Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and ScholarsHealy, John
History
Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars
Healy, John
Education -- Ireland -- History
There are still many interesting memorials of St. Brigid at Faughart. The
village is not quite two miles to the north-east of Dundalk. It is
situated amid fertile fields, overlooking the sparkling waters of the Bay,
and nestling under the shelter of the Carlingford mountains. It was once
ruled over by Cuchullin, the Hound of the North, who kept the ford of
Ardee against the hosts and the heroes of Queen Meave; and in its old
church-yard was buried the headless trunk of the gallant Edward Bruce, who
was slain close at hand--the spot is still shown--in the year A.D. 1318.
St. Brigid's Well is there, roofed over with masonry, but its waters are
gone. The flag on which she was placed after her birth is also pointed
out, and there also are Brigid's Pillar, and Brigid's Stone, of a
horse-shoe shape, and the remains of an old church, but certainly not
dating from Brigid's time. The old church-yard surrounding it is crowded
with ancient graves, and enclosed by a tall hedge of fragrant hawthorns.
There are several 'forts' and ancient 'mounds' in the neighbourhood, which
show that it had been a populous and important place, probably from the
pre-historic ages of Cuchullin. One of them is sixty feet in height, and
its level summit is still crowned with the foundations of a strong
octagonal building, the purpose of which cannot now be ascertained.[131]
St. Brigid was born about the year A.D. 450, and was baptized shortly
after her birth, with the consent of the magus or Druid in whose service
her mother was engaged. She grew up, according to all her biographers, to
be a young girl of singular grace and beauty, greatly favoured by nature,
but still more richly endowed by grace. The daughter of the captive was
watched over by guardian angels; her food was the milk of a white cow,
that typefied the purity of her own young heart; and the butter from her
master's dairy, that she too generously gave to the poor, was miraculously
replaced that she and her mother might not be blamed on account of waste
or extravagance.
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