Brigid or Brigit (/ˈbrɪdʒɪd, ˈbriːɪd/ BRIJ-id, BREE-id, Irish: [ˈbʲɾʲiːdʲ]; meaning 'exalted one'),[1] also Bríd, is a goddess of pre-Christian Ireland.

She appears in Irish mythology as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the daughter of the Dagda and wife of Bres, with whom she had a son named Ruadán.

Saint Brigid shares many of the goddess's attributes and her feast day, 1 February, was originally a pagan festival called Imbolc.

[6] Cormac's Glossary, written by Christian scribes in the 9th century and based on earlier sources, says that Brigit was a goddess and daughter of the Dagda.

[12] In her English retellings of Irish myth, Lady Augusta Gregory describes Brigit as "a woman of poetry, and poets worshipped her, for her sway was very great and very noble.

Saint Brigid is considered a patroness of healers, poets, blacksmiths, livestock and dairy workers,[14] as well as serpents (in Scotland) and the arrival of spring.

[15][16] The saint's hagiographies "are mainly anecdotes and miracle stories, some of which are deeply rooted in Irish pagan folklore".

[3] This theory is contested, however, with many scholars including Elva Johnston arguing that the significance of the pagan goddess has been exaggerated at the historical figure's expense.

Johnston has written "the argument for the priority of the goddess over the saint depends on three interrelated points: firstly, that Brigit is not real, secondly that her lives betray that they are an attempt to euhemerise a pagan deity and finally an underlying assumption that a goddess cult is more empowering for the women of ancient and, by analogy, contemporary Ireland".

Thig an nathair as an toll Là donn Brìde, Ged robh trì troighean dhen t-sneachd Air leac an làir.

The ultimate source is Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥ǵʰéntih₂ (feminine form of *bʰérǵʰonts, "high"), derived from the root *bʰerǵʰ- ("to rise").