Who was St Brigid, and what of hers can you still see in Kildare Town?
Brigid was the fifth century founder of Kildare itself: in about 480 AD she established a monastery beside a great oak, Cill Dara, the church of the oak, which grew into one of Ireland's great double monasteries, home to nuns and monks together. Her nuns tended a perpetual flame beside the church, described by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century and kept alight until the monastery was suppressed in the 1500s. What you can see: St Brigid's Cathedral on her hill, with the foundations of the fire house in the grounds; St Brigid's Well, a place of pilgrimage just south of the town; and the flame itself, relit in Market Square in 1993 and tended since at the Solas Bhríde centre, which welcomes visitors of all faiths and none.
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Sources
- St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare: visitor opening and the round tower, stbrigidscathedral.com
- Solas Bhríde Centre: the perpetual flame and Féile Bhríde, solasbhride.ie
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