ST. BRIDGET 
the fifth century who stimulated deeply the minds of 
the women of her own day and whose career proved 
a notable example that aroused women to pursue the 
intellectual and the spiritual life for many centuries 
afterward. This was Bridget whom we have now 
come to call St. Bridget. Her name is still in bene- 
diction among the Irish who think of her among 
women as only next to the Mother of the Saviour and 
who speak reverently and devoutly of her as “Our 
Mary of the Gaels.” * 
Very early in life Bridget came under the influence 
of St. Patrick with whose name hers was to be 
associated among the Irish down to our own time. 
From her very earliest years her most noticeable 
characteristic was her tender care of the poor. In- 
deed this profound charity prompted her to give 
away so much to those in need that on more than one 
occasion she embarrassed her mother who in the 
exercise of that distinctively Irish trait of hospital- 
ity sometimes found that her store of good things to 
eat had been so trenched upon by Bridget’s liber- 
* It is very interesting to realize in connection with the story of St. 
Bridget that the ancient Irish before the coming of Christianity were 
very devoted to a goddess Bridget who was the patron deity of poetry 
and wisdom. It is easy to understand what a favorite she would be 
among the poetically inclined Irish. Besides there was a famous law 
giver of the name of Bridget who lived just about the time of Christ and 
who is spoken of in concise Irish fashion as ‘‘law-wise.’”’ She was 
either the wife or daughter of Senchan, the Ollam or royal poet of 
Ulster at the court of King Conor MacNessa. Many of her laws and 
sayings are preserved among the Irish traditions and even some of the 
decisions said to be made by her in the olden time were followed as 
precedents by male successors learned in the law well down into his- 
torical times. It has been suggested that some of the traditions asso- 
ciated with the ancient goddess and the ‘‘law-wise’’ Bridget have been 
transferred to the later St. Bridget, the Mary of the Gaels, but there are 
SO many definite traditions relating to St. Bridget herself that there was 
no need of trying to Increase her prestige by borrowing, deliberately or 
indeliberately, from either the goddess or the lady of the law. 
251