St Bride’s Patronal Festival: Choral Eucharist with Orchestra

All are welcome to join us as we come together to celebrate our patron saint, St Bride – otherwise known as Brigid of Kildare – as she takes centre stage in this annual festival service on Sunday 4th Feburary at 11am.

This year marks the 1500th anniversary of Brigid’s death and our celebration forms part of an international commemoration of her life and legacy organised by Kildare County Council under the banner of Brigid 1500.

An ecumenical service will be held in St Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare on 1st February, the Feast Day of St Brigid. Our Rector, Canon Alison Joyce, has been invited to preach at the event. This will be Alison’s second official visit to St Brigid’s and Kildare following her first trip in the summer of 2023 (read Strengthening our Celtic connections).

We are delighted that the St Bride’s Orchestra will be joining our choir in a performance of Haydn’s Missa in honorem B.V.M. in E flat major.

Sometimes know as his Great Organ Mass, the setting is one of Haydn’s finest and includes a large-scale, virtuoso organ part which he himself played at its premier. It was written in the late 1760s for Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy.

Haydn worked at the Esterházy court for some 30 years and was given daily access to an orchestra. During this period his musical style developed and flourished under the patronage of a succession of musically cultivated princes.

A pre-recorded version of this service will also stream online on this page at the same time as the service in church, and on our pages at Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud.

You can also find and subscribe to this service released as a podcast on itunes, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts.
Download Order of Online Service (pdf)

Bride or Brigid was born in the fifth century near Kildare in Ireland, the daughter of a rich man who went on to embrace the religious life, found a number of abbeys and is the patroness of Ireland.

St Bride features in the art and imagery of our church as reminders of her inspirational life: her compassion for the poor and needy; her generous hospitality and ministry of welcome; her love and respect for the natural world; and her determination to keep the light of Christ permanently afire.

What better inspiration could we have to remind us of our own priorities as a worshipping community than the Irish woman who gave her name to the amazing holy place that is St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.