SHE was born at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed
with the light of faith. She received the religious veil in her youth,
from the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick. She built
herself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or cell of
the oak; living, as her name implies, the bright shining light of that
country by her virtues. Being joined soon after by several of her own
sex, they formed themselves into a religious community, which branched
out into several other nunneries throughout Ireland; all which
acknowledged her for their mother and foundress, as in effect she was of
all in that kingdom. But a full account of her virtues has not been
transmitted down to us, together with the veneration of her name. Her
five modern lives mention little else but wonderful miracles. She
flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the
Martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. Several churches
in England and Scotland are dedicated to God under her name, as, among
others, that of St. Bride in Fleet-street; several also in Germany, and
some in France. Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which
bears the name of St. Jerom, especially in those of Esternach and
Corbie, which are most ancient. She is commemorated in the divine office
in most churches of Germany, and in that of Paris, till the year 1607,
and in many others in France. One of the Hebrides, or western islands
which belong to Scotland, near that of Ila, was called, from a famous
monastery built there in her honor, Brigidiani. A church of St. Brigit,
in the province of Athol, was reputed famous for miracles, and a portion
of her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular
canons at Aburnethi, once capital of the kingdom of the Picts, and a
bishopric, as Major mentions.[1] Her body was found with those of SS.
Patrick and Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185, as
Giraldus Cambrensis informs us:[2] they were all three translated to the
cathedral of the same city;[3] but their monument was destroyed in the
reign of king Henry VIII. The head of St. Bride is now kept in the
church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.[4] See Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 99.
Footnotes:
1. Major de Gestis Scotor. l. 2, c. 14.
2. Topogr. Hibern. dist. 3, c. 18. Camden, &c.
3. {Footnote not in text} Camden.
4. Bolland. p. 112 and p. 941, t. 1, Februarii.