The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): February — John Shaqi
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): FebruaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): February
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
The body of the Saint was afterwards translated to Down-Patrick, where
it was found in a triple vault, together with the bodies of S. Patrick
and S. Columba, in the year 1185. These bodies were, with great
solemnity, translated the following year by the Pope's legate,
accompanied by fifteen bishops, in presence of an immense number of
the clergy, nobility, and people, to a more honourable place of the
cathedral of Down; where they were kept, with due honour, till the
time of Henry VIII., when the monument was destroyed by Leonard, Lord
Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. S. Bridget's head was saved by some
of the clergy, who carried it to Neustadt, in Austria; and from
thence, in 1587, it was taken to the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon,
to whom the Emperor Rudolf II. gave it.
In art, S. Bridget is usually represented with her perpetual flame as
a symbol; sometimes with a column of fire, said to have been seen
above her head when she took the veil.
S. DARLUGDACH, V.
(A.D. 526.)
[Authorities:--The lives of S. Bridget.]
Amongst the nuns of S. Bridget's monastery of Kildare, there was one
named Darlugdach. When young, she followed S. Bridget, and being very
dear to her, slept with the abbess.
Darlugdach, not guarding her eyes with sufficient strictness, saw, and
fell in love with a man, who also became enamoured of her, and their
ardent glances revealed their mutual passion. A plan was formed that
she should elope with him, on a certain night; and she laid herself in
the bosom of the sleeping abbess with beating heart, troubled by a
conflict between duty and passion. At last she rose, and in an agony
of uncertainty, cast herself on her knees, and besought God to give
her strength to master her love, and then, in the vehemence of her
resolve, she thrust her naked feet into the red coals that glowed on
the hearth, and held them there till the pain had conquered the
passion. After that, she softly stole into bed again, and crept into
the bosom of her holy mother. When morning broke, Bridget rose, and
looked at the blistered and scorched soles, and touching them, said
gently, "I slept not, dear child, but was awake, and saw thy struggle,
and now, because thou hast fought valiantly, and hast conquered, the
flame of lust shall no more hurt thee." And she healed her feet.
Darlugdach, as has been related in the life of S. Bridget, besought
her spiritual mother to let her die with her, but S. Bridget promised
that she should follow on the anniversary of her departure, after the
expiration of a year. And so it was.
S. SEVERUS, B. OF AVRANCHES.
(6TH CENT.)
[French Martyrologies. Authority:--A life by an anonymous author of
uncertain date, but apparently trustworthy.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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