Publication

Today, I opened my mailbox to find the latest issue of "Sacred Music." Months ago, I had sent in my abstract, and the editor said that he was interested in the entire thesis for publication. After sending my thesis, however, I did not hear any confirmation, so I was uncertain if my thesis had actually made it into the journal.

...But there in the index, third from the top, was "A Blessing in Disguise" with my name next to it.

It is a thrill to see my hard work in print and know that it is being read.

Perhaps there'll be more to come now that I know I can do it!

in honor of All Saints Day

Featuring: St. Bridget of Sweden-historical, political, and religious figure honored to this day throughout Scandinavia and the entire Catholic world.

Birgitta of Sweden: Countries and Centuries

St. Birgitta of Sweden

Birgitta of Sweden had far reaching influence in her own lifetime in Church and State, and her influence has continued through the centuries not only in her native land, but also in the studies of Catholics throughout the world. She may be little known outside of Swedish and Catholic circles, but her legacy deserves recognition and admiration. This humble woman lived a life of service and steadfastness. Born in 1303, she was married at her father’s behest in 1316 to Ulf Gudmarson.[1] Despite the fact that she did not want to be married and had wanted to remain as a virgin, dedicated to God, Birgitta and Ulf went on to have a happy marriage. During her lifetime, Birgitta won renown and respect throughout not only Sweden, but also throughout the rest of Europe by her influence within the Catholic Church. Interestingly, her fame has survived throughout the subsequent centuries. Many influential or significant women in history have been rediscovered or uncovered in the last few decades because of the feminist movement, but Birgitta did not need rediscovery. This woman from Sweden continues to inspire people as she did in her own lifetime throughout Europe.

The accounts of Birgitta’s life serve to illustrate why she earned and deserves such recognition. No biography of Birgitta can leave out her deep religious faith. Catholicism had been present and influential in Sweden for roughly three hundred years by the time of Birgitta.[2] Religion was a part of her earliest childhood, and prophecies and legend abound. A medieval account of her life printed in London in 1516 tells a legend about her grandmother. A nun had seen Birgitta’s grandmother walking with her servants and accused her of being proud. In a dream, she saw “a person of marvelous beauty who…said to her, ‘I shall make a daughter come of her progeny with whom I shall do great deeds in the world.’”[3] This account was written in England, two hundred years after Birgitta’s life, but the legends contained within it are bountiful. As the story goes, when she was born, the priest had a vision prophesying that the baby girl’s “marvelous voice shall be heard throughout the whole world.”[4] As a child, she prayed and did good deeds; her first vision reportedly occurred when she was twelve years old.

While still a child, she was married. Despite wanting to live as a virgin dedicated only to God, Birgitta dutifully obeyed her father’s plan for her marriage. In a prayerful and holy marriage, Ulf and Birgitta had eight children. Birgitta “deliberately brought [the children] along on her visits to the sick in their homes or in hospitals, so that her children would witness her splendid example of willing, humble service.”[5] None of the offspring attained the fame of their mother, although her daughter, Catherine, joined her in founding the Birgittine Religious order and is also regarded as a saint by the Catholic Church.[6] In a 1979 secular history by T.K. Derry, the author relates that Birgitta’s “life story is in some ways typical of that age of noble privilege.”[7] Because of Ulf’s knighthood, Birgitta and Ulf were frequently in attendance on the royal couple. King Magnus granted a gift of land at Vadstena to Birgitta; however, she was not afraid to “criticize what she found amiss in the marital relations of the royal couple, and when the king tried to restrict the financial privileges of the nobles, she denounced him bitterly.”[8] Thus, in her marriage and in her homeland, she was pious and influential.

After twenty-eight years of marriage, Ulf died, and Birgitta renewed her desire to be a consecrated religious. She began planning the rule for her religious order that she intended to found at Vadstena, the land given to her by King Magnus. She planned two branches of the order, for monks and for nuns. This order would be called the “Order of the Most Holy Savior,” although it is more commonly known as the Birgittines in honor of the foundress.[9] Despite the long lasting and widespread presence of her order, Birgitta’s fame during her lifetime was due to the prophecies and visions that prompted her to travel across Europe and write letters urging the Holy Father to return to his seat in Rome. This period for the Catholic Church was known as the “Babylonian Captivity” because the Popes had for some time chosen to live in Avignon, France instead of the traditional seat of the papacy, namely, Rome. The danger in this displacement of the papal court to Avignon was that the Church came more and more under the control of French leaders. In Catholic books summarizing world history, such as the high school textbook Christ the King—Lord of History, Birgitta’s name appears along with an Italian woman, St. Catherine of Siena. Both women were inspired to urge and implore the Popes to return to Rome. Birgitta’s influence convinced Pope Urban V to return to Rome although “the temptations to return to France were too strong and he prepared to return to Avignon in 1370. [Birgitta] prophesied that he would die within the year if he left Rome, but Urban refused to listen…at the end of December, when he died exactly as she had prophesied.”[10] Birgitta herself died in 1373, and following her death, St. Catherine of Siena carried on the task of calling the Pope to return to Rome.

Since European monarchs of this time were Catholic, Birgitta’s ability to influence the Pope was hugely important politically and religiously. Besides her fame in regards to her activities with the papal court, Birgitta also gained renown with the writing of her Revelations which was “largely compiled, arranged, and edited after her death, circulated in Latin and vernacular languages from the end of the fourteenth century until at least the seventeenth century.”[11] Besides the visions that pertained to the papal return to Rome, some of “her most famous revelations include a vivid description of the Nativity…and advice concerning a peaceful solution to the Hundred Years War.”[12] The Revelations fascinate modern scholars because it lays out clearly and distinctly medieval morality and theology from the Real Presence, life after death, and calls to repentance. It is also interesting to note the images and metaphors that are vivid and well known to her readers and to herself such as “nature, medieval technology…domestic life…food, clothing, and maternity.”[13]

By means of this broad range of revelations and the influence it gained her, priests sometimes consulted Birgitta and they would at times preach her revelations from their pulpits. She was not as learned in theology as priests, nor did she have the sacred character of the priesthood conferred by Holy Orders; however, Birgitta received “admiring respect for her prophetic abilities” which “allowed her to exercise a measure of authority over individual clerics, who otherwise were her superiors.”[14] Wielding moral and prophetic power over popes, priests, and kings, Birgitta nonetheless remained humble and devout. As she lay on her deathbed, Mass was said before her, and her last words were the words of the dying Christ, “‘In manus tuas domine commendo spiritum meum’—which is to say, ‘Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.’”[15]

After Birgitta’s death in 1373, debates surrounded the authenticity of her revelations. Many people and priests loyally defended her, while others demanded close inspection of all her claims and writings. In the first twenty years following her death, the canonization process took place. Popes, councils, and committees undertook to study her life and work. Her spiritual advisors reported miracles attributed to her, and the king of Sweden, Albrekt of Mecklenberg, also submitted a petition to the Pope for her canonization.[16] Birgitta’s daughter, Catherine, was highly active in promoting her mother’s canonization and the formation of her mother’s order. Catherine was able to return to Vadstena in 1380 to officially found the Birgittines, and the canonization finally occurred after further committee investigations in 1391.[17] Through the canonization process, Birgitta’s renown had grown in circles around Rome as well as throughout the kingdom of Sweden. Criticism from various church figures continued to circulate through the 15^th century and beyond until, during Benedict XIV’s pontificate (1740-1758), he issued “a bull ‘De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione’…which silenced the critics of the canonization of…Birgitta of Sweden.”[18]

Meanwhile, in Sweden, the Birgittines grew and expanded, spreading St. Birgitta’s rule and her special devotions. Although the order had members only from the aristocratic families, “as her cult grew she attracted women of more varying social origins.”[19] For Sweden, the monastery at Vadstena became a source of learning and culture, a connection the learning of European monasteries. Birgittine monasteries were soon being built outside of Sweden, the first, near Florence, was founded in 1394, but also in other parts of Scandinavia with an abbey outside Bergen in Norway and an abbey in Finland was founded in 1441.[20] An important monastery was founded in England in 1415 with the support of Henry IV; although this monastery suffered from the dissolution of monasteries under the reformation of Henry VIII in 1539, the nuns took refuge in the Netherlands and later settled in Lispon, carrying on their religious life until they were able to return to England in 1861. Through their perseverance through centuries of exile, the Birgittine Abbey of Syon can now make the unique claim of “being the only English religious community founded in medieval times that has maintained an unbroken lineage to the present.”[21]

In Vadstena, the reformation also took its toll. Throughout Europe, monasteries were forbidden, “From 1595, when our abbey here was closed, up until modern times, it was forbidden to have any monasteries at all in Sweden.”[22] The attitude towards the Catholic Church and religious communities is still negative after the many years of being suppressed in Sweden, but the monastery has been reestablished and flourishes with new vocations of young women. Sr. M. Patricia, soon to celebrate her Golden Jubilee as a religious, loves “Holy Mother” Birgitta, and describes her “as a very wise and loved woman…during her happy and blessed marriage, she kept her heart and her mind fixed on Christ…This did not prevent her from being a charming hostess, a happy mother and wife. She was a very balanced person, healthy and once again, happy. In her widowhood she became free from family ties and was able to give herself totally to God and he accepted her in a very wonderful way.” The sisters who follow closely the rule of Birgitta and try to learn from her holy love of the Savior and His Blessed Mother see that the secret of Birgitta’s relationship with God and the complete privacy in her prayer-life is a good thing for a nun to copy.”[23]

Besides the abbeys in Vadstena and England’s Syon Abbey, there are two original medieval monasteries survive in the Netherlands and a Spanish abbey established in 1630. In Rome, the house where Birgitta stayed for many years became a Birgittine abbey in 1911, and it was from there that the Birgittines came back to Sweden in 1923.[24] The branch of the Birgittine order for men had disappeared since the 1850s, but since 1976, has been reestablished by the founding of a monastery in Amity, Oregon. This branch in the United States abides by the rules as laid out by Birgitta in prayer and silence, actually supporting itself by making candy.[25]

Besides the recently established monastery in Oregon, the United States’ Swedish immigrants brought devotion to their saint to various parts of the United States. The Swedish community of Lindsborg, Kansas is home to St. Bridget’s of Sweden Catholic Church,[26] and another Church built in her honor flourishes in Lindstrom, Minnesota,[27] and yet another St. Bridget of Sweden Church was built in 1955 as an offshoot of St. Elisabeth and St. Catherine of Siena parishes in Van Nuys, California.[28] In these and other churches, St. Birgitta (or Bridget as she is known to English speakers) continues to be known throughout the world. Although in Lincoln, Nebraska there is not a church dedicated to St. Bridget, her name is known by means of saints’ books, All Saints’ Day celebrations, and Catholic history books. In the Catholic world, she appears in world histories, in saint books, and in the devotion of Catholic throughout the world from the naming of Churches after Birgitta to the naming of daughters, Birgitta or Bridget, in her honor.

The Swedes, of all faiths, also love to remember Birgitta. Indeed, when explaining to Americans Birgitta’s place in their hearts and homes, Sr. Patricia, O.Ss.S compared Birgitta to Abraham Lincoln in the United States. “Everybody in U.S.A. knows something about him, or even a lot about him. The same applies to saint Birgitta. Her memory is still very much alive and her relics, now in the Lutheran church here that used to be ours before the Reformation, her relics are revered and there is always a lighted lamp before the shrine. Pilgrims come from all over Europe to venerate her relics.”[29] There in that Lutheran church, some 30 years ago, the parish was discussing whether or not to gild the cross atop steeple, but when someone exclaimed the Birgitta would not like it, as if she were still alive, “the spire was not gilded.”[30] Sr. Patricia, in correspondence with the author of this paper, expressed excitement at the growing interest in Birgitta outside of Sweden, particularly in Norway, “where she has been sadly neglected until now.”[31]

In secular histories, Birgitta continues to appear in Scandinavian history books of all kinds not only for the fame she had during her lifetime, but also for her legacy, the religious order, with which she “left her mark on the whole of Scandinavia…The Swedes acquired in her a saint of their own.”[32] The Birgittines explain what she means to them by saying:

“She shows us the way to follow. You have some ‘idol’ out there… James Dean, or whoever. Who remembers him even nowadays? In six hundred years nobody will have any idea of who he was. But Saint Birgitta is still well known over the entire world. Since she became officially made a saint, her feast day 23 July is celebrated in every Catholic Church or chapel on this earth (i.e. if the local priest wants to)! She is really the only Swede who ever got that far.”[33]

Because of Birgitta’s continued presence in Catholic devotion, Scandinavian histories, and (more recently) women’s studies, the Birgittine nuns are certainly right in their claim that no other Swede achieved the lasting renown of Birgitta.

Scandinavia can also feel proud to claim such an influential woman in the medieval ages when such women were up against incredible odds. Pope John Paul II acknowledged Birgitta’s incredible influence in Europe by proclaiming her the Co-Patroness of Europe in 1999. She had already been honored as the Patroness of Sweden for many years, but with the proclamation of Birgitta as Co-Patroness of Europe, the Catholic world had a resurgence of interest in Birgitta.

Birgitta of Sweden had far reaching influence in her own lifetime within Sweden and throughout Europe. Her Revelations influenced and defined much of medieval theology and morality while also motivating Popes and kings. Her name lives on in Swedish history because of her deep faith, her vocation and visions that took her throughout Europe, and her founding of the Birgittine order. For a medieval woman, a legacy of such widespread endurance is rare, but it is even rarer for a woman from the cultural backwaters of Scandinavia. The rest of Europe had its culture, artists, religious orders, aristocrats, and religious leaders long before Scandinavia, but Birgitta swept across Europe from the North, perhaps she could be compared to the Vikings—they too came from the North and swept across Europe. However, those Viking men, centuries before Birgitta, came with immorality and laid waste to Europe while she came to those lands of southern Europe with morality and peace.

Bibliography

Andersson, Ingvar. A History of Sweden. Second Edition, first published in the United States in 1956. Translated by Carolyn Hannay and Alan Blair. New York, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.

Brigittine Monks. "About Us." Brigittine Monks: Order of the Most Holy Savior. 2005. http://www.brigittine.org/monks/ab0711.html (accessed April 30, 2010).

Carroll, Anne. Christ the King--Lord of History. Third Edition. Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, 1994.

Catholic Information Network. "St. Bridget of Sweden." Catholic Information Network. July 22, 2000. http://www.cin.org/saints/bridget-sweden.html (accessed April 30, 2010).

Derry, T.K. A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979.

Gascione, Thomas. "Life of St. Birgitta." February 20, 1516. http://www.umilta.net/thgascbirgitta.html (accessed April 26, 2010).

Holbock, Ferdinand. Married Saints and Blesseds Through the Centuries. English translation from the second edition of the original German: Heilige Eheleute: Verheiratete Selige und Heilige aus allen Jahrhunderten. Salzburg (2001). Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco, California: Ignatius Press, 2002.

Lindsborg Kansas. St. Bridget's of Sweden Catholic Church. http://www.lindsborgcity.org/index.aspx?NID=79 (accessed April 30, 2010).

Morris, Bridget. St. Birgitta of Sweden. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1999.

Patricia, O.Ss.S., Sr. M., interview by Amy D Waddle. (May 1, 2010).

Patricia, O.Ss.S., Sr. M. "One Thousand and One Questions." Birgittasystrarna. http://www.birgittaskloster.se/?h=8&l=eng#vocation (accessed April 30, 2010).

Sahlin, Claire L. Birgitta of Sweden and the Voice of Prophecy. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2001.

St. Birgittas Kloster Vadstena. "About the Order." Birgittasystrarna. 2002. http://www.birgittaskloster.se/?h=5&l=eng (accessed April 30, 2010).

St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church. Parish History. 2006. http://www.sbos.org/about.html (accessed May 1, 2010).

—. St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church. http://www.stbridgetofsweden.org/ (accessed May 1, 2010).

Steele, F. "Catholic Encyclopedia: Brigitines." Catholic Encyclopedia. 1907. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02785a.htm (accessed April 30, 2010).

Syon Abbey. "Syon Abbey and the Bridgettine Order." Syon Abbey. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/SyonAbbey.htm (accessed April 30, 2010).

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[1] Ferdinand Holbock, Married Saints and Blesseds Through the Centuries, English translation from the second edition of the original German: Heilige Eheleute: Verheiratete Selige und Heilige aus allen Jahrhunderten. (Salzburg: Christiana-Verlag, 2001), trans. Michael J. Miller (San Francisco, California: Ignatius Press, 2002): 241-242.

[2] T.K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979): 36-42.

[3] Thomas Gascione, "Life of St. Birgitta," February 20, 1516, http://www.umilta.net/thgascbirgitta.html (accessed April 26, 2010).

[4] Gascione, “Life of St. Birgitta.”

[5] Holbock, Married Saints: 251.

[6] Catholic Information Network, "St. Bridget of Sweden," Catholic Information Network, July 22, 2000, http://www.cin.org/saints/bridget-sweden.html (accessed April 30, 2010).

[7] Derry, A History of Scandinavia: 67.

[8] Derry, A History of Scandinavia: 67.

[9] F. Steele, "Catholic Encyclopedia: Brigitines," Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02785a.htm (accessed April 30, 2010).

[10] Anne Carroll, Christ the King--Lord of History, Third Edition (Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, 1994): 192.

[11] Claire L. Sahlin, Birgitta of Sweden and the Voice of Prophecy (Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2001): 19.

[12] Sahlin, Voice of Prophecy: 21.

[13] Sahlin, Voice of Prophecy: 21.

[14] Sahlin, Voice of Prophecy: 121.

[15] Gascione, “Life of St. Birgitta.”

[16] Bridget Morris, St. Birgitta of Sweden (Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1999): 145.

[17] Morris, St. Birgitta: 148-149.

[18] Morris, St. Birgitta: 158.

[19] Morris, St. Birgitta: 160.

[20] Morris, St. Birgitta: 169-170.

[21] Syon Abbey, "Syon Abbey and the Bridgettine Order," Syon Abbey, http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/SyonAbbey.htm (accessed April 30, 2010).

[22] Sr. M. Patricia, "One Thousand and One Questions," Birgittasystrarna, http://www.birgittaskloster.se/?h=8&l=eng#vocation (accessed April 30, 2010).

[23] Sr. M. Patricia, O.Ss.S., interview by Amy D Waddle, (May 1, 2010).

[24] St. Birgittas Kloster Vadstena, "About the Order," Birgittasystrarna, 2002, http://www.birgittaskloster.se/?h=5&l=eng (accessed April 30, 2010).

[25] Brigittine Monks, "About Us," Brigittine Monks: Order of the Most Holy Savior, 2005, http://www.brigittine.org/monks/ab0711.html (accessed April 30, 2010).

[26] Lindsborg Kansas, St. Bridget's of Sweden Catholic Church, http://www.lindsborgcity.org/index.aspx?NID=79 (accessed April 30, 2010).

[27] St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church, St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church, http://www.stbridgetofsweden.org/ (accessed May 1, 2010).

[28] St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church, Parish History, 2006, http://www.sbos.org/about.html (accessed May 1, 2010).

[29] Sr. Patricia, interview.

[30] Sr. Patricia, interview.

[31] Sr. Patricia, interview.

[32] Ingvar Andersson, A History of Sweden, Second Edition, first published in the United States in 1956, trans. Carolyn Hannay and Alan Blair (New York, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970): 54.

[33] Sr. Patricia, "One Thousand and One Questions."