No wonder, then, that Channel 4’s Jesus’ Female Disciples’s recent announcement of the discovery of Cerula, a late fifth- or early sixth-century female bishop in Naples, caused excitement. Several articles noted that Cerula was unlikely to have been the only female bishop of her day, but didn’t mention that Ireland also had a female bishop at that time, Brigid of Kildare (d.524). Darlugdach, Brigid’s closest disciple, became Kildare’s second abbess, and thus the first to share Brigid’s status as bishop. By the 12th century, however, as Mór’s rape and Sadb’s demotion demonstrate, female religious authority experienced relentless opposition, and Ireland wouldn’t see another female bishop until 2013. Bishop Storey is of course Protestant, the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion in the British Isles, followed by Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport, in 2015.

Source: The Irish Times May 25, 2018 05:03 UTC