Manman Brijit
Manman Brijit, 'Mother Brigitte,' is the wife of Bawon Samdi and the matriarch of the Gede, the great female spirit of death and the cemetery. Just as the first man buried in a graveyard belongs to the Baron, the first woman interred becomes Brijit, and graves marked with a cross are held sacred to her. Fierce, foul-mouthed, and protective, she is a spirit of justice as well as of the dead, invoked to punish those who violate tombs or wrong the helpless. Her identity as a Gede is proven by her tolerance of clairin steeped in scorching peppers, which she drinks and rubs on her body without flinching. Her name and origin are widely traced to the Celtic goddess and saint Brigid, thought to have entered Haitian tradition through British and Irish laborers in the Caribbean, making her one of the clearest European strands woven into the Vodou pantheon.
Domains
- death
- cemeteries
- justice
Powers
- guard the graves of the dead
Epithets
- Grann Brijit — Grandmother BrigitteKaren McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 328-330 (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Bawon SamdiWife of Bawon Samdi, together matriarch and patriarch of the Gede.Leslie G. Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods (1992), pp. 108-112 (secondary)
Sources
- Manman Brijit is the wife of Bawon Samdi and matriarch of the Gede, guardian of graves marked by the cross, of probable Celtic (Brigid) derivation.: Leslie G. Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods (1992), pp. 108-112 (secondary); Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 328-330 (secondary)