The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (446 page)

(d. 1373).
Founder of the Brigittines. She experienced visions (whose content she dictated to the abbot of a nearby monastery), one of which commanded her to found the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, later known as Brigittines. The Order followed the
Augustinian
rule, and was organized in parallel communities of women and men. It flourished until the
Reformation
, but was banished from Sweden in 1595. It was reintroduced to Sweden in 1923. Bridget was canonized in 1391.

 
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Bridgid, St
.

Regarded by many as the second
patron saint
of Ireland, but there is no unequivocal evidence that she existed. Her festival is at the start of spring ploughing and sowing (1 Feb.), and is marked by young men (known as Biddies) visiting houses in disguises to ward off evil.

 
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Brigittines
:

see
BRIDGET OF SWEDEN
.

 
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British Israelites
:

see
TEN LOST TRIBES
.

 
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Broad Churchmen
.

Christians who seek to avoid narrow theological definitions and interpret the creeds and other formulae in a ‘broad’, liberal sense.

 
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Bronze vessels
.

Containers of food and drink for ritual use, produced from the Shang to the Chou
dynasties
in China. The bronzes are perhaps most famous for the so-called
t'aot'ieh
(‘ogre masks’), which show, in split representation, an animal with a single head and two bodies extending out more or less flatly toward the two adjoining sides of the vessel. For the most part, scholars have seen in these motifs symbols of life renewal, fecundity, sacred sovereignty, and cosmic order; but equally, these zoomorphic forms may represent animal helpers or ‘familiars’ connected with
shamanistic
activities which were of great importance in ancient China for communicating between
Heaven
and Earth.

 
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