Gods and Saints

This is a reprint of my 2002 article about connections between gods and saints.

Recently, I read Luisah Teish’s book, Jambalaya. In it, she explains Afro-American spiritual traditions, and how they survived by adopting Christian terms and identities. She focuses on the Voudou of New Orleans, but also relates to Yoruba, Santeria, and other belief systems.

After reading this book, I realized how many spiritual traditions share nearly identical beliefs and/or practices.

In a vast number of religions, a senior deity or pair of deities is recognized. Sometimes the deity is named; sometimes the deity is implied but either not named, or the name is too sacred to be articulated.

Usually, believers do not address that deity directly, but go through an intermediary or lesser deity/identity.

In some cases, this is a priest, minister, rabbi, or priestess. At other times, the intermediary is an ancestor or another elevated spirit, or an aspect of the deity with a developed identity and personality.

They may be called “gods” or “saints,” but they are clearly cast in a demi-god role, perhaps with special access to the senior deity.

In the Irish tradition, the “gods and not-gods” of the Tuatha De Danann were literally the “people of Danu.” Danu, also called Dana and related names in various cultures, was probably the senior deity in some Celtic belief systems.

In more recent traditions, we can see spiritual beings of the “gods and not-gods” level, reidentified with saints.

The most obvious among these renamed gods is Brighid, a triple goddess whose characteristics and history were merged with a fifth-century nun, St. Bridget of Kildare.

St. Bridget’s contemporary, the Irish St. Ita, was born Deidre, and like the goddess of the same name, her biography describes her beauty as a curse.

In Celtic history, the adventures of Mael Dúin and St. Brendan the Voyager are almost indistinguishable.

The Irish Nechtan, the water god and husband of Boann, is remarkably like St. Nectan of Cornwall, who was buried under a waterfall. Today, the word “nectan” is used to mean water spirit, too.

St. Non could align with Nona/Nonna, the Roman goddess of pregnancy/harvest due to the focus on the birth of St. Non’s son, St. David. However, historians generally connect St. Non with aspects of the more senior deity, Danu or Dana, also called Anna and Nonna in some cultures.

It’s more of a stretch to link St. Ailbe who was abandoned as a baby and raised by wolves, with the hound, Ailbe, of the MacDaTho legends.

However, we can see a linguistic evolution of god to saint with the Welsh St. Teilo, whose earlier name was Elios, the Welsh version of Helios, the sun god.

This list could extend indefinitely, showing how some saints’ biographies were built upon, or included elements from, Pagan deities’ lives.

References (titles are linked to Amazon.com pages featuring their reviews)

• Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, by Peter Berresford Ellis
• The Book of Goddesses & Heroines, by Patricia Monaghan
• The Celtic Saints, by Nigel Pennick
• Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, by Edward C. Sellner
• Jambalaya, by Luisah Teish