The Irish standard., 1914-02-14

thee" SO had har driven out and sold
to Druid in whose house her daugh.
ter. Dubthach's offspring, soon after
ward saw the light. Brigid, though
born into slavery. was not quite a
slave, for the chieftain in selling the
mother reserved for himself the Off
spring. She returned to her fathers
house after spending the years of her
childhood and girlhood in the home of
the Druid and developed into a young
woman of exceeding beauty, and many
suitors sought her hand in marriage.
Brigid's thoughts were elsewhere; her
ambition was to be the spouce of the
Son of the Virgin; for after this man.
ner was she accustomed to address
our dear Lord and Saviour.
About the year 467. Brigid, with
seven other heroic young maidens,
consecrated herself to God, receiving
the religious habit from Bishop Ma
caille. After short while she, with
her holy virgins, retired to her fathers
territory and founded church at
Kildare, beside an oak tree, which ex-
listed until the tenth century, and
which has given it's name to the place
Cill-dara-the Cell Of the Oaks.
Tho First Irish Abbess.
st. Brigid's small oratory untier the
shadow of the great oak soon grew
into great institution, so that within
her own lifetime two great religious
establishments grew and developed on
that spot; one for men and the other
for women. Her biographers tell us
that she selected one bishop to assist
her in governing these foundations and
another bishop to instruct her.
self and her nuns. Long before the
death of Brjgid, which occurred in the
year 525. the fame of the school of
Kildare was not surpassed by the
great school of Armagh.
To these fonts of learning men from
all parts of Ireland and from England
and Scotland, and even from the Con.
tinent of Europe, focked that they
might partake of the intellectual and
spiritual blessings flowing therefrom.
Besides intellectual and spiritual de-
velopment, Brigid forgot not the Fine
Arts. Among her monks and nuns
were men and women most proficient
in the decorative art, the copying of
precious manuscripts and embellfshing
them with the most beautiful illustra.
tions or illuminations. What scholar
has not heard Of that book of the COS
pels known as the Book of Kildare"
with its exquisite Illumination! This
book has disappeared since the Re-
formation, but in the twelfth century
famous Welsh ecclesiastic, Giraldus
Crambrensis, speaking of this book.
declared 1t must have been the work
of angelic, not human skill.
Even school of metal workers
sprang into existence under the super
vision of Brigids first bishop, whence
came those artistically decorated
chalices, ciboriums, croziers, bells.
ETC., some of which are to be seen to-
day in the Royal Irish Museum in
Dublin. Architecture, too, received at
tention. as we may judge from the de-
scription of the great Church of Kill
dare, found in the life of st. Brigid by
Cogitosus, who wrote in the early part
of the eighth century.
The institutions founded by st.
Brigid continued long to flourish side
by side, and DR.. Healy, the learned
Archbishop of Tuam, tells us that
down to comparatively recent period
the double line Of succession of abb
bott-bishops and abbesses was pre-
served. The names of the abbesses
were as carefully chronicled as were
the names Of the abbotts, and, more
over, the abbesses as successors of st.
Brigid were credited with and prob
ably enjoyed certain supremacy over
the Bishop of Kildare.
A Contrast.
What do our modern suffragetteS
think of this? How they would smile
to be told that St. Brigid did more for
the emancipation and elevation Of
woman by her life and example. did
more to place her where Christ intend.
ed she should be placed. than any
woman Of her age or century or OF any
succeeding century. ii
This evening then, Ladies' Auxiliary
Continued on Page 2, Col. s.)