20. Sister Rita Minehan: Who Was Saint Brigid?

This is the second episode in a series celebrating Saint Brigid of Kildare - one of our three patron Saints, with the other two being Patrick and Colmcille.This week is all about the 1500th anniversary of Saint Brigid and we thought it would be a good idea to chat with someone who has a good grasp of the facts of what the lady, Brigid of Kildare was all about.

In the previous episode Fender was talking with Paula O’Brien who works for Kildare County Councila and she mentioned that “Sister Rita” really knows a lot about Saint Brigid. So it was a no brainer for me to go to the religious centre of Ireland when it comes to our only female patron saint.

Sister Rita Minehan is what we call a Brigidine sister. Sister Rita is based in Solas Bhride which translate’s as Light (or flame) of Brigid. (Solas is the Gaelic for light.) To quote from their website:

“Solas Bhride is a Christian Spirituality Centre with a focus on St. Brigid and the early Christian Celtic tradition which had a profound sense of the presence of God in everyone and everything. It is a spirituality nourished by ritual, tradition, contemplation, experience and story.”

Whilst learning about Saint Brigid Fender was remembering an earlier episode which he recorded with another Brigid - Brid Rodgers. Brid Rodgers is a retired politician and she worked with John Hume’s SDLP.

Bríd was quite instrumental in delivering the Good Friday Agreement which helped bring peace to Northern Ireland. In that interview Bríd was talking about the concerns of Unionists (or people in the Protestant community) in Northern Ireland. Bríd said that the Unionists had concerns about the Republic of Ireland being a Roman Catholic state. She then argues that this is less a case now.

So whatever your faith, or lack of faith is, you cannot deny that the Catholic Church has had a huge influence over the island of Ireland since about the sixth Century. And, given that this is the 1500th anniversary of Saint Brigid, we thought it would be remiss of us not to delve into the life and times of Brigid of Kildare. Who better to give us an insight into this truly, legendary historical Irish figure of Brigid of Kildare than a Brigidine Sister. We are truly grateful to Sister Rita for her contribution for this episode.

Relevant Links

https://solasbhride.ie

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