Bridget of Kildare, Saint

BRIGIDA of KILDARE, saint. — Virgin, patroness and protectress of Ireland, second only to St. Patrick in the veneration of her people. Reliable historical data concerning her are lacking, but she is thought to have been born in the second half of the fifth century and to have died around 524. The daughter of Christian parents, educated and beautiful, she is said to have refused marriage and, having received the veil from a bishop, Mac Caille, to have founded a large double monastery in the valley of the Liffey, near a sacred oak, at Cell-dara (and church of the oak 9), now Kildare. Her remains are preserved beneath the high altar of the church, together with those of Bishop Conlaed, to whom she is said to have entrusted the priestly functions for the dual community. Toward the middle of the seventh century, the community of Cell-dara commissioned a certain Cogitosus to write a Vita of the foundress, which has come down to us and forms the basis of all Brigidine hagiography, dwelling especially on the miracles attributed to her. Cell-dara remained one of the principal Irish monastic churches until the Norman invasion, when Gerald Cambrensis visited it and left an interesting description of it (Topographia Hibernica, chaps. 34-36). It seems certain that the dou-
ble monastery existed in the time of Cogitosus, but it is uncertain whether this was so in the days of St. B. In any case, there are no other examples of such monasteries in Ireland, nor, generally, in the Celtic Churches. The feast of the Saint falls on 1 February. Irish monks and pilgrims spread her cult throughout Western Europe at a very early date. In Italy it is still living in Piedmont (often associated with that of the Irish St. Orso of Aosta), Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia (especially at Piacenza), and Trentino, and in former times also in Tuscany.