8th century. Saint Cogitosus may have been a monk at Kildare, Ireland.
Traditionally, he is named as the author of the life of
Saint Brigid (f.d. February 1),
which provides the legends and miracles of Bride.
The work details the monastic life at Kildare and description of the
church during his life, including the separate accommodation made in the
church for monks and nuns.
Cogitosus expounded the metrical life of St. Brigid, and versified it in
good Latin. This is what is known as the "Second Life", and is an
excellent example of Irish scholarship in the mid-eighth century.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of Cogitosus's work is the
description of the Cathedral of Kildare in his day:
Solo spatioso et
inaltum minaci proceritate porruta ac decorata pictis tabulis, tria
intrinsecus habens oratoria ampla, et divisa parietibus tabulatis.
The
rood-screen was formed of wooden boards, lavishly decorated, and with
beautifully decorated curtains. The original manuscript is in the
Dominican convent at Eichstadt in Bavaria
(
Benedictines,
D'Arcy,
Kenney,
Montague,
O'Hanlon,
Stokes,
Tommasini).
And, from
Catholic Encyclopedia
An Irishman, an author, and a monk of Kildare; the date and place of his
birth and of his death are unknown, it is uncertain even in what century
he lived. In the one work which he wrote, his life of St. Brigid, he
asks a prayer
pro me nepote culpabili,
from which both Ware and Ussher
conclude that he was a nephew of St. Brigid, and, accordingly, he is put
down by them among the writers of the sixth century. But the word nepos
may also be applied to one who, like the prodigal, had lived riotously,
and it may be, that Cogitosus, recalling some former lapses from virtue,
so uses the word of himself. At all events, his editor, Vossius, is
quite satisfied that Cogitosus was no nephew of St. Brigid, because in
two genealogical menologies which Vossius had, in which were enumerated
the names of fourteen holy men of that saint's family the name of
Cogitosus is not to be found.
Nor did Cogitosus live in the sixth century because he speaks of a long
succession of bishops and abbesses at Kildare, showing that he writes of
a period long after the time of St. Brigid, who died in 525, and of St.
Conleth, who died a few years earlier. Besides this, the description of
the church of Kildare belongs to a much later time; and the author calls
St. Conleth an archbishop, a term not usual in the Western church until
the opening of the ninth century. On the other hand, he describes
Kildare before it was plundered by the Danes, in 835, and before St.
Brigades remains were removed to Down.
The probability therefore is that he lived and wrote the life of St.
Brigid about the beginning of the ninth century. His work is a
panegyric rather than a biography. He gives so few details of the
saint's life that he omits the date and place of her birth and the date
of her death; nor does he make mention of any of her contemporaries if
we except St. Conleth, the first Bishop of Kildare, an Macaille from
whom she received the veil. He gives the names of her parents, but is
careful to conceal the fact that she was illegitimate, and that her
mother was a slave. On the other hand, he dwells with evident
satisfaction on her piety, her humility, her charity, her zeal for
religion, the esteem in which she was held by all. And he narrates at
length the many miracles she wrought, and tells of the numbers who came
as pilgrims to Kildare, attracted by her fame. In his anxiety to exalt
her he says she had as abbess authority over all the abbesses of
Ireland, although as a matter of fact she could govern only those who
followed her rule; and his statement that she appointed the Bishop of
Kildare could not, of course, mean that she conferred any jurisdiction.
Cogitosus writes in fairly good Latin, much better indeed than might be
expected in that age, and his description of the church of Kildare with
its interior decorations is specially interesting for the history of
early Irish art and architecture. [E.A. D'Alton]
o Lisa Bitel's Commentary on the Life of Brigid in which she makes
extensive use of Cogitosus'
Life of Brigid. Presented at Fordham
University, February, 2001
http://matrix.bc.edu/commentaria/bitel01.html