diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/resources/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.properties b/org.eclipse.jgit/resources/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.properties
index 0e0b4028b..2398f54b0 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/resources/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.properties
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/resources/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.properties
@@ -328,6 +328,7 @@ invalidId=Invalid id: {0}
 invalidId0=Invalid id
 invalidIdLength=Invalid id length {0}; should be {1}
 invalidIgnoreParamSubmodule=Found invalid ignore param for submodule {0}.
+invalidIgnoreRule=Exception caught while parsing ignore rule ''{0}''.
 invalidIntegerValue=Invalid integer value: {0}.{1}={2}
 invalidKey=Invalid key: {0}
 invalidLineInConfigFile=Invalid line in config file
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/FastIgnoreRule.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/FastIgnoreRule.java
index 16a36baf0..892d5ef8f 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/FastIgnoreRule.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/FastIgnoreRule.java
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.InvalidPatternException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.ignore.internal.IMatcher;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.ignore.internal.PathMatcher;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 /**
  * "Fast" (compared with IgnoreRule) git ignore rule implementation supporting
@@ -57,6 +59,8 @@
  * @since 3.6
  */
 public class FastIgnoreRule {
+	private final static Logger LOG = LoggerFactory
+			.getLogger(FastIgnoreRule.class);
 
 	/**
 	 * Character used as default path separator for ignore entries
@@ -121,6 +125,7 @@ public FastIgnoreRule(String pattern) {
 					Character.valueOf(PATH_SEPARATOR), dirOnly);
 		} catch (InvalidPatternException e) {
 			m = NO_MATCH;
+			LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
 		}
 		this.matcher = m;
 	}
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/internal/Strings.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/internal/Strings.java
index f5333eeaf..921339a3f 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/internal/Strings.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/internal/Strings.java
@@ -44,13 +44,16 @@
 
 import static java.lang.Character.isLetter;
 
+import java.text.MessageFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+import java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException;
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.InvalidPatternException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.ignore.FastIgnoreRule;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.internal.JGitText;
 
 /**
  * Various {@link String} related utility methods, written mostly to avoid
@@ -367,7 +370,16 @@ && isLetter(lookAhead(pattern, i)))
 
 		if (in_brackets > 0)
 			throw new InvalidPatternException("Not closed bracket?", pattern); //$NON-NLS-1$
-		return Pattern.compile(sb.toString());
+		try {
+			return Pattern.compile(sb.toString());
+		} catch (PatternSyntaxException e) {
+			InvalidPatternException patternException = new InvalidPatternException(
+					MessageFormat.format(JGitText.get().invalidIgnoreRule,
+							pattern),
+					pattern);
+			patternException.initCause(e);
+			throw patternException;
+		}
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.java
index fdcfb8ecd..7622603de 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/JGitText.java
@@ -387,6 +387,7 @@ public static JGitText get() {
 	/***/ public String invalidId0;
 	/***/ public String invalidIdLength;
 	/***/ public String invalidIgnoreParamSubmodule;
+	/***/ public String invalidIgnoreRule;
 	/***/ public String invalidIntegerValue;
 	/***/ public String invalidKey;
 	/***/ public String invalidLineInConfigFile;