Page 14 - Saints of the Month: February

Saints of the Month: February

convent. On one occasion our Saint,
imitating the burning charity of St. Ambrose
and other great servants of God, sold some
of the sacred vestments that she might
procure the means of relieving their
necessities. She was so humble that she
sometimes attended the cattle on the land
which belonged to her monastery.

The renown of Bridgid’s unbounded charity
drew multitudes of the poor to Kildare; the
fame of her piety attracted thither many
persons anxious to solicit her prayers or to
profit by her holy example. In course of time
the number of these so much increased that
it became necessary to provide
accommodation for them in the
neighborhood of the new monastery, and
thus was laid the foundation and origin of
the town of Kildare.

The spiritual exigencies of her community,
and of those numerous strangers who
resorted to the vicinity, having suggested to
our Saint the expediency of having the
locality erected into an episcopal see, she
represented it to the prelates, to whom the
consideration of it rightly belonged.
Deeming the proposal just and useful,
Conlath, a recluse of eminent sanctity,
illustrious by the great things which God
had granted to his prayers, was, at Bridgid’s
desire, chosen the first bishop of the newly
erected diocese. In process of time it

15