At one time a certain leper came to St. Bridget to beg a cow from her.
“Which would you prefer?” said the holy Bridget, “to be healed of your
disease or to have the cow?”
“I would be healed,” he answered.
Then she touched him, and he became whole and went away rejoicing.
After this Bridget’s fame spread all over Ireland; and a man of the
Britons, and his son, came to be healed; but she was at Mass, and sent
to them to wait till Mass was over.
Now the Britons are a hasty people, and the man said, “You healed your
own people yesterday and you shall heal us to-day.”
Then Bridget came forth and prayed over them, and they were healed.
Another time, two lepers came to beg, and Bridget said, “I have but
this one cow—take it between you and go in peace.”
But one leper was proud, and made answer: “I shall divide my goods with
no man. Give me the cow and I shall go.”
And she gave it to him.
Then the other leper said, “Give me your prayers, holy Bridget, I ask
no more.”
And she gave him her blessing. And as he turned to depart a man came
in, and offered a cow as a present to the holy woman.
“Now the Lord has blessed you,” she said to the humble leper. “Take
this cow and depart to your home.”
So the man drove the cow before him, and presently came up with the
proud leper just at the ford of the river. “Cross you first,” said the
proud leper, “there is not room for two,” and the humble leper crossed
in safety with his cow; but when the other entered the ford, the
river rose, and he and his cow were carried away and drowned, for the
blessing of St. Bridget was not on him.
Another time, two lepers came to be healed, and Bridget ordered one of
them to wash the other; which he did, and the man was healed.
“Now,” she said, “do to your comrade as he has done to you; wash him
with water that he may be made clean of his leprosy.”
“Oh, veiled woman,” he answered, “why should I, that am clean now in
body and limb, touch this filthy leper of the blue-grey skin? Ask me
not to do this thing.”
Then Bridget took water and washed the leper herself. Immediately the
other who had been healed, cried out, “A fire is raging under my skin;”
and the disease came again on him worse than ever. Thus was he punished
for his pride.
The lark is sacred to St. Bridget because its song woke her every
morning to prayers, when she had service for the women who were her
converts.
The influence of St. Bridget remains a permanent power in Ireland even
to this day, and she is much feared by the enemy of souls and the
ill-doer. When Earl Strongbow was dying, he affirmed that he saw St.
Bridget approaching his bed, and she struck him on the foot, and the
wound she gave him mortified, and of this he died. This happened six
hundred years after Bridget’s death.
St. Bridget, throughout her long life, held the highest position and
dignity in the Irish Church. She erected a temple in Kildare, ordained
bishops, and was head and chief of all the sacred virgins.
She also held equal rank with the archbishop; if he had an episcopal
chair (_cathedra episcopalis_), so St. Bridget had a virginal chair
(_cathedra puellaris_), and was pre-eminent above all the abbesses of
Ireland, or of the Scots, for sanctity and power.