Women of the Highlands by Katharine Stewart sampler

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women of the highlands I take the field like the ordinary citizen among you to assert the cause of liberty, to seek justice for my body scarred with the Roman lash and to avenge my raped daughters. She gathered several tribes to join her and inflicted much damage on the Roman armies, driving her war chariot fearlessly among them, her red hair streaming in the wind, until eventually suffering defeat. Her end is not known. Did she die of illness? Did she take poison to avoid being taken into slavery? Her burial is not recorded. St Bride With the coming of Christianity among the Celtic people a new world opened up in which women would take an important place – the world of the Church. Here we have the record of another early Celtic woman, Brigid of Kildare. She lived in Ireland c455–525 ad and was to become revered as ‘Mary of the Gaels’. She was born in County Down and named for Brigid, the goddess of fertility and of healing, poetry and fire. Her father was a Druid, so she was brought up steeped in Druidism. She became a ban-drui, or female Druid, but at an early age she converted to Christianity, studying under a bishop. When she began giving away her father’s goods, including his sword, to the needy he became alarmed and placed her as bond-servant to the King of Leinster, with a view to his marrying her. But she would have none of this, took a vow of chastity and made off to study under Mel, Bishop of Armagh. He ordained her as a priest. Later she was to become a bishop. Clearly her abilities were remarkable. How today’s authorities would view her career is a matter of speculation. Brigid set up a Christian community at Drumcree, under the 24
early women – celtic times shadow of a huge oak, the tree that was sacred to the Druids. Her next foundation at Kildare, on the Curragh, also had a connection to the oak; the name means ‘church of the oaks’. This was a mixed community, with men and women living and worshipping together as equals. It was a simple little monastery: a few small dwelling-huts and oratories. But learning was going on there, people were being taught to read and to chant. Brigid became its abbess. Sexual relationships in Celtic society were based on a realistic acceptance of the facts of life – love of one of the opposite or the same sex, jealousy, cruelty, divorce, multiple partners. The clergy at this time were generally non-celibate. Mixed communities were common, influenced by the same Celtic ideas. Hilda, the Abbess of Whitby, ran a community in the 7th century which included the poet Caedmon. In remembrance of the goddess of fire, the fire at Brigid’s community was never allowed to go out. In a ‘Smooring Blessing’ one of the many collected by Alexander Carmichael in the 19th century, we find the lines: I will smoor the hearth As Mary would smoor, The encompassment of Bride and of Mary On the fire and on the floor And on the household all. To ‘smoor’ meant to smother the flames with ash, so that they could be blown into life in the morning. The little foundation at Kildare eventually became one of the great Irish monastic institutions. Brigid of Kildare was renowned over the Celtic world and eventually sainthood was conferred upon her and she became 25
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Women of the Highlands by Katharine Stewart sampler

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