Our Lady of Peace
Brighid/Brigit (Celtic)
The 8th century Bretha Crólige (a collection of legal material
relating to medical provision) gives a list of 12 women excluded from
the rule of nursing in Irish law (instead they are compensated by a
fee being paid to their kin). One category is 'a woman who turns back
the streams of war' and a gloss on this states 'such as the abbess of
Kildare or the female aí bell teoir [lit. 'flame of the theoretical
life' thus: contemplative, recluse, hermit], one who turns back the
manifold sins of war through her prayers.' Whether or not this
practice started in Brigit's time it was presumably one of the
functions of the Abbess of Kildare during the years when the sacred
flame was tended there.
The Goddess Brigantia (cognate with Brigit) was a goddess of war in
the sense of being a tribal protector. In ancient Irish literature
Brigit is associated with the sounds connected with war and conflict -
whistling, weeping and lamentation. In the story of the Battle of
Maigh Tuiredh, for instance: "Bríg came and keened for her son [who
had been slain]. At first she shrieked, in the end she wept. Then for
the first time weeping and shrieking were heard in Ireland. (Now she
is the Bríg who invented a whistle for signalling at night.)" In the
Dindsenchas she is said to have instigated wailing and keening for the
dead after Mac Gréine's death .
So Brigit is not depicted as a warrior goddess associated with the
destructive, gory side of war. She gives protection to those in her
care and laments for those who die. She is a mother goddess who weeps
for her fallen son and perhaps because every warrior is some mother’s
child she does not glorify or exult in war.
She is seen here, then, as one who gives the alarm and mourns for the
dead. In our own time we may call upon her to protect us by giving
warning of danger, as well as to help us to mourn and express grief.
Brigit is surely the patron goddess of all grieving parents.
She may also be delivering a wake-up call to us to become more aware
of the sources of injustice and conflict.
Brigit the Saint is known for giving away her father's sword. She
often appears as a mediator and in one story in the Liber Hymnorum,
when two brothers in conflict ask for her help in battle, she put a
film over their eyes so that they were unable to recognize each other
and thus conflict was avoided. In this depiction she is on the side of
peace and promises her protection, not in battle, but if weapons of
war are abandoned.
In our own time Brigit has become a powerful figure capable of uniting
opposites; she is a bridge between pagan and Christian communities.
Without doubt it is a difficult edge to walk, that between protecting
ourselves and our nations without promoting war and violence.
Contemplation and prayer to Brigit as reconciler of opposites and
bringer of harmony may help us to walk that edge with integrity.
Cill na Craoibhe Olóige - The Olive Branch
(A group within Ord Brighideach)
http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/olive.html
Peace Prayer to Brigid
Brighid -
You are a Goddess of Peace,
You bring harmony where there is conflict,
You bring light to the darkness,
You bring hope to the downcast.
May the Mantle of Your Peace
Cover those who are troubled and anxious,
And may Peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all of Creation.
Brighid -
You are a voice for the wounded and the weary,
Strengthen what is weak within us,
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body, and spirit.
So mote it be!
From Brisingamen of Cill na Craoibhe Olóige, a pagan version of
prayer to St. Brigid
Dona nobis pacem; grant us peace.
