The Life of Saint Bridget, Virgin and Abbess

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O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known with God and with men, and it triumpheth, crowned for ever. WISD. iv, 1.
NATIVITY OF ST. BRIDGET—HER EARLY PIETY—SHE EMBRACES THE RELIGIOUS STATE AND FOUNDS SEVERAL MONASTERIES—HER SAINTLY DEATH.
ABOUT the year of our Lord, 453, was St. Bridget born. The place of her nativity was Tochard or Taugher, in the vicinity of Dundalk, though her illustrious father, Dubtach, and her mother Brocessa or Brotseach, of the noble house of O'Connor, usually resided in Leinster. During her youth every attention, which parents of distinguished rank and eminent piety could employ, was assiduously paid to her education. Great things were expected from her; during her infancy her pious father had a vision, in which he saw men clothed in white garments pouring, as it were, a sacred unguent on her head, thereby prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet very young, Bridget, for the love of Christ our Lord, whom she chose for her spouse, and to whom she was closely united in heart and spirit, bestowed every thing at her disposal on His suffering members, the poor, and was the edification of all who knew her. She was surpassingly beautiful; and fearing, in consequence, that efforts might be made by her many suitors to dissolve the sacred vow by which she had bound herself to the Lord, she besought Him to render her deformed, and to deprive her of that gracefulness of person which had gained for her such admiration. Her petition was instantly heard, for her eye became swoln, and her whole countenance so changed, that she was permitted to follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more thought of.
Encouraged by her example, three, or, as some say, eight, other ladies made their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of the parents of these her new associates, the saint agreed to found a religious residence for herself and them in the vicinity. A convenient site having been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent—the first in Ireland—was erected upon it; and, in obedience to the prelate, Bridget assumed the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every day, and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the country, so increased the number of candidates for admission into the new monastery. The bishops of Ireland soon perceiving the important advantages which their respective dioceses would derive from similar foundations, procured that the young and saintly abbess should visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, introduce into each one the establishment of her institute.