Sujet : St Brigid's Day (3 February)
De : benlizro (at) *nospam* ihug.co.nz (Ross Clark)
Groupes : sci.langDate : 02. Feb 2025, 10:31:50
Autres entêtes
Organisation : A noiseless patient Spider
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BRIGID (Brigit, Bridget, Bride) OF IRELAND* (d.c.525), abbess of Kildare.
[*NTBCW Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden (1303-1373)]
...
Historical facts about her are extremely rare; some scholars have even doubted her existence altogether; her Lives are mainly anecdotes and miracle stories, some of which are deeply rooted in Irish pagan folklore.
...
parents of humble origin, baptized by Patrick (c.390-461[?])
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Her miracle stories portray her almost as a personification of compassion.
Some emphasize the theme of multiplication of food, either of butterto the poor; or of changing her bath-water into beer to satisfy the thirst of unexpected clerical visitors. Even her cows gave milk three times the same day to enable some bishops to have enough to drink.
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But if there is much uncertainty about her life, there is none about the extension of her cult, especially in Ireland and in churches of Irish origin on the Continent, where it was second only to that of Patrick.
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Brigid is patron of poets, blacksmiths and healers. Her most usual iconographical attribute is a cow lying at her feet, which recalls her phase as a nun-cowgirl.
- D.H.Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (2nd ed, 1987).
small cow here
https://brigidine.org.au/about-us/our-patroness/the-icon-of-saint-brigid/bigger cow here (scroll way down)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid_of_Kildare...neither cow actually "lying at her feet"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Brigid%27s_Dayaka "Imbolc"