Badass Monastics: Saint Brigid
Scripture: Matthew 10: 40-42
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."
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In this passage, Jesus is sending folks out in faith to practice what he taught them, and this is the nicest part of the chapter, most of it is hard news. Jesus is practicing a way of life that turns the status quo upside down. That’s why they can’t ask for payment, that’s why they can’t take an extra pair of shoes or a change of clothes, that’s why they can’t take a staff for self defense. They are going out vulnerable to change the world. And even through they are going to help folks…Jesus reminds them this will be a point of contention. His understanding of God will set Daughter against Mother, Son against Father and Daughter-in-law against Mother-in-law, which is to say people you love are going to post some things that make you wildly mad on Facebook…okay, so it doesn’t say that, but it does say that the relationships you have are going to be hard as you push against the status quo for a dream of something more. The Disciples share this message with every Christian to follow. The saints and monastics, the Popes and priests all grappled with this in one way or another. We are in a season of exploring with monastics…particularly the badass abbesses who found their way in the world..even if it put them at odds with their kin.
St. Brigid (Brigit, Brid) once said something like, “Heaven is a lake of Beer, every drop is a prayer and all the people dance merrily on the shore.” She is a Fifth Century Abbess and saint of the church and the stories of her life are woven through with legend and lore. The first writings about her date likely 100 years past her death, and while they may carry their own agendas, we can find her in the kernels of truth that inspire folks to follow her light yet today. While people in the places of power are deciding and debating what is orthodox or right during the 5th Century, she is practicing. While men write creeds she sets the table, churns the butter, prays for abundance, puts herself in the story and invites everyone to share.
She dwells on the margins of Christian Tradition and lives at the edge of Europe where the the Romans and the church (that would become the Roman Catholic church) begins to weave its way into the life of her people. Her father is a Druid leader, perhaps a chief, and her mother is likely enslaved to her father. From the very start of her life, a Druid predicts she will be a child of radiance and names a special child will come to this enslaved woman. She is known for light and miracles surround her even as the brutal realities of life surround her. Her father sells or sends away Brigid and her mother, some say she churns so much butter she liberates them both and they find their way home. One way or another, and certainly we may never know the facts of her life as much as we are invited to imagine. However, her family, now back under one roof, begins to see her gifts for giving and generosity…even if they wish they didn’t. She is giving food and clothing away and anything else that can be of help to the folks who need it. It so irritates her father that he sets off to sell her in slavery to, or make her a bride of, a local King. I am not sure what the differences are between the two realities, but it doesn’t matter. Because while her father is making a deal with the King, Brigid gives his prized bejeweled sword away to help folks in need. Some stories suggest it feeds a family and some suggest it helps heal a man with leprosy. At the end of the day, the truth rests in helping folks and by the very next day the King sends Brigid home. Her family finally allows her to follow her heart into monastic life even as they were hoping to capitalize on her beauty and radiant eyes.
She sets her sights on creating community and all of the miracles she embodies draw us to see the sacred in the everyday, the ordinary is extraordinary with Brigid; butter, jam, bacon, feasts, milk and beer are the means of grace. She is ordained and rather than as a nun, the Bishop ordains her a Bishop, perhaps on accident…and apparently he can’t take it back, not that he wanted to. Fire, like a pillar reaches to heaven and the church will bless her leadership of two Abbey’s one in which she herself oversees men. A woman Abbess in-charge without a male Abbot or Priest to oversee her, where she can preach and she supervises the spiritual and organizational life of male monks…that in a life of miracles is probably the most extraordinary miracle of all.
Her monastic community practices hospitality. Day and night that is the work that shapes and reshapes life. And to do this she needs space, she is exceedingly domestic and her work needs space for tables to be set and barns for cows to be milked. Domestic work is sacred work. Celtic Spirituality blends the sacred with the every moment…prayers for milking cows, prayers for locking the door, prayers for making the bed…every moment is this possibility of mindful space with Brigid. Brigid’s work requires space and to build her community she asks a King for land and he, of course, says no and she prays for him. He has no interest in giving her the land. Then she asks, “Would he give her the land that she can cover with her cloak?” Of course he agrees, I imagine he does so with a smirk. She pulls the cloak from her shoulders and the legends say the cloak stretches, perhaps being pulled by women, running each of the cardinal directions…as it covers hillsides the King agrees to gift her the space she needs.
She creates an Abbey Church community and they are famous for jams and butter, for hospitality. With Bridget there is more butter than is needed, with Brigid when she gives away bacon to a dog the cook finds the two strips in the pot, with Bridget scraps are woven together into a feast. She asks the cook to prepare a feast, but the cook responds that the Abbey kitchen doesn’t have any of the ingredients she seeks. Brigid sends the cook to pray while she sweeps the kitchen, then goes to pray herself. They return to a feast. With Bridget butter is replaced, bacon is in the pot, stones become salt, water become milk and rather than wine..water also becomes beer. Water becomes beer and sometimes so much beer that she can serve 18 parish churches. I’m not sure how many people that is exactly, but I imagine the oral tradition around these stories means its an impressive amount of beer. With Bridget the lesson of God is there is abundance, there is more than enough. Maybe we don’t feel that way with our time and our budgets but Bridget reminds us to look again for something possible to emerge.
In her text, In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection and Prayer, Jan Richardson writes of Bridget that, “Hospitality is an action that goes against logic, against what makes sense. It goes beyond what may be convenient or conventional in extending hospitality we acknowledge our resources are not our own, that everything belongs to God” (p101). The stories of the past are powerful if they live in the present and the purpose of divining to the life of this Celtic Saint is not because she so far away from our present, but because we might draw from the well of her experience and practice hospitality as well. Her gifts of healing and hospitality invite us to see her within our own lives and to look at scraps and to turn them into abundance in our own time.
She not only teaches by modeling hospitality, she preaches and invites us to dive into the the Bible. She shares stories and visions where she is a part of the story, not just reading the narrative, but finding a way into the life of Christ. She will provide food for Mary and Joseph as they travel, she will serve as Mary’s midwife birthing Jesus, and caretaker of the infant Jesus. She explores the stories of faith in her own way, not just seeing herself in the diversity of existing characters but finding a way beyond time to place herself into the story. As Herod’s troops come to find Jesus in Bethlehem she dawns a wreath of candles and dances to distract the soldiers while the holy family escapes as refugees to Egypt.
This woman, whom echoes a Pre-Chrisitan Goddess, embodies hospitality and places herself at the table with Mary and Joseph as she more than reads the stories of faith. She invites us to see ourselves in the story and the sacred in the ordinary, with Brigid butter and milk, beer and bacon become holy. She spans time and dreams, how she dreams of showing up for Christ is how she shows up for the people right in front of her. It's how she builds an Abbey community rather turning her gifts into profits and wealth for herself alone. May we have the courage to see others as Christ, to set the table, give the bacon and share the butter knowing there will be more. May we have the courage to risk and dream and walk through the thin spaces to find the abundance of God’s grace. May it be so. Amen.
P.S. If you are looking for more, I can’t recommend In the Sanctuary of Women: A companion for Reflection and Prayer highly enough. Jan L. Richardson offers a beautiful way to explore women of the past, if she was a tour guide she would be Rick Steves. She is poetic and thoughtful at every turn and your will love the way she invites you to explore your present narratives in women like Brigid and Hildegard and Eve and the Desert Mothers and more. It is a devotional with real substance, no substitutes or cheap theological or historical additives. She makes academic research find meaning and I am ever grateful I found this book. I hope you will be, too.
If you are looking to explore Celtic Spirituality consider Thomas O’Loughin’s Journeys on the Edges or Esther De Waal’s The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination. Of course, you can find a number of interesting resources online , including a Modern community formed around St. Brigid and founded by a Methodist Clergy Woman.