St Brigid's Crosses

View a selection of St Brigid’s Crosses from the Irish Folklife Collection. St Brigid’s Day - Lá Fhéile Bríde - celebrates Ireland’s only female patron saint on 1 February and is associated with the popular tradition of making crosses in St Brigid’s honour. St Brigid's Day was an important Irish festival in folk tradition, celebrating fertility, blessings and protection. There are hundreds of St Brigid’s Crosses in the Irish Folklife Collection and this selection demonstrates some of the different materials and styles that were used to craft these objects. St Brigid was believed to have travelled through the land on the eve of her feast day and gave blessings and protection to homes and farms where these crosses were hung in her honour.