Fáilte! Welcome!
The Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, Inc. is a sisterhood of Irish-American Catholic women dedicated to charitable works and promoting our culture and heritage.
Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity is our motto. There are many ways we do the good work of the Order, serve the community and enjoy the company of our fellow Hibernians.
LAOH Unity Prayer
St Brigid,
We ask your guidance to inspire us to offer Friendship as you did to all who cross our paths in life.
We ask Your Prayers to inspire us to offer the hand of Unity to all.
We ask Your Love to inspire us to give Christian Charity to all.
We as members of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Seek to follow in your path of Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity.
We ask that you bestow Your Blessings upon us through Christ our Lord.
Amen
Brigid’s wisdom and generosity became legend, and people traveled from all over the country to share her wisdom. Her monastery at Kildare became one of the greatest centers of learning in Europe. She continued her holy and charitable work until her death. Brigid died at Kildare on February 1 in 525 AD, she was laid to rest in a jeweled casket at Kil Dara. In 835, her remains were moved to protect them from Norse invaders, and interred in the same grave that holds the remains of St Patrick and St Columcille at Downpatrick. She is sometimes known as Bridget, Bride and Mary of the Gael. Her feast day is February 1.
St. Brigid of Ireland - Patroness of Our Order
Saint Brigid of Ireland, also known as Saint Brigid of Kildare is the female Patron Saint of Ireland. She was born in the year 451 near Dundalk to a pagan Gaelic Chieftain named Dubtach, and to a Christian slave mother named Brocca, who was sold soon after Brigid's birth. She was baptized by Saint Patrick with whom she was to become friends.
Legends of her holiness abound. She was constantly giving away her food and clothing to the poor, on one occasion performing the miracle of having the food-stocks she had taken from the kitchen replenished. The most famous miracle associated with Brigid tells of her confrontation with an Irish Chieftain. She asked him for a quantity of land so that she could build a monastic community. The Chieftain replied that she could have whatever amount of land her cloak could cover. Brigid took the cloak from her shoulders and cast it on the ground where to the amazement of all onlookers it covered over twelve acres of the Chieftains lands! He gave it willingly.
Even as a young girl Brigid evinced an interest for a religious life and took the veil in her youth from St. Macaille at Croghan and probably was professed by St. Mel of Armagh, who is believed to have conferred abbotial authority on her. Needing a place to establish the first community of religious women in Ireland, Brigid settled on Kildare, and about the year 470 she founded a double monastery at Cill-Dara (Kildare) and was Abbess of the convent, the first in Ireland. Her monastery was at the site of a shrine to the Celtic Goddess Brigid. The monastery became a joint facility for nuns and monks under Brigid’s leadership, and also became a center of learning and school for the arts, and around it grew up the Cathedral city of Kildare. She founded a school of art at Kildare and its illuminated manuscripts became famous, notably the Book of Kildare, which was praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts. Brigid was one of the most remarkable women of her times, and her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for those in distress were real.
St. Brigid’s Cross
As the shamrock became associated with St Patrick, a tiny cross made of rushes was linked with St Brigid. Woven by her while she explained the passion of Christ to a dying pagan, he was baptized before he died.
Similar crosses are fashioned to this day as a defense against harm, and placed in the rafters of a cottage on the feast day of St Brigid – February 1.