Can a Catholic explain to me...?

Question

The Church teaches that canonization is infallible.

Does the church also acknowledge the mythical/legendary status of certain saints? Take St. Brigid, for instance, who was certainly not a real person but a local deity.

If so, how can it be both ways? How can the Church say canonization is infallible and irrevocable, but also that these obviously mythological saints were real people?

Answer 1

St. Brigid was born to a Pagan father, could it be a mere coincidence that her father named after the pagan goddess Brigid?

Answer 2

First confusion: the Church doesn't say that canonizations are infallible. You are confusing this with papal infallibility. Papal infallibility only applies to the pope and in very rare cases with strict requirements.

Second: the assumption that her name was based on that of a pagan goddess is irrelevant and baseless speculation without any evidence to support it. Many early Christians had pagan names, like St Patrick (Patricius). The details of her life might be the stuff of legend, but that doesn't change the fact that she lived and was a foundress of Christianity in Ireland.

I would be happy to discuss this further at my Catholic Bible yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/catholicbi...

Answer 3

Because even a myth starts out as a bit of truth. Just because some people perhaps take things too far and enhance the truth of someones life that does not negate the fact that this person existed at all.

Brigid was a quite common Gaelic name in Ireland.

Answer 4

the catholic church is only infallible in the teaching of faith and morals.

Answer 5

<<Can a Catholic explain to me...? The Church teaches that canonization is infallible.>>

Yes, when the Church proclaims someone a saint, this is infallible.

<<Does the church also acknowledge the mythical/legendary status of certain saints? Take St. Brigid, for instance, who was certainly not a real person but a local deity.>>

Wrong. It's a matter of historical record that Saint Brigid was born in 453 at Faughart, County Louth, Ireland. Died on February 1, 523 at Kildare, Ireland of natural causes.

It's also a matter of historical record that she was buried in Downpatrick, Ireland with Saint Patrick and Saint Columba - head removed to Jesuit church in Lisbon, Portugal.

This is a rather detailed historical record for someone who, you claim, never really existed. . .

<<If so, how can it be both ways? How can the Church say canonization is infallible and irrevocable, but also that these obviously mythological saints were real people?>>

Hang on there. You talk about saints in the plural - but only produce ONE name. . . whom I proved, via historical record - actually existed, hence not a myth.

So, you see, the Church isn't trying to have it's cake and eat it too. Perhaps you are?

Answer 6

Could it be possibly that St Brigid was named after the goddess by her family?  Have you thought of that?

According to tradition, Brigid was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Because of the legendary quality of the earliest accounts of her life, there is much debate among many scholars and even faithful Christians as to the authenticity of her biographies. According to her biographers her parents were Dubhthach, a pagan chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pict who had been baptized by Saint Patrick. Some accounts of her life suggested that Brigid's mother was in fact Portuguese, kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave in much the same way as Patrick. Brigid was given the same name as one of the most powerful goddesses of the pagan religion which her father Dubhthach practiced; Brigid was the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song, craftsmanship, and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge.