In August 2019 year, I sat down to speak with Sister Rita, who resides at Solas Brighid in Kildare, Ireland. We spoke about the stories of two women named Brigid — the Celtic goddess born in the Tuatha Dé tribe of gods who embodied the element of fire, and the Christian St. Brigid born round 450 AD to a chieftain of Leinster, Dubhthach, and his bondmaid.
As a Celtic goddess, her most ancient Gaelic name, Breo-Saighead, means fiery power or fiery arrow. She was known as the patroness of the healing arts, fertility, poetry, music, prophecy, agriculture, and smithcraft. Many people also called her the Goddess of the Well because of her close connection to the element of water.
Brigid is especially relevant today because her indigenous heritage as a Celtic goddess of the land, of Ireland, who in many ways lives on in her Christian counterpart, St. Brigid of Ireland. This latter Brigid came to embody the more personal qualities of deep spirituality, intelligence, generosity, compassion, farming and community. She also has a legacy of sacred wells, one of the oldest being the Wayside Well, pictured at the bottom of this page.
Interview
What is the vision of Solas Brighid and who was St. Brigid? Why is she important?
Sister Rita: The vision of the Solas Brighid center is to unfold the legacy of St. Brigid and her relevancy. It’s so important that we don’t just go back to the fifth century and leave her there, but we see her as a very relevant person to us and our world today. What has come to us through the ages comes to us through the stories and mythes. Brigid’s life straddles the Christian and pre-Christian, so she was a bridge then as she is between today and our future.
“She is a spiritual leader of deep faith in the firth century Ireland, very much a woman of the land with tremendous respect for the elements - earth, air, fire water. She was also a woman who was very in touch with the fine print of people’s lives, and the poor and oppressed and embarrassed - the nobodies of the time, a woman of peace. She was also very much a woman of hospitality. The more she gave away, the more she received. Many of the stories we have are of her mediating feuds. This comes through the stories and myths and poems - we have very little of her actual life.
Is the celebration day for both Brigids the same?
Sister Rita: Her feast day is Faile — and before this this it was Imbolc, which are both Feb. 1. This is a time of new life, the earth is waking from its sleep. She breathes life into the mouth of dead winter. The need to care for the planet earth and the need to care for the poor are interconnected. We’re not superior beings, we’re part of the web of life, we’re part of creation. It’s so important that all aspects are cared for and catered to sustainability. It’s all about being linked rather than ranked. We’re in it together, we live or die together. Our planet goes forward or backward depending on how we care for each other and all of creation.
How would you see her today helping us address the crisis of the planet and our relationship to the planet?
Sister Rita: Basically she’d get us back to respect all of creation, for ourselves, for the dignity of the human person, and the dignity of all creation, the sacredness of all creation. That was what she was about in her time. She’d be changing the social narrative and not equating the good life with the consumerism and the more things we have. She would be realigning that narrative to one of having great respect for herself, ourselves, others, and creation.
There’s a beautiful section in your book “Rekindling the Flame” about solitude, the inner relationship as a starting point. People often think of solitude as isolation. Please talk more about that.
Sister Rita: In solitude, the deeper we go inward, we see that what’s outside is coming from what’s inside. And the deeper we go into our beauty, the more we see who we are as spiritual beings. There’s a saying, we’re spiritual beings on a human journey, not human beings on a spiritual journey. So it’s recognizing who I am, the divine spark of creation - this extraordinary awareness of the divine all around. It’s an intuitive and felt thing. It’s in all of our relationships. If we lose touch with that, we disconnect. And that’s what’s happened — so much disconnection all around.
When we think about our part in addressing climate change, where do you suggest people focus first — on our wellbeing or on practical action?
Sister Rita: At this stage I’d put the emphasis on the being. In my earlier years I put it on the doing, doing doing. And that’s important in its own way. But I think our focusing on being would bring it into the doing in a new way. It’s how I am that’s going to influence how I going to be with others, how I’m going to relate to others. It’s really all about being a better doer. We can’t just sit back and do nothing. It’s how we do what we do that gets us back to asking the basic questions of life again.
