IT WAS BRIDE THE FAIR WHO WENT ON HER KNEES.
IT IS THE KING OF GLORY WHO IS IN HER LAP.
CHRIST THE PRIEST ABOVE.
The legend links Bride to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bride followed behind Mary as she carried the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for his ritual circumcision. The force of the winds caused people to stumble and fall. Bride carried two lit tapers, one on each hand. The fire shone brightly in the candles as she ascended all the steps leading to the Temple.
Bride was born in 451 A. D. in Ireland (but of course). She founded several houses and convents, the most important and imposing one was in Kildare in Leinster. She lit a flame outside the convent to inspire and guide people. No blizzard or tempest ever doused the flame. It saved many a shepherd and hunter. She died in 525 A. D. and the flame was kept alight until the 13th century, 1220 A. D. to be exact. The Archbishop of Dublin, eaten away by envy commanded that it be extinguished.
The horrified people refused to comply but he threatened excommunication. One man who was thought to be a Sorcerer recited spells and put out Bride's flame. The Archbishop died a short time later and the people rushed to rekindle Bride's flame. It continued to burn until Henry VIII, in the 16th century, issued a proclamation suppressing all Monasteries. Many of them suffered plunder, pillage and sacking - the monks and nuns slaughtered. Bride's flame and altar was razed to the ground and her monastery as well as her convents were destroyed.
In Gaelic legends Bride lived in pre-Christian and in Christian times. I think the two Brides with the passing of the centuries meshed.
She presides over fire. Indeed, during the time of the Caesars she was the Queen of Fire.
She rules over all the Arts and Beauty. She protects life beneath the sky and the sea. Bride presides at man's birth and dedicates him to the Holy Trinity.
Perhaps the truth is that she was the essence of simplicity, a virgin damsel who found joy in homey chores and duties. Bride took pleasure in tending the fire and the byre. She had a beautiful voice and she sang continuously.
The echo of her songs as she brought cattle, sheep and goats across the moorland still ring in the ears of all Gaels.
Saint Bride is revered in Scotland and Wales although she never set foot in both countries. Do we know that for certain?
N. B. The pagan and demonic celebrations of Bride as the Fire Goddess take place on the 2 of February (Candlemas).
Today, many satanic and demonic cults throughout the world, hold rituals where young people, adolescents and children of both genders, are sacrificed to the Fire Goddess. They are murdered first and then burnt.
Saint Bride, protect us from these iniquities.
She continues to be remembered and venerated in England too. There is an Anglican Church of St Bride in London, designed by Christopher Wren (designer of St Paul's too) in 1672. It was built upon the site of an earlier church said to have been founded by St Bride.
ReplyDeleteThe association of St Bride with fire is significant, because St Bride's church in London was gutted by fire during the German Luftwaffe's bombing of London in 1940. Yet that church still stands, and so does nearby St Paul's which survived the Blitz unscathed.
Thus, it's a beautiful irony that an Irish saint preserved at least PART of what is best in England, from the fires of hatred.
This reminds me of yet another story. An elderly friend of mine, a Countess, was the widow of an English Earl whose title was to a county in what is now the Irish Republic. On the wall of her simple but elegant flat in London, she hung several portraits of her late husband's forefathers, the Earls of X------ in what is now the Irish Republic. But two of the portraits had burn-marks on them, because around 1920 or so, the IRA burnt down the Earl's mansion in Ireland.
ReplyDeleteBut what the IRA thugs who burnt down the mansion didn't know, was that THAT family's forefather, the English Earl of X--- in the 1840s, fought very hard in Parliament to try to send money AND FOOD to the Irish during the Great Famine. He failed, but at least he tried.
And Countess X spoke no rancour against the Irish rebels who burned down her family mansion. She said she understood why they did it, and she forgave them for their ignorance. "Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do."
And maybe it was St Bridget who saved the family portraits of the Earl of X, from being burned in the fire.