A Crown of Lighted Candles

February 1st, St Brigid’s Day, heralds the beginning of spring in Irish tradition and as such, quite a few of our previous blog posts for the season have discussed the saint in literary tradition and folk tradition, as well as the coming of spring and the beginning of the agricultural year. The first folklore blog post of 2025 will continue this habit, looking specifically at a popular religious folktale about St Brigid and the Virgin Mary.

Our Lady’s Well, Ballyheige, Co. Kerry. Photographer: Caoimhín O Danachair. National Folklore Collection, UCD

Folktales containing religious themes or particular religious figures and archetypes are numerous within the National Folklore Collection (NFC). These might include references to priests, the Devil, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, as well as many stories about different saints or the Holy Family. In Miraculous Plenty: Irish Religious Folktales and Legends, a translation of Scéalta Cráibhtheacha, Seán Ó Suilleabháin explains the significance and popularity of folktales about the Holy Family in Irish tradition:

These are apocryphal tales. That is to say, they are attempts by our ancestors to put flesh on the bare bones of the Gospels. There is very little account of the daily lives of Our Saviour and His Mother in the sacred scriptures. Ordinary laymen in Christian countries, particularly during the Middle Ages, noted this lack in the Gospels and began to fill the gaps based on their faith and their experience of the world. The result had a warm human flavour.

One story about St Brigid and the Virgin Mary relates the time when St Brigid shielded Mary from unwelcome attention by wearing a large headpiece of lit candles. The Blessed Virgin rewarded St Brigid for this, placing the feast day for St Brigid on the day before her own (Candlemas, 2 February). A version from Co. Galway was collected in response to a questionnaire on St Brigid that was distributed in 1942:

The Blessed Virgin was about to be ‘churched’ and as she was going to the church she met St Brigid. Our Blessed Lady was very shy in going to the altar rails before the whole congregation and she told St Brigid how she felt.

‘Never mind,’ says St Brigid, ‘I’ll manage that part all right’.

She got a harrow and put it on her head, turning all the points upwards. They went into the church and no sooner had St Brigid entered than every point of the harrow turned into a lighted candle. The whole congregation turned their eyes on St Brigid and her crown of lighted candles and the Blessed Virgin proceeded to the altar rails and not an eye was turned on her until the ceremony was over. The Blessed Virgin was so delighted with St Brigid and her plan that she gave St Brigid her day before her own and that is the reason that St Brigid’s day is before the feast of the Purification.

NFC 902: 187-188

Bráca (harrow), Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry. Photographer: Caoimhín Ó Danachair, 1946. National Folklore Collection, UCD

By the author’s last count, 58 versions of this folktale can be found in the NFC, many of which were received in response to the aforementioned questionnaire (NFC 899 – NFC 907). Most versions come from areas in the west of Ireland, particularly in Irish-speaking areas. Some variation exists in the details. Many versions state that the Virgin Mary was either shy or embarrassed about the crowd of people present when she is due to be churched (a ceremony of thanksgiving and blessing on the mother after the birth of a child). In other versions she is pregnant, while in a small number of examples St Brigid creates a distraction to help the Holy Family flee from King Herod and other enemies. Like the version above, the item most often used by St Brigid to create her headdress is the harrow (bráca or cliath fhuirste in Irish), but other versions mention that it is a sieve (criathar) used to hold the candles. In the version above, the points of the harrow light miraculously, but in many other versions it is St Brigid’s idea to replace the points of the harrow with lit candles. A few examples mention other outlandish outfits, including a dress made of feathers and ribbons, a dress of leaves and an apron of rushes. All succeed in diverting the attention of the crowd from the Virgin Mary.

St Brigid’s Well, Stonehall, Co. Limerick. National Folklore Collection, UCD

The story is often used to explain why Candlemas takes place after St Brigid’s day, though one account associates the story with the origin of the brídeog or Biddy Boy’s procession, where an effigy of St Brigid is taken from house to house. Similar stories state that St Brigid was rewarded for offering to hold the baby Jesus, giving respite to the Virgin Mary. While the folktale often provides an explanation for the date of the feast of Candlemas, the use of candles and the references to churching in the folktale may also have been inspired by the feast and the corresponding passage from the bible which describes the presentation of the Baby Jesus in the temple. Indeed, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple or the Purification of the Virgin are alternate names for the liturgical feast of Candlemas. The primary activity on Candlemas day in Ireland is the blessing of candles in the church, a ceremony which still occurs today. Attention is also paid to the weather on this day and it is thought that good weather on February 2nd will mean terrible weather in the months following.

Pádraig Ó Héalaí, in his monograph on religious folktales in Ireland, highlights the connection of some of the images in the folktale with St Brigid and her earlier pre-Christian identity, including her association with fire, healing, fertility and the agricultural work of springtime. He also echoes Séamas Ó Catháin, who connects this depiction of St Brigid in a headdress of lit candles with the images of St Lucia in Swedish tradition, whose feast day occurs on 13 December. In Sweden, young girls dressed in white robes and a headdress of candles lead processions in celebration of the saint. Similar to St Brigid and her associations with spring, the feast of St Lucia is generally celebrated as a festival of light.

Swedish Sankta Lucia, December 1994. Photographer: Séamas Ó Catháin. National Folklore Collection, UCD

As Seán Ó Súilleabháin explains, ‘it was not out of a lack of respect for [Our Saviour and His Mother] that [the tellers] told stories about them but out of a deep love and feeling for them. This was a human response and should be viewed as such.’ The various versions of this folktale were certainly told as an expression of faith, but further inspection can also reveal strong human sentiment and emotion, as well as a folk perspective on the historical practice of Christianity.

This blog post was written by Ailbe van der Heide, Cúntóir Leabharlainne / Library Assistant, Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann / National Folklore Collection.

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Further Reading:

Ó Catháin, Séamas. The Festival of Brigit: Celtic Goddess and Holy Woman. 2nd ed. Dublin: Phaeton Publishing Ltd, 2023.

Ó Héalaí, Pádraig. An Slánaitheoir ag Siúl ar an Talamh: Innéacs scéalta faoi phearsana an Tiomna Nua i mbéaloideas na hÉireann maille le Réamhrá agus Staidéir. Vol. 18. An Daingean: An Sagart, 2012.

Ó Súilleabháin, Seán, Miraculous Plenty: Irish Religious Folktales and Legends, translated by William Caulfield. Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann/An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann, University College Dublin, 2011.