Published in Issue 13 of Pagan Ireland (Autumn 2024). Get a copy of this issue here: https://paganireland.com/buyissues
Brigid has as many faces as she has names. Brigid is most probably best known as the triple goddess of healing, poetry and smithcraft as well as being the only pagan goddess carried over into Christianity in the form of Saint Brigid. Beneath her saintly magical cloak that swept across the Curragh plains to mark her site for her famous monastery, we catch glimpses of otherworldly undertones that without doubt, in my opinion anyway, give a cultural nod to ancient Gaelic Ireland and her pagan ways before the arrival of Christianity.
If we look across the Atlantic Ocean, to New Orleans, Louisiana to be exact, and sharpen our gaze onto a figure called Maman Brigitte we can see undertones in this spirit that nod to both the goddess and the Saint Brigid. Maman Brigitte is a deity of the Vodou Pantheon. Birthed in Haiti during the slave trade she is arguably half Irish and half African.
During the slave trade that started with the Spanish occupation of Haiti, Western Africans were forcibly removed from their home in Yoruba, now modern-day Benin, Nigeria and Togo. Benin was quite advanced in art, textiles and warfare which attracted many visitors, including visitors from Ireland. Some Irish people may have been in Benin during that time and got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Yoruba people, quite similarly to the Irish Celtic people followed an oral tradition. They worshipped spirits and deities in their homeland that took on a new role for them now that they were an enslaved people in Haiti. The Yoruba people also venerated the mother goddess. Dissimilarly to Irish women, Yoruba women were independent. They had their own money from trading at markets. They served their communities as priestesses, healers, chiefs, negotiators and mediators. A deity very much venerated in Yoruba was Oya, the goddess of huge clearings and change, who disputably is the second half of the personality of Maman Brigitte.
On Haitian soil the Irish and the Yoruba people came into contact. If Irish people had not got caught up in the abductions in Benin, there were other reasons for an Irish presence in Haiti. The Irish poor were sent as indentured servants to the Caribbean. Ireland also sent food, most notably meat, herrings and butter to feed the slaves in the Atlantic Economy. It is highly probable that many Irish travelled to the West Indies on board these ships and had cause to get caught up in the business of slave plantations or voluntarily stay to work alongside the slaveowners on the plantations. In Europe some prisoners of war were sent to places like the Caribbean against their will. Others went to the Caribbean as part of armies or navies. Irish soldiers and sailors fought for France and England on the Caribbean. Priests from Brittany were present in Haiti before it’s independence in 1804. It goes without saying that Catholic priests would have worshipped Saint Brigid.
Irish people could openly practice their Catholic faith, as Haiti was Catholic under Spanish rule. But this was not the case for the Yoruba people. They had to find away to remain safe and yet remain true to their spirits. Because of this, they had to find a way to camouflage their spirits. Under the cloak of Brigid, they found shelter. To colonising ears, they heard loud devotion to Brigitte, Brigid.
Maman Brigitte is questionably, the blend of Oya and Brigid who merged to become a unique spirit who would look after all her devotees now that they were both experiencing forced labour, even if circumstances were different.
In 1804 Haiti became the first black republic to be born from a successful slave revolt. Part of that success can be attributed to Maman Brigitte.
In the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution more than 10,000 Haitian immigrants went to New Orleans, Louisiana. When they arrived, they joined an existing African diaspora who were predominantly from Senegal. Unlike in Haiti, Voodoo in America couldn’t flourish. In America there was a stricter social system and there was a higher white to black ratio.
Haitian immigrants arrived in Louisiana with Maman Brigitte in their spiritual practice. Here, her cult would grow as Haitians came into contact with significant numbers of Irish immigrants who possibly compounded the Brigid aspect of Maman Brigitte.
What’s interesting is the common experience shared by women from Haiti and Ireland in New Orleans. Women did much better for themselves here than they did in their homelands but the reverse was true for the men. With the agricultural scene out of the way and with the elevated societal position they had experienced under the reign of the Catholic church, they crumbled. Many took to the drink and either died from alcoholism or deserted their wives. The women on the other hand, fared better working in marketplaces or as domestics.
Maman Brigitte is a fascinating spirit that seems to represent the opposite to what Brigid represents in Ireland. In Ireland she is associated with the returning light. She presides over lost souls as both goddess and saint and takes them under her mantle. Maman Brigitte, conversely is associated with death. She presides over lost souls, but in the deathly realm. She gathers up those who wander aimlessly between worlds and gives them a place of belonging. Although the two are very different, the ‘Brigidness’ in both is the same.
There are also many other similarities between Brigid of Ireland and Maman Brigitte. The goddess Brigit and Maman Brigitte are served by priestesses and priests. Both have been blended with Catholicism. The goddess Brigit and Maman Brigitte have a partner. Bres is the partner of the Celtic goddess, Baron Samedi is the partner of Maman Brigitte. Both are blended versions of themselves. It is my opinion that Saint Brigid comes from the goddess Brigit and I believe Maman Brigitte to have come from the collective Brigid of Ireland (goddess and Saint). Both Brigid and Maman Brigitte are linked to fire; Brigit as goddess of fire, her fire tended to by her priestesses, her fire tended to by her nuns and Brigitte with her firey peppers and rum. Both represent death and rebirth even if one is more dominant in one than the other. Maman Brigitte represents death that is inevitable if there is to be a rebirth and Brigid is the rebirth after death. Brigit was the original keener in Ireland with the death of her son Ruadan. She was also a psychopomp in Celtic mythology, meaning she overshadowed departed souls to the Otherworld. Brigid represents new life at Imbolc. Maman Brigitte also symbolised new life through their experiences of displacement in Haiti and emigration in New Orleans. Both the goddess and Maman Brigitte are venerated at Samhain. Finally, communication is linked to both. Brigit as goddess of poetry is linked to all things oratory and is the muse of poets, storytellers, philosophers and for those working with the written and spoken word. Conversely, Maman Brigitte is frequently depicted as having her mouth sealed shut. This can possibly symbolise the repressed feminine voice in Haiti and Ireland in a misogynistic culture pertinent to both at the time of her origins. Lillith Dorsey interprets it as a loving presence where no words are necessary which is a fitting depiction of a mother goddess. Maman Brigitte after all means Mother Brigid. This mother goddess figure may be found in a very different culture to our own but she still bears a striking resemblance to our own mother goddess Brigid.
Pauline Breen is the author of ‘This is Brigid- Goddess & Saint of Ireland’, ‘Maman Brigitte’, ‘Brigantia’ and 'Brigit: Lady of the Irish Otherworld'. https://www.paulinebreen.com
