Description

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St. Brigid of Ireland Special Page

Oil Dedicated to St Brigid (Patron of Irish nuns)

Oil Dedicated to St Brigid patron of nuns is dedicated to one of Ireland’s patron saints. She was an early Irish Christian nun and abbess. She was the foundress of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare in Ireland, which was famous and revered. Her feast day is 1 February, which was originally a pagan festival marking the beginning of spring.

According to tradition, around 480, Brigid founded a monastery at Kildare (Cill Dara, “church of the oak”), on the site of an older pagan shrine.  The site was under a large oak tree on the ridge of Drum Criadh.  Also, Brigid, with an initial group of seven companions, is credited with organizing communal consecrated religious life for women in Ireland.

She founded two monastic institutions, one for men, and the other for women. In addition, she invited Conleth (Conláed), a hermit from Old Connell near Newbridge, to help her in Kildare as a spiritual pastor. It has often been said that she gave canonical jurisdiction to Conleth, Bishop of Kildare.  Also, Archbishop Healy says that she simply “selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction”. Her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose Saint Conleth “to govern the church along with herself”. Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and abbesses. The Abbess of Kildare was regarded as the superior general of the monasteries in Ireland. Also, her successors have always been accorded Episcopal honor.  Brigid’s small oratory at Kildare became a center of religion and learning and developed into a cathedral city.

Luke 10; 33-34. The Good Samaritan
“But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them”.