Feast day: July 23
St. Bridget of Sweden
Mother of eight, lady-in-waiting to Sweden's queen, then widow, mystic, foundress, and fearless adviser to popes.
Bridget — Birgitta — was born about 1303 into a powerful noble family of Sweden and is the most celebrated saint of the Scandinavian north. Married at about fourteen to a Swedish nobleman, she bore eight children, one of whom, Catherine, also became a saint, and for years lived the life of a great lady and mother, even serving for a time at the royal court.
From childhood she had experienced visions, and after her husband's death she gave herself entirely to the religious life. Her 'Revelations' — accounts of visions of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, ranging over the spiritual life, the Passion, and the reform of a corrupt Church — were copied and read throughout medieval Europe, though the Church has always distinguished such private revelations from the deposit of faith.
She founded a new religious order, the Brigittines, with its mother-house at Vadstena in Sweden. Then, about 1350, she settled in Rome, where she spent the rest of her life — caring for the poor and pilgrims, working tirelessly to reform the Church and to bring the popes back from their long exile at Avignon, and rebuking the great without fear.
She died in Rome in 1373 and was canonized only eighteen years later. In 1999 Pope John Paul II named her one of the patron saints of Europe, honouring her as a mother, mystic, and reformer.
She managed a castle, raised eight children (one a canonized saint, Catherine of Sweden), and still found time to scold a pope back to Rome.
Image: Heliga_Birgitta_på_ett_altarskåp_i_Salems_kyrka.jpg: Hermann Rode (late 15th century) derivative work: Beao (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/02782a.htm
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