To mark the Octave Day of the Feast of Saint Brigid, I conclude the series of posts with a final offering from James F. Cassidy's 1922 text, The Women of the Gael. In his work, Cassidy sees women as having made a distinct contribution to the preservation of the Irish Catholic identity. Saint Brigid embodies this 'feminine factor' of which she is the 'spiritual and patriotic archetype'. The author also reflects a contemporary belief in a 'Celtic personality', based around a sense of otherworldliness and lack of interest in materialism. This sort of thinking remains alive and well in modern 'Celtic spirituality', despite the reality that late twentieth-century 'Celtic Tiger' Ireland embraced consumerism and secularism with gusto. So much for 'that essentially Celtic attribute of immaterialism of outlook' which was supposedly an integral part of our genetic make-up!
And even if all these facts of ancient
times were consigned to oblivion the vital influence of her memory in the world
of the modern Gael would be quite sufficient to prove that the personality from
which it emanated centuries ago must have been a commanding one. Irish manhood
remembers her as the acme of glory of its womanhood and it feels stronger and
more sanguine every day in the face of all difficulties bolstered up by the
sustaining reflection that the companions of its joy and sorrow and ultimate
triumph is the feminine factor of which Brigid is the spiritual and patriotic
archetype. Multitudes of societies pledged to the support of the twin ideals of
faith and nationality act under the patronage of her protection. Her memory
survives in the names of a host of parishes and townlands throughout the
country. Churches, ancient and modern, within and beyond the seas of Ireland
preserve her name. The very topography of Ireland conspires to keep the memory
of Brigid ever fresh in the soul of the Gael. Her holy fountains strew the land
where her devotees come in crowds to seek her healing power for wound of soul
and body. In a word all that lives of her in the Gaelic memory helps to wield
with powerful force the hammer that drives home conviction of woman's domineering
part in the spiritual regeneration of the Irish race. It tells too of the need
of unswerving adherence to the spiritual tenets of Brigid for the preservation
of sterling nationality for it shows the potency of a woman to help that
essentially Celtic attribute of immaterialism of outlook which has ultimately
wrested many and many a time the nation from its death grasp, and preserved
intact its corporate sense of racial distinctness and individuality. It is a
reminder that the nation which for six and a half centuries, according to Cambrensis, kept a mysterious
fire continually burning at Kildare in honour of Brigid, has still the fire of
admiration in its heart for one of its greatest benefactors.
James F. Cassidy, The Women of the Gael(Boston, 1922), 64-65.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment