I love that Ireland's female patron saint, Brigid, is receiving new attention because Ireland itself has changed so much — and cultural shifts cast holy people in new lights, so that we see new facets of their contribution to us.
As Irish poet Laura Murphy says, “Brigid is about signalling a new era based on her principles of equality, unity, truth, compassion and love.”
"So why has it taken so long to commemorate her, when her male counterpart, Saint Patrick, is celebrated in more than 200 countries? Over the past two decades, Ireland has experienced drastic social, political and historical reckonings.”
“Many of these have coincided with the waning influence of the Catholic church, from allowing same-sex marriage in 2015 to the legalisation of abortion in 2018, a campaign in which Brigid, who helped women terminate their unwanted pregnancies, was frequently cited."
Ireland is appropriating its traditional Catholic heritage in a new way that is egalitarian, radically committed to equal rights for women, inclusive of LGBTQ human beings, and deeply critical of the patriarchal past that was absolutely essential to how the Catholic church, with its males-only rule for ordination, functioned in Ireland for a long time, with ugly consequences for Irish people and Irish culture.