ABSTRACT
No historical facts regarding Brigit and her works can be determined with any certainty; her very existence has been a matter of debate. All that is known about her is based on tradition, legend, and folklore, but a considerable number of documents relating to her have survived. These documents are among the earliest known hagiographical material in Ireland and include two extant Lives in Latin which date from the seventh century; a hymn to Brigit, attributed to Ultán of Árd-mBreccáin, may also date from the seventh century. Among the other documents are two subsequent Latin Lives of uncertain dates; a fragment of a Life in Old Irish, from around the late eighth or early ninth centuries; a Latin Life composed by Lawrence of Durham in the twelfth century; and a homiletic Life in Middle Irish contained in the Book of Lismore. Later hymns to Brigit also survive, and she appears prominently in the martyrologies.
