Alison wrote:
>I like Saint Bride (or Brigid), of whom many improving and domestic
>miracles are told concerning mead, cows, milk, lepers and devils.
<snip>
>An early blow for feminism, of a kind, I guess; tho self mutilation still
>persists as a resistance, and without the miraculous healing.
I love miracle stories myself and, as a teenager, went to see
Carroll Baker in _The Nun's Story_ 3 or 4 times (well, ok, in the
spirit of this thread, should confess that I saw _Blue Denim_ just
as many times). Then, as a grad student in a Chaucer seminar, I wrote
a paper on "The 2d Nun's Tale," which didn't appear to interest anyone
else in the class.
The kind of miracle-as-teaching-tool story you cited, Alison, is more
typical of female saints/mystics, I think, so it probably did strike a
real blow for feminism. And it's what the former brewster and wannabe
mystic Margery Kempe picked up on to imitate when she launched her
mystic "career," along with such fashion statements as wearing only
blue and/or white (the Virgin's colors), although when Margery started
dressing exclusively in white, her neighbors responded by pouring their
"morning water" (as it was politely termed) out the bedroom window as
she passed below. She was tried for heresy more than once, though, so
the authorities at least took her seriously. There's a nice (feminist)
moment recorded in her "boke" from one of those trials: on being asked
if it were true that she'd counseled Lady So-and-So to stop sleeping
with her husband, Margery emphatically denied it, saying that on the
contrary she'd urged the Lady to "love her enemies."
But which Brigid is yours (i.e., where is she from)? There's Brigid of
Sweden, who's quite famous for mysticism, but I've never heard her called
"Bride," which is an Irish nickname for Bridget (one of my family's New
York "courtesy aunts," Auntie Bridie, was one Bridget Conlon of the Old
Sod). Since your Brigid is also associated with cows, she's probably the
Irish one, given the _Tain_ (Ireland's great cattle-rustling epic)--
wouldn't you agree, Randolph?
Candice
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