St Brigid: Pagan Goddess or Christian Saint?
Irish History Podcast
Fin Dwyer
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
St. Brigid is one of Ireland's most well-known saints. While Christian churches have experienced a crisis of faith in recent decades, she seems to buck the trend. People of all faiths and none can identify with this figure. In this short episode, I explore the history of St. Brigid, asking if she was a Christian saint or a pagan goddess and why she continues to relate in the 21st century.
Sound by Kate Dunlea.
Read more about St Brigid at https://www.dib.ie/biography/brigit-brighid-brid-bride-bridget-a0961
Support the show at https://patreon.com/irishpodcast
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Transcript
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| 1:02.1 | Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWire. |
| 1:08.3 | And today's episode is quite different from usual shows. So it's a shorter segment that focuses on the life of St. Bridget, an absolutely fascinating figure in Irish history. |
| 1:13.2 | Now, if you're not familiar with her, the reason I'm making this show at the moment is that St. Bridget's Day has just passed. |
| 1:19.3 | It was on Saturday and we actually have a bank holiday in Ireland that was on Monday just to mark the occasion. |
| 1:25.6 | But Bridget herself, the person at the heart of these events, |
| 1:28.7 | is an intriguing character worth exploring because she defies, I suppose, what you might call |
| 1:34.1 | typical trends associated with Christianity today. In Ireland at the moment, religion of all kinds, |
| 1:40.6 | but particularly Catholicism and Christianity, is in decline and has been for decades. |
| 1:45.5 | But St. Bridgett seems to stand apart from this, and she seems to have been able to adapt to |
| 1:50.6 | this changing world. I think it's fair to say she's gained a new, very different fan base. I'm not |
| 1:58.0 | sure that's the correct term, but there's no question her appeal does seem to |
| 2:02.0 | transcend Christianity and even people who are not Christian find her an aspiring figure. |
| 2:08.6 | Now to understand this and St. Bridget and her history, we need to start with an intriguing question |
| 2:14.4 | and that is whether St. Bridget ever existed because this helps |
| 2:18.6 | understand how she's become a holy figure for people of all backgrounds and has even |
... |
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