Saints

"We of the West, we do not think of the Saints as far-off and strange. We make them our own." Though Patrick Kelly wrote this to explain his approach to writing his beautiful poem honouring Saint Therese of Lisieux, it also applies to how he portrays Saints Brigid and Bernadette. In his poems, all three of these humble, caring women walk among us as perhaps a calming vision, a helpmate when needed, or as a dear friend welcoming us home.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower
While serving with the Dublin Fusiliers at the front during WWI, Patrick Kelly, along with countless other soldiers made The Little Flower their own. Visions of the saint were reported walking among the wounded and dying, comforting and praying for them. Soldiers carried her relics and prayer cards and credited her with miraculous cures. In his poem The Lady of the Roses, Kelly portrays her, not on the battlefields of France as in the past, but in the beautiful West that he loved, and in the landscape that he wove through all of his poems.

If I were alone and lonely
In a field near Athenry
While a thrush was singing in the early morn
And a cloud climbed up the sky -
Lady, I might see you passing
Thro' the country of Galway town,
Your moon-white hands on the red rose blooms,
Your black veil falling down.

Saint Brigid
The poet dedicated a beautiful poem to Saint Brigid, one of three Irish patron saints (painting by Patrick Joseph Tuohy). The poem captures some of the beliefs that are held about the saint - that She is a generous and caring woman, that dairy maids and their cows are in Her care, and that She walks the land on February 1st, her feast day. In Kelly's poem, Máire Bán is torn between wanting to honour Brigid by attending Mass on Brigid's day and the need to milk her charges. In Brigid's name she went to Mass....

‘Tis good to milk but best to make
The road while life allows –
And Máire Bán she took the road
And Brigid milked the cows.

Saint Bernadette
It is characteristic of Patrick Kelly that he chose to honour Saint Bernadette who is often overlooked when we call to mind the grotto at Lourdes. Bernadette, who suffered poor health throughout her life, is the patron saint of the ill, of poverty, of shepherds and those ridiculed for their piety. In his poem, he recognizes that the poor must toil in fear "till day and night were met" but instead the misunderstood cottage girl did not join the others in toil but prayed "for love of Bernadette." Sadly...

The cottage girl, they laid her down
In death upon the hill:
The singing birds they sang more sweet;
The wind was very still.
A stranger came, a little maid
(And this they whisper yet),
A woman asked the stranger’s name -
She answered….”Bernadette."