Saint Brigid was born Brigit, and shares a name with a Celtic goddess. There is much discussion over her birthparents, yet it is generally believed her mom was Brocca, a Christian baptised by Saint Patrick, and her dad was Dubthach, a Leinster chieftain. When Dubthach’s wife discovered Brocca was pregnant, she was sold to a Druid landowner. It is not clear if Brocca was unable to produce milk, or was not present to care for Brigid, but legend states Brigid vomited any food the druid attempted to feed her, as he was impure, so a white cow with red ears sustained her instead.

Many stories followed Brigid’s childhood of her spirit and generosity. She was unable to keep from feeding the poor and healing them.  One story says Brigid once gave her mother’s entire store of butter, that was later replenished after Brigid prayed.  When she was about ten-years-old, Brigid was returned to her father’s home. Her charity did not end when she left her mother, and she donated her fathers possessions to anyone who asked.  Eventually, Dubthach became tired of her charitable nature and took her to the king of Leinster, with the intention of selling her. As he was speaking with the king, Brigid gave the kings jeweled sword to a beggar so he could barter it for food for his family. When the king, who was a Christian, saw this, he recognized her heart and convinced Dubthach to grant her freedom by saying, “Her merit before God is greater than ours.”  After being freed, Brigid returned to the Druid and her mother, who was in charge of the Druid’s dairy. Brigid took over and often gave away milk, but the dairy prospered despite Brigid’s charitable practices, and the Druid eventually freed Brocca.

Brigid then returned to Dubthach, who had arranged for her to marry a bard. She refused and made a vow to always be chaste. Legend has it Brigid prayed that her beauty be taken so no one would want to marry her, and the prayer was granted. It was not until after she made her final vows that her beauty was restored.

Little is known about Saint Brigid’s life after she entered the Church, but at 40 she founded a monastery in Kildare, called the Church of the Oak, built above a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid, which was beneath a large oak tree.

Brigid founded two monastic institutions, one for men and one for women. Brigid invited a hermit called Conleth to help her in Kildare as a spiritual pastor. It i reported that Brigid chose Saint Conleth “to govern the church along with herself.”

She later founded a school of art that included metalwork and illumination, which Conleth led as well. It was at this school that the Book of Kildare, which the Gerald of Wales praised as “the work of angelic, and not human skill,” was beautifully illuminated, but was lost three centuries ago.

Saint Brigid helped many people in her lifetime, but on February 1 525, she passed away of natural causes. Today, Saint Brigid’s skull can be found in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, Portugal.  A portion of the skull was relocated to St. Bridget’s Church and another was sent to the Bishop of Lisbon in St. Brigid’s church in Killester.  Saint Brigid’s likeness is often depicted holding a reed cross, a crozier, or a lamp.

As with all the icons I write, I begin with transferring the drawing, then painting the areas I am going to gold leaf with Windsor & Newton’s red oxide.  I leave this to dry for a period of about 24 hours and then I gold leaf over it, I then seal the gold leaf to protect it, and leave it to dry for another 24 hours.  Once this is done I begin with the painting process.  The white “rays” in the halo were initially too bright.  I mixed a little burnt umber with a gloss glazing liquid and carefully painted over the white. This dulled it just enough so it would look like the halo was shining from behind her head allowing Brigid to be the focus of the icon rather than the halo.

You can see the halo is much softer now that it has been glazed with the burnt umber glaze.