Ellen Coyne: St Brigid was ditched by a Pope – how will next pontiff honour roles of women in the church?

In 1969, St Brigid was one of dozens of saints ditched from the Roman Catholic calendar by Pope Paul VI. Despite the fact that there was as much as, if not more biographical information about Brigid than there was about Colmcille and Patrick, the Vatican had decided there was insufficient evidence to prove the important Irish saint had ever existed. Historians have questioned if it was possible that the significance of Brigid, who was written about extensively in the seventh century, might have been diminished for sexist reasons.

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