ST. BRIDGET 
were possible. Bridget’s interest in things of beauty 
of all kinds because they were joys forever, would 
account for the initiation of the tradition of the 
making of these marvelous manuscripts with their 
precious illumination, as well as for the artistic 
metal work at Kildare, with regard to which histori- 
cal evidence is ample and authoritative. 
Giraldus was most enthusiastic about the manu- 
script which he had had the chance to study carefully 
at Kildare. Almost needless to say for anyone who 
knows Gerald the Welshman even a very little, it 
was rather difficult for him to become enthusiastic 
about anything Irish. He had the chauvinistic 
jealousy that is so likely to develop when people 
are closely related in origin. The sight of this 
illuminated manuscript however which Gerald seems 
to have been told came from Bridget’s time, though 
of course it was only due to the persistence of the 
influence which she had evoked at Kildare long after 
her death, had quite taken away his breath. He was 
just rapt in admiration. As a result his guard of 
chauvinism dropped and so he declared that this 
book seemed to him to be the work of angels rather 
than of men. Hence his expression: 
“Of all the beautiful things at Kildare, I have 
found nothing more wonderful than the marvelous 
book written in the time of St. Bridget and as they 
say by the hands of an angel. The book contains the 
Concordance of the Gospels according to St. Jerome, 
and every page is filled with divers figures most 
accurately marked out with various colors. Here 
269