St. Brigid the Catholic Saint is actually Brigid the Celtic Goddess?

Question

Not as bad as reworking Heracles into Samson or Ishtar into Esther, but definitely more obvious.

How much of Christianity would the Christians still have if the Pagans wanted their Gods and celebrations back?

There goes December 25th.

Answer 1

+ Saint Brigid +

Saint Brigid was a real person and not a Celtic Goddess.

Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (fl. 451 – 525) was an Irish Christian nun, abbess, and founder of several convents.

She is considered one of Ireland's patron saints along with Saint Patrick and Columba.

Brigid was not included in the reform of the calendar of saints described below.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02784b.htm
http://www.stbrigids-kilbirnie.com/Pages/SaintBrigid.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Brigid

+ Reform of the Calendar of Saints +

Before the formal canonization process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster process but unfortunately many of the saints so named were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other religions -- for example, the story of the Buddha traveled west to Europe and he was "converted" into a Catholic saint!

In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the saints on its calendar to see if there was historical evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness. In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there was little proof that many "saints", including some very popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend. Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the universal calendar.

This action did not kick Christopher out of heaven. Remember everyone in heaven are saints whether the Church canonizes them or not.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 2354: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art6.htm

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Yes she is.
I don't know if the Christians who wrote the stories about Samson were reworking myths about Heracles or not, But I don't think Esther has anything to do with Ishtar. The ancient Jews knew all about Ishtar. Ancient Israelites througout most of the Hebrew bible had been getting into big trouble for worshiping Ishtar, Baal, and other Middle Eastern Goddesses and Gods, Ishtar has even been called the "Queen of Heaven" in parts of the Hebrew Bible. So it seems unlikely that the book of Esther is a re-working of any Ishtar myths. If anything, Ishtar is more related to Ashera, in which the Asher tribe adopted as their patron Goddess, Consort of Yahweh.

But yes, St. Brigid is actually an adoption of Brigid, the Celtic Goddess. What better way to convert people than to make their heros Saints. Its much less violent, and much more effective.

And as a Pagan, we do want our Goddesses and Gods and celebrations back, but we don't want Christianized versions of them. We are doing our best to reconstruct what the ancient religions were like, and its nice to have the lore intact with Christianity, but we won't practice like Christians do, and I don't think we ever will.

The long and short of it, You can keep your December 25th, and Christian it up all you want. We'll still celebrate our holidays, festivals, Gods and Goddesses all we want in our own way.

Answer 3

Brigid Mac Dubhtach or Bridget of Kildare(c450-525) or Bride or Brida was an Irish abess and monastic founder and she was named after the Goddess Brigid,protectress of cattle, because her father was pagan and since her mother Brocca was a slave and concubine young Brigid was chosen from birth to be a cow maid and cattle tender,but she had other ideas as a teen and ran off to become a nun.
There are also st Bridget Persdottir(Brigitta,Birgit, Brigitte or Birgitta) of Sweden(1303-73) and st Brigid,sister of st Maura of Scotland.(5th cent).

Answer 4

It's not just our godhs and celebrations. There's a book I'm trying to get around to, "The Germanization of Medieval (or maybe "Early," I forget) Christianity" which makes a compelling case for Northern European heathenry having changed xianity at least as much, and possibly more, than xianity changed Northern European heathens!

The altar rail, for example, is modeled on heathen ideas of sacred space. Infant baptism is based on our naming rites. A fair amount of protestant doctrine arose from Danelaw and Northern European customs and thews. The list goes on . . .

Answer 5

When did you figure that out?
It was done so that when the Irish prayed to her of whatever they would be praying to a Christian symbol.
Its not the only thing, there are plenty of others. Theres evidence of a very early religion with a story similar to Moses'.
All the major religions have things in them the same as older religions but none will admit it.

Answer 6

It's the same way the Romans converted the people they conquered, they told the pagans they encountered that their king of the gods was actually Jupiter, and their queen actually Juno. It was probably easier to just conform existing dieties to the conquering religion, not to mention less bloody.

Answer 7

Can we also have her day back? Feb 2.
I'd like All Saints Day back as well, since that's a very holy day to us pagans as well.
I'd like all non-pagan May Day celebrations to cease.
And to answer your question, Brighid was turned into a Saint because they couldn't get the pagans to stop worshipping her.
I'd like my gods back please.. and let's see how much of xianity is left after that.

Answer 8

All they'd be left with is the name Jesus. There would be no god, no son of god, no morning star, no savior, messiah, resurrection, disciples, walking on water or other miracles. Basically, just a greek translation of a hebrew name.

Answer 9

Practically ALL of the Saints are remodeled pagan deities. Their cults simply took over the old pagan cults. In the vast majority of cases, all of the attributes and usually the name of the "god" are preserved in the "saint."