February 1st is the Feast Day of St Brigid of Ireland
St. Brigid was born daughter to a chieftain and a slave woman, and brought up by a druid. Her life was marked by miracles from an early age which impressed the king of Leinster, who granted her her freedom. She became a religious and founded a monastery over the fires of a pagan shrine at Kildare, and developed into a cathedral city of culture and learning. She and her friend St. Patrick, are regarded as the Pillars of the Irish people. (from SaintNook)
Feast Day Crafts and Activities
Excerpts from A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families , various posts at Equipping Catholic Families and our Saint Scripts Craft Kits (Series ONE and TWO)
St. Brigid is often pictured with the St. Brigid Cross. I really like how Irish American Mom describes the Irish customs of St. Brigid day and how each year a new St. Brigid Cross would be made to replace the old one. The previous St. Brigid Cross would be burned, asking for St. Brigid’s intercession to protect the family home from fire for another year!
The St. Brigid Cross can be made out of dry rushes, raffia, palms (you know, like the ones we get on Palm Sunday?) or pipe cleaners. We made our St. Brigid Cross out of pipe cleaners, following the easy tutorials at Irish American Mom or Catholic Icing and deliberately choosing the colors of the Irish flag.
A few years ago, when my kids were attending St. Brigid Catholic School, my daughter Kelly wrote her grade 7 speech about why the school mascot should be a cow, in honor of some of the legends surrounding St. Brigid.
Here’s an excerpt:
“…It was said that St. Brigid and her family owned a white red-eared cow that provided them with all the food St. Brigid needed, to grow. She also gave milk and other food from the farm to the poor. One time, she gave water to a thirsty stranger, and it turned into milk!”
Incidentally, Kelly is also our illustrator of the Kelly Saints! The St. Brigid sketch above offers a sneak peek at the upcoming Series Three of Saints Scripts Craft Kits!
There are a number of Irish recipes out there to help celebrate the Feast Day of St Brigid with Oaten Bread, Colcannon, Boxty Cakes and Irish Spiced Beef at CBladey.com and Oaten Bread over at Catholic Cuisine.
At our house, we’re going to have a Roast Beef dinner…no doubt with potatoes. I don’t usually ask if we should have potatoes for dinner…it’s more like “how should we have our potatoes tonight?”.
February 1st also happens to be the LAUNCH DAY of an exciting new website for the Saints!
Check out SaintNook, where the Saints are always online!
You will find quick bios, prayers, legends, traditions surrounding each saint…and it will look like the saints themselves are sharing their lives with you as each saint has a SaintNook page…like Facebook!
You’ll have access to quick facts and resources including videos for use in your own lesson plans, newsletters and bulletins. As the Saints get added each month, you’ll learn about which Saints likely knew each other and which ones definitely hung out together! You’ll also find recommended links to activities and crafts to celebrate their Feast Day…including Feast Day Fun posts from Equipping Catholic Families!
Have a look in the nook: SaintNook!
With the start of another great month of Saint Feast Days, I thought I’d mention this FREE printable for those of you who are really organized with Homeschooling or House Binders…or those looking for new ways to organize all their Liturgical Calendar activities and crafts in paper folders.
The Monthly Saint Pages are I Spy…the Saints collages showcasing the Saint Feast Days of each month.
This printable is FREE for our subscribers…please make sure that you are subscribed to Equipping Catholic Families (receiving emails of our free activities and crafts usually about once or twice a week) before you click the “Add to Cart” button. (Don’t forget to confirm your subscription!)
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St. Brigid, pray for us!
Do you have your own family activities, traditions, crafts or celebrations to share for this special Feast Day? Don’t forget to add it at the Celebrate the Saints Link-Up…or pick up an idea or two for your family to enjoy! 
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