No More Learning

*9 The author of St. Brigid's Third Life-
thought by Colgan to be St. Ultan—states,
that St. Brigid was born in the country and
house of a Magus (cap. 4) ; that this identical
Magus went with the infant to Connaught,
so soon as she was born (cap. 5) ; and, in
the following chapter, he relates, how the
child had been brought up in Connaught,
untilshehadbecomeagrownmaiden. He
tells us, how she returned to Lagenia, buried in Ireland (lib. ii. , cap. xcix,). where her father lived (cap. 11) ; how she Blessed Marianus Scotus, in liis Chronicle,
We
to St. Ultan's Life of our saint, she is said to have been distinguished in that island,
*'
qusevocaturHibernia,"&c. IfSt. Brigid
had been bom in Britain, is it not strange,
that St. Ultan, in no place, speaks of her
birth, education, religious profession, &c. , as having occurred there, while these inci-
dents, and special localities already men- tioned, are referable alone to Ireland ? Nor
does he even indicate, in one single instance, that she had ever left our island.
3° In his Life of our saint, when describing the church of Kildare in Leinster, Cogitosus tells us, that St. Brigid was buried in it (cap, XXXV,), And, towards the end of her Acts, Animosus says, that she died, and was
at the year 521, writes,
Virgo in Hibernia diem clausit extremum.
3' These reliable writers, St. Cogitosus, St. Cormac, archbishop, Animosus, Keat- ing, and others, exhibit this fact sufliciently, when introducing her paternal and maternal genealogies.
3' St. ^ngus calls her a "bright Virgin and chief of holy Irishwomen," in his Festi-
logy, at the 1st of February, In like manner, Marianus O'Gorman, at the same date,
"
Chief- Virgin or Chief of the Virgins of Ireland,"
33 Among Irish authorities may be enu- merated, St, Ibar, an Irish Apostle, who calls St. Brigid, "Mary of the Irish," when she came from the house of her father Dub- tach to that synod, assembled at Kildare, in Leinster,
3^ Such as Dempster and Camerarius,
35 In his Martyrology, at the 1st of Feb-
styles her
S, Brigida Scota "
February i. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 37
Bernard,37 Florence of Worcester,38 John Capgrave,39 Francis Hare,4° Zacharias Lippeloo,^^ Cornelius Grassius,4» the English Martyrology,43 Baronius,44 Herebert Rosweyde,<s Legends of the Brabantine Saints,^^ and a great number of other highly respectable authorities, may be cited. Various Breviaries and offices might be added. '*^ Nor even do Scotch authors of respectability^^ deny this origin for the Scotian virgin, in ages now past ; while none of them at present claim Scotland to have been the country of her birth, although she is there greatly venerated.
It may easily be supposed, however, that John Major49 and Hector
S. Brigidce, Virginis," &c.
" "
Epitonie Annalium," A. D.
37 In "Vita S.
Fochart, as being the birth-place of St.
Brigid, while alluding to St. Malachy's acts
S. Brigida
Scota in Virgo
Malachire,"
and travels in Ireland, cap. xxiv.
3^ Florence of Worcester records,
"
S. Brigida Scota Virgo in Hibernia obiit,"
615, 616.
49 It is strange that Major—otherwise so
A. D. 521.
39 John Capgrave, in his
"
torum Anglise," says,
bernia nomine Dubthacus, genere Lage- niensis," &c.
*° " VitDe Sanctorum," at the ist of Feb-
learned—could have fallen into so many chronological and historic mistakes, as,
the 1st of February.
4* At the 1st of February.
43 The English Martyrology, at the 1st of February, says, "In Hibernia depositio S. Brigidae, virginis, quae in Comitatu Kill- dariensi in loco Fochart appellato nata est. "
44 At this same year, 521 Baronius says,
" Hoc insuper anno S. Brigida, Scota Virgo in Hibernia diem clausit extremum. Hoc
in Chronico gentilis ipsius Marianus Scotus, cui potius assentiendum putamus, quam, —lis qui ante biennium defunctam ponunt. "
" Annales Ecclesiastici," tomus vii.
added, the blessed Patrick brought St. Brigid into that place ; when Gamard pre- sented certain possessions to the holy Brigid and to nine virgins, who accompanied her. These possessions the Propositus and canons held in his time. See "Historia Majoris Britanniae," &c. , lib. ii. , cap. xiv. , p. 85. Bede testifies, indeed, that St. Columba came from Ireland to Albania in the year
**
45 In his "Chronicle," at the year 521 :
Ecclesiastica Gentis lib. iii. , Anglorum,"
cap. iv. , pp. 168, 169. Gamard succeeded in the government. Now, according to Marianus Scotus and Sigebert, in their Chronicles, St. Patrick died A. D. 491, or according to other admitted accounts, in 493. Thus, he flourished many years be- fore St. Columba and Brudeus were bora, or before Gamard reigned. Wherefore, St. Patrick could not have introduced St. Brigid into Abernethy, during the time when lived any of those already named. In fine, how could St. Brigid be installed at Abernethy, about the time of Garnard, king over the Picts, if she died a. d. 521, or according to other accounts, in 523 ? or how could that king offer possessions to her, and to the nine virgins, accompanying her? If it be objected. Major meant that King Garnard, bestowed those possessions, not during St.
Brigid's life-time but to express his great veneration for her, when she had departed from this world ; why, it may be asked, does he observe, that the aforesaid church had been built by Gamard, that St. Brigid had been inducted there, and that certain endowments
Eodem anno S. Virgo Brigida, cujus prae- clara vita hodie extat, in Hibernia obiit. "
4* In the "Legenda Sanctorum Brabantiae"
:
we read " S. Brigida venerabilis Virgo
Hibernia fuit instar suaveolentis rosse, quae super spinas floret. "
47 That St. Brigid was an Irishwoman and
a Lagenian, both by birth and descent, will be found in her ofhce in the " Breviarium Gienensum," when we read : "Natale Bri- gidae Virginis quas a Christianis nobilibus- que parentibus orta, patre Dubthaco et matre Broca, a pueritia bonarum artium studiis inolevit, adeo ut de omnibus pro- vinciis Hibemise innumerabiles populi con- fluentes ad ejus monasterium," &c. (cap. 2). Again, in her office, printed at Paris, A. D.
1620, Resp. I, "Felicem Hiberniam beata
Lagenia declarat, Brigida; gignans prosapiam, de qua latitiam sumat ecclesia ;" and in the
"
Haec est Laurus Hibemiae, cujus 4^ James Gordon, himself a Scotchman,
hymn,
viror non marcuit," &c.
in his " at the Chronicle,"
" John
were unless St. and her made, Brigid
year 521 : Brigida Scota moritur in Hibernia. "
S.
virgins were living ? We may remark, there is not;
**
he of speaks
Bisciol in his
521, writes,
Hibernia diem clausit extremum. " See
"
Trias Thaumaturga. " Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. Brigidse, cap. iv. , pp.
Legenda Sanc- Vir quidam in Hi-
when citing Bede for authority, he states, that St. Columba came into Britain, while Brudeus, a powerful king, reigned over the Picts; thatGamard,thesonofDompnach, succeeded to Brudeus, and built a collegiate
ruary.
4' " Vitse sive Res Gestae Sanctorum," at church at Abernethy. Afterwards, it is
Colgan's
565, while Brudeus or Bridius, son of Meilo- "
chon, ruled over the Picts. See Historia
3^ LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [February i. \
Boetius,5° who advance these statements, did not voluntarily fall into error : they had even some apparent foundation whereon their opinions might have been based. The source of their mistake seems to have arisen from the in- determinate name of Brigid. Giraldus Cambrensis, too, has strangely con- fused her period. s^ Many other holy women bear a similar name and be- long to our country, as mentioned in native martyrologies. Nay more, in Scotland, the name of Brigid was highly extolled, and several females were named after her. Among others, there was a certain saint so called, who had been buried at Abernethys^ in Britannic Scotia. 53 Abernethy as a see was at one time superior to St. Andrew's. 54 It was even primatial,55 but it was transferred to the latter place, in 850. 5'^ That Brigid, however, was quite a different person from the Patroness of Ireland. 57 As this latter, had been much more celebrated and exalted in popular estimation, she was probably considered to have been the person alluded to, by those writers mentioned ;
they not having known about any other Brigid, nor having weighed atten- tively those arguments, which might favour a contrary conclusion. s^ It is
a shadow—much less a probability—of oriunda retinuit, et aliquamdiu educavit. "
truth, in the supposition, that St. Brigid, a Scot, and by profession a Christian, left her country and Christian friends, with a band of virgins, or betook herself to a Pagan and hostile nation, as alsobeforeits kingand chiefs
had been converted, establishing herself
there in a royal city, where she dwelt to the
time of her death. The Northern Picts,
with their king, had been pagans, for more
than forty years after St. Brigid's death,
and until St. Columba came, from Ireland in
565, when he afterwards converted them to
the faith. These facts are sufficiently clear, Garnard lived according to Buchannan's from the testimony of Venerable Bede. "Rerum Scoticarum Historia," lib. v. , p. See " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglo- 148. He died A. D. 640, the fifty-third king rum," lib. iii. , cap. iv. , pp. 168, 169, and of the Picts. See Rev. Thomas Innes'
"
Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scot- land. " Chronological Memoirs, p. 225.
58 In his time, John Major remarks, that St. Brigid was venerated at Abernethy. See "Historise Majoris Britannise," lib. ii. ,
lib. v. , cap. X. , pp. 400 to 403.
5° See " Scotorum Historise, a prima Gen-
tis Origine," &c. , lib. ix. , fol. clxiiii.
S' Thus he states, that St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St. Columkille were cotem-
poraries. See "Topographia Hibernica,! ' cap. xiv. , p. 85. But, if this be not the
Dist. iii. , cap, xviii. , in Giraldi Cambrensis
**
identical Brigid there venerated, she might have been a St. Brigid, daughter to Neman, son of Aid, son to Loarn, son to Ere, son to Eochad, sumamed Muinreamhuir, Prince of
Opera. " Edited by James F. Dimock,
M. A. , p. 163. Father Stephen White de-
votes nearly a chapter to an elaborate refu-
tation of this misstatement, and to other Dalaradia. She is thought to have been errors in relation to them. See "Apologia venerated in Magoluinge, on the 9th of
pro Hibernia," cap. xii. , pp. 123 to 131. Rev. Dr. Kelly's edition.
5' See an interesting account of this place
March. It is certain, this Brigid, with her three sisters Corba, Lassara, and Lemania, had descended from the line of Dalriadan
who were
in FuUarton's "
land," vol. i. , pp. 22 to 24.
most
chiefs both in Scotia Major, or Ireland, and in Scotia Minor, or Scotland.
From this line, the kings of Albanian Scotia issued. In the same Albanian Scotia we find a loca- lity, termed Magluinge. This appears, where land. She is mentioned in Capgrave's the plain of Lunge is said to have been "in "Acta S. Cuthberti," and in Ussher's terra Ethica," according to Adamnan's
Imperial
Gazetteer of Scot-
princes,
formerly
powerful
53 In Colgan s opinion, the St. Brigid, in- terred at Abernethy, should rather be con-
sidered a holy virgin, who was a disciple of St. Columba, Bishop of Dunkeld, in Scot-
"Primordia Ecclesiarum Britannicarum," "Vita S. Columbse," lib. ii. , cap. 15. The "
cap. xvi. , p. 705, where we read, "S. Co- country, called terra Ethica, seems to
lumba primus Episcopus in Dunkeld Cuth- have derived its denomination from Ethech
bertum puerum suscepit ; unaque cum or Echodius, prince of Dalaradia, or as he puella quadam nomine Brigida ex Hibernia is called by the British Scots Ethod.
It is supposed, if the circumstances of time do not warrant such an opinion, those of place are favourable to it, for this St. Brigid had been educated in Britannic Scotia.
*'
Scoti-Monasticon : The Ancient Church
54 See Rev. Mackenzie E. C. Walcott's
of Scotland," p, 2.
55 Ibid. , p. 72. This work contains some
beautiful illustrations of Scottish churches.
5^ Ibid. , p. 84.
57 It is said, St. Cuthbert flourished in
Britain, about a. d. 660, and at this period,
February i. ] LIVES OE 7HE IRISH SAINTS. 39
not difficult, moreover, to discover the origin of that error, into which Hector
Boetius,59 and other writers after him, had been betrayed, when they state, that St. Brigid of Kildare was veiled in the Isle of Man, and by Bishop Machille. In some of St. Brigid's Acts, we read, that she had received the veil from a Bishop Machille, or more correctly, from a Bishop Maccalleus. ^ In certain Acts of the Irish Apostle,*^^ it is stated, that Maccaldus, or more properly Macculleus, a disciple to our illustrious Irish Apostle, had been consecratedabishopandplacedovertheIsleofMan. *^* Hence,ithadbeen incorrectly supposed St. Brigid received the veil in that island, while it is evident from her Acts by Cogitosus, that she had been invested with it, not in Mannia,^3 but in Media,^-^ and that it had been given to her, not by Macculleus, Bishop of Man, but by another Maccalleus, quite a different person from the first-named prelate. ^s
It will surprise the curious investigator of our glorious saint's biography, to learn on what grounds Scoto-British writers state her birth to have taken
place in Laudonia, that she was veiled by Bishop Machille in Mona Island,^ that she died and was buried at Abernethy,67 in the Tiffa district of North Britain ; especially, when we take into account, that among many writers of St. Brigid's Acts, no one of them has even stated, she was born out of Ireland, or has mentioned any other place or country in Britain having connection with her Life and labours. We can hardly take into account Dempster's ridiculous explanation, that Ladenia,^^ a province of Britain, should be sub- stituted for Lagenia. In previous passages, it will be seen, that the most authentic accounts make St. Brigid, not only a native of Ireland, but they even assert she was conceived in Leinster, was born in Ulster, and had been educated in Connaught ; they likewise state, that she assumed the veil in Meath, while her labours extended to Munster, as well as to those other provinces already mentioned. In fine, it is stated, she died at Kildare in Leinster, and afterwards she was honourably interred at Down in Ulster, having been deposited in the same tomb with St. Patrick and Columkille. Moreover, her paternal and maternal genealogy, derived through such a long line of ancestors, so many saints related to her, so many other holy Irish virgins bearing her name, and so many journeys take;i by her, through Irish
59 See "Scotorum Historic," &c. , lib. ''s See "Appendix Quarta ad Acta S. ix. , fol. clxiiii. Brigidae," cap. iv. , pp. 614 to 617, ibid.
^See "Trias " ^A Colgan's Thaumaturga.
Hymnus seu Prima Vita S. Brigidae, sec. 8, p. 515. Secunda Vita S. Brigidae, cap. iii. , p. 519. Quinta Vita S. Brigidae, cap. xxix. , p. 574'
^^
fine old of with Coats of Map Mona,
Arms, coloured, was published in folio size about A. D. 1620. In 1835, was issued at
Douglas, in 8vo shape, Arch. Cregeen's "Dictionary of the Manks Language, inter- spersed with many Gaelic Proverbs. "
^^ There is an account of Aber- interesting
nethy (Apumethige) in Rev. Mackenzie E. S. Walcott's " Ancient Church of Scotland,"
pp. 316, 317.
^^
Colgan says, he could not find any pro- vince, territory or spot, called Laudenia or Landian. If perchance, Dempster wished to understand Laudonia, most certainly in St. Brigid's time, it did not belong to the Picts or Scots, but to the more southern Britons. In the century of Venerable Bede, it appertained to the Northumbrians and English. This is proved by Ussher, in his
"Primordia Ecclcsiarum Britannicarum," pp. 663, 667.
By Jocelyn. ^' "
See Sexta Vita S.
Patricii," cap. clii. , p. 98. Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga. "
^3 The Island of Man. See " Chronicon Manniee, or a Chronicle of the Kings of Man," supposed to have been written by the Monks of the Abbey of Russin, for an in- teresting account of the civil and ecclesias- tical history of the island. This i2mo book, published in 1 784, contains the Norwegian narrative of Olave, the Black King of Man, with other curious particulars.
^* Or the territory of Meath. See Colgan's
"Trias Thaumaturga. " Secunda Vita S.
Brigidae, cap. iii. , p. 519, and n. ii, p. 525, ibid.
40 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [February i.
towns, plains and territories, from her birth to the time of her death, prove conclusively, that St. Brigid should be specially classed among our national saints. It is not a little surprising—to say the least of it—to find Dempster^?
has not only infelicitously, but even incautiously, jumbled irrelevant circum- stances,withhisassertions. 7° Itisincredibletosuppose,thatsomanyreliable
authors, as those already cited, could egregiously and perseveringly have corrupted the names of Lagenia and Laudenia, in the manner it has pleased Dempster alone to imagine, and that without any grounds. 7^ To assume that he meant Laudonia,72 if we allow, that before Bede's time, it belonged to Albania, it certainly was never under the Scottish dominion, but solely under that of the Picts, from whom Pictland is called. If therefore, St. Brigid had been born in Laudonia,73 it must be conceded, she was not a Scot, but a Briton, or at least a Pict, by family and birth.
To resume what we consider the more legendary accounts of our saint's early infancy, it is said, that the Magus, the mother of St. Brigid, her nurse and others, who were sitting in a certain place without the house, saw a cloth take fire suddenly,74 and it touched the head of this holy child, who was besidethem. But,whentheirhandswereimmediatelystretchedforthtoex- tinguish the flame, it disappeared at once, and the cloth was even found to have escaped the ravages of this fire. Such a portent was supposed to have been an indication, that the grace of the Holy Spirit inflamed God's servant. 7S On another occasion, while this same Magus was sleeping, he had a vision of two angels,76 clothed in white, pouring oil on the girl's head, and seeming to perform a baptismal rite in the usual manner. 77 From such account, some persons have inferred our saint had been baptized by an angel. How- ever, this should be a false conjecture, as the Magus is merely said to have seen this apparition during his sleep, and it only indicated the future per- formance of the rite, as also the name Brigid was destined to bear. 7^
:
One of those angels said to 'the Magus " Call this virgin Brigid, for
^ This writer remarks, St. Brigid has been
called a Lagenian, whereas, she ought to be consideredaLadenian; herfather,itispre-
tended, having been from Ladenia, deno-
'*
minated Landian, in Dempster's time. Ladenia nunc Landian," &c. See "His- toria Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum," lib. ii. , num. 144.
7° These manifestly false statements ob-
viously destroy all faith in accounts, the in- accuracy of which could not otherwise be so easily detected by a cursory reader of his works. "Wilful negligence and perversion of facts are very clearly attributable to this self- constituted historian.
7' Yet, after all, if we should institute a
careful examination of the entire map of
British Scotland, we shall not be able to
discover the Ladenia or Landian, imagined
by Dempster, no more than we could expect
to find Lagenia there. Having attentively sia, super cam peregerunt. " Colgan adds read over all the names of Albanian Scotia's that a succeeding prophecy seems to have provinces, territories and other particular its truth confirmed from experience. See localities, and their very accurate descrip- "Trias Thaumaturga. " Quarta Vita S. tions, as given by Hector Boetius and George
Buchannan, Colgan could find no such de- nomination.
7' A very interesting account of this pro- vince, Loudian, or Lothian, will be found in
BrigidoB, n. 16, p. 564. Quinta Vita S. Brigidx, cap. viii. , p. 569, and nn. 9, 11, p. 640.
Chalmers' "Caledonia," vol. i. , book iii. , chap, vi. , pp. 367 to 373.
73AsDempsterstates.
74 In Professor O'Looney's Irish Life of Ex the Saint, this cloth is called the covering
or cap, which was on the infant's head, pp. 7,8.
«'
Trias Thaumaturga. " Tertia Vita S. Brigidce, cap. vi. , pp. 527, 528. Quarta Vita S. Brigidse, lib. i. , cap.
X. , p. 547, ibid.
7<^ The Irish Life has three angels, clothed
in white garments, like clerics. Professor
O'Looney's copy, pp. 7, 8.
77 Colgan remarks, that the ministry of
75 See Colgan's
angels is often read, as having been em- ployed in the administration of the sacra- ments to men. The Fifth Life expressly says; "aqua perfundentes totum ordinem baptismatis sicut Catholica consuevit eccle-
78 See Tertia Vita S. Brigidac, n. 7, p. 543. Quarta Vita S. Brigidse, n. 15, p. 564.
February i. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 41
she shall be full of grace before God and man, and her name shall be
celebrated throughout the entire world. " Pronouncing such words, those
angels disappeared. On a certain occasion, being awake, and studying the course of the heavenly bodies, according to a usual custom79 during the . ,. , whole night, that same Magus saw a column of fire ascending from the » , house, in which Brigid and her mother slept. He called another man to witnesssuchphenomenon. Inthemorning,anaccountofthisprodigywas given to many other persons. ^ We are told, that the child's stomach rejected the food of the Magus, and on endeavouring to discover a cause for
: suchnausea,themagicianwasurgedtocryout "Iamunclean,butthis
girl is filled with graces of the Holy Spirit, and that is the reason why she will not retain any sustenance which I supply to her. " Whereupon, he procured a white cow,^^ which was intended to give milk, while a certain religious and Christian woman was provided to take charge of the infant. That woman milked the cow, and the milk, afterwards given to the child, was found to agree with her. Yet, while the infant suffered from weakness, herpersonalbeautyevenimproved. ^^ Asthemaidgrewup,sheservedin menial offices about the house. ^3 Whatever she touched or saw, in the shape of food, seemed to increase in a miraculous manner. It is remarked, that the Magus and his family were Pagans at the time of these occurrences. Afterwards, however, he became a Christian. A little before this latter event, the faith of Christ is said to have come into Ireland.