THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ency not unknown to her oldest biographers. An aged seer foretold her future greatness to her mother before she was born.
Wliile still a child Bridget prophesied her coming spiritual rule over Ireland by stretching her arms over the green fields and crying "it will be mine." As nun and monastery-head she performs numerous miracles of benevolence and love like those of Elijah at Zarephath and Jesus in feeding the multitude. The milk which she gives to a poor man, instead of making it into butter, is restored in a wondrous way; so likewise the bacon which she gives to a hungry dog instead of cooking it. She gives seven sheep, one after the other, to a beggar who comes to her in seven different forms, but the number of her flock is not diminished. She changes the water drawn from a spring for a sick man into a delicious liquor. She satisfies a whole company of episcopal guests with the milk of a single cow which had already been milked three times the same day.
Some of her dream-miracles and visions are more credible; but here, on the one hand, a Roman-clerical tendency is easily recognized— as when she finds herself transported to Rome and hears a mass read there which awakens in her the desire to transplant the same to Ireland — and, on the other hand, we meet with characteristics of a benevolent nature-deity, which the legends mentioned above also indicate by ascribing to her manifold miracles connected with the giving of food and drink. It is thus not unlikely that the old heathen nature-goddess Ceridwen (the Ceres of the Celts), transformed into a Christian saint, survives in Bridget. The fire also which was kept burning in her honor at Kildare speaks for this supposition. It is said that the foundations of a temple of Ceridwen, with great vaults for the storing of fruits, have been found beneath the chapel of the monastery (cf. Transactions of, the Royal Irish Academy, iii, 1789, Ant., 75-85). In old Irish legend and song, Bridget is likened to the Virgin Mary, or even extolled as the Mary of the Irish by expressions such as " mother of Christ," " mother of the Lord," and the like. A hymn, attributed to Bishop Ultan (d. 656) and in any case very old, calls her " beloved queen of the true God," and the old Ofjicium, S. Brigidce (printed at Paris, 1622) speaks of her as " another Mary," " like to Mary," etc. The monasteries, churches, and villages named after her are almost without number. O. ZocKLERf.
Bibliography: The three oldest lives (by Brogar Cloen, Cogitosus, and Ultan), dating from the sixth and seventh centuries, with three later lives, from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, were published by J. Colgan in his Trias thaumaturga, pp. 515-626, Louvain, 1647; the ASB gives three of these lives with two others and a preface, Feb., i, 99-185. The life by Cogitosus is in MPL, lxxii. For later presentations consult J. Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, i, 68, 335, and chaps, viii and ix, passim, Dublin, 1829; J. H. Todd, The Book of Hymns of the Ancient Church of Ireland, i, 64-70, Dublin, 1X55; idem, St. Patrick, pp. 10-26, Dublin, 1864; A. P. Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, pp. 2X7-291, Edinburgh, 1872; J. Healy, Insula sanctorum, pp. 106-121, Dublin, 1890; T. Olden, The Church of Ireland, pp. 38-48, London, 1895; J. O'Hanlon, Lues of the Irish Saints, ii, 1-224, Dublin, n.d.
BRIDGET, SAINT, OF SWEDEN AND THE BRIGITTINE ORDER.
Bridget's Early Life (§ 1).
Bridget's Revelations and Later Life (§ 2).
Her Works (§ 3).
The Brigittine Order (§ 4).
Bridget, the famous Scandinavian mystic and monastic founder, was born probably at Finstad not far from Upsala, in 1303; d. in Rome July 23, 1373. Her father, Birger Persson, was one of the principal landowners of the district, and charged with both administrative and judicial functions. Her family on both sides had been distinguished for religious devotion, and the child received a careful education in spiritual things. Her imagination, nourished on the lives of the saints, brought her her first vision at the age of seven. Others followed, the reality of which neither she i. Bridget's nor her parents doubted. After her Early mother's death, Bridget was entrusted Life. to an aunt at Aspanas, whose strict discipline laid the foundation of her asceticism and strength of will. In 1316 she was married, in pursuance of her father's political plans, to Ulf, son of the governor of the province of Nerike, and took up her residence at Ulfasa in that province, where she acquired great influence by the renown of her piety and unselfishness. By degrees she collected around her a group of devout and learned men — Nicolaus Hermanni, renowned as a Latin poet, and later bishop of Linkoping, who was the instructor of her children; Matthias, her confessor, the foremost theologian of the time in Sweden; Prior Peter of Alvastra; and another Peter, who succeeded Matthias as her confessor. Through Matthias, who was the author of a commentary on Revelation, she gained an insight into the religious movements and the rich apocalyptic literature of the day, After King Magnus Ericsson's marriage with Blanche of Namur, Bridget became chief lady-in-waiting to the queen, and soon acquired a great influence at the court.
No remarkable visions or revelations seem to have marked this period. When, however, she was approaching the age of forty (probably between 1341 and 1343), she and her husband made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at Compostella (see Compostella). On the way back, Ulf fell ill at Arras; and as she watched by his bedside, she thought she saw St. Denis, the protector of France, who told her that she was under the special care of heaven. Her husband's recovery, which was indicated as a sign of this, was only temporary. He died in 1344, and Bridget believed the last tie which bound her to earth had been broken. Not long afterward, she thought she saw 2. Bridget's Christ himself, who said to her: "Thou Revela- art my spouse, and the link between tions and me and mankind; thou shalt see and Later Life, hear marvelous things, and my Spirit shall be upon thee all thy days." This was her first revelation, strictly so called. She and those around her were fully convinced of the reality and the divine origin of these revelations. She used to write or dictate them in Swedish; later they were somewhat freely put into Latin