Birgitta of Sweden

Life

St. Birgitta of Sweden (Birgitta Birgersdotter) (1303–1373) was canonized on the 7th of October 1391. She founded The Order of the Most Holy Savior (Ordo Sanctissimi Salvatoris), usually called the Birgittine order. Her main work is The Revelations (Revelationes), written in eight books in Latin.

Birgitta was born in 1303 in Uppland, Sweden, possibly on her father’s estate in Finsta. At 13 years of age, she was married to Ulf Gudmarsson, who later became lawman in Närke in central Sweden. They had eight children, most notably St. Katarina of Vadstena. Birgitta and Ulf made pilgrimages to Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim, Norway and to Santiago de Compostela. After the second pilgrimage, in the year 1346 her husband Ulf died.

It was in 1344 that Birgitta is recorded as having her first revelation. Shortly after, she started reciting them or writing them down in Swedish, whereupon her confessor, Prior Petrus Olavi, translated them into Latin.

Alfonso of Jaén remarks on her initial unwillingness to draw attention to her visions: “Latere quidem ipsa et thesaurum istum divinarum revelationum abscondere ob humilitatis custodiam maluisset, sed Christus eam imperio verborum suorum pluries astrinxit ad scribendum et loquendum verba sua divina intrepide summis pontificibus, imperatori, regibus et principibus et aliis gentibus.” (Alfonso of Jaén, Epistola solitarii ad reges III:37. Edited in: Sancta Birgitta. Revelaciones lib. VIII, p. 58.) (‘She would have preferred to hide and conceal this treasure of divine revelations for the sake of humility. However, Christ verbally commanded her several times and obliged her to write down and communicate his divine words boldly to the supreme pontiffs, to the emperor, to kings and princes, and to other nations.’ Translation: Dennis Searby (2015), p. 24.)

It was Birgitta’s intention to found a new monastic order, which would be based on instructions given through her visions. To this aim, she travelled to Rome in 1349 to have the monastic rules approved by the pope. She had to wait until 1370, when Pope Urban V finally gave his approval. During her years in Italy, she also tried to persuade the pope to make the move back from Avignon to Rome, but this was not to come to pass until 1376, a few years after her death.

In Rome, Birgitta first lived in the palace of a cardinal next to the church San Lorenzo in Damaso, but in 1354 she moved into a house at Piazza Farnese owned by Francesca Papazuri, a noble Roman widow. In the mid 1360s she made pilgrimages all throughout Italy, using Naples as a home base, where she made the acquaintance of Queen Joanna.

In 1372–1373 she made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, first being shipwrecked at Cyprus and shipwrecked again by the coast of the Holy Land.

Birgitta died on the 23rd of July in 1373 after returning to Rome. Her remains were transported to Vadstena monastery, where they are still preserved. The translation of her relics to the monastery church took place in 1394.

She had many proponents for her canonization, most notably her daughter St. Katarina and Alfonso of Jaén and others, such as Matheus of Kraków.

Birgitta was finally canonized on the 7th of october 1391. In 1396 she was proclaimed patron saint of Sweden, Finland and Norway, and in 1999 patron saint of Europe by Pope John Paul II.

Further Reading

See the bibliography for a more complete list on literature relating to Birgitta of Sweden. 

Borgehammar, Stephan. 1998. St. Birgitta, an Architect of Spiritual Reform. Birgittiana 5, pp. 23–47.

Dallinger, Petra-Maria. 1991. Studien zu Leben und Wunderwerke der heiligen Birgitta von Schweden’ 1: Verlegung einer Biographie. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Vienna.

Falkeid, Unn. 2017. The Avignon Papacy Contested: An Intellectual History from Dante to Catherine of Siena. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.

Harris, Marguerite Tjader (ed.) Ryle Kezel, Albert (transl.). 1990. Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations. New York: Paulist Press.

Morris, Bridget. 1999. St Birgitta of Sweden. (Studies in Medieval Mysticism.) Woodbridge: Boydell.

Oen, Maria H. (ed.). 2019. A Companion to Birgitta of Sweden and her Legacy in the Later Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill.

Sahlin, Claire L. 2001. Birgitta of Sweden and the Voice of Prophecy. (Studies in Medieval Mysticism 3.) Woodbridge: Boydell.