women of sanctity, was born in the first
half of the fifth century A.D., and survived until the end of the
first quarter of the sixth. She it was who, despite the disadvantages
of her sex, performed a work paralleled by but few persons in the
religious history of the country. It was inevitable that there should
have grown up about her a fund of story and fable from which it is
now difficult to distinguish in order to give her real work its full
appreciation without sanctioning stories that have their roots in the
soil of the fond fancy of a grateful people.

As one divests a rare parchment of its later writing in order that the
original manuscript may be studied, so, when the after-traditions and
the excrescences of the supernatural are removed from the character
of Bridget, her real worth is seen and the value of the record of
her life, which is thereby disclosed, is greatly enhanced. As to her
learning, her blameless character, her wisdom, her charity, and her
honesty, there is no manner of doubt. To swear by her name was to give
to the asseveration the sanctity of inviolable truth.

It must be remembered that in the middle of the fourth century female
monasteries upon the continent had aroused among women a great deal of
religious enthusiasm. Already had the seeds of religion been sown
in Ireland by Patrick, when Bridget came, imbued with the ardor of
religious training and stimulation received upon the continent.
The religious order for women which she instituted spread in its
ramifications to all parts of the country. Many were the widows and
young maidens who thronged to her religious houses; indeed, so great
was the throng, that it became necessary to form one great central
establishment, superior to and controlling the activities of numerous
other establishments which were scattered throughout the land. She
herself made her abode among the people of Leinster, who became
endeared to her as her own people. The monastery she reared amid the
green stretches of pasture received the name of Cill Dara, or the Cell
of the Oak, from a giant oak which grew near by, and which continued
down to the twelfth century, "no one daring to touch it with a knife."
On account of the monastery and its sacred surroundings, the section
became the place of residence of an increasing number of families, and
from the settlement thus begun arose the modern town of Kildare.

Such sanctity and devotion to good works as that of Bridget att