Female ‘Saint Patrick’: What history went wrong

(CNN) – On forgotten walls of rural churches or ruined castles across Ireland, the little figures crouch without being seen.

Lost in gray bricks, obscured by ivy or moss, Sheela-na-gig stone sculptures can be difficult to locate in the jungle – but these medieval creations are anything but modest.

Usually naked bald women, with hanging breasts and legs spread wide to show exaggerated vulvas, the Sheela-na-gigs at first seem peculiarly out of place in the affected environment of a Christian church.

However, these envoys from an ancient past have much to teach us about the history of Ireland and northern Europe, and the pagan roots of the global festival now known as St. Patrick’s Day.

While in modern times it is a one-day celebration, it was once a three-day carnival that ended on March 18 – Sheelah Day.

This is the story of Sheelah – who she was, why she was forgotten when St. Patrick was not, and what traces of her were left behind.

‘She is always there’

Irish mythology is populated by many female figures. Tales of warrior queens, deities, doers of kings and sacred witches have been passed down from generation to generation.

However, an oral folk tradition means that names, characters and meanings change over time – and are subject to the interpretive whims of changing societies.

“Sheelah is a popular manifestation of what we call the female cosmic agency,” says Shane Lehane, an archaeologist, folklorist and historian at the CSN College of Further Education in Cork, who has been instrumental in reviving interest in Sheelah in recent years.

“Think of her as the consort of man, that great mythological tradition of the king and the goddess. She represents the land.”

Although Sheela-na-gigs are medieval, and the figure of Sheelah first appeared in newspapers and documentaries around the 17th century, tracing its history to what is believed to be its ancient Celtic beginnings is an almost impossible task.

“There is a general belief among people who study mythology that every female figure in some way represents this entity,” says Lehane. “The very fact that she survives is interesting. She is always there.”

‘That great human concern’

There are Sheela-na-gig sculptures all over northern Europe – one of the best examples is at Kilpeck Church in Herefordshire, England – but there are 115 listed nationally in Ireland, more than anywhere else in the world.

As they often moved from their original locations and were placed in new buildings, “it is very difficult to date them, but the consensus is that they date between the 12th and 15th or 16th centuries,” said Matt Seaver, assistant goalkeeper for the National Museum of Ireland. The museum has a Sheela on display at its Dublin archeology museum, while six others are on loan for regional exhibitions.

There are two main competing interpretations of Sheelas, explains Seaver. The oldest view is that they are “promoting chaste life, a taboo on sexuality in the Middle Ages. The other theory developed, especially since the 1930s, sees them as symbols of fertility”.

Lehane, one of those revisionists, told CNN Travel that, “Sheelah has been the subject of a strong misogynist perspective for a long time. They were seen as symbols of evil, symbols of lust, symbols of eroticism.”

He argues that the Sheela-na-gigs celebrate “the woman who has custody of birth and death. Sheelah is an icon of this great human concern”.

Embrace the witch

Tara Hill in County Meath is the former residence of the High Kings of Ireland, a site for ceremonies and burials that has been in use for more than 5,000 years. Tour buses travel north from Dublin to visit Tara and nearby Newgrange, a Stone Age tomb.

Lia Fáil de Tara, an erect phallus-shaped stone, has a powerful history, explains Lehane. “If you were going to be king, you would sit at the top of Lia Fáil and symbolically mate with the land. If you were the right king, Lia Fáil would scream.”

There are many examples in Celtic mythology of what are called goddesses of sovereignty – female deities who confer real powers through copulation.

When a king leaves the line, the goddess who represents the land turns into a wilted old woman, similar to Sheela-na-gig, known as Cailleach. “For the new king to appear, he must embrace this dangerous witch,” says Lehane, “and she becomes this beautiful, generous and kind figure again.”

Cailleach is found anywhere where the land is barren and treacherous and the climate unforgiving. It gave its name to megalithic tombs, rocks in the sea and mountain outcrops. You can come face to face with the Cailleach at Ceann na Caillí (Witch’s Head) on the Cliffs of Moher and the tomb of the pass at the top of the Slieve Gullion mountain known locally as Casa de Calliagh Beara.

‘Ireland’s first story’

Saint Patrick, the historical figure, was a former slave trafficked to Ireland from Roman Britain in the 5th century. Exclusively among Irish saints, he wrote his own story, in two Latin works “Confessio” and “Epistola”.

“The one thing that very few people disagree with is that there was someone named Patrick and he wrote what became Ireland’s first story,” said Tim Campbell, director of the Saint Patrick Center in Downpatrick, County Down. “Ireland’s history literally begins with him.”

Patrick refers to a more earthly Celtic tradition when he writes about refusing to show subjugation to another man by sucking on his nipples. There are two preserved bodies from the Iron Age on display at the National Museum of Ireland that are proof of this. They belong to two failed kings who were ritually killed and their nipples cut off, so that no one can swear allegiance.

Patrick’s legacy as a Christian missionary and bishop “was woven into the later legends of early medieval Ireland,” says Campbell, and the mythical Patrick would absorb the older legends as well.

‘Embrace chaos’

The god Lugh is most closely associated with royalty in Ireland, says Lehane. “He represents the perfect man.”

When Christianity emerged, the legend of Patrick took over the cult of Lugh. And beside him was his consort, Sheelah – who was now called Patrick’s wife.

Many countries have pre-Christian spring festivals and Ireland is no different. Patrick and Sheelah’s three-day celebration – from March 16 to 18 – takes place just before the spring equinox. The license to skip and ignore the restrictions of Lent is the Irish version of carnival.

“It was expected that you would go crazy, throw caution to the wind, embrace chaos, because that is the nature of carnival”, says Lehane. “It is a very important Irish tradition to recognize.”

Christian influence domesticated the festival’s license and Sheelah Day – recorded as widely celebrated by the Irish and Irish diaspora in the 18th and 19th centuries – fell by the wayside. But Patrick was not without a partner.

Three saints, a tomb

Patrick may be the poster boy, but Ireland has two other patron saints – St. Bridget and St. Colmcille. All three, thanks to the impressive promotional efforts of the Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy, are considered buried under the same rock at Downpatrick, a sacred site to this day.

“During the medieval period, everywhere it was considered a place of pilgrimage. If you could get the three greatest Irish saints to be buried in one place, you would win the lottery, ”laughs Lehane.

The Christian Saint Brígida shares many attributes of the pre-Christian goddess Brigid and the feast day of the saint – February 1 – was originally the pagan festival of Imbolc, marking the first day of spring.

The Irish still celebrate this spring festival by weaving the Santa Brígida crosses, made of reeds, to put on doors and windows to protect the house from danger.

Sacred wells

Saint Patrick, and Brigid too, are associated with Ireland’s sacred wells, of which there are thousands. These natural sources, reserved for curative purposes, are found “in virtually all parishes,” says Lehane.

Women went to sacred wells to obtain relief from gynecological problems, to pray for the protection of their virginity or to promote fertility. And while Patrick is the most famous patron of the wells, “most of the wells are dedicated to female figures,” says Lehane.

Today, the few survivors of Sheela-na-gigs can be found near sacred wells, while the wells also often have a rag tree, on which visitors fix their cards and prayers.

“Sheela-na-gigs represent a point between life and death,” says Lehane. During the many centuries when pregnancy was a delicate balance between a fruitful restart or a shortened youthful life, women turned to Sheelah – an icon of birth – in times of need.

The wells also provided a feminine sanctuary and healing space in a sometimes hostile landscape.

Sheelah, the goddess of the land, lives in these peaceful pockets of rural Ireland, where the water flows down and the wind churns the grassy hills and the ribbons of the uneven trees.

In Irish mythology, the witch is wilted, but also ageless. It will outlive us all.