Att text: Howlett (1998) proposed that the First Life of Brigid may have been written by Ailerán the Wise, based on internal stylistic analysis suggesting a single learned 7th-century Irish monastic author, probably from Clonard. Indeed, medieval prologue traditions preserved in manuscripts from around the 10^th century associate Ailerán with Brigid material. However, the First Life of Brigid is generally regarded as anonymous (Sharpe, 1991).

Howlett, D. (1998) ‘Vita I Sanctae Brigitae’, Peritia, 12, pp. 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1484/j.peri.3.321
Sharpe, R. (1991) Medieval Irish Saints’ Lives: An Introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Chapter One: St Brigid’s birth, family, infancy, and the signs of her holiness #

¹ There was a certain nobleman of Leinster stock named Dubtach, who bought a slave-girl called Broicsech. She was beautiful in appearance, of good character, and a good servant. Her master Dubtach desired her and slept with her, and she conceived by him. When Dubtach’s own wife learned of this she was deeply grieved, and said to her husband: “Cast out this slave-girl and sell her, lest her offspring rise above mine.” But her husband would not sell the slave, for he loved her greatly: she was perfect in every way.

² One day the man and the slave-girl were both sitting in a chariot, and they came past the house of a certain druid. When the druid heard the sound of the chariot, he said to his servants: “See who is sitting in the chariot, for it is the chariot of a king that sounds so.” The servants said: “We see no one but Dubtach in the chariot.” The druid said: “Call him to me.” When he had been called, the druid said: “The woman sitting in the chariot behind you bears a child in her womb.” Dubtach answered: “She does.” The druid said: “Woman, by what man did you conceive?” She answered: “By my master Dubtach.” He said: “Then guard this woman well, for her offspring will be marvellous.” Dubtach answered: “My wife compels me to sell this slave, for she fears her offspring.” The druid said: “Your wife’s offspring will serve the slave’s offspring until the end of the world.” Then the druid said to the slave: “Be steadfast, for no one will be able to harm you, since the grace of the little child will set you free. You will bear a glorious daughter, who will shine in the world like the sun in the highest point of the heavens.” Dubtach said: “I thank God, for until now I have had no daughter, but only sons.” So Dubtach and his slave-girl returned home, and after the druid’s words Dubtach loved his slave-girl all the more. Then his angry wife, with her brothers, pressed Dubtach hard to sell the slave into a distant region.

³ In those days, at God’s prompting, two holy bishops who had come from Britain entered Dubtach’s house; one was called Mel and the other Melchu. Mel said to Dubtach’s wife: “Why are you sad? The child of your slave-girl will surpass you and your offspring. Yet love that slave-girl as you love your own sons, for her offspring will greatly profit your seed.” As his wife still persisted in her fury, a certain druid of the Uí Néill, inspired by God, came and bought Dubtach’s slave-girl; but Dubtach did not sell the child she bore in her womb. The druid went off with the slave-girl to his own region, and on the night in which he entered his house a certain holy man who was lodging there, praying to God through the whole night, saw again and again a globe of fire in the place where the slave-girl slept; and in the morning he told this to the poet.

⁴ One day that druid invited his king and queen to a feast, but the queen was near her time. Then the king’s friends and servants asked the druid when the queen was due to bear her child. The druid said: “If she were born at sunrise tomorrow, she would have no equal on earth.” But the queen bore a son before that hour. In the morning, at sunrise, the druid’s slave-girl came to the house carrying milk; with one foot across the threshold and the other outside, she fell sitting upon the threshold and gave birth to a daughter. For thus the prophet had foretold that the slave-girl would give birth neither inside the house nor outside it; and with that warm milk she was carrying, the infant’s body was washed clean.

⁵ After this the druid went with the slave-girl to the region of Connacht and dwelt there, for the druid’s mother was of Connacht and his father of Munster. One day the slave-girl went out to milk the cows some way off, and left her daughter sleeping alone in the house. Then that house appeared to be ablaze with fire, and everyone ran to put out the fire; but when they came near the house, no fire appeared, and they saw the little girl in the house smiling, with a beautiful face and rosy cheeks. And they all said: “This girl is full of the Holy Spirit.” And one day the druid, the slave-girl and the others with them were sitting in a certain place, and suddenly they saw a cloth that was touching the girl’s head burning in a blaze of fire; but when they quickly stretched out their hands, they saw no fire.

⁶ One day the same druid, sleeping, saw two clerics clothed in white garments pouring oil upon the girl’s head, completing the order of baptism in the customary manner. One of them said: “Call this virgin Brigid.” One night this druid was keeping vigil in his usual way, watching the stars of heaven, and through the whole night he saw a fiery column burning and rising from the little house in which the slave-girl was sleeping with her daughter; and he called a certain man to him, who likewise saw it.

⁷ One day the infant’s voice was heard praying to God and stretching out her hands to heaven, and a certain man greeted her, and she answered: “Mine this shall be, mine this shall be.” Hearing this, he said: “Truly it is a prophecy that the infant has uttered, for these places shall be hers for ever.” And this was afterwards fulfilled, for today St Brigid has a great paruchia in those regions. But when the inhabitants of that region heard this, they gathered to the druid, saying to him: “Remain with us yourself, but let the girl who prophesies that our regions will be hers depart from us.” The druid answered: “I will not forsake my slave-girl with her daughter; I will rather leave your land.” Then the druid went with all that was his to his own country, which is in the regions of Munster, where he held his father’s inheritance.

⁸ But the holy girl loathed the druid’s food and vomited daily. When the druid observed this, he sought the cause of the nausea, and finding it he said: “I am unclean, but this girl is full of the Holy Spirit, and she cannot take my food.” Then he chose a white cow and assigned it to the girl, and it was milked by a certain Christian woman, a very religious virgin, and the girl drank that cow’s milk and did not vomit it, for her stomach was healthy; and that Christian woman nursed the girl.

Chapter Two: St Brigid’s wonderful generosity to the poor, and freedom obtained for her mother #

¹ When the holy girl had grown, she served in the house, and whatever her hand touched of food, or her eye saw, increased further. Afterwards the thought entered her heart that she would return. The druid, knowing this, sent messengers to her father to say to him: “Take your daughter, free.” Then he rejoiced greatly, and came to the druid’s house, and took his daughter away from there, and her Christian nurse followed her.

² Her nurse, being ill, sent St Brigid with another girl to the house of a certain man to ask for a drink of ale for a sick person; and getting nothing there, they returned to their own house. Then St Brigid turned aside to a well and filled her little vessel with water, and it became the finest ale; and when her nurse tasted it, she rose up healed.

³ Not long afterwards a certain venerable guest came to her father’s house, and her father arranged for meat to be cooked for him and gave his daughter five pieces to cook. But her father went outside, and the guest was sleeping indoors. Then a greedy dog came into the house, and Brigid gave it one piece, and coming again she gave it another. The guest saw this but kept silent; she thought he was asleep. Afterwards her father came into the house and found the five pieces whole. The guest told him what he had seen. And they said to one another: “We are unworthy to eat this food; it is better that it be given to the poor.”

⁴ A certain devout widow living in the neighbouring settlement asked her father that St Brigid might go with her to the synod which had been assembled in the Plain of Liffey, and her father permitted it. So they set out on the way. Then a certain holy man at the synod saw a vision in his sleep, and rising he said: “I saw Mary, and a man standing with her, who said to me: ‘This is St Mary, who dwells among you.’” And when this holy man had told it to the synod, the widow at once arrived with St Brigid. Then the saint said: “This is the Mary whom I saw, for I plainly recognise her face.” Then everyone glorified her as being in the likeness of Mary.

⁵ After this St Brigid went to visit her mother, whom she had left with the druid mentioned above. But at that time her mother was living apart, some way from the druid’s house, with twelve cows for gathering butter. When St Brigid came to her mother, she distributed the butter daily to the poor and to guests, and she would divide the butter into twelve parts, as if for the twelve Apostles; and one part was made greater than the rest, which she gave to Christ, saying: “Every guest is Christ.” The next day the druid came, and his wife, carrying a great vessel to be filled with butter. When St Brigid saw the great vessel, her face reddened with shame, for she had no butter except one day’s measure and half of another’s. When they entered the house she served them with a glad heart, washed their feet, and refreshed them generously with food. Afterwards she went into her store, adored the Lord, and brought out the little butter she had. Seeing this, the druid’s wife despised it and smiled scornfully, saying: “This is little that you have brought out.” The virgin answered: “Fill the vessel; you shall have butter.” Then by God’s power the great vessel was filled from that little butter. When the druid saw this miracle, he said to St Brigid: “Let this full vessel of butter be yours, and the twelve cows which you have milked shall be yours.” St Brigid said: “Keep your cows; leave me my mother free.” The druid said: “See, I offer you the butter, the cows, and your mother.” Then the druid believed in the Lord and was baptised. St Brigid gave everything the druid offered her to the poor, and returned with her mother to her father.

⁶ After this Dubtach considered selling his daughter, because she committed many thefts; for everything she saw she secretly gave to the poor. One day he took her with him in the chariot to go to the king. When they came to the king’s hall, Dubtach left her by the chariot and went in to the king; and a poor man came to St Brigid, and she gave him her father’s royal sword, which the king had given him. Then Dubtach said to the king: “Buy my daughter to serve you.” The king answered: “For what reason are you selling her?” Dubtach said: “Whatever her hands find, they steal.” And the king said: “Let her come to us.” Dubtach went out to her, saying: “Where is my sword?” She answered: “I gave it to Christ.” Her father was angry and wanted to kill the virgin. But the king said to her: “Why did you give my sword and your father’s to the poor?” She answered: “If my God were to ask me for you yourself and for him, I would, if I could, give you to him, with all that you have.” Then the king said: “This daughter, as I see it, Dubtach, is too great for me to buy, and too great for you to sell.” Then the king gave the virgin another sword to give to her father. So Dubtach returned home rejoicing with his daughter.

Chapter Three: Her virginity devoted to God, the veil received, and various transformations of things #

¹ Not long afterwards a certain honourable man came to Dubtach to ask for his daughter in marriage, and this pleased her father and brothers. But Brigid rejected him. When they pressed her hard to be joined to the man, she begged the Lord to send some deformity upon her body so that men would stop seeking her. Then one of her eyes burst and melted away in her head. But she chose rather to lose the bodily eye than that of the soul, and loved the beauty of the soul more than that of the body. When her father saw this, he allowed her to be veiled; and when she had received the veil, her eye was restored and healed.

² So St Brigid, taking three girls with her, went to the borders of the Uí Néill, to the two bishops Mel and Melchu, who had been St Patrick’s disciples and dwelt in the towns of Meath; and they had a disciple named Maccalle, who said to Mel: “See, holy virgins are outside, who wish to receive the veil of virginity from your hand.” Then he brought them in before the bishop; and as Bishop Mel looked upon them, a column of fire suddenly appeared from Brigid’s head. When the prayers had been read, Brigid, bowing her head, grasped with her hand the wooden foot of the altar; and from that hour that foot remains green without any decay or failing for ever, and her eye was healed as she received the veil. Eight other virgins received the veil together with St Brigid; and those virgins with their parents said to Brigid: “Do not leave us, but stay with us and accept a place to dwell in these regions.” So St Brigid remained with them.

³ One day three religious men who were pilgrims came to Brigid with her girls, and she refreshed them with food and cooked bacon. But the men, eating the food, hid three pieces, not wishing to eat the bacon. The next day, greeting them, Brigid said to them: “See what food you have left over.” When they looked, they saw that those three pieces of bacon had become three loaves. The next day two of the men went out to do needful work, but the third, the youngest, remained in the house. When St Brigid saw him she said to him: “Why did you not go out with your brothers to work?” He answered: “Because I lack a hand.” Seeing that he was maimed, Brigid healed him, and at once he went out after his companions to work.

⁴ When the day of Easter was drawing near, St Brigid wished to make a feast for all the churches which were around her in the circuit of the towns of Meath. Yet she had no substance for the feast except one measure of malt alone, for there was a scarcity of bread in that region at that time. She made ale from that measure in two vats, for she had no other vessels. That ale was then divided into portions, and was carried by Brigid to the eighteen churches which were around her; and for the Lord’s Supper, and at Easter, and through the week until the close of Easter it abounded sufficiently for all.

⁵ At that same Easter a certain leper came to St Brigid, asking her for a cow. But she, not having a cow, said to him: “Do you wish us to ask God that you be healed of your leprosy?” He answered: “That is better to me than all gifts.” Then St Brigid blessed water and sprinkled the leper’s body; and he was healed, thanking God, and remained with Brigid until his death.

⁶ On another day one of St Brigid’s girls was sick with pain, and suffering greatly she asked for a little warm milk; but there was no cow with them. Hearing this, St Brigid said to another girl: “Fill a flask with cold water and give it to the sick girl to drink.” And when she had done so, the vessel was found full of warm milk, as though it had just been milked. When the sick girl had drunk, she was healed.

⁷ Two virgins of St Brigid’s own kin, who were paralysed and dwelt in a nearby place, sent to her to come and cure them. So she went to them, and blessed salt and water, and when they took it they were healed.

⁸ Then two blind Britons, with a leprous attendant who guided them, came to the saint so often named, Brigid, and stood at the doors of the church in which she was, asking her for healing. She said to them: “Wait a little, go into the guest-house and eat, and we will pray for your health.” But they answered indignantly: “You heal the sick of your own people, but neglect us as strangers, to cure us for Christ’s sake.” Then she, accepting the reproach, went out to them from the church carrying blessed water; and when she had sprinkled them with it, the leper was at once cleansed and the blind men received their sight, praising God and giving thanks.

⁹ One day a woman came bringing a cow as an offering to Brigid; but its calf, straying, had remained in a very dense wood, so they could not drive the cow on without it. Then they cried out with one voice: “O Brigid, help us.” And at once the cow became gentle, and went on with a sound mind by the right road all the way to Brigid. Then she said to them: “Do not be anxious about the calf; it will come after its mother, following her tracks.”

¹⁰ On another day, when Easter week was ended, St Brigid said to her girls: “Is the ale we prepared for the Easter feast running short? For I am anxious about our bishop Mel and about Christ’s guests.” The girls answered: “God will send.” And as they said this, a girl came into the house carrying a vessel full of water on her shoulders, and gave it to Brigid to bless in the usual way. But Brigid, thinking it was ale in the vessel, said: “We give thanks to God, who has given this ale to our bishop”; and so that water was turned into ale and at once became like the finest wine.

Chapter Four: St Brigid’s own miraculous healing, and the healing of others through her #

¹ At that time St Brigid was tormented by a pain in her eyes. Hearing this, Bishop Mel sent to her to come to him, so that together they might go to find a physician who could cure her. Brigid said to him: “I do not wish to seek bodily medicine, but nevertheless we shall do as you wish.” Now it happened that while Bishop Mel and Brigid were travelling to find the physician, St Brigid fell from her chariot in the ford of a river, and her head was wounded on a stone, and blood flowed copiously; from this blood, mixed with water, two mute women were healed and their tongues were loosed. And it happened afterwards that the very physician they were seeking met them on the road. When he had touched the virgin’s head with his hand, he said: “O virgin, a physician has healed your head who is far better than I. I find no place from which to draw blood. Always seek that physician, who can drive every sickness from you.” Then the bishop said to her: “Never again shall I urge you to seek a bodily physician.”

² Afterwards the holy bishops Mel and Melchu went with St Brigid into the plain of Tethbae, for those bishops had a great monastery there. While the saint was staying there with her people, one day the king of Tethbae was at a feast not far from them, and a certain rustic came to take from the king’s table a precious vessel of wonderful workmanship and precious material — among the ancients this vessel was called the Seven-formed Cup. But the vessel fell from the rustic’s hand and was broken. Then the angry king ordered him to be bound so that he might be put to death. Hearing this, Bishop Mel went to plead for the wretched man, but the king would not release him. Then Mel, carrying the fragments of the broken vessel, came to St Brigid; and she prayed to God, and the vessel was restored and made whole again, and the wretched man was set free. And the fame of St Brigid filled that whole region.

³ There was in that region a certain holy virgin also named Brigid, who sent to St Brigid asking her to come to her house. So Brigid went to her house, and the other received her with great joy and washed her feet; and from that water of her feet a certain virgin who lay sick in the house was healed, and at once rose and served with the others. When food was set before them, St Brigid began to gaze intently at the table. Then the holy virgin Brigid said to Brigid: “I see a demon sitting on your table.” And Brigid said: “If it is possible, I wish to see it.” St Brigid answered: “It is not impossible, but first let your eyes be signed, so that you may endure to look upon its face.” When her eyes had been signed, she saw the enemy in a foul black shape, with a huge head, and flame and smoke breathed out from all its openings. Then St Brigid said to it: “Speak to us, demon.” It answered: “O holy virgin, I cannot refuse to speak to you, nor can I despise your commands, for you do not despise God’s commands, and you are kind to his poor and lowly. I dwell with the virgin here, and I hold a place in her because of her sloth; and when the virgin came here to be blessed, I remained here.” Then that virgin was called to them, and Brigid signed her eyes, and she saw the horrid monster, and she feared and trembled. And Brigid said to her: “See whom you have been nourishing for many years.” And from that day that virgin was freed from the demon.

⁴ One day in the plain of Tethbae a woman brought St Brigid a little gift of apples; and in that same hour, before the woman had left the house, lepers came asking for them. Then Brigid said: “Divide these apples among them.” Hearing this, the woman snatched her apples back to herself, saying: “I brought these apples for you and your virgins, not for lepers.” This displeased St Brigid, and she said: “You do ill to forbid the giving of alms: therefore your trees shall bear no fruit for ever.” Then the woman went out and looked at her orchard, and found no fruit upon it, though in that same hour she had left it laden with apples; and it remained barren for ever.

⁵ Another time St Brigid was travelling through the plain of Tethbae, sitting in her chariot. She saw a husband with his wife and whole household and many cattle, labouring and carrying heavy loads, wearied by the heat of the sun. Taking pity on them, she gave them the horses of her chariot to carry their loads. She herself remained sitting by the road with her girls, and said to them: “Dig beneath the nearby turf so that water may break out; for others are coming who have food but are thirsty for want of drink.” So they dug, and a stream burst forth. A little later another lord came by the same road with a great throng of foot and horse; and hearing what St Brigid had done with the horses, he offered her two unbroken horses, but at once they were tamed, as though they had always been under the yoke. After this St Patrick the bishop’s disciples and household came along the same road and said to Brigid: “We are weary on the road; we have food, but we lack drink.” Then Brigid’s companions said: “We have prepared drink for you, the water of this stream. For St Brigid foretold that you would come.” Then they all ate and drank, giving thanks to God together and glorifying Brigid.

⁶ Two lepers followed St Brigid as she was going along with a great crowd; and she received them kindly, as was her custom. But the wretched men quarrelled and struck each other. The hand of the one who first struck his neighbour was bent so that it could not be raised again; the other’s right hand, raised aloft to strike, could not be drawn back to his breast. So the wretched men’s hands remained rigid and unmoving until St Brigid arrived. Then the lepers repented, and Brigid healed their hands.

⁷ Another time St Brigid’s chariot was taken away so that a sick man who was breathing his last might be carried in it. As he was borne in St Brigid’s chariot, they came at evening to the place where the saint was. That night the sick man was better, and the next day, blessing God, he walked. Lepers came running up, asking for that chariot, and it was given to them with its horses.

⁸ St Brigid, being asked, went to another church in the region of Tethbae to celebrate Easter day there. On Maundy Thursday the mistress of that church said to her girls: “Which of you will do the washing today for our old and sick people?” And all the young women excused themselves, unwilling. Then St Brigid said: “I wish to wash the wretched and sick myself.” Now in one house there were four sick women: one paralysed who lay motionless, another possessed and full of a demon, a third blind, a fourth leprous. Brigid first began to wash the paralytic, and she said: “O Brigid, ask Christ to heal me”; and Brigid prayed, and at once she was healed.

⁹ Another church in the same region asked St Brigid to remain there for some days. But it chanced that the whole household went out, and Brigid remained with only a mute and paralysed boy. Brigid did not know that he was mute and paralysed. At that hour laymen came asking for food, and Brigid said to the boy who was lying there: “Do you know where the kitchen key is?” He said: “I know.” Brigid said: “Rise and give it to me.” Then he rose and gave her the key, and he served food with her to those guests. When the household arrived, they marvelled at the boy speaking and walking, and he told them how he had been healed. Then they all gave thanks to God.

Chapter Five: The journey to St Patrick — an innocent man defended there, a heathen converted, others helped #

¹ Then the holy bishops Mel and Melchu said to St Brigid: “Will you go with us into the plain of Brega, to greet St Patrick?” Brigid answered: “I wish to speak with him myself, that he may bless me.” Then the holy bishops and Brigid set out on the way. A certain cleric joined them, having a large household, cows, chariots and many loads, as they were going into the plain of Brega; but the bishops were unwilling, lest his multitude of cattle and loads should slow their journey. Brigid said to them: “Go on ahead of us, for I will stay and share the troubles of these people.” So she remained, and said to the household: “Why do you not put the loads on the carts?” They said: “Because our paralysed brother and blind sister lie sick in the carts.” When night came they ate and slept; but Brigid alone fasted and kept vigil. In the morning she poured the morning dew over the paralytic’s feet, and at once he rose up healed, and the blind woman received her sight. Then they put the loads on the carts and went on their way, giving thanks to God.

² As they walked on the road they saw a certain common man who was milking cows alone with great toil, and Brigid said: “Ask him why he labours alone without a helper.” He said: “Because my whole household is sick: forty sick people lie in one house.” Then Brigid told her girls to milk the cows with him. Then the man asked them to accept a meal for their labour. They accepted and ate by the bank of a river — all but Brigid alone, who was fasting. Then St Brigid blessed water and sprinkled the man’s house, and healed all the sick who lay in it.

³ From there they came by a straight road to a place called Tailtiu, where the holy bishop sat with an assembly of many bishops; and in that council a very grave question arose. A certain woman who had fallen into sin said that the infant she had borne belonged to a certain bishop of St Patrick’s disciples named Broon; but he denied it. Then all in the council, hearing of St Brigid’s wonders and works, said that this question could be resolved through her. So the woman with her infant in her bosom was brought to Brigid outside the council. Brigid said to her: “By whom did you conceive this infant?” She answered: “By Bishop Broon.” Brigid said: “I do not think so.” Then Brigid, humbling herself, said to St Patrick: “Father, it is yours to resolve this question.” Patrick answered: “My dearest daughter Brigid, it is for you to reveal it.” So St Brigid, signing that woman’s mouth with the sign of Christ’s cross — at once her whole head, with her tongue, swelled up; yet still she did not repent. Then Brigid blessed the infant’s tongue, saying to him: “Who is your father?” He answered, as he walked: “Bishop Broon is not my father, but a certain low and base man who sits at the far end of the council.” Then all gave thanks to God, Brigid was magnified, and the woman did penance.

⁴ As evening fell that day they all went off this way and that to the villages; but Brigid went with her people to the water. Then a certain common man invited her, saying: “I have a new house; I wish you to be the first to enter it with your people, to consecrate it.” St Brigid went with him and served him with the greatest joy — for he himself had seen the wonder Brigid had worked that day in the council — and food was set out. Then St Brigid said to her girls: “The Lord has shown me that this man is a heathen.” One of her companions answered: “What you say is true, for he has strongly resisted St Patrick and his disciples above all others, and refuses to be baptised.” Then Brigid said to him: “We cannot eat your food unless you are first baptised.” Then, stricken by God, he believed with his household, and was baptised by Bishop Broon, St Patrick’s disciple.

⁵ The next day Patrick said to Brigid: “From this day you are not permitted to travel without a priest; let a priest always be your charioteer.” And he ordained a priest named Natfrohic, who was St Brigid’s charioteer for the whole of her life. In those days a certain layman came to St Brigid carrying his paralysed mother on his shoulders; and when he reached the place where Brigid was in her chariot, he set his mother down on the ground beneath St Brigid’s shadow. And when she had touched the shadow, she rose up, saying: “I thank God, for when I touched your shadow, O saint of God, I was healed at once and feel no pain.”

⁶ About that time certain men came to St Brigid leading a demoniac bound in chains. When he learned that he was being taken to Brigid, he fell to the ground, saying: “You shall not carry me to Brigid.” They said to him: “Do you know the place where Brigid is sitting?” He answered: “I know it, and I knew it at once, and I will not go to her”; and he told them the very name of the place where Brigid was; and they could not move him from the ground. Then, taking counsel, some of them went to Brigid and begged her to come to him. Brigid came with them. And when the demon saw Brigid coming towards him from afar, it fled from the man — for whenever the demons saw from a distance that St Brigid was coming to their places, they feared and fled — and that man was made whole and gave thanks to God.

Chapter Six: Trust in God’s help, proved by various events #

¹ At that time St Brigid was lodging in the church of St Lasre; and one day at evening St Patrick came with a great crowd to lodge in that church. Then the household of the place was troubled, and said to Brigid: “What shall we do? We have no food for so great a crowd.” St Brigid said to them: “How much do you have?” They said: “We have only twelve loaves, a little milk, and one sheep which we cooked as food for you and yours.” Brigid said: “These will be sufficient for very many of us, for the holy Scriptures will be recited to us, through which we shall forget bodily food.” So from that little food the two peoples ate together, Patrick’s and Brigid’s, and were satisfied, and they left greater remains than the provisions had been before, as St Lasre attested.

² In the same place, while St Brigid was lodging there, a certain husband came asking St Brigid to bless water for him to sprinkle on his wife, for his wife hated him. So Brigid blessed the water, and in the wife’s absence the house was sprinkled with it, and the food and drink and the bed; and from that day she loved her husband with the greatest love as long as she lived.

³ In those days a certain virgin of God of the Uí Gais lineage came to St Brigid, seeking alms from every house. Brigid said to her: “You shall carry my cloak, or a cow lent me by someone.” She said: “It does me no good to receive these things, for robbers will come on the road and take them from me.” Brigid said: “You shall carry my girdle. For you told me that there are many diseases in your region; and through my girdle dipped in water, in the name of Jesus Christ you shall heal them, and they will give you food and clothing.” So she took the girdle, and first went to another sick boy whom his parents loved, and healed him; and good garments were given to her. And so she did through all the years of her life: she healed all sicknesses, received many rewards, bought fields with those rewards, became rich, and gave to the poor.

⁴ On the eve of a certain feast one of her disciples, whom Brigid had raised, came to her at Cell Rois, bringing her an alms. When she had presented the gift, she said: “I will return to my house, so that my parents may come to pray with you through this night; but I will remain to guard the house and cattle.” Brigid said: “Not so: you stay here, and let your parents come here; the Lord will guard your goods and house.” And the parents came, as she had said, and all celebrated the feast together at St Brigid’s. At midnight thieves came to their house, knowing the inhabitants had gone out to St Brigid, and stole the oxen. When they came to the river Liffey, they found the river full with a great flood of water, and could not drive the oxen across. When they had laboured through most of the night, they took counsel and bound all their clothes upon the oxen’s heads, and likewise their weapons, and turned back out of the middle of the river, carrying the spoils of their enemies upon their own heads, running through the plain of Liffey with the men naked behind them. So they did not return to their own house, but by a straight course came at first dawn to Brigid’s city; and many recognised the oxen and the thieves. Then the thieves gave praise to God and did penance before St Brigid in her city. And the common man went rejoicing with his oxen to his house and gave thanks to God.

⁵ Another girl too, before a certain feast day, came to St Brigid with an alms, and when her gift had been accepted she said: “I will go home, for I left in it no one but our fosterer, who is very old and paralysed, and there is no one to milk the cows or guard the house.” St Brigid said: “Stay here this night; God will guard your house, and the cows shall be milked.” So she stayed, and the next day, having received the Eucharist, she returned and found the cows and calves feeding apart in the fields, content and unwearied, and saw the old man unsleeping, who until then had not seen the night nor slept nor been aware of the passage of time, as if the girl had left him only that hour.

⁶ At that time St Brigid made a great feast in honour of the Lord’s solemnity, but she divided this feast among the poor. Her household was grieved at this; and the people came to the feast day as was their custom. Then Brigid prayed to the Lord. Look, in that same region a certain commoner, a very rich man, was carrying a feast to his king on a wagon for the feast day. He lost his way, a mist covered him, and he did not recognise the road he knew before, until by a straight course he arrived at St Brigid’s door. Learning this, St Brigid went out to meet him and asked about his journey. And he, moved by God, offered all these things to St Brigid, saying: “For this cause the Lord made me wander in my own country; I will make another feast for the king.” When the king heard this, he gave that commoner with all that was his to serve St Brigid for ever. The same king also sent another wagon full of food to St Brigid to supply the holy feast, by which the vast assembly of all the people was well satisfied.

⁷ A certain queen came to St Brigid with fine gifts, among which was a worked silver chain having the figure of a man at its top. The girls snatched away this chain and hid it in their treasury; but Brigid distributed everything to the poor. One day a poor man came to Brigid; and she, having nothing, went to the girls’ treasury, found the chain just mentioned, and gave it to the poor man. When the girls recognised it, they came to Brigid saying: “Through you we have lost what God sent us; for you give everything to the poor and leave us destitute.” Then Brigid said to them: “Seek at once for the chain where I continually pray in the church; perhaps you will find it there.” When they looked for it, they found a chain of the same form, and showed it to Brigid. Then Brigid said to them: “Did I not tell you, seek for it?” And the girls kept this chain with them always as a witness to the miracle, and never sold it.

Chapter Seven: Dangers of the road repelled, provisions multiplied from heaven #

¹ Bishop Conlaed, the prophet of God, who dwelt on the right side of the plain of Liffey, came in his chariot to St Brigid and stayed with her some days. One day, wishing to return to his own place, he said to Brigid: “Bless our chariot carefully”; and she blessed it. But the bishop’s charioteer, yoking the chariot, forgot to put the linchpins against the wheels. The chariot itself sped across the plain; and when, after a great part of the day, the bishop examined the chariot, he saw that it had no linchpins. Then he leapt from the chariot and, falling to the ground, gave thanks to God and blessed St Brigid, remembering her blessing.

² One day St Brigid came through the plain of Liffey with another holy virgin, both sitting in one chariot. The charioteer was preaching the word of God to them. Brigid said to him: “Do not preach to us with your face turned back; put your reins behind you. Our horses will go by the right road to our house.” And so it was done: the horses went the straight way through the plain. While the charioteer was preaching earnestly to the virgins, and they were listening with attentive ears and eager minds, one horse drew its head and neck from the yoke and walked free behind the chariot without their knowing. Then the king, who was sitting beside the road on a high place, said to all who sat around him marvelling: “Brigid sits in that chariot, heedless of horses, her mind fixed on the Lord alone.” Then the horse, hearing the cry of the admiring crowd, came to the chariot and itself put its neck under the yoke. Then the cry of the king and people was raised, the wondrous deed was spread through the whole region, and they glorified God and St Brigid.

³ A certain leper of the Uí Néill came to St Brigid asking her for a cow. She said to the herdsman: “Give him a cow.” The herdsman said: “Which cow shall I give him?” Then they chose the best calf and drove it off; and the best of the cows ran after it with a great moan, and they loved each other so much that scarcely anyone could separate them. The cow whose calf was taken away also loved another cow’s calf in return as her own. The leper said to Brigid: “I cannot drive the cow alone to my province.” Brigid said to her charioteer: “Go with the leper” — and at that hour the charioteer was cooking meat in a pot; the charioteer said: “Who will cook this meat?” Brigid said: “You yourself will come back to it quickly.” And it was fulfilled as she said. The charioteer went with the leper a journey of two days in one moment of time, and in that same moment at once returned, and found that same meat in the pot not yet cooked; and all marvelled that the charioteer could run a journey of two days in the space of one hour. But God granted this to St Brigid’s will.

⁴ At another time there was a scarcity of bread in the plain of Liffey, and Brigid was asked by her household for grain, and to go to the plain of Gesille to St Ibor the bishop, to beg crops from him. Brigid obeyed the will of those who asked, and set out on the way. St Ibor rejoiced with great joy at St Brigid’s coming, yet he had no food for the arriving guests except dry bread and pork. So Bishop Ibor and St Brigid ate bread and bacon together in the season of Lent before Easter. Two virgins of St Brigid’s company did not eat their portions of bacon, and those portions were turned into two serpents. When this was reported to St Brigid, she sharply rebuked those virgins before Bishop Ibor, ordered them to remain outside and fast with tears, and said: “Let us fast with them too, and pray to the Lord”; and so they did. And those two serpents were turned into two offerings at Easter and at Christmas. Bishop Ibor said to St Brigid: “For what reason have you come here in Lent?” Brigid answered: “To ask you for a supply of bread.” Then Bishop Ibor said with a smile: “O Brigid, if you could see and knew how few crops we have, you would not carry a small gift of grain away with you.” Brigid said: “I do not think so; twenty-four wagon-loads stand in your barn.” And so it grew by God’s will: Ibor had little, yet twenty-four wagon-loads were found there, as Brigid said. And they divided between them twelve wagon-loads for Ibor, and Brigid returned home with twelve wagon-loads.

Chapter Eight: Healing and various benefits given to lepers and other sick people #

¹ A certain king came to Brigid to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. When he had celebrated that night there, he rose very early to go to his home. They ran swiftly in chariots and on horseback. St Brigid, when the day’s solemnities were ended, came to table, and a generous meal was set before all. But a certain most arrogant leper, by the devil’s teaching, refused St Brigid’s food as was his custom, unless Brigid would give him the spear of the king just mentioned, who had returned home early that morning. Then everyone said to the leper: “You saw the spear yesterday; why did you not ask for it to be given you at once?” He said: “Because I began to covet it only today.” Then St Brigid and all begged him to eat, and did not prevail; and Brigid refused to take food until the stubborn leper should eat. Then Brigid sent riders after the king to ask him for his spear. They rode, and crossing a mountain found the king at the ford of a river, and made known their request. The king rejoiced and gave them his spear, saying: “If St Brigid had asked for all my weapons, she would have obtained them at once.” Then those riders sent by Brigid asked where the king had tarried from the start of the day until that hour. One of his companions said to them: “We did not tarry, but ran our course swiftly all the while. For we know that St Brigid held us back by God’s will, so that the leper’s urgent demand might be quickly answered.” Then all praised the Lord and Brigid; and the king went swiftly on his way, unlike before. And the messengers at once returned to Brigid with the king’s spear, and she gave thanks to God.

² When St Brigid was in a certain church and was sitting near the door of the place, she saw a man walking by the river bank, bent far over beneath a load. Taking pity on him, she said to the girls: “Let us go to the man and carry the load with him.” As they went, Brigid said to him: “Give us the load which weighs you down and bends you so low.” He answered: “It is not a load that bends me, but an old pain from my youth.” The man asked the virgin’s name, and was told that it was St Brigid. He said: “I thank God, for I have found the one I sought.” And he said to her: “I want you to fast day and night and ask God that my body may be made straight.” Brigid said: “Come to the guest-house and rest in it this night, and I will do what you wish.” So St Brigid fasted that night and prayed to the Lord for him. In the morning she went to the guest-house and said to the bent man: “Go to the river water and wash yourself in the Saviour’s name, and pray to God, and straighten your neck; and do not come out until I tell you.” And he did as she said, and was healed, and gave thanks to God who had set him upright after eighteen years bent double.

³ Afterwards St Brigid went with St Patrick the bishop to the northern part of Ireland. One day St Patrick was preaching the word of God to his people, but at that hour St Brigid fell asleep; and when she awoke, Patrick said to her: “O Brigid, why did you sleep during the word of Christ?” When she heard this, she bowed her knees asking pardon, saying: “Forgive me, Father; forgive me, holy lord. For in that hour I saw a dream.” And Patrick said: “Tell it to us.” Brigid said: “I your handmaid saw ploughs on the way ploughing this island, and sowers sowed a holy seed, and at once it grew and began to ripen, and streams of new milk filled the furrows; and those sowers were clothed in white garments. After this I saw other ploughs and black ploughmen, who overturned that good harvest and cut it with the ploughshare, and sowed tares, and rivers of water filled the furrows.” Patrick said: “O virgin, you have seen a true and wondrous vision. We are the good ploughmen who cleave human hearts with the ploughshares of the four Gospels, and sow the word of God and the milk of simple teaching. But at the end of the world evil teachers will come, consenting to evil men, who will overturn our teaching and lead astray almost everyone.”

⁴ Another day a leper came to St Brigid asking that his clothes be washed with her in the water; Brigid said to him: “I will do what you ask.” The leper said: “I have no other clothes until my own are washed.” Brigid said to one of her girls: “Give your garment to the leper until his clothes are cleansed.” But that girl, disobedient, was struck for the space of one hour with a foul stench and leprosy. Another girl gave her mantle to the leper. Then the leper, after he had taken off his own garments, was cleansed of his leprosy.

Chapter Nine: Deeds done in St Patrick’s presence; her burial foreseen by him #

¹ At that time St Brigid took possession of a church site with her girls, and then the hunger of Lent threatened from a scarcity of bread. One night eight thieves came to steal the four horses which Brigid had with her people. Then one of the virgins, who was without sleep, said to Brigid: “Our horses are being taken by theft.” Brigid said: “Let be; I am aware of it. There are more and stronger than they who will carry them off.” Then the thieves, having taken the four horses, went to the house of a man dwelling nearby among the common people, entered the barn, found in it forty measures of winnowed grain, stole the whole number of measures carrying them on the four horses and on their own shoulders, and came to the virgins’ dwelling — for they thought they had come to their own house — entered the little hut, tied up the horses in a hidden corner, and slept in a heavy sleep after their vigil. When morning came, look, the men from whom the grain had been stolen came to the virgins’ dwelling and said to Brigid: “Thieves have stolen our grain, and we tracked the thieves and horses right to your door. We beg you not to hide them.” Then Brigid went out to the thieves and roused them, saying: “Why have you brought your theft to us?” They said: “Because we thought we were coming to our own house.” Then St Brigid sent to St Patrick the bishop, who was staying nearby. Patrick came to them at once, the thieves were set free and did penance, and the others offered their grain to Brigid and her virgins, for they knew it had been given to the virgins by God.

² One day St Patrick was preaching the word of God to the crowds and to St Brigid. Then they saw a cloud of great brightness descending from heaven to earth on a dark rainy day, flashing with immense lightning; and it stood for a short while in a place near that crowd. And afterwards it went to the stronghold of Downpatrick, where Patrick is buried, and lingering longer there, it vanished. The crowds did not dare ask Bishop Patrick what that wondrous vision meant, but they asked St Brigid. Brigid said: “Ask Patrick.” Hearing this, Patrick said: “You and I are equal; reveal this mystery to them.” Brigid said: “The cloud, as we suppose, is the spirit of our father St Patrick, which has come to visit the places where his body will rest after his death and be buried. For his body will rest a little while in a nearby place, and afterwards will be carried to be buried in the stronghold of Downpatrick, and there his body will remain until the day of judgement.” Then Patrick said to Brigid that she should make with her own hands a linen sheet in which his body would be wrapped after his death, hoping that in that linen he would rise to eternal life; and so Brigid made the linen, and St Patrick’s body was wrapped in it and remains in place.

³ There was a certain noble, rich and good man in the plain of Meath who had a most severe sickness and pestilence, and could not be cured by physicians; and he sent to St Brigid to come to him, and she came. When she saw his house from afar, she stopped and said: “From whatever quarter the wind comes to this house, it brings a curse and sickness upon this man.” Hearing this, he said: “I have done no harm to any man, neither to clerics nor to craftsmen.” Then his herdsman said: “I have heard all those around you cursing you as with one voice, because your steward, fencing your fields with hedges, has changed all the roads for the inhabitants from level and straight into rough, uneven and thorny ones.” Hearing this, St Brigid said: “This is the cause of the sickness.” Then all the roads were changed back into level ways, and all wayfarers blessed him. And the man was healed, and gave thanks to God and Brigid.

⁴ One day St Brigid was sitting at the side of the fortress of Emain with her girls, and saw two men carrying a vessel full of water. When they came near, they asked Brigid to bless the water, and she blessed the water and the men. As they went on, it happened that the vessel fell to the ground on its side, yet the vessel was not broken nor the water spilt which St Brigid had blessed. And St Patrick ordered that water to be kept and divided among all the churches of that region, to be added to the Eucharist of Christ’s blood, and for the sick to be sprinkled with that water for their healing. And so it was done; and they praised the Lord and Brigid.

⁵ St Brigid also sent to St Patrick asking him to preach the word of God to her. While he with his disciples and she with her girls were gathered together, Patrick did not cease speaking for three days and nights, nor did the sun set for them, but all supposed it had been a single hour. A certain ignorant man coming from elsewhere approached and said to St Patrick: “Why do you sit here so long?” Patrick answered: “What hour of the day is it now?” He answered: “You have been here three days.” Patrick said: “We should have been here forty days and nights unless someone had come from outside; we would have felt no weariness or hunger, by the gift of divine grace.” Then they returned to their own places.

Chapter Ten: Offspring for the queen, and safety and victory obtained for Duke Conall #

¹ After all this St Brigid came to the plain of Brega; and while she dwelt there in the church, the wife of King Conall’s son came to her to beg her prayers, for she was barren, and she brought a silver flask with her. Yet Brigid did not go out to greet her outside the church, but sent a girl. Then the girl said to Brigid: “Why do you not ask the Lord for the queen to have a son, when you so often ask for the wives of common folk?” Brigid said: “Because all the common folk serve God, and all call upon the Father. But the sons of kings are serpents, sons of bloodshed and sons of death, except a few chosen by God. Yet since the queen has adjured us, go and tell her that she shall have offspring, but a bloody one of accursed stock, and it shall hold sway over many kings.” And so it came to pass.

² One day a certain madman met St Brigid, running from place to place in a frenzy, who used to afflict everyone passing through those parts; and St Brigid said to him: “Preach the word of the Lord Jesus Christ to me.” The madman said: “O virgin Brigid, I will fulfil your bidding. Love God, and all will love you; honour God, and all will honour you; fear God, and all will fear you.” And when he had said this, he fled with a cry.

³ At that time Conall son of Niall came to Brigid as she was walking on the road, and said to her: “O holy virgin Brigid, bless me carefully, lest my brother Corpreus, who hates me, kill me.” Brigid said: “I will bless you. Let your household go ahead and we will follow them, for it is not fitting that we walk with them.” So they went ahead. And as they were all climbing the hill, one of the virgins said to Brigid: “Alas, Brigid, what shall we do? See, Corpreus is coming after us, and these two brothers will now kill each other.” Brigid said: “Our God will not let it be so.” And when Corpreus came up he said: “O holy Brigid, bless me, for in these parts I fear my brother Conall.” Then they all passed by one another, and did not recognise each other; God blinded their eyes so that they would not know one another, for St Brigid’s sake. And Brigid blessed them, and Conall and Corpreus kissed each other, not knowing who they were. And each went on his way, and all magnified the name of God and of Brigid.

⁴ Again at another time the same Conall came to St Brigid surrounded by his satellites bearing malign marks upon their brows, and said to Brigid: “We need your blessing, for we wish to go into distant regions so that these bonds of ours may be loosed — for bloodshed means the slaying and killing of enemies.” Brigid said: “I ask my almighty God that you put off these marks of the devil, as you wish, and that you be harmed in nothing and harm no one.” And Christ swiftly fulfilled this desire. For they went into the region of the Cruthin, attacked a fort there and burned it, as it seemed to them; and they thought they had killed and beheaded many men, and came back to their country with shouting and great jubilation and the heads of enemies. But when day dawned, they saw no heads or blood, and no gore appeared on their clothes or weapons; and they said to one another in amazement: “What has happened to us? Where are the things we saw?” Then they sent envoys to the fort they had burned, to ask what had happened there. The envoys asked the inhabitants of the fort: “Has anything new happened to you?” They said: “No, except that we found charred stubble this morning, and the fort demolished, and stones carried together from the shores on all sides; but we saw no one, nor do we know who did this.” The envoys returned and reported this to Conall.

⁵ Then Conall and his men put off their marks, and did not come against God and Brigid any more. This pleased Brigid, and she said to Conall: “Because you have put off your marks for my sake, in whatever peril you call upon me, I will defend you and you shall escape unharmed.” And this promise was fulfilled. For at the year’s end Conall went out with a great army into the regions of his enemies, made a very great slaughter there, and returned to his country in great triumph. When he was weary, he entered a certain fort. Then his companions said to him: “If we stay in this place, our enemies will come and kill us.” Conall said: “I am weary and cannot go on. St Brigid promised me that she would defend me in every peril. I believe what she promised is true; I commit myself and my companions into her hands this night.” At once that night the enemies came after them, and when they had come near the fort where Conall was, they sent three men to spy out the fort; and they entered the fort and saw there a great company sitting in clerical habit, with a fire in their midst and open books before them — for the army had set the heads down in such a way that each man had a head placed before him, and so the men appeared to be clerics examining open books. And those spies returned reporting these things. Again they sent three other shrewder men, and they likewise saw clerics with open books, as the first had seen. Then the enemy army returned to its own region, and the envoys came back to report to Conall, who had brought back the heads.

Chapter Eleven: Slaughters prevented, superstition condemned, and other miracles #

¹ Another time St Brigid was asked to go to a king who was in the plain of Brega and free a man who was in chains with the king. Brigid said to the king: “Release the chained man to me, and I will give you a price for him.” The king answered: “If you gave me the whole plain of Brega, I would not release him, but would have him slain at once.” Brigid scarcely obtained that his life be granted for one night. That night Brigid sat in a nearby place with the prisoner’s kinsfolk and friends, without sleep. His companions said to the king: “Unless the prisoner is killed tonight, he cannot be killed tomorrow, for Brigid will free him. We have formed a plan to seize him by force from your hands and kill him without your knowledge; and you will be blameless.” But Brigid knew of this deceit, and so at the beginning of the night a vision appeared to the prisoner: he saw Brigid standing by him, saying: “See, wicked men are planning to kill you tonight. When they drag you off to be slain, call on my name again and again; and when the chain is taken from your neck so that you may be slain, turn aside to us on the right and you will find us at once.” The man kept vigil, and at once they came and seized the prisoner from the king’s hands and loosed the chain to slay him. But he escaped free and went to Brigid; while they, as they supposed, killed the man and cut off his head. The next day no head or gore appeared. Then all marvelled, astonished. At sunrise Brigid sent to the king that the prisoner be released to her. The king, hearing this, repented and released the prisoner free.

² One day certain idle and worthless men came to Brigid bearing devilish marks on their heads, seeking someone to slay, and asked to be blessed by Brigid; and she asked them in turn to lift a heavy burden with their hands. But they said: “We cannot put off our marks unless someone holds them, lest they fall to the ground.” And she accepted them, and marvelled much at the shapes of the signs, and signed them with Christ’s seal. Then they went on their way. Seeking to shed blood, they found a certain commoner, slew him and beheaded him. But that commoner went home unharmed, and they sought his head, body or blood and found nothing, saying to one another: “For St Brigid’s sake we kill, and do not kill, a man.” And this deed was made known through the whole region. And they abandoned their marks, glorifying God and magnifying St Brigid.

³ A certain king with women came to St Brigid in the plain of Liffey to be blessed by her, and she blessed him earnestly. When the king had gone back on his way, on the following night, wearied by the journey, he slept with all his companions and guards. Then a man who was the king’s enemy came and entered the fort and the house, and holding a candle from the candlestick, sought the king and found him sleeping; and seizing the king’s own sword above the pillow beside him, he drove the sword into his heart three times and at once fled. Then all rose feeling the flow of blood, and made a great lament, thinking the king was dead. But the king was sleeping in a deep sleep, and afterwards, waking, he comforted them, and having been only slightly wounded, remained unharmed, saying: “St Brigid’s blessing, with which she blessed me today, protected me.” The next day he came to St Brigid with many gifts, and she made peace between the king and the enemy who had slain him — or sought to — and between their kindreds for ever, God granting it through St Brigid’s merits.

⁴ Afterwards St Brigid wished to go into the regions of Munster on pilgrimage with Bishop Erc, a disciple of St Patrick, for Erc’s kindred was of Munster. When they had set out on the way, Brigid said to Bishop Erc: “Show me, venerable father, under what part of the sky your people dwell.” And when he had shown her, Brigid said to him: “Now a battle is being waged there between one people and another.” Erc said: “I believe what you say is true, for when I came here from them, I left them quarrelling.” Brigid said: “Your people are now being put to flight.” Then one of Erc’s household rebuked her, saying: “How can you see a battle across such great stretches of land?” Bishop Erc rebuked him, lest he blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and said to Brigid: “I beg you, sign my eyes and this boy’s, that we may see what you see.” Then she signed their eyes, and they saw the battle with their own eyes. Then the boy said to the bishop in a tearful voice: “Alas, alas, my lord! Even now, before my eyes, my two brothers are being beheaded.”

⁵ Afterwards they went on their chosen way to the mountain, and on the road Brigid and the bishop suffered hunger and thirst, worn out with great weariness; and one of the boys said: “Whoever gave us comfort would do a great mercy.” Brigid answered: “With eager heart I wish to bring you comfort. If then you wish to be filled with food and drink, wait here for the Saviour’s help: I see a house in which an alms is being prepared to be offered to a church in God’s house; it will come here this hour. See, the meal is even now ready in their packs.” While she was still speaking, those carrying the alms arrived. And they, recognising that Bishop Erc and St Brigid were sitting there suffering from hunger, rejoiced greatly and offered them their alms, saying: “Accept the alms which God has sent you, for we have no better church than you.” Then they gave thanks to God and ate there; but they had no drink. Brigid said: “Dig the earth nearby.” And digging, they found a clear spring, and that spring remains there to this day under Brigid’s name. Then all glorified God and St Brigid.

⁶ Then they came to the Plain of Femen, and there found a great synod, and were detained in the synod for some days. The bishop told the synod of Brigid’s many miracles. Then a grievous pestilence was ravaging the people, and all begged Brigid to visit the sick. The bishop said: “The saint of God shall not enter plague-stricken places, but bring your sick to her.” Then they brought to her the lame and lepers and demoniacs and all the sick, and Brigid healed them all in the name of Jesus Christ.

Chapter Twelve: The stubborn repressed; others rescued from dangers #

¹ Afterwards St Brigid went to another man who lived near the sea, not far from the place where Bishop Erc dwelt; and she remained with her girls there some years, as is told. Not far from them dwelt a certain anchorite who shunned the faces of women, wholly devoted to God and perfect. Afterwards that anchorite wished to go to an island, and entering upon his way he found Brigid near the place. The anchorite’s companions said: “Let us go to St Brigid so that she may bless us.” The anchorite answered: “Do you know my vow, that I will see no woman?” Then they rose from the seats where they had been sitting while speaking this, and forgot all their loads on the road, and came a whole day’s journey. When evening came they sat in a lodging, and then remembered their loads and said: “We lost our loads because we did not turn aside to Brigid to bless us; for this fault we shall fast this night.” In the morning they returned to Brigid, and found their loads in her house. For Brigid had ordered her girls, saying: “Go and bring in the loads of God’s servants which are on the road near us, lest they be lost.” So when they returned to Brigid, they spent three days and nights in God’s praises and in the preaching of God’s word. Then the anchorite and his men went on their way, and Brigid went with them. Seeing their heavy loads, St Brigid took pity on them. At that hour they saw two horses coming down to them from the mountain, and they put their loads upon them. And when they had nearly reached the end of the journey, Brigid said to them: “Let the horses go which you have kept.” Then the horses fled, and none of them knew from where they were or whose they had been.

² Brigid returned to her house, and the anchorite went to his island; but a certain layman entered that island with his wife, sons and daughters. The anchorite, shunning the sight of a woman, asked the layman to leave the island, but did not obtain it, for the layman said he had a field on that island by paternal inheritance. Then the anchorite sent to Brigid to come to him. She came, and fasting, asked the layman, but could not obtain it. The next day a great eagle came and snatched that layman’s infant. His wife, weeping and wailing, came to Brigid; and Brigid said to her: “Do not weep, for the infant lives; the eagle has set it down on a shore above the ground.” Then the wife went out and so found the infant, came to Brigid, and repented. But the layman remained stubborn and dwelt by the shore. The next day a wind suddenly came and carried him gently across the sea to the nearest harbour. Then that layman, stricken in heart, did penance and vowed himself to God and Brigid, that he would not enter the island again unless the anchorite permitted him.

³ Another day religious guests came to the sea-shore. Then Brigid said to a man of her household who was a fisherman and used to spear seals: “Go to the sea in case you can bring something for the guests.” He went out and took his sea-spear with him. At once a seal met him; he hurled the spear and fixed it in the seal. A rope hung from the spear, which was fixed in the head, and the rope became entangled around the man’s hands. The grievously wounded seal dragged the man with it in his boat across the sea, and did not stop until it came straight to the shores of Britain; then the rope was cut against the rocks of the shore and the man remained in his boat on the shore. The seal returned with the spear into the sea and came by a straight course to the shore of the place where St Brigid was, and there died. That man, by a prosperous voyage, reached his boat at the sixth hour, found the seal dead with the spear on the shore, returned home, and there recounted his voyage. Then all gave thanks to God and to Brigid.

⁴ Afterwards St Brigid came with her girls to the plain of Cliu and dwelt there in a certain place. Then a slave-girl came fleeing to Brigid from her mistress. The mistress followed her, wishing to take her back. Brigid begged the mistress to release the slave-girl, but the mistress would not, for the slave-girl wove many garments. Then the mistress seized her slave-girl’s hand and dragged her violently from Brigid’s side, and this displeased Brigid. And when they had gone a little way from St Brigid, the mistress’s right hand, with which she had seized the slave-girl’s hand, withered. Seeing that she could not move her hand, the mistress wept and did penance, released the slave-girl free to Brigid, and was healed.

⁵ St Brigid was asked to go to a king in the plain of Cliu to free a man who was in chains with the king. Brigid went and entered the king’s house, and did not find the king at home, but his friends were there — that is, the man who had fostered the king, with his wife and sons; and Brigid saw harps in the house and said: “Play your harps for us.” The king’s friends answered: “There are no harpers in this house now; they have gone away.” Then another man who was among St Brigid’s companions said jestingly to his friends: “Play the harps for us yourselves, and St Brigid will bless your hands so that you can fulfil what she commands you; obey her voice.” The king’s friends said: “Let us do so; may Brigid bless us.” Then they took up the harps, and the untaught played as harpers. Then the king came to his house, heard the sound of the music, and said: “Who makes this music?” One answered him: “Your foster-father and foster-mother with their sons, at Brigid’s bidding.” The king entered the house and asked to be blessed by Brigid; and Brigid said to him: “You in turn release the chained man to me.” Then the king freely gave her the prisoner. And the king’s friends were harpers until the day of their death, and their seed for many generations were held in honour by kings.

⁶ Two lepers came to St Brigid asking to be made whole. Then St Brigid prayed, blessed water, and told them to wash each other in the holy water; and so it was done. At once one was healed, and put on his washed clothes. Brigid said to him: “Now you wash your companion.” But he, seeing that he was cleansed and had clean clothes, refused to touch the other’s leprosy, boasting of his own healing. Brigid said to him: “What you wished him to do for you, you ought likewise to do for him.” But he refused and contradicted. Then Brigid rose and washed the leper herself and gave him clean clothes. But the one healed first said: “Now I feel sparks of fire upon my shoulders.” And at once his whole body was struck with leprosy because of his pride, while the other was healed because of his humility. And rejoicing, he gave thanks to God who had healed him through St Brigid’s merits.

⁷ One day St Brigid was walking with her virgins in a country place and saw a young scholar running swiftly, and said to him: “Young man, where are you running so fast?” He answered: “I am running to the kingdom of God.” Brigid said to him: “Would that I might deserve to run with you to the kingdom of God; pray for me that I may be able to.” The scholar answered: “You ask God that my course not be hindered, and I will pray for you in turn, that you and a thousand companions with you may go to the kingdom of God.” Then St Brigid prayed to God for the young man, and in those days he did penance and was a religious until his death.

⁸ Then two lepers came to Brigid seeking alms. She had nothing to give them; she gave them the one cow she had. One of them gave thanks to God, but the other was proud and ungrateful, saying: “Unless the cow is given to me alone, I will not take a half share of it.” Then Brigid said to the humble leper: “Wait here with me a little for what the Lord may send us, and let the proud one have the cow.” Then he went out with the cow, but alone he could not drive it. At last, wearied with labour, he returned to Brigid and reviled St Brigid with many reproaches, saying: “Because you did not give your cow from the heart, I could not drive it alone; you are too hard and cruel.” But St Brigid tried to console him, and could not soothe him; and this displeased St Brigid, and she said to him: “You are a son of perdition; you shall drive the cow, yet it shall not profit you.” That same day a man came to St Brigid with a cow as an offering, and then the two lepers drove the two cows and came to a stretch of water; and that river swept the proud one with his cow into the deep, and he was swallowed up, nor was his body ever found; but the humble one escaped with his cow.

⁹ Afterwards St Brigid came into the plain of Cliu in the borders of Leinster, to help the poor of her own seed there. When she came in her chariot through the plain of Femen, they found a man fencing a field, and Brigid’s charioteer said: “Allow us to let St Brigid pass in the chariot through your field, and afterwards you may enclose your field with the hedge.” The man answered: “No; go around the field.” Then Brigid said: “Let us do as he said, lest any offence befall because of that man.” But the charioteer forced the horses through the fence. Seeing this, the man in a fury struck the horses’ nostrils; and as the horses reared, St Brigid and the charioteer fell from the chariot and were hurt, and the horses stood in one place. Then Brigid said: “Did I not tell you we should avoid this man, because I saw he was a man of pestilence and death?” Then the man set about the work he had begun, making light of the crime he had committed, and at once fell to the ground and died.

Chapter Thirteen: Provisions obtained for the needy, and lost travellers helped #

¹ So St Brigid came to the furthest borders of Leinster and entered the province of Labraid, and dwelt in a certain place there. Then a woman came to her with her leprous daughter to be healed by her. Then Brigid fasted in prayer, blessed water, and ordered the leprous girl to be sprinkled with the water; and at once she was cleansed of her leprosy, and gave thanks to God and Brigid.

² Certain religious men came to Brigid and preached the word of God. Afterwards Brigid said to her cook: “Prepare the best meal for the guests.” The cook answered: “What meal shall I give them?” Brigid said: “Give them bread and butter and cups and many dishes.” The cook answered: “I will do so, but you go out to the church first.” For the cook had none of the things she had said. Brigid said to the cook: “Sweep the kitchen floor, shut it, go to your house and pray in it, and I will go to the church.” At the sixth hour Brigid called out and said to her: “It is time for the guests to be refreshed; go to the kitchen, and whatever you find in it, give to them generously.” Then the cook, opening the kitchen, found all the foods Brigid had spoken of; and those foods did not fail for seven days, and sufficed for the guests and for all Brigid’s household; and no one knew from where those foods were or who brought them, except Brigid and her cook.

³ Another time a company of virgins came to Brigid having a question, and said to her: “Why are there no water-plants in this place, which holy men are accustomed to use?” For this cause St Brigid prayed to the Lord the following night. In the morning the girls rose and saw springs beyond all measure abounding in those plants; and passing through long stretches of country, they found in those places a great abundance of those plants which had never been seen in those places before; and God granted it to her as she had asked.

⁴ As St Brigid’s fame grew through many regions, certain men came to her from afar, bearing gifts to her in chariots and on horses; but by chance they came into dense woods, night fell upon them, and not knowing the way they wandered in the woods and could not carry the chariots through the wood. Then St Brigid knew of their trouble, prayed to the Lord for them, and said to her girls: “Light a fire and heat water for the guests.” That night was very dark. Then the chief of those travelling men saw a great lamp going before them on the way, until they reached the house. Then Brigid went out to meet them, and together they gave thanks to God, and remained there three days praising the Lord. Afterwards those men returned by the same road by which they had come on that night, and saw the rough and uneven places, and could not carry the chariots on their shoulders, and escaped with the greatest labour; for no skilled man knew there to be a way in those places, but Christ on that night made those places level and bright because of St Brigid’s prayer.

⁵ In like manner a certain bishop named Broon, whom we mentioned above, came to St Brigid with womenfolk, chariots, horses, and a great company of attendants. They too came into dense woods and wandered not knowing the way, as we have described. Then a wintry night fell upon them. St Brigid, knowing this, said to her girls: “Let us pray to the Lord for the guests who are struggling on their way to us, that God may pity their troubles. I am about to tell a wonderful thing.” Then those guests, right in the middle of the road, suddenly saw Brigid’s place, as they thought, and saw Brigid coming joyfully with her girls to meet them in peace. She at once led them into a great house with their chariots and horses, took off their shoes, washed their feet, refreshed them with abundance of food, set the guests on spread beds, and did everything that guests need for them, Brigid with her girls — as they perceived it. In the morning Brigid said to her girls: “Let us hasten to meet the guests who are wandering near us and spent this night in the wood.” Then they hurried, and found the guests sitting in the wood, and with great joy led them into their house and fulfilled all the offices of hospitality which had been shown to the guests in the night, and together they gave thanks to God.

⁶ The holy bishop Broon returned to his own region and carried chrism with him from St Brigid. He dwelt near the sea; and one day the bishop was working on the sea-shore with one boy, and the chrism was set upon a rock on the shore, and the sea came in to its fullness. Then the boy remembered the chrism and wept. The bishop said: “Do not weep, for I believe St Brigid’s chrism will not perish.” And so it proved: the chrism was dry upon the rock, unchanged by the sea’s waves; and when the sea receded they found it just as it had been placed.

Chapter Fourteen: The protection and closeness of her guardian angel; victories promised to a generous king #

¹ Afterwards St Brigid came to the house of her father Dubtach, wishing to visit her parents after a long time; and her father rejoiced greatly at her coming, and asked her to remain in his house that night, and she remained. That night the angel of the Lord came and woke Brigid; coming again he woke her; and the third time he roused her somewhat more heavily, saying: “Rise quickly and wake your father, his household and your girls, for enemies are approaching and mean to kill your father with his household; but because of you God does not wish it. Go out now, for this house will be burned at once.” And when they had all gone out, the enemies came at once and set fire to the house. Then her father said: “O holy Brigid, your blessing guarded us this night from present death.” Brigid said to him: “Not only this night, but until old age, no blood shall be shed in your dwelling.” For when someone wished to strike a certain virgin, his outstretched hand went rigid and he could not draw it back until he let the virgin go.

² The next day one of her girls said to St Brigid: “Would that the angel always helped you as he did last night.” Brigid said: “Not that night only, but through my whole life I have his help in everything. For every day he brings me joy, since through him I daily hear the sounds of heavenly songs and the spiritual singing of organs; the Masses of the saints which are celebrated for the Lord far away in the world I can hear daily through him as though I were near; and he offers my prayers to God night and day, and always hears me whether present or absent. I will now show you this by two examples. Once a certain leprous and sick woman asked me to bring her water and minister to her mercifully in other needs. So I blessed a vessel of water and gave it to her, saying: ‘Set it between you and the wall, and let no one but you touch it until I return.’ And my angel blessed that water in my presence, and it was turned into every flavour the leper wanted: when she desired honey, the water had the taste of honey; when wine or ale or milk or other liquors, the same water was changed into their flavours according to the sick woman’s wish. Again, when I was a little girl, I made a stone altar in childish play, and the angel of the Lord came and pierced the stone at the four corners and fitted four wooden feet beneath it. These two things about my angel I have shown you, girl, so that you may glorify our Lord.”

³ At that time St Brigid’s father asked her to go to the king of Leinster, so that the sword which that king had given her father for a time might be given him for ever. So St Brigid went to the king in the plain of Liffey. While she sat at the gate of his city, one of the king’s servants came to her, saying: “If you free me from this king’s yoke, I will be your servant for ever with all that is mine, and I and my kinsfolk will be Christians.” Brigid said to him: “I will ask for you.” Then Brigid was called to the king, and the king said to her: “O Brigid, what do you want from me?” She said: “That your sword be given to my father, and that you release to me one of your servants.” The king said to her: “What will you give me for these two great requests?” Brigid said: “If you wish, I will give you eternal life, and your seed shall be kings for ever.” The king said: “I do not seek a life I cannot see, and I do not care about the sons who will come after me; but give me two other things: that I may be long-lived in this present life which I love, and be victor in every place and battle. For we have constant war against the Uí Néill.” Brigid said to him: “These two things shall be given you: long life and victory in every battle.” Not long after, he went out with few men into the plain of Brega; and when he saw the multitude of enemies, he said to his men: “Call on Brigid for help, that the saint may fulfil her promises.” And they cried out to heaven. Then at once the king saw St Brigid going before him with her staff in her right hand, and a column of fire burned from her head up to heaven. Then the enemies were turned to flight. And the king with his household gave thanks to God and Brigid. Afterwards that king fought thirty battles and won them all, and waged nine campaigns in Britain prosperously, and rewards were given him by many kings to fight alongside them, for he was invincible. And it came to pass after his death that the men of Leinster took counsel, saying: “Let us set the dead body of our king among us in the chariot and fight around the corpse against the enemies”; and so they did. Then the Uí Néill were put to flight, for the divine gift given through St Brigid remained in the king.

Chapter Fifteen: Rapture, knowledge of hidden things, and the miraculous crossing of rivers #

¹ Another day a certain holy man came to the house where Brigid was praying alone, and found her standing with her hands stretched out to heaven in prayer, seeing and hearing nothing else. At that very hour a great clamour of the inhabitants of that place sounded, for the calves rushed at the cows just then; but the saint did not hear it, her mind rapt in God. So the man left her at that hour, lest he disturb her prayer. At another hour he returned to her and said: “O saint of God, why did you not run at the people’s cry?” She said: “I did not hear that cry.” The man said: “What then?” Brigid answered: “In the city of Rome, beside the bodies of Peter and Paul, I heard Masses, and I long greatly that the order and whole rule of that rite be brought to me from Rome.” Then Brigid sent wise men, and they brought the Masses and rule from there. Again, after a little while, Brigid said to those men: “I perceive that certain people have altered the Masses in Rome since you came from there; go out again.” And they went and brought back what they found.

² One rainy day Brigid came to her house. When the rain ceased, a ray of sun came into the house through the wall, and Brigid put her garment upon that ray, thinking it was a rope. Then another was preaching the word of God in that house, and Brigid was intent upon the word of God, and until evening and through a great part of the night her mind was made drunk with the word of God, and she forgot present things. But that ray, on which Brigid had put her garment, remained until midnight. Then one of those who were in the house said to Brigid: “Take your garment off the sunbeam.” She said: “I thought it was a rope, not a ray.” Others also came that night to the plain of Liffey and said they had seen that ray lighting up the plain until they came to St Brigid at midnight. Then all gave thanks to God and praised St Brigid.

³ Afterwards St Brigid went on pilgrimage in a certain region with companions travelling with her, and they dwelt in the plain of Au. One day she went to the altar to receive the Eucharist from the bishop’s hand; and looking at the chalice, she saw in it a wondrous apparition — that is, she saw the shadow of a he-goat in the chalice. One of the bishop’s boys was holding the chalice. Then Brigid refused to drink from that chalice. The bishop said to her: “Why do you not drink from this chalice?” And Brigid revealed to him what she had seen in the chalice. Then the bishop said to the boy: “What have you done? Give glory to God.” The boy confessed that he had committed theft among the goats, had killed one of the he-goats and eaten part of it. The bishop said to him: “Do penance and pour out tears with weeping.” And he obeyed the command and did penance. Then Brigid, being called, came to the chalice and saw nothing of the goat in it. For his tears had loosed the fault.

⁴ Another time in the same region a certain decrepit old woman was sick to death, and all the virgins of that place came to her to keep vigil and pray with her in the house, and St Brigid came with them. Then one of the virgins said: “Let the garments be taken off her, lest she die in them, and lest we labour washing them in the time of snow and cold.” St Brigid forbade this, saying: “She will be with us a little while; do a kindness for this short hour.” But as the old woman’s soul left her body, the garments were seen outside the house, and no one saw who carried them out. For the charity in Brigid’s heart wished both things: that the sick old woman not be stripped of her clothes in the great cold, and that the washers not labour; she freed both from the cold. Then all praised God and St Brigid.

⁵ While St Brigid was dwelling there in a certain church, she frequented a pool of water. One night, when there was snow and ice, Brigid came to the pool with a girl while all were asleep, and was in the pool that night praying and weeping; and what she did once that night she wished to do every night and make a habit of it. But Christ’s mercy did not suffer this to be done longer. On another night they found the pool dry without water, and found nothing but sand. But at the first hour of the day, coming to the pool, they found it full of water as it always was; likewise on the second night the pool again dried up, while by day it was full, so that God might make known to all the great power of the virgin Brigid.

⁶ Then a great question arose among the men of Leinster about the saint’s absence, that she should return to her own people. So Brigid came with them. When they came to the river Sinn, they found crowds sitting near the ford on both banks — the peoples of the Uí Néill and of Connacht. Then St Brigid’s girls asked everyone to carry them across the river, and did not obtain it. But a certain most wicked man said to them: “Give me one of your cloaks and I will carry you across the river in my boat.” The girls said: “No; we will now go into the river, and St Brigid’s blessing will guard us.” At that hour the girls said to St Brigid: “Sign this river in the name of Jesus Christ, that it may become gentler and lower for us.” Then St Brigid blessed the river and, with the two peoples standing by as we said, entered the river with her girls; and the channel of the mighty river, which even the strongest men could not cross without a boat, did not reach the virgins’ knees. So all praised God and St Brigid. And before St Brigid entered the river with her girls, other clerics had gone in on a little raft — men who confessed their unskilfulness in sailing — and they said to Brigid: “This raft could carry one of your girls with us.” Then Brigid ordered one of her girls to go before her with them across the river. The girl said: “Bless me carefully, for I fear to be parted from you on the river.” Brigid said: “Go in peace; the Lord guard you.” Then they sailed, and in the middle of the river the boat sank under the water in the sight of all. But the girl, set in peril, cried out the name of St Brigid for help; and Brigid blessed her and prayed for her as she sat upon the waters. And the water carried her on her seat to the harbour with her garments dry. Then all confessed the wondrous almighty God through the holy virgin Brigid.

⁷ When St Brigid had come to her own country, she was received with great honour and the joy of all the people. At a certain time the virgins of Brigid lacked bread in the place where they dwelt. Then a man who dwelt in the eastern part of the plain of Liffey, a good and generous man, came to Brigid and said to her: “Let your girls come with me to bring you some measures of flour.” So the girls went with him, and afterwards returned from him with loads. When they came to the river Liffey they found it full beyond its banks; there was a great abundance of water, and they could not cross through the swelling waves. Then the virgins, bewildered, did not know what to do. So they prostrated themselves on the ground by the river bank and called upon St Brigid for help with one voice. And at once they were carried across together from the place where they were to the other bank of that river with their loads; but how or in what manner they were carried across they did not know. Then the girls came to St Brigid and told of the miracle that had been done for them; and she ordered them to tell no one of it — yet it could not be hidden.

Chapter Sixteen: The fruit of temptation overcome; various miracles in bringing help to the wretched #

¹ St Brigid had a certain foster-daughter named Darlugdach, who one day, not keeping a good guard on her eyes, saw a man and desired him, and he likewise loved her. Then one night the virgin arranged to meet that man — and that night this virgin was in the bed with St Brigid. When St Brigid had slept a little, the virgin rose; and as she left the bed, a wondrous tumult of thoughts rushed upon her, and she had a great struggle in her heart of fear and love. For she feared God and St Brigid, and was burning with the fierce fire of love for the man. So she prayed to the Lord to help her in such straits. Then she found good counsel from God: she filled her two shoes with coals of fire and plunged her feet into them. And so it came to pass that fire extinguished fire and pain overcame pain. Then she returned to the bed. Blessed Brigid perceived all this but kept silent, so that the girl might be tempered and proved a little. The next day the girl confessed her sin. Brigid said to her: “Because you fought like a soldier this night and burned your feet in the present, the fire of fornication shall not harm you again in the present, nor shall the fire of hell burn you in the future.” Then Blessed Brigid healed her feet so that no sign of burning appeared on them.

² Another day St Brigid called her reapers to her harvest; and on that very day there was great rain, and rain poured abundantly over the whole province, yet her harvest alone was dry without the hindrance of rain. And while all the reapers of that region were kept from their work by the rain, her reapers, without any shadow of gloom, worked the whole day from sunrise to sunset by God’s power, without ceasing, in serenity.

³ Another day, when three bishops had arrived and were lodging with her, St Brigid, having nothing with which to feed them, was helped by God’s manifold power and milked one cow, contrary to custom, three times in one day; and what is usually drawn from the best three cows, she wondrously drew from one cow. A certain boy, knowing of this cow, asked St Brigid to give it to him, and so she did. And after he had driven it off, it became like other cows: as other cows were, so was that cow.

⁴ One day a woman came to St Brigid, saying to her: “What shall I do with my son? His father wants to kill him because of the blindness he suffers — for he has been blind from birth, with a flattened face.” Then Brigid, pitying the woman, ordered the boy’s face to be washed in nearby water. And at once the boy was healed; he was called Cretanus, and the people of that place said he had eye-pain until death — yet he always had sound eyes.

⁵ Another day a lively fellow in the guise of a pauper came to St Brigid, knowing she was merciful to the poor, and with jesting words asked her for a wether from the flock; and she gave him one. And he came again seven times, and seven wethers, asking in the Lord’s name, he obtained from her by cunning in the guise of a pauper, as he wished. But when evening came and the flock was counted, the full number was found; again, when the seven wethers were added to the flock, no more than the fixed number was found. At another time lepers asked Blessed Brigid for ale. Seeing that she had no ale, she blessed water brought for the bath, turned it into the finest ale, and gave it generously to the thirsty. Another time St Brigid, by God’s most potent power, blessed a certain woman’s swollen womb; and the conception vanishing, she restored her, sound and without childbirth or pain, to penance. And she was healed and thanked God. One day when someone came to Blessed Brigid asking for salt, she, having no salt at hand, took a stone, blessed it, made salt of it, and gave generously to the one who asked; and she sent him home with joy.

⁶ Another time St Brigid lost a large piece of bacon along with other meat. When that piece was sought, it was found, a month later, nowhere else but in the place where the dog used to be, untouched and whole. For the dog had not dared to eat Blessed Brigid’s deposit, but proved a sparing and fit guardian of the bacon, contrary to its usual habit, restrained and tamed by divine power. Another day, when a poor man in need of food begged her, she went to the man who had cooked the meat to seek something for the poor man. But that most foolish servant who had cooked the meat threw a piece of not yet cooked flesh into his mistress’s lap. And so she, the white garment not darkened in colour but remaining in its natural hue, went and gave it to the poor man.

⁷ Another time a wild boar, solitary and of the woods and fugitive, came most gently to Blessed Brigid’s herd of swine. She, seeing it among her swine, blessed it; and then it remained fearless and familiar in her herd of swine, for even brute animals and beasts could not resist her words and will, but, tamed and subjected, served her in gentle service as she wished. Another time St Brigid healed a very strong man named Lugaid of excessive eating: they say he used to eat a whole ox and a pig with bread enough at one meal, for as great as was the strength he possessed, so great was the greed with which he surpassed others. She made him like other men in eating, with no loss of strength.

⁸ One night a certain man was with his wife in the guest-house with St Brigid, and he asked her to sign his wife’s womb so that she might have a son; and so she did. And at once his wife conceived as he slept with her; and from that was born Echen, an eminent saint. That night a certain slave-girl stole that woman’s silver crescent ornament and fled. The next day, with many men pursuing her, she threw the ornament into a great river. Then a fish of wondrous size swallowed it at once. And at that hour fishermen caught that very fish in their nets and offered it at once to St Brigid in the house; and when the fish was opened, St Brigid returned the ornament to the woman. Then the same man, with his wife pregnant, gave thanks to God and Blessed Brigid; and Brigid went on her way.

⁹ Another time St Brigid came to a religious virgin. She, having nothing else, prepared a meal for her from the calf of her one cow, and cut up the beams of her loom and cooked the calf. Hearing this, St Brigid in the morning restored the calf to her, and the beams of the loom were found renewed as they had been before. Another time she gave Bishop Conlaid’s Mass vestments to the poor, because she had nothing else to give. And at once at the hour of sacrifice Conlaid sought his vestment, saying: “I will not offer the body and blood of Christ without my vestments.” Then, as Blessed Brigid prayed, God provided similar vestments. And all who saw glorified God.

Chapter Seventeen: Miracles of various kinds, mostly for the relief of the wretched; the death of St Brigid #

¹ Another time St Brigid sent garments in a case across the sea, so that they might come through a very great stretch of sea to Bishop Senan, who dwelt on another island in the sea. And he, by the revealing of the Holy Spirit, said to the brethren: “Go at once to the sea, and whatever you find there, bring here with you.” They went and found the case with the garments. Senan, seeing the garments, gave thanks to God and St Brigid. For where men could not go without great labour, there the case went, guided by God alone. Another day St Brigid threw a mass of silver into the river so that it might come through it to a virgin named Hinna, who shortly before had refused to carry that mass; and so afterwards, the Lord bringing it, she received the mass.

² One day a certain condemned man was led by the king to be executed; and at the delay of the execution, St Brigid praying received silver from God in her bosom, and gave it to the king for him, and the condemned man was freed from death. Another day she divided one tunic between two poor men, half a tunic to each; and each one’s part became a whole tunic. Nor should this be passed over in silence: she freed a certain girl from her father’s lust. For when the girl had vowed her virginity to God, and her father had forced her to take him in marriage — on the wedding night, the feast prepared, she left her father and kinsfolk and fled to St Brigid. Her father pursued her in the morning. But St Brigid, seeing his troop of horsemen afar, raised the sign of the holy Cross against him; and they were all rooted to the ground. When he saw this, he soon did penance and was loosed with his men; and so the girl, freed from a fleshly bridegroom, was betrothed to Christ, as she had vowed in her heart.

³ A certain king rejected a prince whom St Brigid wished to be appointed in another city; and at once the king fell from his chariot and died, his head striking the ground. At a certain time, when Blessed Brigid was suffering poverty and guests arrived, she turned nettles into butter and tree bark into bacon. Another time she promised a druid who had given her his inheritance that she would meet him at the hour of his death; and she did as she promised. For when he lay on his bed near death, he said to his household: “Quickly prepare everything needed for my death, for I see St Brigid coming to me in a white garment with many others.” And so he was truly baptised and died believing in Christ.

⁴ One night Blessed Brigid and another saint named Daria were conversing together about Christ, and they did not notice the night, for where Christ the sun of justice was present, there could be nothing dark. Then Daria said to Brigid: “Bless my eyes, that I may be able to see the world as I desire” — for she had been deprived of her eyes. Then Brigid blessed her eyes, and at once they were opened. But St Daria said to her: “Close my eyes again; for the more absent a person is from the world, the more present she will be to God.” Then Blessed Brigid closed her eyes again, as she asked.

⁵ One night she moved a log of wondrous size alone from its place, which many men had not been able to move before; for with the angel of the Lord helping her, she brought it to the place she wished. Another time a certain woman went with her mute daughter to the church where St Brigid was staying, and called to her the virgin named Darlugdach, saying to her: “Help me, that my daughter may be healed of her infirmity.” Then Darlugdach led the girl to Blessed Brigid. And Brigid said to the girl: “Do you wish to remain a virgin?” For she did not know the girl was mute. At once the girl answered: “Whatever you command me, I will do.” And so afterwards, remaining in virginity, she was most eloquent until her death. One day Blessed Brigid saw ducks swimming on the water and sometimes flying through the air, and she called them to her. Obeying her voice, they flew to her without any fear; and stroking and embracing them with her hand for a while, she let them go back.

⁶ Another time a rustic with no skill saw a fox in the king’s palace, and thinking it was not tame and trained to show sport to the king and his companions by various arts, he killed it in sight of the multitude. He was bound and brought before the king, who ordered him to be killed — unless another fox like it in all its clever tricks were restored — and his wife, sons and all he had to be reduced to slavery. When St Brigid learned of the matter, moved with mercy she ordered her chariot to be yoked and, prayers poured out to the Lord for the wretched man, went on the road that leads to the king’s palace. Then the Lord, pitying him, sent another fox to her; it entered the chariot to her and, seating itself beside her, sat tamely with her in the chariot. When she came to the king, she begged him to loose the accused man from his chains. But he answered her that he would never have mercy on him unless she restored another fox like the first in all its tricks. Then she produced the fox God had sent her; and it performed greater tricks, sporting with various arts before them all. The king, appeased, let the accused man go free. And St Brigid, once he was released, returned home; and the crafty fox, moving cleverly through the crowds, fled to desert places and to its den.

⁷ Another time a man came to her and said to her: “Let your messengers come with me to my farm to bring you some of my pigs.” Now the farm where the man dwelt was four days’ journey from St Brigid’s dwelling. So she sent messengers with him as he asked. But after one day’s journey, on the bordering mountain, he saw the pigs — which he thought were far away — coming to meet him, driven by wolves and directed to him along the way. And when he understood that the pigs which the wolves were driving from the plain of Femen out of the great woods were his own, and that they had been preserved unharmed by the wolves for St Brigid’s reverence, he gave glory to God. Then, gladly taking the pigs, he gave them to St Brigid’s messengers. And so on the next day those sent by St Brigid returned to their mistress with the pigs, telling her what had happened and glorifying God in all things.

⁸ Another time Blessed Brigid, moved by some necessity, asked the Lord for honey, and found it abundantly on the floor of her house, as she had asked. She moved a river from its place to another place, which still runs to this day as she ordained. The Lord worked very many miracles through his holy handmaid which are not written among these, to spare the reader tedium.

⁹ When her departure from this world drew near, she called her foster-daughter Darlugdach and foretold to her the day of her death. When Darlugdach heard this, she wished to die with her mistress for sorrow. But Blessed Brigid said to her: “After my death you will live happily for one year, and when the year has passed you will die on the day of my death, so that we who lived together in this world may have our anniversaries remembered together.” And afterwards it came to pass as she foretold.

¹⁰ So St Brigid, having fought the good fight and finished her happy course, departed from this light to the kingdom of heaven. Led there by the hosts of angels and archangels, and set among the choirs of patriarchs and prophets and apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins, she now possesses everlasting joys with Christ: to whom, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, belong honour and praise and glory through all ages of ages. Amen.