Kildare Abbey is a former monastery in

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, Ireland, founded by

St Brigid Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland ( ga, Naomh Bríd; la, Brigida; 525) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiogra ...

in the 5th century, and destroyed in the 12th century. Originally known as ''Druim Criaidh'', or the Ridge of Clay, Kildare came to be known as ''Cill-Dara'', or the Church of the Oak, from the stately oak-tree loved by St. Brigid. She founded a small oratory which soon expanded into a large double monastery, one portion being for women, the other for men. She procured St. Conleth to rule and ordain the monastery, and another bishop, St. Nadfraoich, to preach and teach the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

Cogitosus Cogitosus (fl. c. 650) was an Irish monk, who wrote the ''Vita Sanctae Brigidae''. Life Cogitosus was a monk of Kildare, an important monastery in Ireland, who wrote the oldest extant vita of Saint Brigid, '' Vita Sanctae Brigidae'', around 6 ...

, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, and the author of what is known as the ''Second Life of St. Brigid'', calls Kildare "the head-city of all the bishops", and Conleth and his successors "arch-bishops of the bishops of Ireland", and goes on to refer to the primacy of honour and domestic jurisdiction acknowledged in the abbess of this city by all the abbesses of Ireland. To this primacy, maintained all along, is due the unique distinction enjoyed by Kildare of having recorded by the annalists, till comparatively recent times, the succession of its abbesses in parallel columns with that of its abbots. Cogitosus also makes mention of the enormous crowds that, in his time, used to come to Kildare from "all the provinces of

Erin Erin is a Hiberno-English word for Ireland originating from the Irish word ''"Éirinn"''. "Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", genitive "Éireann", the dative being used in prepositional phrases such as ''"go h� ...

", especially on St. Brigid's feast-day, 1 February, to pray and to have cures effected at her venerated shrine. From the description he gives of the church we learn that it was very spacious and beautiful, that it had divisions rigidly distinct for the men and the women, and was lavishly adorned with pictures and embroidered hangings, which set off its highly ornamental windows and doorways. No portion of this church now remains, nor indeed of any of the ancient buildings, with the exception of the Round Tower. This tower - 136 feet 7 inches high - has an elaborately worked doorway. Bishop Conlaeth founded at Kildare a school in metalwork which grew and prospered as the years went on.

Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...

praises the standard of illumination of manuscripts there, and in particular the ''Evangelistarium'', or manuscript of the Four Gospels, according to the version of

St. Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is com ...

. The ''

Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( mga, Lebor Laignech , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled c. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18 (cat. 1339). It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' "Book ...

'' is thought to have been copied from originals preserved in the School of Kildare, by Finn MacGorman, who became

Bishop of Kildare The Bishop of Kildare was an episcopal title which took its name after the town of Kildare in County Kildare, Ireland. The title is no longer in use by any of the main Christian churches having been united with other bishoprics. In the Roman Cat ...

in 1148. Even during the most stormy periods of the school's history we find recorded interesting facts and dates concerning its professors. We read of Cobthac, who died in 1069, and was celebrated for "his universal knowledge of ecclesiastical discipline"; and of Ferdomhnach, the Blind, who was deeply versed in knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. In 1135

Dermot MacMurrough Diarmait Mac Murchada ( Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough, Dermod MacMurrough, or Dermot MacMorrogh (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King ...

disrupted the monastery; and in the following year Diarmaid O'Brien and his brothers sacked and set fire to the town. But the School of Brigid continued. The holy fire called the "inextinguishable", which had probably been kept alight since the days of Brigid, was put out by order of

Henry de Loundres Henry de Loundres (died 1228) was an Anglo-Norman churchman who was Archbishop of Dublin, from 1213 to 1228. He was an influential figure in the reign of John of England, an administrator and loyalist to the king, and is mentioned in the text o ...

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

, who thought the practice savoured of superstition. The fire was kindled again by the Bishop of Kildare, and it burned until the crackdown in the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

extinguished it and every other monastic light in Ireland.

References

* cites: **STOKES, ''Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore'' (Oxford, 1890);

References

See also