“There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.” Madeleine L’Engle
St. Brigid is one of Ireland’s three patron saints, and she is only female among them. The two others are St. Patrick and St. Colmcille. Brigid was born fifteen centuries ago in ancient Ireland, during the transition from the druid (Celtic pagan) practices to christianity. She was a fascinating woman, especially for the times in which she was born, and there are many stories and miracles associated with her life. But one of my favorite stories is an old Irish folktale about the night Brigid and her blue cloak were transported back in time to the scene of the Nativity.
Brigid was born a slave child to a pagan Irish King and a Christian slave woman on a cold, dark winter’s night. On the night of her birth, an ancient Druid priest visited the Christian mother. He carried a lantern that supposedly had been lit by the stars themselves. Since the Druids were known to tell the future, and the Druid high priests were still revered by the Irish, the mother allowed him in. He told all the women in the room that he’d had a conversation with the Christian God who told him that Brigid would one day become the mother of Ireland. Then the Druid priest laid a blue cloak over her crib.
As Brigid grew and learned to care for sheep, she wore her blue cloak, always wondering about the Druid’s strange words. As a very poor girl, her blue cloak was her most treasured possession despite the fact that the cloak’s color faded and it looked more and more worn with every passing year. As she cared for her sheep, month after month, she contemplated the Nativity, often thinking about what it had been like for Mary to give birth in a stable on a cold, dark night.
Then one Christmas Eve night, as Brigid locked up her sheep, all the stars in the sky began twinkling. She closed her eyes against the bright lights, but when she opened them she discovered she wasn’t home. She was in a desert town with low buildings. It was cold, and dark, and she was entirely alone. Suddenly, a man appeared and ordered her back into an inn to keep serving dinner. Unsure of what was going on, she went into the inn and helped serve the visitors. The inn was full and she soon realized that she was in Bethlehem and that all the beds in the small village were filled.
Suddenly, a knock came on the inn door. Brigid heard the inn keeper tell a man that there was no room in the inn, and she suddenly understood what was going on. She ran outside and followed the man who was leading a donkey with a woman perched precariously on top. When Brigid reached the man, she grabbed his robes and said, “There’s no room at the inn, but there is a stable.”
Quickly, she helped Joseph get Mary settled in the barn. Then she ran back and forth from the inn, looking for water and anything that would help ease Mary’s situation. She covered the hay with Joseph’s cloak and then put her own blue cloak around Mary’s shoulders since she was shivering. When Brigid returned with more water, she discovered that Mary had given birth to a baby boy. With a smile on her face, Mary gave Brigid the baby Jesus to hold. Brigid held the baby, her heart bursting with love, and then gently placed him in the manger so she could help get Mary settled. Suddenly, Brigid heard beautiful music filling the air, as if the world was singing in joy.
Mary then said to Brigid, “Thank you, child of the west, for your generosity,” and handed the blue cloak to Joseph. Joseph placed the cloak around Brigid’s shoulders and suddenly everything went black. After blinking a few times, she discovered she was in her own stable surrounded by her animals. Her mother appeared, worried about where Brigid had been, and started scolding her daughter–until her mother noticed Brigid’s cloak.
Brigid’s cloak was now a deep blue and shimmered, like it was covered in tiny silver stars. Brigid’s cloak, which shows up in many of her later miracles, was so revered that it appears in Scottish and Irish nursery rhymes. St. Sauveur Cathedral in Bruges, Belgium has a relic–a blue cloak–that they believe to be the cloak of St. Brigid. There is even a charming children’s picture book that tells the story in even more detail and with beautiful illustrations. It’s called Brigid’s Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story by Bryce Milligan and Helen Cann. Although this is an old Irish folktale, it’s a charming story of faith, hope, and love that I hope you love as much as I do.
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