St. Paul’s has its own chapter of the Order of the Daughters of the King, an Anglican lay religious order for women, founded in 1885. Members take lifelong vows of prayer and of service.
St. Brigid’s chapter at St. Paul’s meets the second Saturday of the month and is led by Vicki Calby and Brenda Syle.
The Giveaway
from The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley
Saint Brigid was a problem child.
Although a lass demure and mild,
And one who strove to please her dad,
Saint Brigid drove the family mad.
For here’s the fault in Brigid lay:
She would give everything away.
To any soul whose luck was out
She’d give her bowl of stirabout;
She’d give her shawl, with one or all.
And what was worse,
When she ran out of things to give
She’d borrow from a relative.
Her father’s gold, her grandsire’s dinner,
She’d hand to cold and hungry sinner;
Give wine, give meat, no matter whose;
Take from her feet the very shoes,
And when her shoes had gone to others,
Fetch forth her sister’s and her mother’s.
She could not quit. She had to share;
Gave bit by bit the silverware,
The barnyard geese, the parlor rug,
Her little niece’s christening mug,
Even her bed to those in want,
And then the mattress of her aunt.
An easy touch for poor and lowly,
She gave so much and grew so holy
That when she died of years and fame,
The countryside put on her name,
And still the Isles of Erin fidget
With generous girls named Bride or Brigid.
Well, one must love her. Nonetheless,
In thinking of her givingness,
There’s no denial she must have been
A sort of trial unto her kin.
The moral, too, seems rather quaint.
Who had the patience of a saint,
From evidence presented here?
Saint Brigid? Or her near and dear?