lectures

Bridget: Goddess and Saint

Gresham College

March 10

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Bridget is the most popular Celtic goddess or saint in modern spirituality. She straddles the pagan and Christian division as no other figure does, and remains entirely benign while being also independent and capable. She is at once the Mother Saint of Gaelic people and a pagan goddess of healing, poetry and smithcraft. This lecture examines the very tangled history that lies behind this identity. It asks if the goddess became the saint, or if they were different beings, and how good the evidence is for the existence of a real woman or a genuine pagan deity behind all the mythology.