enerally placed in 523. She was buried at Kildare, but her remains were
afterwards translated to Downpatrick, where they were laid beside the
bodies of St Patrick and St Columba. Her feast is celebrated on the 1st of
February. A large collection of miraculous stories clustered round her
name, and her reputation was not confined to Ireland, for, under the name
of St Bride, she became a favourite saint in England, and numerous churches
were dedicated to her in Scotland.

See the five lives given in the Bollandist _Acta Sanctorum_, Feb. 1, i. 99,
119, 950. Cf. Whitley-Stokes, _Three Middle-Irish Homilies on the Lives of
Saint Patrick, Brigit and Columba_ (Calcutta, 1874); Colgan, _Acta SS.
Hiberniae_; D. O'Hanlon, _Lives of Irish Saints_, vol. ii.; Knowles, _Life
of St Brigid_ (1907); further bibliography in Ulysse Chevalier, _Repertoire
des sources hist. Bio.-Bibl._ (2nd ed., Paris, 1905), s.v.

BRIDGET, BRIGITTA, BIRGITTA, OF SWEDEN, SAINT (c. 1302-1373), the most
celebrated saint of the northern kingdoms, was the daughter of Birger
Persson, governor and _lagman_ (provincial judge) of Uppland, and one of
the richest landowners of the country. In 1316 she was married to Ulf
Gudmarson, lord of Nericia, to whom she bore eight children, one of whom
was [v.04 p.0557] afterwards honoured as St Catherine of Sweden. Bridget's
saintly and charitable life soon made her known far and wide; she gained,
too, great religious influence over her husband, with whom (1341-1343) she
went on pilgrimage to St James of Compostella. In 1344, shortly after their
return, Ulf died in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra in East Gothland,
and Bridget now devoted herself wholly to religion. As a child she had
already believed herself to have visions; these now became more frequent,
and her records of these "revelations," which were translated into Latin by
Matthias, canon of Linkoeping, and by her confessor, Peter, prior of
Alvastra, obtained a great vogue during the middle ages. It was about this
time that she founded the order of St Saviour, or Bridgittines (_q.v._), of
which the principal house, at Vadstena, was richly endowed by King Magnus
II. and his queen. About 1350 she went to Rome, partly to obtain from the
pope the authorization of the new order, partly in pursuance of her
self-imposed mission to elevate the moral tone of the age. It was not till
1370 that Pope Urban V. confirmed the rule of her order; but meanwhile
Bridget had made herse