St. Bride Carried By Angels, a painting by Scottish artist, John Duncan, 1913. Embroidery detail, Phoebe Traquair (angels carrying a dead child). Click picture for enlargement.
Our Tea and Talk series resumed on Thursday, February 1, when Rebecca Tavener introduced us to St Brigid of Kildare, also known as Brige or Brigantia or Bride.
Brigid lived in the 6th Century and is patron saint of Ireland (after St Patrick), also of poets, blacksmiths, healers, cattle, dairymaids, midwives, newborn babies, and fugitives.
Her feast day is 1st February. In art she is shown holding a lamp or candle, often with a cow nearby, recalling the story that her cows gave milk three times a day to feed visitors when she was a nun.
Rebecca Tavener
There are a number of churches named after St Bride, one being in Fleet Street in London, the home of journalists. For us, we automatically think
of St Bride’s on Hyndland Road.
• Rebecca Tavener is creative director of Cappella Nova and directs her own offshoot ensemble, the critically acclaimed medieval/contemporary group Canty.
