COGITOSUS, Cogitosus (Ua hAedo) was an Irish monk and author. It is likely that the unusual nom-de-plume Cogitosus is a translation of the rare Irish name Toimtenach. He may be the same Toimtenach of Mainister Emih (Monasterevin) mentioned in the genealogies. He was author of a Latin Life of St. Brigit of Kildare (d. 525) written not much later than 650, and therefore the earliest extant piece of hagiography in Hiberno-Latin. It is written in an unpretentious Latin style, his aim throughout being to emphasize the presence of God’s power in Brigit, manifested through her miracles, her great faith in God, and her charity toward the poor.

In the epilogue he addresses himself as ”the blameworthy descendant of Aed.” The Aed to whom he claims relationship is probably Aed Dub, bishop and abbot of Kildare (d. 639), a member of the Uf Dunlainge dynasty of the northern Laigin. He states that he was “compelled in the name of obedience” by the community of Kildare to write a Life of their foundress. We know from other sources that Brigit’s church was at Kildare, though Cogitosus nowhere mentions it in the text, nor does he tell us that he was a member of it. Muirchu moccu Machtheni claimed Cogitosus as his spiritual father and the first hagiographer among the Irish in the prologue to his Life of Patrick.

It is probable, judging from similarities between the material in Cogitosus and the later lives of Brigit, especially Vita I, that Cogitosus drew from existing written material that had preserved some traditions of her life and miracles. He states that Kildare claimed to be “the head of almost all the Irish churches with supremacy over all the monasteries of the Irish and its paruchia extends over the whole land of Ireland, reaching from sea to sea” (Prol. 4). It was a double foundation, with one monastery for monks, including some priests, with a prior over them, and another for nuns, ruled by an abbess. Its first bishop was Conlaed, asked by Brigit to become bishop so “that he might govern the church with her in the office of bishop and that her churches might not lack in priestly orders” (Prol. 5). Kildare’s importance through her contacts abroad is shown by Conlaed having obtained his episcopal vestments from overseas.

Cogitosus’ description of the basilica at Kildare is a unique seventh-century eyewitness account of the structure and furniture of an Irish church. It had three chapels—containing painted pictures, an ornate altar, and the sarcophagi of Brigit and Conlaed, “adorned with a refined profusion of gold, silver, gems and precious stones with gold and silver chandeliers hanging from above” (§ 32), all under one roof—that served as a place of worship for both communities and for laity and pilgrims together. We are told that Kildare was one of the greatest centers of pilgrimage in Ireland, “a vast metropolitan city and the safest city of refuge in the whole land of the Irish for all fugitives, and the treasures of kings are kept there” (§ 32.9).

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