St. Brigid of Kildare

Today is the feast of St. Brigid of Kildare (or "of Ireland"), who came within one chromosome of being my patronness. St. Brigid founded several convents and schools, but some of the other details of her life are complicated by the contradictions of the numerous biographies written about her in the years following her death. It is known that she was born in 451 or 452, was a friend of St. Patrick, and died in 525. She was not, as at least one source on the web claims, a bishop -- that's just silly. One of the institutions of learning she founded was a scriptorium that produced the "Book of Kildare," an amazing illuminated Bible that was widely praised as the finest book of the age. Like everything else they could lay their hands on, the English destroyed it following the introduction of the Protestant heresy in Britain.

File Under: Saints