St. Brigid: Art, Legend, Iconography

Saint Brigid: The Iconography

In Kildare, Ireland, St. Brigid, Virgin. She put her hand to the wood of the altar in testimony of her virginity, and the wood at once became green. – Roman Martyrology for February 1

With St. Patrick and St. Columban, Brigid is the co-patron saint of Ireland. Her parents had been baptized by Patrick himself, and in the legends she often meets with him. Her birth and consecration as a nun were attended by miraculous manifestations of fire.

Unlike virgin martyrs St. Brigid never suffers from the violence of others, and unlike other religious she rarely makes a point of abstemiousness or other forms of self-denial. Instead, the legends celebrate her acts of charity on behalf of the poor and the infirm. These are usually attended by miracles, but almost always it is the charitable impulse or deed that comes first.1

PORTRAITS

Many of these acts of charity involve the provision of milk, butter, or even cattle to poor people who seek her help. For this reason the portraits often include a cow, as in the two pictures at right. Sometimes there may also be a milk jug (example).

The saint founded the Abbey of Kildare and several others in Ireland, so portraits usually show her in a nun's habit, sometimes with a book referring to the Rule she wrote (as in the first picture at right). As an abbess, she almost always holds a crozier (second picture at right); as a consecrated virgin, she is also occasionally portrayed with a lily flower (example).

Because of the mysterious fires that attended her birth and her consecration, she sometimes holds a candle (example).

Narrative Images

These are rare, but there is one particularly impressive fresco by Lorenzo Lotto that traces many of the more notable episodes in the saint's life.

Prepared in 2014 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University, revised 2015-10-14.

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