Bride was a Celtic pagan goddess and an Irish Christian saint. Bride lends her name to our river, our village, our valley, our dog – and now, our brewery.
The Celtic Goddess gave her name to springs and rivers, and as Britain was Christianised from 597, she was readily upgraded, updated and conflated with an Irish Saint. We may never know where one ended and the other began, but we must be grateful for her integration into Christianity, for without the endurance of Christian written tradition, her tales of miracles and patronage would have been quickly lost.
St Bride was born in Ireland in 451. While she led a life devoted to God, she was also an expert brewer. She has been the patron saint of brewers for over a thousand years, a position owed in part to her most incredible miracle: St Bride could turn water into beer. We attempt to imitate this miracle every day at St Bride’s Brewery.