THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
astics and of the Irish hierarchy. No wonder that 
her fame has come down in history for 1500 years 
as ‘the Mary of the Gaels,” no wonder the Irish 
women and men as well, have wanted to call their 
girls after her and that her name has been in venera- 
tion ever since. 
The more one knows of Bridget and her work and 
learns to appreciate its true significance interpreting 
it in its relations to our own efforts along similar 
lines, the easier it becomes to understand the enthus- 
iastic admiration of contemporaries and succeeding 
generations. Their praise does not seem fulsome. 
Mrs. Atkinson brings her charming life of St. 
Bridget to a conclusion in the following eloquent and 
poetic sentences: 
“And now in regions reached by the swift-winged 
inspiration of the ancient race, in the New World 
of the West beyond the Atlantic billows, and in the 
New World of the South seated in Pacific waters, the 
sea-divided Gael still hold with inviolable fidelity 
the guardianship of her name and fame. Bridget 
has a niche in their churches; Bridget has a seat by 
their hearth. In the hearts of the Irish, at home and 
in exile, an echo of St. Brogan’s hymn resounds— 
‘There are two virgins in Heaven 
Who will not give me a forgetful protection— 
Mary and St. Bridget. 
Under the protection of both may we remain. 
Great and extended is the honor paid to St. Bridget 
on earth.’ 
The influence of her protection is still felt through- 
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