St. Brigid of Ireland

Brigid was born of in 451 or 452 in County Louth, Ireland of a noble family. Many young men sought her hand, but she refused them and became a nun. She founded a convent in present-day County Kildare. she founded two monasteries one for men and one for women and she established a school of art. She knew St. Patrick and it thought that woman he mentions in baptizing in his autobiography was Brigid. She was renowned during her lifetime and many stories about her sprang up after her death. Some facts of Brigid’s life are difficult to ascertain with certainty; her earliest known biography was written some two hundred years after her death. St. Brigid is beloved as the patroness of Ireland. She died February 1, 525 and her feast day is February 1.