why was St Brigid a saint?

Brigid (or Bridgette or Bride or whoever) was held to be a saint in Ireland long before any canonical, ecclesiastical machinery stamped her as one officially. There are lots of local saints that got their start on the road to stardom in this manner. Among the saintly things she is reputed to have done:

1. She abandoned a life of relative nobility (she was well-born) for a life of cenobitic austerity.
2. She was the founder of a monastery at Kildare; founders of monastic communities are often "sainted" as the merit of their orders is imputed back to them.
3. She is said to have healed a leper woman who asked only for milk.
4. She "converted" a wolf which had been killing livestock and it became the companion dog of a local chieftan.
5. There are other legends.
6. Among her modern miracles are the ability to provide a handsome eligible fellow to an unmarried woman who burns a candle to St Brigid in her window all day and all night on the good saint's day. Not a bad trick, for a nun who never married, eh?