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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