Sir Hook and Sir Bowie, along with Lady WInky and Suzzane, decided after council with Sinead, the Irish bartender from our local Pub, RiRa's, that we needed a Patron Saint. Sinead said that there was only one obvious choice, Saint Brigid. Probably the best known Irish saint after Patrick is Saint Brigid (b. 457, d. 525). Known as "the Mary of the Gael," Brigid founded the monastery of Kildare and was known for spirituality, charity, and compassion. St. Brigid also was a generous, beer-loving woman. She worked in a leper colony which found itself without beer, "For when the lepers she nursed implored her for beer, and there was none to be had, she changed the water, which was used for the bath, into an excellent beer, by the sheer strength of her blessing and dealt it out to the thirsty in plenty." Brigid is said to have changed her dirty bathwater into beer so that visiting clerics would have something to drink. Obviously this trait would endear her to many a beer lover. She also is reputed to have supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen churches, which sufficed from Maundy Thursday to the end of paschal time. A poem attributed to Brigid in the Brussel's library begins with the lines "I should like a great lake of ale, for the King of the Kings. I should like the family of Heaven to be drinking it through time eternal." Here's to the "Great Lake of Ale", and we're not talking Budweiser. By the way, her feast day is the traditional beginning of Irish Spring, February 1. Stand by for our celebration information!
Sir Hook
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