St. Brigid of Ireland
Feast day: February 1
Born in Ireland around 450, Brigid was the daughter of a pagan chieftain named Dubhthach and a Christian slave woman named Broicsech. She was raised by her mother in slave quarters but was eventually returned to her father’s house around the age of 10. She decided to enter religious life and was professed by St. Mel of Armagh. Brigid founded a double monastery at Kildare and became the abbess of the community, the first in Ireland. Brigid demonstrated an extraordinary religious life, endless compassion and charity, and a vigor for spreading the Faith. Brigid died at Kildare around 525. She is patron of Ireland, babies, and midwives.
Collect
O God, who called your handmaid Saint Brigid,
to seek you before all else,
grant that, serving you, through her example and intercession,
with a pure and humble heart,
we may come at last to your eternal glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
