Probably the best known Irish saint after Patrick is Saint Brigid (b. 457,
d. 525). Known as "the Mary of the Gael," Brigid founded the monastery of
Kildare and was known for spirituality, charity, and compassion. St. Brigid
also was a generous, beer-loving woman. She worked in a leper colony which
found itself without beer, "For when the lepers she nursed implored her for
beer, and there was none to be had, she changed the water, which was used
for the bath, into an excellent beer, by the sheer strength of her blessing
and dealt it out to the thirsty in plenty." Brigid is said to have changed
her dirty bathwater into beer so that visiting clerics would have something
to drink. Obviously this trait would endear her to many a beer lover. She
also is reputed to have supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen
churches, which sufficed from Maundy Thursday to the end of paschal time. A
poem attributed to Brigid in the Brussel's library begins with the lines "I
should like a great lake of ale, for the King of the Kings. I should like
the family of Heaven to be drinking it through time eternal."
I figure she must have been one good looker.