Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/95

, and received the visitors. Of another, we are told that she acted as 'soul friend,' or spiritual adviser to one of the opposite sex. In the Life of Saint Aidan, we are told, 'After Aidan had come to Ireland, he said, I am sorry that I did not ask my instructor who in this island of Ireland should be my soul friend. He was returning to Saint David, walking on the sea, when an angel met him and said, There was great confidence in what thou hast done, in going on foot over the sea. To which Aidan answered, I have not done this through confidence, but through the strength of faith. And the angel said to him, It is not necessary that thou shouldest have a soul friend, for God loves thee, and between thee and God there will be no intermediary one. If, however, thou wishest for a soul friend, thou shalt have Molue, the mother of Choche.' A story like this could never have arisen if it were considered unworthy of a saint to have a woman for his soul friend.

Several instances are recorded of women rising to the highest offices in the Church, and becoming abbesses; that is to say, not mere superiors to communities of women, but heads of establishments formed after the same pattern as the rest, with priests and bishops amongst the inmates, who meekly submitted to the rule of the woman who was the head of the religious 'family.'

The most famous of these abbesses was Bridget, whose monastery at Kildare continued to be famous for many centuries. She was the illegitimate daughter of one of the Irish chiefs, and is said to have been remarkable for her beauty, until, finding it to be an obstacle to her usefulness, she prayed