S

t Bridget of Sweden

& her daughter, St. Catherine

 

This time we’re discussing an amazing Swedish mother and daughter team of writer/saints, St. Bridget of Sweden, feast day July 23rd, and her daughter St. Catherine, abbess of Vadstena, the religious house her mother founded, whose feast day just happens to fall on my birthday: March 22nd. As a side note, they weren’t the only saints in their family; St. Ingrid was Bridget’s aunt and Catherine’s great aunt.

Born in 1303 to Birger Persson, the law speaker or governor of Uppland, Bridget (or Birgitta, the Swedish spelling of Bridget) Birgersdotter reported having visions as early as seven. That didn’t stop her from being married at thirteen to eighteen year old Ulf Gudmarsson. Theirs was a productive marriage; Bridget bore him four daughters and four sons, all of whom managed to live past their first year, which for the time was a miracle in itself. She and Ulf seemed to have been fairly happy together and as his wife Bridget came to be known in her area for her charity. She even convinced her husband to make a pilgrimage with her to Santiago de Compostela. The trip took them two years to accomplish and perhaps it was fortunate that they went. Ulf died in 1344 at Alvastra Abbey in Östergötland. With Ulf’s death, Bridget devoted herself to founding her own order, the Order of the Holy Saviour, eventually referred to as the Brigittines. With a rich endowment from the king and queen of Sweden, she founded her principal house at Vadstena, the house her daughter would later run.

Let’s pause here to catch up with Catherine, Bridget’s daughter, since from here on in their story is intertwined. Catherine was born 1331 or 1332. Like most noble daughters of her time, she was sent at seven to the convent of Riseberg to be educated. While she was there, possibly influenced by her mother’s piety and her aunt’s sainthood, she developed a love for the religious lifestyle. Then she hit thirteen and just like her mother, she got married. In Catherine’s case, her husband was a very religious nobleman of German descent, one Eggart von Kürnen. Either Eggart didn’t need an heir or Catherine was a very charismatic woman because she immediately persuaded her husband to join her in a vow of chastity. It’s said that they lived in a chaste marriage, devoting themselves to active charity and Christian perfection instead of making babies.

In 1349, Catherine left her husband in Sweden to join her brother, Birger, and Bridget on a trip to Rome. Shortly after their arrival Catherine learned Eggart had died, leaving her a wealthy and young widow. The suitors appeared like flies to honey, and the tale is told of Catherine being rescued from some unscrupulous and unchaste suitor’s kidnap attempt by the miraculous appearance of a hind, or deer. This is the time in history when a girl being kidnapped and raped often resulted in marriage of victim to victimizer, although it wasn’t unknown for lovers to stage a kidnapping to force reluctant parents to agree to a marriage.

From then on Catherine and Bridget are united in the efforts to get approval for Bridget’s new order. The two of them become known for their ascetic lifestyle. One of Bridget’s complaints was of the debauchery of her age. She was out to raise the moral tone. (Hmm, sounds familiar.)

As Bridget and Catherine awaited authorization for the new order, Bridget worked the same magic in Rome that she had in her home country. Before long she was beloved in Rome for her kindness and charity, and her continuing religious visions.

A literate woman, Bridget had been recording her visions, or celestial revelations as she called them for years. (Her writings were translated into Latin by her confessor, Prior Peter of Alvastra and Canon Matthias of Linköping.) What she saw was very specific, such as her vision of the Virgin birth in which she gives exact positions of the blonde Virgin Mary in the manger and a step by step depiction of the birth itself. She even heard the choirs of angels and saw God the Father hovering over a glowing infant Jesus. These descriptions were soon translated into the religious art of her day. She didn’t just see the birth. She made trips to Purgatory and had one visionary encounter with Jesus, who informed her that he had received 5475 blows during the Passion. It was out of this encounter that she developed her prayers, the Oes, so called because in Latin each prayer begins with “O”, as in O Jesus or O Rex. Hang onto this bit about praying, because it comes up again.

The wheels of the Vatican move slowly, especially when the Vatican isn’t the Vatican. Bridget and Catherine were in Rome, but the pope was in Avignon. This was the time of the Schism, or the reign of the French popes, who had moved the seat of the Catholic Church to Avignon, France.

 

 

 

It was in part through Bridget’s efforts that Pope Urban V finally returned to Rome, arriving October 16, 1367.

Once he was in his Holy See again, Pope Urban did confirm her new order in 1370. Before returning to Sweden, Bridget, Catherine and Birger decided to take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The trip must have taxed Bridget. She fell ill upon their return to Rome and died on July 23rd with Catherine at her side in 1372 or 1373, depending on your source.

Bridget was buried at San Lorenzo in Panisperna until Catherine received permission to move her to Sweden and the abbey at Vadstena. Catherine then took up the position of abbess and ran the convent with great skill, making “the life there one in harmony with the principles laid down by its founder.” Catherine was also a writer like her mother. She wrote a devotional work entitled "Consolation of the Soul" (Sielinna Troëst), largely composed of citations from the Scriptures and from early religious books. Unlike Bridget, no copy of Catherine’s work exists today.

With only one book in her, Catherine needed more to keep herself occupied, so she was soon back in Rome petitioning both for new papal confirmation for her order, which she received twice, once from Gregory XI in 1377 and again in 1379 from Urban VI, and for her mother’s canonization, which was delayed until the Roman pope Urban VI ended the Schism. Catherine, luckily, had backed the right pope, and received a special letter of commendation from him, but had made no progress on Bridget’s canonization. At last, after five years and no progress, she returned home to Sweden, took ill and died, although not on the 22nd of March (her feast day). It was Pope Boniface IX in 1391 who finally added the saint to Bridget’s name. As for Catherine, she waited until Innocent VIII and1484 to join her mother, assigning her feast day to March 22nd .

Here’s where Bridget’s prayers come in, because this story doesn’t end with Catherine’s death. Once Bridget was confirmed as a saint, new discussions arose around her recorded visions and they were finally deemed true in 1436 at the Council of Basel. That resulted in a breviary of her visions and prayers being published in 1476 for Brigittine use.

Once the presses got going, they didn’t stop and before long she was a bestseller. Her prayers became wildly popular in the late Middle Ages often being included in devotional literature like Books of Hours. They also became part of the system of indulgence, the practice of reciting prayers (or paying someone else to recite prayers) to erase sin or release oneself or one’s family members from Purgatory. Bridget’s prayers were specifically singled out by the religious reformers of the 16th century as false promises of salvation.

 

 

St. Catherine

Daughter of St. Bridget of Sweden

 

 

Denise Domning's first medieval romance, Winter's Heat, received the Romantic Times award for Best First Historical Novel in 1994. Spring's Fury, Autumn's Flame, A Love for All Seasons were respectively nominated by Romantic Times for Best Medieval Novel in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Her first Elizabethan novel, Lady in Waiting, was recommended by Publisher's Weekly as well written and researched, with an accurate portrayal of Elizabeth I. Denise is currently co-authoring an autobiography with Monica Sarli about her life entitled No Regrets. Denise's website is www.DeniseDomning.com.

 

 

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