it to be extinguished in 1220, but it was again relighted, and continued until the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. It furnishes us with an example of how the old Celtic usages were often tolerated by the Romish party when they could not be abolished.
There were many establishments in Ireland which owed their origin to Kildare. Saint Bridget's influence, we are told, 'like a fruitful vine, spreading all around with growing branches,' extended itself through the whole country. But their record seems, for the most part, to have perished. In a few places we read of abbesses, as for example in Clonburren on the Shannon, and Clonbroney in the County Longford. The latter was founded in the year 734 by Samthann, who was a poetess, and who is herself celebrated in verse by the literary king, Hugh Allen. He writes concerning her:
'Samthann for enlightening various sinners,
A servant who observed stern chastity,
In the northern plain of fertile Meath
Great suffering did Samthann endure.
She undertook a thing not easy,
Fasting for the kingdom above,
She lived on scanty food,
Hard were her girdles.
She struggled in venomous conflicts,
True was her heart amid the wicked;
To the bosom of the Lord, with a pure death
Samthann passed from her sufferings.'[1]
It is not quite clear whether there were other establishments in Ireland where both sexes were united under the rule of the abbess, as at Kildare.
- ↑ Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 734.
