GD05 Brigid

Brigid is considered the patroness of poetry, smithing, medicine, arts and crafts, cattle and other livestock, sacred wells, and the arrival of early spring. In the Christian era, nineteen nuns at Kildare tended a perpetual flame for the Saint, which is widely believed to be a continuation of a pre-Christian practice of women tending a flame in  her  honour. Her  festival day, Imbolc is traditionally a time for weather prognostication:
Blacksmithing is the King of Crafts on which all other crafts depend. Brigid is not a blacksmith herself, that niche is occupied by the Celtic deities, Goibnu and Govannon, but she inspires the creativity and artistry of the blacksmith craft just as she inspires the creativity of poets. Her eldest son, Ruadan, was a blacksmith. Blacksmiths were considered magicians and wizards themselves. And it was the excellence of Celtic metalwork that differentiated them from all other early cultures and brought them to prominence.