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Acta Sanctorum: St. Brigid of Kildare (Feb 1)

February 01, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

February 1

St. Brigid of Kildare

Life. (c. 460-525)

Ireland is called the “Isle of Saints and Scholars,” but only three saints are its official patrons: Patrick, its apostle; Columba of Iona (Colmkille), its leading missionary monk; and Brigid or Bride, its most influential nun. (Brigid is often spelled incorrectly “Bridget.”)

As with many popular saints, St. Brigid’s life story has become so romanticized by legend that it is difficult to sort out her biographical data. Her traditional birthplace is located near Dundalk in County Louth, Leinster province. Her mother is said to have been a slave woman, but the father acknowledge Bride as his own, and trained her to read, write, embroider and run a household. She had many suitors, but she had already decided to embrace the religious life. Having secured her father’s grudging permission, she took the veil.

We next find Sister Brigid establishing a convent of nuns at Kildare (“Church of the Oak”) in County Kildare, farther south in the Province of Leinster. The date of the foundation is uncertain, but Brigid’s monastery was unusual. She built one church that was used jointly by a monastery of men and by Brigid’s monastery for women. The men were headed by St. Conleth, who was both abbot and bishop. Brigid seems in some sense to have been the head of both the men’s and the women’s monasteries. At all events, she had the status of superior of all the women’s convents in Ireland.

The monastery of Kildare became a center of learning. As abbess, Bride founded a school of art noted for its metal work and the copying of manuscripts. The “Book of Kildare,” now lost, is said to have been a most splendid illuminated manuscript of the Gospels.

Brigid was also a missionary. She often rode forth from Kildare on works of charity far afield. Thus, like her friend St. Patrick, she became well-known throughout Ireland, and well-recognized for her good deeds. Irish monks who later on went abroad as missionary monks, spread to the European continent devotion to her as well as to Ireland’s apostle, Patrick.

The holy respect in which Bride was held is no better expressed than in the lyric Irish lines of the “Book of Lismore.” “It is she that helpeth every one who is in straits and in danger; it is she that abateth the pestilences; it is she that quelleth the rage and storm of the sea. She is the prophetess of Christ; she is the Queen of the South; she is the Mary of the Gaels.”

If the legendary lore of St. Brigid obscures her biographical facts, at least it has recorded such lovely stories as the one about the saint and a blind nun named Dara.

“One evening, as the sun went down, Brigid sat with Sister Dara, a holy nun who was blind, and they talked of the love of Jesus Christ and the joys of Paradise.… Then the sun came up from behind the Wicklow Mountains, and the pure white light made the face of earth bright and gay. Then Brigid sighed when she saw how lovely were earth and sky, and knew that Dara’s eyes were closed to all this beauty.”

“So Brigid prayed to God, and then touched the sightless eyes of Sister Dara. Dara was cured, and was able to look at the sun, the trees and flowers `glittering with dew in the morning light.'”

Sister Dara looked on for a while, charmed by the vision. But then she turned to the abbess and said, “Close my eyes again, dear Mother, for when the world is so visible to the eyes, God is seen less clearly to the soul.” The saint understood. So she prayed to God once more, “and Dara’s eyes grew dark again.” It is easy to see in this story itself why the Irish so reverenced the “Mary of the Gaels.”

--Father Robert F. McNamara

Scripture. Job 31:16-20, 24-25, 31-32

Have I been insensible to poor men’s needs,

or let a widow’s eyes grow dim?

Or taken my share of bread alone,

not giving a share to the orphan?

I, whom God has fostered father-like, from childhood,

and guided since I left my mother’s womb.

Have I ever seen a wretch in need of clothing,

or a beggar going naked,

without his having cause to bless me from his heart,

as he felt the warmth of the fleece from my lambs?

Have I put all my trust in gold,

from finest gold sought my security?

Have I ever gloated over my great wealth,

or the riches that my hands have won?

The people of my tent, did they not say,

‘Is there a man he has not filled with meat?’

No stranger ever had to sleep outside,

my door was always open to the traveller.

Writings

(Year C). THE holy virgin Brigid was born of noble and Christian parents in the province of Leinster in Ireland, and she was the mother in Christ of many holy maidens. While she was yet a little child, her father saw men clad in white raiment pouring holy oil upon her head, which thing was a foreshadowing of the godliness and holiness of the virgin. As soon as she had attained to the first years of girlhood, she chose Christ her Saviour for her Bridegroom, and clung to Him with so profound a passion of her heart, that she gave away to the poor whatsoever she had. The matchless loveliness of her body brought about her a host of suitors, and lest they should prevail with her to break the intention of virginity, by which she had given herself over to God, she prayed God to make her unsightly. She was soon heard. One eye swelled, and her whole face became so changed, that she was allowed to send back the messenger of the suitors, and by a solemn vow to keep her virginity for Christ.

SHE took with her three maidens, and went to Bishop Mahew, the disciple of St Patrick. When he beheld a pillar of fire over her head, he clad her in a white tunic and a white mantle, read the sacred prayers, and admitted her to that canonical profession which blessed Patrick had brought into Ireland. At the moment that she bowed down her head to receive the hallowed veil, she chanced to touch the wooden step of the altar with her hand, and the dry wood at once became green, and her eye was healed, and her face became lovely as beforetime. After her example so great a multitude of maidens embraced the regular life, that in a little while all Ireland was filled with houses of nuns, whereof the chief was that one in which Brigid herself ruled, and from which the others hung, as from their head.

THE holiness of this virgin is witnessed by the miracles which she openly wrought, not only during her life, but also after her course in this world was ended. Very often did she cleanse lepers, and obtain health by her prayers for them that were sick of divers diseases. She opened the eyes of one that was born blind. A certain shameless woman had an unlawful child, whereof she protested that Bishop Broonus was the father, but Brigid made the sign of the cross upon the mouth of the new-born child, which forthwith told the name of its real father, and so delivered the Bishop from that false accusation. She had the spirit of prophecy, and foretold many things which were yet to come, as though they were present before her. She was bound in a holy friendship to St Patrick the Apostle of the Irish. She foretold when he would pass out of this life, and where would be the place of his sepulchre. She was there when he passed away, and gave the linen which she had made ready beforehand to swathe his body withal. At last she gave up her beautiful soul to her bridegroom Christ, and was laid in the same grave with blessed Patrick. (Roman Breviary)

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