St. Bridget of Sweden (Holy Woman, 23rd July)
1303 – 1373
The great saint of Scandinavia (Like many great saints, it seemed to run in the family – Bridget was a cousin of St. Ingrid and mother of St. Catherine of Sweden).
Of wealthy background, she was noted for her piety, visiting Compostella with her husband shortly before his death. She had eight children, but once widowed spent her life establishing a religious community, the Brigittines, who wear little stringy hat-things over their wimples marked with five red dots to indicate the wounds of the Passion. They persist in England at Syon Abbey. It is from this latter stage of her life that Bridget’s fame rests – and upon the same Passion. A devout contemplative, she received many visions of Christ speaking of His Passion. Her writings were massively influential upon other female visionaries of the Middle Ages, including more-or-less open mimics like Margery Kempe, and the Passion, together with devotion to our Lady, remains the great emphasis of the Brigittine nuns.
She subsequently moved to Rome and spent much of her spare time attempting to sort out the political machinations of the Papacy, then in exile in Avignon, by writing letters to leading churchmen telling them how wicked they were, a technique as laudable as it was, alas, doomed to failure. The Catholic Encyclopaedia claims that she effected a great moral improvement in the city, which probably wasn’t hard.
She was canonised shortly after her death, and was declared by John Paul II one of the Patron Saints of Europe (along with S. Benedict and SS. Cyril and Methodius).
The great saint of Scandinavia (Like many great saints, it seemed to run in the family – Bridget was a cousin of St. Ingrid and mother of St. Catherine of Sweden).
Of wealthy background, she was noted for her piety, visiting Compostella with her husband shortly before his death. She had eight children, but once widowed spent her life establishing a religious community, the Brigittines, who wear little stringy hat-things over their wimples marked with five red dots to indicate the wounds of the Passion. They persist in England at Syon Abbey. It is from this latter stage of her life that Bridget’s fame rests – and upon the same Passion. A devout contemplative, she received many visions of Christ speaking of His Passion. Her writings were massively influential upon other female visionaries of the Middle Ages, including more-or-less open mimics like Margery Kempe, and the Passion, together with devotion to our Lady, remains the great emphasis of the Brigittine nuns.
She subsequently moved to Rome and spent much of her spare time attempting to sort out the political machinations of the Papacy, then in exile in Avignon, by writing letters to leading churchmen telling them how wicked they were, a technique as laudable as it was, alas, doomed to failure. The Catholic Encyclopaedia claims that she effected a great moral improvement in the city, which probably wasn’t hard.
She was canonised shortly after her death, and was declared by John Paul II one of the Patron Saints of Europe (along with S. Benedict and SS. Cyril and Methodius).
posted by dj_ordinaire at 9:23 pm
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