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I participated in a zoom retreat on their lives entitled Fire in the Night. I learned that Patrick lit a bonfire on the Hill of Slane in direct defiance of the High King. Each year at the spring equinox, the king led a fire ritual; no other fires were to be lit until after this ceremony. By lighting the Paschal fire beforehand, Patrick symbolically claimed Christ to be the Light of the World. Brigid also signaled there was a new Light in Ireland. Her community at the Abby of Kildare tended a fire, night and day, that represented the presence of the divine. That perpetual fire burned for over a thousand years.
Both saints drew on symbols from Druidic times to mark the emergence of a new way to understand the divine, the sacred. The spirituality they enkindled still honors the light and warmth engendered by fire. It was this culture that developed the tradition of “smooring” a household fire that is, arranging the coals in such a way that they would hold heat until morning when the fire could be stoked back up. This practice is accompanied by a prayer - “Blest be the house, blest be the fire, blessed be the people all.”
Devotion to such an everyday occurrence as keeping the home warm gives Celtic spirituality a special appeal at present. Cut off from worshiping in community as we have in the past, I have found myself engaging in homier ways to be mindful of the presence of grace in my life. Walking outside, tending to household chores, smooring the love I have for others until it can be stoked up again by real presence - these are ways in which the Spirit is enkindling the fire of divine love these days.