In the Brigid tradition, as I've shared, there is a convergence between her feast day and the festival of Imbolc. As one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, which include Bealtaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain, Imbolc likely has pagan origins as a celebration of spring and the lambing season. These fertility and birthing connections pull in divine feminine imagery. And given that Brigid's feast day falls on Imbolc we might suspect that, once again, Christianity is rebranding a prior pagan practice. Imbolc, a pagan fertility celebration, has now become the feast day of St. Brigid.
This case is strengthened because there was a goddess named Brigid (or Brigit). Brigid was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods and goddesses of Irish lore, the deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. A 9th century Christian account of the goddess Brigid describes her as being associated with poetry, wisdom, healing, smithing, and the protection of animals. The argument therefore has been made that St. Brigid is a Christian syncretization of the goddess Brigid. And yet, this account has a few problems. First, and most significantly, St. Brigid was a real person. St. Brigid, as a historical woman, is not a syncretistic co-opting of a pagan legend. Second, the goddess Brigid wasn't a fertility or nature goddess. Her main associations were poetry and smithing. Third, and relatedly, there is no particular association between the goddess Brigid and the festival of Imbolc, which became St. Brigid's feast day.
Basically, the only link between the goddess Brigid and St. Brigid is the name. The goddess Brigid wasn't a nature goddess. Nor is there any connection between her and Imbolc. Still, there are just enough threads of association to be woven into a neo-pagan tapestry. St. Brigid shares a name with a pagan goddess. St. Brigid's feast day falls on Imbolc, which may have origins in pagan fertility rites. Therefore: St. Brigid was primordially a nature and fertility goddess. The pagan goddess became the Christian saint. But upon closer inspection, as pointed out above, this case falls apart. Mostly, again, because St. Brigid was a historical person. St. Brigid didn't become a Christian, take vows, and become an influential abbess because she was "stealing" or "co-opting" the persona of a pagan nature goddess. She was simply her own true, historical Christian self and would be quite horrified at how she is being depicted and venerated in Ireland today. So while it is true that Christians have syncretically borrowed from pagan culture, this didn't happen with St. Brigid. As I put it in the first post, the St. Brigid tradition isn't a case of Christians stealing her from the ancient pagans but is, rather, modern pagans stealing St. Brigid away from Christianity to remake her into a pre-Christian nature goddess.
But now, having said all that, I don't want to be too deflationary. As a historical person, St. Brigid is not a syncretic nature goddess. That much is sure. But I do think a sympathetic conversation can be had with paganism when it comes to the divine feminine and nature in relation to the St. Brigid tradition. I'll turn to that topic next.
