Diocesan News

From Rushes to Ritual: Diocese Celebrating Spirit of Ireland, Honoring St. Brigid’s Legacy 

The legends of St. Brigid inspired art in Ireland and the rest of the world. This painting by Scottish artist John Duncan (1866-1945) is of angels taking St. Brigid to Heaven after her death. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Ireland is rich in symbolism, with various icons representing its vibrant culture and traditions, each carrying deep meanings and connections to the nation’s heritage.

The shamrock and Celtic harp represent St. Patrick’s Day and Irish culture. Another recognized symbol, St. Brigid’s Cross — a crucifix woven from rushes or straw — represents peace, God’s protection over the home, and the start of spring on the Emerald Isle and is displayed over the doorways of Irish homes. 

This image of St. Brigid was painted in 1930 by the Irish artist, Patrick Joseph Tuohy. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, devotion to St. Brigid herself is growing there.

The Diocese of Brooklyn is joining that movement with the first diocese-wide celebration of St. Brigid’s feast day on Feb. 1 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James in Downtown Brooklyn.

Bagpipers will lead a procession into the cathedral, where Bishop Robert Brennan will celebrate Mass and deliver the homily, followed by an Irish dance program. In addition, James O’Dea, a parishioner of Holy Name Parish in Windsor Terrace, will perform his new song, “St. Brigid of Ireland.”

Some parishes will provide buses to bring people to the celebration, including St. Sebastian in Woodside, Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge, and St. Francis de Sales in Belle Harbor.

Father Christopher Heanue, director of the diocese’s Irish Apostolate, said the public is invited to attend the celebration alongside members of local Irish parade committees, Hibernians, and Emerald Societies.

“This historic event will welcome our Irish-American bishop, Robert Brennan, to lead us in prayer and celebrate this patroness of Ireland,” Father Heanue said. 

Father Heanue, the son of Irish immigrants, is the rector at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights. However, he noted the cathedral in Downtown Brooklyn is the most appropriate venue for the celebration.

He explained how, in the 1820s, Irish immigrants successfully petitioned for the first Roman Catholic church to be built on Long Island. The result was the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, which became the home cathedral of the Diocese of Brooklyn upon its establishment in 1853. 

St. Brigid (451-525) was a consecrated religious sister who evangelized throughout Ireland and founded a famous monastery at Kildare. She reportedly was a friend of St. Patrick — a patron saint of Ireland with St. Columba — and worked with him on several spiritual projects.

St. Brigid’s cross is recognized as a symbol of Ireland, almost as familiar as the shamrock and the Celtic harp. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

One of her lifelong devotees is Bridget Mitchell of Queens. In 1962, she came to the United States as a teenager from Galway, Ireland. Her parents named her after the saint, although they spelled her name differently.

Still, Mitchell said she was always proud of her name. She usually goes by the shortened version pronounced “Breege.”

“I love St. Brigid,” she said, noting that St. Brigid is also the patroness of cattle, midwives, Irish nuns, and newborn babies. “She was a great woman and a holy woman. She was a champion of justice, equality, and peace.”

Brigid Garafola of Holy Child Jesus Church in Richmond Hill pauses at a display for St. Brigid at St. Malachy’s Church in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland. Garafola, whose first name is spelled the same as the saint’s, toured the church in November during a pilgrimage to Ireland. (Photo: Courtesy of Brigid Garafola)

Mitchell noted that the modern world needs the prayers of St. Brigid. 

“The prayers of St. Brigid were supposed to have calmed the wind and the rain,” she said. “We need her now for peace in the world, right? We have a lot of turmoil.”

Mitchell has been a member of St. Raphael Parish in Long Island City for 47 years. There, she raised three sons with her late husband, Patrick. He also immigrated from Galway, although the couple met in the United States. She has nine grandchildren. 

Another devotee named for the saint is Brigid Garafola, who, along with her husband, Joe, belongs to Holy Child Jesus Parish in Richmond Hill, Queens. But unlike Mitchell, Garafola’s interest in the saint developed more recently.

Garafola is the granddaughter of Irish immigrants from Drogheda and Roscommon. However, she noted they were ambivalent about their Irish heritage. 

“My parents would always say that we were Americans,” she recalled.

Still, Garafola said her mother wanted to name her Brigid — the Gaelic spelling — even though her father worried she might not like the name. 

She said her interest in St. Brigid accelerated two months ago during a pilgrimage to Ireland, in which Father Heanue guided about 40 people from the diocese. 

“It was lovely because we got to see the countryside,” Garafola said. “We saw the sheep in the fields and the cows and the beautiful green, rolling hills everywhere. There was abundant water rushing in rivers and creeks and then the ocean. The ocean is so beautiful over there.”

During the tour, the pilgrims met an older gentleman on the side of a road who was weaving and selling St. Brigid crosses. Garafola said everyone on the trip got one to take home.  

Garafola said one thing she admired most about St. Brigid was her kindness.

“She cared about the people and especially the poor,” Garafola said. “I learned that she would give away the butter from the family farm.”

The Associated Press reported last year that the renewed devotion to St. Brigid may have grown from expanding interest in spiritual leaders who are women. Father Heanue acknowledged that this could be true, considering the challenges Catholicism has faced in Ireland recently.

“It’s appropriate, certainly, to highlight powerful female saints,” Father Heanue said. “The culture of Catholicism in Ireland has been fading year by year, so I think it’s just any kind of revival toward any saint is a cherished thing.”

A St. Brigid’s cross appears at the top of a front door in Ireland. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)