Why is saint bridget a saint

Eventually, Dubthach became tired of her charitably nature and took her to the king of Leinster, with the intention of selling her. As he spoke to the king, Brigid gave his jeweled sword to a beggar so he could barter it for food for his family.

When the king, who was a Christian, saw this, he recognized her heart and convinced Dubthach to grant her freedom by saying, "Her merit before God is greater than ours. After being freed, Brigid returned to the Druid and her mother, who was in charge of the Druid's dairy.

Brigid took over and often gave away milk, but the dairy prospered despite the charitable practice, and the Druid eventually freed Brocca. Brigid then returned to Dubthach, who had arranged for her to marry a bard. She refused and made a vow to always be chaste. Legend has it Brigid prayed that her beauty be taken so no one would want to marry her, and the prayer was granted. It was not until after she made her final vows that her beauty was restored. Another tale says that when Saint Patrick heard her final vows, he accidentally used the form for ordaining priests.

When the error was brought to his attention, he simply replied, "So be it, my son, she is destined for great things. Little is known about Saint Brigid's life after she entered the Church, but in 40 she founded a monastery in Kildare, called the Church of the Oak.

It was built above a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid, which was beneath a large oak tree. Brigid and seven friends organized communal consecrated religious life for women in Ireland and she founded two monastic institutions, one for men and one for women. Brigid invited a hermit called Conleth to help her in Kildare as a spiritual pastor. Her biographer reported that Brigid chose Saint Conleth "to govern the church along with herself.

She later founded a school of art that included metalwork and illumination, which Conleth led as well. It was at this school that the Book of Kildare, which the Gerald of Wales praised as "the work of angelic, and not human skill," was beautifully illuminated, but was lost three centuries ago.

Patrick and Brigid, the pillars of the Irish people, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind.

Through him and through her Christ performed many great works. Saint Brigid helped many people in her lifetime, but on February 1 , she passed away of natural causes. Her body was initially kept to the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, with a tomb "adorned with gems and precious stones and crowns of gold and silver," but in , during the Scandinavian raids, her relics were moved to the tomb of Patrick and Columba.

In , John de Courcy had her remains relocated in Down Cathedral. Today, Saint Brigid's skull can be found in the Church of St. Bridget then spent three years in mourning in a Cistercian monastery. During this period, the spiritual visions she had experienced throughout her life increased in number and vivacity. After a particularly powerful vision in , she founded the monastery that would eventually be her burial place.

Responding to the words of Jesus, Bridget wanted to reform monastic life by founding a new congregation, the Order of the Most Holy Savior, or the Bridgettines. The Rule for the new order was revealed to her throughout numerous and detailed visions. An Italian woman Bridget had become friends with during the Jubilee of donated a large palace in central Rome to Bridget.

Saint Bridget and her sisters established their Roman foundation in that centrally located palace and within its walls Saint Bridget died. Saint Bridget was canonized eighteen years after her death, in , due to her Christian virtue, her deep and sincere piety, her life of strict poverty and assistance to the poor, her devotion to the Virgin Mary, and her many pilgrimages to the shrines of the saints.

She was a saint who loved saints. But she became famous for other reasons—mainly because of her intense, highly detailed, and provocative spiritual revelations. The revelations were written down in both Swedish and Latin, translated into multiple languages, and then diffused throughout Europe. Saint Bridget, may your example of poverty, devotion, and prayer be an example to all who seek to live a life in Christ, and may your writings fire our imaginations to burn ever hotter and brighter with love of God.

Franciscan Media. He was also classed as failure as He hung on the Cross. Birgitta was a successful failure as she was canonized in Birgitta was the only women ever to found a religious Order, Ordo Sanctissimi Salvatoris. It was never a double order but an order primarily for women with permanent chaplains, ruled by an abbess. The brothers had as their head, not a prior but a Confessor General who was responsible for the spiritual business of both convents.

The order spread swiftly throughout Europe with monasteries from Scandinavia right through Europe down to Italy. In modern times is has expanded into five different, juridically independant branches; Spain , Rome , U. None of these foundations have brothers except U. She is the patroness of Sweden. Her feast day is July Copyright Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.

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