{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38613/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38613","id":"gutenberg_38613","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38613","summary":null,"tags":["Brigid, of Ireland, Saint, approximately 453-approximately 524","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Medieval/Middle Ages","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Michael Gray, Diocese of San Jose\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  LIFE OF SAINT BRIDGET\n\n  VIRGIN AND ABBESS\n  PATRONESS OF IRELAND\n\n\n\"O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! for the memory\nthereof is immortal: because it is known with God and with men, and\nit triumpheth, crowned for ever.\" WISD. iv, 1.\n\nNEXT to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridget--whom we may consider\nhis spiritual daughter in Christ--has ever been held in singular\nveneration in Ireland. Even in the neighboring kingdoms of England\nand Scotland, as a foreign writer affirms, this great saint has,\nafter the glorious Virgin Mother of God, been singularly honored and\nrevered. [1] A pity, then, it is, that we know so little of her\nhitherto, and that our means of knowing much are still so scanty. We\nare not able to give more than a biographical sketch, but the facts\nare so interesting, and above all so edifying, as will in some\nmeasure compensate for their fewness. To commence, then, our account\nof the great patroness of Ireland:\n\n\nNATIVITY OF ST. BRIDGET--HER EARLY PIETY--SHE EMBRACES THE RELIGIOUS\nSTATE AND FOUNDS SEVERAL MONASTERIES--HER SAINTLY DEATH.\n\nABOUT the year of our Lord, 453, was St. Bridget born. The place of\nher nativity was Tochard or Taugher, in the vicinity of Dundalk,\nthough her illustrious father, Dubtach, and her mother Brocessa or\nBrotseach, of the noble house of O'Connor, usually resided in\nLeinster. During her youth every attention, which parents of\ndistinguished rank and eminent piety could employ, was assiduously\npaid to her education. Great things were expected from her; \"during\nher infancy her pious father had a vision, in which he saw men\nclothed in white garments pouring, as it were, a sacred unguent on\nher head, thereby prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet very\nyoung, Bridget, for the love of Christ our Lord, whom she chose for\nher spouse, and to whom she was closely united in heart and spirit,\nbestowed every thing at her disposal on His suffering members, the\npoor, and was the edification of all who knew her. She was\nsurpassingly beautiful; and fearing, in consequence, that efforts\nmight be made by her many suitors to dissolve the sacred vow by which\nshe had bound herself to the Lord, she besought Him to render her\ndeformed, and to deprive her of that gracefulness of person which had\ngained for her such admiration. Her petition was instantly heard, for\nher eye became swoln, and her whole countenance so changed, that she\nwas permitted to follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her\nwas no more thought of.\n\n\"After a short interval, and when she was about twenty years old, [2]\nthe young virgin made known to Maccaille a bishop, and a disciple of\nSt. Patrick, and who had seen over her head a pillar of fire, her\ndetermination to live only to Christ Jesus, her heavenly Bridegroom,\nand he quite approved of her pious resolve, and consented to receive\nher sacred vows. On the appointed day, the solemn ceremony of her\nprofession was performed, after the manner introduced by St. Patrick,\nthe bishop putting up many holy prayers, and investing Bridget with a\nsnow-white habit and a cloak of the same color, after she had put off\nher secular ornaments. While she inclined her head on this happy\noccasion to receive the sacred veil, a miracle of a singularly\nstriking and impressive nature occurred; that part of the wooden\nplatform adjoining the altar on which she knelt recovered its\npristine vitality, and put on, as all the bystanders witnessed, its\nformer _greenness_ and verdure, retaining it for a long time after.\nAt the same moment Bridget's eye was healed, and she became as\nbeautiful and lovely as ever.\" (Lessons in Office of St. Bridget.)\n\nEncouraged by her example, three, or, as some say, eight, other\nladies made their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of\nthe parents of these her new associates, the saint agreed to found a\nreligious residence for herself and them in the vicinity. A\nconvenient site having been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent--the\nfirst in Ireland--was erected upon it; and, in obedience to the\nprelate, Bridget assumed the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity\nbecame greater every day, and in proportion as it was diffused\nthroughout the country, so increased the number of candidates for\nadmission into the new monastery. The bishops of Ireland soon\nperceiving the important advantages which their respective dioceses\nwould derive from similar foundations, procured that the young and\nsaintly abbess should visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as\nan opportunity offered, introduce into each one the establishment of\nher institute.\n\nWhile thus engaged in a portion of the province of Connaught, a\ndeputation arrived from Leinster to solicit the saint to take up her\nresidence in that territory; but the motives which they urged were\nhuman, and such could have no weight with Bridget. She was insensible\nto every argument founded on friendship and family connections (for,\nas we have already said, she was of Leinster descent, and had spent\nin that province a great portion of her youth); it was only the\nprospect of the many spiritual advantages that would result from\ncompliance with their request, that induced her to accede, as she\ndid, to the wishes of the respectable body which had petitioned her.\nSome time after, the saint taking with her a number of her spiritual\ndaughters, journeyed to Leinster, where they were received with many\ndemonstrations of respect and joy, the people exulting at the great\nspiritual good which they were about to confer on the province. The\nsite on which Kildare now stands appearing to be well adapted for a\nreligious institute, there the saint and her companions took up their\nabode. To the place appropriated for the new foundation some lands\nwere annexed, the fruits of which were assigned to the little\nestablishment. This donation, indeed, contributed to supply the wants\nof the community, but still the pious sisterhood principally depended\nfor their maintenance on the liberality of their benefactors. \"Mercy\nhaving grown up\" with Bridget from her very childhood, she contrived\nout of their small means to relieve the poor of the vicinity very\nconsiderably, and when the wants of these indigent persons surpassed\nher slender finances, she hesitated not to sacrifice for them the\nmoveables of the convent. On one occasion, when their distress was\nunusually grievous, the spouse of Christ, imitating the burning\ncharity of St. Ambrose and other great servants of God, sold some of\nthe sacred vestments that she might procure the means of relieving\ntheir necessities. She was very generous and hospitable too,\nparticularly to bishops and religious, and so humble, that she\nsometimes attended the cattle on the land which belonged to her\nmonastery.\n\nThe renown of Bridget's unbounded charity drew multitudes of the poor\nand necessitous to Kildare; the fame of her piety attracted thither\nmany persons of distinction also, who were anxious to solicit her\nprayers or to profit by her holy example. In course of time the\nnumber of these so much increased, (and what an additional proof does\nit not afford of the thirst for spiritual improvement indulged by our\nancestors!) that it became necessary to provide accommodation for\nthem in the neighborhood of the new monastery, and thus was laid the\nfoundation and origin of the town of Kildare. [3]\n\nThe spiritual exigencies of her community and of those numerous\nstrangers who resorted to the vicinity, having suggested to our saint\nthe expediency of procuring the locality to be erected into an\nepiscopal see, she represented it to the prelates, to whom the\nconsideration of it rightly belonged. Deeming the proposal just and\nuseful, Conlath, a recluse of eminent sanctity, illustrious by the\ngreat things which God had granted to his prayers, was, at Bridget's\ndesire, chosen the first bishop of the newly-erected diocese. In\nprocess of time, it became the ecclesiastical metropolis of the\nprovince to which it belonged, [4] probably in consequence of the\ngeneral desire to honor the place in which St. Bridget had so long\nabode. Over all the convents of her institute established throughout\nthe kingdom, a special jurisdiction is said to have been exercised by\nConlath and his successors in the see of Kildare; but the evidence\nsupplied by historians on this point is by no means of a conclusive\ncharacter: the only inference that can be deduced from their\nstatements is, that, in virtue of his dignity as metropolitan, the\nbishop of Kildare was specially charged with the care of the\nBridgetine convents established within the province.\n\nThe desire of the holy abbess for the permanent residence of a\nprelate at Kildare being accomplished, she applied herself\nunreservedly to the care of the community over which she immediately\npresided, and was to them in her every act what the devout A Kempis\nmeans by \"a mirror of life, and a book of holy doctrine.\" \"Her\nsanctity was attested by many miracles. She was constantly occupied\nin promoting the good of others; she often cleansed the lepers,\nhealed the sick and languishing by her prayers, and obtained sight\nfor one blind from his nativity. Nor was the spirit of prophecy\nwanting to her; numerous were her predictions of future things.\"\n(Office, 3 Less. Roman Breviary.)\n\nThe most eminent persons of her time either visited or corresponded\nwith St. Bridget. Besides several others, St. Albeus, bishop of\nCashel or Emly, and St. Brendan of Clonfert, conferred with her on\nreligious subjects; and the celebrated Gildas is said to have sent\nher, as a token of his esteem, a small bell cast by himself. [5]\n\nAfter seventy years devoted to the practice of the most sublime\nvirtues, corporal infirmities admonished the saint that the time of\nher dissolution was nigh. It was now half a century since, by her\nholy vows, she had irrevocably consecrated herself to God, and,\nduring that period, great results had been attained, her holy\ninstitute having widely diffused itself throughout the green isle,\nand greatly advanced the cause of religion in the various districts\nin which it was established. Like _a river of peace_, its progress\nwas steady and silent; it fertilized every region fortunate enough to\nreceive its waters, and caused them to bloom forth spiritual flowers\nand fruits with all the sweet perfume of evangelical fragrance. The\nremembrance of the glory she had procured to the Most High, as well\nas the services rendered to dear souls ransomed by the precious blood\nof her divine Spouse, cheered and consoled Bridget in the infirmities\ninseparable from old age. Her last illness was soothed by the\npresence of Nennidh, a priest of eminent sanctity, over whose youth\nshe had watched with pious solicitude, and who was indebted to her\nprayers and instructions for his great proficiency in sublime\nperfection. [6] The day on which our abbess was to terminate her\ncourse (Feb. 1, 523) having arrived, she received from the hands of\nthis saintly priest the blessed body and blood of her Lord in the\nDivine Eucharist, and as it would seem, immediately after her spirit\npassed forth, and went to possess Him in that heavenly country where\nHe is seen _face to face_ and enjoyed without danger of ever losing\nHim. Her body was interred in the church adjoining her convent, but\nwas some time after exhumed, and deposited in a splendid shrine near\nthe high altar. Cogitosus, who lived two centuries later, thus\ndescribes the church which then contained this valuable treasure:\n\"The church of Kildare enclosed an ample space of ground, and was of\na height proportioned to its extent. The building was divided into\nthree compartments, each one of them remarkable for the vastness of\nits dimensions, yet by the ingenuity of the architect, one roof\nskilfully adapted, covered the entire. The eastern division of the\nstructure, terminated at north and south by two of its exterior\nwalls, while a wooden partition extending to the north and south, and\nseparated by a small interstice from the eastern extremity of the\nchurch, formed the enclosure of the sanctuary. Adjoining the latter,\nand at its northern and southern points, were two doors, by one of\nwhich the bishop and his assistant entered to celebrate the Holy\nMass, and perform the other public offices; while by the other the\nnuns were admitted on the days on which they were to receive the Holy\nCommunion. The nave of the church was again divided into two parts\nwith separate entrances. One division was appropriated to the male\nportion of the congregation, the other was exclusively reserved for\nfemales. The appearance of the edifice was very pleasing, continues\nthe same author, by the number of windows distributed through the\nentire building. On the eastern extremity, the limit of the\nsanctuary, was a variety of sacred images, which met the eye the very\nmoment one entered the porch of the church, and the interstices were\nfilled up with suitable decorations. At either side of the altar\nstood the sacred shrines of St. Bridget and St. Conlath, which were\nadorned with a profusion of precious metals exquisitely wrought,\nstudded with costly gems and stones of great price, and surmounted by\ndiadems of gold and silver, types of the glory with which the Lord\nrewards His faithful servants.\" (Vita St. Brigid.)\n\nIn the following (the 9th) century, the country being desolated by\nthe Danes, the remains of St. Bridget were removed in order to secure\nthem from irreverence, and transferred to Down, were deposited in the\nsame grave with those of glorious St. Patrick. The Bridgetines, the\nholy order founded by this holy virgin, and her most precious\nmemorial, continued to flourish for centuries after her decease, and\ngave many saints to Ireland.\n\n\n\n[1] Hector Boethius' History of Scotland, L. 9\n\n[2] The age of twenty years was that required by the Irish Church to\nmaking the monastic vows. (Synod St. Patric. ch. 17.)\n\n[3] Kildare got its name from there being a very high oak tree near\nSt. Bridget's habitation. _Kil_ signifying cell--_Dura_, oak tree.\n\n[4] Cogitosus Vita St. Brigida.\n\n[5] Dr. Lanigan, ch. 9, sect. 5, Eccles. Hist. Ireland.\n\n[6] \"Nennidh was a student, perhaps at Kildare, when St. Bridget\nhappening one day to be with some of her nuns near the monastery, saw\nhim _running very fast and in an unbecoming manner_. Having sent for\nand inquired of him whither he was running in such haste, he replied,\nas if in jest, _To the Kingdom of Heaven_. Whereupon the saint\ngravely said, _I wish I deserved to run along with you to-day to that\nKingdom, pray for me that I may reach it_. Affected by these words,\nthe young man besought her to recommend him to God that he might\npursue a steady course towards Heaven. She promptly acquiesced, and\nthe consequence was his commencement from that moment of a life of\nperfection.\"--Dr. Lanigan, 9 ch. 5 section, Eccles. History.","title":"The Life of Saint Bridget, Virgin and Abbess","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2506}