Cogitosus

Cogitosus, around 650, was an Irish monk of Kildare, an important monastery, who wrote the oldest surviving life of Saint Brigid, the Vita Sanctae Brigidae. There is a controversy whether he was related to the saint. Muirchú names him the first Irish hagiographer. He wrote fairly good Latin, better than might be expected in that age, probably drawing on earlier documents which had preserved older traditions of Brigid's life. His description of the church of Kildare with its decorations is especially interesting for the history of early Irish art and architecture; he also describes in some detail the tombs of Saint Brigid and Conleth. Our record calls him venerable; the sources show no synodal canonization, so he is honoured as a saint of the undivided Church only in western calendars. He is commemorated on 18 April (new style; 1 May in the old style).