ST. BRIDGET 
fact that it was at his request that St. Bridget com- 
posed a beautiful hymn which is still extant. 
So far from all the honor that accrued to her as 
the result of scholarly men coming from long dis- 
tances to consult her turning her head in any way, 
Bridget’s favorite occupation for herself was accord- 
ing to tradition the care of poor children. While 
her liking for the poor and her charity led her to do 
everything in her power and sometimes one would 
think almost more than would be expected of her 
for those in poverty, her heart went out especially to 
the little ones. Doubtless the indigence of their 
parents was often as in our time due to their own 
fault. The children, however, were always innocent 
in their sufferings and eminently to be pitied. She 
realized too that in them and their proper upbring- 
ing lay the possibility of the prevention of future 
poverty. Influence exerted upon the little ones would 
make them have, in spite of an unfortunate environ- 
ment, aspirations after better things, and this would 
surely tend to decrease the amount of poverty in the 
country. Her enthusiasm in the founding of schools 
for poor children, in which she delighted to teach 
herself, whenever the press of other duties would 
permit, is one of the traits of this saint of fifteen 
centuries ago that can scarcely fail to touch the heart 
of humanity at all times and never more than at the 
present moment when our care for the children of 
the poor is the finest feature of charity. 
Bridget seems to have been deeply persuaded that 
agriculture and its adjuncts, dairying and the raising 
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