Monday 2 February 2015

Brighid na gCoinneall - Brigid of the Candles



St Brigid is called the Mary of Ireland. Numbers of most beautiful legends cluster around her fame. She was the attendant woman of the Virgin and the foster-mother of Christ. She carried two candles before the Virgin at the Purification, hence she is called Brighid na gCoinneall - Brigid of the Candles - and her feast was Candlemas. Her crosses, indeed, are sometimes called Candlemas Crosses.

...On her day Winter is chased away, and life is breathed into the earth. At Candlemas a candle less is required, the days are so much longer.

An Claidheamh Soluis, Jan. 25, 1908, quoted in 'St. Brigid in Tradition and Art', The Furrow Vol. 3, No. 2 (Feb., 1952), p. 4.

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