LIFE OF SAINT BRIDGET

VIRGIN AND ABBESS

PATRONESS OF IRELAND

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"O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known with God and with men, and it triumpheth, crowned for ever." WISD. iv, 1.

NEXT to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridget—whom we may consider his spiritual daughter in Christ—has ever been held in singular veneration in Ireland. Even in the neighboring kingdoms of England and Scotland, as a foreign writer affirms, this great saint has, after the glorious Virgin Mother of God, been singularly honored and revered. [1] A pity, then, it is, that we know so little of her hitherto, and that our means of knowing much are still so scanty. We are not able to give more than a biographical sketch, but the facts are so interesting, and above all so edifying, as will in some measure compensate for their fewness. To commence, then, our account of the great patroness of Ireland:

NATIVITY OF ST. BRIDGET—HER EARLY PIETY—SHE EMBRACES THE RELIGIOUS STATE AND FOUNDS SEVERAL MONASTERIES—HER SAINTLY DEATH.

ABOUT the year of our Lord, 453, was St. Bridget born. The place of her nativity was Tochard or Taugher, in the vicinity of Dundalk, though her illustrious father, Dubtach, and her mother Brocessa or Brotseach, of the noble house of O'Connor, usually resided in Leinster. During her youth every attention, which parents of distinguished rank and eminent piety could employ, was assiduously paid to her education. Great things were expected from her; "during her infancy her pious father had a vision, in which he saw men clothed in white garments pouring, as it were, a sacred unguent on her head, thereby prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet very young, Bridget, for the love of Christ our Lord, whom she chose for her spouse, and to whom she was closely united in heart and spirit, bestowed every thing at her disposal on His suffering members, the poor, and was the edification of all who knew her. She was surpassingly beautiful; and fearing, in consequence, that efforts might be made by her many suitors to dissolve the sacred vow by which she had bound herself to the Lord, she besought Him to render her deformed, and to deprive her of that gracefulness of person which had gained for her such admiration. Her petition was instantly heard, for her eye became swoln, and her whole countenance so changed, that she was permitted to follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more thought of.

"After a short interval, and when she was about twenty years old, [2] the young virgin made known to Maccaille a bishop, and a disciple of St. Patrick, and who had seen over her head a pillar of fire, her determination to live only to Christ Jesus, her heavenly Bridegroom, and he quite approved of her pious resolve, and consented to receive her sacred vows. On the appointed day, the solemn ceremony of her profession was performed, after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, the bishop putting up many holy prayers, and investing Bridget with a snow-white habit and a cloak of the same color, after she had put off her secular ornaments. While she inclined her head on this happy occasion to receive the sacred veil, a miracle of a singularly striking and impressive nature occurred; that part of the wooden platform adjoining the altar on which she knelt recovered its pristine vitality, and put on, as all the bystanders witnessed, its former greenness and verdure, retaining it for a long time after. At the same moment Bridget's eye was healed, and she became as beautiful

and lovely as ever." (Lessons in Office of St. Bridget.)

Encouraged by her example, three, or, as some say, eight, other ladies made their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of the parents of these her new associates, the saint agreed to found a religious residence for herself and them in the vicinity. A convenient site having been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent—the first in Ireland—was erected upon it; and, in obedience to the prelate, Bridget assumed the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every day, and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the country, so increased the number of candidates for admission into the new monastery. The bishops of Ireland soon perceiving the important advantages which their respective dioceses would derive from similar foundations, procured that the young and saintly abbess should visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, introduce into each one the establishment of her institute.

While thus engaged in a portion of the province of Connaught, a deputation arrived from Leinster to solicit the saint to take up her residence in that territory; but the motives which they urged were human, and such could have no weight with Bridget. She was insensible to every argument founded on friendship and family connections (for, as we have already said, she was of Leinster descent, and had spent in that province a great portion of her youth); it was only the prospect of the many spiritual advantages that would result from compliance with their request, that induced her to accede, as she did, to the wishes of the respectable body which had petitioned her. Some time after, the saint taking with her a number of her spiritual daughters, journeyed to Leinster, where they were received with many demonstrations of respect and joy, the people exulting at the great spiritual good which they were about to confer on the province. The site on which Kildare now stands appearing to be well adapted for a religious institute, there the saint and her companions took up their abode. To the place appropriated for the new foundation some lands were annexed, the fruits of which were assigned to the little establishment. This donation, indeed, contributed to supply the wants of the community, but still the pious sisterhood principally depended for their maintenance on the liberality of their benefactors. "Mercy having grown up" with Bridget from her very childhood, she contrived out of their small means to relieve the poor of the vicinity very considerably, and when the wants of these indigent persons surpassed her slender finances, she hesitated not to sacrifice for them the moveables of the convent. On one occasion, when their distress was unusually grievous, the spouse of Christ, imitating the burning charity of St. Ambrose and other great servants of God, sold some of the sacred vestments that she might procure the means of relieving their necessities. She was very generous and hospitable too, particularly to bishops and religious, and so humble, that she sometimes attended the cattle on the land which belonged to her monastery.

The renown of Bridget's unbounded charity drew multitudes of the poor and necessitous to Kildare; the fame of her piety attracted thither many persons of distinction also, who were anxious to solicit her prayers or to profit by her holy example. In course of time the number of these so much increased, (and what an additional proof does it not afford of the thirst for spiritual improvement indulged by our ancestors!) that it became necessary to provide accommodation for them in the neighborhood of the new monastery, and thus was laid the foundation and origin of the town of Kildare. [3]

The spiritual exigencies of her community and of those numerous strangers who resorted to the vicinity, having suggested to our saint the expediency of

procuring the locality to be erected into an episcopal see, she represented it to the prelates, to whom the consideration of it rightly belonged. Deeming the proposal just and useful, Conlath, a recluse of eminent sanctity, illustrious by the great things which God had granted to his prayers, was, at Bridget's desire, chosen the first bishop of the newly-erected diocese. In process of time, it became the ecclesiastical metropolis of the province to which it belonged, [4] probably in consequence of the general desire to honor the place in which St. Bridget had so long abode. Over all the convents of her institute established throughout the kingdom, a special jurisdiction is said to have been exercised by Conlath and his successors in the see of Kildare; but the evidence supplied by historians on this point is by no means of a conclusive character: the only inference that can be deduced from their statements is, that, in virtue of his dignity as metropolitan, the bishop of Kildare was specially charged with the care of the Bridgetine convents established within the province.

The desire of the holy abbess for the permanent residence of a prelate at Kildare being accomplished, she applied herself unreservedly to the care of the community over which she immediately presided, and was to them in her every act what the devout A Kempis means by "a mirror of life, and a book of holy doctrine." "Her sanctity was attested by many miracles. She was constantly occupied in promoting the good of others; she often cleansed the lepers, healed the sick and languishing by her prayers, and obtained sight for one blind from his nativity. Nor was the spirit of prophecy wanting to her; numerous were her predictions of future things." (Office, 3 Less. Roman Breviary.)

The most eminent persons of her time either visited or corresponded with St. Bridget. Besides several others, St. Albeus, bishop of Cashel or Emly, and St. Brendan of Clonfert, conferred with her on religious subjects; and the celebrated Gildas is said to have sent her, as a token of his esteem, a small bell cast by himself. [5]

After seventy years devoted to the practice of the most sublime virtues, corporal infirmities admonished the saint that the time of her dissolution was nigh. It was now half a century since, by her holy vows, she had irrevocably consecrated herself to God, and, during that period, great results had been attained, her holy institute having widely diffused itself throughout the green isle, and greatly advanced the cause of religion in the various districts in which it was established. Like a river of peace, its progress was steady and silent; it fertilized every region fortunate enough to receive its waters, and caused them to bloom forth spiritual flowers and fruits with all the sweet perfume of evangelical fragrance. The remembrance of the glory she had procured to the Most High, as well as the services rendered to dear souls ransomed by the precious blood of her divine Spouse, cheered and consoled Bridget in the infirmities inseparable from old age. Her last illness was soothed by the presence of Nennidh, a priest of eminent sanctity, over whose youth she had watched with pious solicitude, and who was indebted to her prayers and instructions for his great proficiency in sublime perfection. [6] The day on which our abbess was to terminate her course (Feb. 1, 523) having arrived, she received from the hands of this saintly priest the blessed body and blood of her Lord in the Divine Eucharist, and as it would seem, immediately after her spirit passed forth, and went to

possess Him in that heavenly country where He is seen face to face and enjoyed without danger of ever losing Him. Her body was interred in the church adjoining her convent, but was some time after exhumed, and deposited in a splendid shrine near the high altar. Cogitosus, who lived two centuries later, thus describes the church which then contained this valuable treasure: "The church of Kildare enclosed an ample space of ground, and was of a height proportioned to its extent. The building was divided into three compartments, each one of them remarkable for the vastness of its dimensions, yet by the ingenuity of the architect, one roof skilfully adapted, covered the entire. The eastern division of the structure, terminated at north and south by two of its exterior walls, while a wooden partition extending to the north and south, and separated by a small interstice from the eastern extremity of the church, formed the enclosure of the sanctuary. Adjoining the latter, and at its northern and southern points, were two doors, by one of which the bishop and his assistant entered to celebrate the Holy Mass, and perform the other public offices; while by the other the nuns were admitted on the days on which they were to receive the Holy Communion. The nave of the church was again divided into two parts with separate entrances. One division was appropriated to the male portion of the congregation, the other was exclusively reserved for females. The appearance of the edifice was very pleasing, continues the same author, by the number of windows distributed through the entire building. On the eastern extremity, the limit of the sanctuary, was a variety of sacred images, which met the eye the very moment one entered the porch of the church, and the interstices were filled up with suitable decorations. At either side of the altar stood the sacred shrines of St. Bridget and St. Conlath, which were adorned with a profusion of precious metals exquisitely wrought, studded with costly gems and stones of great price, and surmounted by diadems of gold and silver, types of the glory with which the Lord rewards His faithful servants." (Vita St. Brigid.)

In the following (the 9th) century, the country being desolated by the Danes, the remains of St. Bridget were removed in order to secure them from irreverence, and transferred to Down, were deposited in the same grave with those of glorious St. Patrick. The Bridgetines, the holy order founded by this holy virgin, and her most precious memorial, continued to flourish for centuries after her decease, and gave many saints to Ireland.

[1] Hector Bœthius' History of Scotland, L. 9

[2] The age of twenty years was that required by the Irish Church to making the monastic vows. (Synod St. Patric. ch. 17.)

[3] Kildare got its name from there being a very high oak tree near St. Bridget's habitation. Kil signifying cell—Dura, oak tree.

[4] Cogitosus Vita St. Brigida.

[5] Dr. Lanigan, ch. 9, sect. 5, Eccles. Hist. Ireland.

[6] "Nennidh was a student, perhaps at Kildare, when St. Bridget happening one day to be with some of her nuns near the monastery, saw him running very fast and in an unbecoming manner. Having sent for and inquired of him whither he was running in such haste, he replied, as if in jest, To the Kingdom of Heaven. Whereupon the saint gravely said, I wish I deserved to run along with you to-day to that Kingdom, pray for me that I may reach it. Affected by these words, the young man besought her to recommend him to God that he might pursue a steady course towards Heaven. She promptly acquiesced, and the consequence was his commencement from that moment of a life of perfection."—Dr. Lanigan, 9 ch. 5

section, Eccles. History.