Brigid of Kildare

The publisher's summary:  

In Fifth Century Ireland:  Brigid is Ireland's first and only female priest and bishop.  Followers flock to her Kildare abbey and scriptorium.  Hearing accounts of Brigid's power, the Church deems her a threat and sends Decius, a Roman priest and scribe, on a secret mission to collect proof of Brigid's heresy.  As Delcius records the unorthodox practices of Brigid and her abbey, he becomes intrigued by her.  When Brigid assigns Delcius a holy task - to create the most important and sacred manuscript ever made - he finds himself at odds with his original mission and faces theist difficult decision of his life. 

In the modern day:  Alexandra Patterson, an appraiser of medieval relics, has been summoned to Kildare to examine a reliquary box believed to belong to St. Brigid.  Hidden within the sacred box is the most beautiful illuminated manuscript Alex has ever seen.  Even more extraordinary is the contents of the manuscript's vellum pages, which may have dire repercussions for the Catholic Church and could very well rewrite the origins of Christianity.  

I loved this book but had many questions about fact versus fiction as I was reading.  This novel has alot of information on how illuminated manuscripts are created.  Since I have been studying ancient manuscripts for 2 years I wanted to find out more about Brigid's manuscript, which is referred to in the book as the first illuminated manuscript in history.  Her manuscript was used as a guide for the sixth century Book of Kells.  I have never heard who or where the first illuminated manuscript came from before reading the book and later research showed me that they began being produced in the 500s AD.  That matches with Brigid's life time as she lived until 525.  Note that there are earlier illuminated manuscripts, some literature and some Muslim, but they were not Christian manuscripts.  The general definition of illuminated manuscripts these days is a manuscript with Christian themes.  After finishing the novel I headed over the Wikipedia for more information about Brigid.  There I read that most scholars do not believe that St. Brigid existed.  The reason is that the stories about her are fantastical, such as she healed people of physical ailments.  Since I am not a Catholic I had never heard of Brigid before but if she did not exist how did she come to be a Roman Catholic Saint?  Wikipedia cites her birth and death dates and places. If she never existed where did this information come from?  The book states that she was born in the 450s which is when this story begins.

Another fact versus fiction item that I had to research was that allegation that the veneration of Mary, mother of Jesus, began with Brigid.  The only authentic information I found was that the first image of Mary as "The Virgin Mary" was created in the 5th century in  Gaelic lands.  The author gives us a portrait of how the veneration of Mary began, with a Brigid who wonders why the people around Jesus were all men.  Why were there no woman of influence?  Why were the women around Jesus portrayed as whores and serving girls?  While Brigid was growing up, she read a heretical book that her mother owned titled The Gospel of Mary the Mother.  Brigid is captivated by the strong and wise Mary in this gospel and long after she joined an abbey, she hired the Roman scribe Decius to create an illuminated manuscript that glorified Mary.  Further along in the book we read that the Roman Church attempted to crush this idea about Mary but as the belief in Mary began spreading throughout Europe, Rome gave in and began to teach the veneration of Mary.  Rome was nearing its end and did not want to upset the faithful. 

The Gospel of Mary the Mother is an actual text written around 150 AD.  It was basically rewritten later in the 2nd century in the Protevangelium of James. (another actual 2nd century manuscript).  James enhances the role of Mary by describing her birth as miraculous, her childhood as one of incredible knowledge and wisdom and that she was taught faith in the Temple for 9 years. Her childhood as portrayed in the Protevangelium has no parallel in the New Testament and contradicts Jewish customs at the time but the fact that the author wove these details into her story is incredible. I was entranced by all these details and couldn't wait to finish the book to do some research. However, I knew that the process of creating an illuminated manuscript in the novel was spot on.

When I first began to write this review I intended to point out that the extensive playing with the facts outweighed any enjoyment I had from reading the novel. However, the author had me researching various parts of her novel for 2 hours. That alone makes this a 5 out of 5 star book.