Mary and St. Brighed.[708]
In a Latin Hymn Brighid—“the Mary of the Gael”—is startlingly acclaimed as the Magna Mater or Very Queen of Heaven:—
Brighid who is esteemed the Queen of the true God
Averred herself to be Christ’s Mother, and made herself such by words and deeds.[709]
At Kildare where the circular pyreum assuredly symbolised the central Fire, the servants of Bride were known indeterminately as either Maolbrighde or Maolmuire, i.e., servants of Brighde, or servants of Muire, and it is probable that Muire, the Gaelic form of Mary, was radically mother ire, the word ire being no doubt the same as ur, an Aryan radical meaning fire, whence arson, ardent, etc. The circular pyreum of Bride or Brighit the Bright, may be compared with the “round church of St. Mary” in Gethsemane: here the Virgin was said to have been born, and on the round church in question containing her sepulchre it was fabled that “the rain never falls although there is no roof above it”.[710] This circular church of St. Mary was thus like the circular hedge of St. Bride open to the skies, and it is highly probable that the word Mary, Mory, Maree, etc., sometimes meant mor, mawr, or Big Eye. The golden centre or Bull’s Eye will be subsequently considered, meanwhile it is relevant to Mor eye to point out that less than 200 years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on 25th August—a most ardent period of the year—to the god Mowrie and his “$1”lians” on the Scotch island of Inis Maree, evidently Mowrie’s island.[711] At other times and in other districts, Mowrie, Muire, or Mary was no doubt equated with the Celtic Saints Amary and Omer: the surviving words amor, amour, pointing logically to the conclusion that love was Mary’s predominant characteristic. There is no radical distinction between amour and humour, both words probably enshrining the adjectival eu, meaning soft, gentle, pleasing, and propitious: humour is merriment. A notable connection with Mary and amour is found in Germany where Mother Mary is alternately Mother Ross or Rose: not only is the rose the symbol of amour, but the word rose is evidently a corrosion of Eros, the Greek title of Cupid or Amor. Miss Eckenstein states: “I have come across Mother Ross in our own [English] chapbook literature,”[712] whence it becomes significant to find that Myrrha, the Virgin Mother of the Phrygian Adonis, was the consort of a divine Smith, or Hammer-god named Kinyras. The word Kinyras may thus reasonably be modernised into King Eros, and it is not unlikely that inquiries at Ross, Kinross, and Delginross would elicit a connection between these places and the God of Love.
Fig. 363.—From Cities of Etruria (Dennis, C.).
Fig. 364.—From Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism (Inman, C. W.).
