A relic of St Brigid – a fragment of her jawbone – has been returned to Co Kildare after nearly a millennium.
A procession to accompany the relic from its location in the Solas Bhride Centre in Tully began at 10.30am and proceeded to St Brigid’s Parish Church in Kildare town.
The relic was brought into the church by Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty.
Kildare Tourism Board chairman David Mongey said St Brigid built her church in Kildare and “her legacy as a peace maker and a protector of nature is still as relevant today as ever”.
It is believed that Brigid died in 524 AD and was buried beside the main altar in her monastic church in Kildare, which then became an attraction for pilgrims throughout Ireland and Europe.
In anticipation of a Viking attack around the year 800, the body of St Brigid was moved to Downpatrick in Northern Ireland, where she was buried in a grave beside St Patrick and St Columba. The location of grave, which was unmarked for protection, was later lost.
However, more than 300 years the burial location was rediscovered and the body of St Brigid was enshrined in 1186.
After the shrine was destroyed some 400 years later, Brigid’s remains were secretly transported to the continent.
The procession to return the relic of St Brigid to the parish church in Kildare town was led by three children on horses representing the knights who are said to have secretly taken the fragment of her skull to Portugal during the reign of King Henry the 8th @rtenews pic.twitter.com/dJ7WtQGoBf
— Samantha Libreri (@SamanthaLibreri) January 28, 2024
Tradition holds that Irish knights took a bone fragment from her head to Lumiar, a small town outside Lisbon in Portugal, in the 13th century. The relic is still venerated in the church of St John the Baptist in Lumiar.
In the 1930s, the Brigidine Sisters in Tullow procured a portion of the Lumiar relic and brought it back to Ireland.
The relic was today returned to Kildare town, where it will be placed on permanent display inside St Brigid’s Parish Church.
