Proof of both its subject’s enduring greatness and to its author’s obvious talent, Saint Brigid of Ireland is a heartily enjoyable and edifying biography of one of Ireland’s—and the Church’s—greatest saints. By Alice Curtayne!

Saint Brigid of Ireland shares with Saint Patrick and Saint Columcille the honor of being patron of the Emerald Isle. In this brief yet highly illuminating biography, Alice Curtayne details the legacy of Brigid with lively descriptions of her character and family history; her virtues and miracles; her monastic foundations and missionary achievements; and her lasting influence on Irish culture. By all accounts, Brigid of Kildare was unique in her own time and place: as a fifth-century woman, she “stood isolated, without prototype, without peer. When she arose it was as though with a decisive movement she pulled back a heavy curtain shrouding the scene. And at that gesture all the other actors on the stage stand transfigured before a landscape where they see for the first time such freedom as they had never dreamed of, and beyond, Vision, the world opened to them by the Faith.”

Everything that Brigid would ask of the Lord was granted to her at once. (The Book of Lismore)

Proof of both its subject’s enduring greatness and to its author’s obvious talent, Saint Brigid of Ireland is a heartily enjoyable and edifying biography of one of Ireland’s—and the Church’s—greatest saints.

* * *

Alice Curtayne (1898–1981) was an Irish author, critic, journalist, and lecturer. In 1935, she married fellow author Stephen Rynne, with whom she raised four children and tended their family farm. Curtayne’s rich bibliography comprises histories and hagiographies, fiction and biographies, all of which demonstrate her keen intellect and vivid imagination.