Gendered Womb-Healing: Malevolent Magic and Spiritual Medicine in the Early Medieval Lives of St Brigit

This paper examines what have been termed ‘abortion miracles’ attributed to the hagiographies of St Brigit of Kildare. Of the early vitae of St Brigit, two have survived in their entirety: the seventh-century Life of St Brigit by Cogitosus and the Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae. ‘Abortion miracles’ in hagiographies are largely unique to Ireland and past scholars have theorised their existence and placement as a defiance of early Christian morality, while others have theorised their inclusion to demonstrate the value of chastity in early medieval Irish Christianity. This paper refocuses the argument by separating medieval abortion as an act of maleficium, or ‘malevolent magic’, as described in the Irish penitentials, and argues that the miracles found in Irish hagiography are medicines of penance, called wombhealing.