"After a short interval, and when she was about twenty years old, [2] the young virgin made known to Maccaille a bishop, and a disciple of St. Patrick, and who had seen over her head a pillar of fire, her determination to live only to Christ Jesus, her heavenly Bridegroom, and he quite approved of her pious resolve, and consented to receive her sacred vows. On the appointed day, the solemn ceremony of her profession was performed, after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, the bishop putting up many holy prayers, and investing Bridget with a snow-white habit and a cloak of the same color, after she had put off her secular ornaments. While she inclined her head on this happy occasion to receive the sacred veil, a miracle of a singularly striking and impressive nature occurred; that part of the wooden platform adjoining the altar on which she knelt recovered its pristine vitality, and put on, as all the bystanders witnessed, its former _greenness_ and verdure, retaining it for a long time after. At the same moment Bridget's eye was healed, and she became as beautiful and lovely as ever." (Lessons in Office of St. Bridget.) Encouraged by her example, three, or, as some say, eight, other ladies made their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of the parents of these her new associates, the saint agreed to found a religious residence for herself and them in the vicinity. A convenient site having been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent--the first in Ireland--was erected upon it; and, in obedience to the prelate, Bridget assumed the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every day, and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the country, so increased the number of candidates for admission into the new monastery. The bishops of Ireland soon perceiving the important advantages which their respective dioceses would derive from similar foundations, procured that the young and saintly abbess should visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, introduce into each one the establishment of her institute.