“Keeping the Flame” by Hawthorne, NSW

“Golden gleaming torch, strong and radiating sun.”

Saint Colmcille speaking of Saint Brigit.

We had two related books planned for the spring of 2010—one launching and the other calling for submissions at that time. Unfortunately, the one has been withdrawn from publication, and the other awaits the return to health of its editor.

A Brigit Breviary by Bee Smith was to have been released in Spring 2010, and was nearing completion when the news came. It is with great regret that we see this project go.

Strong and Radiating Sun: Prayers to Brigit, Goddess and Saint, to be edited by Mael Brigde, will be open in the coming months to submissions of poetry, hymns, and essays.

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Mael Brigde is the founder of the Daughters of the Flame, an international group of women, Pagan and Christian, who tend in their own homes a perpetual flame in Brigit’s name. The Daughters have been tending Brigit’s flame since the first of February 1993.

A European goddess of great antiquity, Brigit has been touched by many peoples and seen many transformations: gaining and losing attributes and rites, waxing and waning in popularity. Yet her worship has been continuous for thousands of years, and is once more blossoming in Celtic Christian revival and the Neo-Pagan movement.

Healer and historian, poet and smith, woman of boundless generosity unimpeded by restrictive norms, as both goddess and saint Brigit is outstanding in her richness and importance. These two books draw on ancient and modern wellsprings to celebrate and honour this long-lived and richly textured personage.

For links to many sites related to Brigit, see Mael Brigde’s blog Brigit’s Sparkling Flame.