spies. Brigid said they were minstrels, and bade them play on her harp. “Alas,” said the strangers, “we have never learnt music.” “Fear not,” replied Brigid, “play.” And she blessed their hands, laying her own upon them; whereupon the strangers played and sang more beautifully than any minstrels that had ever been heard in that hall.
When she was sixteen, her wisdom and beauty were praised throughout the land. Her father, who had no other daughter, wished her to make an advantageous marriage; but Brigid, being determined to consecrate her life to the service of God and to works of mercy, prayed that some deformity might come upon her to deliver her from liability to marriage. Immediately one of her eyes burst in her head, thus destroying all her beauty. Dubtach then permitted her to take the veil. As she knelt to receive it, the wood of the altar became green at her touch, and for years afterwards effected miraculous cures. At the same time, her lost eye was restored, and a pillar of fire appeared above her head. Her enthusiasm soon led other women to join her. At first they lived together at Kilbrighde, or Kilbude, near the sea. There are many places of this name in Ireland, but this is supposed to be the one in the county Waterford. After a time, Brigid built herself a cell under a goodly oak, and added a church and other buildings for her nuns. This was Kildare, Kil Dara, the cell or chapel of the oak. There were already communities of men, and there were churches and Christian schools, but this was the first convent of women in Ireland. The dwellings of the nuns were probably a number of huts or cells close to the church. The church was divided into three parts, one for monks, one for nuns, and one for the people.
Brigid always showed a deep and tender sympathy for slaves and captives, whose troubles she knew by experience. Once she went to ask for the liberty of a captive; the master was absent, but she made friends with his foster-father and brothers by teaching them to play the harp, and had already a strong party in her favour when the chief came home. Charmed by her music, he begged her blessing, which was granted on condition of his setting his prisoner at liberty.
She took a great interest in young persons, and delighted to encourage them in virtue and piety. One day, as she was standing outside the monastery with some of her nuns, she saw a young man, named Nennidh, running very fast. “Bring that youth to me,” commanded the abbess. He came with apparent reluctance. “Whither so fast?” asked Brigid. Nennidh answered, with a laugh, that he was running to the kingdom of heaven. “I wish,” said Brigid, “that I were worthy to run there with you to-day. Pray for me, that I may arrive there.” The young man, touched by her words, begged her to pray for him, and resolved to embrace a religious life. Brigid then foretold that he was the person from whom she should receive the holy viaticum on the day of her death. He took great pains to keep his hand worthy of so great an honour, and was called Nennidh, the clean-handed. He wrote a hymn in honour of St. Brigid, preserved in Colgan’s Acts of the Saints, Jan. 18. He is numbered among the saints, but is not the great St. Nennidh, surnamed Laobh-deare, the one-eyed, or squinting.
Many of the stories of the life of St. Brigid relate to the journeys and excursions she used to make in her carriage. On one of these journeys she saw a poor family carrying heavy burdens of wood, and with her usual kindness gave them her horses. She and her sisters sat down by the wayside, and she told them to dig there for water. As soon as they did so, a fountain sprang from the earth, and presently a chieftain passed by and gave his horses to Brigid.
Another time she happened to be alone in a friend’s house when some persons came begging for bread. She looked about for any of the household, but could see no one except a boy lying on the ground. He was deaf and paralytic, but Brigid did not know it. She said to him, “Boy, thou knowest where the keys are?” He said, “Yes, I know.” The holy woman then told him to go and
