Brigid of Murroe

Brigid of Ireland was first a goddess, then a person, then a saint divided into multiple personalities and nationalities. She shows up, like Mary, all over the place and is useful for almost any situation. There are religious orders devoted to her, although she emanates a pantheistic aura, even a primitive one, both historically and in legends. I will talk about her as a child and adolescent, because there are so many contradictory attributes provided on paper and stone. Murroe is said to be the town in Ireland where Brigid was sent into foster care by her father, a brute. I only learned this after spending many years in that same town and under the influence of Michel de Certeau. (Howe)

Fanny Howe has written numerous books of fiction, essays and poetry and has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lenore Marshall Award and the Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. Her most recent collection of poetry Second Childhood, a Finalist for the National Book Award 2014, was published by Graywolf Press. She is currently a Visiting Writer at Brown University.

On Wednesday, April 8, Fanny Howe will be featured in the Holloway Poetry Series, Maude Fife Room (Wheeler Hall #315) from 6:30-8 pm. For information, visit hollowayreadingseries.wordpress.com.

Co-presented by Holloway Poetry Series.

Photo by Lynn Chistoffers

Two films were shown in the course of this lecture. The first was entitled “Brigid of Murroe”, written by Fanny Howe with visuals by Sheila Gallagher. The second was entitled “Embryonic”.