ST. BRIDGET 
out this dear land of ours. In dark and dreadful 
days she infused courage into the hearts of her 
children to suffer and if necessary yield up their lives 
for the faith of which she was the illustrious ex- 
ponent. She guards the virtue of Ireland's daugh- 
ters, so that they gained an enviable and unique 
name for purity of heart and modesty of demeanor 
throughout the civilized world. The prayer that 
wells up from an Irish heart to her shall never go 
unheeded. The power of her intercession has not 
lessened with the years, nor has her maternal in- 
terest in the spiritual welfare of her race diminished 
or grown cold and indifferent. St. Bridget is still 
our beloved patroness: we are still her children.” 
But Bridget did not confine her influence merely 
to her own abbey or even the immediate neighbor- 
hood of Kildare. All the lives of her time mention 
that she made many journeys through the south 
and west of her Ireland consulting, counselling and 
directing the great scholars and saints of the day. 
Undoubtedly one of her purposes was to be sure that 
her school at Kildare should have whatever advan- 
tages other schools throughout Ireland had. 
Another was that her presence inspired many to take 
up the religious life and that after a visit of this 
kind there would be many applicants for entrance 
into her abbey. The rich and the poor, flocked to 
her, the rich bearing gifts, the poor asking for help, 
and very few went away without feeling that some 
great new power had come to them and that now 
they would be able to bear their ills better than be- 
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