Expert: Brenda Martin - 3/14/2004

Question
How do catholics explain Brigid being a goddess before she was a saint?  I have read her description and history on catholic sites.  Could it just be a coincidence of names, or did early Irish catholics intentionally take a pagan deity and make it a catholic saint?

Answer
HI Eddie, you asked---"BRIGID, GODDESS BEFORE SHE WAS A SAINT?  DID EARLY IRISH CATHOLICS INTENTIONALLY TAKE A PAGAN DEITY AND MAKE IT A CATHOLIC SAINT?"

Sorry, I cant find anything in the literature I have, about "Brigid" but I wouldn't be surprised if they did know, since many of the teachings and practices of the catholic church are of "pagan" origin, for instance—

1. Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected BIRTHDAY celebrations as a pagan custom.”—Schwäbische Zeitung (magazine supplement Zeit und Welt), April 3/4, 1981, p. 4.

2. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the CROSS of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

3. The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ's birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. CHRISTMAS originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”—(1967), Vol. III, p. 656.

4. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: “A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to EASTER. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.”—(1913), Vol. V, p. 227.

5. The Encyclopedia Britannica states: “ALL SOULS DAY. . . the day set apart in the Roman Catholic Church for the commemoration of the faithful departed….popular beliefs connected with All Souls' Day are of pagan origin and immemorial antiquity"

6. “The retention of the old Pagan name of ‘Dies Solis,' or ‘SUNDAY' for the weekly Christian festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of Pagan and [so-called] Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine [in an edict in 321 C.E.] To his subjects, Pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the Sun.' . . . It was his mode of harmonizing the discordant religions of the Empire under one common institution.”—Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church (New York, 1871), A. P. Stanley, p. 291.

7. The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “It is thus vain to seek a justification for the cult of relics in the Old Testament; nor is much attention paid to relics in the New Testament. . . . [The Church “father”] Origen seems to have regarded the practice as a pagan sign of respect for a material object.”—(1967), Vol. XII, pp. 234, 235. (SAINTS)

8. The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The most common attribute, applied to all saints, is the NIMBUS (cloud), a luminous defined shape surrounding the head of the saint. Its origins are pre-Christian, and examples are found in Hellenistic art of pagan inspiration; the halo was used, as evidenced in mosaics and coins, for demigods and divinities such as Neptune, Jupiter, Bacchus, and in particular Apollo (god of the sun).”—(1967), Vol. XII, p. 963.

The New Encyclopedia Britannica says: “In Hellenistic and Roman art the sun-god Helios and Roman emperors often appear with a crown of rays. Because of its pagan origin, the form was avoided in Early Christian art, but a simple circular nimbus was adopted by Christian emperors for their official portraits. From the middle of the 4th century, Christ was also shown with this imperial attribute . . . it was not until the 6th century that the HALO became customary for the Virgin Mary and other saints.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. IV, p. 864.

9. According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, “The Platonic TRINITY, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher's [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions.”—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.

It would not surprise me if they have taken a pagan deity and made it a saint, as they have done that with everything else.

All the best Brenda