Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Number of quotes: 17
Book ID: 50 Page: 188
Section: 2E5
The multiplicity of Celtic gods and goddesses was gradually replaced by one God, but the vacuum left by these multifarious spirits was, to an extent, filled by the numerous saints of the early Church.
Quote ID: 1113
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 50 Page: 188
Section: 2E5
It is at least possible, therefore, that female saints were deliberately endowed with a kind of pseudo-divine status by their hagiographers or that some of these saints were, in fact, originally goddesses, transmuted into ‘historical’ holy women by their chroniclers. Whilst many modern hagiographers do not take seriously the notion that saints might represent Christianised pagan deities and whilst there is little direct evidence of the adoption of pagan Celtic divinities as saints, there is nonetheless much in their respective roles that owes something to shared tradition. Indeed, there is evidence, as we shall see below, that some pagan deities and heroes of the early Celtic myths were sanctified and absorbed into the Christian Church by transformation into saints.
Quote ID: 1114
Time Periods: 567
Book ID: 50 Page: 189
Section: 2D2,2E5
There is reason to believe that the cult of the Virgin Mary in the early Christian period had strong links with that of the pagan Celtic mother-goddesses. Jean Markale {7} cites a clear example: on the site where Chartres Cathedral was to be built there was a subterranean sanctuary on which stood a statue of a mother-goddess. The shrine was known as ‘Our Lady under the Ground’.
Quote ID: 1115
Time Periods: 012347
Book ID: 50 Page: 189
Section: 2D2,2E5
Mary was not a Celtic saint but her cult had much in common with that of canonised women in Wales and Ireland and, indeed, with pagan Celtic goddesses. One way in which this manifested itself was in the association between Mary, holy water and healing. Sacred wells with alleged curative powers were dedicated to her all over Wales: Penrhys in Glamorgan and Hafod-y-Llyn are just two examples. {8}
Quote ID: 1116
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 50 Page: 190
Section: 2E5
The holy men and women of the early Celtic Christian tradition appear to have had a great deal in common with pagan mythic hero-figures, so much so that Elissa Henken {10} calls the Welsh saints a Christianised form of pagan Celtic folk-hero. Like the gods whom they (at least partially) replaced in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, they were benefactors, purveyors of plenty, law-givers, healers, controllers of the elements and of the animals.
Quote ID: 1117
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 50 Page: 194
Section: 2B2,2E5
Wells were the foci of pre-Christian curative ritual all over pagan Celtic Europe (Chapter 5), and many Romano-Celtic healing-spring sanctuaries belonged to goddesses, such as Sulis of Bath and the Burgundian Sequana. The continuation of the healing-well cult from a pagan to Christian context argues for a basic continuity of tradition, whereby magic and miracle merged in a seamless progression.A number of early Welsh saints presided over Welsh holy well, which they may have inherited from pagan spirits
Quote ID: 1118
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 50 Page: 196
Section: 2E5
In the early Christian period, many pagan deities were downgraded to the status of demons, but occasionally the attributes of a particular divinity were reallocated to an appropriate saint.
Quote ID: 1119
Time Periods: 1234
Book ID: 50 Page: 198
Section: 2E5
Brigit was the daughter of the Dagdha, an important member of the Tuatha De Danann. She was both a single and a triple goddess, with two eponymous sisters, .......
Quote ID: 1120
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 50 Page: 198
Section: 2E5
The accounts of Saint Brigit’s birth and childhood show a very direct association with Celtic paganism and the supernatural.
Quote ID: 1121
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
So the druid was apparently divinely inspired by a Christian apparition to give the baby the name of a prestigious Celtic goddess.
Quote ID: 1122
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
The fire-symbolism is related to a story of the saint’s early life, when Brigit’s relatives saw a fire rising from the house where the child and her mother were asleep. The fire was shown to be magical: like the burning bush encountered by Moses in the Old Testament, the fire glowed but did not consume the house, and the occupants emerged unharmed. Brigit’s monastery at Kildare had an ever-burning fire, like that of the Vestal Virgins of Roman religion. When the Normans arrived at Kildare in the twelfth century, they found a fire constantly alight in the saint’s shrine there, a symbol of hearth and home but also of purity.
Quote ID: 1123
Time Periods: 567
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
Many saints are associated with fire-imagery, a symbol of the link with the power of God. But some scholars have argued for a connection between Satin Brigit and the pagan goddess Sulis Minerva, whose sacred fire at Bath was recorded by Solinus in the third century AD (see Chapter 5). Certainly both Brigit and Minerva were patrons of crafts. ‘Brigit’s Crosses’ are solar emblems which are still set up in Ireland to protect crops and livestock.
Quote ID: 1124
Time Periods: 3567
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
Both the goddess Brigit and the saint of that name were closely associated with prophecy and divination. She was a patron of poet-seers, the Irish learned class of filidh, in her capacity both as deity and Christian holy woman.
Quote ID: 1125
Time Periods: 0567
Book ID: 50 Page: 200
Section: 2E5
The image of Saint Brigit as a generous provider is indistinguishable from that of the pagan mother-goddesses.
Quote ID: 1126
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 50 Page: 200
Section: 2E5
Saint Brigit retained her namesake’s pagan spring-festival of Imbolc, a celebration of the lactation of livestock. Examples of her miraculous bounty include the lake of milk that her cows, milked three times a day, could produce; and one churning could fill several baskets with butter. As Abbess of Kildare, Brigit possessed the power to increase the milk-and-butter-yield. Her prowess as a provider was not confined to dairy-produce; like her goddess-predecessor, she was patron of the ale-harvest and, at Easter-time, one measure of her malt could make sufficient ale for seventeen of her churches.
Quote ID: 1127
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 50 Page: 202
Section: 2E5
So what is the relationship between the goddess and the saint? Clearly the two Brigits have many features in common: both were healers, promoters of fertility and childbirth, patrons of craftsmen, seers and poets. All these shared traditions argue for a pagan origin for the Christian saint, {31} as does the festival of Imbolc which celebrated both Brigits. The shared name or title ‘Exalted One’ is also significant.
Quote ID: 1128
Time Periods: 056
Book ID: 50 Page: 202
Section: 2E5
Whether or not Saint Brigit ever existed, there is no doubt that she represents the meeting and merging of paganism and Christianity. Thus the great goddess of Ireland was translated into her greatest Christian saint.
Quote ID: 1129
Time Periods: 056
End of quotes