SAINT BRIGID IS RELICATED HOME
Holy artefacts returned after 1,000 yrs
THE sacred relics of Saint Brigid have returned home after nearly a millennium.
Hundreds of pilgrims and locals gathered at St Brigid’s Parish Church in Kildare yesterday to see the artefacts of the beloved patron saint.
They were brought to the church in a formal procession which made its way from Solas Bhride Centre in Tully outside the town.
Three primary schoolgirls on horseback – Evie Holohan, Aela Twomey and Elsa Mai Walsh led the parade.
The 12-year-old Kildare Pony Club members were dressed in long cloaks to represent St Brigid and the three knights that originally brought her relic from Ireland to Portugal.
Theresa Kilmurray, of the Brigidine Congregational Leadership Team, carried the relics and was also accompanied by the Kildare Ladies GAA football team and Brigidine nuns.
People gathered on either side of the road, keen to be blessed by the saint as her relics passed by while a crowd waited outside the church.
Once inside the church, the Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin, Denis Nulty, placed the relic on a purpose-built plinth before a special Mass was celebrated.
Originally Brigid, a renowned peacemaker, was buried beside the main altar at a monastic church in Kildare, with her grave becoming a shrine for pilgrims.
Around 300 years later, when the Vikings were raiding Ireland, her remains were moved to Downpatrick Cathedral in Co Down for safekeeping. There they were buried in an unmarked grave alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba.
Over the next centuries the location of the grave was apparently lost.
According to Christian lore, in 1185 the Bishop of Down prayed to show him the location of the saints’ relics and a beam of light shone on a spot of the church’s floor, leading to the rediscovery of the remains.
The relics remained as a shrine at the church for the next 400 years before it was reputedly destroyed by Lord Leonard Grey, an appointee of King Henry VIII.
Despite the destruction of the shrine, the religious items were saved and spirited away to the continent.
It is believed three Irish knights took a fragment of St Brigid’s remains to Lumiar, a small town outside Lisbon.
That relic is still venerated in the church of St John the Baptist in Lumiar today.
A portion of the relic was brought to Ireland in the 1930s by the Brigidine Sisters in Tullow, Co Carlow.
Kildare owes its existence St Brigid. She’s very special
SR RITA MINAHEN ON SIGNIFICANCE OF SAINT
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That is the holy item which has now being moved to St Brigid’s parish church in Kildare.
Yesterday’s ceremony came ahead of St Brigid’s Day on February 1.
Brigidine sister Rita Minahen said the homecoming was a special day for the town.
She added: “It’s very meaningful because we wouldn’t have a Kildare without her, Kildare owes its existence to St Brigid. The town grew up
around the monastery and the hinterland and so she’s very special. She’s synonymous with Kildare.”
David Mongey, chairman of the tourism agency, Into Kildare, said it was a “very momentous occasion”. He
added: “It’s a homecoming of St Brigid’s relics after 1,000 years or more. She’s finally coming home to rest in her native town in Kildare.”
Mr Mongey predicted a major boost for tourism in the region.
He added: “I think, as a tourist body, if we think of Santiago de Compostela and the great Camino of the north of Spain, where all roads lead to Santiago, to the head of St James, the relic of St James, now Kildare has a finishing point to create pilgrim routes all over Ireland to see St Brigid.”
Two years ago, the Government announced a new bank holiday for the country would be named after St Brigid.