Tobar Bhríde (Kildare)
Tobar Bhríde ( German Brigids source ) is a sacred spring of the Brigid at Kildare , a place in County Kildare in Ireland . The source, associated with the goddess Brigid of the Irish Celts .
Naming
The spring is named after the Gaelic goddess Brigid. “Tobar” stands for source in Irish .
description
The Tobar Bhríde near Kildare, also known as the source of the Holy Brigid , is one of the most important of the 15 holy springs of the original Gaelic spring cult of the Bhríde in Ireland. In Irish mythology, Brigid was the goddess of fire, unity, childbirth, healing and poetry. She was the daughter of Dagda , a high god of Túatha Dé Danann , whom he fathered with the earth mother Danu .
The holy spring is located in a small, well-tended park south of Kildare in County Kildare, not far from Black Abbey. The spring contained in a spring pot initially flows underground before it rises from a brick arched stone. The stones in the creek under the archway are known as St. Brigid's slippers. This then flows past a modern bronze statue of Saint Brigid.
Tradition has it that the Christianized Brigid of Kildare was born in Faughart, County Louth , where a shrine and another holy well are dedicated to her. The saint is said to have founded a monastery in Kildare in 470 AD. There are the remains of a small chapel known as St. Brigid's Fire Temple, where for centuries a small eternal flame burned that now burns on a pillar in the city. She is said to have been buried with Saints Colmcille and Patrick in Downpatrick . There are many fountains in Ireland that bear the name of St. Brigid. A second in Kildare is the so called "Wayside Well" which is located nearby.
Sacred wells were places of pilgrimage for the Celts . They dipped a scrap of cloth ( rag, clout , Scots clootie ) into the water, washed their wound and tied the scrap to a wishing tree ( rag or wish tree - hawthorn or ash ) as part of the tree cult . This tradition was carried over into modern times in the form of the veneration of St. Brigid continued (see also Clootie Wells ). Pilgrimages to holy wells today usually take place on the feast of the saint.
literature
- Walter L. Brenneman, Mary G. Brenneman: Crossing the circle at the holy wells of Ireland . University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, VI 1995, ISBN 0-8139-1548-1 .
- Elizabeth Healy: In search of Ireland's holy wells . Wolfhound Press, Dublin 2001, ISBN 0-86327-865-5 .
- Patrick Logan: The holy wells of Ireland . Smythe Books, Gerrards Cross 1992, ISBN 0-86140-046-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 8 ′ 34.2 " N , 6 ° 54 ′ 28" W.