The relics of St Brigid is returning to Kildare town today after nearly 1,000 years. 

A procession beginning at 10.30 am today will see the remains of the saint being brought from the Solas Bhride Centre in Tully to St Brigid's Parish Church in Kildare town. 

The relics will be brought into the church by Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty. 

Three knights will also take part in the procession to pay homage to the three knights who found the saint's skull in the 13th century and brought it to Lisbon, Portugal. 

St Brigid died in roughly 524 AD and was buried beside the main altar in her monastic church in Kildare. 

Around 800 AD, her body was moved to Downpatrick in Northern Ireland in anticipation of a Viking attack, although her body was later lost. 

Some 300 years later, her burial site was rediscovered, and her body was enshrined in 1186. 

'St Brigid would have been a bishop'

Into Kildare Chairman David Mongey said there is some symmetry in the ceremony for St Brigid today. 

“Back in the day when Brigid left Ireland, she left with three knights accompanying her remains to Lisbon, and today she will be brought back by three knights,” he said. 

Mr Mongey said in the fifth century, St Brigid would have been one of “few” people in Europe establishing churches around Ireland and the continent. 

“She opened a monastery as well as an abbey and would have been the principal abbot,” he said. 

“In theological terms and church terms, she would have been a bishop.” 

St Brigid is the patron saint of Kildare as well as Ireland.

Her relics will go on permanent display in the church on January 28th, with locals hoping it increases tourism and pilgrimages in the area.