Brigit - Her Many Names and Attributes
by Eliza Yetter
(written 2003 / revised 2007)

Brigit is an ancient goddess who has been worshipped by many peoples over a fairly large geographic area. Her names and attributes are many and confusing but all are believed to have stemmed from one all encompassing ancient mother goddess.

I've tried to retrace her names to the regions where she got them.

As an ancient Celtic goddess, she was generally called Bridget or Brigentis.

In Scotland, she was known as Bride.

In England, she was Brigantia.

Celtic France, Brigandu.

Ireland, Brighde.

In more recent Celtic traditions, she is recognized as a triple (triune) goddess (Brighid, Brigid, Bridget) although she is still generally worshipped as one deity.

Traces of her worship have also been found in ancient Rome where she was likened to Vesta, the hearth goddess and keeper of the flame.

Brigit is both a moon goddess and a fire goddess. She is fire and water, solar and lunar. A patron goddess of language, metalsmithing, and healing. As both a goddess and a saint, she was called upon by women to help ease labour and also to increase fertility.

In her Christianized form, she is a saint and the midwife to the Virgin Mary. With both the passage of time and the perseverance of the Catholic Church, there are many people who now believe that Brigit, as Saint, was an actual person. As the story goes, she became a nun to preserve her virginity and she founded a convent. This convent just happened to be the ancient sanctuary of the goddess Brigit. The flame was kept alive within the sanctuary / convent for many years until the Church finally declared the custom a Pagan superstition and had the flame extinguished.