Shrine to St Brigid at Dundalk |
It is generally accepted that Brigid established her abbey and church
in Kildare around 480 AD, on the site now occupied by St. Brigid's Cathedral. Some
scholars suggest that her foundation may have evolved from a sanctuary of Druidic
priestesses who converted to Christianity.
It seems that Brigid held a unique position in the early Irish church and society
of her day. As Abbess, she presided over the local church of Kildare and was leader of a d
ouble monastery for men and women. Tradition suggests that she invited Conleth, a hermit
from Old Connell near Newbridge, to assist her in Kildare. Her abbey was acclaimed as a
centre of education, culture, worship and hospitality in Ireland, and far beyond, up until
the suppression of the abbeys in the sixteenth century.
Nothing remains today of the original Brigidine church and abbey which were
probably constructed of timber or of mud and wattle. They were pulled down, rebuilt and
enlarged many times as numbers grew in the double monastery for men and women.
The abbey was ravaged and plundered on numerous occasions by the Danes and Irish
alike between 835 and 998, as well as being many times destroyed by fire.
A new era began in Kildare with the Anglo-Norman conquest. The female community,
presided over the abbess, seems to have remained in the hands of the native Irish until
the time of the Reformation. Later, the old Celtic monastery for men was placed under the
control of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, with a dean and chapter appointed.
Henceforth, the bishops of Kildare were required to be either English or of English
descent and education.
In 1223, the first of the English bishops, Ralph of Bristol, set to work to build
a cathedral worthy of the Brigidine tradition on the original site. This building, "in the
early Gothic style of architecture, cruciform in shape, surmounted by a noble square
tower, and having lancet-shaped windows" seems to have been designed with military as well
as ecclesiastical considerations in mind.
The cathedral building survived without alteration despite the wars of succeeding
centuries. It was reduced to ashes during the Irish rising of 1641, after which only the
walls of the nave and the south side of the tower were left standing. A portion of the
ruined cathedral was adopted as a Protestant place of worship in 1683.
|
