ST. BRIDGET 
within her grasp. She was treated as an equal by 
the men of her class, as is witnessed by the letters 
we still have from popes and emperors to abbesses. 
She had the stimulus of competition with men in 
executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic pro- 
duction, since her work was freely set before the 
general public; but she was relieved by the circum- 
stances of her environment from the ceaseless com- 
petition in common life of woman with woman for 
the favor of the individual man. In the cloister of 
the great days, as on a small scale in the college for 
women today, women were judged by each other 
as men are everywhere judged by each other, for 
sterling qualities of head and heart and character.” 
It is no mere tradition founded on the pious ex- 
aggerations of later generations that tells the story 
of the influence wielded by St. Bridget. Men of all 
kinds, but particularly the spiritually minded scholars 
of her time of whom there were so many, came to 
consult her not only because of her reputation for 
sanctity, that is her discernment in spiritual things, 
but also because of her practical common sense and 
her thoroughgoing administrative ability in matters 
monastic and her knowledge of humanity and devo- 
tion to the care of others. We have the names of 
not a few of the men who came thus to consult the 
religious mother of Ireland as she was then con- 
sidered. St. Finian, the founder of the great Mon- 
astery of Clonard, was invited by St. Bridget to give 
a series of discourses to her nuns on religious topics 
somewhat very probably in the line of what would 
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