Give and Take on the Feast of St Brigid
Holy Wells, Springs, and Sacred Waters
In all of the world’s major religions, water represents clarity, cleansing, and healing. It is a blessing and a protector. It signifies rebirth, purity, and washing away of all that is unclean. Water holds transformative properties.
The symbolic gifts of holy wells and sacred waters draw people to these sites, especially those who believe in the transformative possibility for granting wishes and answering prayers. Sometimes items are placed beside or around the wells or dropped into the waters as part of a particular local ritual. Sometimes water is bottled and carried away to have at home or gift to someone in need.
February 1, the Feast of St Brigid, Celtic saint and pre-Christian goddess is celebrated by visiting a holy well on Pattern Day, Patron’s Day, and the Pagan feast day of Imbolc. A friend shared with me her experience of visiting the holy well in Liscannor, Ireland, one of 100 holy wells named for its patron saint in that country. Adorned with statuary draped with beads and ribbons, this very popular holy well was crowded on the first day of February.
“There was beautiful quiet to the place,” wrote Martha, “despite there being a huge group of people. There were Christians and Pagans representative of both Celtic faiths who were sharing prayers and ritual space. The rag trees nearby were loaded with fresh new strips of cloth waving in the breeze. Some of the clooties (ribbons) had dedications to people written on them in honor of healings or prayers for cures.” (personal email 2/5/2025)
Martha noted how many people were dipping small bottles into the water to collect little samples to take home. She wanted to collect some water, but all she had was a Nalgene water bottle and she wasn’t sure she could get even a small amount through the airport security. When she was able to descend the lime-washed stairs to the pool below she simply dipped her hand into the water and gave herself a blessing. “Then I thought I’ll dry my hand on the very beautiful woolen scarf I’d purchased from a local weaver’s shop a few days before as it hung around my neck. St Brigid kept sheep and weaved things from their wool. Why not?”
In 2018 American pilgrims visiting a holy well in Ireland and filled a bottle with holy water then were stuck wondering how to get it safely through airport security to the family of a sick child in Philadelphia. They couldn’t legally mail it nor would any shipping company accept it. The hotel manager where the pilgrims were staying jumped in to help. They posted on social media asking for anyone with ideas on how this precious gift might make its transatlantic journey without breaking the law. With help from total strangers and one in particular who had connections with a flight crew for Aer Lingus, the vial made it safely to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
For those popular wells where items are left in the water, modern caretakers are often on hand afterhours to clean up and prevent contamination. Too many coins can cause heavy metals poisoning as has happened over the centuries of coin use in some ancient holy wells. Of course, holy wells have long been targets during conflict leaving thousands of them casualties of war. The histories of religious wars in Europe and the Middle East are rife with sabotage of holy wells from the Crusades through current times in Iran and Syria with actions of ISIS against Muslim communities.
Holy wells whose waters drown the burdens of sin (see previous post on The Pilgrims Progress) or that offer the gift of healing and renewal are all around us, though here in the U.S. we have scant knowledge of how indigenous people of the Northeast identified and used them. It is not a matter of dominant religions that holy wells exist the world over. It is a phenomenon of human belief in the idea of holiness and the sacred, however, and much of this centers on nature itself.
In nature they appear in February here in Pennsylvania where I live. They arrive even as snow and ice still covers the ground, as sinks and springs and seeps full to the brim with water. Even as I write this, creatures are crawling and slithering their way to these pools. To Celts of all faiths, vernal pools are the very personification of Brigid, goddess and saint. To indigenous people of our region they no doubt held deep meaning as places of regeneration and rebirth. In a few weeks and with a good night’s warm rain, vernal pools will erupt in frog song and wriggle with salamanders intent on mating and laying eggs, a feast of regeneration and rebirth.
I love the salamanders the most. In Christian art they represent “faith over passion” as little reminders that all good things will come at last and that love is indestructable. To indigenous cultures of Mexico, the forever smiling but critically endangered Axolotl, is a symbol of sacred ecology.
Once when I was peering into the village well in Scotlandwell, Scotland, I was surprised to see a salamander peering back up at me. Clean water indeed! That night I stayed at an inn where a framed cloth herald of Mary Queen of Scots hung above a fireplace. I learned that she had often visited the well and that her association with it has made it a symbol of her love of Scotland and her Catholic faith. I was even more surprised to see a most royal looking salamander depicted on the herald sitting on a mat of duck weed and pond lily in the middle of flames, an iconic and ancient holy well image of the belief that the animal was deathless and the waters in which it was found part of a great resurrection story. “In my end is my beginning” it reads.
All holy wells are at risk. These sources of water that come deep from inside the earth and fed from the skies overhead are easily (and too often) degraded by the actions of people who may intentionally do them harm or love them to death. They are often the victims of neglect and bad policy, whichever is worse I can’t decide.
A little vernal pool in the woods along the Appalachian Trail where I like to visit with my dog in late February was recently bulldozed over to make a fire road to contain a wildfire (photo at top). And, even as I write this - as frogs and salamanders are making their way to their pools throughout the Appalachian Mountains - mad, mad people are erasing efforts that, for a hundred years have worked to protect our precious, sacred waters. They are disappearing the science and labor of conservation because of a lunatic’s calls for government “efficiency.”
Giving and taking from our holy wells may lead to both our salvation but also our demise. I wonder what comes next in our nation’s story for protecting both a sacred waters heritage and our environmental right to clean water?
Note to the map-maker: I should add this latest national episode of sacrilege to my developing wall map, methinks, connect up some of these holy wells and vernal pools along a path of self-destruction.
This post is dedicated to John Willmott, Bard of the Woods, Ireland, who laid down his earthly burdens, May 2024. Suaimhneas síoraí anam álainn.