Quick, name a saint — not Patrick — whose feast day is a national holiday in Ireland.

Need a hint? This saint is often depicted with a shepherd’s staff, or depending on how you look at it, a bishop’s crozier. As well as a cow, and a plain book.

St. Brigid of Kildare — also known as St. Bridget or St. Brid — has taken a back seat in public awareness of church history in the Irish diaspora, and now, about 1,500 years after her death, Old St. Patrick’s Parish is hoping to change that.

Parishioner Eileen Durkin, who spearheaded the effort, said that artist Thomas O’Shaughnessy, who designed the stained-glass windows that were installed in the church in the early 20th century, regarded the church as a shrine to St. Brigid, its “matron saint,” as well as to St. Patrick.

The church has three windows that feature St. Brigid and three that feature St. Patrick, and there is a statue of each saint on the north wall.

The parish has been hosting a series of events under the theme of “Brigid 1500,” including a lecture, pause for peace and Mass on her Feb. 1 feast day, and a tour the Brigid-themed art in the church and “festival of service” following the 11 a.m. Mass on Feb. 4.

Events continue with a Lenten day of recollection on March 2, the annual “Siamsa na nGael” concert March 11 at Symphony Center and a summer young adult pilgrimage to Ireland.

St. Brigid is believed to have lived in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, a time of political upheaval across Europe as the Roman Empire fell. Her father, according to tradition, was the son of a pagan lord, and her mother was a Christian slave who was sold to a druid priest before Brigid was born.

Durkin said Brigid is believed to have served in the fields, caring for sheep and cows, and in the priest’s house, and saw the face of Christ in everybody, even the beggars who came to the kitchen door. She was generous, with other people’s things as well as her own, but her prayers led to an increase of supplies, so that when she gave away all the butter, more appeared in the churn.

Legend has it that as the abbess of Kildare, she asked the king of Leinster for land, just what could be covered by her cloak. Her cloak then covered 5,000 acres.

“She is revered to this day as a wise and faith-filled woman,” Durkin said. “She was a skilled diplomat and creative peacemaker. … St. Brigid was a real woman, a trailblazing leader in the church and society.”

Durkin said she first became aware of St. Brigid from the stories told by her uncle, the late Father Andrew Greeley, and became interested in the woman who was more widely revered than Patrick in Ireland until after the turn of the first millennium.

The Republic of Ireland made Feb. 1, long observed as the first day of spring in country, a national holiday in 2023.

Parishioners who participated in the festival of service following the Feb. 4 Mass wove St. Brigid crosses out of reeds, packed care packages for the Boulevard medical respite shelter and made valentines for the Children’s Place.

Several said they were particularly attracted to St. Brigid’s emphasis on hospitality, something they say is shared by Old St. Patrick’s Parish.

Mary Bridget Casey-Incardone, a parishioner for about 40 years, said, “That’s how I try to live my life, always welcoming other people and making them feel safe.”

Her husband, Peter Incardone, said he knew of St. Brigid as a child because his mother and aunts prayed to her, but recently has learned more about her.

Asked what he had learned, he said, “She was kind to people, she loved people, but most of all, how strong she was.”

Brigid O’Shaughnessy, Thomas O’Shaughnessy’s granddaughter, attended the Feb. 4 Mass and other events with her niece and Thomas O’Shaughnessy’s great-granddaughter Colleen Schoppman.

The family has maintained a connection with Old St. Pat’s, Brigid O’Shaughnessy said, frequently coming for special occasions even though she now lives in the Chicago suburbs.

“I like that St. Brigid has a presence in the church,” Brigid O’Shaughnessy said. “Because it’s such a welcoming place.”

In addition to being welcoming, parishioner Maureen Hellwig said, St. Brigid got things done.

“She saw the needs of the poor in Ireland and she helped them,” Hellwig said. “She was a good organizer.”

In his Feb. 4 homily, Father Pat McGrath, Old St. Pat’s pastor, likened St. Brigid’s hospitality to that of Jesus, who heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law as well as the people who were brought to her home.

“What does it look like to be church, to respond to the hurt, to be people who are bringing hope to the world?” McGrath said. “Jesus gets right to the brokenness. He doesn’t stand at the edges of the room.”

Then, those who have been healed are motivated to get up, to serve, to help others, just as St. Brigid did. “She was an extraordinary person, a person out of time,” McGrath said.