The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty and the Church of Ireland’s Bishop of Meath and Kildare Pat Storey will co-host a special ecumenical service in St Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare in honour of St Brigid on her feast day to mark the 1,500th anniversary of her death.
“Celebrating St Brigid. Brigid 1500: A Service of Thanksgiving” on 1 February is part of the “Brigid 1500 Programme” to celebrate the extraordinary life and legacy of St Brigid. Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street in London, will give the sermon.
A global invitation is being extended to individuals worldwide to take part in the “pause for peace”, a minute’s silence for peace at midday on St Brigid’s Day.
St Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare, where the service will take place, marks the ancient hilltop site where she founded her double monastery, for men and for women, in the year 480AD.
Bishop Nulty said that celebrating anniversaries “helps to ground us and root us in the reality of the present day”. He expressed his delight at joining others to “celebrate and give thanks for the witness of Brigid and the faith she brought”.
Bishop Storey said: “We are partners in the gospel alongside every believer as we remember the wonderful legacy of Brigid.”
St Brigid is one of Ireland's three patron saints, along with St Patrick and St Columcille. In 2022, Ireland instituted a bank holiday in honour of St Brigid, recognising the importance of her legacy. It is the first bank holiday in Ireland to be named after a woman.
A series of events are planned from 27 January to 6 February as part of the 1,500th anniversary.
The programme aims to engage with the values St Brigid championed including faith and spirituality, biodiversity and sustainability, arts and culture, social justice, peace, hospitality and education.
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