Legend says that while St. Brigit sat alongside a dying man one night, she picked up a handful of rushes from the floor and wove a cross, explaining the Gospel to the dying man as she made the cross. Nowadays many make similar crosses and hang them up to protect their house or barn until the next February.
Saint Brigit of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (c. 451–525) is one of Ireland’s patron saints, along with Patrick and Columba. Irish hagiography makes her an early Irish Christian nun, abbess, and founder of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare in Ireland, which was famous and was revered. Her feast day is 1 February, which was formerly celebrated as a pagan festival (Imbolc) marking the beginning of spring and the lambing season.
Once a leprous woman asked her for milk, but there was none available so St. Brigid gave her cold water instead. The water turned into milk and when she had drunk it, the woman was healed.
Like her mentor St. Patrick, Brigid was fond of ale and is reputed to have been the best brewer in the land. She supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen different churches. This single barrelful not only supplied these eighteen different churches, but each church had enough ale to last from Maundy Thursday until Trinity Sunday.
One of the most prettiest legends concerning Saint Brigid tells us that another version of her name was “Bride” and as “St. Bride” she was the patroness of the Knights of Chivalry. They began the custom of calling the girls they each married their own “brides” or “Brigits;” and that from the Knights of Chivalry the word bride came into general usage in the English language.
In very traditional homes, two devout practices are still observed on the Eve of St. Brigid’s Feast Day (February 1st). A strip of cloth called “brat Bhride” (Brigid’s mantle) is hung outside the door. A loaf of oat bread baked in the shape of a cross and a sheaf of straw are left on the windowsill. For on that night, Brigid travels through the land with her red-eared cow bestowing blessings on those who keep the old ways.
