Saint Brigitte - What needs tending to

February 1st is associated, in France, as well as various other parts of Europe, with Sainte Brigitte - a saint who rarely grabs the headlines like "the popular kids" - Francis, Jude and Christopher. There are no medallions - none of her miracles come to mind...

Sainte Brigitte has her domain in the humble hearth of our homes. She is the patroness of the fireplace, of creativity, poetry and healing.

Before Christianity embraced (gripped?) the world, Brigid was a Celtic Goddess, whose primary domain was the fire in the hearth. The center of the home. This all sounds a bit sack cloth and ashes, when compared to other Saints, who got more noble invocations - Lost Causes, Travellers, France... Not forgetting lucky old Saint Nicolas of Syracuse, of course, who got to be patron saint of chocolate.. hello?

But to the Irish, the fireplace mattered. It burned continuously and represented survival, nourishment and protection. Something that our Irish brothers and sisters have not always enjoyed in spades.

With the arrival of Christianity, Brigid wasn't erased like many Pagan idols, she was re-invented. Translated more like, into the Saint we know and love today. She kept the hearth as her territory, as it was still understood as a place of life-sustaining importance.

In France, her feast day sits just ahead of Candlemas - the last stop of the line of the Church's Christmas pantomime, preceeded by the Epiphany and the fun old Nativity. Candles were very key to a succesful, well lit Church and they were duly blessed at this time, in memoriam of the infant Jesus, being presented as "The Light of the World" at the Temple, in Bethlehem.

What Sainte Brigitte represents to France, above all, is maintenance. She is the saint of fires that must be kept burning, not those set deliberately. There is (currently) no patron saint of arsonists. Brigitte is the source of our nourishment that is always present. Of early life that needs shelter, more than encouragement. Her work happens indoors, away from attention. Which may explain why she feels quite nicely relevant at this time of year.

February is not a month for bold gestures. It is a month for keeping things going. At this point in the year, energy is returning a bit unevenly. Want has begun to reappear, but clarity has not. This is the moment when impatience often creeps in - perhaps with the urge to act on a whim, decide something novel, declare a good intention. Sainte Brigitte offers a quieter instruction: "Tend First". Her Saintly motto? "Simple, Humble, Strong".

A "Tender" is not a glamorous job. They are what we call small boats that row out to bigger boats. Tending to things doesn’t imply really resolving anything. It involves repetition, patience, and a willingness to trust that small, ordinary acts are enough for now. But that is exactly what got people through the winter. Bite-sized bits, of basic continuity.

Perhaps that’s why Sainte Brigitte endures. She doesn’t promise transformation. She promises stability and durability. And in a month that exists between clearing and becoming, that may be exactly what’s required. Anyway..

..Now would probably be a good place to say, in full disclosure, that Sainte Brigitte was actually relegated to non-Sainthood in 1969, by mean old Pope Paul VI, who - in a nutty display of irony - declared a "lack of evidence for her existence". I mean really... the Catholic Church? An institution that relies so profoundly on faith and the absolute absence of evidence for pretty much everything? To want to spoil the festival of our dear Brigitte?.. We think not.

Oh.. and if you want to feel touched by the spirit of Sainte Brigitte, leave a piece of ribbon on a windowsill on the eve of her feast. She will come by and touch it, blessing your hearth and home from her gentle passage.

Amen.