St. Bridget: The guiding light of students:

Feast and School Day on February 1

By Rear Admiral Shamal FERNANDO

Saint Bridget ranks as one of the most remarkable Irishwomen of the fifth century. She is known for her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity and compassion for those in distress.

She is indeed a strong and intelligent woman who was dedicated to her calling. She built churches and convents in Ireland. Even after 1500 years, her memory is as dear as ever to the Irish heart, and as is well known, Bridget preponderates as a female Christian name. Moreover, place names in her honour are to be found all over the world.

In Sri Lanka, the renowned educational institution, St. Bridget's Convent, founded by the Irish nuns for the education of young women stands out as a living monument in testimony to the memory of the great saint, forging ahead her journey, producing disciplined, loyal and responsible citizens.

It was the long cherished wish of the then Archbishop of Colombo, Most Rev. Dr. T. A. Melizan to open a school and the premises was blessed by him on February 15, 1902. The Co-Adjutor, Rev. Dr. Coudert and Very Rev. Fr. G. Griaux had been among the many ecclesiastics who were present and the first article on St. Bridget's Convent had appeared in 'The Ceylon Independent' on February 17, 1902 describing the grand opening.

Later, in June 1911 Sr. Mary of St. Francis Borgia was named the Superior of St. Bridget's Convent.

The House and Prefect system at St. Bridget's was introduced in 1933. The School Anthem too was composed during this time by Mother St. Agatha. And for over a century the traditions have followed and the great institution will celebrate the feast of St. Bridget on February 1 with a Holy Mass celebrated by Rt. Rev. Dr. Valence Mendis, Bishop of Chilaw and will be followed by the Investiture Ceremony of the newly appointed Prefects.

The Superior, Rev. Sr. Solange Fernando together with Principal Collegiate School, Rev. Sr. Shermila Jayawardena and Principal Primary School, Rev. Sr. Alexandra Mendis have made elaborate arrangements to celebrate the feast and associated events befittingly.

Birth of St. Bridget

Saint Bridget was born in 451 or 452 of princely ancestors at Faughart, County Louth, soon after Ireland had been blessed with the light of faith. Daughter of Dubtach - a pagan Scottish King of Leinster and Brocca - a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptised by St. Patrick. Just before Bridget's birth, her mother was sold to a Druid landowner and she remained with her mother till she was old enough to serve her legal owner Dubtach, her father.

She grew up marked by her high spirits and tender heart and as a child, she heard St. Patrick preach, which she never forgot.

She could not bear to see anyone hungry or cold and to help them, often gave away things that were Dubtach's. When Dubtach protested, she replied that "Christ dwelt in every creature".

Then Dubtach tried to sell her to the King of Leinster, and while they bargained, she gave a treasured sword of her father to a leper. Dubtach was about to strike her when she explained that she had given the sword to God through the leper, because of its great value. The King, a Christian, forbade Dubtach to strike her, saying "Her merit before God is greater than ours". Dubtach solved this domestic problem by giving Bridget her freedom.

Bridget's aged mother was in charge of her master's dairy. Bridget took charge and often gave away the produce. But the dairy prospered under her and the Druid freed Bridget's mother. Bridget returned to her father, who arranged a marriage for her with a young bard. She refused and to keep her virginity, went to Bishop Mel, a pupil of St. Patrick's and took her first vows. Legend says that she prayed that her beauty be taken from her so no one would seek her hand in marriage; her prayer was granted, and she regained her beauty only after making her vows. Another tale says that when Saint Patrick heard her final vows, he mistakenly used the form for ordaining priests.

When told of it he replied, "So be it my son, she is destined for great things".

It is believed that she was professed by St. Mel of Ardagh, who also conferred on her abbatial powers. From Ardagh, Saints Macaille and Bridget followed St. Mel into the country of Teffia in Meath, where under a large oak tree St. Bridget erected her small oratory Cill-Dara, that is, "the church of the oak" which became the centre of religion and learning and developed into a cathedral city.

Together with seven other virgins she formed the first ever female monastic community in Ireland about the year 468.

They helped the poor of the time and were attributed with many miracles. Despite having limited resources they never seemed to be without food or supplies for their good works.

At the invitation of bishops, she started convents all over Ireland. She was a great traveller, especially considering the conditions of the time, which led to her patronage of sailors and travellers. Bridget invented the double monastery, the monastery of Kildare on the Liffey being for both monks and nuns. Conleth, noted for his skill in metalwork, became its first bishop; this connection and the installation of a bell that lasted over 1000 years apparently led to her patronage of blacksmiths and those in related fields.

It is exceedingly difficult to reconcile the statements of St. Bridget's biographers. Probably the most ancient life of St. Bridget is that by St. Broccan Cloen, who is said to have died 17 September, 650. It is metrical, as may be seen from the specimen that "Saint Bridget was not given to sleep, nor was she intermittent about God's love; not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek wealth of the world below, the holy one".

Book of Kildare

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, Scotland, Germany and France are dedicated to God under her name.

Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which bears the name of St. Jerome, especially in those of Esternach and Corbie, which are most ancient.

A church of St. Bridget, in the province of Athol, was reputed 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. Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, expounded the metrical life of St. Bridget, and versified it in good Latin.

This is what is known as the "Second Life", and is an excellent example of Irish scholarship in the mid-eighth century. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Cogitosus work is the description of the Cathedral of Kildare in his day: "The rood-screen was formed of wooden boards, lavishly decorated and with beautifully decorated curtains". Probably the famous Round Tower of Kildare dates from the sixth century.

It has been frequently stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to St. Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but, as Archbishop Healy points out, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose St. Conleth "to govern the church along with herself".

Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as Superioress General of the convents in Ireland.

From the Kildare scriptorium came the wondrous book of the Gospels, which elicited unbounded praise from Giraldus Cambrensis, but has disappeared since the Reformation.

According to this twelfth- century ecclesiastic, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the "Book of Kildare", every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes a most laudatory notice by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".

Small wonder that Gerald Barry assumed the book to have been written night after night as St. Bridget prayed, "an angel furnishing the designs, the scribe copying". It is certain that she is one of the most remarkable Irishwomen and was befittingly made the "Patroness of Ireland".

The most famous miracle associated with St. Bridget tells of her confrontation with an Irish chieftain. She asked him for a quantity of land so that she could build a monastic community. The chieftain replied that she could have whatever amount of land her cloak could cover. St. Bridget took the cloak from her shoulders and cast it on the ground where it covered over 12 acres of the chieftains lands. He gave it willingly.

Death and memory

St. Bridget died of natural causes on February 1, 523 at Kildare, Ireland, leaving a cathedral city and a school that became famous all over Europe. In her honour St. Ultan wrote a hymn commencing, "In our island of Hibernia Christ was made known to man by the very great miracles which he performed through the happy virgin of celestial life, famous for her merits through the whole world".

When dying, St. Bridget was attended by St. Ninnidh, who was ever afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent its ever being defiled, after being medium of administering the viaticum to Ireland's Patroness.

She was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her. In after years her shrine was an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, February 1, as Cogitosus related.

A church of St. Bridget, in the province of Athol is where a portion of her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular canons at Aburnethi. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, the relics of St. Bridget were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of St. Patrick and St. Columba.

The relics of the three saints were discovered in a triple vault in 1185 and on June 9, of the following year were solemnly translated to a suitable resting place in Downpatrick Cathedral, in presence of Cardinal Vivian but this monument was destroyed in the reign of King Henry VIII.

The head of St. Bridget is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon, Portugal. The hand of St. Bridget is preserved at Lumiar near Lisbon, Portugal, since 1587.

The old well of St. Bridget's adjoining the ruined church in Faughart is of the most venerable antiquity, and still attracts pilgrims. Her friendship with St. Patrick is attested by the following paragraph from the "Book of Armagh", a precious manuscript of the eighth century, the authenticity of which is beyond question: "Between St. Patrick and St. Bridget, the columns of the Irish, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many miracles". The original manuscript of Cogitosus' "Life of Bridget", or the "Second Life", dating from the closing years of the eighth century, is now in the Dominican friary at Eichstatt in Bavaria.

The Litany of Aengus, dating to about the year 798, describes the occasion of a synod held at Munster under Bishop Ibar, "where to the Angel of God was ascribed the great feast which St. Bridget had prepared in her heart for Jesus": I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us. I would like an abundance of peace.

I would like full vessels of charity. I would like rich treasures of mercy. I would like cheerfulness to preside over all. I would like Jesus to be present. I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us. I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts. I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity.