Darlugdacha

ON ST. DARLUGDACHA,

or DARDULACHA,

SCOTTISH VIRGIN, AT KILDARE IN IRELAND.

A.D. 524.

Darlugdacha, or Dardulacha, Virgin in Ireland (St.)

By I. B.

[1] Dardulacha, or (as most manuscript codices have it) Darlugdacha, the disciple and foster-daughter of Brigid, followed her on the same first of February, the feast of St. Darlugdacha, as Brigid had wished and the other had promised would come to pass, but not in the same year. Henry Fitzimon, one of our own, in his Catalogue of the Chief Saints of Ireland, published in 1619, writes of her thus: "Dardulacha, Virgin. Breviary of Freising, February 1. Perhaps Derludacha? In the Bodeken MS. she is called Darlugdaca, in the MS. of Hugh Ward, from which we have given the fourth Life of St. Brigid, Darlugacha and Darluagdacha."

[2] Thomas Dempster, in his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, published eight years after that Catalogue, wrote, relying on a conjecture not entirely sound, in book 4, chapter 391: "St. Dardulacha, a Scottish Virgin and pilgrim, died in Germany; whether she died in Germany, and was the sister of SS. Gunifort and Guinibald? a sister, as I believe, of SS. Gunifort and Guinibald, as I gather from their history, which is found in the Sanctuary of Pavia. Be that as it may, she is venerated at Freising with the greatest affection of devotion, as is clear from the Freising Breviary. In vain does Hirlandus seek support here. She departed from Scotland with two brothers and one sister in 420. She is venerated on February 1, according to the cited authorities." So he writes; and then in book 7, numbers 575 and 576, treating of SS. Gunifort and Guinibald, he says that they, after two sisters were crowned with martyrdom in Germany, came to Italy, and one suffered martyrdom at Como and the other at Pavia in 417. Three years, that is, before they departed from Scotland? We shall treat of SS. Gunifort and Guinibald and their two sisters, of whom Dardulacha was not one, on August 22.

[3] Ferrarius follows Dempster, having perhaps read some other commentary of his; he certainly cites, in his General Catalogue of Saints published two years before that history, and thus praises the holy Virgin: "At Freising in Bavaria, St. Dardulacha, Virgin." whether she was venerated at Freising? Colgan also writes that she is celebrated at Freising in Bavaria. In the modern Freising Breviary no memory of her survives. In the old Breviary there was one reading about St. Brigid, in which the following was contained: "After these and many other miracles, when the departure of Blessed Brigid from this world drew near, her foster-daughter Daludarcha asked her to be worthy to depart from this life with her. To her St. Brigid replied: 'You will follow me in one year, and on the day of my death you shall die, so that one feast may be ours.' And so it came to pass." There is nothing here about Dardulacha's veneration among the Bavarians; nor does Raderus in his Bavarian saints mention her. Fitzimon had received that reading either from our Stephen Vitus, from whom we also received it, or had read it himself; others had not correctly grasped what it was. Camerarius errs even more widely, writing thus on December 1: "St. Dardulacha. See the Freising records and others."

[4] Better is our Francis Lahier on this day: she died in Ireland: "In Ireland or Scotland, St. Dardulacha, Virgin." Colgan cites many Martyrologies still unknown to us, and other Irish writers, from which he composes an outstanding encomium of her.

[5] Her deeds have not been particularly committed to writing, so far as we have discovered. Memorable is the account of how she drew back her foot from a headlong and virtually already deliberate fall into unchastity, being divinely shaken and strengthened. This is told in the First Life of St. Brigid, chapter 16, number 96: "St. Brigid had a certain foster-daughter, keeping poor watch over her eyes, named Darlugdacha, who on a certain day, not keeping good watch over her eyes, saw a man and desired him; and he likewise loved her. Afterward, on a certain night, the Virgin arranged to meet that man; and on that night this Virgin was in bed with St. Brigid. she is tempted by the spirit of lust: When St. Brigid had fallen asleep for a little while, the Virgin arose; and when she had left the bed, a wondrous turmoil of thoughts rushed upon her, and she had a great struggle in her heart, of fear and love: for she feared God and St. Brigid, and she burned with a vehement fire of love for the man. She therefore prayed to the Lord to help her in such distress. she conquers the temptation by burning her feet: Then she found from God good counsel, and she filled her two shoes with coals of fire and thrust her feet into them. And so it happened that fire extinguished fire, and pain conquered pain. Then she returned to her bed. Blessed Brigid perceived all these things; but nevertheless she kept silent, so that the maiden might be tempted and tested for a while. On the following day the maiden confessed her sin. And Brigid said to her: 'Because you fought manfully in this night, and burned your feet in this life, the fire of fornication shall not harm you again in this life, which St. Brigid heals and the fire of hell shall not burn you in the world to come.' Then Blessed Brigid healed her feet, so that not even a mark of the burn appeared on them."

[6] In slightly different phrasing, this struggle of Darlugdacha is narrated in the Fourth Life of St. Brigid, book 2, chapter 10, number 58, where the man whose sight was fatal to her is said to have been a soldier; and when on a certain night St. Brigid was staying in a certain settlement among the people, he came to the same house, intent on the occasion of perpetrating the crime. Darlugdacha lay in one bed with St. Brigid, but separately. Brigid, however, was awake and watched the noble struggle of her foster-daughter. On the next day she signed the burned feet with the sign of the holy Cross, by the sign of the Cross, and so healed them. Colgan's exclamation is: "Although she suffered an exceedingly violent temptation from the cunning enemy's snares, she nevertheless preserved the whiteness of inviolate chastity and defended it in a glorious contest." This seems to require understanding of bodily rather than mental chastity. More correctly, the MS. of the Bodeken monastery of Regular Canons says that a certain young attendant of Brigid, named Darlugdaga, inflamed by love for a certain young man who burned no less for her, by the merits of Brigid herself and by the inspection of the Divinity, leapt over the snare of fornication, though already entangled; but that St. Brigid was not ignorant of her final struggle, through the Spirit. The metrical Life of Brigid, chapter 9, number 66, pronounces thus:

"She had been the fairest of all the Sisters: a virgin in body, yet she remained corrupted in mind."

The shoes which Blessed Darlugdacha filled with coals seem to have been crude footwear, perhaps hollowed from wood, like those of the poor among us.

[7] More cautious thereafter and more fervent in the pursuit of virtue, Darlugdacha was so dear to St. Brigid that through her, those who were infirm sought Brigid's aid. So in Life 1, chapter 17, number 109: "A certain woman went with her mute daughter to the church where St. Brigid was staying, and called to herself a Virgin named Darlugdacha, saying to her: 'Help me, that my daughter may be healed of her infirmity.' Then she led the girl to Blessed Brigid," etc. Life 4, chapter 11, number 75 has: "'Arrange it, good Virgin, that my daughter may be healed through St. Brigid.' Then the Virgin, leading the daughter of the petitioner with her, placed her before the sight of Blessed Brigid, and did not indicate to her that the girl was mute."

[8] At last Brigid so clung to Darlugdacha that she did not wish to be separated from her even by death. This is narrated in the First Life of St. Brigid, the last chapter, number 113: "When her departure from this world drew near, she called her foster-daughter, named Darlugdacha, and foretold to her the day of her death. When she heard this, desiring to die with her, out of sadness she wished to die with her mistress. But Blessed Brigid said to her: 'After my death you will live happily for one year; and when the year has passed, on the day of my death you shall die, she learns that she will follow after a year, that an anniversary day may be observed together for us who lived together in this world.' This afterward came to pass, as she had foretold." Life 4, book 2, chapter 11, number 79 has it thus: "that one feast may be made for us." Another MS.: "And under a single celebration your feast and mine shall be kept." The Bodeken MS.: "After this, at a foreknown time, she is touched by the infirmity of the flesh; yet vigorous in spirit, and this more than usual, she is more concerned about the flock she had pastured for Christ than about herself. She therefore summons the aforesaid Darlugdaga, the inseparable foster-daughter of her sanctity; and to her -- though she preferred, with many tears flowing, to depart with her -- she commends the community of Sisters, to be consigned anew to the most strict Judge who is also the Shepherd of shepherds. she was ordered in the meantime to preside over the convent of Kildare: 'Do not, sweetest daughter,' she said, 'do not be saddened at my absence. For a short time yet, keeping watch over the Sisters' vigils, you will serve Christ as a soldier. When the year has turned, on this same day you will be joined to me in the joys of Paradise.'"

Other MSS. read "tempted" instead of "tempered."