To Walk with Saints and Scholars

Today is the Feast day of St. Brigid of Kildare – patroness of Ireland and notorious trickster. Throughout Irish lore, St. Brigid does whatever she is asked but somehow also manages to teach us what we need to know next. One of my favorite stories about her is the tale about her mantle (her cloak) and the king of Leinster. Desiring to build a monastic community that will allow both men and women, and which will work for the service of the poor, Brigid entreats the king for land. The king is a smart-aleck, and he tells her she can have as much land as her mantle can cover. She removes her cloak, snaps her wrists to unfurl it, and as the king watches transfixed, the cloak covers all of County Kildare. Brigid has her land, and to the king’s credit, she also has a convert. Rather than being angry at the miraculous workings to serve those in need, the king converts to Christianity and becomes a life-long benefactor to the poor. Brigid didn’t just get it done, she did it in style. And she didn’t just subvert the desires of the king, she did it in a way that helped those in need as well as the king himself! She helped him to be who he was meant to be – a lover of humanity.

When it was his time to be so, the king was a blessing, and the king was also blessed…even if in unexpected ways.

So it makes sense that in Ireland, Brigid brings the Spring. While the Vernal Equinox is considered the start of spring in most places, here in Ireland, spring begins on February 1 – the feast of St. Brigid. Once again, Brigid cajoles what we are meant to be from us. The flowers that have trusted the warmth of the last week enough to bloom did not fight what they were asked to do. They did not struggle against how they were called forth by the longer days and the warming ground. But the frost is also not done. It will be back in just a couple of days, and these early blooms will wither and brown. Brigid asks them to bring their biggest, bravest selves to the task of brightening grey February days. In doing so, she gives weary humans hope that the Earth will return to growth. At the same time, she ensures the flowers receive the startled thanks of those who find them unexpectedly in full bloom.

When it was their time to do so, the flowers bloomed themselves into being a blessing. And they are blessed for doing so.

Today in Kildare at the well of St. Brigid, every tree and shrub is groaning under the weight of ribbons and rosaries and clothes tied to branches in petition: “Brigid, please….Please intercede for my health, for my husband’s heart, for my child’s needs.” And each prayer is answered, but by a trickster saint who has all Creation in mind and not just our individual moments of desire.

Ask her for someone to love? Don’t be surprised that your “yes” comes with a heavy dose of how hard it is to lose that which we love.

Ask her for peace? Prepare yourself for a quiet that shatters the ego’s quest for importance.

Want to be blessed? Get ready to be a blessing.

St. Brigid answers petitions with precocious assent. We must be ready to learn when it is time for the next thing our lives have to teach us. We must be ready to change to be the next thing we must be to bring joy to the world and justice to our lands.

Blessed are those who know that “yes” is both a favor and a fate.

May we bloom into all we are meant to be – what is good in the Earth and what is light to a darkened world. And may St. Brigid help us make it so.