Saint Brigid’s example is needed to navigate contemporary issues such as commercial sorrogacy which run the risk of “dehumanising” us, according to the Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin.

In a homily marking the feast of St Brigid, Archbishop Martin said, “we live in a world where the personal dignity of women is too often threatened by violence, abuse, inequality, commercial surrogacy, pornography, and now by the manipulation of female images online, gender ideology, the false promise of abortion on demand and other forms of exploitation”.

He said that Saint Brigid “challenged people not to cling to the superficial and empty promises of pagan gods and goddesses”, pointing them instead to the one “true God”, Jesus Christ.

She herself lived a life “of mercy towards the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, those people who struggled with diseases or disabilities, the weak, the sinner, the lost”.

Like Jesus, the Archbishop added, she wanted “to promote their dignity at all times, to welcome them, to be with them, to accompany them”.