ST. BRIDGET
out this dear land of ours. In dark and dreadful
days she infused courage into the hearts of her
children to suffer and if necessary yield up their lives
for the faith of which she was the illustrious ex-
ponent. She guards the virtue of Ireland's daugh-
ters, so that they gained an enviable and unique
name for purity of heart and modesty of demeanor
throughout the civilized world. The prayer that
wells up from an Irish heart to her shall never go
unheeded. The power of her intercession has not
lessened with the years, nor has her maternal in-
terest in the spiritual welfare of her race diminished
or grown cold and indifferent. St. Bridget is still
our beloved patroness: we are still her children.”
But Bridget did not confine her influence merely
to her own abbey or even the immediate neighbor-
hood of Kildare. All the lives of her time mention
that she made many journeys through the south
and west of her Ireland consulting, counselling and
directing the great scholars and saints of the day.
Undoubtedly one of her purposes was to be sure that
her school at Kildare should have whatever advan-
tages other schools throughout Ireland had.
Another was that her presence inspired many to take
up the religious life and that after a visit of this
kind there would be many applicants for entrance
into her abbey. The rich and the poor, flocked to
her, the rich bearing gifts, the poor asking for help,
and very few went away without feeling that some
great new power had come to them and that now
they would be able to bear their ills better than be-
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