CrucisSt. Brigid of Kildare
St. Brigid of Kildare was born around 451 in Ireland, according to tradition near Faughart, and died around 525 at Kildare. Living in the generation after St. Patrick, when the faith was taking root across Ireland, she consecrated her life to God as one of the earliest Irish women religious. Renowned from her youth for boundless generosity to the poor, she is remembered in countless stories of charity and hospitality.
She founded a great monastery at Kildare, which became a double community of monks and nuns and a celebrated center of learning, art, and holiness in early medieval Ireland. Her influence in the young Irish Church was immense, and she is honored, together with St. Patrick and St. Columba, as one of the three patron saints of Ireland. The simple rush cross woven on her feast day, 1 February, still bears her name and recalls her memory.
Selected quotes
“I would welcome the whole world to a feast of mercy, for Christ comes hidden in every guest.”
“Give freely to the poor, for what passes through their hands is laid up in the treasury of heaven.”
“The hands that work for the poor are joined in prayer more truly than the hands that only fold.”