February 1, 2013   1,424 notes

Happy St Brigid's Day – Ireland's first abortionist

hgavin:

Ireland’s only female patron saint, Brigid of Kildare, celebrates her feast day today, February 1st. A date that is traditionally the first day of spring, and chosen presumably because of the associations St Brigid has with fertility. She was a conglomeration of the pre-Christian goddesses that preceded her – a Celtic figure appropriated by the Church to boost pagan conversion. She was subsequently ousted in favour of the patriarchal figure of St Patrick and the impossible virgin-mother Mary.

While many will know that Brigid is a patron of healing, fertility and learning, the Church are not so quick to tell us she was in fact Ireland’s first recorded abortionist. In 650 AD a biographer of Brigid, Cogitosus, told the story of a young woman who had broken her vow of chastity and fell pregnant as a result. The young woman went to see Brigid, who took care of the problem:

Brigid, exercising with the most strength of her ineffable faith, blessed her, caused the fetus to disappear without coming to birth, and without pain.

image

Image by Aidan Hart

(via existentialcrisisfactory)

  1. sandypantsx12 reblogged this from stfuconservatives
  2. pambitshepard reblogged this from hunterbadger
  3. hunterbadger reblogged this from shuraloves
  4. iturnedintoatree reblogged this from jacktryoshka
  5. truth-and-beauty-bombs reblogged this from stfuconservatives
  6. mybygonevexations reblogged this from stegamoe
  7. stegamoe reblogged this from kaxen
  8. purplemika reblogged this from me-ya-ri
  9. me-ya-ri reblogged this from gryphynshadow
  10. themadia reblogged this from bitch--craft
  11. satannista reblogged this from allthempreg
  12. destroyingfaith reblogged this from kaxen
  13. meret118 reblogged this from etharei
  14. whitecrow10 reblogged this from wolfieakhal-teke
  15. wolfieakhal-teke reblogged this from allthempreg
  16. princessofthehufflepuff reblogged this from highkiller777
  17. etharei reblogged this from allthempreg
  18. highkiller777 reblogged this from allthempreg
  19. allthempreg reblogged this from jojosioth
  20. jojosioth reblogged this from kaxen
  21. kaxen reblogged this from shatterlands
  22. shuraloves reblogged this from redefiningbodyimage
  23. teamanthro reblogged this from 1in3
  24. 1in3 reblogged this from stfuprolifers
  25. rememberthstars reblogged this from fauxmosexualtranstrender
  26. annaantics reblogged this from the-weaker-sex