Once when Bishop Conlaeth (whom she had selected for the See of Kildare) preached to the sisterhood upon the Beatitudes she proposed to the nuns that each sister should take one of the Beatitudes as her special object of devotion, she herself characteristically choosing Mercy.

In those days many Bishops were skilled in trades-which were then considered noble and ennobling. Her bishop Conlaeth was a fine artificer, skilled in doing beautiful work in metal. He is supposed to have taught decorative metal art in the school of Kildare, which was a centre of that art. Here they turned out chalices, bells, patens and shrines, beautifully ornamented. The art of working in metal was particularly prized in Ireland then: many devoted themselves to it and much tasteful work was produced. Of the multitude of presents that were given to Bridget and her monastery and her church by those who were constantly thronging there, it is recorded that the queen of Crimthann, the son of Enna Ceannselach, gave to Bridget a silver chain of which the Book of Lismore says: "The semblance of a human shape was on one of the ends thereof, and an apple of silver at the other end."

Bridget made many journeys through the south and west of Ireland, consulting, counselling and directing the spiritual leaders, spreading the faith wheresoever she went, and inspiring great numbers to devote themselves to the service of Christ. And wheresoever she was, at home or abroad, crowds of people were constantly thronging to this wonderful woman. The rich came with gifts, the poor came for help; the sick came for healing. She is recorded to have worked many miracles by the power of her surpassing faith—a faith so powerful that it is related that a woman consumptive who touched her shadow was instantly healed. The belief of the people in her power begot many legends-one of these telling us that she was once seen to hang her wet cloak, for drying, on a ray of sunshine."

hurrying boy, "I cannot, for the gates of Heaven open now, and if I delay they may be shut against me." But she insisted, "Pray to the Lord with me that it may be easy for me to go, and I'll pray to the Lord with you that it may be easy for you to go-and to bring thousands."

Ninnid, thus persuaded, knelt down with Bridget and prayed. And it was ordained that this lad would help to smooth her way to Heaven-he was to give her, at her passing away, the last rites.

And it was this praying of Bridget's on the currach with the little scholar, Ninnid, that constituted her the patron of students.

6 Of an old blind sister, Dara, whose sight she had restored, it is told that she begged to be darkened again

Yet she said, my sister,

Blind me once again,

Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare, who in the eighth century wrote the life of Bridget says, "Uncountable were the numbers who flocked to her: the sick for healing; and the rich with gifts."

This was not by any means the first life of Bridget written. Bishop Ultan of Ardbreccain, who is frequently styled a brother of Bridget's, collected the virtues and miracles of Bridget, and commanded his disciple Brogan to put them into poetry."

A wonderful description of Bridget's Church at Kildare is given by Cogitosus which is evidently imaginary of that day, but which Dr. Petrie (in his "Round Towers") affirms was real for Cogitosus' own day. Cogitosus says that in that church in Kildare "repose the bodies of Bishop Conlaeth and his holy virgin, Bridget, on the right and left of the decorated altar, deposited in monuments adorned with various embellishments of gold and silver gems and precious stones, with crowns of gold and silver depending from above, elevated to a menacing height and adorned with painted pictures . . . one partition decorated and painted with figures and covered with linen hangings.'

Bridget, it is said, took the Blessed Mother, Mary, as her model. "She was following the manners and the life," says one account, "which the Holy Mother of Jesus had." "It was this Bridget, too," says O'Clery's Martyrology, "that did not take her mind or her attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was constantly mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking of Him. She was hospitable and charitable, and humble, and attended to herding sheep and early rising."

Lest His presence in me
Groweth less plain.

Stars and dawn and sunset

Keep till Paradise,

Here His face sufficeth

For my sightless eyes.

Oh, she said, my sister,
Night is beautiful

Where His face is showing
Who was mocked as fool.
More than star or meteor,
More than moon or sun,

Is the thorn-crowned forehead
Of the Holy One.

-KATHERINE TYNAN HINKSON.

7 Ultan, however, could not have been her kin-brother, for his death is recorded only in the year 656, when he died of the great plague-during which he had been father to the flocks of orphans which that plague, the buidhe-Chonaill, made in Eirinn. O'Clery's Martyrology says "Ultan of Ardbreccain used to feed with his own hands every child who had no support in Eirinn-so that he often had fifty and thrice fifty with him together."

Bridget made Kildare truly great. The old annalists who made a point of recording the names of abbots of monasteries, but not abbesses, always, however made exception to their rule in the case of the abbesses of Kildare. And because of the priority that Bridget's greatness gave it, Kildare's abbess came to be looked up to by all the nuns of Ireland, just as the Primate of Armagh was looked up to by all the clerics.

In her day, because of her power, she ruled the monks of Kildare as well as the nuns. Before she died it was said that as many as thirty religious houses were under her obedience. It is recorded that for nearly a thousand years her name was honoured, and her feast was celebrated, in every Cathedral Church from Grisons to the German Sea. As many as thirty Continental cities are quoted for their devotion, in the middle ages, to Irish Bridget.

Four years after the birth of Colm Cille, Bridget died-in 525 -leaving Ireland in mourning. And they mourned for Bridget as they had never mourned for any, high or low, simple or gentle -with the possible exception of Patrick. And in the one tomb with Patrick at Down, was interred Ireland's greatest woman, Ireland's Bridget, the Mary of the Gael.

"It was she who never turned her attention from the Lord for one hour, but was constantly meditating and thinking of Him in her heart and mind, as is evident in her own life and in that of St. Brendan, Bishop of Cluain-Ferta. She spent her time diligently serving the Lord, performing wonders and miracles, healing every disease and malady, until she resigned her spirit to heaven on the first day of the month of February, and her body was interred at Dun, in the same tomb with St. Patrick, with honour and veneration."

And the Book of Lismore:

"For, everything Bridget asked, the Lord granted at once. For this was her desire: to satisfy the poor; to expel every hardship; to relieve every misery. Now never hath there been any one more bashful, modest, gentle, humble, more sage, more harmonious than Bridget. She was abstinent, innocent, prayerful, patient, glad in God's commandments, firm, humble, forgiving, loving. She was a consecrated casket for holding Christ's Body and Blood. She was a temple of God. She was simple toward God; compassionate toward the wretched; she was splendid in miracles and marvels; wherefore her name among created things is like unto a dove among the birds, a vine among trees, the sun among stars.

"She is the prophetess of Christ: She is the Queen of the South. She is the Mary of the Gael."

Stokes, Whitley, D.C.L., LL.D.: Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore.

Healy, The Most Rev. Jno., D.D., LL.D., Archbishop of Tuam: Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars.

Lannigan, Rev. John, D.D.: Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.

Joyce, P. W.: Social History of Ancient Ireland.

Reeves, The Rev. Wm., D.D.: The Martyrology of Donegal ("O'Clery's Col."), a Calendar of the Saints of Erin. (Edited by Dr. Reeves and Dr. Todd conjointly.)

O'Hanlon, The Rev. Jno., Canon: Lives of the Irish Saints.

CHAPTER XXII

WOMEN IN ANCIENT IRELAND

THE fact that in such remote time as the fifth century a woman could command the respect, the reverence, and moral obedience which were so fully and freely rendered to Bridget will naturally surprise the many who reflect that in most countries it is only a few centuries since women came out of semi-bondage.

But, in Ireland, from the remotest time of which we have any record, historical or legendary, woman stood emancipated, and was oftentimes eligible for the professions, and for rank and fame. In the dimmest, most ancient legends, casual references to druidesses, poetesses, women physicians and women sages, prove that in the very remote days in which these legends were created, there was nothing uncommon or surprising in women filling these positions. In one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of all invocations in Irish legendary lore, the invocation of Amergin, son of Milesius, praying to the gods for the safe landing of their company against which the Tuatha De Danann were raising magic storms, he says: "Let the learned wives of Breas and Buaigne pray that we may reach the noble woman, great Eirinn."

The ancient Irish had a goddess, Bridget, who represented poetry and wisdom-and, as before mentioned, they had a mortal Bridget who was a famous lawgiver-whose laws and sayings were instanced, and her decisions followed as precedents, by her learned successors, well down into historical times. She was either wife or daughter of Senchan, the Ollam of Ulster, at Conor MacNessa's court.

Woman was then nearly on an equality with man. Particularly great women compelled the admission of this equality, and sometimes of superiority, too. Still, the man-made laws took care to throw the weight of authority in the scale with the so-called lord of Creation. Although the Crith Gablach, in discussing the privileges of a man of the noble classes, lays down the dictum, "To his wife belongs the right to be consulted on every subject," and although before a Brehon's court the husband and wife stood on