of St. Brigid. It contains, amongst other praises of her innumerable virtues, the following: Ni roibe tra nech ba nairiu, na ba feli indas in noem og sin. Ni po nizestar riam a lama, naċ a cossa, nad a cend, etir feraib. Ni po dfech din, riam in ngnuis ferscali. Ni po labra etir cen lossi di. ba haintech, ba hendac, ba hernedach, ba foitnech, ba falid i timnaib de, ba cobsaid, ba humal. ba dilgedach desercach. ba compa coisecartha coimeta chuipp Crist. ba tempol De. ba siōsuide tairisme don spisut noeb a cride ocur a menma. ba diuit fri Dia., ba topsech do ¿rogaib. ba hétrocht hi fertaib. Is aire sin isé a samail etir dúlib, colum eter énaib, finemain eter fedaib, grian uas rennaib. 1Se a hatair na noem oigise, in tathair nemda. Ise a mac Isu Crist, ise a haite in Spirut noeb. Conid aire sin do gni in noem ogsa na mirbuli mora diairmide si. 18 hi fortaigess da cec oen bir hi cumca ocus hi nguasacht. Isi traethas na tedmanna, is i toirnes tonngair ocus ferg in mara moir. Isi seo ban tairngertaig Crist. Isi rigan in deisceirt. Iri Muine na nGoedel. There was not in existence one of more bashfulness and modesty than this holy Virgin. She never washed her hands, or her feet, or her head, before men. She never looked a man in the face. She never spoke without blushing. She was abstinent. unblemished, prayerful, patient, joying in the commandments of God, benevolent, humble, forgiving, charitable. She was a consecrated shrine for the preservation of the Body of Christ. She was a Temple of God. Her heart and her mind were a resting throne for the Holy Spirit. She was meek before God. She was distressed with the wretched. She was bright in miracles. And hence it is that her type among created things is the Dove among birds; the Vine among trees; and the Sun above the stars. The Father of this holy Virgin was the Heavenly Father; her Son was Jesus Christ; her tutor was the Holy Spirit. And it was, therefore, that this holy Virgin performed those great innumerable miracles. It is she that relieves every one that is in difficulty and in danger. It is she that restrains the roaring billows, and the anger of the great sea. She is the prophesied woman of Christ. She is the Queen of the South. She is the Mary of the Gaeidhil. This panegyric is sufficiently extravagant:-that the Father of St. Brigid is the Heavenly Father; that her son is Jesus Christ; that she is the Queen of the South (see St. Matt. xii. 42) prophesied of by Christ; that she is the Mary of the Gaeidhil or Irish. But the language used in some other authorities is still more strange, and seems at first sight to imply that she was the very Mother of Christ Herself, the same in form and feature, as if the B. V. Mary had reappeared on earth in the person of St. Brigid. Thus, in the third Life, ascribed to St. Ultan, and more at length in the Irish Life', quoted by Colgan, we read :-That when she was quite a child, a certain The Irish Life.-The following is Colgan's version of this legend from his Irish Life;" Ita vita Hibernica S. Brigidæ, c. 12. Quodam die virgo quædam Deo dicata venit ad Dubthacum petens ut St. Brigida secum proficisceretur ad quamdam synodum Seniorum Lageniensium congregatam in K campo Liffe. Tunc in visione erat revelatum cuidam Seniori, qui erat in Synodo, et vocabatur Hibarus, quod S. Maria die sequenti erat ventura ad istam Synodum, cujus et speciem et formam aliis prænuntiavit. Sequenti ergo die et illa alia Virgo et Brigida venerunt ad Synodum quæ tunc congregata holy virgin [or widow] obtained permission to take St. Brigid with her to a Synod of the clergy of Leinster, which was to be held at the place afterwards called Kildare. An aged saint, who was present at the Synod, announced to the clergy that he had seen the B. V. Mary in a vision, and that on the following day she would appear in the midst of them. Accordingly, on the next day, St. Brigid and her companion arrived; and the aged saint, when he saw her, immediately cried out, This is holy Mary, whom I saw last night in my vision. "Then all the people gave praise to St. Brigid, on account of that name of Mary, which was then given her. And from thence she was called the Mary of the Irish." Or, as the author of the Third Life tells the story,"Then the holy man said, 'This is Mary whom I saw, for I plainly recognise her form.' Then all gave glory unto her, as being in the shape of Mary." "Tunc omnes glorificaverunt eam, quasi in typo Maria". Here when it is said that Brigid was "in the type of Mary," the meaning, perhaps, may be that she resembled in form and figure the Person of the Blessed Virgin; not that she was actually the Blessed Virgin, reappearing upon earth, but that, from the close resemblance of her features to those of Mary, and from her having been seen in the vision as Mary, and been called by the angel as "Holy Mary that dwells amongst you," she was saluted by the assembled Synod as Mary, and was thenceforth regarded as "the Mary of the Irish." Mary; And in like manner other panegyrics give her the attributes of the B. V. for they call her "Mother of Christ," and "Mother of our Heavenly Lord." Thus, the ancient Irish Hymn attributed to St. Columkille, but by some to St. Ultan, has the following words : Do sodba innunn ar colla ciru, in chroeb co mblathaib, in mathair Isu, She annihilates the sins of the flesh in us- erat in loco qui postea Killdaria dicta est. Tunc ille sanctus, qui vidit visionem, cum videret Brigidam venientem, ait: ista est sancta Maria, quæ mihi hac nocte in visione præostensa est. Totus populus tunc extollebat S. Brigidam propter nomen illud, quo insignita est, Mariæ. Et ab inde vocata est Maria Hibernorum." In the third Life, attributed to St. Ultan, the story is told thus :-" Religiosa quædam vidua in proximo vico habitans, postulavit a patre ejus, ut S. Brigida secum iret ad Synodum quæ collecta erat in campo Liffi et a patre permittitur. At illæ egressæ sunt viam. Tunc vir Sanctus in Synodo dormiens vidit visionem, et sur- 8 Mariæ.-Cap. 14 (Tr. Thaum. p. 528). And so also St. Brogan Cloen, in his Irish poem', which Colgan has printed as the first Life : brigit mathair mo rurech nime, flatha ferr cinis. Brigit, mother of my Lord Of heaven, a Sovereign the best born. In these passages Brigid is strangely spoken of, not as resembling the Virgin Mary in feature, or even in purity and sanctity, but as partaking with her, in some mystical sense, of the prerogative of being Mother of Jesus, "Mother of my Lord of heaven." Nevertheless, it is certain that the idea of a reappearance of Mary, in the person of St. Brigid, which would make them one and the same person, was not in the minds of these writers, notwithstanding the extravagance of their language; for St. Brogan Cloen afterwards says: In caillech reided currech rop sciath fria febra fegi The veiled Virgin who drives over the Currech Is a shield against sharp weapons; Let us put our trust in my strength. In the last line there is a play upon the name of St. Brigid, and the Irish word brigi, strength. And again: Cach po chuala cach ro gab, no chornagur dom dichill, For afoessam dun diblinaib. Every one that hears, every one that repeats [this poem], The blessing of Brigid be on him; Be upon them that recite it together. There are two Virginsk in heaven, Who will not give me a forgetful protection, Mary, and Saint Brigid, Under the protection of them both may we remain. Here it is clear that Mary and Brigid are spoken of as two distinct beings, and the notion of a reappearance of the former in the person of the latter is excluded. The words of the supposed first stanza of the Hymn in the text (taking the cor lished in a Latin version by Colgan (Tr. Th. p. 606, n. 23). It occurs in the Liber Hymnorum, p. 32, from which it is here cited. The Scholiast in the Preface states, that St. Columkille is supposed to be the author, but he adds, "or it was Ultan of Ardbreccan who made this Hymn." i Irish poem. · Hymnorum, p. 33. I have made the quotations This poem occurs in the Liber from the original, as Colgan's text is full of typographical errors. The Currech.-i. e. the Curragh of Kildare. The scholiast in a gloss on this word says, "curnech a cursu equorum dictus est;" a curious proof of the antiquity of its use as a race-course: to which, perhaps, some allusion may be intended in the description of St. Brigid, as "the Nun (or veiled virgin) who drives over the Currech." Two Virgins.-The word caillech, here used, signifies a veiled or consecrated virgin, a nun, derived probably from the Latin cucullus. rected reading of autumata, for aut amata) are also remarkable: Christi matrem se spopondit; "she promised, or pledged herself to be Christ's mother, and made herself so by words and deeds, Brigid, who is esteemed the Queen of the true God." The Hymn itself, however (v. 8), is content with the statement that she was a Virgin like to Holy Mary, "Mariæ sanctæ similem." Our Lord has said (St. Matt. xii. 50) that whosoever shall do the will of God, "the same is His brother, and sister and mother," and this perhaps may be all that is meant by St. Brigid's pledging herself to be the Mother of Christ, and making herself so by words and deeds. Colgan explains it thus (Tr. Thaum., p. 622): "Quod a tempore juventutis suæ Christum in suo pectore gestabat: nam non solum omnes suas actiones in Deum referebat, sed et simul continua mentis elevatione et absque ulla intermissione, fixa in eum intentione ferebatur. Et hanc esse causam indicat S. Ultanus loco proxime citato, dicens, Christi matrem se spopondit, dictis atque factis fecit." So that, according to this explanation, she who by continual elevation of mind, and fixed intention, keeps her thoughts ever upon Christ, may be said to travail with Christ, and figuratively to be the Mother of Christ, and so to be, as it were, another Mary. This latter prerogative of St. Brigid, to be the Mary of the Irish, Colgan interprets thus: " Quod majori fuerit in honore et veneratione apud Hibernos, quam ulla alia sancta post beatissimam Virginem Matrem: seu quasi suppari veneratione cum ipsa Dei Genitrice." This is certainly softening the matter as much as possible, seeing that the ancient authorities place her on an equality with the Blessed Virgin, giving to her also the seemingly incommunicable title of Dei Genetrix, and the still more unusual one of “ Queen of the true God." And, moreover, they state expressly that she was called the Mary of the Irish, and recognised as such by an assembled Synod, in consequence of her personal resemblance to the B. Virgin Mary, whilst still a child, and therefore before she was known to the Irish people, or could have received any honour or veneration from them'. 66 It is curious that the story of the Synod, in a somewhat modified form, is retained in an Office of St. Brigid, printed at Paris so late as 1622. In this Office, as reprinted by Colgan (App. i. p. 600), the following is part of Lectio v.: "Religiosa quædam fæmina postulavit a Patre sua, ut S. Brigida secum exiret ad Synodum quæ collecta erat in Campo Liffæi, et a patre permittitur. Tunc vir quidam sanctus in Synodo dormiens vidit visionem et surgens ait, Hæc altera Maria" quæ habitat inter nos." 1 From them.-See some learned and curious remarks on this subject in Mr. Herbert's Cyclops Christianus, p. 113 sq., p. 137, p. 141-2. m An office. This Office, with some minor variations, occurs, with full musical notation, in the Antiphonary of Clondalkin, a MS. of the fourteenth century, preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, B. 1. 3. " Hæc altera Maria.-In the third Life the language is: "Hæc est Maria (without the explanatory "Respon. Virgo deportatur, honor ei amplius cumulatur: Synodus instabat, nova Brigida stella micabat. Sacra cohors plaudit, quia signum cœlitus audit. "Vers. Præsbyter hanc aliam denuntiat esse Mariam. Sacra cohors plaudit.” In the same Office there is a hymn, of which the first two stanzas are manifestly a paraphrase of the verses Christus in nostra insula. They are as follows: Christo canamus gloriam, Qui per beatam Brigidam Hæc speculum munditiæ, The following Table may throw some light on this subject. It is prefixed to the MS. Martyrology of Tamhlacht, preserved in the Burgundian Library at Brussels. Hi sunt sancti qui erant unius moris et vitæ, ut dicunt: |