Circle us with your light

"St Brigid, circle us with your light so that no darkness may overcome our world."

The quote and pictures above are from Dexter Season 5. In Episode 7: "Circle Us" which aired here this week, Harrison's Irish nanny Sonya brings religion into Dexter's home when she prays to St Brigid, explaining that the world can be a very dark place and that St Brigid has always been a comfort to her.

Saint and goddess

Brigit from Goddess Guidance Oracle

Brigid (meaning "strength") is a patron saint of Ireland and also a goddess in Celtic mythology. The goddess Brigid is a fertility goddess and the triple goddess of intellectual creativity (especially poetry), craftsmanship (especially metal-working) and healing.

In Christian times, the goddess Brigid became associated with her namesake St Brigid of Kildare who was born in the 5th century CE and is one of three patron saints of Ireland today (the other two are St Patrick and St Columba). St Brigid is also the patron saint of poets, blacksmiths and infants among others.

Icon of St Brigid by Marice Sariola


St Brigid founded a Christian monastery in the town of Kildare (derived from "Cill Dara", meaning "church of the oak"), which was the site of a pagan shrine to the goddess Brigid where a sacred fire was kept perpetually burning in her honour.

St Brigid's annual feast day is held on 1 February, the date of the pagan festival Imbolc which marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and is believed to have been associated with the goddess Brigid originally.


St Brigid is often represented holding a cross known as St Brigid's cross, traditionally woven from straw or rushes at Imbolc and hung by the hearth to bless the home. This cross may be derived from a pagan sunwheel and has similarities to the Celtic cross which combines a cross with a circle.

"The Sacred Three
My fortress be
Encircling me.
Come and be round
My hearth, my home.

Fend Thou my kin
And every sleeping thing within
From scathe, from sin.
Thy care our peace
Through mid of night
To light's release."

Blessing of the Three, Hebridean Altars, Reverend Alistair MacLean (1885-1936)