St Brigid of Kildare
While spring officially begins on the Spring Equinox in March, that didn't stop Celtic and pre Christianity era Ireland from celebrating Imbolc, a festival like Samhain (the Celtic New Year and the origin of Halloween). Imbolc is the halfway point between winter and spring and is also celebrated in Scotland and the Isle of Man. The Celts commemorated a goddess named Brigid on Imbolc who was associated with fertility and healing. Today, a saint who coincidentally shares her name has her feast day on 1st February.
The saint's name is St Brigid and her connection to the day goes that on the evening before Imbolc, Brigid would visit households and bless the inhabitants. Some would prepare a bed for her to sleep in for the night and leave a cloth for her bless on her journey. Born in the year 450AD near Dundalk, Co. Louth, Brigid lived at the same time as St Patrick (Ireland's Welsh born patron saint) and decided to become a Christian against the wishes of her father (a pagan chieftain of Leinster) and only got his blessing to enter a convent after she donated his jewel encrusted sword to a leper (a person with leprosy). Having received her veil from St Macaille, Brigid made her vows to God which also restored her beauty.
The town of Kildare stands on the same ground where her most famous convent stood. In fact, she built many convents and on one occasion when she wanted to build one, the King of Leinster instructed her to lay her cloak down and the amount of ground that the cloak covered would be used to build her convent. Upon laying her cloak down, the cloak grew and covered acres of land as her friends walked north, south, east and west each with a corner of the cloak. After this, the King of Leinster became a Christian. St Brigid is known for her crosses made from reeds that have been pulled rather than cut from rushes. The story behind it goes that Brigid weaved such cross at the death bed of her father or a pagan man who after hearing what the cross meant, asked to be baptised. For 30 years, Irish broadcaster RTÉ used a St Brigid cross for their television idents. St Brigid lived to be 75, dying in 525 AD and is now resting in Downpatrick, Co. Down in the same grave where St Patrick and St Columcille are resting.