Chapter One: The slave mother of Saint Brigid; presages of holiness. The beginning is wanting. #

¹ With bitter words she assails her husband, obstinately urging the sale of the girl, swearing that one of two things will come to pass — either the girl’s sale or her own separation from him. At last the woman’s persistence broke the man’s resolve: he mounted a cart, took the girl, who was pregnant by him, with him, and set out to sell her according to the custom of that land. For this custom had grown deep-rooted among the English, the Irish and the Scots from ancient times: more than for any other merchandise they frequented the markets for human beings, and among them it counted as great praise to have sold many people. And — a thing more cruel than the savagery of wild beasts — a mother against her daughter, a son against his father, a brother against his sister, a son-in-law against his mother-in-law, a husband against his wife, forgetful alike of nature and of gratitude, commonly practised this outrage. But after England began to have Norman lords, the English never suffered from foreigners what they had often suffered from their own people; and in this matter they found strangers kinder to them than they had been to themselves. Scotland and Ireland, however, being under lords of their own race, have neither wholly lost this custom of theirs nor practise it as they once did.

² So Dubtach — to come back to the point from which our discourse digressed — as he was passing by the dwelling of a certain great man, was called in and admitted to him. And the man, after much talk, asked about the woman: who she was, and by whom she had been made pregnant. Dubtach answered that she was his, and that he himself was the cause of her swelling womb. Then the man said, “She will bear you a daughter, great indeed in chastity, but surpassing in charity; and assuredly the bounds of her native land will be narrower than the bounds of her fame. For as the sun surpasses the stars by its brightness, so by the merit of her virtue will she surpass the virgins of this region. It is fitting therefore that she should find you generous, who carries in her womb a joy for all the people.” To this Dubtach replied, “My wife stands in the way of my concubine finding me generous and kind; for if the one is not sold, the other will be lost.” Then the man, turning to the pregnant girl, said, “The logic of good hope bids you be of good cheer: you may indeed be delivered into captivity for a time, but you cannot remain a captive for long. For the daughter you will bear will, by the merit of her virtue, free her mother from the bond of captivity.” Hearing this, Dubtach was pricked to the heart and returned home; and it was only with difficulty, after much pleading, that he satisfied his wife on the girl’s account.

³ But when a few days had passed, two bishops from Britain came to lodge at his house. He received them with exultation, and the cheerfulness of his countenance made the kindness of his hospitality the more acceptable — for the best seasoning of food or drink is a cheerful face. And when the table was set and the same girl was serving, one of the bishops, named Mel, seeing Dubtach’s wife sitting sorrowful at a distance, asked why, while all the rest rejoiced, the mistress of the house alone professed a sad mind, with a mournful look and a grudging tongue. She cried out at once, “I am not the mistress — that one who serves you is.” To whom the bishop replied, “Though ignorant, you speak truth in calling her mistress: for she bears in her womb the true mistress, not only of your offspring but of all Ireland. And hear another truth: you have borne three sons, and a fourth remains to be born in your womb, who, as he is last in birth, will be first in wickedness. After him, let no hope of further offspring beguile you, for henceforth you will be bound by the misfortune of barrenness.”

⁴ Hearing this, from foolish she became straightway mad; and, knowing no matronly modesty nor making much account of marital reverence, she gave vent to her malicious mind in shameless words. At last, after hurling many insults at her husband, she swore that Dubtach that very day would lose either the handmaid or the wife. “For no longer,” she said, “under the guise of a servant shall this girl hold the place of mistress, while I, a mistress in name alone, am dishonoured by slavish degradation. If the wife pleases you, today the slave-girl shall be sold; if the slave-girl pleases you, today the wife is lost.” And while she raged like a maddened beast, vomiting out the worst she could devise, there arrived, seeking hospitality, a certain man from a distant part of Ireland who, admiring the good sense of the serving-girl, began earnestly to beg that, if she was for sale, she should be sold to him rather than to another. Dubtach, both worn down by his troublesome wife’s madness and eager to catch the stranger’s goodwill, offered him the girl for sale as he asked. When the bishops heard this they said, “Her you may sell, for she is yours by right; but the daughter she bears in her womb, do not sell, for she belongs to God by right.” He willingly accepted this, and so sold his concubine into slavery on condition that his daughter should be free of servitude.

⁵ And turning to his angry wife, he told her to put on a happier look, saying that the girl had been taken away once and would never return there again. One of the bishops rebuked him and said, “It is utter folly to assert what you do not know, and to pronounce a certain judgement on uncertain things. Know this of the girl you say will never return to this land: she is not led away so wretched as she will return blessed. For she bears enclosed in her womb the one through whom she will be freed from the bond of servitude.” After this, then, the often-mentioned girl was taken far away, hoping for no protection among strangers but the Lord’s, promising herself no consolation but the mercy of God — for He alone is He who looks upon labour and sorrow, and deserts no one who trusts in Him, whether rich or needy, master or slave, citizen or exile. That first night which she spent in the strange house of her new master, in the deep silence of night a certain fiery column was seen to rise from her bed and lift itself up to the very roof of the house. The man who had seen it told the master of the house in the morning, and thereby persuaded him to treat with kindness one about whom divine grace had been evidently shown to be at work.

Chapter Two: The birth of Saint Brigid, and other signs of her future holiness. #

¹ In the time that followed, the king of that province and the queen, who was near her delivery, were invited to that same house. The queen, hearing that a certain man with foreknowledge of the future was living nearby, summoned him and asked on what day, and at what hour of the day, he foresaw she would become a new mother. He said, “Before tomorrow’s sunrise two infants will be born in this house; but the one first in dignity is the later in birth. And the hour of birth will suit each of those to be born: for after today’s sunset one will be born, and the lesser; and tomorrow, as dawn appears, the other will be born and revealed — one distinguished by the splendour of her virtues, who will spread the rays of her fame everywhere.” Scarcely had he left the forecourt of the house when the queen, seized by sudden pains, cried out: “What can such haste in my labour mean? Why does the child press to come into the light? If it hastens to be born, why is it so over-hasty? Do the fates teach that it is fitting that tonight a queen should bear a base-born child, and some slave-girl tomorrow bear a noble one? It shall not be so. For though the time of travail is at hand, though pain may increase pain, though the fates will that a son or a daughter be born to me before the dawn of tomorrow’s light — yet unless it makes its way out through my side, before I see the dawn tomorrow I shall not give birth.” She spoke as she wished; but it did not happen as she wished — for before midnight she was delivered. And this can be a great lesson to the poor, that kings cannot do whatever they will.

² So amid the pangs of labour the same girl performed the office of midwife to the queen: she herself received the newborn child, warmed and washed it, and tended it among the others — indeed, more devotedly than all the others. And when the queen’s pains had subsided and she was to be restored with food, the girl went out to prepare it. The rising of the sun was now close at hand when she, going out, gave birth to a daughter before she could reach the queen; and straightway she bathed the newborn babe in milk. Hearing this, the seer extolled this childbed with many praises, saying that the newly-born virgin would be of great merit before God, and would leave all the pleasures of the world for God’s sake. He said too that through this daughter of the captive woman, all Ireland would be freed from the captivity of sin. That his words would be fulfilled was witnessed by the multitude of miracles shown from heaven amid the very first playthings of her infancy; of which it seems fitting to append a few to what has been recorded.

³ One day, then, while the infant lay swaddled in the cradle in the manner of babies, some business called her mother and the rest of the household out, leaving the little girl alone there. And look, a little later the house in which the child lay began to present to onlookers’ eyes the appearance of fire — so much so that from every side of it flames seemed to rage, indeed, the whole house seemed turned to fire. Both those working on the one side and those on the other saw it, abandoned what they had gone out for, and flew to the house as though to save it. But when they got there they found the appearance of fire, yet no fire. While all were astounded and murmured among themselves at so strange and unaccustomed a thing, some returned to the work they had left, while the child’s mother, accompanied by some of the others, entered the house itself. And as it had appeared from outside, so it appeared within: as the roof, so the walls and foundations presented to them one colour, one appearance, and one miracle.

⁴ Then a yet more marvellous thing increased their amazement — the face of the virgin dazzling the eyes of those who looked on with incredible brightness; God doubtless working about the newly-born virgin the like of what He had once worked about Moses the lawgiver, whom, when He had chosen him in the bush as the minister of His will — where fire displayed its form but not its substance — He afterwards illumined his countenance with such brightness that the children of Israel could look upon his face only through a veil.

⁵ Yet we do not say this to put her on a level with that supreme prophet, but to show briefly that what was done about the lawgiver and what was done about the virgin are both works of divine grace. For God chose this one for the salvation of the Irish, as He chose that one for the salvation of the Hebrews; and He who taught him what to speak before Pharaoh, Himself loosened her tongue into speech while she was still of infant age. For lest it should seem too little that the virgin displayed an unwonted splendour in her face, she herself also spoke beyond the wonted, before the time of speaking could naturally have come to her. Now one of those who we said had entered the house ran to the master of the family and told him of the strange thing. He — though a pagan by profession, yet shrewd of wit and experienced in many matters — reflected that such a miracle could not happen without some certain mystery, and at once sent the man back to enquire more carefully what she was saying. Coming back, he asked what she had said; and she answered, “This shall be mine,” and repeating those same words, fell silent. When the man had returned and reported this to him at whose command he had gone, he said, “It cannot fail to come to pass — what this virgin, indeed, what the foreknowledge of God through this virgin, has foretold. This place where we are shall be hers; and she who is seen to be born of my slave-woman will one day be my mistress — and not mine only, but that of all my posterity. Let no one think impossible what we say: for God, who once spoke what He willed through the mouth of an ass, can speak whatever He wills through the mouth of a little child.”

Chapter Three: The baptism of Saint Brigid, her upbringing and holy childhood. #

¹ As time went on, the same master of the house had one night laid himself on his bed to rest. And look, after midnight, alone of all those lying round about, he watched three men, tonsured after the manner of clerics and clothed in white garments, enter the house. He watched and marvelled that men of such reverend countenance and habit should enter a stranger’s house at such an hour, and that a way should lie open to them through the closed door; and he silently waited to see what they sought, what they would do and what they would say. They at once went up to the virgin, brought out what they had carried with them, and, pouring water over her, performed upon her the whole order of baptism as the Catholic Church is wont. When this was done, one of the three came to him who was watching each of these things and said, “You must call this virgin Brigid; and since she is elect before God, of singular merit, she shall bear the title Saint by merit of her holiness, and shall rightly be proclaimed such not only by the dwellers in this land but by the peoples of many nations.” Having said this, he went out with the companions who attended him.

² Astounded by such unheard-of happenings, he passed the rest of the night sleepless, turning over in his mind with careful thought all that he had seen and heard; and the more plainly he saw divine things being worked about the virgin, the more diligently he considered what kindness he should do her. When day dawned he told his wife everything as it had happened; and she — though entangled in pagan error, yet naturally gentle and moderate — spurred on her husband’s good purpose towards the virgin to a yet better one by constant prayers and good encouragement. Then a woman fit to nurse the virgin was sought; sought, at last she was found; found, she was at once assigned to the virgin’s service, to attend upon her together with her mother and to care for her in a nurse’s stead with dutiful attention in everything. The necessaries of life were found in sufficiency for the virgin, her mother and her nurse alike, the masters of the house showing a father’s tenderness towards the little child. Yet they did not yet restore her mother to liberty, for they were not yet freed from paganism.

³ So Brigid grew — but not so much in age as in grace: for God (who alone is such that none can say to Him, ‘Why do You do so?’) granted her this gift, that the infant displayed a countenance angelic, as it were presaging some great future good. Her look showed cheerfulness, her limbs comeliness; and the things that were around her, moreover, proclaimed increase by daily growth. Hence it came about that the often-mentioned master of her mother was greatly enriched in a short time. Perceiving this himself, shrewd as he was, he ordered that when she was weaned she should be brought up lovingly on suitable foods. But when what he had commanded was done, she vomited up the foods she had taken. Her mother and her nurse supposing the cause of this to be nothing but chance, prepared and set before her food like the former, humbly begging that a good omen might attend it. But the same thing happened with these as with the former: for she at once rejected all the food she had taken, her stomach as it were rebelling, and so brought great grief and despair upon her mother. Yet although the virgin did the same for a long time, she nonetheless gained growth and comeliness of body, as though the food, diffused through her limbs, multiplied both the more abundantly.

⁴ And if so uncommon a thing should lead any hearer into incredulous amazement, let him hear — and, if he will, let him go and see — that a certain virgin dwells in the southern parts of England who in her father’s house is passing her twentieth year without taking any food; save only that on Sundays she is nourished by communion with the Lord’s body, and because it can scarce pass the passages of her throat, she afterwards takes a little holy water to drink to make it go down more easily. On Thursdays, moreover, she sips a little water rather than drinks it; and apart from such things, through all these courses of years she has eaten or drunk nothing else, nor had the appetite to eat or drink. Hence, though bereft of bodily strength she has lost the power to walk, yet sound in mind and comely in limb, she has not lost the faculty of speech. And since — what is more marvellous — she produces more witnesses of the truth than that village in which the virgin remains has inhabitants, it cannot rightly be disbelieved as impossible that in Brigid a lesser thing was worked by Him who without delay works greater things.

⁵ Yet in this virgin of our own time, why God does what He does, He alone knows. In Brigid’s case it was proved that the food she received could not possibly be retained, because the food of a pagan man in no way suited a virgin so excellently Christian. When he had discerned this same thing in Brigid by his subtle insight, he set apart one cow from his herd and gave it to her to be milked separately for her use, commanding that special foods be made for her from its milk. And this was done, and from that time she ceased to suffer the accustomed loss of food.

⁶ Then, her infant years past, she so passed through the age of girlhood that she entered no childishness. She was wholly intent on the more honourable things; she abhorred silly old-womanish talk no less than girlish games, and in a tender face displayed the maturity of a matron. Some marvelled at the prudence of her mind, others at the temperance of her words, no less at her hatred of things to be shunned, and all at her fortitude in things to be done. Secular men were astonished that their company was forsaken by her; loose women grieved that they were despised as unworthy; while virgins consecrated to God rejoiced to be frequented by the virgin of good resolve.

⁷ And as she learnt that modesty is the companion — indeed, the guardian — of all the virtues, she so embraced it with unceasing vows that not only did her speech, look, countenance, works, dress and gait publicly profess discipline, but into the secret of her heart she admitted no stain of dishonest thought. For she held nothing more unfitting than to make honourable that which lies open to the sight of men, and to make the heart’s secret — which cannot be hidden from the divine gaze — a lurking-place for unclean thoughts. And to conclude much in a little: as nothing that should be sought fled from her, so nothing that should be fled did she seek.

Chapter Four: The stepmother’s hatred of Brigid. Her nurse healed by a miracle. #

¹ And when afterwards the fame of such a daughter reached her father’s ears — and his heart as well — he broke out in words of exultation and divine praise, glorifying God in heart and mouth for his daughter, of whom he heard that God worked wonders manifold in her. The father burned with desire to see his daughter; he reckoned her absence a loss, since a multitude of virtues attended her presence. So he sent messengers and revoked the agreement once made for the sale of her mother. To her masters’ grief the virgin was taken away, and at last presented to her father’s sight — her nurse accompanying her, while her mother remained in servitude as before.

² Her father therefore, receiving his daughter as she came — as a father should — showed himself the more affectionate to her in proportion as he now proved by sight what he had lately learnt by hearing. But since the devil is wont to attack all whom God loves here, so far as he is permitted, either in person or through his agents, he inflamed Brigid’s stepmother against her with such envy that she put on a stepmother’s heart to do her harm. In the end, whatever the virgin said or did, the other twisted by sinister interpretation to evil; and she often raged against the innocent girl both with words and with blows. Nor was she content with her own malice: by secret accusations she drew her husband into open fury, and made of the father a stepfather, of the lover a persecutor, of the benevolent a malignant man, of the good an evil one. Yet since she could not prevail to have her sold into slavery, she set about having her bound to servile offices. In short, she made her do in her own house what she had not wished done in a stranger’s house — imposing on her master’s daughter the office of a swineherd.

³ But Saint Brigid, recalling to mind the sufferings of Christ, armed herself with wholesome thought against her father’s injuries and her stepmother’s snares, reckoning that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which Christ will reveal in His saints. And she so kept the care of the pigs that, not neglecting the love of God, she did abroad what she had been wont to do at home — either praying to God or working something for the use of the needy.

⁴ And when one day the herd of pigs, straying here and there, wandered a little way from the virgin, it chanced that two men of malicious mind were passing by; who, seeing their opportunity, conceived wickedness and accomplished iniquity — namely, carrying off two pigs by stealth. And as they then pursued the journey they had begun, they saw Dubtach coming to meet them at a distance; fearing him greatly, they proved what their feet could do by taking to flight. Dubtach came up and found the pigs the fugitives had left; he recognised them as his own, hid them carefully, and went to his daughter with a cheerful face and peaceful words concealing an angry mind. At last his words turned to the end his mind was bent on: he asked the virgin whether the number of the herd committed to her was whole or diminished. She, having entire trust in God, asked that he himself should see what he wished to know; and when he carefully counted, he found the number whole — even those pigs which he had hidden. Amazed at the deed, he returned home.

⁵ The blessed virgin Brigid, as she embraced patience amid adversity, so embraced humility amid the glory of her merits, ascribing whatever virtue she worked to God, not to herself; knowing that nothing good is done save through God, and that none but God is to be extolled for good things. And because she did not receive the grace of God in vain, but diligently cooperated with it working in her, she advanced daily from good to better, from better to best. And the more humbly she presented herself to the sight of the divine majesty, the more excellently did divine goodness render her before men, even in the glory of miracles. Hence among her other works she is remembered to have done this, which we also judge worthy of record.

⁶ A pain of grievous sickness seized her nurse — which, though she suffered it heavily from the sickness itself, she suffered far more heavily from another cause: namely that she saw Brigid, in her father’s house as in a stranger’s, dishonoured by servile offices — her whom she had seen honoured in a stranger’s house as a daughter with a father’s affection. For it is so worked by nature in nurses that to whom they give the milk of the flesh, they also ever give the affection of the mind. Saint Brigid, piously compassionating her nurse’s sicknesses, showed herself a nurse to her: she strove to sit by her bed day and night, to restore her with foods and with wholesome words, and to show her every kindness in her power. And the devotion and charity of her ministering so availed with the sick woman that the virgin alone made up to her for the father, the parents and the country she had once left for love of her. For she alone sufficed beyond them all, because she loved her beyond all: but she ministered to the sick woman without her own resources, and supplied her necessities without complaint and without her own people’s help — because what the virgin could not obtain by her own labours she obtained by the alms of others.

⁷ But where man failed the virgin’s necessities, God — the merciful author and lover of virginity — was at hand. For he who has virginity of heart and body has God as helper in himself; and this was then proved in Brigid. For when her nurse, wearied with burning thirst, asked to be given ale to drink, Saint Brigid sent two girls to a certain neighbour of her father’s to ask for ale — thinking that he would thereby prove more generous towards her than her stepmother, and that even if he would not freely give the ale, he would refuse it decently. And so it happened: when the girls returned to the virgin empty-handed, she, conceiving God with her whole mind, at once drew water from a nearby spring, brought it, blessed it with the impress of the saving sign, and mightily turned it into the finest ale, as those who drank afterwards found. Then she gave a little of it to her nurse to drink: the sick nurse drank, and at once recovered from her sickness. And so great was the accord between the two — the drink and the desired cure — that to have drunk of this ale was to have received health. Those who were present, astounded, extolled everywhere the faith of the virgin and the power of this work with worthy proclamations of praise.

Chapter Five: Her mother endowed with freedom; her beneficence proved by miracles. #

¹ But because the whole life of the wicked is sin, and the malignant mind makes itself matter for malice out of all it hears or sees, Brigid’s stepmother reckoned the heard fame of her virtue an infamy to herself, and deemed the glory of the one she seemed to persecute a disgrace to herself. Hence by the virgin’s good the wicked woman declined into worse: she was made the more vicious by her virtues, and the stepmother — envying at the praises of her stepdaughter — was drawn on to things more detestable. For hearing both of what had come about abroad concerning the stolen pigs, and at home concerning her sick nurse, her envy began to turn into hatred, and she vomited out all the venom of her malice against the innocent girl. And now she reckoned it too little to burden the virgin with the disgrace or the labour of one office: so now the cook’s, now the baker’s, now the swineherd’s, sometimes the shepherd’s, at times the reaper’s, often the weaver’s office — and other tasks viler still than these — she imposed on her both at home and abroad, striving to crush her with the greatness of the labour and the disgrace of servitude.

² But Saint Brigid, reckoning no work servile save sin, patiently undertook the exercises of labour, prudently pursued them, and laudably fulfilled them. So on a certain occasion, when some men had been received as guests by her father, Brigid was summoned to prepare their food; nor did she delay to fulfil in deed the command given. She set a cauldron over the fire, put water in the cauldron, and into the water as many pieces of meat as seemed needed. And while she attended busily to what was begun, a dog with new-born whelps lying by came to the virgin, begging food with such gestures as it could. What then should the merciful virgin do? Should she give food to the needy beast? But the quantity and the number of those pieces of meat were not unknown to her stepmother. Should she refuse? But to refuse comfort to the needy would be nothing less than to contradict herself. For ever pious, ever merciful, ever gentle and kind, she ever overflowed with such compassion that she extended it not only to the necessities of men but even to the want of beasts. So, holding her inborn compassion dearer than another’s cruelty, and pitying the hungry beast more than fearing the stepmother’s madness, she bestowed on the hungry creature portions of the same meat — for she had nothing else at hand. A second time it likewise came; and such as it found the virgin the first time, such it found her the second. As a honeycomb brimming with honey distils its sweetest liquor with an easy motion, so this virgin, full of natural pity, was most readily bent by need to pity.

³ And when her father afterwards sat down to table with his guests, he ordered the dishes of boiled meat to be set on the table. The virgin did what her father commanded: trusting in God, she served the meats to those who were to eat them — and they were found to have increased in quantity and number as much as they had before been mercifully diminished. The guests, astounded at such a miracle (for the meats they had seen diminished before they now saw set before them undiminished), told Dubtach everything as it had happened. He, reflecting both on what he had heard before and on what he now heard of Brigid, at last remembered that he was her father, and held his noble daughter — who had been set to servile offices — in love and veneration. For it seemed to him unfitting that a man should wish to dishonour one whom God seemed to honour, and that a father should be estranged in affection from a daughter on whom strangers bestowed a father’s affection.

⁴ So the blessed virgin, perceiving that her father’s mind inclined to her with a father’s tenderness, began not so much to glory in the prosperity that smiled on her as to be anxious day and night about her mother’s slavery. For she knew according to the Apostle that if anyone neglects the care of his own, and especially of his household, he denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So she set her pious mind on visiting her mother, then laid her purpose before her father’s ears; and having obtained leave, she prepared herself and the things needed for the desired journey. In the end she satisfied her desire, joined on the journey by companions — her nurse and a certain brother of hers. For since every person is judged to live after the manners of the company he delights in, this prudent virgin, providing for good things not only before God but also before men, admitted the society of no one either at home or abroad who might give any suspicion of evil.

⁵ At last the blessed virgin arrived at the desired place, bringing by her coming great joy to the masters of the house, great joy to the household, and the greatest joy to her nurse. For God had mercy on her and directed all her works. And when she had obtained private speech with her mother, she began to enquire carefully what labour she bore, under what masters, and for what reward; and she heard that her masters lovingly bestowed much kindness on her for little labour — for she was compelled to endure no labour. She had freely received twelve cows for milking, whose milk she either curdled into cheeses or churned into butter.

⁶ Hearing this, she paid praises and thanksgivings to God, the author of all good things, and began to ask that this labour be assigned to herself in her mother’s stead. So while the mother rested and the daughter laboured, the multitude of her goodness and kindness frequently drew a multitude of poor people to beg food from her. But she, unwilling that any should depart uncomforted, answered the necessities of each according to her strength, fulfilling the saying of the Wise man: ‘If you have much, give abundantly; if little, strive to share even the little gladly.’

⁷ But because some, by speaking ill of the good, sometimes merit well of the wicked, a certain flatterer went to the mistress of the house, asserting that Brigid was not doing what it was hoped she did. For all that milk which she ought to have turned into cheeses and butter, she with a vain mind and prodigal hand was pouring out for the use of the needy — he thinking indeed to be rewarded with a great fee for such tales. And although this flatterer, by speaking good not well, could neither profit himself nor harm the virgin, yet he inclined the woman’s mind to prove what she had heard — for who is not moved by his own loss? At last the mistress entered the workroom, and her husband with her, ordering a certain very great vessel to be filled with butter. Saint Brigid, though much was asked and she had little, yet confidently brought out what she had in a small vessel, praying that the bountiful hand of divine goodness would be at hand; and making over it the sign of the holy cross, the great vessel was filled from the little — and it could be filled faster than it could be emptied.

⁸ And when he asked her to take it up full, the master of the house answered: “Let him take it to whom you wish to give it; for I grant you this vessel and these twelve cows, and whatever you wish done from all of them, look, you may do.” And she said, “If I might do what I would most wish, my mother, restored to freedom, would go away with me.” Freely assenting to her petition, he said, “Your mother, released from the yoke of slavery, I hand over to you; and I am pleased so to give her that I am not displeased to have made the former gift. Let your mother go free with you, and let the animals be taken away; take as many servants and maids as will suffice for the animals, and who may also serve you in common. Moreover your God shall likewise be my God, since I abhor the vanity of the pagan and embrace the Christian truth.” And not long after he fulfilled his words in deeds: through the laver of regeneration and renewal in Jesus Christ, he with his whole house merited to be incorporated into Christ the Lord. But the blessed Brigid, giving all that had been given her to the poor, brought back her mother to her father’s house with great joy and great goodwill of all.

Chapter Six: Saint Brigid snatched from the peril of slavery. #

¹ But since nothing is easier to stir up or harder to appease than a woman’s envy, Brigid’s stepmother could not bear quietly to see that her rival — whom she had caused to be sold as a slave-girl with no hope of return — had now come back free. Then she resolved to do to the virgin what had been done to her mother, and to repay her for her mother’s liberty with the heavy yoke of slavery. In short, the noble mistress laid slavish snares, and, ill at ease about the good virgin, diligently sought what she could not find — some shameful word or dishonest deed of hers. But when the matter did not go as she wished (for the whole life of Brigid was virtue), she strove to make evil out of her good, and interpreted her virtue as vice. For she slandered Brigid: though she had nothing, she gave much to the poor; and since she had nothing of her own, she said she stole others’ goods. At last, like a venomous beast, she attacked her husband, saying that his house was being brought to desolation by his daughter. “For she,” she said, “stripping her father’s house of all its furnishings, enriches others — cruel indeed under the guise of piety, and so exercising mercy towards others as to drive her father, unless it is guarded against, into great misery. Hence this evil must be forestalled before it arrives. For it is folly not to wish to provide for yourself until you have begun to be in want, and not to be willing to think of misery until you are miserable. What then is to be done? Let this daughter of yours be sold, lest the household that depends on you perish with you. But if you delay to chastise her with the yoke of slavery, she will not delay to cast you into the disgrace of want.” Whispering these and suchlike things in her husband’s ears, by womanly guile she unmanned the manly mind, infected him with her own cruelty, and made him give his daughter up to slavery.

² Just so was Daniel, that man of desires, once circumvented by his enemies: since he could not be accused of any evil work, he was accused of praying to God against the king’s command; so she was accused of giving alms for God against her father’s welfare. Hence he was delivered to be devoured by savage lions, and she was led away to be sold to strangers. But because each was found faithful before God, God delivered both — him, that he should not be devoured; her, that she should not be sold. For when her deceived father was leading the virgin away to sell her, he turned the cart to the king’s court, which, as report told him, was lodging in a certain nearby castle — wishing to sell his noble daughter to none but the king or one of the nobles. So the father — indeed, the persecutor rather than the father — arriving at the desired place, left his daughter outside in the cart, and went in to greet the king.

³ And when, the king being greeted, he sat by him and, hearing much and saying much, the talk between them came down at last from great things to small — from matters of war to the business of husbandry, from the abundance of the rich to the want of the poor, from the quiet of the free to the vexation of slaves — and the king said that neither can prosper without the other (for the land is not tilled unless peace defends it, nor is peace well defended unless the fruits of the land are administered to its defenders; and it is certain both that slaves need masters and masters need slaves), Dubtach put in: “I have a virgin outside for sale, whom if it please the king to buy, I believe she will not make for herself the meanest place among the king’s maids.” The king, hearing this and asking who she was, Dubtach answered that she was his daughter. And the king said, “If she is your daughter, why do you mean to sell her?” “She steals all the furnishings of my house,” he said, “and enriches the poor from my substance to make me poor.” When those sitting with the king heard this, they said, “Your daughter’s good report, running through all Ireland, has made her of great account with us; and it is strange that you alone declare guilty of vice the one whom all others affirm full of virtues.” Without delay the king ordered her to be shown to his eyes.

⁴ But Saint Brigid, while her father lingered in the palace, gave her father’s sword to a certain poor man begging alms. Then he came back, and learning what had been done with the sword, grieved exceedingly — both because it was a good one and because the same king of Leinster had given it to him himself. For a king’s gift, though small, pleases more than a great sum of money gotten elsewhere. At last, deeming it unseemly both to pursue the beggar and to rage against his daughter, he brought her in to the king, telling him his loss. The king, admiring in her youthful countenance a reverend gravity and a moderation in her dress — neither too fine nor immoderately mean — said, “Why did you give to a poor man the sword I had given to your father?” And she: “Do not marvel that I gave what I could; for if I could likewise expend on the poor for my Maker whatever you, O king, and my father possess, I would give it. For whoever expends temporal riches on the poor for God’s sake lays up eternal riches.”

⁵ Then the king, turning to Dubtach, said: “This virgin is greater and better than can be sold or bought; and since she is more precious than all gold and silver, I have no price at which she may be purchased. But for the good sword she gave to the needy man, I will give you a better one. And if you will believe my counsel, you will leave her to her own will.” Instructed by his words and honoured with gifts, he returned to his own, and permitted his daughter to go free where she would.

Chapter Seven: Her virginity defended by deformity; the veil received and established by miracles. #

¹ But the blessed Brigid, reckoning nothing more slavish than to abuse the liberty she had received, escaping human servitude transferred herself wholly to the divine; and as though whatever she had done before were little, she subdued her body with more frequent vigils and more severe fasting, while she expanded her mind more fervently into contemplation and the love of God. And imitating the diligence of bees, which wander through the delights of gardens and gather from many flowers a varied juice which they change into one flavour by a certain blending and property of their own spirit, this holy virgin went the round of the dwelling-places of holy virgins: and whatever good she saw in one or another, she transferred to her own use — she imitated this one’s humility, that one’s patience; from one she learnt parsimony, from another mercy; and, to include much in little, whatever was everyone’s she made her own. And she so overflowed with charity and unwearied piety that whenever she learnt that any of the handmaids of Christ was kept to the bed of sickness, she would at once visit the sufferer, nor be parted from her service until she either recovered her strength or ended her life.

² And when one day she was hastening to one of them with all the more speed as she had heard she was more gravely ill, she met on the road her own brothers, one of whom — named Bachene (to tell it shortly), like-minded to the stepmother — began to invite the others to malice. “This,” he said, “is our sister, who, running about from place to place with I know not what superstitious vanity, abominates the company of men; she shuns that for which God made her, and obstinately lives — and means to live — so that she would neither have her own father a grandfather nor her brothers uncles. She sets her vanity before God’s ordinances, prefers her own laws to nature’s laws; and, to our disgrace as much as our loss, she esteems the abominable barrenness of sterility above the fruitfulness of many children. But, brothers, let us check this great folly, and, consulting not her will but our and her own advantage together, let us seek some nobleman — and certainly he will be easy to find — to be her husband, our father’s son-in-law, and our protector and friend.”

³ But the others rebuked him: “It is not manly,” they said, “nor does it befit brothers, to rage against a virgin sister — her above all who for earthly things has chosen heavenly, for passing things lasting ones, who for a husband has chosen God instead of a man. And since she has put all things after Him, let us not hinder this purpose which strives after God, nor trouble the virgin who pursues honourable things, nor attack what it would be shameful for us either to accomplish or to fail to accomplish. For it is dishonourable for brothers to call back their sister from an honourable purpose. And if we try, and her constancy frustrates our efforts, will it not be most shameful that one virgin did not yield to four men? Let our sister serve the God she has resolved to serve; and let us love her good for our own, for if we try to do otherwise we shall assuredly do it to our own hurt.” Saying these and like things to the fourth, the three seemed to cast their words to the wind.

⁴ And when, profiting nothing, they broke out into strife and mutual reproaches, Saint Brigid, calling God to her aid, earnestly begged that He would both call back the disputants to brotherly peace and defend her from them by the right hand of His protection. Without delay one of her eyes appeared as it were struck out, and no small stream of blood flowed from her wounded head — so that this new deformity might call back from so foolish a purpose the brother whom her former beauty had provoked to seek her a husband.

⁵ But the three who strove against their brother on their sister’s behalf, seeing her face so quickly so changed, grieved and said that it would by no means have happened had she not been importuned about contracting a marriage against her will. They complained too that they had no water to wash the blood-smeared face — that if they could not give the help they wished, they might give the kindness they could. So the virgin of Christ, perceiving that Christ was at hand as her defender, would not leave her brothers uncomforted who were so anxious for her comfort; and trusting not a little in the great mercy of the Almighty, she told them to dig the ground where they stood. When all had done her bidding, He straightway brought water out of the dry ground at His handmaid’s petition, who at the striking of His prophet once brought it marvellously out of the rock in the desert.

⁶ So the three brothers, applauding such a miracle, prepared themselves with devoted mind for their sister’s service; and, with sufficiently diligent hand washing the bloodied face, found the virgin’s eye — both the one and the other — unharmed. Kindled at once to joy and thanksgiving, they invited that fourth brother — son of their mother no less in character than in nature — to rejoice with them, and rebuked and accused him for holding back. But Saint Brigid, seeing that verbal reproof brought no correction to a fool (for a fool is corrected not by what he hears but by what he feels), deprived him of one eye by a curse; and so, the fool being scourged, she accomplished unhindered the journey she had begun and the work she had purposed.

⁷ Not long after, seven virgins of good purpose were joined to the same virgin, of like mind and wholesome affection, desiring to be formed by her and with her in spiritual disciplines. For it was one word in the mouth of many that the Holy Spirit worked manifoldly and marvellously through Brigid — through whom Brigid ever prospered in all she did. But she, embracing their holy purpose to consent to her own, judged it most expedient both for them and for herself that, marked for Christ by the imposition of the sacred veil, they should live the life and keep the rule of a convent. What had pleased one pleased all; and reckoning even a small delay a great loss, they hastened together with like fervour to Bishop Machilenus of blessed memory, asking to be consecrated and marked for Christ by his blessing.

⁸ But the bishop, not knowing their manner of life and believing that delicate virgins were reaching after a hard life more by a certain impulse of mind than by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, refused to do what was asked — knowing according to the Apostle that hands are to be laid quickly on no one, and that not every spirit is to be believed, but the spirits are to be proved whether they are of God. And when the holy virgin saw that the bishop’s fears were prudent, she turned in hope and prayer to the known succours of prayer, invoking the Spirit of consolation, that He who had inspired their affection would deign to bring it to the desired effect.

⁹ What need of many words? The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. For that her inward fervour might appear by outward signs, a fiery column shone above her head and, rising to the roof of the church (for she had withdrawn into the church to pray with her virgins), was to the onlookers a joy and an amazement. The bishop, wondering at this miracle, asked his people with careful enquiry from what parents this virgin was born, by what name she was called, in what manner she had lived from infancy. One of the clerics answered that she was Brigid, daughter of Dubtach, a worker of marvellous things. When the bishop heard this and saw that she had come to him whose good report had long preceded her, he himself now began to ask leave to do what was asked; and soon he marked her for Christ with the imposition of the sacred veil, together with her virgins. For a man can gladly do that to which he sees himself invited by heavenly signs.

¹⁰ Now it happened during the very rites of the blessing that the holy virgin touched the wood by which the holy altar was supported — which, firm with no roots and covered with no bark, seemed to be rotting away with age and decay. At her touch it is remembered to have received such virtue that it was soon seen to grow green, and afterwards, amid the burning of flames by which that same church was consumed, could by no means be consumed. Just so, just so, almighty Lord — as You worked before in the Old Testament, so You work now in the New, in both loving Your own and ministering to them Your loving power and Your powerful love. For He who went before the children of Israel in fire as they made for the land of promise, Himself also provoked Brigid, hastening to the land of eternal inheritance, by fire ascending on high, to long ever more for heavenly things rather than earthly. Nor did one other give greenness to that wood, and another bring forth fruit from the rod of Aaron, once the high priest. One God did both: to this wood He gave greenness, that He might mark Brigid as a virgin; while Aaron’s rod both grew green and bore fruit, because she who was foreshown by that same rod was both virgin and mother.

Chapter Eight: A community of nuns established. Mercy shown to the needy. #

¹ The bishop therefore, admiring the virgin’s faith and merit, prepared a place suited to her purpose and her profession, and gave her as many cows as she had companions. She, entering the place given her with her fellows, strove so to live and watch, so to labour in fastings and toils, so to cleave to prayers and divine contemplation, that this new life surpassed her former. And although she surpassed the others in dignity and merit, yet she professed an equal humility — fulfilling the word of the Wise man: ‘They have made you leader; do not lift yourself up, but be among them as one of them.’ And the rest, provoked to good by her example and exhortations, though professing great things, did what was worthy of such a profession.

² The same bishop, rejoicing in their manner of life, and all the people of that province, were more ready to give whatever looked to their bodily need than the sisters were to receive. But if anything was over and above, Brigid took care to expend it mercifully on the use of the needy, as each one’s need required.

³ One day the same bishop invited her with her sisters to dine. And when the table was set and all was ready for them to take food, Saint Brigid began to beg the bishop that he would refresh their minds with spiritual food before their bellies with bodily feasts. He gladly accepted this, and at once exercised his learned tongue for their instruction, taking the Lord’s sermon on the mount as the matter of his discourse. And when he had spoken much of the virtues by which blessedness is merited, and much also of blessedness itself, Saint Brigid, when the sermon was ended, said to her sisters: “Look, my beloved companions in Christ, eight virtues are set before us, by the keeping of which men are made blessed, and we are eight virgins. But although one virtue is so linked and, as it were, chained to another that whoever possesses one perfectly must possess many, yet let each of us choose one of them all to fulfil in a special way, whichever she will.” When they answered that this pleased them — provided that she, who seemed to be first among them, should first choose the virtue she wished — she without hesitation chose mercy. And though she laboured at the other virtues so day and night that you would judge her compacted of virtues, yet she was so devoted to mercy as though she reckoned any virtue besides mercy either none at all or a small thing. So likewise the others, whichever of the virtues set before them each had chosen, pursued it the more fervently and frequently; nor did they cease to fulfil the chosen virtue until they received the promised reward of that virtue.

⁴ So then, when they had been fattened in soul with spiritual food, they afterwards took bodily food for the body’s refreshment at the bishop’s invitation. And from this time it became Brigid’s custom all her life to indulge her flesh with no bodily food on any day unless her soul had first been fed with the food of God’s word.

⁵ Then, as miracles grew more frequent, Brigid’s fame became ever more known throughout all the bounds of Ireland; for a lamp set upon a lampstand cannot be hidden. So virgins innumerable flocked to the virgin; widows too came — nor was it hard for widows to be subject to a virgin, nor for the old to a young woman, nor for the rich — indeed, for those made poor of their own will from riches — to a poor woman. Hence it happened that in a short time the handmaids of Christ were multiplied in number; but this was Brigid’s singular care and concern: that they should be multiplied in merit as well. For although there can be no merit where there is no number, yet virtue does not consist in number but in merit: because it is not praiseworthy that a community be numerous, but that it be devout; nor is it judged a great thing for many to dwell together, but it is altogether a great thing for the good to dwell together. And so, both by living well and by patiently teaching, she provoked the good to better things; and those who strayed she called back from error by reproving, begging and rebuking. And she so cared for the poor and was so generous to them that the private property of her monastery became the public property of the needy.

⁶ Now it happened that on the holy day of Easter, as she was coming out of the church, a certain man, both poor and a leper, met her and at once began to lay open his misery, saying that his poverty was made the heavier by sickness and his sickness by poverty. “Since nature made me poor,” he said, “and sickness has taken away my strength to labour, it would be great pity — and I beg it — that you bestow on a needy man a cow in milk. For though it is very miserable either to have nothing or to be a leper, yet leprosy does not at once kill those it attacks; but a man to whom all food is wanting will soon lack life itself.” When the virgin of Christ heard this, she both called to mind that singular joy which the God-man, rising from the dead that day, conferred on us all in His own and our resurrection, and reflected that this man was kept back from that double joy by a double grief — namely want and sickness. She began to be moved in the bowels of mercy over the wretched man. But what was she to do? If she only relieved his want, there would remain enough of sickness to grieve over; but if his sickness alone were driven off while want remained, he would seem half comforted rather than wholly. Therefore she resolved to bestow on him both the substance for which the pious virgin was asked and health at the same time. At last she addressed him with kind words: “Do you wish to be made whole?” And when he answered that he had always wished it with ardent desire, the blessed virgin had water brought to her; and when she had consecrated it with the impress of the saving sign and the invocation of the Saviour, she sprinkled it over the sick man’s body, and at once the burdensome and hateful deformity seemed to flee away, and the desired comeliness began to appear in his healed body. Then, giving him what he had asked, the holy virgin sent him from her rejoicing and giving thanks.

Chapter Nine: Ale and milk produced and multiplied by the sign of the cross. #

¹ Likewise at another time a multitude of poor came to the same virgin, desiring and earnestly begging to be refreshed with a drink of ale. For the throng of the poor flocked daily to her as to a common storehouse for their various needs — one asking bread, another drink, some milk, others cheeses or butter, others flour or corn, some flax or wool or any kind of covering, each asking that of which he seemed singularly in need. And because, according to the word of truth, to those who seek the kingdom of God and His justice the other things which bodily need requires are added, the bounteous mercy of the Almighty ever so consoled the virgin of mercy that she never sent any of the needy away from her uncomforted. For when she had either nothing at all, or not enough, to bestow on the needy, divine clemency by the abundance of its own bounty now in one way, now in another, made up her want. For God is never wont to fail anyone who strives to be at hand for a neighbour’s need by the sole power of charity.

² Hence it was that when the blessed and truly merciful virgin was asked for ale by the poor and had not what was asked — yet would not send the poor away uncomforted — she considered what she should do, where she should turn, or of whom she should ask ale to quench the poor’s thirst. And while she longed for both counsel and help to come to her from heaven to fulfil the poor’s desire, she saw not far off water prepared for the baths (for the Irish race, like the Scots, were then and are now wont to use baths frequently). Going up to it at once, she began to invoke the Saviour of all as helper, that He who of Himself can do whatever is faithfully asked by His own would change that water into ale, lest those poor folk, frustrated of their hope and petition, should depart sadder than they came. For hope, which alone can console the wretched, had attended their coming; if they were frustrated of it, they would endure so much the heavier things in proportion as they had hoped for better. At last, when she had impressed the sign of the holy cross upon those waters and blessed them, invoking the Saviour’s name, they were seen at once to thicken somewhat and to be changed to another colour. When afterwards she gave the needy to drink of it, it savoured to the drinkers’ mouths like the best ale. He indeed turned water into ale through His virgin who once, being invited to a marriage in Cana of Galilee, turned it of Himself into wine; and He who gave joy to those celebrating a marriage by bestowing the wine that was wanting, Himself gave His handmaid ale from water, as it was asked, that she might gladden the thirsting multitude of the poor.

³ But look — while we relate the ale made from water by which the thirsting multitude of the poor was refreshed — there occurs to be told of ale multiplied by her blessing, by which a festive multitude of clerics was gladdened. For one day the same bishop came to the virgin in his wonted manner but with an unwonted multitude of clerics about him, and found the household joyful at his coming. For all alike rejoice at the presence of their like: the wicked too, whenever they meet, one is made worse by the other; but communities of the good minister to one another increase of goodness. Hence, since this virgin’s every intent hastened to the virtues, she could not but rejoice at the coming of the holy man whose words, looks, bearing and whole life were incitements to virtue. When he had refreshed the holy virgin and her sisters with the wholesome food of God’s word, she afterwards invited him and all his clerics to a bodily feast. At last the blessed virgin set the table of refreshment and gladly served such foods as she had. But since she had no drink to set before them except water, a little ale at last found in one vessel made her the gladder; and presuming much on divine mercy (for no friend can presume so much on his friend as the true lover of God can presume on the goodness of God), she set the saving blessing of the holy cross upon the ale she had found. Without delay the liquor, rising to the brim, began to overflow on every side; nor could the guests, drinking as often and as much as they wished, empty that vessel. Many vessels are even remembered to have been filled from that one, the Lord doubtless increasing the ale through the virgin’s merit, who once multiplied the widow woman’s oil through the prophet Elisha. But the bishop and those who had come with him, refreshed with food and drink, departed, exulting more in Brigid’s merits and in the miracle they had seen than in the refreshment with which they had been comforted.

⁴ Another bishop also, at another time, came to the virgin from the more distant parts of Ireland, because her name, like ointment poured forth, invited religious persons here and there to converse with her. The talk between the bishop and the virgin ranged the more largely over spiritual philosophy; and the virgin through the bishop, and the bishop through the virgin, by wholesome converse were inflamed more and more to contempt of things passing, and longing for things eternal, to love of neighbour and contemplation of God. For no one wearies of hearing what he loves to hear; nor can one ever speak or hear often enough of Him to whom one is devoted with sincere affection. Hence, since the most sweet love of God clung everlastingly in Brigid’s mind, she gladly and without weariness both spoke and heard the praises of God.

⁵ But when, after the long discourse of God held between her and the bishop, the hour and the time called them to the refreshment of the body, the holy virgin had one cow which she kept in milk brought, applying to its udders her wonted blessing of the holy cross. And at her blessing God at once conferred such abundance of milk on the udders of that one cow that more milk was milked from one than would have been thought from many. The people of Ireland think little of adulterated concoctions of food and foreign seasonings: the guests counted humble fare of bread and milk and pulse as dainties. And they, admiring her faith and exulting in her merit, extolled with worthy praises her fame — great as it was — surpassed by yet greater merit.

⁶ But she, ever walking the royal way, as she never declined to the left by yielding to carnal allurements, so she never swerved to the right by lifting herself up either for her virtues or for the praises and favour of others. For both carnal allurements and the phantoms of human praise she weighed not by common opinion but by her own merit; and therefore by prudence of mind and virtue of faith she easily overcame both. For she reckoned the pleasures of the flesh very great foulness, and human praise a great inflation of the ears. Hence in this she was whole: to be holy rather than to be called holy. And because to everyone who has shall be given and he shall abound, but from him who has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away — the bounty of heavenly goodness conferred on Brigid, who had a good will, the power to fulfil her will. For she was truly good before God; and yet, lest the treasure of her goodness be hidden, it became sufficiently known to the service of her neighbours, by the signs recorded above and by those to be recorded hereafter, how great and of what kind she was.

Chapter Ten: Wild beasts made tame at her bidding, for the relief of the wretched. #

¹ It is a famous story in Ireland that a certain man, simple in mind and by nature, once went to the palace of the king of Leinster, whether led by choice or driven by necessity. And while the rustic stood among the courtiers, dumbfounded at their refinements as things unknown to him, he suddenly saw a fox come into the palace and run here and there; believing it had been driven there either by the pursuit of dogs or by men’s violence, he hoped great honour would come to him among the courtiers if he, a rustic, should kill it before any of them could attempt to chase the fleeing beast. Why linger over many words? What he had conceived in an unadvised mind he at once accomplished with unadvised deed. But the king’s officers, seeing that the king had been deprived of a great cause of mirth (for that same fox had been taught by various leaps and diverse twistings of its limbs to stir the king’s daily merriment with many tricks), at once gave the man, who hoped for praise, captivity; to the man desiring glory they inflicted bonds and affliction without glory. So the simple man deserved, who aspired to cunning; so the rustic profited, who leapt into wit; so he is afflicted who hastens to exchange his condition for the honours of a palace. At last it is told the king both that his fox has been killed and that the fox’s slayer is held in bonds. Indignant that his little beast had been killed in his own house, he ordered the culprit to be bound in stricter chains, swearing by God and by his own head that unless the man speedily restored to him a fox like his own in all its tricks and motions, he should receive the heavy sentence of death — his goods scattered and destroyed, his house burned, his wife and children led into perpetual slavery. And because a king’s word has force, grief and utter despair tormented and afflicted the man’s mind more than the fetters and chains afflicted his limbs. Yet he reckoned the confiscation and loss of his goods, and of his very life, less than the unseemly slavery of his good wife and sweet children. For to finish life by the sword is to die once; but for children to be led captive is nothing other than to die daily.

² So the simple man’s deed and the angry king’s judgement at once rang in many ears — for the greater a man is, the less can even what he says in secret remain secret. And although kindness inclined some to compassion and pity drew tears from others, yet tears quickly dry up, especially over the misfortunes of strangers. But the blessed virgin Brigid, who with the affection of true compassion could say with the Apostle, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?’ — drawing others’ feelings into herself, as she knew how to rejoice with the joyful, so to weep with the weeping — took it very grievously that a man should be so treated for a beast. Rising at once to the wonted succour of prayer, she invoked God, in whose hand are the hearts of kings, as her helper, that He would soften the king and mollify his hard sentence. Then, mounting her cart, she hastened to the court to plead for the wretched man; and on the way two things she anxiously revolved in mind — the great misery of the man in bonds, and the infinite mercy of almighty God. And though the one made her slip into grief, yet the hope she had in divine goodness raised her up to consolation.

³ God did not fail her who faithfully trusted in Him; for He will do the will of those who fear Him. For while she looked far off, she saw a fox come out of the woods and hasten towards her at a swift pace across the open country; drawing near the cart, with a light leap it mounted into it, showing the tameness of a house-pet. So the blessed virgin, paying many praises and thanksgivings to God, came to the king and was received by the king joyfully and gloriously. For he often receives much glory from men who does not seek human glory; and by despising it rather than by seeking it, he the sooner deserves it.

⁴ But when the virgin asked that the captive’s offence of ignorance be pardoned, the king said that his fixed sentence stood — that his fox’s slayer must be slain unless he speedily restored a fox that would equal it in all its tricks. Hearing this, the holy virgin brought forth the little beast sent her by the divine gift; which at once, with marvellous agility, twisting itself in diverse windings of its limbs now up, now down, now this way, now that, seemed in every kind of trick to equal the king’s fox. The king, greatly delighted by the sight, handed over to the pleading Brigid the man for whom she asked — not only freed from chains and fetters but cleared of all charge; and she at once departed from there and restored him to his wife and children, he desiring nothing less than the court. So he, restored beyond hope, and the virgin returning home, the same little beast played in the king’s house as the former had done, and for a while held the king’s eyes with many a trick. But while playing, it drew near the palace doors, and seeing the way out lying open, suddenly leapt forth and made for the neighbouring lairs of the woods with swiftest course. At the king’s command certain courtiers pursued it with horses urged on and with dogs, but spent that day hunting in vain; and when towards evening they felt no hope of prey remained, calling off their dogs they returned empty-handed.

Chapter Eleven: Her simplicity made illustrious by miracles. #

¹ Marvels succeed marvels. For once, when the crops were everywhere ripe and harvest-time was at hand, Saint Brigid engaged certain workmen to gather in her crops, whom she found ready to labour for a wage. Then she agreed a worthy price for the work, and for those who wished to know a fixed day on which to come, a fixed day for the work was appointed. But when on the appointed day they came early in the morning as arranged, the sky began to be covered with clouds and gloom, and the air to be so darkened with thicker mist that the sun seemed not so much to rise as to have declined to its setting. Then a great and heavy deluge of rain broke out, and the rain’s violence seemed to have no end before nightfall. So throughout the whole province of Leinster, all who had prepared to gather in their crops that day were compelled, the floods raging everywhere, to stay at home and keep that day an unwilling holiday of idleness. But Saint Brigid, commending her harvest and her reapers to divine protection, made them work from morning till evening by her prayers without a drop of rain. And — a marvellous sight — amid the rains raging all around, Brigid’s field alone appeared there not only untouched by showers but bright without cloud or mist. But what wonder is it if she could do much through God, who faithfully believed in God? For He Himself bears witness in the Gospel: ‘All things are possible to him that believes.’ He likewise deigned to promise His own, saying, ‘He that believes in Me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do.’ What truth willed to promise, could it be either unwilling or in any way unable to fulfil? But if He has often fulfilled this through faithful men and women alike, was He unwilling to fulfil it through Brigid, who loved Him with her whole heart, her whole soul, her whole strength? Since from infancy she was singularly inflamed with the fire of chastity and charity, and had loved nothing save God, or in God, or for God’s sake, it ought not to be doubted that she who shone with many merits also shone with many miracles.

² On a certain occasion, when necessity required it, Saint Brigid was staying on her farm attending to the business of her monastery. There a certain youth of great cunning saw her and meditated iniquity in his heart — namely, that by feigning poverty he might carry off one of her sheep which were feeding nearby; not indeed to relieve his own need, he judged, but to mock her as prodigal and foolishly lavishing her goods. What need of more? At once the rich man put on the dress and face of a pauper; and so, propping his limbs on a staff as though they were failing with hunger and sickness, with tottering step he came to the virgin. Then, drawing deep sighs from the heart, when at last he had with difficulty recovered his breath, in words half-uttered at intervals rather than spoken, he begged that a sheep be given him. And when he professed great want alike in face, in dress and in speech, it was easy for him to find pity in the virgin’s breast. So he received what he asked; and as though grown somewhat stronger for the joy of the gift received (for the joy of hope gives strength), he carried off the sheep that had been given him.

³ And when he had hidden it in a sufficiently convenient place, he came back transformed into another shape and habit. So the fool laboured for his own shame; the fool exercised his cunning to his own confusion; the wretch devised frauds for his own everlasting ignominy. And although in her he had an effectual intercessor — namely that need of things and of health which he feigned — yet in a humble voice he begged that a sheep be given him, asserting that he had long been wearied with the discomforts of sickness, and ever of the heaviest want. And because the blessed virgin overflowed with the bowels of unfailing mercy, she judged it too impious not to answer such misery quickly; so she at once gave him a second sheep as well. He received it with thanksgiving, and hid the second with the same care as the first. Nor did the perfidious man fear to repeat a work of this kind seven times; and the pious virgin did not delay to bestow what was asked as many times.

⁴ But God, seeing the good will of His virgin and the perverse machination of the deceitful youth, willed neither that she should lack wherewith to bestow on the needy nor that he should have wherewith to mock the holy virgin. So when at evening Brigid’s sheep were being driven into the fold, as many were seen to enter at evening as had gone out in the morning. The onlookers marvelled that the number was whole, nor could they marvel enough that those seven sheep were found there together which they had seen carried off by Brigid’s bounty. But that youth, when he did not find what he had hidden, grieved that his great cunning had laboured the whole day to his own disgrace and ignominy, because while he worked to deceive another he gave others matter to deceive him. And so, frustrated of his purpose, he departed sad — sadder now over the sheep received than over those lost.

⁵ A cause likewise arose and necessity required that the holy virgin should stay on her farm; and while she was doing there what she had before undertaken, she was caught in sudden downpours of rain. And as often happens, the more heavily they poured, the sooner they ceased. Without delay the air was changed back to its former serenity, for the sun began to send forth great brightness without the obstruction of cloud, mist or rain. But this great brightness drew a darkness over Brigid’s eyes. And when, her clothes drenched and her eyes dimmed, she came home, she saw a ray of the sun shining through a window across the house; thinking it was a piece of wood lately laid across the house by someone (for the brighter the sun a man gazes at abroad, the darker the house he enters seems to him; and the more he strains at the sun, the less he attends to what he finds within), Saint Brigid hung her rain-soaked cloak upon the sun’s ray. And why linger over many words? The sun serves the virgin — indeed, the creature serves its Creator. For it is God’s gift that she has such power, and that the sun’s ray bears this virgin’s garment. O how firm and faithful a defence it is, firmly and faithfully to love God! Look, this virgin — frail in sex yet, by faithfully loving God, worked through God things impossible even to strong men. And because she had given herself wholly into His love, beyond the wonted she found nature itself ready to do her service. Nor is it strange if He made the sun do service to His virgin, who once made it stand still at Joshua’s command in the overthrow of the Gibeonites, and compelled it to go back by degrees at the petition of King Hezekiah. One God did both this and that; without whom no man is anything but frail, and through whom the sex of women is proved strongest.

⁶ But while we compare this virgin’s deed with those done by the fathers of the Old Testament, there comes to mind also Lot’s wife turned by God’s indignation into a pillar of salt, and one stone turned by Brigid’s merit into salt. How this was done I will relate in few words. One day a certain poor man came to the virgin, complaining that he was in want of salt. But since she had no salt with which to console the needy man, she saw nearby a stone, great in size but white in colour; which, being at once brought to her, she blessed, and then gave to the needy man scrapings rubbed from it in place of salt — turned into salt by God’s power. But as he departed, he began to reproach the holy virgin and himself — that she had given, and he had accepted, splinters of stone in place of consolation for salt; the more so since for him to get stones there had been no need to go out of the door of his own lodging. Yet thinking that a virgin of such singular compassion would never mock the destitute under the guise of kindness, he judged the virgin’s gift should be tried before it was thrown away; and putting a little of it in his mouth, as it presented the form of salt to his eyes, so it showed the savour of salt to his palate. Wishing to have many witnesses of her miracle, he gave it to many to taste; and when the same thing appeared to the others as had appeared to him, what could not remain secret became known through the experience of many.

Chapter Twelve: Her wondrous healings, and those of others through her. #

¹ There was in the same province of Leinster a mother of the handmaids of Christ named Briga, whom Saint Brigid was wont to visit often for the merit of her life. And when this blessed virgin had come to her on a certain occasion, she was received, as always, with great honour and no small joy. And when her feet had been washed after the custom for guests, one of the virgins of that place, long deprived of the service of her feet by the disease of gout, washed her ailing feet with the same water in which Brigid’s feet had been washed — and before they could be dried, they were healed.

² Afterwards Saint Brigid, with the same mother of the monastery and her nuns, held much mutual discourse about carnal allurements, about diabolic temptations, some things about the torments of hell, not a few about heaven, and very many about God — while she strove to form the others to better things with the affection of charity, she herself was inflamed the more and more therein; for a spiritual possession has this property, that it is diminished if it is grudged to others, and then most of all is proved to increase when it seems most of all to be shared with others in the affection of charity. But since natural necessity demands that they should by no means omit compassion for the body, when a great part of the day was spent they came to the table for the refreshment of the body’s meal.

³ And when Briga and Brigid had sat down together, the former began to marvel greatly that Brigid looked sideways with undazzled eyes (for she saw a demon sitting near the table); and at last she addressed the virgin: “What are you looking at so intently?” And when Brigid had told her what she saw, she said, “I too, if it can be, desire to see him.” At once Saint Brigid set the sign of salvation upon her eyes, and she saw the enemy — not the guest — sitting by the table: huge of head, black of face, with flaming eyes and fiery breath, gross knees and protruding ankles. Seeing him, she asked Saint Brigid to address him. And when she did so, the demon said: “I cannot but answer you, who faithfully fulfil the precepts of God; for since you strive perfectly to love Him, I cannot but fear you.” Then she: “Why do you and the rest of the throng of demons hate the human race?” And the demon: “Because we will that no man should succeed to the heavenly glory which we lost without hope of return.” To whom the blessed virgin said: “O how far from my will is this purpose of yours! For even if I myself could not enter heaven, I would wish its gates opened to all, though I knew them barred to me. And yet what was the cause of your coming here?” “It is long,” he said, “since I have dwelt here with a certain virgin familiar enough to me, who alone among the others pleased me, in that she alone consented to my will by living ill.”

⁴ When at Brigid’s command he declared her name, she at once ordered the woman to be summoned. Then she told her to come near, and making over her eyes the sign of the holy cross, asked her now to look openly at what manner of being he was whose will she had so long gladly obeyed. Seeing the demon’s form — hideous and horrible beyond measure — she grieved bitterly that she had so long exercised such a service of so foul a master. And turning at once to Brigid, with tearful cries she implored her protection against so horrible an enemy, promised amendment of her former life, and swore she would cleave the more earnestly to the regular observance if by Brigid’s merits she saw that provoker and inciter of evil put to flight. For the hidden foe never delights so much as the manifest one is dreaded. And would that he were dreaded while he secretly suggests evils! since he can more openly be got at by those by whom he is proved to be despised while he suggests evils in secret. At last the blessed virgin, seeing that the virgin repented of past evils and promised good acts for the future, had pity on her, and with mighty power commanded the demon to depart never to return; who vanished from their eyes swifter than a word. So by the merit of one virgin the infirmities of two were healed, and they gave God many thanks — the one for deliverance from bodily weakness, the other for freedom from captivity of mind.

⁵ But since, according to the testimony of the Wise man, ‘whom the Lord loves He corrects, and scourges every son whom He receives,’ Saint Brigid began afterwards to be grievously afflicted with pain in the head. Reckoning this scourge of God a sign of God’s love, she rejoiced and gave thanks, turning over in herself that saying of the Psalmist: ‘Many are the tribulations of the just, and out of them all the Lord has delivered them.’ But when the same bishop learnt that Brigid was ill, he told her to go with him to a certain other bishop named Eth, for he was skilled in the kinds of diseases and in remedies for them both by learning and by practice. Saint Brigid, though she bore the weakness of her body not only patiently but gladly, undertook the journey to the bishop with him, judging according to Samuel’s testimony that obedience is better than sacrifice — especially as in this matter, as a certain wise man said, ‘Do not despise the physician, for the Lord made him too.’ And since she was much hindered by sickness, she made but little way each day.

⁶ Now it happened that they entered the house of a certain man who, having two daughters by one wife, seemed to himself unfortunate with such fortune: for the one had never had the use of speech, and the other had lost it in the very times of infancy. And although neither of them could speak, each to the best of her strength ministered to the ailing virgin. And when in the morning the holy virgin began to mount the cart, by God’s dispensation she at once fell to the ground, and a sharp-pointed flint caught her head as she fell. A vein of her head being cut by the point of the stone, much blood flowed out; which one of the mutes, seeing, professed her grief in her face, ran up quickly, and was wholly devoted to the service of the holy virgin. Brigid, rejoicing at her kindness and condoling with her misery, told her to pour the blood flowing from her wounded head into water, and so pour it round her own neck. The sick girl did what was commanded, and through the ailing virgin the virgin was freed from her infirmity. Nor content with the healing of one alone, “Call your sister,” she said, “for the same medicine must be applied to the same ill.” She came at once when called, and as the one was healed, so was the other.

⁷ And when, these things being so done, the bishop and Brigid with her company pursued the journey they had begun, they met the very bishop they sought. When he, at the other bishop’s request, looked carefully at Brigid’s head, he said: “Who is it that has thus struck this vein? Whoever he is, he is without doubt a good physician.” And the bishop whom Brigid had had as guide and companion on the journey told him the matter as it had happened. And he said, “It was not necessary for you to seek another medicine after the cutting of this vein. For although a certain faintness remains from the immensity of the former pain, yet she is healed of her old sickness; and you will soon see that as she has been freed from the sickness, so she will be freed from the weakness which she contracted from the sickness.” Hearing this, each returned home; and so, the two girls having been cured of their infirmity through the ailing virgin, she herself also was fully restored to health.

Chapter Thirteen: Strength given to a paralytic; speech to an infant, for the defence of an innocent man. #

¹ Nor does it seem right to pass over that on a certain day some men came to Brigid, asking that, wearied as they were with the greatness of the journey and of hunger, she would refresh them quickly with a meal. For hunger is a heavy companion to travellers, and, setting out without provisions, they had nothing at all to drive it off with. But nothing was easier than to find the sweetness of pity in Brigid’s breast; so she judged that help must be brought at once to these men’s need, since a good hope had attended their coming to her. But when she saw none of her people at hand and had not the keys with which she could open the door of her store-room, she grieved greatly that refreshment should be delayed to them even for a little — since that little was immense to men suffering hunger. And when she had turned her sad eyes to that part of the house where the store-room was, to see if the keys were anywhere in sight, she saw a boy lying in that part of the house, held fast by the greatest sickness: a palsy had so seized his whole body from the very times of infancy that apart from his eyes almost no limb in him performed its office. For the wretched boy had hands without the sense of touch; the use of his feet without power to walk; he had ears but heard nothing at all; moreover he seemed to have a tongue, but without the tongue’s office. Him, retaining almost no sensible motion in any of his limbs and representing a statue of stone rather than the state of a man, Saint Brigid had caused to be brought up by food put into his mouth. Seeing him lying there, she began to address him: “Where are our keys and the key?” But he, at the sound of her voice, at once gained hearing and, the bond of his tongue being loosed at the same time, answered that he did not know. So the pious virgin, seeing that divine goodness was at hand, went on and said: “In the name of our Saviour God, rise quickly and search diligently for where the keys are; and when you have found them, offer our guests food from the store-room — men wearied by hunger and toil.” What followed? The boy did what the holy virgin had commanded. He rose from his bed of sickness healed, found the keys, and took care to show the diligence of a servant to the guests she had received. And they, afterwards refreshed with a double refreshment — the joy they had conceived at the miracle they had seen, and the food they had received the more gladly from the hands of the healed man — extolling God, who is ever wonderful in His saints, with many praises, accomplished the journey they had begun.

² It is worth the labour also to add to what has been recorded what this holy virgin did in the assembly of the holy bishops. At a certain time in the parts of Ireland, some great matter arising, it gathered the bishops of Ireland together in one with a great multitude of learned men and also of laymen. And, as is wont to happen in great assemblies, many whose presence the business undertaken could well have done without flocked in among the rest, whom no other cause drew there than to see the multitude and, returning home, to be able to say, “We were there.” And when Saint Patrick, who seemed first among the bishops, had made the beginning of the discourse, and the rest of the bishops were declaring their judgements afterwards according to the institutes of the canons as necessity required, a certain infamous and shameless woman came into the council without good counsel, threw before the feet of a certain holy bishop named Bron the little child she had borne, and said: “Take this child which you begot, whose father you were not ashamed to become.” So that whole assembly was thrown into confusion by such words — the bishops and all good men grieving and defending the holy bishop, while others, namely those who gladly hear ill words of good men in defence of malice, mocked at him.

³ And when the blessed virgin heard from a certain reporter that the council was in confusion, she reflected that this — which was not true — was the work of a demon: that the defenders of truth were disturbed by this lie so that, while they strove to drive off the infamy of the bishop, they might be compelled to put into oblivion or delay the cause of God for which they had come together. At last she hastened her journey to the place of the council, which was not far off. When she arrived, her coming brought great joy to the good and shame and confusion to the adverse party. For both the good and the evil felt this same thing: that Brigid would quickly put an end to the lie. So when Saint Patrick had brought the holy virgin into the council, he made her sit beside him and recounted the impudent woman’s words to her chaste ears. But the faces of all were turned to the virgin: they watched the champion of truth with vigilant eyes and awaited the oracle of truth with attentive ears. So she ordered the impudent woman to be called forward. And when she was present, once and again she earnestly exhorted her not to slay her own soul with lies while working to injure another’s name. But she, despising sound doctrine with an unsound mind, cried out: “I profess that what I confessed before is true, and in this I call God to witness that this bishop begot this child. And why does he shrink from hearing openly what it was delightful to do in secret? If he thinks it shameful for a bishop to have begotten a son, why did he not likewise think it shameful for a bishop to beget offspring? Let it be enough for me that I bore his son in my womb nine months, that I bore him with the anguish of childbirth, that I have had the care of him now for three or four months. Now it is time that this little child’s father should be his nurse also: for he who was a sharer in the pleasure ought to be a sharer in the labour.”

⁴ Scarcely had she finished speaking when a sudden swelling seized her lying tongue, and, growing strong through her head and all her body, it made her show forth a monster rather than a human being, a portent rather than a woman. But Saint Brigid, blessing the little child’s tongue, said: “Who is your father? Is it not this bishop who is your father, to whom your wretched mother ascribes it?” But the child answered with clear voice and plain words: “My father is not the bishop, but a certain lowly rustic; nor is he here in the place among the clerics or even the noble laymen, but mixed with the common crowds he sits far off among his like.” And she, offering the little child an apple, said: “Rise, and go carry this apple to your father.”

⁵ When he had done so, it was cried out by the clerics and shouted by the laymen that the woman should be given over to the flames — she who had not feared to bring so great an infamy against a holy man. But while they raised a tumult, Brigid, silence being proclaimed, said: “It behoves the servant of the merciful Lord to embrace mercy; for he offends his merciful Lord who strives to be merciless to his fellow-servant. Our Lord and God declares that He wills not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live; and shall we sinners pursue this sinful woman that she should not live? Far be this cruelty from all who need God’s mercy, because judgement without mercy shall be done to him who shows no mercy. Hence it seems good counsel that we sinners should not slay this sinner, but beg the Author of life to grant her life to repentance.” Then, looking upon the wretched woman, she applied to her her wonted medicine of the holy cross; at whose power all the swelling at once vanished from her, and her former face and beauty were restored. And she said to her: “Repent worthily both of your life and of your words, that as by God’s mercy you have been freed from the swelling of the body, so also you may deserve to be loosed from the bonds of your sins.” Then, when the causes for which they had come together had been finished according to her will, the whole assembly was dissolved, all proclaiming with much praise God working wondrously in His virgin.

Chapter Fourteen: Corn obtained from heaven; that which had been consumed, restored. #

¹ Likewise, by the hidden judgement of God, an unseasonable harshness of weather and inclemency of the elements raging in Ireland rendered the land barren of crops, and so famine prevailed through the scarcity of crops. And this was grievous: that famine was endured in the present and no abundance of crops was hoped for in the future. For what shall he reap who has nothing to sow? And when Saint Brigid learnt that not only her own store-room but her province was in want of crops, she went to a certain bishop named Eburius about the time of Lent, asking of him what she was wont to bestow on others — namely the sustenance of food. But when even in his granaries, besides four or five bushels of wheat, she could find no crops, he gave her meat, bidding her eat the meat with her virgins during that very season of Lent, since plainly nothing else could be found there to eat. And she, eminent in the virtue of discretion, received the bishop’s gift with thanksgiving and, according to his bidding, ordered meat to be served to her virgins in Lent.

² Hence two of them, ignorant of the force of discretion and esteeming parsimony more than obedience, resolved — not without a certain empty glory — to abstain from the meat; and each hid her portion to be given to the poor at a convenient time. When they came afterwards, thinking to make an alms out of their disobedience, each found her portion turned into a serpent. Terrified exceedingly at the discovery, they ran quickly to Saint Brigid, declaring what had happened. She, discoursing much to them on the ruin of self-will and the virtue of discretion, afterwards went with them to the place where the fruit of disobedience lay hid; and seeing that what she had heard was true, she set the sign of salvation on the gaping beasts, and so, stripping them of their bestial form, turned them into two loaves — one of which she kept, the other she gave to the same bishop.

³ But the bishop, hearing what had happened, ordered that she should come to him and take the wheat he had — either half or all of it. So she came and entered the bishop’s granary; but reflecting that what would not suffice for the bishop’s household should not be halved, she asked that divine goodness be at hand, so that the bishop’s good will and her own great need might alike be fulfilled in such a way that, while the bishop drove off her want, he himself should not suffer want. And when the prayer was finished, she had one cart brought up; and when it had been filled to the top, a second was at once moved up. And what was done with the first was done with the second; so a third after the second, and one after another, until twenty-four carts were filled — of which she took away twelve and left twelve for the bishop. So it came about that the bishop by giving little received more; and while he strove to provide for another, he found provision made for himself.

⁴ But because her merit and mercy had been carried by frequent report even beyond the bounds of her province, it drew many poor people to her from far as well as near for their various needs. For men gladly seek that from where generosity is hoped; nor has a herald a more effectual voice to invite than the reputation of generosity. But Saint Brigid, when one poor man departed, did not disdain another who came, but showed herself one to all and common to each. For although she extended her affection to all, yet she measured her hand according to the needs of the needy, bestowing abundantly on the most needy and moderately on the middling — though no gift should be called small which great charity bestows.

⁵ So when three lepers heard what manner of woman Brigid was and how liberal to the poor, they took counsel together in the same way and came to her to ask alms. Seeing them wearied with the greatness both of the journey and of their sickness, the blessed virgin began at once to think of their consolation, and brought out a certain silver vessel that she had and gave it to them; but foreseeing that the gift of her generosity might be a cause of discord and dispute to them, she struck the vessel against a sufficiently hard stone and — wonderful to tell — broke it with one blow into three parts of equal weight, as she had wished; and when weighed once and again in a more careful balance, all were found to be of one weight. So the merit of the virgin beloved of God could accomplish this more quickly than the skilled hand of any craftsman. Each of the three therefore received his part and returned home rejoicing and giving thanks.

⁶ There was likewise in Ireland a certain poor man whom some obligation had so bound that he had either to give a measure of honey or suffer harm to his body. So the poor man considered what he should do to achieve the effect of his purpose, and in his great necessity pondered many plans. At last, thinking that abundance of means does not come by idle wishes or mute petitioners, he set the sum of his meditation on this: that he should confidently approach the commonwealth of the poor — namely Brigid’s breast — and lay open the cause of his need to her who was wont to lend both ear and mind gladly to the causes of the poor. So a good hope was taken as companion for the journey, and the desired thing was found as the fruit of his coming. He came to the virgin and told her how the matter stood with him, asking her for himself that he might experience in his own case her generosity, which was wont to fail none who asked and to be at hand for many even unasked.

⁷ So the pious virgin, seeing the poor man’s great need and remembering what good hope he had conceived of her generosity, was easily moved to compassion; but she was kept back from consoling the poor man by want of honey. And while that honey-flowing breast of hers was in a turmoil for a measure of honey, a murmuring of bees was heard under the floor of the house in which Brigid had found the poor man and, as was said before, had met with him about his need; the floor was at once opened at the virgin’s command, and, a portion of honey being found sufficient for the poor man, he received what he had asked and so departed joyful.

⁸ To these is added that once a cause arose whereby a long journey and heavy labour took Brigid farther than usual from her dwelling. But to her no labour was arduous or toilsome by which she hoped either that a neighbour might be helped or God pleased. And while she was on the road she turned aside one day to lodge in the house of a certain poor woman — deeming it better to lodge with a needy woman in quiet than in the house of any rich person, which the richer it was, the more tumultuous it would be found. The old woman, hiding her scant means with a cheerful and liberal face, at once cut up wood fit for the loom (for she was wont to practise the weaver’s craft) and kindled a fire for her guests — the more convenient as it was the less smoky; she also killed the one calf she had and prepared food from it for the needs of her guests. Then she set the table, such as she had, and served such foods as she could. But a cheerful countenance, a liberal mind in place of various seasonings, diligent attention in place of abundance of dishes, and kindly devotion in place of dainties were accepted by those who ate.

⁹ And when they had been refreshed with such food and drink as there was and had returned thanks to God and to their hostess, Saint Brigid began to beg God in secret prayers that she should not be the cause why a house all but empty of goods should be wholly emptied, or why a very poor woman should be left still poorer. And what followed? In the morning a calf was found there like the former one; and lest prayer and the merit of the suppliant should seem to avail only this with God, weaving-woods were also found in the same house which matched the size and shape of the former ones and offered great wonder to the onlookers. For if only the thing done is regarded, it seems incredible; but if the power of the Maker is regarded at the same time, is not this easy for Him who can do all things? For He did this at His virgin’s petition, of whom it is sung in true faith: ‘Whatsoever He willed, He did.’ So the blessed virgin, seeing that her Maker had fulfilled her desire, blessed Him in hymns and confessions, and, bidding her hostess farewell, prosperously accomplished both the journey and the work she had proposed.

Chapter Fifteen: Her death, long foreseen, piously met. #

¹ Shining therefore with these and suchlike virtues, this blessed virgin learnt, by God’s revelation, that the fourth year after this would bring her to the end of this temporal life; which, awaiting with joy and spiritual desires, she prepared for the world above with vigils and prayers, stricter fastings and more abundant alms. For although from the cradle of infancy, according to the strength and virtue divinely bestowed on her, she had hastened by good works to a good end, yet the approaching end of this life now showed her so intent on heavenly things — indeed, rather consumed by them — that this life of hers surpasses little estimation. For she diligently recalled to mind and memory that nothing makes death good or evil except what precedes death. Hence she strove so to live and watch in the way of this life that she should not be confounded when she spoke with her enemies in the gate. Nor did she will that her solicitude should consist about herself alone: for she diligently watched over the salvation of her sisters too, striving with the great solicitude she had for them, and with frequent exhortations which she addressed to them, and many prayers also which she offered for them, that forgetting the things behind they should ever stretch forward to the things before, and should desire in the flesh not the things of the flesh but of the Spirit.

² So then, caring for herself and for her sisters, on a certain day, urgent necessity pressing, she went out of the door of her dwelling. A certain man who had long been engaged in the office of the altar, named Nunneod, seeing her, began to reflect how great in piety towards her neighbour and how great in merit this blessed virgin was before God, and, running swiftly, he passed by the blessed virgin. But she, calling him back as he flew past, asked him to tell where and why he was hastening so. He said, “Touched with desire for a certain great city, I am hastening to it; and if you will promise me that, aided by your prayers, I shall enter it, I will, obeying your bidding, reveal the matter to you.” The virgin, trusting in God, promised what he asked; and the priest stopped and confessed that the city to which he was bound was heaven. And he alleged this as the cause of so swift a course: that by this device he might effectually receive the help of her prayers to reach the homeland to which he was bound. But she, in whose bowels clung the vein of unfailing mercy, hearing such a petition of his, was at once inclined to compassion; and when the prayer was finished she rose up and addressed him in these words: “Look, good man, the clemency of God has mercifully granted you at the petition of His handmaid what your good will diligently sought. For you will one day happily come to God; but it is fitting that you should first suffer something for God. For no honest man is wont to aspire to the reward without the labour. Hence I admonish, exhort and beg you to set out as a pilgrim into a foreign land, and suffer yourself to be made willingly an exile, patiently a stranger, gladly a pilgrim, voluntarily poor, where God shall provide; knowing this for certain, that none can arrive at great rewards save through great labours. And I will that you be forewarned and forearmed, that before I shall have closed the last day of temporal life you will receive an angelic oracle concerning your return. For when I am about to enter the way of all flesh, I shall receive from your hands the life-giving sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood, and so shall pass the more speedily into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, to the house of the Lord. And when you have shown my obsequies this service among others, you yourself also shall happily follow after.”

³ Strengthened by these words into great hope, he made for Rome, and at the threshold of the holy apostles led a pilgrim’s life in great abstinence of food and utmost continence from vices. And when the third year of his pilgrimage was passing into the fourth, the angel of the Lord appeared, as had been foretold, and ordered him to return home quickly. Obeying his command, he came to Ireland and found the blessed virgin now about to pass from earthly things to heavenly. From whose hands afterwards she received that wholesome and singular viaticum, and entered the way of all flesh — exchanging earth for paradise and things passing for things eternal in a happy commerce. And not long after, that same priest, laying down his burden, was laid to rest with his fathers. Now the venerable Brigid died on the first day of the month of February, possessing for ever God, the rewarder of her kindness and her mercies — who lives and rejoices and glories, three in unity and one in Trinity, Himself the life, the joy and the glory of all the saints, world without end. Amen.