useful, Brigid returns to her father’s house, taking her mother’s place in the usual round of slave duties – minding the livestock, serving meals, etc. It is already apparent that Brigid has a calling, as she constantly reaches out to the poor. She keeps a store of clothes and food for them and requisitions her father’s property when there is nothing else available!
Brigid’s genius for leadership and organisation comes into its own. A woman of wisdom and common sense, she makes provision for the sick, tending to them with her knowledge of contemporary medicine. She established schools for poor children. More than anything else, however, Brigid is renowned for her hospitality. After some years in charge at Kildare, Brigid is the most prominent religious leader in the Liffey plain. Many and notable are the names of those who come to her for help.
St Fiacre seeks guidance
St Fiacre came to her for guidance. It is a long and productive life in the service of others. Brigid is remembered in posterity as a patron of Irish women and motherhood, someone to call on for help in domestic matters and in times of sickness and loss.
This year’s service will include holy water from the well of St Brigid, which will be available, as well as red flannel associated with the healing ministry of St Brigid. All are invited to bring their St Brigid’s Crosses to be blessed.
‘People attend the service and take the water and red flannel home with them, invoking the protection of St Brigid. It is said that St Brigid’s cloak was made of red flannel, and when she spread her cloak over the sick, the worried, or the anxious, they were healed,’ said Fr Willie Purcell, who will lead the service. ‘At this difficult time in the lives of all people, it’s important that we are united in support of each other, and what better way than to gather and pray for each other,’ said Mary Kealy, Kilkenny Gospel Choir PRO.
For further information on the night, contact the Kilkenny Gospel Choir at kilkennygospelchoir@gmail.com
