Katarina of Vadstena

Katarina av Vadstena (1331/1332 – 24th of March 1381) was the daughter of Birgitta of Sweden and Ulf Gudmarsson. The veneration of her as a saint was permitted in a bull by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. However, she was never formally canonized because of the Swedish crown’s break with the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation.

After the death of her mother Birgitta, she returned with Birgitta’s body to Sweden, having her buried in Vadstena monastery. There, Katarina worked as its head to properly establish the monastery, but she was never formally appointed as abbess. She returned to Rome, where she continued to try to have her mother Birgitta canonized, which finally succeeded a few years after Katarina's death on the 7th of October 1391.

Dubois, Thomas A. 2008. St Katarina in Her Own Light. In: T. A. Dubois (ed.), Sanctity in the North: Saints, Lives, and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia. Toronto: Toronto UP. Pp. 271–303.

Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Katarina Ulfsdotter, article by Hans Gillingstam. Available 2019-10-30: Link.