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GOD’S AMBASSADRESS
St. Bridget of Sweden

BY HELEN M. D. REDP ATH
BRIDGETTINE OF SYON ABBEY

THE BRÜCEPUBLISHING COMPANY
■Sr. Bridget of Sweden

"horns et intrepida" (Proc, can.)
A pre-Reformation siatiie in possession of (he Syon Conininnily

* ;

: : MUwjinKéé

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THWSnfte'iWt

Nihil obstat: Rev. John A. Schulien, S.T.D.. Censor librorum
Imprimatur: ψ Moyses E. Kiley, Archiepiscopus Milwaukiensis
14 Augustii, 1946

Copyright, 1947
The Bruce Publishing Company
Printed in the Uriited States ocAmerica

Contents
Introduction.................................................................

vii

Part I

ST. BRIDGET IN SWEDEN

I

The Child....................................................

II

The Wife....................................................

Ill

The Mother

IV

The Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting

V

VI

VII
VIII

The Widow

3
10

·.....

.

•

»?

•

23

·.....

29

The Bride of Christ .....
The New Vineyard

•

36
46

•

5θ

.....

The Way of Faith.........................................

Part II

ST. BRIDGET IN ROME
I

II

The Holy Year of 1350

....

III

St. Bridget and Her Friends

IV

Her Daily Life ....................................................

V

VI

67

The Promised Helper

Before the Pope

.....

The Holy Land.........................................
v

•

73

•

83

•

97

•

log

•

123

vi

Contents

VII

.

Last Warnings and Revelations

VIII

.

.

134

Fulfilment...................................................................138
Part III

ST. BRIDGET IN HER ORDER

I

St. Bridget’s Rule Ratified

....

149

II

St. Bridget in Many Lands

....

156

III

St. Bridget Attacked — and Vindicated

IV

St. Bridget’s Legacy .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Appendix

I:

Appendix II:

Index

.

.

.

Postscript

.

.

Notes and References

.

168
179

.

190

....

192

Some Sources of Information Concern­

ing St. Bridget and Fier Writings

.

.

.213

.

.

.

.

.

.

208

Introduction
St. Bridget of Sweden, set in her own time by the Provi­
dence of God in full light, seems in these latei' times to have
been set by men somewhat in the shadows. This partial
eclipse of so great a figure is no doubt mainly due to the fact
that her writings, or at least a large portion of them, contain
messages and warnings to particular persons or classes of
persons; passages moreover clothed in a phraseology alien to
the thought and taste of a later day. But there are those who
look deeper, and who tell us that it is more than time St.
Bridget was once again known not merely by the few but
by the many; that she belongs to every age — even very par­
ticularly to our own — and that to know her will also be to
love her.
Not many accounts have been written of her in English
and not one that is both complete and at the same time fully
documented. This book is an attempt to tell simply and as
briefly as may be the story of her remarkable life, and if it
can hardly take to itself so important a title as a complete
and documented history, it can at least claim that it states
nothing as a fact in that life which has not behind it the
authority of contemporary documents, and that full refer­
ences to its sources of information have been noted.
This has involved no diving into almost undecipherable
manuscripts, but only care and patience. For Swedish scholars
have been at work for years studying everything that might
throw light on St. Bridget, her life, and her writings, and
have published the results of their research for all who care
to examine them. If, as in the case of the present writer,
vii

viii

Introduction

ignorance of the Swedish language is in some instances an
unsurmountable obstacle to firsthand examination, the full
text of one document at least has been made available to all
who have an elementary knowledge of Latin, and it is to the
biographer by far the most important source of information.
The Process of St. Bridget’s Canonization has been pub­
lished within recent years, after careful comparison of all the
codices extant, by Dr. Isak Collijn, Librarian of the Royal
Library, Stockholm. A study of this work enables anyone to
build up the life of St. Bridget at least in its main features.
It does much more. For in spite of its stiff, formal phrases
and the endless repetitions which seem to belong to the legal
profession of all ages, it is a more eloquent eulogy of the
Saint than any studied panegyric. A first glance at 6oo-odd
pages of fairly close print gives the impression of a monoto­
nous repetition of cures wrought by St. Bridget, but a closer
reading reveals something very different. The Process is
found to be a remarkably human document. The witnesses
stand out one from the other with wonderful distinctness.
Each, though giving evidence on the same points as that given
by all the others, gives it in a different way, throwing little
flashes of light on the Saint’s personality. St. Bridget is alive:
we see her in her daily life, with her friends, on her journeys,
before the pope. Finally, we stand by her deathbed and hear
the last words she spoke on earth.
By use of the Process, then, we shall be able to see
a picture of St. Bridget painted by contemporaries and
intimates.
But though the Process, and the early Life of the Saint
which is really a part of it, has been my main source of infor­
mation, this book owes its being originally to a manuscript
which I first had the privilege of reading in 1930. Its author,
Margaret Howitt, daughter of William and Mary Howitt,
both well-known writers in their day, gives in this work the
results of something like sixty years’ study of St. Bridget and
her times. An untiring student, she worked at the book she

Introduction

ix

hoped to publish with amazing vigour of mind and will until
her death, very nearly at the end of her ninety-first year. She
was a gifted linguist, had learned first in Sweden to know of
the Saint she so greatly venerated, and later corresponded
with Scandinavian scholars and with the utmost care collected
information on all that even remotely touched her subject.
Her work, unfinished, but with copious notes ready for its
completion, was judged too long and too discursive for the
public of to-day, but its most valuable material has been
freely used in these pages, especially in matters relating to the
Sweden and Rome of St. Bridget’s day. Where references are
found to works inaccessible to me, such references have been
accepted without personal verification but with full trust in
the accuracy of a most painstaking and scholarly author whose
only aim was to write history. Her references to St. Bridget’s
writings have also been of the greatest value.
It is beyond the scope of this book and beyond the power
of its author to discuss in detail or in any way to appraise
the extraordinary spiritual gifts which St. Bridget possessed.
Yet since in any Life of her there must needs be allusions to
strange and unusual things — voices, visions, heavenly com­
mands and messages, it will be as well perhaps to anticipate
to the extent of telling briefly, first, how she herself tried to
explain these when questioned by those who guided her soul,
and, secondly, what the Catholic Church has said concerning
them.
The Spaniard Alfonso da Vadaterra, formerly Bishop of
Jaen, later an Olivetan hermit, was one of St. Bridget’s spir­
itual directors, knew her intimately, edited her works after
her death, and was one of the theologians included in the
papal commission appointed to examine these before the
canonization. In his long Prologue to Book VIII of the
Revelations, he discusses the different kinds of visions
granted to mankind — corporeal, imaginative, and intellec­
tual, and gives many quotations from the works of the Doc­
tors of the Church. He says that all three classes of vision

—■—««η-»»»» ■ f'w11

x

"g1 w1j"1

W? SH-

Introduction

were known to St. Bridget. Her earliest vision, when she was
a child of seven, was of the first kind, affecting her bodily
senses, and later on she had others of the same sort. But more
often she had imaginative visions.
St. Teresa thus describes her own imaginative vision of
our Lord: “Had I spent year after year trying to picture to
myself anything so beautiful, I should have neither the power
nor the talent to succeed in doing it.” Though such vision is
not seen with the bodily eyes, “it is a living image. It is not
a dead man but a living Christ.’’1
Most frequent of all, however, were the intellect ual visions
which came to St. Bridget, accounted the highest of the three
kinds. Of such she says, in one of her prayers: “Thou puttest
my body to sleep when it pleaseth Thee, yet it is not a bodily
sleep, but a certain repose of the spirit. Then Thou wakest
my soul as out of a slumber to see, hear and feel after a
spiritual manner.”2
Sometimes she understood what she saw, sometimes not.
Afterwards a voice would come which she recognized as that
of Christ or of His Blessed Mother, or it might be that of an
angel, telling her the meaning of the vision or making some
communication of a prophetic nature, or again conveying
some divine command. Of such locutions St. Teresa has said:
“Interior words are heard, perfectly distinct, but they are
not usually heard by the ears of the body. Yet they are
much more clearly perceived than if they were audible,
and they cannot be resisted: it is impossible not to perceive
them. . . . ”3
All that came to St. Bridget by revelation she at once made
known and dictated to one of the priests who directed her.
She always declared that what she described with many ex­
planatory words was perceived by her in an instant of time.
Her dictated revelation was translated into Latin by her con1 St. Teresa’s Life by Herself, Eng. Transi, by David Lewis, Chap. 28.
3 Revs., IV, 77.
’St. Teresa, op. cit., Chap. 25.

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Introduction

xi

fessor and was then shown to her. But translation, however
carefully made, cannot have the same value as the original
language, and scholars who have made a study of St. Bridget’s
eight books of revelations are convinced that in their rather
barbarous Latin dress they are not always an exact expression
of the mystic’s mind.
Long before she received her messages for mankind, St.
Bridget was favoured with a very high gift of prayer and
seems to have lived in the almost continual consciousness of
the presence of God. This led her to a simple form of inter­
course with heaven of a character totally different from the
often mysterious sayings of which mention has just been
made. Such conversations, if we may give them this name,
are gathered together under the title of Revelationes Extrava­
gantes, and concern Bridget’s personal affairs or those of
people she had to help, or again, her perplexities over regula­
tions for the religious order she was to found. These she lays
with the utmost simplicity before Christ or His Blessed
Mother. Here she is as one who could have said with the
psalmist: “My eyes are ever looking unto the Lord.” She asks
questions; she records the answers received. What are we to
think of all this? Who shall say? To the Saint her conversa­
tions were as real as any with a friend on earth. She is, of
course, by no means the only soul who has made such a claim.
St. Gertrude’s Revelations bear abundant witness to the
same thing. And we read in the Life of St. Catherine of Siena
that Christ deigned to walk and talk with her and to recite
witii her the Divine Office.
Nor is it necessary to look back so far, as if such assertions
were something peculiar to the Middle Ages. The name of
Lourdes would have no significance if a little peasant girl
had not recorded her conversations with the Virgin Mother.
Yet more recent, there is the saintly old French Curé, Père
Lamy, who died in 1931 and who has been made known to
us by Comte Biver and M. Maritain. When one reads what
Père Lamy has to say, with its mingling of artlessness and the

xii

Introduction

dignity of a deep and humble reverence, one might be listen­
ing to St. Bridget herself.
The Revelations of St. Bridget were subjected to more
than one careful examination by papal commissions, and
received such high praise that princes of various lands, we
are told, at once sent to Rome to have copies made. Forty
years after the Saint’s canonization, owing to rash and wholly
unauthorized statements made by a handful of Bridgettine
monks at a monastery in Lübeck, the Revelations had the
very doubtful benefit of being made the subject of discussion
at Basle. Doubtful benefit, because, though they gained there­
by the invaluable “Defence” written by the learned Cardinal
Torquemada, fully and forever vindicating their orthodoxy,
yet some of the dust raised by the controversy never seems
quite to have been laid. In accounts written of St. Bridget it
is not at all uncommon to find her singled out from others
who have recorded their revelations; the Council of Basle is
cited as having examined her writings, and the cautious
words of the Church concerning all private approved reve­
lations are emphasized. There is suggestion of a warning
against overmuch credulity.
While asking from no reader of this book more credence
of St. Bridget’s statements than that allowed in the cautious
words just referred to, namely that her works contain nothing
against faith or morals and much that can give edification to
the faithful, it will be well to recall certain pronouncements
made by the Catholic Church concerning her spiritual gifts
which seem to imply a good deal. The Office and Mass
authorized for the feast of any saint are certainly an expres­
sion of the Church’s mind. In the daily Commemoration
made of St. Bridget to be found in the special breviary be­
longing to the religious order she founded, she is declared to
be a “new light,” one to whom were “revealed the secrets of
heaven.” The words from the Book of Wisdom are chosen as
the Epistle of the Mass: “I called upon God and the spirit
of wisdom came upon me,” while in the Bull of Canonization

awwwBOs

Introduction

xiii

we read: “By means of the grace of the Holy Ghost this noble
widow was able to see and understand manifold visions and
revelations. And in the spirit of prophecy she predicted many
things, of which prophecies not a few have been fulfilled.”
St. Bridget’s century was a troubled one. Fierce wars tore
Europe asunder, the Black Death raged relentlessly. Then
there was the absence of the Pope from Rome with all its
consequences. And yet side by side with much unrest and
great moral corruption there was not only outstanding holi­
ness but deep and peaceful mysticism. St. Bridget was fully
conscious of the evils of her time but her message was by no
means merely one of rebuke. Her history will show that she
understood the ordinary life of mankind, not only by her gift
of sympathy but by actual experience. If she is numbered
among the founders of religious orders, among the ascetics,
the mystics, and the seers, it is well to keep in mind that
during more than half her lifetime she had her place among
the wives and mothers, among those who must look after and
rule large households, who fill important positions in the
social world, who organize works of charity, yes, and even
among those who have a share in political life and who
labour for the good of their country. As wife of an important
state official she stood by her husband’s side and helped him
to study the laws of the land; she brought up eight children
with conscientious care, training them to realize the respon­
sibilities which rank and wealth laid upon them; she was a
gracious hostess to her many guests and held a high post at
Court. Her works of charity, including what we should call
hospital and rescue work, were well organized and efficiently
carried out.
When, later on, we see her leave behind all worldly am­
bitions and in answer to an irresistible call become wholly
centred in God, her necessarily unusual way of life never
makes her unapproachable. On the contrary; those in trouble
turn to her instinctively for help in their various needs and
never find her unresponsive. Some forty years after her death

I

xiv

Introduction

she is remembered by one as homely and kind, while another
recalls her smiling face.
Let us then think of St. Bridget not as some remote proph­
etess, but as one homely and kind — an understanding person
with whom we can be quite at our ease. If we find her at
times saying strange and stern words, it will not be in her
own person, and it will be with inward fear and shrinking
on her part. She never adopts the role of the teacher; she
makes no claim to sit in the seats of the doctors. She hides
her graces when she may and guards jealously the secrets of
her soul. If she is consulted, she will reply: "I am a sinner”;
if she is praised for her words, she will protest that she is only
like the humble runner of a great lord, who delivers his
master’s message and is straightway forgotten.
To the strictly biographical chapters of this book have been
added a few intended to show St. Bridget as living on in the
Order she founded and inspiring it with her own ideals. If
the Saint is unfamiliar, still more so in all probability is the
Order commonly called by her name. Yet it exists to-day
though in greatly diminished numbers from those of pre­
Reformation times, and in its own particular sphere claims
to be the expression of the spirit of its foundress. It has
played no startling role in history; it has lived as it still lives,
the hidden life St. Bridget planned for it — her own life of
adoration, sacrifice, and prayer. But it, like other orders, has
trodden the way of persecution and has given the Church
martyrs, one of whom belongs to our own land of England.
And since it does exist, no history of St. Bridget can be con­
sidered really complete without mention of something that
was so truly a part of herself.
Two Swedish authors, Torvald Hojer and Carl Silverstolpe, are considered the greatest modern authorities on the
history of the Bridgettine Order. Among Miss Howitt’s notes

Introduction

xv

for her work on St. Bridget are many translations from their
writings. With the information gained from these as well as
from the Latin edition of the “Diary” or chronicle of the first
monastery at Vadstena, an attempt has been made to tell very
briefly the events which led to the confirmation of the Order
some five years after the Saint’s death, of its spread into other
lands, of difficulties it encountered in the century following,
and finally to see in the Rule its foundress gave it some re­
flection of her own inner life.
To all the good friends at home and abroad who have
given generous help by making suggestions, correcting errors,
supplying references and translations, or answering questions
most grateful acknowledgements are offered.

PART

I

St. Bridget in Sweden
t
1a

i
ί■Ί.
I

CHAPTER

I

The Child

3

?»

When the child Bridget, Bride of Christ, had reached her
seventh year, she saw one night -when awake, an altar opposite
her bed, and seated above it a certain lady, clothed in shining
garments and holding in her hands a precious crown, who
said to her: “Bridget, come'.’’ Hearing this voice, she at once
rose from her bed and ran to the altar. Said the lady: “Will
you have this crown?” and when she assented, the crown was
placed on her head so that Bridget felt its touch. When she
returned to her bed the vision vanished, but she could never
forget it.1
This is the earliest record of St. Bridget’s first vision. To
her it was a mystery, to us it is symbolic. Heaven’s precious
gifts offered for her acceptance, unasked and undeserved; the
assent to the invitation given at once, unhesitatingly, wonderingly, gratefully. All through the years now opening would
come unasked-for gifts and graces; graces of which she would
know herself to be wholly unworthy. Invitations would come,
too, to do and say this or that, invitations often unwelcome
to nature; and each would be accepted with the same spirit
of glad and prompt obedience.
If Bridget shared the secret of her night’s vision, as we may
suppose she did, with her mother, the Lady Ingeborg of
Finsta, her confidante would rejoice but perhaps hardly be
surprised. For over this little daughter hung mystery. Years
before, Ingeborg had heard the story of a visit paid by her
own mother, Sigrid, to a monastery of nuns. One of the com­
munity had passed hard judgement on the great lady, richly

4

St. Bridget in Sweden

dressed and therefore, of course, proud, and had afterwards
been rebuked by a voice from heaven. “Why have you slan­
dered My handmaid, calling her proud? This is not true.
Moreover I shall cause a daughter to be born of her line by
whom I shall do wondrous things in the world, and I shall
infuse into her such grace that all will marvel.”
Then not long before Bridget’s birth, Ingeborg had in her
turn heard a heavenly voice. She had had a narrow escape
from drowning and afterwards said an angel had appeared
to her telling her she had been saved because of the child to
be born to her, and adding: “Bring her up in the love of
God, for she is His gift to you.”
Rumours had reached her too, that the night Bridget was
born, the parish priest had seen a vision of the Virgin Mother
who announced: “A daughter is born to Birger whose won­
drous voice will be heard by all the world.”
Bridget had not been like other babies: not like the four
children who had preceded her. For this child whose voice all
the world would hear had made no sound. Not until the age
of three years did she utter a word. What was maturing in
the baby mind? She was not unconscious of tvhat was going
on around her, for when at last she spoke it was in clear, dis­
tinct words that had in them no trace of baby language.2

St. Bridget, fifth child of Birger Persson, knight, and of
Ingeborg Bengstdotter, was born somewhere between the
years 1302 and 1304, probably in 1303, and tradition says it
was on June 14.
Except for a very few facts, we know nothing of St.
Bridget’s early years, but certain influences are clearly trace­
able in her after-life and in her writings. Her parents are
described as “just and devout; noble according to the flesh
since they were sprung from the race of the Gothic kings,
but more noble according to God.” Who these Gothic kings
were is unknown; Birger’s coat of arms was a shield having a
pair of wings with the tips downwards; his family can only

The Child

5

be distinguished by the name of the Finsta race. He was
known to be fervent in the fulfilment of his religious duties,
and was accustomed to say that since he did not know how
long God might spare him, he wished to be always ready for
death. At some time in his life he made two of the great
pilgrimages — to Jerusalem and to the tomb of St. James at
Compostela, and in performing these acts of devotion he was
following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before
him.3
Birger was perhaps the most notable man of his day in
Sweden. Governor of the province of Upland, to him was
entrusted the task of drawing up a new code of law for his
country when it was decided to do away with the Vig Saga,
a law composed by a heathen named Vig, and strangely
enough still in use only some seven or eight years before
Bridget’s birth. Sweden had been visited as early as 829 by
Christian missionaries brought back by the Northmen as a
result of their adventurous journeys into other lands, but it
had taken centuries to win the people as a whole away from
their old beliefs. Many set-backs, some martyrs; it was not
really until the beginning of the thirteenth century that
Sweden could be called a Christian country.
Ingeborg Bengstdotter, mother of St. Bridget, was Birger’s
second wife. Her father, Benedict Magnusson, Governor of
East Gothland, belonged to the mighty Folkung race.4
The Folkung race had ruled Sweden from the middle of
the thirteenth century and took its name from Folke the Big,
the most powerful man of his time (1079-1110) and Jarl,
what we might call prime minister to the king, and therefore
next in importance to him. Folke’s more famous descendant
was Birger the Younger (so called to distinguish him from
his predecessor Birger the Smiling). He was Sweden’s greatest
statesman. Under his rule, acting as regent for his young
son — the first of the Folkungs to be chosen as king — Sweden
became a united kingdom, and to him is attributed the foun­
dation of Stockholm.

f
!

6

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

Neither St. Bridget nor the man she married were direct
descendants of Jarl Birger, so had no claims to the titles
of royalty persistently given to the Saint. Very commonly she
is called a princess, sometimes even a queen. But as the child
of an exceedingly wealthy and important family she grew
up among “fair and noble customs’’ as she calls the traditions
of her race and time. Constant guests were well entertained,
grand banquets prepared, rich clothes worn, and there were
hosts of retainers. All this has to be borne in mind fully to
appreciate St. Bridget’s later attitude towards the goods of
this world, her self-reproach for her pride of race, her eager­
ness for poverty, and her desire to be (he servant of ail.
We can picture her home as a centre of immense activity;
messengers coming and going, the Governor summoned to
council or Ting, or again, receiving those he ruled to settle
their disputes or redress their wrongs. Bridget’s intense in­
terest all through her life in law and politics — the relations
of the ruler to his subjects which is the burden of many of
her revelations — had its rise in the years spent at Finsta.
Many allusions in her writings to forests, rivers, mountains,
birds, as well as some of the grim apparitions she describes
in such vivid words, show how greatly she was affected by the
natural surroundings of her home and the legends, some
graceful, some fearsome, which took the place of storybooks.
Strongest influence of all was that of the teaching on the
truths of faith, given her we may suppose by her mother who
is described as “virtuous in all her ways.”5 When Bridget
sprang from her bed to receive the crown offered her, it was
no stranger that she saw but one she recognized and knew
already as the Queen of Heaven. It was part of that intimacy
with the saints which meets us all through her life and which
surely had its rise at Finsta.
In the Middle Ages a girl of twelve or thirteen, who, had
she lived to-day, would have been busy with studies or games,
commonly found herself the mistress of a large household as
wife of some powerful lord. Childhood, girlhood, woman-

M,

The Child

7

hood tripped each other up, and in the course of a few years
much had to be learned. She must know not only how to
read, write, and count, to sew and spin, but also what were
the duties of a good housewife and hostess; she must watch
her mother directing her many servants and know what was
the work expected from each; must learn how to receive and
entertain guests of all ranks, from royalty to the poorest pass­
ing stranger.
That Bridget learnt her lesson well, we shall see in her
after-history, but it was in the midst of this practical training
of head and hand that there came to her a second vision, and
one which was to shape the whole after-course of her life.
The first vision had been beautiful but bewildering: she had
been crowned, she knew not why, by the Queen of Heaven
herself! The second was a divine favour of another kind:
Bridget’s first invitation to a share in the cross. It came in
sleep, yet she was convinced it was no mere dream.
It was Holy Week and the Governor and his family had
been to hear a sermon on the Passion which was deeply moving. Bridget had fallen asleep with her mind full, no doubt,
of all she had heard described so graphically. Then she saw
before her Jesus Christ and from His wounds fresh blood was
flowing. He said to her:
“See how I am wounded!”
Had He just been crucified again? So Bridget asked herself
and cried out: “Oh, Lord, who has done this to Thee?”
“Those who despise Me and spurn My love,” came the
answer. “It is they who have done this.”
The vision was over, but it had pierced Bridget’s heart.
Henceforth, we read, she had so deep a devotion to the suffer­
ings of Christ that she could rarely hear them mentioned
without tears.6
She was at this time ten years old. A year later she lost her
mother. Ingeborg died in the same simple and strong faith
in which she had lived. In her last words there is no trace of
anxiety over leaving her young family. Her work is done.

;·
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b1

1

iSh^S^

8

St. Bridget in Sweden

“Why do you grieve? I have lived long enough and the
great God is calling me.”7
Bridget was now the eldest of the family, as the brothers
and sisters who had preceded her were dead, and a sister,
Katherine, and a brother, Israel, had followed her. After the
stately funeral to Upsala cathedral, where her mother’s body
was laid in the Finsta chantry, she was told that she was to
leave her home in company with her sister and go to lire
with her mother’s sister Katherine, wife of Sir Canute Jons­
son, Governor of East Gothland.
A long, wearisome journey, probably first by trading smack
and thence on horseback, brought the two girls to their new
home at Aspenas, built on a headland and overlooking the
beautiful lake of Sommen, dotted over with islands said to be
as many as there are days in a year.
The great house — consisting as was usual of a collection
of wooden buildings round a courtyard — the numerous re­
tainers, the daily life, were all much the same as at home in
Finsta. In the winter evenings the whole household would
gather in the hall and sit round a blazing fire fed with great
logs from the forests. Bridget with the rest would sew or spin,
join in the songs, or listen to the legends of which the coun­
tryside was full.
She was, of course, often homesick and lonely with the
loneliness that can be so intense when among strangers.
There was little opportunity for quiet by day, but the nights
were her own, and she had the habit of getting up when all
was still, and pouring out her heart in prayer to One who had
deigned to share with her His sufferings.
The Lady Katherine, we are told, was a most devout
woman, but naturally enough she expected Bridget to be like
other children. So when one night she found her out of bed,
on her knees, tears streaming down her face, she was both
puzzled and angry. Praying all by herself in the cold! This
was either vanity on the girl’s part or hysteria. She deter­
mined to put a stop at once to such foolish nonsense. She

MW!

IT W pfr r:

The Child

9

sent for a rod. But when she raised it to strike her niece, it
fell at her feet in small pieces. This was still more disconcert­
ing. The servants must have been putting the girl up to
some heathen superstitious arts; she might even be under the
influence of evil spirits.
“What are you about, Bridget?” she asked sharply. “Some
of the women· must have been teaching you false prayers.”
Bridget answered simply: “Nothing, my Lady; I only rose
from my bed to praise and magnify Him who is always near
and ready to help me.”
Her aunt’s heart was touched. From that day, says the
early Life, she not only loved Bridget but held her in
honour, and when her niece confided to lier later that she
had had a terrifying apparition of the devil, she gave her ad­
vice that was both kindly and sensible. “Keep silence, have a
great trust in God, love Him more and more, and beware of
all that is mere emotion.”
In after-years, says an old chronicle, Katherine would tell
many stories of her niece’s piety. One was the tale of Bridget’s
receiving miraculous help over a difficult piece of em­
broidery. Bridget saw no one; only knew that what had
seemed an impossible task had somehow been accomplished,
but her aunt saw among her “maidens” in the workroom
one unknown to her, bending over her niece’s embroidery
frame. The work was so exquisite that Katherine kept it ever
after among her most treasured possessions as something
sacred. The unknown visitor was, she always maintained,
none other than the Virgin Mother herself.8
The somewhat severe training of Aspenas lasted not quite
two years, for in the summer of 1316 Bridget was again at
Finsta. She was thirteen, her sister twelve; childhood had
ended and it was time for them to marry.

The Wife

CHAP T ER

II

The Wife
Birger, Governor of Upland, and Gudmar, Governor of
West Gothland, wished, for some reason no longer known,
to form a connection between their families, and so had
arranged that Birger’s two daughters, Bridget and Katherine,
should respectively marry Gudmar’s two sons, Ulf and
Magnus.9
The prospective bridegrooms belonged, as did Bridget and
Katherine, to the younger branch of the Folkungs, and this
also on their mother’s side. Ulf, the elder, owned the fine
estate of Ulfâsa. He was eighteen at this time and is described
in an early Life of St. Bridget as “rich, noble and wise.”
Another chronicle says of him that he was “early in life a
godfearing and polished scholar, and also a distinguished
courtier.”10 Possibly he owed his unusually good education
to the Cistercian monks at the great abbey of Alvastra, or he
may have been taught by one of the solitaries — often quite
learned men — living in the forests near his home.
Surely, Birger must have thought, he could not have
chosen better for his eldest daughter, and his relations fully
agreed. But the eldest daughter heard of the plan made for
her with dismay. What else had she expected? Perhaps she
simply had not faced the future. She only knew that to marry
anyone, however desirable, was the last thing she wished to
do. God had long ago claimed all her heart. Yet finally she
gave in to the persuasions of her father and other relatives.
That this yielding was no mere following the line of least
resistance, no weak betrayal of any promise or principle,
everything in Bridget’s character and after-life gives ample
IO

11

proof. So we can take for granted that it became quite plain
to her that to be Ulf’s wife was God’s call, and that any other
way of life would be self-pleasing. But how hard was the
sacrifice to her we can gather from her forcible -words to her
daughter many years later when speaking of this time: “I
would rather have died than marry!”11
The double betrothal took place, according to custom, at
the home of the brides. It was a very ceremonious affair,
ending with a banquet at which the “betrothal ale” was
drunk. The marriage was expected to foliotv almost imme­
diately, and this, also according to custom, took place at the
home of the bridegroom.12
On a day in September, 1316, Finsta was full of guests
awaiting the bridal train sent by Ulf Gudmarsson to escort
his bride to her future home. It consisted of his brothers-inarms and of many maidens for the bride, and all were on
horseback with colours flying.
Presently Bridget was led out by her father. Her biog­
raphers have left no description of her personal appearance,
but we can picture the thirteen-year-old girl as slight and
fair, with a serious face full of spiritual beauty and high re­
solve, and wearing on her brow the bridal crown set with
precious stones.
The ride was a long one, and forests through which the
bride would pass must first be explored by the fully armed
escort. At last the train reached Ulfâsa, standing high above
the south bank of Lake Boren. Trumpets announced the ap­
proach of the bride and Ulf came out to meet her. Sir Birger
gave his daughter to the bridegroom with the words: “I give
her to you to honour and to marry; to share your bed, your
locks and keys, every third penny and all legal right. In the
Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.”
The marriage in the private chapel followed, and then the
many guests — including, according to law, relatives to the
third remove — sat down to the wedding banquet.

12

St. Bridget in Sweden

At last night fell, and husband and wife were alone. In
her earnest and quite decided way, Bridget made the sugges­
tion which so plainly showed her own strong desire, that for
the present she and Ulf should live as brother and sister,
preparing themselves by prayer for whatever God might will
for them.13
Next day Bridget appeared in the dress of a matron, which
included the wearing of a cap. A quaint little figure she must
have looked serving her guests as mistress of the house. She
formally received from her husband what was called her
“Morning Gift” — morgongâva — that is (he proper!)' he be­
stowed on her as her very own. Part of it, oddly enough, was
a spear. The wedding festivities went on for several days;
tournaments, dancing, minstrelsy, and banquets, and the
poor of the neighbourhood streamed to Ulfâsa to receive
abundant food and alms.
At last the guests went away and ordinary life began.
Bridget threw herself heart and soul into her new duties with
all the intensity of an ardent nature. One less well balanced
and less spiritually developed might have let her thoughts
dwell on the solitary life of prayer she had hoped and longed
for, and have allowed scruples as to her social claims to
trouble her soul. But Bridget, with that marvellous ingenuity
of which the saints have the secret, found a way by which
she more than fulfilled what her husband expected of her as
mistress of Ulfasa, and at the same time followed a path of
prayer and increasingly rigorous mortification.
She inherited the immense energy and strength of will of
the Folkung race, and with it the power of ruling and
organizing and also of carrying others along with her. She
recognized fully the danger of these natural gifts, and to the
end we shall find her fighting against what she calls her
“pride.” Vain of her gifts she was not. Never introspective,
she looked out over a horizon as wide as the interests of God’s
kingdom, and the spiritual favours which crowded her life
as time went on and which made her such a centre of interest

The Wife

13

and admiration, simply overwhelmed her with confusion.
But she was by nature a masterful character, and this explains
what will seem to many utterly exaggerated submission and
detachment when, many years later, she found herself free
to choose her own way of life.
Meanwhile between her and Ulf there grew up a deep
affection and respect. Ulf realized at the outset that this
youthful bride of thirteen had a strength of character greater
than his own, though it never let her fail in wifely submission
and obedience. He had lived his eighteen years blamelessly
and loved his holy Faith: Bridget by degrees drew him on to
walk not along the highroad, but up the mountain. The early
Life tells us that Ulf learned his wife’s prayers and the two
would recite together the Hours of Our Lady.14 Bridget cer­
tainly, and probably Ulf also, joined the Third Order of St.
Francis, and in an age which was one of strong faith but
equally one of strong passions, the master and mistress of
Ulfâsa set a high standard.
Many years later Bridget reproached herself for her former
pride of birth and for having taken pleasure in being one of
Sweden’s great ladies. “When true humility was preached to
us,” she says, “we replied that our ancestors had bequeathed
to us great possessions, grand and fair customs, and why
shouldn’t we follow them? Our mothers sat among the first of
the land, were richly dressed, had many servants, and brought
us up in accordance with our rank, and was it not our duty
to bring up our children in the same way that was taught
us?”1B
This gives us a glimpse of the life at Ulfâsa. With all her
personal austerity, Bridget lived outwardly according to the
traditions she had inherited, and took for granted she was
right in so doing. On great occasions she wore the rich
brocades, velvets, furs, and jewels which women of her station
were expected to wear. She had her maidens, her husband
had his pages. Much hospitality was shown at Ulfâsa and the
guests were well entertained. Old deeds give proof of a con-

14

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

stant stream of visitors: clergy and laity; people from all
parts of Scandinavia. Besides distinguished guests there were
humble ones; wandering scholars from the Dominican Priory
at Skeninge who went from house to house and sang for their
bread, mendicant friars, and even at times the recluses from
the forests.
A few years after her husband’s death, Bridget tells how
he appeared to her, told her he was in purgatory, and begged
that prayers and certain good works should be offered for his
soul. One of the things for which he reproached himself was
that he had been too fond of banquets and feasting and had
sat too long at table. He directed his wife to sell some of his
elaborately chased diinking cups for the benefit of the
Church. Bridget had nothing to reproach herself with on this
score. The covered drinking cup set before her on the table
contained only water, and while she appeared to eat the deli­
cate meats she provided for those around her, she would
contrive more often than not to take dry bread. Her fasts,
and those of the strictest kind, were many; so many indeed
that it seems as if there were hardly a place for a feast day
in her calendar. In any case she seldom satisfied her hunger.
And like another holy Franciscan Tertiary, St. Elisabeth of
Hungary, she knew how to mortify her flesh with haircloth,
worn under the rich clothes her rank demanded, and not
even laid aside at night.10
Some time after their marriage, Bridget and her husband
built themselves a new house; it was of stone and several
stories high. Instead of the usual skylights, there were proper
window's, and in one of the rooms there was even the luxury
of a fireplace adorned with carvings.
Perhaps it was for this house that Bridget ordered an elab­
orate bed w'hich, she tells us, brought a rebuke from heaven.
Sweden’s housewives took pride in providing costly quilts,
wadded and embroidered, or even fur coverlets for their beds
during the very severe winter season. Now Bridget had
ordered for herself a richly carved bed which was to have the

The Wife

15

usual luxurious coverings. She was looking one day at her
new possession with much satisfaction, when she felt a sudden
and violent pain in her head, exactly as if a hand had struck
her. She fell and lay unable to move, while a voice, seeming
to come from the Avail, said: "I did not rest, but hung on the
cross and My head had no support. But you seek this curiosity
and a place of repose.”
The pain in her head was gone, but she felt her heart
pierced with sorrow and shame. She had forgotten her vision
of the Crucified Saviour and she wept bitter tears. Henceforth
when possible, she sternly avoided the comfort of a bed and
would take her rest lying on some straw or a bearskin.17
No doubt it was incidents such as this, showing a natural
pride in her house or thought for her own comfort, that
made Bridget later so often reproach herself for her worldli­
ness, but there is certainly little trace of it in the way she
ordered her daily life. Those who knew her — members of
her household or intimate friends —· would tell, after her
death, of her early rising at Ulfâsa, and how, after her daily
attendance at Mass, she would go apart to some oratory of
her own for her private devotions and then spend hours over
Church embroidery. This young chatelaine of perhaps fifteen
or sixteen, would gather her “maidens” around her, and
while they worked would read to them the Lives of saints
she had had translated into Swedish.18
Ulf and Bridget were lavish almsgivers. They built a hospi­
tal on their estate and repaired others in various parts of the
country. Bridget delighted in visiting the sick. They were her
dearly honoured guests in whom she saw her Divine Master.
She had skilled attendants provided for them but, not con­
tent with this, would nurse them herself. Day by day she was
to be seen kneeling by the beds, her face full of love and
pity, bathing repulsive sores, shrinking from no humble task.
Every day at home, before she took her own meal, she per­
sonally fed twelve poor, and on Thursdays, in memory of the
Maundy, washed their feet. She interested herself too, in

16

St, Bridget

in

Sweden

poor girls; some she placed in convents, to others she gave
dowries to enable them to marry. Her special care was for
those who had fallen into sin. She provided them with a
shelter, taught them, and gave them a fresh start in life. “To
all who were in trouble,” says her daughter Katherine, “to
sinners, to the poor, to orphans, widows, and children, she
was like a mother, showing them the utmost tenderness and
compassion.”19
When Ulf was twenty-five he was dubbed knight, and his
wife had the intense joy of hearing him swear with upraised
hands, by God, the Virgin Mary, St. Eric, and St. Canute, to
defend the Church and her ministers, orphans, virgins, and
widows, and to be true to his country.
The subject of knighthood had the deepest interest and
significance for Bridget. She had grown up in the atmosphere
of chivalry and her whole spiritual outlook was affected by
it. Intrepid courage, loyalty, zeal for the honour of the King
of heaven and earth — these are notes constantly sounded in
her writings, and there are many references to knights, their
vows, and their duties.20
Two years after being made knight Ulf was appointed
governor of the province of Nârke. With characteristic
energy, his wife helped him to make a serious study of the
various laws, and documents are still extant which prove his
activity in public affairs. In one of St. Bridget’s revelations
she says it was told her that her husband had always judged
fairly, neither from partiality nor policy.21
It was about this time that Bridget’s father died, and the
fortune she inherited from him made her one of the wealth­
iest women in Sweden. The funeral of the Governor of Up­
land took place in Upsala cathedral with almost royal mag­
nificence, and his body was laid beside that of his wife. The
slab which covers the tomb can still be seen and has traced
on it the effigies not only of husband and wife but also of
their seven children. Bridget is without a halo, showing that
the work dates from a time before her canonization.22

CHAPTER

III

The Mother
The time of prayer and waiting on God’s will which Bridget
and her husband had imposed on themselves, ended in two
years, and in the years that followed, eight children were
born to them: four sons and four daughters.
Just in what order sons and daughters came cannot now
be precisely determined. An early Life of St. Bridget gives
the names first of sons: Charles, Birger, Benedict, and Gudmar, with some account of each; then of daughters: Merita,
Katherine, Ingeborg, and lastly Cecilia, who was certainly the
youngest of the family.23
Bridget was a devoted mother and took the utmost pains
to bring up her children well. She was careful over their
education and provided the best tutors for them.24 She used
to take them with her on her various errands of charity, to
the horror of some of her friends.
“Exposing children to the danger of bad air and epi­
demics!” they expostulated.
“God has placed my children in a position which will give
them the honour of helping their poorer brethren,” answered
Bridget, “and I wish them from the very beginning to learn
to serve Jesus Christ in the persons of the poor and sick for
whom they will one day be the treasurers.”25
The eldest son and daughter were probably something of
an anxiety to their mother from the first. Merita, from what

we know of her later, was a rather hard character, ambitious
and determined. Charles was high-spirited, attractive, wilful:
his daring and a certain levity of character, which never left
17

«.»"à1 '-Jti,'3.'>£'tUfeli;i;T'"'tfïS.iJ

18

St. Bridget in Sweden

him, got him into one scrape after another. Ulf laughed at
his son’s high spirits and his pranks and was proud of his
clever sayings,26 but Bridget shed many tears oxer what she
saw was often a lack of principle. She always felt that the sins
of her children were in some way her responsibility, and she
already had the unenviable gift of reading consciences. One
day her eldest son came into her room and she greeted him
with: “Go and confess that mortal sin you have committed!"
Convinced his mother could not possibly know what was
on his conscience, Charles denied having committed any
mortal sin. But it was no use; Bridget persisted in her asser­
tion and he had finally to admit she was right.-7
Birger, the second son, was a complete contrast to his
brother: quiet, obedient, always to be depended on; rather
stolid and uninteresting, one always feels, but a good and
devoted son.
The two boys received the usual education of young
nobles. Systematic training began at seven years old. There
was training in gallantry, to which belonged a knowledge of
chess, dice, music, and languages; there was bodily training:
riding, jumping, climbing, and leaping; the use of bow and
arrow, the skilful handling of lance, sword, and shield. Social
training too, in discipline and good manners. In their quite
early years Bridget would certainly teach her children their
Faith; later they would go to the parish priest or the house­
hold chaplain.
One of the tutors engaged was a remarkable boy, Nicholas
Hermansson, whose parents lived at Skeninge, not far away.
If the date given as that of Nicholas Hermansson’s birth is
correct, namely, 1326, it would seem as if he must have been
several years younger than his pupils; a lad perhaps of thir­
teen or fourteen, who gave lessons in his school holidays. He
is said to have annoyed his mother by his excessive devotion
to study when he attended the Dominican grammar school
at Skeninge.
In the old Life of Nicholas Hermansson we read: “He

The Mother

19

once observed that when he was appointed tutor to the sons
of Bridget, he also instructed her in grammar. He behaved
so honourably, piously and maturely at her seat of Ulfàsa
that he was specially included in the fervent prayers she
offered to God. And we learn from a very trustworthy source
that when the scholar begged her to pray most fervently to
the Lord for him, she received from the Blessed Virgin Mary
the answer that he would become Bishop of Linkoping and
be the first to establish her new Rule and induct the Order
into her monastery at Vadstena. All of which later was ful­
filled. And the Lady Bridget in familiar conversation called
him her ‘bishop’; to which, however, at the time he gave
no heed.”28
What are we to make of Bridget’s prophecy concerning the
future dignity of Nicholas and the new religious order she
would establish at Vadstena? Can we think that this young
married woman with children growing up around her had
any inkling of what the future held for her? It seems hardly
possible; and even if she had some dim presentiment of the
work awaiting her, one cannot easily imagine her sharing
anything so intimate and so strange with her young tutor.
The explanation lies perhaps in the supposition that Bridget
and her husband among their other good works intended to
build a monastery for religious belonging to one of the exist­
ing orders, to all of which they seem to have been benefactors.
Supposing then, that their scheme was well known to their
household, we can imagine Bridget looking at the gifted boy
who was preparing for the priesthood and saying to him:
“Some day you will be Bishop of Linkoping and then you
will look after my monastery.” Henceforth she would play­
fully call Nicholas her bishop, which he would not take seri­
ously. When, later on, all the prophecies were fulfilled, and
Nicholas, as bishop, had installed the first religious of the
new Order in the monastery at Vadstena, it was natural to
see in the words of long ago a greater significance than they
actually held.

20

St. Bridget in Sweden

Bridget’s two younger sons were not trained to feats of
chivalry. Probably both were intended for the priesthood.
Benedict was received by the Cistercian monks at the Abbey
of Alvastra after his training by women had ended. Of Gudmar, a chronicle concerning St. Bridget’s family, written by
an abbess of Vadstcna, says only that he died when a young
boy, having been at school in Stockholm.29
Both the Cistercian and Dominican nuns had monasteries
not far from Ulfâsa and received into their enclosure as
pupils the daughters of the nobles. Many of these intended
from the outset to stay in the monastery and become nuns,
and were known as scholares; others were expected after their
schooldays ended to return to the world and were called
saeculares. All were given a careful education, became wellread women, and often were excellent musicians, painters of
missals and miniatures, weavers and embroiderers of rich
vestments and carpets.
To the Cistercian nuns at Risaberga Bridget’s two daugh­
ters Katherine and Ingeborg were sent.
Katherine was only a few years old when her mother gave
her into the care of the Abbess of Risaberga. There seems to
have been no thought of her becoming a nun, but just at
this time Bridget was often obliged to be absent from her
family, as she held a high position at Court.
The old chronicle tells various tales of Katherine’s early
days: how she absolutely refused the breast of a nurse whom
her mother had inadvertently engaged and who was found
to be of bad character; how she roused the fury of the devil
at Risaberga and saw him in the form of an angry bull which
tossed her from her bed on to the ground.30
Her sister Ingeborg was from the outset among the
scholares, and when she was still very young, her parents gave
the monastery a farm as part of her dowry.31 In due time she
followed the path marked out for her and died a Cistercian
nun some years after her mother had left Sweden for Rome.
The birth of Bridget’s youngest child, Cecilia, very nearly

The Mother

cost her mother her life. Ulf had determined to give his eldest
daughter Merita in marriage to Sigvid Ribbing, a rich and
influential Dane. It would be a brilliant match, but Bridget
knew that Sigvid was a bad man and, moreover, hard and
cruel. The chronicle of Margaret Clausdotter, already
quoted, says: “This was done against the will of St. Brita
because the King and nobles willed it.’’
By this time both Bridget and Ulf were, off and on, mem­
bers of the King’s household, and no doubt Bridget’s quiet
influence over her husband was less felt than at home. Ulf
was a man of importance in the realm: it was for him to listen
to the advice of the King and nobles who urged the match.
Merita sided with her father in the matter, and the betrothal
ceremony was accordingly arranged. Abbess Clausdotter thus
describes the event:
“On the day that the betrothal ale was drunk, she [Bridget]
wept her heart out and refused to enter the house where the
feast was being held, where the great men were gathered
together making merry as on such occasions they are wont.
And while St. Bridget sat alone and wept that her daughter
should come into the power of so cruel a man, being with
child of her who was called Cecilia, the babe in its mother’s
womb spoke, saying: ‘Mother, do not kill me.’ St. Bridget
answered: ‘My dear child, because God has given you your
soul I will not kill you.’ Thereupon she arrayed herself in her
richest attire and went in and gladdened them all.”
As the betrothal was such a serious affair, involving the
approval of relatives on both sides, the indignity offered by
Ulf to his wife in not obtaining her consent was great.
Bridget must certainly have felt this, but it was for no per­
sonal grievance that she sat apart and wept; it was the heart­
break of knowing that her child was being given into the
power of one who, if he did not make her offend God, would
at least bring her sorrow and shame.
Two touches in the old account just quoted let us see the
generosity of Bridget’s self-conquest. Having realized that it

22

St. Bridget in Sweden

was right for the sake of her unborn child to put away her
grief and go to the feast, she did so graciously, by wearing
splendid attire and with a manner that gladdened her guests.
But the strain on her nerves was so great that very soon
she was in grave danger of dying in childbirth. In the Bull
of her Canonization we read: "She ever had a great devotion
to the Virgin Mary, and when the midwives and nurses stood
around her, despairing of her life, a woman, unknown to
the onlookers, majestic and clad in white silken garments,
carne into the room, and standing by the bed, touched each
limb of the sufferer. Then the strangci disappeared, and
forthwith the birth of the child followed without further
pain.’’
The early Life of St. Bridget adds that later she had a
vision of the Virgin Mother who told her it was indeed she
who carne to help her, adding these words: "So you would be
ungrateful if you did not love me. Do your utmost to see that
your children are also mine.”32

CHAPTER

IV

The Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting
When Bridget was about thirty-two, she left her home
temporarily to take up an important post at Court.
Magnus 11, King of Sweden and Norway, was expecting
the arrival of his bride, Blanche, a daughter of Count John
of Flanders, and had asked Bridget to be her chief Lady-inwaiting. His choice of her was natural enough. She was a
relative, belonging to the same race of the Folkungs, she
was.greatly looked up to by all, had daughters of her own,
and would be a help to the new young Queen, who was little
more than a child and coming to a strange country.
Bridget accepted the invitation as a command, and in the
autumn of 1335 was at Bohus castle on the borders of Sweden
and Norway, ready to receive the royal bride and be present
at the wedding.
It was in the early years of her married life that Bridget
had seen Magnus, as a child of three, held up in her father’s
arms to receive the homage of his subjects. It was hoped that
his reign would be the beginning of better things, for there
had been much unrest, ending in revolution. The king who
was reigning at the time of Bridget’s birth was an unworthy
member of his race, weak and cunning. His two brothers, the
Dukes Eric and Valdemar, were always plotting against him
and finally got rid of him by a treacherous ruse. They invited
him to a banquet during which they had him and his family
seized and imprisoned. They then jointly ruled Sweden.
Later, the captive was released — and retaliated. He had his
brothers taken prisoner in much the same way, and in prison
23

■1
Î
h
i!
H

24

St. Bridget

tn

Sweden

they both died — it was commonly believed by a violent
death. Popular sympathy seems always to have been with the
dukes, and their disappearance was the signal for a general
rising. The King tried in vain to quell it and finally fled to
Denmark, and as his son had been put to death, Sweden was
left without a ruler. It was probably by the advice of the
Governor of Upland, Bridget’s father, that the young son of
Duke Eric was elected king.
The mother of Magnus II, a daughter of the King of
Norway, was no help to her son. She was flighty and head­
strong, and stringent laws had to be passed both in Norway
and Sweden to prevent her from interfering in affairs of State.
Perhaps it was because of this that Bridget made the young
King such a special object of her prayers. He was to prove
one of her bitterest disappointments.
When he first assumed the government of his two king­
doms he seemed to have high ideals, revived good laws which
had fallen into disuse, and went about among his people with
whom he was popular because of his easy, affable manners.
There was at this time no Swedish capital, though Stockholm
was the most important town. The King himself was con­
sidered the centre of administration and had estates all over
the land. So Bridget, as Lady-in-waiting to the Queen, must
move from place to place and be now in Norway, now in
Sweden.
Queen Blanche had come from a land of wealth. In Flan­
ders everyone was prosperous; the houses were magnificent,
the food luxurious, the dress splendid. No good preparation
for a kingdom whose Royal Exchequer was in a bad condi­
tion. The newcomer had no wish to know anything about the
affairs that were already worrying Magnus. She was young,
she was a queen; why think about expense? Linder her in­
fluence, Magnus gladly put aside unpleasant thoughts for the
time, and ordered elaborate preparations to be made for the
coronation of himself and his queen the year following the
marriage.

The Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting

25

History has painted Magnus and Blanche in very dark
colours, at least towards the end of their reign, following
reports spread by the Swedish nobles who became the King’s
bitter enemies. Nobles versus King: it had nearly always been
so, and it would have needed a firmer and abler hand than
Magnus ever possessed to keep the turbulent lords in their
place.
I am reminded here of an old tale of a predecessor of
King Magnus, told in a Norwegian chronicle.
Eric, King of Sweden, had subdued Vermland — then a
part of Norway —and, bent on continuing his conquests in
the realm of King Harald, visited a powerful landowner,
named Âke. King Harald likewise arrived, and the host, see­
ing it would be dangerous for the royal combatants to meet,
decided to entertain them in different houses. Eric was lodged
in an old house filled with old furniture, but Harald in a
new one fitted up with new plenishings. Eric came to know
this and expressed his annoyance.
“Sire,” replied Âke soothingly, “Your Majesty is of vener­
able age and it is fitting that you should be entertained in a
venerable house with furniture suited to its years, whereas
King Harald is a stripling and so is in a house but lately
built.”
Eric was dissatisfied with the explanation and killed Âke
forthwith.
There seems little likelihood that Magnus committed the
particularly odious and cold-blooded crime laid to his charge
— namely the murder by poison of his son Eric,33 yet it is
undoubted that the generally severe judgement of later gen­
erations on him as a ruler are based on St. Bridget’s writings.
Her condemnation of him is uncompromising. His contem­
poraries saw in him merely a weak and ineffective sovereign,
and as his financial difficulties became ever more acute, an
oppressive one also, for his Swedish people were ground down
by taxation. Bridget, too, saw this, but to her the King was

26

St. Bridget in Sweden

one to whom God had given a great trust and with it the
power to be faithful if he would, and who yet by his folly
and above all by his disobedience to the heavenly warnings
and commands sent him, was in large measure responsible
for the troubles which marked his reign and brought at last
ruin on his kingdom. Many a time, as the years went on, was
she to plead with him by word and by letter, showing him
how greatly beloved he was of God and what he might do if
only he would hearken and break loose from bad counsellors
and crafty allies whom she names the wolf and the fox. One
of the only two scraps of Bridget’s actual handwriting still
extant contains a warning to Magnus sent from Rome some
twenty-five years later than her first sojourn at Court.
The eighth book of St. Bridget’s Revelations bears the
title “The Heavenly Emperor to the Kings.” It is a collection
made by Alfonso da Vadaterra, editor of the Saint’s writings,
of words spoken or sent to various rulers at various times. A
number of the admonitions are addressed to King Magnus II
and of these some definitely belong to the quite early years of
his reign.34 He is exhorted so to rule and to judge that he
may be both feared and honoured by his subjects, to be
merciful as well as just. He is to wear kingly attire on the
great feasts of the Church, but is to be humble, remembering
the grave responsibility of his office.
It is easy to dismiss without further thought, as counsel
given to an irresponsible young man in the Middle Ages,
these directions as to what may be called kingly pomp, espe­
cially as they include the wearing of his crown. There are
those to-day who regard the time-honoured ceremonial of a
court as something not merely tiresome but outworn, and
who would, or think they would, gladly see it swept away.
Yet perhaps our own age, with its impatience, independence,
and loss of reverence, has need like Magnus of just such out­
ward signs of kingship, as a reminder whence earthly sover­
eignty derives; outward signs which suggest — albeit so feebly
— something of the majesty of the heavenly Emperor. As for

The Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting

27

the sovereigns themselves, it is those who understand the sig­
nificance of the dignity belonging to their high office who
best know just when and how to unbend, and show themselves with simplicity and gladness akin to those over whom
they have been called to rule.
This last aspect of kingship was not omitted in the directions given to the young king of Sweden. He is charged to
know how to be simple and friendly. He ought not to dine
alone, but choose as his table companions those whose counsei will be of value to him. After the meal, he is to linger
awhile with his guests and let the talk be informal and pleasant. This will recreate him and also give him an opportunity
of getting to know the thoughts and outlook of his subjects.
He must avoid flippant and shallow talk and fly all flattery.
Sweden’s history would have been different had Magnus
always followed the advice given him. Sometimes it was welcorned, but more often spurned. It seems evident that both
the King and Queen were at times awed by their relative. It
is in fact the only explanation of their tolerance of her admonitions. Magnus probably had, like his ancestors before
him, an innate sense of reverence for a woman who claimed
to speak words not of her own wisdom but given her from
heaven. In pagan times, we are told, the opinion of the Vala
or prophetess had more weight than that of a whole Ting or
Parliament. The King saw, too, in Bridget one of his own
mighty race and realized that her character was a far stronger
one than his own. So the two young sovereigns would have
fits of great piety, when they listened humbly to the advice
given them, and once went so far as to make rash vows on
their own responsibility from which they had later to be
dispensed. Then they would relapse and return to a view
of life which was less uncomfortable.
Bridget was Lady-in-waiting for six years, though with occasional breaks, for she went on various pilgrimages with her
husband, and during these years too, her youngest child was
born. Possibly Queen Blanche was glad at times to be without

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St. Bridget in Sweden

one whose presence made her conscious of things she would
rather forget. Two sons were born to the Queen, and after
the birth of the second prince, Bridget resigned her post. The
years at Court had been for herself a useful experience, but as
regards her influence with the King and Queen, they were
frankly a failure, since no lasting impression for good had
been made on those she had been so eager to help.35

CHAPTER

V

The Widow
In the earliest Life of St. Bridget, as proof of the great

piety of her forbears, the many pilgrimages they made to the
shrines of the saints are cited. “It is an unheard of thing,”
exclaim the two authors of this chronicle, “that men so
mighty and so noble, with so great riches and renown, should
set out from the remote ends of the world and make such
a laborious journey to see the shrine of St. James and
Jerusalem.”36
Probably nowadays we should think it denoted greater
piety in a poor man than in a rich one to undertake a long
pilgrimage, but in the Middle Ages it was just the reverse.
The “noble and mighty man” must exchange his rich furs
and velvet for the pilgrim’s smock, with hood, cape, and
broad-brimmed hat. Instead of having a company of servants
to go before him, prepare his meals and arrange for his lodg­
ing, he must carry food and money in a wallet hung from the
broad strap across his breast, and for many hours a day he
must walk, often over rough roads and passes, until footsore
and weary.
Each country had its national places of pilgrimage, and
then there were the universally famous shrines, visited by
pilgrims from all lands. Such were Jerusalem, Rome, and
Compostela. For each of these three the pilgrim had his spe­
cial passport in the shape of a sign which protected him from
assault and even enabled him to pass through an enemy’s
ranks. If he wore the two crossed palms, he was known to be
on his way to Jerusalem; if the crossed keys or the vernicle
29

®eaæ

30

St. Bridget in Sweden

(St. Veronica’s veil), he was bound for Rome, and the scallop
shell was the sign for the shrine of St. James at Compostela.
Bridget and her husband took their full share in what was
such a distinctive feature of their time.
They visited Nidaros in Norway to venerate the relics of
St. Olaf, King and Martyr, and were absent for thirty days,
probably the prescribed time for the pilgrimage.37
Very likely they were there on July 29, the Feast of St.
Olaf, for on this day there was yearly a great gathering of
pilgrims. Il was, to quote an old chronicle, a day of reunion
for “all the nations of the northern seas, Norwegians, Swedes,
Goths, Cumbrians, Danes, and Slavs.’’38
They set off on foot, tramping through dense pine forests,
deep-cut valleys, and finally over the Dovrefjeld, a range of
bare mountains. Pack horses carried necessaries for the jour­
ney, but Bridget and her husband would make no other use
of them.39
All the various Swedish shrines were visited by Bridget at
one time or another. One of these was the tomb of St. Botvid,
a Swedish martyr. No doubt a vision she records belongs to
this time. She was praying, when she fell into an ecstasy, and
the Saint appeared to her.
“1, together with other saints,’’ he said to her, “have mer­
ited for you a special grace to see, hear, feel and see things
spiritual, and the Spirit of God will inflame your soul.’’40
This was Bridget’s preparation for the great spiritual
favours to be poured out on her in such abundance four years
later; a reminder that graces are often due to the holy prayers
and sufferings of others, maybe wholly unknown, rather than
a recognition of any special sanctity in the recipient.
It was in 1341 that Ulf and Bridget made a vow to visit the
shrine of St. James at Compostela.
Bridget had definitely resigned her post at Court, and Ulf
had at least for the time retired from his public duties. In
that age of faith it would not seem at all surprising or ridicu­
lous even to the worldly-minded, that the chief Lady-in-wait-

The Widow

31

ing and her husband, one of the King’s trusted councillors,
should put on the garb of pilgrims and set off to gain the
graces attached to so holy a project.
The crowds that flocked to Compostela at this time were
immense.
“Kings, queens, lords and ladies,” says a writer on this
subject,41 “pious men who trudged there barefoot in their
shirts; knights and common folk, pilgrims who were not pil­
grims but men disguised, pedlars with silk and furs and cloth;
monks on their way to Rome to the great abbeys; eminent
clerics moving on diplomatic affairs of kings; merchants and
criminals; all were on the road. Some went for piety alone,
some for worldly profit, like the Slavonians, who after three
such journeys could live exempt from taxes; while others
were condemned to perpetual pilgrimages because of their
crimes."
Of Bridget and her husband at this time we read: “They
lived a number of years in absolute continency. And under
great difficulties, with much expense and with the most
ardent devotion they both made the pilgrimage to St. James
in Galicia.”42
Special acts of mortification beyond those entailed by the
hardships of the journey were always considered part of such
a pilgrimage. Ulf, appearing to his wife shortly after his
death, tells her that during this pilgrimage he made expiation
for his former bad habit of sitting too long at table, eating
and talking too much, by never drinking except at meals.48
A large number of their fellow countrymen accompanied
Ulf and Bridget on their pilgrimage; priests and layfolk, men
and women. They visited Cologne to venerate the relics of
the Magi in their jewelled shrine in the cathedral, and from
there went on to Aix-la-Chapelle, where they would meet
countless swarms of pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Hun­
gary, England, and other countries.
It was a disturbed world through which the travellers
passed. Civil war, revolts, hostility of one kind or another

32

St. Bridget in Sweden

raged in Germany, France, and Flanders. The pilgrims, pro­
tected by their dress and welcomed as possible bearers of
tidings, received hospitality in monasteries and hostels, and
with Compostela as their goal, visited all the famous shrines
en route. Among these, as we know from the Process and
other sources, were the tombs of St. Mary Magdalen near Aix,
and of her sister Martha at Tarascon.J l
Did Bridget visit Avignon? Avignon had been the papal
residence for some thirty-five years — ever since the French
Pope Clement V had been crowned in France and had re­
fused to face the political troubles in Italy in which residence
in Rome would involve him. Since Avignon is only thirteen
miles from Tarascon and on the direct way to Compostela, it
is quite probable that a halt was made there by the pilgrims
from Sweden. It is highly improbable, however, that Bridget
had any personal dealings with the Pope. It is certain she
would be little at ease in the worldly atmosphere which for
the most part pervaded the papal palace, and she was more
likely to shun an audience than seek one. However, several
references in her revelations to the war going on between
France and England seem to show that on the way to Spain
she heard something about. French politics.45
In the cathedral at Compostela is still preserved a codex in
Latin with the title De miraculis Sancti Jacobi. It is the work
of Pope Callistus II, who, as Bishop of Vienne, made the pil­
grimage to Compostela and afterwards wrote what we should
call a guidebook for the benefit of pilgrims. The principal
roads leading from France to Compostela and other Spanish
places of pilgrimage are described, also the inns, hostels, and
monasteries to be found on the way. The rivers and moun­
tains to be crossed are noted. The shrine itself is described
and the concourse of pilgrims of different nationalities, who
apparently used to bring with them their national musical
instruments and sing their special hymns in honour of the
Apostle. “There does not exist,” says the author, “a language
or dialect that is not heard in the cathedral.”4®

The Widow

33

Among those who took part in this pilgrimage was a Cis­
tercian monk named Svenung. While at Compostela, there
came to him one of those strange indications of Bridget’s
coming mission which run like some refrain through the his­
tory of these earlier years of her life. He saw in vision, as he
afterwards told, the Lady Bridget crowned with seven dia­
dems, and he watched the sun first darken and then become
quite black. What could it mean? he asked himself. Then he
heard a voice which said: “The darkened sun signifies the
prince of your country, who once shone as the sun but will
be utterly despised and the object of men’s scorn. And the
woman whom you see will have the sevenfold grace of God,
as signified by the seven diadems. This shall be a sign to you:
you will recover from your malady, you will return home
and be promoted to higher rank.”
Dom Svenung had been so seriously ill during the journey
that it had seemed as if he must end his life in Spain. After
the vision he recovered and on his return to Sweden was
made Abbot of Varnhem, a daughter house of Alvastra.74
On the way home from Spain, it was Ulf’s turn to become
dangerously ill and it was now Bridget who had a vision and
consoling assurance of recovery.
They had reached Arras, and Bridget was praying for her
husband in great anxiety when St. Denis appeared to her.
“I am Denis,” she heard, “who in my lifetime came from
Rome to France to preach the word of God. You honour me
with a special devotion, and so I declare to you that God
will make Himself known to the world through you, and you
are given into my particular charge and care. I will help you
always, and I give you this sign: your husband shall not die
of this illness.”
Some days later she had another vision which she after­
wards told her confessor. It was mysterious, for she saw in
spirit places she would one day visit, and the time and man­
ner of her death were shown her.48
Ulf recovered, and the miraculous cure and all the other

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84

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St. Bridget in Sweden

graces of the pilgrimage made a deep impression on both
husband and wife, with the result that they agreed each to
make a vow to enter a religious house in order to give them­
selves wholly to a life of prayer. So we read in the Bull of St.
B ri dge t ’ s Ca n on i za ti ο n.
As Ulf died the following year in the monastery at Alvastra,
it is commonly assumed that it was here he intended to fulfil
his vow. This is, however, contradicted by a statement made
by his daughter Katherine many years later, which is found
in the· Process of St. Bridget’s Canonization. It is as follows:
“Both [husband and wife] made a vow to enter religion,
and thus purposing, the said husband, father of the . . . wit­
ness then speaking, died, and so death coining upon him
before he could complete the building of his monastery, he
was unable to fulfil the aforesaid vow.”49
Although he recovered from the illness which threatened
his life in France, his health gave way again after his return
home, and feeling he had not long to live, he may have gone
to Alvastra with the thought that if he could not fulfil his
vow fully as he had hoped, he might do what was next best,
by retiring from the world in order to die in a religious house.
It was in February of the following year, 1344, that he
knew his end was near. He sent for his wife, took an affec­
tionate farewell of her and gave her a ring to wear in remem­
brance of him, begging her to pray for his soul.50 His holiness
during the few months he lived at Alvastra made so deep an
impression on the brethren there that after his death he was
commonly known as “Blessed Ulf.”
The past months, ending with her husband’s death had,
as Bridget knew, deepened her life of prayer and detachment.
She thought of the pilgrimage as a time of grace and spiritual
strengthening, a preparation for the life she hoped to lead in
the cloister. But it had besides other effects on her life of
which she was probably less aware. Torvald Hdjer in his
work on St. Bridget and her Order has summed these up in
the following words:

The Widow

35

“The pilgrimage to Compostela was of the greatest impor­
tance for her mental development and for the widening of
her spiritual horizon. By it she came into touch with all the
great questions which occupied the contemporary mind in
the principal countries of culture; the conflict between
France and England, the bitter complaints which from every
quarter were levied against the papal court of Avignon on
account of its great moral corruption. Her already acute po­
litical interests were carried from the small affairs of her
native land to the weightiest problems of European and
Church politics.”51

The Bride of Christ

CHAPTER

VI

The Bride of Christ
A few days after Ulf’s death, Bridget looked at the ring he
had put on her finger when he was dying, and taking it off,
she wore it no more. Her friends, who had heard of the be­
quest, were shocked. Who would have thought that one who
had always seemed a devoted wife could be so heartless? they
asked each other. Some of them even took it upon themselves
to go to Ulf’s widow and expostulate. It was surely no great
sign of affection for her husband, they said, to take from her
finger this token of his love.
Bridget showed no resentment at their interference.
“When I buried my husband,” she replied, “I buried with
him all earthly love. Though I loved him as my own heart,
not for anything would I bring him back to life against the
will of God, and while I had his ring on my finger it was like
a weight, because to look at it reminded me of that first
love. I wish to detach myself both from the ring and from
my husband and give myself to God, centring my love on
Him alone.”52
Ulf and Bridget alike had vowed themselves to the undi­
vided service of God and to a life of prayer. Ulf’s sacrifice had
been accepted, even if not just in the way he had expected,
and had been quickly crowned by a holy death. But what lay
before Bridget? Was she to enter one of the neighbouring
monasteries? While she thought about this there must have
come to her mind various mysterious hints she had had re­
garding the future. There was the strange journey her spirit
had taken when in France: an angel had seemed to take her
36

37

now here, now there, to places she would one day visit; he had
even showed her something of her last hours on earth. There
was the prophecy of St. Denis that God would make Himself
known to the world through her. What did it all mean? How
could such things happen if she were a nun enclosed in some
monastery?
She was praying one day in her oratory and begging for
guidance, when suddenly earth dropped away. She was rapt
in ecstasy, as she had sometimes been before, as she would so
often be in the future. A bright cloud seemed to envelop her
and from it came a voice:
“Woman, hear me.”
Bridget, coming to herself, was terrified and fled to her
room. Was it not perhaps the evil monster of her girlhood
days transformed into an angel of light? Lest she should have
displeased God, she went to confession and received Holy
Communion, and in accordance with her confessor’s advice,
fasted and prayed.53
A few days passed and the strange experience was repeated.
Again Bridget fled, and again, after an interval of days, came
the voice, and in the cloud she seemed to see the figure of a
man who added these words:
“I am your God who chooses to speak to you” — and when
she still feared, the voice continued: “Fear not, because I am
the Creator of all things. I do not deceive, nor do I speak to
you for your own sake only, but for the salvation of others.
Hear My words and go to Mathias, your confessor, who is
skilled in the discernment of spirits. Tell him from Me what
I say to you; that you shall be My spouse and My instrument
and shall hear and see spiritual things, and My Spirit shall
be with you until your death.”
And again: “I have chosen you and taken you as My spouse
that I may show you My secrets, for such is My will. You
have become Mine by right, because when your husband died
you gave your will wholly to Me. You considered how you
could become poor for My sake and you wished to leave all

38

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

for Me. And as by right you are Mine, it is fitting that for so
great love I should provide for you in all things. I take you
for My bride, that 1 may have the delights in you that God
takes in pure souls.”54
Bridget’s confessor, Mathias, was a canon of Linkoping
cathedral. He was a Doctor of Divinity, the most eminent
Swedish theologian of the Middle Ages, and the author of a
commentary on the Bible which became famous. Besides
being learned in the Scriptures, he knew much about mysti­
cal theology and of the extraordinary dealings of God with
certain souls. He knew the story of Bridget’s early visions, of
the various spiritual favours which had marked the different
periods of her life so far. He had watched the growth of her
soul during the years spent at Ulfâsa and had guided her
along the path of high perfection which he recognized tvas
her vocation. Not one of her rigorous penances had been
undertaken without his sanction. What she now told him
surprised him far less than it did her. Yet in what way God
meant to make use of this chosen soul as His instrument
neither he nor anyone could say.
Meanwhile there were obvious duties to attend to. Ulf had
done what he could to leave his affairs in order, but both he
and Bridget had many possessions and large fortunes. The
carrying out of her husband’s wishes took her probably some­
thing like a year, spent, no doubt, at Ulfâsa, now the home of
her eldest son, who had succeeded his father as Governor of
Nârke. Then, taking two servants with her, Bridget left her
home, established herself in a house adjoining the monastery
of Alvastra, and began a life of penance and prayer.
Pope Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization thus de­
scribes her bodily mortification: “After the death of her hus­
band she wore, in honour of the Holy Trinity, round her
body, next her skin, a hempen cord tightly bound and with
many knots, and below each knee a similarly knotted cord,
even in time of illness. She wore no linen except on her head
[this would be her widow’s veil], rough clothing next her

The Bride

of

Christ

39

skin, and outer garments which were poor and mean and not
in accordance with her social rank. She kept not only the
vigils and fasts ordained by Holy Mother Church, but added
many more. Until a few years before her happy death she
rested her wearied body only for a few hours of light sleep,
lying clothed on the ground or on a sack of straw. Every Fri­
day, in remembrance of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, she fasted on bread and water and dropped burning
wax from the candles on her bare hands so that they were
continually scarred. And on that day she had always in her
mouth a root of gentian which is a very bitter plant.”55
The early Life by Peter of Alvastra and Peter of Skeninge
tells us what was the motive of Bridget’s retirement to Alvas­
tra. We read: “She was told to obey Master Mathias in mat­
ters of theology, to tell him of her temptations and revela­
tions, and to live in the monastery of the monks of the
Cistercian Order called St. Mary of Alvastra, in Sweden, in
the diocese of Linkbping, it being said to her in her vision:
Ί, the God of all, who am above all Rules, permit you to live
for a time near the monastery, not to do away with the Rule
or to introduce a novelty, but rather that My wondrous work
may be seen in a place which is holy. Even so David, for the
necessity of the moment, ate the hallowed bread which at
another time would have been unlawful.’ ”56
The above quotation shows that Bridget was allowed not
merely residence near the monastery but entrance to the
cloister of the monks, as we know to have been the case from
various incidents which belong to this time. How was this
brought about?
The Abbot of Alvastra (at this time one Ragnvald5), as
superior of the oldest Cistercian monastery in Sweden, was
leader and visitor of all the other houses of the Order in the
land; but it is obvious that even so, no private revelation
would justify him in departing from the law which forbids
any woman entering the monastic cloister under pain of ex­
communication. Evidence given by four monks of Alvastra

.
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St. Bridget in Sweden
40
some years after Bridget’s death prove that a special dispen­
sation was applied for from the Abbot of Citeaux, called the
“abbot of abbots.’’ These monks definitely stale (April 2,
1377) that Bridget lived at Alvastra for four years after her
husband’s death “by permission of the Head of the Order.’’57
Certainly Abbot Ragnvald must have been deeply im­
pressed by Bridget’s sincerity and holiness and by all that
Master Mathias could urge in support of so unheard-of a
proposal, for him to consent to apply for the necessary au­
thorization. But though it was granted, one is not surprised
to learn that the sight of the Lady Bridget within their sacred
enclosure was a grievous trouble to some of the community.
“The woman is mad,’’ declared Brother Paul, and his opin­
ion was shared by others.
The remark was repeated to the intruder.
“God bless Brother Paul,” smiled Bridget. “He well knows
me and my sinfulness. He spoke truth when he said I was
mad, for until now I have indeed been so in that I have loved
the world more than God. But now that I only want to love
and please God, I hope to be of sound mind. Beg that brother
to pray for me.”
Bridget did not find her new life easy. In spite of every­
thing her thoughts would go back to the past, to the riches
and honours she had given up. Then she would remember
the words of a revelation: “If you will despise all for Me, I
will give you a reward most precious and most sweet. Not
gold or silver but Myself as your spouse and your reward, I
who am the King of Glory. If you are ashamed at being poor
and despised, think that your God has trod that way before
you. What would you deserve if you had offended an earthly
master as you have offended Me? . . . Embrace willingly a
little labour to purify your soul and arrive more speedily at
your great reward. The bride should be willing to be wearied
in company with her bridegroom that she may the more
surely rest with Him.”58
Then would come a more dangerous temptation. Was not

The Bride of Christ

4»

God showing her a very special love? One day, she turned on
the devil, crying: “Oh cursed devil! You fell because of your
pride, and shall I give way to pride, since the queen is made
of no nobler stuff than her maiden but both are alike dust?
Why don’t I humble myself? For I cannot have the slightest
thought that is good unless God sends it.” Then, says Bridget,
Christ appeared to her and said: “Humility is like a ladder
that rises from earth to the heart of God.”59
Excavations made at Alvastra in 1922 revealed the remains
of a stately stone house of two stories, dating from about
1300. It was here no doubt that Bridget and her two servants
lived. This is the description of her daily round, given by an
intimate friend. “She served God in coarse raiment, went
every day to confession, and if she spoke any unbecoming
word to man or maidservant at once acknowledged it. At night
she rose many times to pray, got up at cockcrow and went
to the church until Prime had been sung. Then, constrained
by the cold, she would go to a room with a fireplace and
there read the psalter. Afterwards she returned to the church
to pray and hear the canonical Hours until dinner time.
When she had dined she prayed for some time and then did
embroidery work for altars or vestments. Never was she with­
out employment. At Vesper-time she returned to the church
until her supper; after supper despatched business with her
attendants, read Compline and then kept silence until the
hour of Prime next day. She was so perfect in patience that
she was never disturbed by any hard words or injuries done
to her, but bore all with a smiling face.”60
She took temporal losses with the same serenity. One day
a man arrived at Alvastra to tell her there had been a serious
fire in a house belonging to her and that she had suffered
severe losses.
“God be praised!” was her very unexpected reception of the
news. “He has rewarded me as I deserved. I have abused His
gifts, never been grateful enough for them nor prayed ear­
nestly enough for the souls of the former possessors.” Then

MPS-

42

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

she added: “It’s a grief to me to think of these worldly pos­
sessions, for my whole thought and desire is to be poor, and
if it were God’s will, I would like to be a beggar for love of
Him. A day must come when I must in any case leave all
temporal goods, so it is a great thing to give them up while
they still give me satisfaction.’’61
Naturally enough Bridget was criticised for her strange
choice of a home and her manner of life by others besides the
Alvastra monks. Those of her own rank who had seen her in
her high position at Court not only thought her behaviour
absurd but openly told her so.
“I didn’t begin this way of life to please you,’’ she replied
with the utmost serenity, “and neither will I give it up to
please you. When I began it I resolved to bear blame from
others. Pray that I may be able to persevere.’’62
The stern régime had gone on for something like a year
when even Bridget’s strong constitution rebelled, and she
became seriously ill. The doctors pronounced her illness in­
curable unless she underwent a special treatment of baths. It
meant leaving her retreat for a time and returning to a life
of comparative ease and luxury such as she hoped she had
renounced forever, and it seemed to her it would be breaking
a solemn resolution to give her consent. Someone told Master
Mathias the state of affairs, and he came post-haste to Alvas­
tra, and knowing just how much it would cost her to give up
her penitential life even for a time, said with emphasis:
“I command you in the name of holy obedience to obey
the advice of the doctors, because it will be for your good and
therefore for the good of others also.’’
He found, however, that Bridget’s mortification of will
was as perfect as that of her body, for she replied simply:
“Oh, Father, if you had only said one word, I should have
done what you wished: how much more when you command
me in virtue of holy obedience! For it is my greatest joy that

The Bride of Christ

43

for the sake of obedience to do whatever is hardest, and even
to die if need be.”63
Master Mathias had tested his penitent’s obedience: he
soon began to test her in another way and one which was
infinitely more trying to her humility than would have been
the sternest rebuke. He openly praised her in the pulpit for
her holiness of life, which he exhorted his hearers to imitate.
Her revelations had by now become frequent and, as the
next chapter will tell, she had for the time left Alvastra and
was being seen and talked about by others.
She was actually present in church when Master Mathias
preached his laudatory sermon. Overcome with misery and
confusion, she went to him afterwards and said imploringly:
“Father, I beg of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, never to
speak of me again in your sermons! What am I but as a little
ant in the sight of God? And if some great lord sends his
humble runner to his friends, what notice is taken of any but
the sender? So if God gives me visions and divine revelations
for princes or prelates or any others, praise must be given
not to me but to God alone.”
However, the only answer she received was: “Don’t be surprised, my daughter, because men and women who set a good
example have to be praised for the help of others.”
“My barque is in the midst of the waves and I need
prayers,” said Bridget. “We see the beginning of things, but
it is the end that counts.”04
During these years two priests came into Bridget’s life who
gave her invaluable help and loyal friendship. It is to their
collaboration that we owe the earliest of the many Lives
of the Saint, a work already often mentioned. The fact that
both priests bore the name of Peter Olafsson, that both acted
as confessor to St. Bridget and both translated her revelations
into Latin, has caused a natural confusion between them. Yet
in the Process they stand out perfectly distinct from one
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44

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

who, after Bridget’s death, joined her Order; the other, Prior
Peter of Alvastra, lived and died a Cistercian monk. In his
deposition, he often speaks of his fellow-priest in Rome and
calls him Bridget’s confessor. We shall meet Master Peter
somewhat later, when Bridget is about to set out for Rome,
but her friendship with Prior Peter — at this time Sub-Prior
of Alvastra — began during her residence there.
Prior Peter hirnself tells the story of the beginning of his
work for her. One day she begged the Sub-Prior to come to
her and told him that she understood it was Christ’s will that
she should tell him of her many visions and revelations that
he might write them down and so enable them to be of use
to others.
Peter received the message with respect but hardly knew
what to think of the request. It was not exactly that he
doubted Bridget’s mission, but he was very much inclined to
doubt his own part in the affair. He prayed earnestly for
light that evening in the church and had just decided that if
the revelations -were divine he was quite unworthy to record
them and that there was also great danger of his falling into
some snare of the devil, when suddenly he felt a violent blow
on his cheek, so violent that he fell to the ground. There he
lay unable to move, until he was found by some monks and
carried to his cell where he remained as if dead. Suddenly
a thought came to him: “Perhaps I am like this because I
refused to obey that revelation and command given by Christ
through the Lady Bridget.” Then from his heart he said:
“Oh Lord God, if it be this, spare me, for I am ready to obey
and write all the words she will say to me from Thee.” And
immediately he was cured, hastened to Bridget and offered
himself to write whatever she should dictate to him.65
He found that Bridget seemed already aware of what had
been happening. She told him he must take the greatest pains
over the work, in which he would have the help of a Master
of Theology. By these revelations, she had been assured, the
proud would be humbled and the worldly-wise put to silence.

IB

The Bride

of

Christ

The Master of Theology was, of course, Master Mathias, who
was Bridget’s support all through, and whose long Prologue
in defence of the heavenly origin of her visions prefaces all
the printed editions of her writings.66
The consent given by Peter Olafsson to become translator
and secretary meant a complete change in his life. For the
next thirty years he was to be engaged on this exacting work,
and, with only occasional breaks, was with Bridget until her
death.
Again one cannot help being struck by the extraordinary
impression her holinesss made on the Abbot of Alvastra that
he thus consented to give up one of his monks (whom just
about this time he had appointed Prior), that he might devote himself to making her revelations known. Abbot Ragnvald’s successors, the Abbots Daniel and John, both of whom
ruled the monastery during Bridget’s lifetime, showed equal
magnanimity.

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The New Vineyard
It seems to have been early in the year 1346OT that Bridget
again went to the court of King Magnus. Like another John
the Baptist she had left her desert, and, clad in her rough
woollen garment, had come to exhort king and nobles to do
penance if they would avoid the judgements of God prepared
for the careless and sinful.
Nothing but a command she felt bound to obey would
have drawn Bridget from her retreat at Alvastra to go into
an atmosphere even more distasteful to her than it had been
when she was Lady-in-waiting to the Queen. But Christ Him­
self had bidden her, she said, to go to the King, Queen, and
nobles and deliver to them His warning. She had pleaded
that she would not know what to say. The reply had come in
the words of the psalm: “Open thy mouth and I will fill it.”
So she obeyed, and “at once,” says Prior Peter, “divine and
marvellous words were infused into her, not only concerning
the reformation of the King and the realm, but concerning
things of the future.”68
St. Bridget’s life as an apostle and a prophet now begins.
The strong, burning words found in the revelations delivered
to Magnus and others suggest someone totally different from
the woman, strong indeed, but gentle and humble, whom her
children and friends knew and loved. She speaks, not in her
own character, but as one burdened with a message from God
which must be delivered at all costs, and it is certain that to
her the cost was great.
The message Bridget brought was primarily to the King,

The New Vineyarb

47

who was oppressing his people with taxes, letting his respon­
sibilities sit lightly on him, and swaying this way and that as
he came first under one influence and then under another.
The King received his relative graciously and seems at once
to have fallen under the spell of a personality so much more
forceful than his own.
St. Bridget’s Danish biographer, Hammerich, attributes to
her influence — and surely with reason — a proclamation
which Magnus issued at this time, since it is a frank confes­
sion of the injury done to his subjects by overtaxation and
even a humble plea for forgiveness with promise of
amendment.
“It is the duty of a king,” it runs, “to think of his subjects’
best advancement, that they may have peace and enjoy their
belongings undisturbed. We have, therefore, compassion with
you over the sufferings and burdens you have had to endure.
We cannot remember them without bitterness of heart.”
And so on, in the same strain.
This was Magnus at his best. One can imagine that after
this promise and act of contrition had been wrung from him
there was reaction, and that for a time at least a feeling of
intense irritation against his monitor took possession of him
with a dread of what more this impelling personality might
require of him. It had always been so: awe and irritation had
alternated. When Bridget was not present, Magnus was apt
to indulge in sarcasm at her expense. Meeting Birger,
Bridget’s second son, and apparently at this time one of the
courtiers, the King would say with a sneer: “Well, what did
our cousin your mother dream about us last night?” Birger,
of course, must not answer back but would redden and wince.
He was a devoted son and felt keenly the slight offered his
mother. He felt, too, the personal humiliation, and many
years later recalled these taunts, how he had hung his head
abashed, wishing, one can imagine, that Bridget did not feel
called to follow so strange a path and bring derision on her
and on her children.

i
i
i‘

48

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

The King’s two small sons watched the strange visitor who
went with them from place to place, and they listened to the
comments of their elders. Imitating then father’s mocking
tone, they would accost Bridget with such questions as: “Will
it rain to-day, Cousin, or be fine?’’ Or, “Are your sons going
to be kings and take our thrones?’’ Bridget looked at Eric,
the elder son, whom Magnus had proclaimed King-elect of
Sweden to compensate him for his younger brother being
already King of Norway, and said: “If you do not correct
your faults you will not be king, nor will you live long and
see your posterity. Your mother will have no joy in you and
you will soon be forgotten. So, humble yourself before God
that you may find mercy.’’ Bridget’s words were remembered
later when her prophecy had been fulfilled to the letter.0·’
It would seem to have been when the King and his house­
hold were in Norway, and Bridget with them, that she felt
the call to found a religious order, for in the Preface to her
Rule, written by Alfonso the Olivetan hermit who edited her
writings after her death, these words occur: “In the realm of
Norway which among those of kings is the uttermost north­
ern ... it happened to the Lady Bridget when applying her­
self fervently to prayer, that she saw in a vision a man and
woman of surpassing beauty.”70
Either Alfonso or Bridget herself, speaking in the third
person, goes on to say that a voice was heard saying: “These
two whom you see are Jesus Christ and His Mother Mary as
they appeared on earth, but what their bodies are now in
heaven it is impossible for you to know or see.” The writer
adds: “After this Jesus Christ began at once to speak.”
A parable follows concerning a vineyard belonging to a
mighty king, which was filled with fruitful vines. But an
enemy came and sowed bad seed and ruined the vineyard so
that it was only with difficulty the owner could find any
grapes. Thereupon he resolved to plant a new vineyard,
hedge it carefully, look after it diligently, and so in time it
would yield abundant fruit.

The New VineyarC

4g

Next comes the explanation. What are the spoilt vineyards
but the religious orders founded by holy men, which once
yielded abundant fruit; which refreshed those who were
athirst, humbled the proud and enlightened the ignorant,
but now lie almost waste? Therefore, God will plant a new
vineyard, will set those to guard it who will not slumber, and
will hedge it round with divine charity. Bridget herself is to
be the vine of the new vineyard, that is, the foundress of a
new and most holy religious order, from which shall spring
fruitful branches.
Finally come these words: “You therefore must be strong
and stable, lest the devil deceive you. . . . Stand firm and love
Me with your whole heart. Flee from pride, be clothed with
humility; guard your lips and all your members to My hon­
our. Be obedient to what I command, examine your con­
science hourly. If you fall, rise quickly. Care not for the
world’s honours or friends, for if you have Me it will sweeten
all things for you. And if you love Me perfectly, all beside Me
will seem to you bitter as poison.’’71
It has been worth while to quote at such length from this
revelation, for it sets out Bridget’s vocation as she henceforth
understood it. The thought of a new vineyard of Christ’s
own planting would nevei' leave her. She was called not only
to help in casting down the work of the devil by proclaiming
the judgements threatening evil-doers, but to the glorious
task of bearing a part in building up the city of God.
The revelation which contains the Rule to be observed
opens with these words: “This Order to the honour of My
most beloved Mother I shall have instituted chiefly by
women, and its Rule and statutes I shall by My own mouth
most fully declare.”
The Rule is based on the three usual vows of religion ex­
pressed as follows: “The beginning therefore of this religion
is true humility, pure chastity and voluntary poverty.”
The extreme strictness of the poverty is declared at the
outset; the religious must not touch gold or silver even with

50

St. Bridget

in

Sweden

the hand without leave of the Abbess. Every year reckoning
shall be made as to how much money will be needed for the
coming year and the surplus must be given to the poor ‘’if the
Abbess will flee the peril of her soul.”72 If she erects stately
or unnecessary buildings it will be reckoned as a grave sin,
as if she had despoiled the needy of food and clothing. The
monastery church shall also bear the stamp of poverty in
having only what is strictly necessary in the way of silver and
gold altar vessels and candlesticks. The treasure must consist
‘‘not in gold, silver, or gems, but in the grace of God, con­
tinual study, devout prayer and divine praise.” The reli­
gious habit is to be of humble grey homespun and it signifies
a garment of penance. A distinctive feature of the dress is the
crown which the nuns shall wear over their black veil. Of
white linen, it must have sewn on it five small circular pieces
of red cloth; one on the forehead, one at the back, two more
at the sides and the fifth on the top of the head, thus making
the crown in the form of a cross. Bridget’s devotion to the
cross and the wounds of her Saviour was to be a special mark
of her Order, and these reminders of the Passion were to be
constantly before the eyes of her nuns.
The new vineyard was to be not only a planting of nuns
but was to include monks. A double order of men and women
each with their own separate monastery and choir, but wor­
shipping God under one roof and governed in temporal
things by an abbess who would represent the Virgin Mother,
was not something entirely new. Such a monastery had been
founded as early as 1099 at Fontrevault in France, and
Bridget may have visited it on her pilgrimage.73
The monks of the new Order might only number twentyfive, while the nuns were to be received up to the number of
sixty. Thirteen of the monks must be priests and typify the
Apostles (including St. Paul); four must be deacons, though
they might be priests if they chose, and their number was a
symbol of the four great Doctors of the Church. The remain­
ing eight monks were to be lay brothers. The priests were to

21003
The New Vineyard

51

act as chaplains to the nuns, and one, chosen by the whole
community, was to be named Confessor-General, ruling the
double monastery in spiritual matters, and to whom the
monks must yield entire obedience as the nuns to the abbess.
The whole monastic family, numbering thus eighty-five,
typify, we are told, the thirteen Apostles and the seventy-two
disciples of the Gospels.
The life of both monks and nuns was to be wholly contem­
plative and the enclosure was of the strictest kind, such as is
now called papal enclosure. For nuns in the Middle Ages,
life behind the grille was the only approved and normal
one, though there was certainly relaxation sometimes, but in
the new Order even the monks were to share in the papal
enclosure, being separated from the outer world by a grating,
and might never leave their cloister except for some grave
necessity. Yet although cut off for the most part from the
sight of men, they were to preach on Sundays and feast-days
to the people who might attend the monastery church, simply
and fervently after the example of the first mendicant friars.
Finally, the Divine Office of monks and nuns was to alter­
nate; the monks singing theirs from their choir behind the
high altar, and the nuns theirs from a choir high above, and
this latter Office was to be a special one in honour of our
Lady whose Votive Mass they wTere also daily to sing.
Bridget’s joy over the new work with which she felt herself
divinely entrusted, is shown in the way she attempts to de­
scribe how the revelation came to her: “God, the Creator of
all things,” she says, “conveyed to me with His blessed lips
all the words of this Rule in such a wonderful and rapid way
that it is impossible for me adequately to describe it. . . .
Imagine many diverse gems flung suddenly and all at the
same instant out of a vase, and a beholder able at once to see
the nature of each and to handle each separately. Even so
when Jesus Christ opened His blessed lips and began to
speak, instantaneously each article of the Rule and the words
in which it. Wais' expressed were before me, not as if written,

52

The New Vineyard’

St. Bridget in Sweden

but in such a way as Me alone knows who enabled me so mar­
vellously to hear them. And I remained enraptured until by
the aid of Christ’s grace all these things were impressed on
my memory. After the vision my heart teas filled with such
fervour and bliss that it seemed impossible for more to enter
without its breaking for joy. . . . My heart remained dilated
for some days until I had related all the articles of the Rule
and the words in which they were expressed to a pious man,
a friend of God, who tvrote down all with the utmost speed.
When this was done, my heart and body returned by degrees
to their natural condition. Praise and glory be to God
Almighty. Amen.”
The ‘‘friend of God” of whom Bridget speaks was, of
course, Prior Peter. Having undertaken the onerous task of
secretary and translator to one who frequently had important,
revelations, he must have held himself in readinesss to go to
her wherever she might be.
But Peter was not the only one to whom the strange reve­
lation was shown. We are told in the introductory chapter to
the Rule that after it had been revealed to her she submitted
it ‘‘humbly, with great reverence and in the fear of God” to
the judgement of the Archbishop of Upsala and three other
bishops, to a certain ‘‘devout Master who was known to be an
eminent theologian and to a very holy abbot.” The theolo­
gian was without doubt ^faster Mathias, the abbot, we may
take for granted, was Ragnvald, Abbot of Alvastra, whose
reverence for Bridget’s spiritual gifts had led him to make
such great concessions in her favour.
But though she was filled with exultation at the time when
the revelation came to her, she feared as always some snare
of the angel of darkness. Personal humility and self-distrust
were surely needed. She was claiming nothing less than the
authority to set on foot a new religious order. And more:
with this claim was coupled the assertion that its Rule had
been dictated to her word for word,by Christ Himself.
The five whom she asked to scrutinize her revelation asso-

1

μ

I
!
:

53

ciated with them ‘‘many friends of God,” we read, and after
consulting together were of opinion that what she had sub­
mitted to them was inspired by the Holy Spirit and was a
most special grace granted to her. There remained the most
important approbation of all — that of Christ’s Vicar. The
command to seek this necessary permission and the oppor­
tunity of doing so came a year or so later.
The Norwegian historian, P. Munch, states that soon after
King Magnus went to his Norwegian residence near Oslo,
intending as it seemed to stay there some time, he suddenly
returned to Sweden with the Queen, and in the presence of
his councillors executed a will. This, Munch suggests, may
have been due to some illness which made the King fear an
early death.74 But when we find that the will in question was
in fact a generous deed of gift to Bridget’s future monastery,
assigning for its use a royal estate near Vadstena, another
explanation presents itself. It seems clear that she at once
made known her revelation to the King and Queen and that
they entered with a good deal of enthusiasm into her project.
Possibly Magnus felt that here was an opportunity of letting
charity cover a multitude of sins, since at times his short­
comings and failures seem to have weighed somewhat heavily
on his conscience.
According to another revelation belonging to this time,
St. Bridget was told that Christ, while needing no man’s help,
yet willed that the King should build a new monastery in
expiation of the sins of his country, and that his subjects
should make a yearly contribution, each according to his
means, in order to share in the good work. When, by Peter’s
advice, this was made known to the King, he ordered a trib­
ute to be levied which had the approval of the Swedish bish­
ops. This contribution came to be known as ‘Our Lady’s
Pence” and continued for many years.75
The year following his first gift, Magnus made another
will, this time in Norway, assigning a large sum of money in
current coin to the new foundation, and the work of adapting

St. Bridget in Sweden
54
the present building to its future use was begun at. Vadstena.
The royal benefactors also promised gifts of vestments, stat­
ues, relics, and books, and chose the monastery church as
their place of burial.
It is clear that at this time Bridget was high in the King’s
favour, and in consequence his former favourites became first
apprehensive and then angry as they watched their influence
lessening in proportion as hers increased. Those who had en­
couraged Magnus to spend lavishly on pleasure, naturally did
not relish his sudden piety, and those who were seeking high
posts in the kingdom had their own reasons for dismay. They
were finding that Bridget had home truths to deliver to others
besides the King, and that somehow or other she knew alto­
gether too much about them.
Since there was no getting rid of the unwelcome prophet,
and no open insult could be offered her for fear of the King’s
anger, some of the nobles found petty and vulgar ways of
venting their hatred. One poured a quantity of water over
her as she passed beneath his window. Another in a crowded
place gave her a violent push in the back which onlookers
were to suppose was accidental. Yet another, feigning to be
tipsy, called out so that all could hear: “Oh Lady, you dream
too much, you watch too much, you should drink more and
sleep more! Is it likely that God will forsake those who fear
Him for those who have such a good opinion of themselves?”7'5
These injuries and bitter words Bridget met not only with
serenity but with gladness and a smile. She was always ready
to agree with those who humbled her and to thank God for
the opportunity of suffering something for His glory. It was
no doubt acts of patience and magnanimity such as these that
called forth the pulpit eulogies of Master Mathias, to
Bridget’s infinite confusion.
The opinion of so eminent a preacher as Master Mathias
was weighty, but even his testimony could not convince Katilmund, Prior of the Dominican house at Skeninge, that all the
graces and revelations said to be received by the Lady Bridget

The New VineyariS

55

were genuine. One night, however, as he afterwards told
Prior Peter, he saw her in his dreams with fire from heaven
descending on her. He woke and thought little of this, but
falling asleep, he again saw Bridget. This time fire issued
from her mouth and enkindled many who were gathered
about her. Then he heard a voice saying: “Who can forbid
this fire from going forth? For it is I who have sent it by My
divine power.” After this, Katilmund felt in himself so strong
a faith in the existence of the graces he had before doubted,
that he became one of Bridget’s warmest defenders.”
Hemming, Bishop of Abo, who had known Bridget from
childhood, was a real friend and had no wish to criticise, but
even he found himself puzzling over lier life while at Court.
Though she did not change her attire, she no longer lived —
at least outwardly — the life of an ascetic. Like her Master,
she “came eating and drinking,” and sitting next her at table,
the good bishop watched her taking the delicate meats set
before her and wondered how this agreed with the high spir­
itual gifts she was said to possess. Later, his thought was re­
vealed to her while she was at prayer, and she gave him a
message which she said she had received for him, to the effect
that obedience was better than sacrifice.78
When Bridget returned to Alvastra, it was to find that her
young son Benedict was dying. She shed many bitter tears,
sure that these sufferings of her child were in some way
caused by her sins and unfaithfulness. The devil seemed to
taunt her, but the inner voice she always listened for told her
that Benedict’s present pain would win him a great reward
in heaven. Then amid what sounded like the song of many
birds, her son gave back his innocent soul to God and her
heart was comforted and filled with peace.79

f
CHAPTER

:
i
I
■

VIII

The Way of Faith
We cannot take literally the statement made in the early
Life of St. Bridget that immediately after the death of her
husband she distributed her possessions among her children
and the poor, for she certainly continued for some time to
watch over her large property and give alms, though living
herself in poverty. A day would come when her spirit of
poverty would go further; when what little she still might
have called her own would be handed over to another and
she would humbly ask leave to give the alms her generous
heart longed to pour out. But during the years at Alvastra,
in her dealings with those dependent on her, she delighted
in being Lady Bountiful, and would go about visiting her
various estates as she did when at Ulfâsa. On one of these
visits she was begged by a tenant for a dowry for his daughter.
Bridget at once called her steward, and when she heard what
money he had in hand, said: “Give this poor man a third
part of what you have, so that his daughter may be happy and
pray for us.’’ Going on, they came to a town where they were
to lodge. Outside the inn they found a crowd of poor people.
Bridget again told her almoner to give them help. He replied
he had not sufficient to pay their own expenses unless he bor­
rowed money. “And why pour out money so lavishly?” he
grumbled. “A pretty kind of charity this, to give alms to the
poor and then have to borrow from others!” But Bridget only
said sweetly: “Let us give money while we have it, because
our good God is rich enough to give to us when we are in
want. I am bound to these poor folk because they have no one
else to help them.”80
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Naturally her main preoccupation at this time was her
future monastery, and she would ride back and forth between
Alvastra and Vadstena, watching the building operations and
dreaming of the days to come. If she hoped to enter and rule
her monastery, as presumably she did, she yet knew that the
whole undertaking must first be sanctioned by the Pope. But
she seems to have had no doubt as to his approval, and a
little band of aspirants had even been gathered at Vadstena,
awaiting the beginning of regular monastic life.81
Bridget and Prior Peter had many things to discuss to­
gether in regard to the amplification of the Ride in matters
of daily observance, for she had been instructed, she says, to
seek help in this from one belonging to the Benedictine or
Cistercian Order and to Peter she naturally turned. Then he
would beg her to lay before God in her prayer their various
doubts and questionings, and she in all simplicity would tell
him the answers she received, which he would carefully note
down. We find these in the short revelations at the end of her
writings.82
Prior Peter says that it was about two years after Bridget
began her life at Alvastra, consequently in 1347, that she received a command from Christ: “Go to Rome, where the
streets are paved with gold and dyed with the blood of saints.
There you shall remain until you see both the Supreme Pon­
tiff and the Emperor, and you shall tell them My words.”83
A Year of Jubilee had been proclaimed in 1350 in a Bull
issued by Pope Clement VI in 1343, soon after his election.
This was the result of a petition which a delegation from
Rome brought to Avignon to beg the new Pope to have the
Jubilee celebrated every fifty years instead of only at the
beginning of each century as his predecessor Boniface VIII
had appointed. As Bridget says it was “several years” after the
revelation of the Rule that she was told by Christ to seek its
confirmation from His Vicar to whom had been given the
power of binding and loosing,81 it seems probable that the
command which Prior Peter says came in 1347 really belongs

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St. Bridget in Sweden

to 134g when the definite announcement of the corning Holy
Year was made public. Peter’s evidence is always fresh and
detailed, but his dates are sometimes faulty. However that
may be, various things go to prove that Bridget, al wavs so
prompt in responding to the demands made on her obe­
dience, did not leave her native land until the end of 13PJ-S”
But the opportunity of submitting her Ride to the Pope
came before this.
One day she announced to Prior Peter that she had re­
ceived from heaven an admonition for the Holy Father which
must be delivered without delay.
This is the first of the letters she sent to various popes and
so marks the beginning of her intervention in the affairs of
the Church at large.
The revelation begins: “The Son speaks to the Bride:
'Write on My behalf to Pope Clement these words: I have
exalted you and placed you above all others. Arise then to
make peace between the kings of France and England, who
are dangerous beasts of prey, devouring souls. Then come to
Italy and preach there the word and the year of salvation and
divine love [an allusion to the Year of Jubilee]. See the place
watered with the blood of My saints and I will give you an
unending reward. Look to the past; how you have provoked
My anger and I have been silent. But now My time is come,
and I shall require of you an account of your negligence.
Even as I caused you to ascend, so will I make you to
descend — a descent which you will experience in both body
and soul unless you obey My words. Your boastful tongue
will be silenced and your name will be forgotten and will be
a reproach in My sight and in that of My saints. I shall re­
quire of you an account of the unworthiness with which you,
albeit with My permission, rose to so high a dignity; un­
worthiness which I, your God, remember better than your
careless conscience heeds it. I shall ask of you why you have
been so half-hearted in making peace between the kings and
as to your partiality. Again, I shall not forget how greatly

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ambition and greed have flourished and increased in the
Church in your time, and how many things you might have
amended. But you, lover of this world, would not. Arise then,
for your last hour is near at hand. Wipe out your past neglect
by zeal at the last.’ ”86
Such were Bridget’s first words to the Church’s earthly
Head. Startling in their outspokenness they must have seemed
to the one who penned them and to the priest charged to take
them from far-off Sweden to the French Pope at Avignon.
Could there be stronger proof of Bridget’s conviction that she
was but a mouthpiece, one charged by God Himself to deliver
His warning and His rebuke?
There have been wishful thinkers who have seen in this
and in later letters of St. Bridget’s to Clement and his suc­
cessors a spirit of rebellion against papal claims, who have
(by way of praise) hailed her as a forerunner of Luther, dis­
regarding the fact that these admonitions always contain the
same urgent plea to the Pope to come back to Rome as to his
rightful place and there rule the flock of Christ as His chosen
Vicar. Bridget is no rebel. How can the spirit of rebellion
have any fellowship with the spirit that is always looking for
guidance and delights only in obedience? It is this last spirit
that breathes in all her words, actions, and decisions.
Bridget chose as her messengers to Avignon her old friend
Hemming, Bishop of Abo, and Prior Peter, and the two went
off together to France.87 But credentials were needed. These
were furnished by Master Mathias and may be found in
substance in the Prologue to the Book of Revelations. It
opens with the words: “Signs and wonders have arisen in our
land,” and ends with an account of miracles Bridget has per­
formed which witness to her sanctity.88 For miracles, which
were almost a part of her daily life in Rome, had already
begun in Sweden. By touch, by prayer even at a distance,
cures had been wrought which were becoming known all
over the kingdom.
The Pope received the two messengers from Sweden and

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was sufficiently impressed by the letter they brought to charge
the bishop with negotiations to the kings of France and Eng­
land, then on the battlefield. Hemming accordingly visited
both sovereigns but returned to Avignon discouraged, as
Bridget’s revelation had been received somewhat ungra­
ciously.88 Nor were the envoys successful in the other part of
their mission, for the papal approbation of the proposed
Order was withheld.
This whole year of 1349, Bridget’s last in her native land,
was a dark one indeed. King Magnus, as a temporary escape
from his financial worries and to gain some prestige among
his discontented subjects, proposed to undertake what he
called a crusade against the heathens in Russia. To underline
its religious character, he made a show of consulting Bridget,
telling her to ask God for light as to His will and assuring
her he was under a vow to go. Bridget, knowing the King, is
not likely to have had much trust in his sincerity, but the
very word crusade had always power to stir her enthusiasm.
She prayed.
“If he wishes to go on a crusade to the heathen,” were the
words she heard and recorded, “he must first examine his
conscience and make contrite confession of his sins as if he
were about to die. He must have followers who go of their
own free will. He must first go about his kingdom and see
that justice is being administered. He must lay aside all levity
in dress and conduct. If he has possessions unjustly acquired
he must make restoration. His only intention in undertaking
the crusade must be the love of God and the salvation of
souls, and he must admonish the heathen to be converted,
approaching them with gentleness and peace.”
Needless to say this advice was the last which the King
intended to follow. His idea was to gather a great and impos­
ing army, and not having sufficient soldiers of his own, he
hired foreign mercenaries ready for booty.
Bridget continued to pray.
“It seems to him a fine thing to march out with a great

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army,” were the words she now heard; “he does not consider
the misery and famine which will follow. He who seeks to
gain souls should have two banners: justice and mercy, and
the banner of mercy must first be unfurled. Nor must he
retreat from any cowardice, listening to those who say he is
attempting what is beyond him.”
Magnus set out with his army, gained an important posi­
tion and then grew weary of his effort and abandoned it,
while the Russians were soon in possession once more of the
ground they had lost.
To Bridget, watching and praying, had come these stern
words: “My daughter, in what condition is the world to-day?”
And she had replied: “As a man running and caring not what
may come.”
“It is just, then,” the voice had continued, “that I pass
over the world with My plough. I will spare neither old nor
young, neither rich nor poor, but each will die in his sins
and be judged according to My justice, and the houses shall
be left without inhabitants. Nor will I even then make an
end.”
Bridget had cried out in anguish: “Oh Lord, be not angry
if I speak! Send some of Thy friends to preach and warn them
of their danger.” But she had been told to remember the rich
man in the Gospel who in hell wished his brethren might be
warned and was told they had Moses and the prophets.
“So do I say to you. They have the Gospels and the sayings
of the prophets; they have the examples and the teachings of
the Doctors; they have reason and intelligence; let them make
use of these and they shall be saved. If I should send you,
you could not cry so loud that you would be heard. Yet I will
send My friends to those whom I shall choose and they shall
prepare a way for the Lord.”90
The exact date of this prophecy is uncertain, but whether
it came earlier or at this time, Bridget could not doubt its
fulfilment when the Black Death swept over Europe and
finally reached Norway and Sweden. Thousands died daily

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on land and water; rivers were blessed — among them the
Rhone by Clement himself — to receive the dead bodies, and
great pits were dug where there was no water. Here was un­
mistakably the hand of God; a punishment sent to a careless,
sinful, and self-sufficient world, before which that world must
needs bow.
Meanwhile the work which Bridget knew to be specially
her own was also under a cloud. Not only had she so far failed
to gain the Pope’s permission to found her Order, but the
buildings she had watched being made ready for the future
monastery were now attacked by those who hated and feared
her, and the little band of aspirants gathered there was dis­
persed. Either by this attack or as the result of an accidental
lire, the whole place which Magnus had assigned for the
foundation was utterly destroyed. The King was angry; hu­
miliated, no doubt, that what had seemed likely to bring
glory to Sweden and to himself had not received encourage­
ment from the Pope; the Swedish bishops, hitherto Bridget’s
warm supporters, now turned against her; only two out of the
seven still stood by her. Like other founders of religious or­
ders before and since, she had to wait, helpless, while God
seemed to contradict Himself. She recalled words heard in
prayer concerning the monastery of the future: “As in the
past, tears and groans of those whose blood cries to Me have
been heard in this place, so now the voice of praise shall
ascend from here. And as it was once a place of punishment,
now shall be gathered here those who will seek mercy for
living and dead and make expiation.”91
And now the place was desolate! What did it mean? Noth­
ing remained: and yet . . . yes, something. There was God’s
own promise which must somehow be fulfilled, if not now,
then later. Among the denunciations against Magnus, Bridget
had heard these words: “The King shall not build My house
as did Solomon . . . nor will he receive the crown of Eric, My
friend. Who that person is who will build My monastery and
when he will come, you shall know later.”92

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With this assurance Bridget must be content. The only
clear command that sounded in her ears was the “Go to
Rome.” And no urging had as yet moved the Pope to leave
Avignon. To her it must have seemed, as indeed it turned
out, that her sojourn in Rome might last for the rest of her
life. Is it here we should place the poignant supplication for
guidance which has come down to our own day, and is to be
found in the State prayer-book of Sweden?
“Hasten, O Lord, to enlighten my darkness. As one who
is dying longeth, so yearns my soul for Thee. Speak to my
soul; assure it that nothing can happen without Thy permis­
sion and that what Thou dost permit can never be the subject
of pity. O Jesus, Son of God! Thou who didst remain silent
before Thy judge, refrain my tongue until I have bethought
me what and how to speak. Show me the way in which I
should go and give me grace to tread it. In delay lurks danger,
but in haste is likewise peril. Therefore, O Lord, give ear to
my petition and show me the path of safety. To Thee do I
come as one sick and in need of a physician. Give me a tran­
quil heart, O Lord.”
At the last moment Bridget’s heart turned with a mother’s
terrible yearning towards her children. True, they were all
provided for, all settled in life except the youngest daughter
Cecilia, still at school, but with every likelihood, her mother
thought, of becoming a Dominican nun. Charles and Birger
were married; Merita, now a widow, had never depended
on her mother for guidance. Ingeborg was a Cistercian nun
and Katherine had been married for some years to the best
of husbands. Yet they were all very young, thought Bridget,
very rich, too, and exposed to many temptations. Her monas­
tery no longer needed her but surely her children did.
Suddenly she seemed to see before her a brazier with char­
coal burning in it, and beside it a boy who was blowing on
the coals with all his might.
“Why are you trying so hard to enkindle a flame?” she
found herself asking.

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“So that the love of your children may burn more fiercely
in your heart,’’ replied the boy.
She began to feel afraid.
“Who are you?” she questioned.
“I am,” said he, “one who trades.”93
There was no more hesitation. Had it indeed been only
her children’s need of her of which she had been thinking?
Was it not mainly her own dread of leaving those she loved?
Long ago she had declared that God should come before all
and that all should be loved only in Him. And was not the
Father of lights from whom every best and perfect gift comes,
able to watch over her children? Her part was, as always, to
obey; to go forward trustfully, even gladly; willing to see
nothing of what lay before her until God’s time came to
reveal it.
Out into the darkness she went.

PART

II

St. Bridget in Rome

CHAPTER

I

The Holy Year of 1350
Bridget and a number of other Swedes took ship in the
autumn of 1349, landed at Stralsund, and from there began
their long ride through Germany and Italy.
Prior Peter Olafsson could not leave Alvastra at this time,1
and as Bridget’s other spiritual director, Master Mathias, was
about to accompany King Magnus on one of his military ex­
peditions, she had been in some perplexity as to the choice
of a priest who would help and guide her spiritually on her
long journey with all its uncertainties and difficulties. Obvi­
ously it must be someone who could understand the unusual
ways by which she was led, and who could act as translator
of her frequent revelations. Prior Peter would follow her to
Rome and be with her when he could, but there would be
necessary absences from time to time.
One day it was made known to her, she says, that just such
a director as she sought had been provided for her. This was
Master Peter Olafsson of Skeninge, a secular priest, at that
time the head of the Holy Ghost House (or hospital) in
that town. It seems probable that she already knew of him,
and that he also had heard of her, but whether this was
the case or not, as soon as he understood what was asked
of him, he resigned his post and “promptly and cheerfully
consented.”2
Thus began Bridget’s connection with the second Peter
who was henceforth to play such an important part in her
life.
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Whatever the pilgrims had expected Rome to be like, its
actual condition in the Holy Year of 1350 must surely have
caused them something like dismay.
It was just over forty years since the papal residence had
been transferred to Avignon, and if the popes tvhen in Rome
had rarely been successful in checking the lawlessness of the
nobles, things were many times worse now. The Roman
magistrates might issue orders, but continual strife went on
between the party of the Guelphs, led by the potverful family
of the Orsini, and that of the Ghibellines, led by the
Colonna. All the great houses were in consequence defended
by towers. It has been calculated that there were as many as
nine hundred in or on the city walls. St. Peter’s had become
a fortress, likewise the Pantheon, and in nearly all the
churches the campanile was used as a tower of defence.
While totvers had risen to defend or to threaten, many of
Rome’s old buildings had on the contrary fallen. Great
masses of ruins, once houses and early Christian churches,
rose from grass-covered mounds. Inundations of the Tiber
and earthquakes at different times had wrought havoc, and
no one had troubled to make any attempt to repair the dam­
age. There were no proper streets; the original ones lay
buried several feet below the ruins. Meandering roads, un­
paved, muddy, wholly uncared for, led everywhere and
nowhere.
Meanwhile thousands of pilgrims from all lands poured
and continued to pour into the city. All the Romans became
hosts, says the contemporary chronicler, either entertaining
strangers or leaving their houses empty for them to occupy.
The inns overflowed, giving what accommodation they could
to men and horses. It was anything but luxury and the
weather was unusually cold — ice and snow, followed by
severe floods. But it was much to find a roof. Many of the
pilgrims had to be content to camp outside the city walls
round great fires.
The same chronicler paints a vivid picture of the contrast

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The Holy Year of 1350

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between the pilgrims, recollected and devout, and the
Romans, noisy, excitable, grasping. The Pope might be absent, but Rome was still the centre of Christendom; nowhere
else could the Jubilee be gained, and now was the time to
fill pockets too long empty.
The Holy Year opened badly. The Pope had sent as his
Legate a most unworthy representative in Cardinal Annibale
Ceccano. His life was not in any way suggestive of penance,
and as he was very unpleasing in appearance — small, squint­
ing—the Romans from the outset heaped ridicule on him,
caricatured him, and nicknamed him Scimrnia (monkey). He
had brought a camel with him, we read, and the great, un­
gainly creature still further roused the unruly populace.
They jumped on its back, plucked out its hair, and made an
indescribable scene outside the Legate’s residence which he
was powerless to control.3
But what had been ridicule turned to anger and finally to
ungovernable fury tvhen the Cardinal shortened the time of
the Jubilee visit owing to the increasing number of pilgrims
and the difficulty of accommodating them all. The Romans
cared little for the inconvenience and much for the loss of
money involved, and went so far as to make an attempt to
attack the Legate’s palace. This had only the effect of making
him still further shorten the visit, now to be limited to a
week. Soon after, when he was riding to St. Paul’s, an arrow
came from the window of a house and pierced his hat. No
attempt was made, except by his immediate entourage, to
discover the offender. The Legate then placed the city under
interdict for eight days, to the dismay of arriving pilgrims
who found all churches closed.
The unpopular Cardinal thankfully took an opportunity,
which some trouble in Naples gave him, of leaving Rome for
a while, but on the journey he was seized with severe illness
and died. It was commonly believed that his death was due
to poison.4
Picture all this and then see crowds of devout pilgrims

1

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St. Bridget in Rome

making their way daily, or trying to make their way, to the
different basilicas for the prescribed visits. The floods had
made the so-called streets ten times worse than usual; all must
move with the stream and had the greatest difficulty in mov­
ing at all. Horsemen jostled those on foot; it was nothing
uncommon, especially on festivals when Rome’s great relics
were exposed for veneration at St. Peter’s, for as many as a
dozen people to be crushed to death.
One who visited Rome in the Holy Year of 1925 described
to me the arrival of a large Polish pilgrimage at St. Peter’s.
Visiting Rome, many of them for the first time, surrounded
and watched by crowds of varying nationalities, these devout
pilgrims never looked about them, or even raised their eyes.
They made their visit, said their prayers, intent only on what
they had come to do. So we can see Bridget in rhe months
that followed her arrival, going from place to place, as best
she could, amidst a babel of tongues and noisy street-fighting,
with eyes downcast and in continual prayer. Was this indeed
the city whose streets were paved with gold and dyed with
the blood of God’s saints, which in her revelation she had
been told to seek? “Oh Rome, for My many benefits you have
made evil return!’’ are words we read in a revelation received
at this time.5 One who often went with Bridget on her visits
of devotion says it was quite useless to try to draw her into
conversation or interest her in the sights which caught the
attention of the ordinary traveller. She would not even turn
her head to look at the ruins of ancient Rome.6
Bridget sent no further message to Pope Clement, but he
is the subject of one of her revelations not very long before
his death took place.7 Her prayers for him, that he might even
at the last obey the divine call, were anstvered in a measure,
for he died, it is said, in deep humility and devotion, though
it was too late to undo the evils of his reign.
Where Bramante’s great church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso
now stands, there stood in the Jubilee Year of 1350 the
basilica which it replaced, under the same dedication and

The Holy Year

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71

built by Pope Damasus in 370. Attached to it was a house
belonging to the Cardinal whose titular church it was — at
this time Hugh Roger, brother of the reigning Pope Clement
VI. The owner being absent, Bridget had been given permis­
sion to use it as her residence, and here she and her com­
panions established themselves on their arrival in Rome. The
house was their home for a number of years, and to this time
belongs the story of the composition of the breviary to be
used by the nuns of the future religious order, a story, which,
like the breviary itself, is unique.
The revelation containing the Rule and the directions for
founding the Order says that the nuns are to sing daily the
Hours of Our Lady with three Lessons.8 But this was not
the office known as the Little Office of Our Lady, in use
among so many modern congregations as a substitute for the
longer Divine Office of the Church. Bridget’s nuns were to
sing a new Divine Office. But how was it to be composed?
What were those three Lessons for each day to be? Bridget
was wondering over this and praying in the quiet sanctuary
of her room in the Cardinal’s house, when her difficulties
were solved. What followed had best be told in the words of
Alfonso da Vadaterra, who later edited her writings.
“When Bridget, Princess of Nericia in the kingdom of
Sweden, had lived for some years in Rome in the Cardinal’s
house adjoining the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso, she
still did not know what Lessons were to be read by the nuns
of her monastery which Christ had told her to found, and
whose Rule He had Himself dictated in honour of the Blessed
Virgin His Mother. When therefore blessed Bridget was pray­
ing and wondering over the matter, Christ appeared to her
and said: ‘I will send My angel, who will reveal to you the
Lessons to be read at Matins by the nuns in your monastery
in honour of My Virgin Mother. Lie will dictate to you and
do you write down tvhat he says.’ Now blessed Bridget had a
room whose window faced the high altar and from which
she could see daily the Body of Christ. So every day after she

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had said her Hours and prayers, she prepared pen, ink, and
paper, and awaited the coming of the angel of the Lord.
When he came, he took up his position at her side, standing
erect and dignified, having his face turned reverently towards
the altar where the Body of Christ lay hid. So standing, he
dictated distinctly, in order, and in blessed Bridget’s mother­
tongue, the Lessons to be read by the Sisters, treating of the
supreme excellency of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And devoutly
each day she would write tvhat fell from the lips of the angel
and then humbly show her spiritual Father what she had
written. But it chanced that on certain days the angel came
not. And then, when asked by her spiritual Father concerning
her writing, she would humbly reply: ‘Father, to-day I have
written nothing, for though I waited long for the angel of the
Lord, he did not come.’
“In this manner therefore, was written the Angelic Dis­
course, and it was divided by the angel into Lessons to be
read at the Sisters’ Matins throughout the week, during the
whole year. And when the angel had finished dictating this
discourse, he said: ‘Behold, now I have woven a garment for
the Queen of Heaven, God’s Mother.’ ”9
Let the reader who finds the above story fantastic, make
what he wills of it. The Angelic Discourse, as it is called, is a
praise of the Virgin Mother which has never been surpassed
in fullness and beauty and has been described as a master­
piece of Christian literature. It is divided into twenty-one
portions, making the three long Lessons of the Office of
Matins for each day of the week, and has formed part of the
Breviary authorized for the use of the Bridgettine Order
from its beginning until now.
The arrangement of the rest of the Office was entrusted to
Master Peter. Many parts he took from existing praises of
our Lady, often with some adaptation; others he composed.
His work as to both words and music is highly praised in
St. Bridget’s writings, and she believed he received a very
special help from heaven.10

CHAPTER

II

The Promised Helper
It was during her first year in Rome that Bridget felt a hard
command laid upon her: she, a stranger, a woman, unknown
and unannounced, was to go to the Abbey of Farfa on a mis­
sion of reform and deliver a stern message to its abbot.11
Farfa, one of the most celebrated of the Benedictine monas­
teries, founded by saints and formerly a centre of learning,
had in the course of centuries become also exceedingly
wealthy. Its abbots lived like princes. A story is told of one
who saw the Pope at Corose and felt sure he was on the way
to Farfa. The Abbot called his majordomo and said to him:
“That is the Pope and he is on his way to Farfa. Of course,
I cannot be expected to return, but you will go back and be
there to receive him. See that the same respect is paid to him
as to me and that a fatted calf is killed for him.”12
It was to Dom Arnold, sixty-fifth Abbot of Farfa, that
St. Bridget was sent. He was a Frenchman from Cluny. She
had sent no word of her coming, had not even made any
arrangement for her lodging. The words heard in prayer were
enough for her: “Go to Farfa where a chamber is prepared
for you.”
It was about a day’s journey. Through the desolate Cam­
pagna with its ruined tombs and aqueducts, Bridget, Master
Peter, and one or two others — probably servants — made
their way, and found themselves in the mountainous Sabine
region. In its most fertile part, amid rich cultivation, watered
by the rushing stream of the Farfarus, stood the great
monastery.
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The appearance of the unknown travellers caused much
surprise, as they asked for a lodging. The porter refused
rudely, saying it was not the custom to give women hospi­
tality. Finally some kind of outhouse was suggested as a
roof to cover them for the night. Bridget accepted the offer
with real joy, seeing that here was an opportunity to learn
humility and make reparation for luxurious living in days
gone by.13
After this rebuff, however, it was probably no easy matter
to beg an interview with the Lord Abbot, and it was certainly
no smooth and pleasing message the ambassador had to de­
liver. “Lord Abbot, you should be a mirror to your monks
and are instead the mainstay of harlots. You should be an
example to the poor, a dispenser to the needy, but are rather
a mighty lord than an almsgiver. You prefer to live in a
castle to a monastery. You ought to be a teacher and a mother
to your brethren, but have become a stepfather and step­
mother. You revel in splendour and dissipation, and they
suffer and murmur all the day. Therefore, unless you amend,
I will depose you from your castle and you shall not have
the companionship of the very least of your brethren. You
shall neither return to your own country as you think to do,
nor shall you enter Mine.”
Just how the Abbot received the stern message from heaven
we are not told, but the revelation has at the end this re­
mark: “All of which things were fulfilled.”14
A second mission of reform undertaken by Bridget was
more encouraging. After returning to Rome she again an­
nounced she must set off on a journey, this time as far as
Bologna. Because of the well-known Dominican house at
Bologna, some of St. Bridget's biographers have taken for
granted it was here she delivered her message. But the suppo­
sition has no foundation whatever. The reform of a whole
community is a sufficiently important event to be on record
in the still existing Priory, but no trace of such a visit or such
a reform is there. All that is known is that having been un­

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successful at Farfa, St. Bridget went to Bologna to reform
another monastery which was not that of the Friars Preachers.
We may take for granted that she would visit the tomb of
St. Dominic, and it may be that it was at this time she re­
ceived a revelation praising his rare sanctity and lamenting
that some of his sons had now grown worldly and had left the
path of austere poverty and simplicity he trod in life and in
which on his deathbed he had begged the Queen of Fleaven
to keep them.15
The monks whom Bridget had come to reprove, received
her with great courtesy and even honour, making her task
more difficult. But this time she did not speak to deaf ears.
The Abbot amended his evil life and his whole community
followed him.
While she was engaged on her delicate mission of reform,
Master Peter came to Bridget in much distress of mind and
announced that he must leave at once for Rome. He gave no
reason and seemed to have none, but said he could neither
eat nor sleep until he had carried out what he was inwardly
urged to do.10 Bridget did not try to dissuade him though
unwilling to be without his help.
A few days later he reappeared and was not alone. Hardly
able to believe her eyes, Bridget found herself face to face
with her daughter Katherine.

When Bridget left Sweden at the end of 1349, her daughter
Katherine had been the wife of Edgar von Kyren for some­
thing over five years. The marriage had been arranged by her
parents and had taken place either shortly before or after
her father’s death.17 The von Kyrens were one of the foreign
families King Magnus I had encouraged to settle in Sweden
and who had not adopted the Swedish custom of using the
father’s name as surname. The members of this family were
in Bridget’s day frequent visitors at Ulfâsa, and Edgar was
the son of one Lyder von Kyren who in 1315 had been mili­
tary governor of Finland. Edgar was already knighted when

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he asked Katherine’s hand, so must have been at least ten
years older than his ttvelve-year-old bride, and he owned a
beautiful estate known by the name of Edgar’s Promontory.
Katherine never seems to have shown any inclination for
the cloister during her schooldays with the Cistercians at
Risaberga; yet, like her mother before her, her one desire
was to belong wholly to God, and though she offered no
objections to the marriage arranged for her, she had quite
definite ideas as to the life she wished to lead, and counted
on persuading Edgar to share her views. And her will pre­
vailed. On the night of the wedding, after hearing all she had
to urge, he consented to make with her a vow of perpetual
contincncy.
Outwardly the two lived the life of those around them;
Edgar attended to his duties as landlord, as knight; Katherine
was a charming hostess to her friends, and a generous almsgiver to her dependants. But in private they, followed a rule
they had imposed on themselves of prayer and rigorous
penance.
Bridget must have known all this, because we are told that
something of their secret leaked out, and reached the ear of
Charles, the eldest son of the family, who was highly incensed
at the gossip, and as guardian of his widowed mother and
sister by the law of the province, tried to interfere. But
vainly. Katherine and Edgar took his angry remonstrances
calmly and went on as before. Whatever the mother thought
of the step taken by the two concerned, she at least could
plainly see that they were supremely happy, content with
each other and with the way of life they had chosen.
What then could have happened that Katherine should
appear suddenly in Italy, with no warning and without her
husband? And again: what part had Master Peter in it all?
Katherine told her long story.
The detailed account of all that happened after the parting
with her mother a year earlier, as well as Katherine’s reac­
tions later to the new life that now began for her, can only

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have come from herself. She told how the absence of her
mother had so saddened her that as the months wore on life
seemed to have become well-nigh unbearable. She knew her
husband could not take her to Rome — he was out of health,
as we are later told — so she kept her unhappiness to herself,
as she thought. But one day he had begged her to say what
was the matter. Why was she so sad? Many years later she
was to tell St. Catherine of Siena that on the day her mother
left Sweden she forgot how to smile. When Edgar himself
opened the subject she had poured out all her troubles and,
as it was the Jubilee Year, had asked him if she could not
join some of the pilgrims going to Rome and pay her mother
a visit. It had taken some persuasion, she said, but finally he
had yielded. She seems to have been able to make Edgar
share her own conviction that this longing for her mother
had some special significance, for we read in the early Life
from which this story comes, that when she was so earnest, he
began to fear to oppose her lest he should also be opposing
the will of God. Had he some premonition of his death which
would take place in a year’s time? It seems possible, and if so,
he might see in the journey to Rome a provision for the
future of his young wife.
Then, continued Katherine, came a most violent letter
from her brother Charles to Edgar, threatening to kill him
if he allowed her to leave the country. Edgar happened to be
away from home, but she had suspected trouble and had
opened the letter. She had not known what to do till sud­
denly the idea came to her of appealing to her uncle. This
was Israel Birgersson, Bridget’s brother, a man of great
wealth and importance in the kingdom, whose support — if
she could gain it — would certainly prevent Charles from
doing any harm to Edgar. Katherine had written to him at
once, had had a most kind reply with the promise of every
help in the way of protection for her husband and money
and servants for her journey. So she had set off as soon as
possible under the special care of Sir Gustav Tunesson, a

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relative of Edgar’s, and in company with quite a number of
pilgrims. After three months of difficult travelling18 they had
at last reached Rome, had gone straight to the house by S.
Lorenzo and had, of course, found it empty —only servants
in charge, who seemed to know nothing of her mother’s
whereabouts. Then had begun a week of agonized searching,
and finally, when praying one day in St. Peter’s, she had
looked up and had seen — Master Peter. He had told her just
where her mother was and had promised to take her to
Bologna next day. Master Peter’s strong inward urge to go
to Rome was notv explained.
The Abbot of the monastery received the newcomer with
great reverence “because of the esteem in which he held her
mother, by whose holy exhortations he had been converted
to a better life.” These are the words of Katherine’s biog­
rapher. The meeting between the mother and daughter is
placed by most of St. Bridget’s biographers at Farfa. I venture
to part company with these, for reasons which need not de­
tain us here but which are discussed in the notes to this
chapter.19 St. Katherine’s Life makes explicit mention of
Bologna, and unless its author was drawing on his imagina­
tion when he described the reception she received and its
cause, his words better fit the penitent abbot at Bologna than
the impenitent one at Farfa.
Mother and daughter returned after a few days to Rome,
and Katherine began with great ardour and devotion to visit
the various stations and shrines as the condition for gaining
the Jubilee.

The Holy Year was drawing to its close and the pilgrims
from the various countries were preparing to return to their
homes. Katherine began to think it was time she, too, went
back. She had left Sweden with the one idea of being with
her mother; the Jubilee was quite a secondary consideration.
But now that she and Bridget had met and she had poured
out all her news, she began to long to be back with her hus-

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band. There seemed as much reason now for leaving Rome as
there had earlier been for leaving Sweden.
One day when the time for leaving was near, Bridget came
to her daughter and asked a direct question.
“Are you willing,” she said, “to stay in Rome with me and
work for the cause of Christ?”
Truly this seems an amazing question from anyone with
Bridget’s strong sense of wifely duty, until we remind our­
selves that in all her words and actions she let herself be
guided by the lights received in prayer. Earlier, as we know,
she had distrusted such lights, but now, with a child’s simple
faith, she listened to the voices that were heard so often and
obeyed blindly the commands that came. And it was now
“by command of Christ,” we read, that she asked this sacrifice
of Katherine. Much as she longed for a helper in her neces­
sarily lonely life — and that she did so long we shall learn a
little later on — it is certain that to put such a question to her
daughter, when she knew of her anxiety to leave, cost her
much, but she never faltered.
If Bridget’s question surprises us, still more perhaps does
Katherine’s answer. With implicit trust in her mother’s in­
tuitions, she at once cried out:
“Not only my country and my friends, but even my hus­
band whom I love more than myself will I give up and
willingly, if it is pleasing to Christ!”
It was an outburst of enthusiasm, and very soon there was,
as we might expect, reaction. Yet Bridget accepted the sacri­
fice quite simply and soon had another light in prayer.
“Your daughter Katherine,” she was told, “is the one I
promised you as a faithful co-worker in the affairs divinely
entrusted to you. She is a fair sapling whom it is My will to
plant and have under My special care that she may grow
into a fruit-bearing tree. And because she needs the dew of
grace, I will 'water her with My wisdom. Advise her to stay
with you, for it will be better for her to stay than to return....
She loves Me and also loves her husband, and because I

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am the Lord of all, I will provide for him by giving him gifts
which will be valuable to his soul, for it is My will to call
him to Myself, and the illness from which he suffers is a sign
of his death. But her I will fit for the work which from all
eternity I have designed for her, and will make it known.”
Meanwhile Katherine continued to regret her promise to
stay in Rome. And even tvhen her mother could tell her defi­
nitely that Edgar had died on Good Friday and that Christ
Himself had said He would be all in all to her,20 it was long
before she could resign herself to the new life, the austerity
of the daily round, and the long hours of silence. Her pen­
ances at home had, after all, been self-chosen and she and
Edgar had had no sense of restraint. Here she felt like a
prisoner, the more because, owing to the notice she attracted
in the streets, her mother felt obliged to forbid her to go out
unless she had a large escort. It was a time of testing and the
strain nearly broke the poor captive. She tried severe bodily
penance and thought she had conquered her homesickness,
only to find it return worse than ever.
One day she was in a terrible state of depression and bitter­
ness as she sat alone in the house thinking how useless, after
all, was the sacrifice she had made, when Bridget and Master
Peter returned from one of their visits to the churches. They
were alarmed, for she looked as if she were going out of her
mind. When asked to say what was the matter, she only said
miserably that she was unable to explain. Bridget had per­
haps not realized that things had gone so far, but saw that
her daughter must fight her battle out in her own soul and
that all she could do for her was to pray.
Then at night there came to Katherine a vivid dream
which filled her with compunction and took her humbly to
her mother to beg her forgiveness. The tvhole world, she said,
had seemed to her to be in flames, and as she was about to be
consumed, she had seen the Virgin Mother who reproached
her with her unfaithfulness to her promises and said no one
could help her until she had surrendered her will. Katherine,

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at her mother’s suggestion, now made a vow of obedience to
Master Peter and at last found peace and strength and also
the self-forgetfulness that was to make her the ideal helper
and companion for whom Bridget had yearned.
When the definite news of Edgar’s death reached Rome,
Bridget told her daughter she must make her choice between
the state of marriage and that of widowhood, for she was still
very young, rich, and of noble rank. Katherine said decidedly
that she intended to be faithful to the life she had vowed.
But when it became known that the fair stranger so often
kept hidden away was a widow, offers of marriage poured in.
Every persuasion was used, but Katherine stood firm. Then
attempts were made to capture lier. One of her most persist­
ent suitors was Count Latino Orsini. Twice he lay with his
followers in ambush, and twice his plan failed. The first time
the sudden appearance of a stag made his retainers give chase,
and Katherine and her friends were able to escape. Bridget
had not been with them but seemed to know all about their
danger, for they found her waiting at the door, while she
exclaimed: ‘‘Blessed be the stag that saved you!”
The next time Orsini somehow came to know that Bridget
and her daughter would visit the church of S. Lorenzo-outside-the-walls, and lay in Avait all night. Elis servants saw the
two women pass, and waited their master’s command. He
thought it was still night, and found he had been struck with
complete blindness. He recognized this as a punishment from
heaven, had himself led to the church, where he humbly con­
fessed his intention to Bridget and her daughter, and prom­
ised if they would only forgive him, that he would henceforth
be a faithful friend and protector. By their prayers his blind­
ness was cured, and Latino Orsini fully redeemed his prom­
ise. His name is often found in the Process.
Later he married, and when his little son was dying, the
parents at once summoned Bridget to save him. She would
not refuse. She remembered her own son’s death-bed at Alvastra long ago, over which she had shed so many tears. Going

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apart she prayed lor some time, then was taken to the sick
room. She asked to be left alone with the boy, and spreading
her cloak over him and laying her face to his, she prayed
again. Then she said: “Sleep, my child, sleep.’’ Soon she
called the parents and nurses, and repeating the words of the
divine Physician, said: “The child is not dead but sleeping,"
and at once left the house.
When the boy woke, he asked for his clothes. He seemed
bewildered. “Mother,” he asked, “what has happened? When
Lady Bridget spread her cloak over me, I didn’t feel ill any­
more.” Thereupon he got up and ran away to play with his
friends.21

CHAPTER

III

St. Bridget and Her Friends
No picture of St. Bridget in Rome is complete without men­
tion of those among whom she moved and of her relations
with them; for though she lived — it would seem almost un­
interruptedly — in thought and prayer in the unseen world,
yet she was never aloof, never uninterested in those around
her or unmindful of their needs. Her desire was always to
serve, and serve she did, whether the service was the one so
painful to her of delivering messages to those in high places,
or the grateful one of humbly mending the clothes of her
household.
The saints are leaders in spite of themselves, and in the
measure in which they have lost all thought of and interest
in themselves, they become a centre of thought and interest
to others. Bridget might wish, as she did, to live hidden and
unnoticed, but a large circle of friends and even only ac­
quaintances, revolved round her. The faithful friends that
shared her roof in Rome shared also to some extent her
austere life, in many cases during a number of years. They
seconded all her interests, stood by her in all her dangers,
and to them we owe the detailed accounts of her daily life
found in the Process of Canonization. We feel in reading
these that she was an object of love, veneration, and wonder.
Bridget’s household, constantly referred to in the Process
as her familia, seems to have been a large one. It included
some who came and went, like Prior Peter of Alvastra, some
who joined her after she had been absent from Sweden for a
number of years, and again those who were always with her.
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To this latter class belongs the faithful 'Master Peter who was
looked up to by all as the head of the house and ruled it in
both spiritual and temporal matters, and always, it is said,
with great wisdom and calmness of soul.22 He had need of
both qualities, for bis position was no easy one. On the spirit­
ual side he had the direction of a saint possessing extraordi­
nary gifts, who ivould do nothing without his sanction. On
the material side, he found himself in a strange land and with
a purse generally slender, often quite empty.
The following is an instance of the money difficulties in
which Bridget and Master Peter often found themselves:
“Once,” we read in one of the short revelations, “it hap­
pened before the Feast of All Saints that blessed Bridget had
borrowed money from various people, because she had re­
ceived nothing from her country for three years, and she was
in great anxiety since her creditors daily pressed her for re­
payment. Then said Christ to her: ‘Boldly borrow money and
reassure your creditors, promising to pay them back on the
first Sunday after the Epiphany when the Sudarium is ex­
posed, for on that day the whole debt will be discharged.’
And so it happened. About Vesper-time on the said Sunday
came a messenger from her country bringing money, and she
at once satisfied her creditors.”23
But such miraculous assurances and helps were the excep­
tion. Usually Bridget felt just the same embarrassment that
any of us would feel in like circumstances. Then would ensue
a conversation such as the following. Bridget, heading her
revelation, “The Bride speaks to the Virgin,” describes how
Mary told her to trust in God who feeds the sparrows, and
to have no care as to the morrow.
“To which I replied: ‘Oh, dearest Lady, fair, rich, and full
of virtues, for you have never sinned and are God’s beloved
friend, perfect in all good works. Hear me who am full of sins
and poor in virtue. We have food to-day but we shall have
nothing whatever tomorrow and how can we be without
care?’

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“ ‘See if you have nothing superfluous,’ replied the Virgin,
‘and if so, sell or pawn it and so be at rest.’
“ ‘We have the same clothes for day and night,’ I answered,
‘and a few cups and plates for our meals; the priest has his
books and for Mass we have the chalice and vestments.’
“ ‘The priest must not be without books, nor you without
Mass,’ said the Virgin.
“I said: ‘May I borrow money, pledging my tvord to repay
it at a fixed time?’
“ ‘Yes, if you can pay it back at the time appointed, not
otherwise.’
“ ‘Shall I work for a living?’ I asked.
“ ‘What do you do now every day?’ asked the Mother.
“ ‘I learn Latin, I pray and I write.’
“ ‘You must give up none of these things for manual work.’
“ On what, then, shall we live tomorrow?’
“ ‘If you have nothing left, go and beg alms in the Name
of Jesus Christ.’ ”24

Some six or seven years after Bridget’s arrival in Rome,
she was joined by a Swedish knight, a connection of hers
named Magnus Persson, who from that time became one of
her very intimate friends, helping her in all her works of
charity and going with her on her pilgrimages. He had
known her first at the Court of King Magnus, but had not
been among those who derided her for her prophecies. Fie
was at that time a man of wealth with a wife and children.
So Bridget had surprised him considerably when she an­
nounced one day that he would become a priest and enter
the Order she was going to found. However, one after an­
other of those belonging to him died. He then went to Rome
and Bridget’s prophecy was fulfilled in due time, though not
until after her death.25
Besides her friends, there were also servants. Bridget recog­
nized she had a duty towards them as mistress of the house
and did not pass over their faults, but, says her daughter,

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corrected them always gently and at a fitting time. ‘‘Very
quiet and peaceable,” are her words, “never roused to anger,
and suffered the faults of her household humbly.”20
In one case something more than patience was needed. Her
cook came to her.
“Signora, your son Charles has been hanged!”
“God forbid!” she exclaimed, “who told you?”
“Pilgrims from Sweden,” said the man, unabashed.
When Bridget found the report was without any founda­
tion, there was no reproach, and when, some months later,
the cook died, penitent for his cruelty, she poured out her
soul in prayer for him.27
Alfonso da Vadaterra, editor of St. Bridget’s writings, has
been mentioned more than once. If he did not live under her
roof, he was so often with her that he may be reckoned as
one of her familia during the last years of her life. He was a
Spaniard of noble birth, had been consecrated Bishop of Jaen
in Andalusia in 1359, and some nine years later resigned his
office to become a hermit. He joined the Order of Our Lady
of Mount Olivet which had established itself in Tuscany, and
later founded the monastery of San Girolamo di Quarta, out­
side Genoa, where he died. In his evidence given in the
Process of St. Bridget’s Canonization, he states that he first
heard of her from a hermit, Brother Lawrence of Spain; how
she and her daughter had lived for many years in Rome,
sharing their goods with the poor. This filled him with a
great desire to know her, and when later he found himself
in Rome, he sought her out and often talked with her.28 Tn
fact, from this time on, he stayed in Rome and devoted him­
self to Bridget’s interests. He often acted as her confessor,
went with her later to the Holy Land, was secretary and mes­
senger between Rome and Avignon, and finally, as already
said, undertook the editorship of her recorded revelations.
The relationship between Bridget and the Bishop was one
of mutual reverence. He trusted absolutely her intuitions
and marvelled at her gifts. If he guided her, he also let him­

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self be guided by her, and it seemed quite natural for her to
address him as “my son.”
In spite of the distance, the difficulties and dangers of
travel — indeed, perhaps because of them, since they made
the journey more meritorious — many were the Scandinavi­
ans who came to Rome long after the Jubilee Year had
closed. Not only did Charles and Birger visit their mother,
but various Swedish governors and knights, the Earl Marshal,
the Archbishop of Upsala and others of the Swedish hier­
archy, priests, monks, and also pilgrims from among the
peasantry found their way to the home of their country­
woman and were welcomed by her. These various visitors
brought her news from home and took back with them her
letters and messages.
Among the things she heard was that her daughter Ingeborg had died in the Cistercian monastery of Risaberga.
Bridget’s first exclamation was one of thanksgiving.
“I thank Thee, my Tord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast called
her away before the world became dear to her!” (Was she
looking into the future when Risaberga was to become re­
laxed and worldly?)
Then she locked herself in her oratory and burst into a
storm of tears. But it was not so much grief at the loss of one
she had hardly expected to see again, as shame that she had
given her child a bad example of pride and had not done
more to help her.29
Bridget also learned that her wilful eldest daughter Merita,
who had become a widow, had made a second marriage, and
one which was little less displeasing than the first had been,
for Canute Algotsson was known to be worldly, ambitious,
and incurably avaricious. The news, too, of Cecilia, Bridget’s
youngest child, was disquieting. She had left her convent
school secretly to be married to a young squire, and her
mother’s hopes of her finding peace and safety as a Domini­
can nun were dashed to the ground.
Besides family news the Scandinavian visitors brought with

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them political gossip of absorbing interest to one who had
always followed closely the events affecting her country. It
was a troubled Sweden of which Bridget heard. King Magnus
and his elder son, laic, whom he had been forced to accept
as co-Regent of Sweden, were always at strife. When, in 1359,
Eric, his wife, and children all died suddenly (thus fulfilling
Bridget's prophecy made to him in his childhood) , the ene­
mies of Magnus said openly that they had been poisoned by
order of the King and even by the hand of Blanche herself.
The story of the unnatural crime has come down to our own
days, but there is not the slightest hint of such a thing in St.
Bridget’s writings, for all her denunciation of Magnus.30
At another time Bridget heard how the nobles had risen in
rebellion and that they, her son Charles among them, had
offered the crown of Sweden to Albert the Younger of Meck­
lenburg, the King’s nephew, but a German.
Though Magnus had gathered together an army and had
faced his rebellious nobles, lie had been defeated and
imprisoned.
For her eagerness to hear news of her country, Bridget
reproaches herself, and says Christ rebuked her.
“Why do you take such delight in hearing about worldly
people and their doings, and the wars of princes? Why are
you so absorbed in all these idle tales?”
I am tempted to make a short digression here and continue
my quotations from a revelation which, though recorded six
centuries ago, seems to be peculiarly significant to-day.
“The Devil moves the lords of this world to follow his
will,” we read, “. . . yet I am the Lord, and it is by My
judgement they will be judged. They have made to them­
selves a new law which is contrary to Mine. They care only
how to be honoured by the world, how to grow rich, how to
do their own will, how to increase their race. Therefore by
the truth of My Godhead and My Manhood, I protest that
if they die in this frame of mind they will never enter that
land of which the land flowing with milk and honey promised

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to the children of Israel was a figure. And as those that, de­
sired flesh died by the sudden death of the body, so will these
die the death of the soul. But those who do My will shall
enter the land flowing with milk and honey, that is, heavenly
glory, where there is no earth beneath and heaven above, for
I, the Creator and Lord of all, am beneath and above, with­
out and within, for I fill all things. I will satisfy My friends
not with honey but with sweetness ineffable and wonderful,
so that they shall desire nothing but Me and shall tvant for
nothing, for in Me is all good. This good My enemies shall
never taste except they turn from their evil ways. If they had
but thought of what I have done for them, if they had but
considered what I have given them, they would never have
provoked Me to anger. For I gave them to possess all things
necessary and desirable, but in reason. I allowed them hon­
ours, friends, and pleasures, but in moderation. If a man in
an honourable position thinks within himself: Since I am so
placed, I will live according to my state, I will honour God,
I will oppress no one, I will care for those under my charge,
I will love all — then one in such a post of honour is pleasing
to Me. If a man has riches and says: I am rich, but I will
never receive any unjust gain, I will do injury to no man,
will keep myself from mortal sin, will help the poor — then
that man with his wealth is pleasing to Me. . . . But many
put their own law before Mine. They will suffer none to be
in greater honour than they, they are never satisfied with
their wealth. And in their pleasures they exceed what is right.
Therefore, unless they amend and follow another way, they
cannot enter My land which flows with spiritual milk and
honey — that is, with sweetness and plenty.”31
Here are ideas and expressions only too familiar to us.
Men letting themselves be led by the devil; a New Order, a
world organized without reference to God and His laws; lust
of power, worship of race, greed for wealth, unbridled pleas­
ure. But as ever, St. Bridget’s message is not something
merely negative but also positive; not merely destructive but

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St. Bridget

in

Rome

constructive as well. If we hear in it the fulminations of
divine justice, we hear also the pleadings of divine love.
Sometimes Bridget was allowed to know of happenings in
the land she had left without the aid of a messenger. There
was the death of Katherine's husband, for instance. Another
time she came to Master Peter and told him she had heard
these tvords: “Oh Master Mathias, blessed you, with such a
crown prepared for you in heaven!” Master Peter at once
made a note of the date, and when, some time later, Prior
Peter arrived from Sweden, bringing news of the death of
Master Mathias, at which he had been present, it was found
that the dates coincided.32
It was not only occasional visitors to Rome that flocked
to Bridget’s house. As the years went on she became one of
the notabilities of the city and her front door was always
opening and shutting during the hours she received visits.
Those who sought her out might not always relish what she
had to say in answer to their questions. If anyone came who
was proud or in a state of sin, she at once became aware of an
intolerable odour and had a bitter taste in her mouth. Once
when seated by such a person, the odour almost overpowered
her. She told him quite frankly that she knew him to be pos­
sessed by a devil, and naturally he was very angry. Yet he
afterwards amended his life and then the bad odour was
replaced by a good one.33
But if this plain speech was felt by Bridget to be necessary
on occasion, it was surely something unsual. One who visited
her speaks in his evidence of the gracious and smiling wel­
come that it was her custom to give her guests. In The Book
of Margery Kempe, that curious mediaeval work whose un­
expected discovery and publication has aroused so much in­
terest, there are two references to St. Bridget of extraordinary
value. Between Margery Kempe and St. Bridget there is, in
some directions, a certain similarity. Both claimed to have
had intimate personal communications from Christ Himself;

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neither was ever in the cloister, but on the contrary fulfilled
the duties of wife and mother. Both could be, on occasion,
outspoken in rebuke. Both went on long pilgrimages of devotion and to the same shrines. Here, however, the resemblance
ends. The spiritual excitement, the cries and loud weeping
which made Margery so exceedingly unpopular, have no coun­
terpart in St. Bridget; are indeed unthinkable in connection
with her. Her ecstasies caused wonder, but never repulsion.
We have a sense of restraint; with all her love of poverty and
humility, something of the grande dame remains with her to
the end, and though sometimes mocked at for her prophecies
we cannot picture her incurring the censures passed on the
very emotional Margery.
It was some thirty-five years alter Bridget’s death that Mar­
gery Kempe went to Rome. She stayed at the Hostel for
English pilgrims, now the Venerable English College, and
visited the near-by house where St. Bridget had lived and
died. There she found one who had been in the Saint’s serv­
ice. She asked her to say something of her former mistress.
The incident is best told in Margery’s own words. “This
creature’’ (so Margery always speaks of herself), “spake with
St. Bridget’s maiden in Rome but she could not understand
what she said. Then she had a man who could understand
her language, and that man told St. Bridget’s maiden what
this creature said and how she asked after St. Bridget her
lady. Then the maiden said that her lady, St. Bridget, was
kind and meek to every creature, and that she had a laughing
face. Also the good man where this creature was at host told
her that he knew her himself, but he little thought she had
been as holy a woman as she was, for she was ever homely and
kind to all creatures that would speak with her.’’34
Many who could not come to Bridget in person consulted
her by letter. One engaged in matters of state asks her advice
and begs for a rule of life. Another propounds his difficulties
about the seven thunders mentioned in the Apocalypse. Some

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02

St. Bridgef

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St. Bridget

Rome

of the Orsini family even implore her help in putting an end
to scandal caused by one of their relatives keeping ill-gotten
gain.
Bridget writes to the delinquent: “My Lord, 1 warn you
of the danger that besets your soul. By the Passion of Jesus
Christ who redeemed your soul, by Ills Piccious Blood, I
exhort you not to lose it for the sake of perishable riches.
Give back tvhat you have seized. God is witness that 1 say this
to you not of my own accord, lor I do not know you. But a
certain person keeping vigil and not asleep, heard in prayer
these words spoken by an angel: ‘Orso, Orso, what audacity
is this that you show towards God and Mis justice? Self-will
has mastered your conscience. You will speedily be judged by
God; then your conscience will speak and condemn you.’ ”35
And the woman who was thus consulted, admired, feared,
would, in the privacy of her room, pour forth her soul to
God in utter self-abasement. Ό Lord God Almighty, blessed
art Thou who hast created and redeemed me, and when I was
worthy of damnation didst lead me back to penitence. I
acknowledge, O Lord, in the presence of Thy Majesty, that
I have wasted all that Thou hast given me for my salvation:
the time for repentance in vanities, the grace of Baptism by
my pride. I can do nothing of myself but sin. Send to me Thy
Holy Spirit that He may illuminate my heart and strengthen
me in the way of Thy commandments, so that I may perse­
vere in those things which I know I am inspired by Thee to
do, and that no temptation may separate me from Thee.”38
Bridget could not but know well her power of working
miracles, for these seem to have been of almost daily occur­
rence, but her humility always shrank from any suggestion
that her prayers were specially acceptable to God. Sometimes
it took a definite command from Master Peter to induce her
to exercise her gift of healing by prayer or touch.37
The Bull of Canonization says: “She stretched out her
hands to the needy, showing to the poor and sick an inex­
haustible love.” Rome’s poor soon knew where they could

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find help and the love of a friend. She served the sick, wash­
ing their sores; she often received into her house as guests
those who needed special care, nursing them back to health.
And as in Sweden, she befriended girls who had fallen into
sin, sheltered them under her roof, taught them, and finally
provided for them.38
Not only by sympathy but by experience did she know
what it was to fear for the loss of a home. After some four
years in Rome she was given a month’s notice to quit the
Cardinal’s house which had been her home since her arrival.
She was in great perplexity, even anguish, for it was no easy
matter to find a suitable place for her large family, and the
thought of having to go to one of the hostels for strangers
with the beautiful daughter who already attracted so much
attention, filled her with alarm. It must have been just about
this time, too, that Cola Rienzi, once Rome’s idol, was
stabbed to death amidst scenes of indescribable excitement
and horror. The only direction Bridget received in prayer
was that she and Master Peter must go and search for a suitable house. They obeyed, but day after day the weary tramp
went on with no success. Bridget was all packed up and ready
to go to a hostel, when just two days before the month was up,
a letter from the Cardinal arrived telling her she was quite
at liberty to stay on in his house. She then understood that
the trial had been sent to teach her what many a poor pilgrim
had to suffer who arrived homeless and unwelcomed in
Rome.38
Although the Cardinal’s house was Bridget’s home for
more than four years, the house in Rome which will always
be associated with her is that which now bears her name —
Casa Brigida, in the Piazza Farnese, with the church dedi­
cated to St. Bridget attached to it. It belonged to Pietro
Papazzuri, a Roman noble whose wife Francesca became ac­
quainted with Bridget during the Jubilee Year. When Pietro
died, Francesca invited her Swedish friend and her household
to make Palazzo Papazzuri their home. It was known as the

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House of the Five Columns, the portico having that number
of columns, taken possibly from the old Theatre of Pompey
dose by.
In St. Bridget’s time it faced south on to what is now
known as Via Monserrato (then Via Regola), a gravelled
road running parallel to the Tiber. Scarcely a house was to
be seen; fields lay between the road and the river. To the
north was the Campo dei Fiori, a meadow which left the view
open to S. Lorenzo in Damaso, the church Bridget continued
to attend. In the Process, Bridget’s home is referred to as
the house in the Campo dei Fiori.40
Bridget’s daughter seconded her mother in all her works
of charity and followed her example in the practice of pen­
ance and poverty, wearing the shabby gowns patched for her
by one who had made herself her household’s servant. Yet it
seemed as if heaven itself could not bear anything so fair as
Katherine to be meanly clad. Stories were told by those who
knew her and her mother to be in need of money, of Kather­
ine’s cloak falling back when she was out walking, and reveal­
ing a gown of rich silk embroidered with flowers, and again,
one who visited her when she happened to be ill in bed,
declared that her coverlet was of gold and scarlet. Why, asked
the bewildered onlookers, did not these ladies sell such costly
things, instead of being pinched for food?41
But before Bridget gained the love and veneration of the
Romans, she had for a time to face their fury.
She felt herself charged with a message, not merely to this
one and that in private, but to all who were leading dissolute
and unworthy lives. When it was found that she claimed to
have revelations from God telling of His coming judgements,
she was denounced as a mad soothsayer; some even threatened
to burn her alive.
Bridget bore all this with her usual serenity, but she had
her household to consider, and questioned, had she any right
to expose them to danger? Yet such a strong sense of the help
and protection of Christ and His Mother came to her in

St. Bridget

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Her Friends

95

prayer, that the thought of leaving Rome until the storm died
down was given up. There came a revelation from the Virgin
Mary, who said: “I will be to you and yours a shield of pro­
tection against your spiritual enemies and against all attacks
made on you. It is my wish that you and your household,
when you assemble for X’espers, sing the hymn ‘Ave maris
stella.’ ” The direction was faithfully carried out, and con­
tinued later in St. Bridget’s Order.42
Animosity quickly gave way to veneration. Rome became
proud of possessing one so favoured by God, the “saintly
widow,” as she is termed by Martin V in his confirmation of
the Bull of Canonization. So much a part of Rome did she
become that the “Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget,” said to have
been composed by her at Alvastra, and richly indulgenced
when said by the crucifix in the basilica of St. Paul, were
inserted as important for pilgrims, in a Latin guide-book
often printed in Rome at the end of the fifteenth century.
The prayers in question, though always bearing St. Bridget’s
name, yet find no place among her writings as edited by Prior
Peter and Bishop Alfonso, but certainly breathe her spirit.
Among St. Bridget’s revelations concerning the Rome of
the future is one which has aroused interest in our own day
when we have seen the signing of the Lateran Treaty and the
formation of the Vatican City. It runs:
“I saw in Rome as it were a plain, extending from the Pope’s
palace near St. Peter’s to the castle of Sant’ Angelo, and from
the castle of Sant’ Angelo to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost,
and from there back to St. Peter’s; and this plain was sur­
rounded by a very strong wall by which were divers dwell­
ings. Then I heard a voice saying: ‘That Pope who loves his
Bride with the love wherewith I and My friends have loved
her, shall possess this place with his Cardinals, so that he may
summon his councillors more freely and in greater peace.’ ”43
To many it is a favourite pastime to make prophecies fit
their own time. But can we by any possibility imagine St.
Bridget visualizing a Rome in which that “plain, girt about

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St. Bridget in Rome

with a strong wall,” was all that Christ’s Vicar could claim
as his own, while the rest of the city of Peter and Paul was
accounted merely the capital of an earthly kingdom? Had it
been given her to foresee what we see to-day, she would
assuredly have heard again in her anguished heart the lament
of Christ: “Oh Rome, for My many benefits you have made
evil return!”
If we want to find a fulfilment — at least in desire — of the
prophecy in St. Bridget’s revelation, we need go no farther
than the century following her death. Nicholas V (1447-1 155).
truly a “Pope who loved his Bride,” drew up plans for a new
Vatican Palace, the details of which bring St. Bridget’s vision
vividly to mind. I quote from Pastor’s History of the Popes:
“The new Vatican was to be a citadel . . . the papal Palace
was also to include quarters for the College of Cardinals.”
And again: “The tomb of St. Peter, actually situated at one
extremity, was to be the centre of this grandiose plan. The
opposite extremity was to be formed by a large square in
front of the Castle and Bridge of St. Angelo.” The same
author gives us the following words from the speech the Pope
addressed on his death-bed to his Cardinals: “If,” said Nicho­
las, “We had been able to accomplish all that We wished,
our successors would find themselves more respected by all
Christian nations, and wotdd be able to dwell in Rome with
greater security both from external and internal foes. Thus
it is not out of ostentation or ambition or a vain-glorious
desire of immortalizing Our name that We have conceived
and commenced all these great works, but for the exaltation
of the powzer of the Holy See throughout Christendom, and
in order that future Popes should no longer be in danger of
being driven away, taken prisoners, besieged, and otherwise
oppressed.”
These words, spoken just five centuries ago, have surely a
very special significance to-day.

CHAPTER

IV

Her Daily Life
St. Bridget, surrounded by a large circle of friends, looked
up to, consulted, working actively among the poor, visiting
the great houses of Rome and receiving all who came to her;
does this suggest the life freed from outside cares, intent on
God, which we are told she had come expressly to seek?44
But did the things to which God called her ever develop in
the way she expected? To the end we shall find her reaching
her goal only by seeming to turn her back upon it.
She had, after her husband’s death, wrenched herself from
her former life of family affections, social duties, and active
works of charity, and had tried by prayer, solitude, and
rigorous mortification to prepare herself for the unknown
future. Her renunciation had been accepted and she had
been granted a union with God close and intimate, the por­
tion of certain specially chosen souls. And now in Rome,
whither she had come in obedience to a divine call, she found
restored to her, so to speak, some of the things she had re­
nounced and which in the past had seemed a hindrance.
They were so no longer. Her soul, simplified, saw all people,
all events in God, so that she could pass from deep contem­
plation to the active exercise of a very practical charity
towards her neighbour, without losing the peace in which she
was now firmly established or her inner light of God’s
presence.
She drew up for herself, and to a certain extent for her
household, a definite plan of life, one which she believed had
been given her by the Divine Founder of her Order. In its
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St. Bridget in Rome

main features it was to be a model for the future monastery,
and so we find it monastic in its spirit of poverty, obedience,
and mortification. No hour was unaccounted for. The hours
for sleep were regulated, fasts were frequent and sex ere.
though if more food was really needful it could be asked of
Master Peter. Study, prayer, and manual work wore a part
of every day, and some recreation was also provided for, when
Bridget gathered her household round her and gave them
pleasure by her conversation. There was. too, the Great
Silence of the Cloister, and other times when all but neces­
sary speech was to be strictly avoided.15
However faithfully Bridget’s friends kept to the prescribed
rule, she herself, as we should expect, gave it its strictest and
most literal interpretation. And since the hours allotted to
sleep might be shortened though never lengthened, she saw
to it that her nightly rest was the minimum. When she lay
down on the only resting place she allowed herself — a rug
on the floor with an old cloak to cover her — it was, says her
daughter, her almost invariable custom to wait until she was
getting warm and sleepy and then to rise for an hour’s prayer.
Afterwards she would return to her so-called bed and sleep
till about midnight, and then continue her prayers with
many genuflections until daybreak, and this even when it was
freezing and the cold intense.
Katherine, who shared her mother’s room, watched this
austerity with some uneasiness, and sometimes when Bridget
was asleep would contrive to slip under her something
warmer and softer than the threadbare carpet which was little
better than the stone floor it covered.46
During the time of prayer after midnight, Bridget would
often be quite lost in contemplation, sometimes lying pros­
trate with arms extended, thus making herself a living cross.
At dawn she confessed what she counted as her sins. Any fail­
ures in thought, word, or deed, she always declared were at
once made known to her by a taste in her mouth of sulphur.
In the early morning she went out accompanied by her con­

Her Daily Life

99

fessor to visit the churches in Rome and outside its walls. She
had first heard Mass in her own oratory, but during these
visits she would often hear many others.47 Probably she would
only return at dinner time.
She was always silent at meals, though apparently others
were allowed to talk if they wished, for it is said that it was
no uncommon thing for her to be rapt in ecstasy when at
table and to be quite unconscious of what was said or done
by those with her.
Bridget did not share all her secrets with Katherine, deeply
as she loved her, and it was only after her mother’s death that
the daughter learned the reason of a curious custom that
took place during the meal. Thrice she would raise and ex­
tend her hands and then join them together, in a threefold
commemoration of Christ’s Passion.48
After dinner Bridget would go to her room or to the ora­
tory and there pray, read, or write down in Swedish any
revelations she had received, to be translated later by one of
her confessors. The translation made, she carefully compared
it with what she herself had written. If unable through illness
to write down her revelations herself, as sometimes happened,
she would call her confessor and a specially appointed secre­
tary and “with great devotion and in the fear of God, as if
reading from a book,” says the early Life, she would dic­
tate words which her confessor at once dictated to the scribe
in Latin. Then what he had written she would have read to
her, listening with the closest attention.49
What, besides the particular class of revelations already
mentioned, does that great volume of close print named
Revelationes caelestes contain?
Had warnings, prophecies, and sometimes denunciation of
those among whom she moved been the exclusive burden of
her writings, they would hardly have found their way so rap­
idly over Europe. The people of that age found nourishment
for their souls in the direct consideration of the great funda­
mental truths of Faith; the Creation, the Fall, the Incarna-

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St. Bridget in Rome

tion, and Redemption; man’s struggles here on earth, his fail­
ures and recoveries; Death, Judgement, Purgatory, Heaven,
Hell. These were the subjects they found treated of in Bridg­
et’s writings. As to her manner of conveying the message she
felt heaven had entrusted her with, the phraseology is that of
her time. The allegorical form of speech is such as would be
familiar to her hearers, accustomed as they were to simili­
tudes, parables, bright lights, and dark shadows. The wealth
of the imagery used by her, combined with her reputation
for possessing extraordinary spiritual gifts, made her works
among the most popular spiritual reading of the fifteenth
century.
She broke no new ground. When the Church hails her as a
“new light’’ and says that to her were revealed heaven’s se­
crets, such expressions in no way imply she had some new
gospel to deliver. She said what others had said before her
and with an accuracy of expression that won the assignment
to her special Mass of the words from the Book of Wisdom:
“I called and the spirit of wisdom came upon me,’’ since her
acquaintance with the writings of the Doctors of the Church
can have been but slight.50 Truly no one who reads her Book
of Revelations even cursorily can think that she would have
been capable of producing what she did without some very
special assistance.
There are also revelations which treat quite simply of
things constantly in her thoughts, such as the sufferings of
the Passion, or the rare gifts of God’s saints, and in particular
the glories and prerogatives of Mary. And underneath all
Bridget’s words — here, surely lies much of the secret of her
power — we hear the beat of her own loving, humble, and
grateful heart, which breaks forth every now and again into
acts of deep self-abasement, of adoration, thanksgiving, and
burning love.
“O my most tender God,” she cries, “when Thou dost
deign to visit me, my heart is so full of sweetness I can scarce
contain myself! It seems to me Thou dost so imprint Thyself

Her Daily Life

ioi

upon my soul that Thou Thyself becomest my very heart and
inmost being. Happy should I be could I do what is pleasing
to Thee. Do Thou, O Best Beloved, give me Thy help in all
things, that I may seek and promote Thy glory.”31
No doubt it was because she felt she had a message for
mankind that Bridget spent a part of her day in the study of
Latin. She could hardly have been wholly ignorant of it be­
fore this time, as some evidence in the Process seems to
suggest, but her progress in her study and the ease with which
she came to write and speak a language so different from her
own were sufficiently notable to have been considered as
something in the nature of a miracle.52
But as we have seen, the hours set apart for work included
humbler tasks than learning Latin, for she took delight in
mending the clothes of hei' big household. And when the
purse kept by Master Peter was nearly or quite empty, she
would sit among the Italian beggars gathered on the steps of
S. Lorenzo in Panisperna and beg alms of the passers-by. She
would receive with great sweetness and humility what was
given her, kissing the gift devoutly as something bestowed on
Christ Himself.53 Here was her opportunity of making some
small reparation for that pride over which she grieved as she
thought of the days when she had been one of Sweden’s great
ladies.
Vespers, more walks to Rome’s sanctuaries, and the visits
she must make or receive as part of her apostolate occupied
her afternoons, and at night the whole household gathered
in the oratory to sing the Divine Office and, as expressly men­
tioned, the Sequence of the Holy Spirit. When Bridget finally
retired for the night, none might speak to her, not even her
daughter.54
Such was her daily life as seen from without. What was its
inner character can only be guessed at. We have her ardent
outpourings of praise, adoration, and love, some of which
have just been quoted, and we are told by Alfonso in his
Prologue to the eighth book of the Revelations, that the

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favours showered on her by heaven brought an almost over­
whelming· joy. As far as we know, she does not seem to have
suffered from the long periods of spiritual darkness and
weariness which are so often the lot of God’s special friends,
until the last months of her life, when her desolation came
almost as a surprise and was accompanied by sharp tempta­
tions. Yet it is certain that this ardent lover of the cross
was never without suffering, and that her pain over man’s
rejection of his Redeemer’s love and over her own human
frailties grew ever more keen as she was drawn closer to the
ineffable purity of God.
The disciplined life we have sketched went on for more
than twenty years, interrupted only by various pilgrimages,
during which the daily mortification was as great, though it
necessarily took a somewhat different form.
The earliest pilgrimage was to Assisi, and the date given
for it by Swedish scholars is 1354, that is, five years after the
arrival in Rome. The journey was undertaken in conse­
quence of a vision Bridget had of the Poverello when praying
in the church dedicated to him, S. Francesco a Ripa. It was
on his feast, October 4, and he said to her: “Come into my
cell and eat and drink with me.” She needed no urging. She
took the invitation to mean she must journey to Assisi, and
at once she prepared to go.
In Assisi two churches, one very different from the other,
draw the lovers of St. Francis. On the very edge of the steep
hill to which clings the little rose-coloured town, is the great
church built after the Saint’s death and containing his tomb.
In the fourteenth century its magnificent frescoes had not
long been completed. In the plain below lies St. Mary of the
Angels (not then as now covered by a basilica), and in this
first home of the Friars Minor every stone of the humble
little building speaks of Francis.
In St. Bridget’s day, the exact place of the Saint’s relics was
still undiscovered, and the sight of that fine, building on the
hill was pain to her, since it seemed to-show-OH ihe;part of

Her Daily Life

his sons a turning away from Lady Poverty. She was thinking
about this and praying in the church St. Francis loved, when
she had a vision of Christ. Lie said: “My friend Francis
descended from the mount of pleasure into a cave, where his
bread was divine love, his drink tears, and his bed the contemplation of My works and My commands. But his brethren
now ascend the mount of worldly cares and pleasures and
regard not the humility and the consolations of their Father
and My friend.”55
When after a few days Bridget paid a last visit to the
church in order to commend herself and her companions to
the prayers and protection of St. Francis on their return jour­
ney, to her delight, he appeared to her, saying:
“You did well to come, for I invited you to my cell to eat
and drink with me. Yet the cell of which I spoke is not this
house. My cell is true obedience. My meat was drawing my
neighbour from the vanities of the world to serve God with
his whole heart; this was to me delicious food. And my drink
was the joy I tasted when I saw those I had converted love
God with all their might. Enter into this my cell and share
my meat and drink that you may be refreshed throughout
eternity.”56
This story of Bridget and St. Francis is typical of her atti­
tude towards God’s saints. They are all her dear and honoured
friends, and when she visits their shrines it is to make no
formal visit of devotion but to have an interview with the
saint she has come to honour. During a much longer absence
from Rome some years later than the visit to Assisi, she vis­
ited the various shrines in the kingdom of Sicily: Ortona,
Bari, Salerno, and Benevento, where in turn she honoured
the relics of St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Nicholas, St.
Matthew, and St. Bartholomew, and she tells us what she said
to them and what they said to her, or it may be what their
Divine Master said of them in their praise, such as the follow­
ing: “The Apostle St. Thomas was My treasure . . . truly a
light in the world.” And of St. Andrew whose tomb at Amalfi

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was visited a few years later: “His body was My temple,
adorned with all virtue. Therefore is his shrine a place of
help to sinners, for those who go there with faith will not
only be absolved from their sins but will receive abundant
and eternal consolation. Nor is this strange. For he was not
ashamed of My cross but bore it with joy, and therefore I
hear and receive those for whom he prays, for his will is
Mine.”
A visit was also made to the shrine of St. Michael at Monte
Gargano, and Bridget declared afterwards that she had heard
angels singing there the praises of their Creator.57
During this pilgrimage, extending over two years accord­
ing to Katherine’s account,58 Naples was the headquarters.
Here Bridget already had a friend, Nicholas Orsini, Count of
Nola, who had made her acquaintance first in Rome during
the Jubilee Year. We know she went to Court, for Orsini in
evidence given for the Process of Canonization, speaks of
having seen her there, but the revelations which concern the
Queen of Naples seem to belong to a later visit.
Queen Joanna of Naples had succeeded her grandfather
Robert the Wise when she was only seventeen, and had at
this time been reigning thirty years or thereabouts. She had
inherited his taste for art and letters but not his virtue, and
Petrarch has painted a revolting picture of her Court, where
every kind of vice was to be found.
Joanna was curious to see one who had long been a
notability in Rome and who had the reputation of being a
seer, and with the curiosity was mingled a certain reverence
for Bridget’s sanctity. For in the Queen’s strange character
there was somewhere a spirit of faith, and though she was to
pay little heed to the Saint’s admonitions, she would have for
her to the end a real respect — almost an affection.
Joanna’s subjects were immensely proud of her, fascinated
by her wit, brilliance, and beauty, and were always ready to
smile on those she favoured; so when Bridget was received
and honoured by the Queen, all Naples flocked to her.

Her Daily Life

105

Some real and lasting friendships were made by Bridget
during this visit. There was, for instance, Lapa Buondelmonte, a native of Florence, but living with her husband and
little son in Naples. The friendship began perhaps with the
cure of the boy. Lapa tvent to Bridget and humbly begged
her as a favour to touch her child or even only make the sign
of the cross over him. Bridget did both and the cure was im­
mediate and complete.30 This friendship with the Buondelmonte family has given us a letter of St. Bridget’s still extant
and discovered some years ago in the State Archives in Flor­
ence. It runs:
“To the noble lady, Donna Lapa de Azarolis, my revered
daughter, this letter is to be delivered.
“Most revered Lady and my dearly beloved daughter.
“With the customary salutations in the Lord, I wish to tell
you that we have received good and comforting news from
our native land and on that account shall remain here for the
present, God willing, to see to various affairs. Oh, that during
this time we might do something good to further our soul’s
salvation and through us, though unworthy, honour, bene­
diction, praise and thanksgiving might be rendered eternally
to the Lord Jesus Christ!
“We long with all our hearts to see you here, most beloved
daughter, and should your Ladyship decide to come here, I
beg you to send word as soon as possible not only to your own
people but also to us who never forget your kindness, and as
long as we live will be at your service. Also we beg you as
soon as may be, to give our respectful greetings to Nicholas
Soderini, thanking him in our name and on our behalf for
having provided for our welfare by his daily kindness, re­
peated expenditure and solicitude.
“Master Peter gets better every day and humbly commends
himself to your prayers. Remember us all to . . . Esau . . .
and all your household. May the Most High ever preserve
and guide you by His grace.

io6

St. Bridget

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Rome

“Written in Rome on the morrow of the Feast of the Vir­
gin Lucy.
“Bridget de Rachman From Norwav.

The allusion to Master Peter gives us the year 1370 as the
date of this letter. What is the meaning of its signature? It
has been suggested that it may be a reference to some mis­
nomer given to Bridget which amused her and Lapa and is
now recalled. It is rather a pleasing thought, bringing the
Saint nearer to us, that a letter, written in the formal style of
the time should end with something like a joke between two
intimate friends. The letter is considered to be undoubtedly
Bridget’s.
Another friendship made in Naples brought under the
Saint’s influence a young man, Elzear de Sabran. When
Bridget came into his life, he was at the cross-roads, consider­
ing his future career, wavering between studying for the
priesthood and following a worldly course, as his friends
urged. He met Bridget by chance at the house of a mutual
friend, fell under her spell, and asked her to give him a rule
of life. This she later did, saying it had been revealed to her
by the Virgin Mother. Elzear found that thoughts and con­
versations of his were all known and his questions answered,
and following the advice given, he gave up his worldly ambi­
tions and went off to Bologna to study for the priesthood.
Years later as Cardinal and a member of the papal commis­
sion appointed to examine Bridget’s writings and religious
rule, he was able to repay in some measure the debt he owed
her.61
The Bull of Canonization says that St. Bridget was often
seen raised from the ground when at prayer. As far as evi­
dence goes, this phenomenon seems only to have been seen by
chosen witnesses. First by a brother at Alvastra whose doubts
about her were set at rest by seeing her raised up while pray­
ing in the monastery church. Then, after she came to Rome,
it was a certain John of Ponnacio, noted for his holy life, who

asserted that he had seen her raised in the air about half the
height of a man. This was somewhere near the Colosseum
and when in company with others. Fier feet, said the witness,
did not seem to move, but she was borne along like a ship.
Another time he saw her thus raised while hearing Mass at
the basilica of St. John Lateran. When the Epistle had been
sung she was lifted up and borne along in the air to the chapel
called Sancta Sanctorum, whither he followed her. At yet
another meeting, he declared her face shone with so brilliant
a light that it dazzled him.62 Was Bridget herself aware of
these wonders? We do not know, and it seems unlikely, as she
took the utmost pains to hide her spiritual gifts from others
or to seem in any way different from those around her.
It was when increasing age and her stern treatment of her­
self were beginning to tell seriously on her, that Bishop
Alfonso came to know her, and henceforth watched her daily
with astonishment and ever deepening reverence. A sort of
amazed admiration is constantly appearing in his evidence
given some ten years later. The aristocratic Spaniard, who
never forgets Bridget’s noble birth, tells how she would kneel
humbly before Master Peter to beg from him some of her
own money to buy perhaps a pair of shoes for one of her
family. Or it might be she asked leave to give alms; this re­
straint was her hardest sacrifice. Sometimes, notes Alfonso,
her request was granted and sometimes refused. Again, he
heard her sharply rebuked “by word and gesture” for what
only her saintly confessor could consider faults. Bridget
would immediately ask pardon, striking her breast. Or if, in
her eager enthusiasm she expressed her ideas too freely, she
would check herself with a humility which had about it
nothing artificial.
Alfonso often went with her on her visits to the churches,
and could hardly bear to see one whose bodily strength was
clearly giving way, tramping Rome’s muddy, uncared-for
streets in rain and snow. Sometimes, says this tender-hearted
hermit, he would secretly take with him sweetmeats, and

_________________________________

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Sr. Bridget

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Rome

when he saw her ready to drop from sheer exhaustion, would
offer them to her. One is glad to know she accepted this
slight relief, motived as it was by charity. It is well to re­
member that this intrepid walker iras not only fasting, but
wearing, as had been her custom for many years, haircloth
and hard knotted cords next her flesh/3
Alfonso would sometimes lay his doubts and difficulties
before her, even those of conscience. She had but one answer
for him as for all who asked her advice: “I am a sinner and
unworthy to pray to God for you, but do you ask God to give
me His grace and I will gladly think over the matter, and
perhaps He will reward your humility and not take account
of my sinfulness.” Self-abasement, says the same witness, was
her constant attitude of soul before God. She never presumed
on the favours granted her, but only marvelled at God’s
choice of her. She related them to her confessors from no
motive of vanity, but only in fear lest she might be deceived.
This ardent advocate for Bridget’s canonization sums up his
belief in her sanctity thus: “Her gifts were not against nature
but above it; given for the strengthening of faith and proved
by a life full of virtues persevered in to the last and crowned
by a holy death. She was firm in faith, humble in her conver­
sation, sincere and exemplary in her ways, just in her works;
loving in her deeds, austere in abstinence, assiduous in watch­
ings, fervent in prayer; most patient in adversity, most devout
in her use of the sacraments, most obedient to commands,
most zealous in all her work for Christ; not seeking the vain
praise of men, for she despised worldly honours and display;
never seeking after wealth, for she despised her own; shun­
ning the pleasures of the flesh, for she mortified her body and
treated it but as dung that she might glory in Christ; with
no thought for worldly well-being, as is attested by her con­
fessors, by her servants and by all.”61

CHAPTER

V

Before the Pope
Early in the year 1367 Rome was astir with a wholly new

excitement. Men were at work on the crumbling walls of the
papal palace, trying to make it look habitable; the Vatican
gardens, so long a wilderness, were being set in order; the
Pope was at last coming home.
Pope Clement VI had been followed by Innocent VI — like
his predecessor, a Frenchman, though more independent of
French control. From one of Bridget’s revelations it would
appear that writings of hers had been sent to him.65 It is sup­
posed that he had the intention of restoring the papacy to
Rome; he certainly prepared for his successor’s return by the
appointment of Cardinal Albornoz as Legate, for the Span­
iard, by his gifted administration, brought back the whole of
the Church States under papal rule.
Innocent’s reign lasted ten years and he was succeeded in
1362 by a Benedictine abbot who took the name of Urban V.
The election must have filled Bridget with hope, for the
new Pope was austere in his life, disliked the luxury of
Avignon, and showed plainly his intention to reform certain
abuses. One of her revelations found its way to Avignon.
This, together with the persuasions of the Emperor Charles
IV and the entreaties of Petrarch, strengthened the Pope’s
own desire, and in April, 1367, he left for Rome in spite of
the protests and opposition of his French cardinals. He was
met at Corneto by Albornoz and tvent first to Viterbo, where
the Legate died and so could not take part in the triumphal
procession into Rome which took place in October.
109

1 ΙΟ

St. Bridget in Rome

The enthusiasm in Rome was immense. Petrarch greeted
the returning pontiff with the words: “When Israel went out
of Egypt, the House of Jacob from a barbarous people, then
was our mouth filled with gladness and our tongue with joy.”
On October 16 the Pope sang Mass at St. Peter’s and as
soon after as might be, Bridget did homage, taking with her
her two sons Charles and Birger who lately had come to
Rome. Abbess Margaret Clausdotter, in her chronicle con­
cerning Bridget’s family, has described the scene. Birger wore
a long silk robe, the usual dress of his country on state occa­
sions. But Charles was decked out in fanciful extravagance,
with a massive belt set with little bells and a mantle of
ermine skins, so arranged that the ermines seemed alive,
some running up, some down, and each with a gilt bell at
its neck and in its mouth.
The Pope looked at Bridget’s pale, ascetic face and then
turned to her sons.
“You,” he said to Birger, “are your mother’s son.” Then to
Charles: “And you are a son of the world.”
Bridget at once fell on her knees and begged for her son
the remission of his sins. The Pope in reply lifted the belt
Charles wore and then his own monastic girdle.
“Surely,” he said, “to cany the weight of this belt is
penance enough!”
But Bridget burst out with: “Oh, Holy Father, free him
from his sins and I will free him from his belt!”
Soon Magnus Persson was sent by Bridget to the Pope with
a letter telling of a vision she had had concerning him.
She describes the condition of the Church in terms of an
actual building in which the Pope represents the doors.
The building is in a terrible state of decay and filth and
is in danger of ruin. The return of Christ’s Vicar to the
place where Peter once ruled is praised as the beginning of a
better state of things. The Pope if he wills can repair the
building; first by personal humility, then by making restitu­
tion for money wrongly acquired, giving it to the needy;

Before the Pope

i

11

again, by doing away with luxury and living in the utmost
simplicity. A severe indictment of the worldliness and pride
of the cardinals follows. They should be the support of the
Pope and must be turned from their present evil ways, first
by gentle words and remonstrances, and then, if these do not
suffice, the hammer of a just anger must be employed.
And so the revelation continues, treating of each section of
the Church in turn.66
Bridget had had long training in waiting: a particularly
hard lesson to learn for one of her intense nature, whose will
was masterful and whose eyes always looked straight through
every obstacle towards the end she sought. In her ears often
sounded words heard long ago in prayer: “Go to Rome and
stay there until you see both Pope and Emperor.” Now her
hopes soared high. The Pope had come; the Emperor would
surely follow, and then at last she could present her Rule and
it would be ratified by the Head of the Church. But when she
spoke confidently of the speedy coming of the Emperor, her
prophecy was met with incredulous laughter.07
All connection between the two great universal powers —
Empire and papacy — had practically ceased. The Empire had
fallen in 12 50, and though restored in Germany, counted for
little in Italy. The Emperor Charles IV, elected in 1346, had
the ambition to be crowned in Rome, and his wish was ful­
filled five years later, but according to the condition exacted
by the Pope, he left immediately after the ceremony. And
now, seventeen years later, he appeared in Italy again, and
Rome saw the amazing sight of the Head of the Church and
the heir of the Caesars entering the city together. This was in
1368. From the castle of Sant’ Angelo to St. Peter’s, the Em­
peror humbly led the Pope’s white mule, and later acted as
deacon at his Mass.
Yet Bridget’s own hopes in regard to this momentous meet­
ing were not fulfilled. She sent the Emperor two letters. One
was an allegory, bidding him look at four daughters of the
heavenly King: Humility, Abstinence, Self-Denial, and Char-

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St. Bridget in Rome

ity, who had. been driven from their heritage by Pride, Pleas­
ure, Luxury, and Simony. A second letter was a direct appeal
to Charles to support her request to the Pope. She spoke, as
was her way, on behalf of Christ Himself. Briefly, the letter
was as follows:
“I am the True Light, who have Myself set you as a light
in the world. Because it was My good pleasure, I set you on
the imperial throne. I speak to a woman the words of My
justice and My mercy. Receive the words she has written and
study them, for they come from Me. I would have you know,
you to whom I have committed the power of ruling, that I,
the Creator of all things, have dictated a Rule for religious
in honour of My beloved Mother and have given it to this
woman who writes to you. Read it and do your utmost to see
that what comes from Me may be approved by the Supreme
Pontiff who is My Vicar on earth, even as I, who am God,
have approved it before the heavenly court. . . .”6S
The Pope kept the copy of the Rule Bridget had given
him, but gave no sign of approval. To the Emperor the whole
thing no doubt seemed unreal and fantastic, and he made no
response.
Bridget had always felt sure that in order to gain the de­
sired confirmation, she must herself work hard and do her
utmost. She had been told, she says at the end of the revela­
tion of the Rule, that if the Pope, influenced by others,
should not give credence to its heavenly origin, three wit­
nesses from her own country, a bishop, a priest, and a reli­
gious, would be in Rome together and would help to
persuade him.60 Now these three witnesses seemed to Bridget
to be at hand. The Bishop of Vâxjo, who knew her well,
happened to be in Rome at this time. Might not he be the
promised bishop, and the two Peters the priest and the
religious?
However, she recognized that someone was needed to bring
her cause personally before the Pope; one who knew just how
to approach him and awaken his interest. So she turned to

I

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Nicholas Orsini, Count of Nola, always ready to be of service,
and in Rome at the moment. She begged him to bring the
matter of the Rule to Urban’s notice and to plead for its con­
firmation and for permission to found the monastery in
Sweden in accordance with her revelation.
Orsini undertook the commission, no doubt with much
misgiving. We can easily imagine how the whole thing must
have looked to him. More than twenty years ago in far-away
Sweden, Bridget had, so she allirmed, received a direct com­
mand from Christ to found a new religious order. Its Rule
purported to come from the very lips of Christ, word for
word, and according to these directions, a monastery was to
be built for both monks and nuns on a certain plan, at an
unknown place called Vadstena. Meanwhile Bridget had
been told to go to Rome, wait there for the coming of Pope
and Emperor and then seek the papal confirmation. Well,
the improbable had happened; Urban and Charles were both
in Rome. Bridget, when received in audience, had told the
Pope of the prediction, and the prelates who had laughed
before at her words were there to bear witness. At the same
time, it had to be remembered that when Bridget had sought
permission to establish her Order from Urban’s predecessor,
Clement VI, it had been definitely denied.
Yet, whatever the Count’s personal feelings were as to his
own part in this affair, his deep reverence for Bridget’s holi­
ness, his belief in her supernatural gifts, and his warm
friendship urged him to do his very best. Not only once but
many times did he bring up the matter in conversations with
the Pope, and thanks to these persevering efforts, Urban at
last handed him the draft of Bridget’s Rule, told him to show
it to some others whose opinion could be trusted, talk the
whole thing over with them, and then report to him.
The Count obeyed, asked the help of various men, reli­
gious and others, and together they examined the document.
They very soon saw that in its present form it would have no
chance whatever of being accepted or even looked at. by the

w

t14

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Rome

Roman Curia, accustomed to a very different style of diction
from Bridget's mysterious language, rendered moreover into
bad Latin by a Swedish monk. J lie only thing to be done
was to recast the whole Rule, though without changing its
meaning and spirit, f'his the Count of Nola undertook to do,
and showed his draft to Bridget, telling her that il it met with
her approval he would take it to the Pope. Bridget declared
herself satisfied, and accordingly Orsini sought another inter­
view with Urban, who this time showed that he thought seri­
ously of the matter. He appointed two cardinals to confer
with a number of theologians and make any necessary
corrections?11
And now, because Bridget felt hopeful as io the result of
the Count’s mediation, and possibly, mo, because she wished
to show that the establishment of her Order was not merely a
scheme on paper, she determined to have the building of her
monastery begun.
One day she called to her John Persson, a brother of Mag­
nus, and at this time staying with her.
“My dear John,’’ she said, “when you return to Sweden,
go to Vadstena, and when the necessary houses have been
built, stay there until I come, God leading me, for in that
place a monastery must be built.”
John understood her to mean (as indeed she did) that he
wras not only to superintend the building of the new monas­
tery but to enter it as a monk. And like his brother Magnus,
when long ago his entrance into the Order had been prophe­
sied, he was dismayed.
“My Lady,” he protested, “I am a married man with chil­
dren, I cannot become a monk!”
“You will take your wife with you to Vadstena,” answered
Bridget serenely, “and I will have your children and provide
for them. Go to the Bishop of Linkoping and he will give you
letters concerning this place and help in every way on my
behalf.”
It may be remembered that the royal residence at Vad-

Before

πιε

Pope

15
stena, given by King Magnus for the new monastery, had
been destroyed and the site was merely a heap of ruins. These
ruins John Persson, obedient to Bridget’s command, arranged
to have cleared away as soon as he returned to his own coun­
try and building was begun. Later his children died and he
became a monk, his wife a nun.71
It seems to have been during the time of waiting for the
report of the cardinals on the new Rule and the Pope’s final
decision as to the Order, that Bridget and her friends again
went on pilgrimage.72 She did not tvant to go. For the first
time we hear her uttering a very human protest -when a
divine command came to her in prayer to go to Amalfi and
there venerate the relics of St. Andrew and afterwards go on
to Naples over Christmas.
“Oh, Lord,’’ she cries, “time is slipping away, old age and
infirmity are coming on me and money is melting!’’
Then in her heart sounded words of comfort: “I am the
Lord who creates and re-creates, a helper in necessity, a de­
fender and a giver of gifts.’’73
Pope Urban, though still silent as to the Rule, yet showed
his interest in Bridget and her journey by granting leave for
Mass to be said on a portable altar wherever they might be,
even in countries under interdict. And later he gave her a
passport for herself, her daughter, and her two sons to go to
the shrine of St. Nicholas at Bari and to Monte Gargano.74
So it would seem as if the pilgrims went over much the same
ground as before.
If Bridget had quailed before the long, cold journey to
Amalfi (it was December), she proved to be the most eager
and energetic of all when on the way to visit Ortona for the
second time. She longed to possess a relic of the Apostle St.
Thomas, and afterwards told her confessors that during the
first visit the Saint had appeared to her and had promised
that "when she came again her wish would be granted. So on
she pressed, refusing to listen to prudent suggestions from
other travellers they met that they should halt for the night.
i

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Darkness fell and they were still far from Ortona. Rain was
coming down heavily, the cold was intense and everyone was
weary. Even the horses, relates Prior Peter, with vivid remem­
brance of what one can suffer from a saint’s enthusiasm, even
the horses seemed utterly exhausted. No inn was in sight, but
after some search a shelter of sorts was found about midnight.
There the travellers stood until daybreak, Bridget still full of
joyful anticipation. Later she told Prior Peter that in the
morning she had a vision of Christ and He rebuked her. It
was He who had allowed those they met the day before to tell
her it was impossible for her to reach Ortona before dark.
She should have listened but had refused to believe them. Yet
the promise made by St. Thomas would shortly be fulfilled.
The shrine was reached and St. Thomas again appeared
to Bridget. “What you have so long desired I will give you,”
were the words she heard, and the next instant, in some in­
comprehensible way, a small relic of the Saint passed from
the reliquary into Bridget’s hand. She received it with un­
bounded joy, “with deepest reverence and tears and tender
words,” says Katherine, describing the incident of which she
was a witness.78
One other happening on this pilgrimage is worth recalling
as an instance of the way Bridget looked on her power of
working miracles.
There was much serious sickness about and during one of
the halts on the journey, a Flemish servant in the party fell
a victim. She was in great pain and so ill that there seemed
no hope of recovery, and the Last Sacraments were given her.
One might suppose that as a matter of course Bridget would
have tried to cure the girl as she had cured so many other
sick people by prayer and touch. But no: she let events take
their natural course. In her own eyes she was, as she so often
said, only a sinner, to be used by God when and as He
pleased.
Katherine came to her, and fell at her feet in tears.
“Oh, dearest Mother,” she cried, “I implore you to save

Before the Pope

I
i
I
;
’

i

iy

us from this great trouble! I know if you pray fervently, you
can get the cure of this poor suffering girl from God.”
But it took a definite command from Master Peter to in­
duce Bridget to act as if her prayers were any more powerful
than those of others. As soon as he spoke, she prostrated on
the ground, and with her face to the earth and her arms
outstretched, she lay quite still for a while deep in prayer.
Then she rose and simply called the sick u’oman to her. She
came, to all appearance as well as everyone else, and soon
the travellers had mounted their horses and were on their
way to Rome, “happy and praising and blessing God,” says
Prior Peter.70
The return from the former pilgrimage had been all joy,
for Bridget knew the Pope would soon be in Italy. But now
all was in complete and tragic contrast.
Pope Urban had definitely made up his mind to go back
to Avignon. In spite of the remarkable achievement of Cardi­
nal Albornoz, it would have required courage, resource, and
persevering energy on the part of any pope to re-establish
the Holy See in Rome after so many years, and Urban felt
himself unequal to the task. His position seemed to him most
insecure. The restlessness in the Papal States was shown by
the revolt of Perugia, a revolt which had to be crushed by
force. Besides, Urban was in bad health; he was homesick
for France, and naturally his French cardinals urged him to
follow whither his desires led him.
What, Bridget must have asked on learning this news, was
she now to do? Was God again making impossible or allowing
man to make impossible what Fie Himself had required of
her? Was this retreat from Rome final? If Urban, with all
his high ideals and real desires for reform, could not bring
himself to face his task, what likelihood was there that his
successors would feel encouraged finally to break the Avignon
fetters?
Then there was the Rule. Bridget had heard nothing as
yet as to the recommendations of those appointed to examine

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St. Bridget in Rome

it, and Urban had already left Rome and was spending his
last months in Italy at his favourite palace at Montefiascone.
Undaunted, she determined to follow him there and ask for
an audience. Not only must she make a final attempt to have
her Order established, but she had two revelations for the
Pope himself.
It happened just at this time that both Prior Peter and
Master Peter were ill and so could not accompany her to
Montefiascone, but she took with her as confessor and coun­
sellor her new friend, Bishop Alfonso.77
It was not until August that she was accorded an audience
with the Pope. Only Nicholas Orsini was with her at this
momentous interview. She had told him she had an im­
portant revelation to make known to the Holy father. Now
Orsini knew both Urban and Bridget well. He was aware
that she had acquired a certain facility in speaking Latin,
but he pictured the Swedish seer and the French Pope meet­
ing, speaking Latin with the accent of their respective coun­
tries, and he felt convinced that Bridget’s request, clothed in
her usual allegorical form, was doomed to failure. So the
Count offered himself as interpreter.
This is what he read in the document Bridget handed to
him. “Tell him,’’ it said, as from Christ Himself, “tell him
that I have caused to be delivered to you the Rule of the
Order which shall be founded and begun at the place Vadstena, in Sweden. It has proceeded from My mouth. Now it
is My will that it shall not only be confirmed by your author­
ity but also strengthened by your blessing, since you are My
Vicar on earth. I have endowed it with a spiritual dowry, for
I have granted to it the indulgences which the church of St.
Peter ad Vincula possesses. Ratify now before men what has
been appointed before My heavenly host.’’
If it had needed courage for Bridget’s ambassador to ask for
the confirmation of a new Rule, Orsini may well have won­
dered if there was any end to the holy audacity of the saints.
At a moment when the very existence of her Order hung in

Before

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Pope

ng

the balance, the would-be foundress was calmly demanding
an unheard-of favour— that an indulgence belonging to one
of Rome’s ancient churches should be enjoyed by a monastery
not yet built.78
On August 5 the Pope issued the Bull which gave permis­
sion for the new foundation, but there was no mention of
the indulgence. The great Vincula indulgence, which later
made Vadstena a famous place of pilgrimage and over which
many battles were to be fought in years to come, was one of
the promises whose fulfilment Bridget was only allowed to
see from heaven. And even the Bull of Confirmation was a
profound disappointment. There was in it no mention of
the double monastery of the revelation; only permission to
build two houses, one for men and one for women. Monks
and nuns alike were to live under the Rule of St. Augustine.
Bridget had never dreamed of founding an Augustinian
monastery; she had hoped and expected her Rule to stand
by itself as one of the recognized rules of the Church. The
Lateran Council of 1215 had, however, decisively forbidden
the establishment of any new rule. That of St. Augustine is
a short one whose statutes deal with the fundamentals of
religious life, and on which it has been found possible down
to our own day to build spiritual edifices differing widely
from one another.
Bridget’s Rule, as revised by the appointed theologians, was
to be added to that of St. Augustine as Constitutions, and as
such, the Swedish bishops might sanction its observance.
With all this Bridget must perforce be content for the
time, and the year 1370 ranks as that in which her Order first
received its confirmation.79
There was still another message to be delivered to the
Pope. It was no favour to be asked; rather a prophecy of com­
ing evil, a pleading with him not to leave Italy. And this
time, though Alfonso stood by her, Bridget had no interpre­
ter when she presented to Urban the message she said she
had received for him from the Mother of God.

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This second and final audience took place on the eve of
the Assumption. “I am the Mother of God,” read the Pope
in the paper offered him. ‘‘Listen now, while I tell you of
my two sons. The first is my Son, Jesus Christ, born of me
in order to redeem mankind, who spared not Himself in
bodily labour and the shedding of His Blood. He is God
Almighty and is in eternal joy. My second son is he who
occupies the papal chair. Now I will speak of Urban. It was
through my prayer that he received the inpouring of the
Holy Spirit prompting him to go to Rome, to execute justice
and mercy, to uphold the Catholic Faith and confirm peace.
It was I who gained for the Pope the grace of the Holy Ghost
to leave Avignon for Rome and who brought him in safety.
And what has he done to me? He turns his back on me, and
it is the Evil Spirit who leads him. Fie is weary of the divine
labour and seeks only bodily comfort. He foliotvs the advice
of worldly friends who seek their own will and pleasure
rather than the salvation of his soul and the will and honour
of God. If he ever reaches the land in which he was elected
Pope, he will shortly after have a stroke which will make his
teeth chatter, his eyes grow dim and all his limbs tremble.”
Aware of what met Urban’s eyes, Alfonso stood by amazed
at Bridget’s calm courage. But she felt herself to be, as always,
only the humble runner who delivers a master’s message.
The Pope seemed unmoved by the prophecy, or if he
feared it, he would not show his fear, for still more did he
fear to stay in Italy. He agreed that the Holy Spirit had led
him to Rome. “But,” he added, “now He leads me hence.”
A renewal of the war between France and England made
a further excuse for departure, for from Avignon the Pope
might be able to negotiate peace. When he arrived there he
was worn and ill. Not in any luxury but as a poor religious
clad in his Benedictine habit and lying on a hard pallet, he
died on December 30, 1370.
Cardinal Roger de Beaufort was unanimously elected
Pope, taking the name of Gregory XI. Bridget had made his

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acquaintance during her days of Availing at Montefiascone
and soon had an urgent message to send him, choosing as her
ambassador her other friend in die Orsini family, Count
Latino.80
In the long revelation there is tenderness but also stern­
ness, for the new Pope is told he cannot plead ignorance of
the state of things in Rome, and that if he does not have the
care for the sheep which becomes him as the chief Shepherd,
he will feel the rod of God’s justice.
A second revelation followed quickly. It begins:
“Holy Father, a certain person who is well-known to you
was in prayer and heard a voice saying: ‘Write to Pope
Gregory the words you now hear. I have in the former
writing exhorted Pope Gregory to hasten to Rome or to Italy
with humility and divine charity, establish his seat and re­
main until death. Let him know for certain that it is the will
of God he should hasten his coming and arrive in March or
at latest the beginning of April.’ ”
More follows concerning the war between France and
England and the crusade to the Holy Sepulchre. At the end
comes this injunction, received, says Bridget, from the
Mother of God.
“Tell the Bishop my hermit [Alfonso] that he is to make
a copy of the letter . . . then close and seal the letter. The
open copy he shall show to that abbot who is the Pope’s
nuncio, and also to the Count of Nola that they may read
and understand its contents. Then let him give them the
sealed letter to take immediately to Pope Gregory. But the
open copy he shall tear into small fragments before their
eyes, as a token that if the Pope does not return to Italy at
the time appointed, the lands of the Church which now give
him their allegiance, shall be split up into many parts and
fall into the hands of enemies. And his sorrow will be in­
creased when he sees with his own eyes the fulfilment of these
things and that by no power of his can he bring back these
lands to their former peace and loyalty.”81

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The directions given were faithfully carried out by both
Bridget and Alfonso; the important sealed letter was taken
at once to Avignon by the Count of Nola.
Three more of Bridget’s revelations concern Gregory XI
and will be mentioned in their place. It was not given her
to see the final re-establishment of the papacy in Rome. Her
warnings, sufferings, and prayers helped to pave the way
which Gregory at last trod tvith such difficulty and hesitation
under the firm leadership of the great Saint of Siena who, at
this very time, unknown to Bridget, was being prepared for
her truly amazing mission.

CHAPTER

VI

The Holy Land
Life at the house in the Campo dei Fiori went on as before.
Bridget’s dream of going to \zadstena and planting the new
vineyard had faded. Though building was going on steadily,
and in consequence of the late Pope’s Bull of Confirmation
a beginning of religious life could soon be made, the found­
ress must stay at her post in Rome and go on working,
praying, and suffering for the fulfilment of the other part of
her life’s mission — the return from Avignon of Urban’s
successor.
In the spring of the following year came an unexpected
call. One day she was rapt in prayer, she relates, when Christ
appeared to her and said: “Prepare to go to Jerusalem to visit
My sepulchre and the other holy places there; and set out
from Rome when I shall bid you.” Somewhat later carne the
definite command she had been told to expect: “Go now.”
The early Life tells us that this was the fulfilment of a
promise received fifteen years earlier, yet the sudden an­
nouncement that the time had come seems to have brought
surprise and dismay.82 What in younger days she would have
eagerly welcomed as being the realization of one of her most
ardent desires, she now felt physically wholly unfit for. If
the winter journey to Amalfi had seemed beyond her
strength, what about a long voyage to Palestine with all its
hardships, and the long pilgrimages on foot when she got
there? She pleaded her feebleness, her old age.
“Why do you plead your age?” came the reply. “I am the
Creator; I make men weak and I make them strong as it
123

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pleases Me. I will be with you, will direct your way, lead you
forth and bring you back, and will supply all your needs.”83
The blind obedience and trust Bridget at times demanded
from others, she herself gave in full measure. For lis et in­
trepida, as more than one witness would later call her, she
at once began her preparations for what was to prove the last
of her pilgrimages.
The party numbered twelve in all and included, besides
her usual companions, Alfonso, and Bridget’s two sons,
Charles and Birger.bi
Alfonso was leaving Rome, as he thought, forever. He had
accepted his work on Bridget’s behalf as a mission entrusted
to him and not to be abandoned while she lived. But if she
was getting old, so was he. Bridget and Katherine, like an­
other Paula and Euslochium, would find a home in some
holy spot, and he, like another Jerome, would choose a cave
and live his hermit’s life, though ready to help in whatever
way he might be needed. He had few belongings, but would
take what he had with him, for never would he see Rome
again.
Bridget watched him packing up his books and vestments.
“My son,” she said, “don’t take more than one or two
books with you. We shall not stay long in Jerusalem, but
shall soon be back.”
Alfonso looked up from his work in amazement.
“Are you sure we shall return?” he said.
Bridget was quite certain, and the Bishop followed her
advice without further question.85
The pilgrimage left Rome at the end of November. Latino
Orsini accompanied his friends as far as the city gate. Would
he ever see Bridget again? When the time for parting came,
a shadow fell over her brave spirit. Something like dread had
seized her. She called Prior Peter to her and told him what
had just been revealed to her.
“All of us will return safe,” she said, “except one who will
die on the way.”

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125

She did not say who this one was; she did not know. Later,
she said she had taken for granted it was Katherine whom
she would lose.
“All who come to the Holy Land must expect to suffer.”
So its guardians of to-day say to visitors. Bridget accepted her
share of the cross with courage, and humbly following her
Divine Master, set her face to go to Jerusalem.86
The welcome in Naples was of course a warm one. They
were not to sail at once, perhaps because Bridget’s sons had
not yet come from Sweden, and many would have been glad
to have her as their guest. But she preferred to go to the
humble hospice belonging to the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem.
Soon after her arrival, both the Queen and the Archbishop
of Naples sent to her asking her advice on matters greatly
perplexing them. She received several revelations in
answer to their questions and herself delivered them to the
Queen and the Archbishop.87
But besides this private interview with Joanna, Bridget,
her sons and daughter must present themselves at Court and
pay the homage expected of them. In due course an audience
was accorded. Birger was first presented and as a matter of
course complied with the custom of the court at which he
found himself, and kneeling at the Queen’s feet, kissed them.
Before Charles bent down to this lowly position he looked
full at Joanna and their eyes met. Though now about fortyfive, she had lost none of her charm, and the Swedish knight
was swept off his feet. Tradition says he kissed her on the lips.
Certainly his bold admiration was obvious to all, and what­
ever the courtiers might have wished to do to this audacious
foreigner, they had to check their anger, for it was just as
obvious that the Queen was more than willing to accept the
homage paid her by Sir Charles.
Bridget’s shame and misery over the incident, and over the
favours which now began to be showered on her son, became
acute anguish when it was made known in public that he was

l2()

Sr. Bridget

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Rote

the Queen’s accepted suitor and would shortly be her hus­
band. What did this terrible thing mean? Joanna was a mar­
ried woman. Charles, a man past fifty, had a wife in Sweden.
But in the Queen’s eyes, Karin Glysing in the far north was
even less of an obstacle to a marriage with the Swedish knight
than was her own third husband, James of Mallorca, away at
present on business connected with his Spanish inheritance.
Nothing had ever been allowed to stand in the way of her
will.
And so Bridget had to stand by and sec Charles throw
himself with reckless gaiety into entertainments arranged in
his honour. His desire to visit the Holy Land — which had
been a real desire as his mother knew — seemed quite for­
gotten. Nothing mattered but the fascination ot Joanna’s
society. And Naples had to accept the situation and show
him all the honour the Queen demanded for one who was
her future husband.
Bridget spent her days and nights in a very agony of prayers
and tears. No comforting assurance came from heaven to
ease her pain. She must drink the cup to the dregs, look on
and see her son throwing away not only his honour but the
salvation of his soul.
February came. One night the Court gaieties were rudely
interrupted by news of the sudden illness of Sir Charles.
Bridget had prayed that her son might die rather than persist
in his sin. As she watched him consumed by fever, she knew
this was the answer to her prayer.
In a fortnight’s time he was dead.
Priests were gathered round the death-bed reciting the
prayers for the dying. Alfonso looked anxiously at Bridget.
He knew how large a share of her heart this wayward son had
always had. What would not his loss be to her, with all that
had been happening these past months? She was sitting in
perfect silence some eight or ten paces from the bed, and
even when the last breath was drawn she never moved or even

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wept. It seemed as if her face showed signs of gladness, and
presently she raised her hands as if giving thanks.
Words which head one of her revelations explain that at

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The Holy Land

tliis moment when she neither spoke nor moved nearer her
son, she was being consoled and strengthened by a vision of
the Virgin Mary who said to hcr: “I stood by your son
Charles just before he died, that he might lose all memory of
carnal love, might not think or speak anything contrary to
God nor omit anything that would be pleasing to Him. . . .
I helped him in that strait passage when the soul leaves the
body, that he might not have such pains of death as to make
him despair or be unstable and that he might not forget
God. . . . And when his soul left the body I took him under
my protection and the devils fled. , .
. But just how the sou!
of Charles was judged after death I. will show you when it
seems good to me.”
This seems to give the key to Katherine’s description of
her mother at this time when she speaks of her “reverence
and patience.”
Some words written by Ernest Hello concerning the Middie Ages are an apt description of Charles with his life-long
reverence for the Virgin Mother and his unchecked earthly
passions; his real spirit of faith and his so often unstable
conduct. He says:
. . Vice and crime were frequent. Yet
deep down in human nature, a vivid, inextinguishable faith
lived and reigned. Men abandoned themselves to their pas­
sions, but they did not worship them; they fell, but they rose
again. They were addicted to evil-doing, but they did not
mistake it for good. Things were known by their right
names.”88
Though Queen Joanna seems to have kept away from the
death-bed, she commanded a grand and stately funeral. The
unwanted James of Mallorca had meanwhile returned, since
he is mentioned as being present at the burial of his rival.
The nobility of Naples also attended, both men and women;
indeed the whole city seemed to take part in the funeral pro-

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St. Bridget

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Rome

cession that made its way to the church of S. Chiara which
was the royal place of burial. And all wept and lamented in
the sensational way that was supposed to be a fitting tribute
to the Queen’s grief.
To this noisy company Bridget must needs join herself,
but she was probably hardly aware of the presence of the
so-called mourners. She seemed to be in ecstasy as she said:
“Go, my son; go forth traveller blessed by God and me.’’ And
to a friend she said: “Were I to know that my son would be
lord of the whole world, I would not recall him to the
miseries of this life, but am greatly content at the divine good
pleasure shown towards him.”89
While the death of Charles and his mother’s calm resigna­
tion arc mentioned many times in the Process, there is no
hint as to the reason which made her peace and submission
so truly remarkable. For Joanna was still alive when the
evidence was given. We owe the story of what happened at
the Court of Naples to Abbess Margaret Clausdotter’s chron­
icle concerning St. Bridget’s family, which, though written
many years after the events it records, can only be based on
traditions faithfully handed down and coming originally
from eye-witnesses: Katherine, Birger, the two Peters.
It was on Passion Sunday, which that year fell on March 12,
that Bridget and her fellow pilgrims at last left Naples and
set sail for Palestine. It was the season for storms, and three
weeks after sailing, the flat-bottomed boat was still being
tossed to and fro on the roughest of seas. Captain and crew
alike made no secret of their fear that the vessel would be
submerged or broken to pieces on the rocks. At a particularly
bad moment, Alfonso went in search of Bridget. He found
her patient and serene, and as the immediate danger passed
she raised her hands to heaven — her usual gesture of thanks­
giving — and her face was full of peace and even joy.
“My son,” she said, turning to Alfonso, “how greatly am
I bound to praise God who has deemed me worthy to suffer

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129

tribulation for love of Him! I am thanking- Him that He has
allowed us to endure these trials.”90
At last they reached Cyprus, and here a wholly unexpected
mission awaited Bridget.
Cyprus was at this time an independent kingdom under the
rule of the Lusignan family,91 and Bridget may have made
the acquaintance of its king when he was in Rome begging
Pope Urban for help against the Turks. However that may
be, she was welcomed in the island with great honour, but not
by King Peter, for he had lately been murdered as the result
of a conspiracy. The dead King’s son was a lad of fourteen;
his uncle the Duke of Antioch, suspected of being implicated
in the murder, was Regent.
Bridget was horrified at the atmosphere of guilt, profligacy,
and intrigue in which she found herself, but she stayed two
weeks, for she knew she had a message to deliver to Cyprus
and especially to its rulers.
The Queen-mother, Eleanor, had sent at once for one she
knew was reckoned as a seer and a wise counsellor, and had
begged her advice as to the future. Bridget promised her
prayers, but directed that all the principal people of the
kingdom should be gathered at Nicosia, the ancient capital
of Cyprus, so that she might speak to them.
The inhabitants of Cyprus included Genoese and Venetian
merchants who had a great deal of power in their hands and
were also extremely quarrelsome. Curiosity brought all
together to Nicosia to hear what the stranger had to say.
This is the first time we hear of Bridget speaking in public.
She stood, calm and collected, and began by telling her
hearers that she was on her way to visit the holy places in
Jerusalem. But also she had come with a warning from God
to the Queen, barons, and nobles to bid them repent of their
sins which were abominable in His sight. Unless they re­
pented, the divine vengeance would speedily fall on them.
Then she added that if they wished it, she would pray to
God in all humility for their repentance.

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A few were struck with shame, among them a Franciscan
friar, who had been living in great luxury and noiv cast away
his possessions and joined the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But
the majority of those present made game of the prophet,
mocking at the predictions of a foolish old woman.
Bridget was fearless of the consequence of her words in so
far as her personal safety was concerned.
“I don’t mind in the least what the}' say of me,” she said,
‘‘if only I do God’s n il].”02
The voyage from Cyprus, though short, proved exceedingly
dangerous. The harbour of Jaffa is always treacherous be­
cause of its hidden rocks and dangerous currents, and it was
here that the galley sprang a leak and quickly began to fill.
The passengers’ belongings were ruthlessly flung overboard
so as to lighten the vessel, and a small boat was lowered.
There was little chance of escape and cries of terror were
heard on every side. Katherine fled to her mother. Bridget
alone was calm, her hands joined in prayer.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said to her daughter, “for not one
soul will be lost through the wreck of the ship.”
Alfonso ruefully watched his modest packet of books being
flung into the water and remembered Bridget’s words to him
in Rome, telling him not to take much with him. “Had I
taken more, I should have lost more,” he said afterwards in
describing the scene.03
The perils by sea were over; they pressed on, for the goal
was near: Mount Sion, Calvary, the Holy Sepulchre.
To this time belongs the revelation concerning the judg­
ment of Bridget’s son, which was finished, she says, during her
first visit to the Holy Sepulchre.
The Saint describes how she saw in vision the divine con­
sistory of angels and saints, and the soul of her son standing
at the seat of judgement; how the devil accused him of cer­
tain sins and the Virgin Mother replied, pleading for his soul.
The devil asks why he was driven away from Charles at the
time of his death and so was unable to arouse fear in him or

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to make evil suggestions. Mary replies in words which must
surely have sounded sweetly in Bridget’s ears: “This I did
because of the ardent love he had for me and because of the
joy he always felt that I am the Mother of God.’’
The devil says Charles was wanting in virtue and good
works. His good angel replies that the Scriptures teach that
to him that asks all shall be given, to him that knocks with
insistence it shall be opened. Now the mother of Charles
by her charitable prayers and her works of piety has knocked
without ceasing at the door of mercy for more than thirty
years, shedding an abundance of tears and beseeching God to
pour into her son’s heart His Holy Spirit. And God so longbesought has granted this grace, so that at the last, the one
desire of this soul was to do the will of God.

It was during the Octave of the Ascension that the pilgrims
reached their journey’s end. Bridget humbly begged admis­
sion to the common hostel for pilgrims. Her first visit was to
the Holy Sepulchre, and besides the deep emotion she felt at
being in so unspeakably holy a place, she had the added joy
of hearing the final words concerning the judgement of
her son.
She seemed to see the devil flee away from the soul for
whose salvation she had trembled, and as the invitation came
from the Judge: “Come, My elect!” she broke forth into rap­
turous praise: “O Eternal Might, Thou incomprehensible
God and my Lord Jesus Christ! It is Thou who dost pour
into hearts all good thoughts and prayers; Thou dost hide
them there and then eternally reward them with a glorious
reward. To Thee, then, be worship and thanksgiving for all
Thou hast created. O my most tender God, Thou art to me
most beloved, and truly dearer to me than body and soul!”84
The day following this visit, Bridget and her companions
followed the Via Dolorosa to Mount Calvary, that is, to the
chapel built on the site of the Crucifixion within the church
of the Holy Sepulchre. As she wept bitterly over her Lord’s

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Rome

sufferings, she seemed to see before her the naked, bleeding
Figure of her childhood’s vision. She had no need now to cry:
“Oh, my Lord, who has treated You so?” She knew herself to
be on the very place where mankind’s redemption was
wrought, that redemption which all through the years had
been the subject of her loving meditation.
The centuries disappeared; she saw Christ surrounded by
those who were about to crucify Him. The Divine Victim
Himself pointed out to her the hole in the rock into which
the cross would presently be fixed. She watched the nailing
of the hands and feet; saw the blood flowing, the face grow­
ing livid. She gazed at the Mother of Sorrows and heard the
words which commended her to the beloved disciple. No­
where more than in this revelation is Bridget’s power of
vivid and realistic description shown.
When the vision ended at last with the sight of the sacred
body being taken down from the cross and then borne from
Mary’s arms to the tomb, Bridget, coming to consciousness,
called to her the two Peters and Alfonso and told them in
detail all her prayer had unfolded to her. Then, leaving the
church, she went to the hospice of St. Sepulchre close by, and
wrote down in Swedish what she had just related?5
The months that followed were spent in visiting the vari­
ous places in and about Jerusalem to which pilgrims always
go. Bridget’s enthusiasm would have known no bounds, but
her health had begun to fail seriously. In July she was seized
with what was recognized as a grave illness accompanied by
fever, and she was never well again. But she managed to go
to Nazareth, to Hebron, and finally, in August, to Bethle­
hem, where she expected the fulfilment of the promise made
to her in prayer long before, that she would one day be in
spirit at the scene on the first Christmas night. The revela­
tion which she recorded after this visit was the reward of
frequent and loving pondering over the wonders of the
Incarnation.96
But about this time she felt interiorly warned that the time

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133

for leaving Palestine was at hand. A message had yet to be
delivered to the Pope. Perhaps she had hoped that her illness
was the prelude to her release from the troubles of the
world, but it seemed that her work for the Church was to
continue as before.
On September 8, the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, when visit­
ing her tomb in the valley of Josaphat, came a vision of the
Mother of God.
These were the final words she heard: “Return now all of
you to Christian lands; live ever holier lives with great
watchfulness and in constant remembrance of the holy places
where my Son and I lived our bodily life, died, and were
buried.”97

CHAPTER

VII

Last Warnings and Revelations
Bridget made one more effort to arouse the people of Cyprus.
She sent from Jerusalem a revelation she had received and
asked that it should be made public.
When she stopped at the island on her way back to Naples,
she found no notice tvhatever had been taken of her request.
So once again she was her own spokesman.
Rulers and people alike knew that no smooth words were
to be expected, but again a large number gathered, some pos­
sibly out of common courtesy, others, it may be, to do her
harm. Alfonso says she was in imminent danger even of death,
and marvelled at her courage as he stood by her acting as
interpreter of her burning words.
Very soon after, just before Bridget and her friends sailed,
the young King was crowned, and in connection with the
festivities, the Genoese took dffense and attacked the island­
ers. The following year they conquered Cyprus, and in ful­
filment of Bridget’s prophecy, all the inhabitants, not except­
ing the young King, were destroyed.08

The voyage to Naples was uneventful, but the discomfort
and inconveniences made Bridget’s companions anxious and
unhappy for she was by now very ill.
“Never,” says Katherine, speaking of this time, “either on
sea or land, did anyone ever hear an impatient, querulous, or
idle word from the sufferer. On the contrary, she always
praised her God and Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, and
when any complained of inconvenience or want of something
which she needed, she would console them lovingly and
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Revelations

135

kindly, saying: ‘Don’t be sad, for I have received so many and
such great benefits from God that if every member of my
body were bruised you ought not to grieve, since the suffer­
ings of this world are not worthy to be compared to the glory
God has promised to those who love Him.’
When Naples was reached, it was absolutely necessary to
wait there until the invalid had regained strength enough to
continue the journey to Rome.300
Plague was raging in the city and as soon as Bridget’s ar­
rival became known, Queen Joanna sent to implore her
prayers. The agonies of the plague had struck fear into the
heart of the frivolous queen and had aroused in her once
more a certain sense of awe at Bridget’s supernatural gifts.
This woman had an uncanny knowledge of the future; she
must be made to say what was going to happen in the
kingdom.
A deputation accordingly arrived at Bridget’s humble
lodging, consisting of the Archbishop of Naples, some Masters
of Theology, and various notabilities of the city. The visitors
found her lying on a couch, but were received with the
greatest respect. She answered all the questions put to her in
her usual direct and fearless way. She had indeed implored
light from God, she said, and He had given her a revelation
concerning Naples. She then asked Alfonso to read the divine
message aloud. The Queen and people were told that God’s
justice would shortly come upon them unless they repented
of certain sins mentioned. To further questions put at Joan­
na’s request as to the manner in which her revelations came
to her, Bridget is said to have answered with great humility
but also with a prudence and subtlety that deeply impressed
her hearers.101
Besides general warnings, she had particular ones for both
the Archbishop and the Queen. Archbishop Bernard accepted
the counsel and urged his flock to do penance. The Queen
showed every sign of friendliness and even invited her moni­
tor to her palace at Aversa. And Bridget went. Putting aside

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the natural shrinking she must have felt, she stayed under
Joanna’s roof, and told her what she felt it was given her to
say. She had seen, she said, a terrible picture of the Queen’s
soul, and she warned her to repent while there was yet time.
Some of the advice given is found among St. Bridget’s revela­
tions, but we are told many counsels were given in secret.
Joanna knew how to listen and promise amendment; per­
haps she even thought she meant what she said. She was quite
sure her monitor was a saint. Beyond that she did not go.102
While Bridget lingered on in Naples trying to pick up
sufficient strength for the rest of her journey, she had two
revelations concerning Gregory XL
Of the first, she says that Christ appeared to hex' while she
was praying for the Pope and told her he was like a paralysed
man unable to use eithei' hands or feet. Yet by the help of the
Virgin Mary he would begin to move, that is, he would do
God’s will by returning to Rome. There he would begin a
good work but would not complete it. Bridget then begins to
make excuses for Gregory’s hesitation.
“Oh Lord, my God, the Queen of Naples and many others
tell me it is impossible for him to come to Rome because the
King of France and the cardinals and others put obstacles
in his way. I have heard, too, that many prevent him coming
by saying they have the Spirit of God and divine revelations
and visions, and with this pretext they dissuade him.”
The claim to speak by the Spirit of God in advising
Gregory was the very same later to be flung at St. Bridget and
St. Catherine of Siena by those who considered the Pope’s
return to be the direct cause of the papal schism that began
under his successor.
Bridget then gives Christ’s answer to her plea.
“Soothsayers, dreamers and carnal friends of Pope Gregory
may persuade or dissuade him, but I am above them all. I
shall bring the Pope to Rome. Whether or not you will be
permitted to see that day, it is not given you to know.”
There was no command, says Prior Peter, to deliver this

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137

message to the Pope, so it was not sent to Avignon. But the
following month came a revelation in the form of a direct
address to Gregory. It begins:
“Holy Father. That person who is well known to Your
Holiness, while watching in prayer, was rapt in a spiritual
ecstasy and saw in a vision a throne. On it was seated a form
like to a man, of inconceivable beauty, a Lord of incompre­
hensible might. . . . Before Him who sat on the throne stood
a bishop in pontificals. . . . And the Lord spoke to him say·?
ing: ‘Listen, Pope Gregory, to the words which I speak to
you.’ ’’ After chiding the Pope for not having yet reformed
his court, the admonition ends with these words: “ ‘Come as
quickly as possible to your Chair in Rome. The time I leave
to your choice. But the longer you delay, the more will your
soul diminish in virtue. The sooner you come, the greater
will be your growth in virtue, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost
and the divine fire of love will inflame you. Come, not in
worldly pomp but with humility and ardent charity.”103
How often would Catherine of Siena repeat this urging!
Bishop Alfonso had stood by Bridget in all the various
perils which had attended this last pilgrimage, and she knew
she could always count on his help. When this message for
the Pope came, she turned unhesitatingly to her faithful
friend and asked him to take it in person to Gregory. He
obeyed; and as the Pope kept him at Avignon until the
autumn, he never saw Bridget again.104
It was February when Alfonso left for France, and soon
after Bridget planned to return to Rome. But money had
come to an end; what was to be done? It was Queen Joanna
who came to the rescue with an anonymous gift of money.
Bridget guessed at once who was the donor and was told, she
says, to accept the alms with charity and reverence and pray
that the divine warmth might reach this cold heart.105
In March the doors of the house in Campo dei Fiori
opened to receive the pilgrims from the Holy Land. All but
one had returned in safety.

ii

Fulfilment

CHAPTER

VIII

Fulfilment
Lent had begun, and Bridget at once tried to take up her
former habit of visiting the Stations each day. She even went
to see some of her friends.
One day in company with Master Peter, she visited Count
Latino Orsini. His delight at seeing her was changed to won­
derment when, before a word had been spoken, she turned
away from him, covering her face.
Orsini asked what the matter was; Master Peter in reply
only said that he thought the Lady Bridget did not find him
in such good dispositions as when they had parted.
“But what have I done?’’ asked Orsini. Then he added:
“Oh, well, it’s true I have been very angry with some of my
vassals.’’106
Another visit was paid to a new disciple known hitherto
only by correspondence, who had come specially to Rome
with his wife and family to see and speak with Bridget.
Gomez Albornoz was a nephew of the Cardinal, and had
taken a prominent part in the military operations in connec­
tion with the recovery of the Papal States. That he should
have fallen under Bridget’s spell is only another instance of
the varying types of character she influenced. Gomez was a
fierce fighter, but had a strong spirit of faith, and when one
day he heard his fellow-countryman, Alfonso, speaking of
Bridget with his usual enthusiasm, he begged him to ask her
for her prayers that he might know how best to please God.
The result, as in the case of the young student at Naples,
was a rule of life sent to Perugia, where Gomez now occupied
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the position of governor. The rule, said Bridget, had come
to her from the Mother of God.
When Gomez read the rule, he at once “felt his heart
transfixed by the fear of God and he was changed into an­
other man.’’ So said Alfonso giving evidence in later years
(Gomez was by that time dead), and the bishop proceeded
rather quaintly to enlarge on this conversion, saying that
not only did Gomez at once undertake such good works as
washing the feet of the poor, giving liberal alms, and prac­
tising much abstinence in secret, but his inward change of
heart was also reflected in his outward attire. On Fridays he
wore black cloth, on Saturdays, white, on other days, grey.
No doubt he had been noted for the splendour and richness
of his dress, so that this was a particularly impressive sign in
an age that loved colour and brave attire.
Bridget followed up the rule with two long letters which
are proof that her interest in the subject of government
and its special responsibilities and duties remained keen
to the last.
“Since [she writes] you are such a great and powerful man,
have the right to administer justice and control others as your
subjects, possess fine estates, the riches of this world, noble
birth, and human happiness through a wife and children . . .
and further have been divinely visited by the Holy Spirit; it
is above all needful to preserve this latter grace in order that
precious spiritual gifts may in no way be lessened for the sake
of any earthly or perishable advantage.
“You are divinely exhorted to watch when governing oth­
ers and administering justice, that you do not pass sentence
wrongfully. You are likewise commanded, should you have
acquired property unjustly, at once and entirely to restore it.
Moreover, since you ought to govern the lands belonging to
the Church with equity, you must be careful that those sub­
ject to you are not burdened with superfluous rates and taxes,
but see that they enjoy fully the rights granted them in for­
mer times by just governors.

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“And now I speak to you with materna] affection and in
all humility, and because you wish it, I even call you my son.
I advise you, my son, often to confess your sins, and if at
times you feel the desire to partake of Holy Communion,
receive the Body of Christ willingly and humbly. I also advise
you to let no day pass -without thinking at a fixed hour of
Christ’s holy wounds and sufferings. . . . Think, my son, how
the gentle Jesus was seized, bound and scourged, betrayed
and crowned with thorns; doomed to death, crucified and
fixed with nails; how bitter gall and vinegar were offered
Him to drink, how He was mocked and went to a cruel death,
and was pierced with a lance for your redemption — He who
is the King of Glory and Lord of Lords. And when you have
bethought you of all this, then pray to Him humbly and with
tears to increase the fire of His divine love in your heart and
to perfect your desire after tvhat is good, and for the fulfil­
ment of God’s will.”
Such is a saint’s programme for one to whom has been
given the duty of ruling others.
In her second letter she says: “I counsel you always to keep
before you the thought that the works you perform as one
who bears office, are done for God and for the High Priest
Jesus Christ who is in heaven, rather than for the Pope or
anyone else here on earth; preferring the friendship of God
to all the presents and emoluments the Pope can give you in
return for your services. . . .”107
Bridget was now seventy. The body she had used so un­
sparingly was taking its final revenge, and she had to recog­
nize that even her strong will could no longer completely
subdue it. Master Peter had, some time before this, forbidden
her to sleep on the stone floor, but the hard bed without mat­
tress or pillow was not much less rigorous. Now, during the
last weeks of her life, she had to consent to rest in compara­
tive comfort. Her body, says Katherine, was by this time all
bruised and broken by her infirmities.108
But besides severe physical sufferings a great darkness had

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come down on her soul. From living in the supernatural
world — so much more real to her than the material one —
she found herself dropped, as it were, on to earth, and earth
seemed very hard and very commonplace. The enthusiasm
for bodily mortification was replaced by the most humbling
temptations. In hours devoted by her rule to silence, she
longed to speak; on fast-days, she craved for food. Was it
possible she no longer dreaded but even enjoyed a comforta­
ble bed? Then there were humiliating thoughts for which her
sickness could in no way be pleaded as an excuse. The pride
of birth she had thought conquered, returned. She seemed no
longer to want to be one of the crowd. Worst of all she was
beset by loathsome thoughts such as the devil loves to pre­
sent to the minds of the pure and the heroic. And, of course,
she thought she gave way to the temptations. She could only
wonder that so many things which had never appeared attrac­
tive in the past should now draw her away from God.
Easter Sunday at last brought consolation.
She tells how the Virgin Mother appeared to her and said
that these temptations which surprised her, and were some­
thing so new, were allowed in order to perfect her humility
and show her what she would be without God’s special grace
and help. She had to learn that privileged as her life had
been, there was yet no sin she was not capable of falling into,
if left to herself. So she must take refuge in prayer and beg
her Master to guard her in thought, word, and deed. And as
a pledge that this vision came from God, the temptations
would cease and the flesh be henceforth subject to the
spirit.109
The promise was fulfilled, but another trial came: discour­
agement. Her work was unfinished and she saw no possibility
of completing what yet she had been commanded to do. The
assurance that Pope Gregory would return to Rome was there
to comfort her, but the future of her monastery was veiled.
The monastery was being built, but how could she ever enter
and become a religious? How was she to train the souls com-

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mined to her, the young plants of the new vineyard? All the
glow of the days in Palestine, all the enthusiasm she had felt
long ago when the new Rule was revealed to her, had van­
ished. She was just a suffering, dying woman, daily growing
weaker, not only in body but in soul. God had turned His
face from her and all her life seemed to spell failure.
Such thoughts as these were going round and round in her
tired brain, as we may gather from what follows.
Again Mary appeared to her, telling her she would not
really die but would enter the place prepared for her as
promised by Christ Himself. Though her strength had left
her, she would yet be the mother of vigorous sons and
daughters.
Bridget still doubted, flow was this thing possible?
The answer came: “My Son and J love you. You remember
how my Son told you when you went into the church of the
Holy Sepulchre that all your sins were forgiven as if you had
just received baptism. But He made no promise that you
would not suffer during the remainder of your earthly life.
It is God’s will that love should respond to love and that past
negligence should be atoned for by patience and infirmity.
Remember, too, that I have often told you my Son’s words
must be understood spiritually, and how, if you should be
called from this world before the literal fulfilment of the
divine words in the revelations, you would yet, because of
your good will, be reckoned as a nun of Vadstena and a par­
taker in all the promises of God.”110
After this vision much of the weight was lifted from
Bridget’s soul, and though her Master’s face was still hidden,
she could offer as a sacrifice and last act of penance the
spiritual darkness which before had seemed to her a sign that
her life had not been pleasing to God.
Meanwhile Pope Gregory, uneasy and still vacillating, had
sent letters asking in strictest confidence for Bridget’s advice.

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143

In July came her last revelation for him and she sent it at
once to Alfonso.
It begins: “Our Lord Jesus Christ told me, my Lord
Bishop, to write these words for you to show the Pope.”
There is a repetition, as from Christ, of the command to
return to Italy, and finally these words:
“Let the Pope look to Me alone, even though all dissuade
him from coming to Rome and oppose him with all their
power. I will help him and none shall gain the upper hand
over him. For as fledglings in the nest, when the mother-bird
comes, raise themselves, call out and rejoice, so will I hasten
joyfully to meet him and will exalt him . . .1,111
The hot days of the Roman summer had come, and
Bridget’s life was rapidly drawing to its end which came on
Saturday, July 23, 1373.
The best, because the truest account of the last days and
hours of the Saint’s life is surely to be found in her own
writings and in the depositions made later by those who had
been eye-witnesses. The similarity in the witness given by
Prior Peter, Katherine, and Magnus Persson for the Process
of Canonization, shows how carefully each detail had been
noted at the time, and how often they had talked together
afterwards of those solemn moments.
“Five days before the death of Bridget, the Bride of Christ”
— so says her revelation — “Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared
before the altar in her room and His look was glad.”
“I jiave treated you/’ He said, “as a bridegroom might
treat his bride, if he stayed away from her in order to make
her long more ardently for him. I have given you no consola­
tion all this time because it was the time of your proving.
But now that you have been proved, make ready; for what I
promised you is about to be fulfilled: you shall be clothed as
a nun at the altar and consecrated, and shall be known hence­
forth not only as My Bride but also as a religious and the

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St. Bridget

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Mother of \zadstena. Yet you shall die here in Rome, and
your body will remain here until it is taken to the place
prepared for it. For it is My will to release you from your
labours and to accept your will for the deed.”
Then followed the cry: ‘Oh Rome, My Rome, the Pope
despises you and will not listen to My words and takes doubt­
ful things for certainties! And because he reckons the time of
My mercy according to his will, he shall no longer hear My
pleading.”
Then turning to Bridget: “Tell the Prior to give all My
revelations to My Bishop [Alfonso], on whom I will pour out
the fire of My Spirit and whom I will fill with grace.”
Many other things not recorded were told at this time to
Bridget, she says, and especially things concerning various
members of her household whom she saw, as she afterwards
expressed it, ‘‘as in the presence of God.” Finally came these
words:
“On the morning of the fifth day from this, when you have
received the Last Sacraments, summon each person singly
whom I have named, and tell them what they have to do, and
then in their presence you shall enter your monastery, that is,
you shall enter into My joy, and your body shall be buried at
Vadstena.”
This, then, was the explanation of the last dark months.
The merciful love of the Divine Master had accepted her
work, and what she could not finish He Himself would bring
to pass. The Pope would return though she would rejoice
only from heaven; her mortal eyes would ner er see her
monastery but Christ’s word would not fail. Bridget would
live on in her Order and be not only its foundress but its
spiritual mother and a true religious. Had not her divine
Bridegroom promised to clothe and consecrate her? It was
not failure but fulfilment, glorious fulfilment, beyond what
her human heart could have dreamed.
She sent at once for Master Peter, and having been con­
fessed, told him that in five days’ time she was to die and that

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145

she wished to receive Extreme Unction and Viaticum. Only
with him and Prior Peter did she as yet share her great secret,
but Katherine noticed a change in her mother. She had re­
turned to her harsh treatment of her body, refusing it even
the slight comforts she had accepted since her illness.
In this very room where Bridget once lay dying, there can
be seen to-day a table on which is the following inscription:
S. Birgitta
HUIC TABULAE INNIXA LIBRUM REVELATIONUM SCRIPSIT
CIBUM CUM SODALIBUS SUMPSIT

SPIRITUM DEO REDDIDIT

(On this table St. Bridget rested, wrote the book of her reve­
lations, took her meat with her companions, gave up her
spirit to God.)
There is a tradition that she asked to be placed on the
table, in order, like her Lord, to die on wood. The tradition
certainly receives strong support from the preservation of
the table, but there is no mention of the request in the
accounts of those who were present at the Saint’s death-bed,
unless Katherine refers to this when she says that her moth­
er’s last austerities were undertaken “out of reverence to and
in remembrance of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Katherine noticed that during these days her mother re­
fused all food, taking only a little water to moisten her
mouth, and that a great silence seemed to have descended on
her, for she spoke no word unless it was absolutely necessary.
It was not the silence of extreme weakness, for when she was
obliged to speak her voice was strong and unfaltering and her
memory clear.
Friday night came, the vigil of the day for which she
longed.
At midnight she called her daughter to her and said her
death was at hand, and foretold the exact hour at which it
would take place. She begged Katherine to be patient and
calm, to call the two confessors and Birger and others of the

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St. Bridget

ix

Rome

household, but quietly and with no excitement. She wished
all to be present at Alass and at her death. No doubt it was
now that she told Katherine of the promised mystical cloth­
ing as a nun, which had brought such joy and consolation,
lor her daughter expressly says she heard this from her
mother herself as well as afterwards from the two priests.
When the Prior of Alvastra came in answer to the sum­
mons, Bridget asked him to be ready at dawn to say Mass
and to give her the Last Sacraments. And at dawn, we read,
Christ appeared to her once more, consoling her.
Prior Peter, the faithful friend of many years, vested and
said Mass in Bridget’s presence. He gave her the Food for the
way — for her a valley that now seemed to have no shadow —
and administered Extreme Unction.
Then Bridget gathered her little family round her. She
told them what had happened fi\ e days before. She had seen,
she said, with her bodily eyes, Jesus Christ Incarnate, and
certain members of her household she had then seen as in
God’s presence. Jesus had told her what was His will for
Katherine, Birger, the confessors, and others. In a strong,
clear voice which showed no sign of bodily weakness, she
then gave directions to each one. The Vadstena Diary tells us
that Magnus Persson was told at this time that he -was to be
ordained a priest.
She comforted them all in the loving way they knew so
well, told them to persevere in the fear of God, in love of
their neighbour, and in all good works.
Then she wras silent. The moment for which she was wait­
ing was at hand. Those gathered round her saw her look up
to heaven, her eyes alight with a great love, adoring yet filial,
as she seemed to be thanking God for the many and wonder­
ful graces of her seventy years. Then, closing her eyes, she
said: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit,” and
immediately breathed forth her soul.112
The door, so long ajar, had opened wide, and Bridget had
entered her cloister.

era

CHAPTER

I

St. Bridget's Rule Ratified
Bridget’s bones were taken to Sweden in accordance with the
promise of her revelation. Her daughter, Prior Peter, and
other witnesses affirmed on oath that when the sealed coffin
was opened in Rome after lying six weeks in a tomb at
S. Lorenzo in Panisperna, only a skeleton was found. All the
flesh had disappeared save for a small portion on the skull.1
The long journey through many lands lasted from the
December of that year (1373) until the July of the following
year. Before leaving Italy a halt was made at Montefalco, in
order that an initial enquiry might be held concerning
Bridget’s life and miracles in preparation for her canoniza­
tion, confidently expected to take place before long. Gomez
Albornoz was present as Governor of Spoleto, and no doubt
was largely responsible for the choice of a place of meeting.
This was the occasion of the two Peters writing the short
Life of St. Bridget to which reference has so often been
made, and it is Master Peter’s only written testimony.2
The travellers were received with unbounded enthusiasm
as soon as they landed in Sweden. They had some wonderful
tales to tell of their journey. It was a bright star seen at mid­
day, they said, that had guided them across the pirate-infested
seas to port. And once armed robbers had lined the road
along which they must pass, but had been unable to attack
them. Then Bridget’s voice had been heard saying: “By the
power of God I blinded them that they should do you no
harm as they intended.”
The welcoming crowd grew ever larger, and it was a tri149

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St. Bridget

in

Her Order

umphal procession that rhe Bishop of Linkoping and his
Chapter came out to meet when the last halt was made.
Bishop Nicholas Herniansson we ha\e met before, when as a
boy he was tutor to Bridget’s two chier sons. Me had lately
been elected to Lite See ol Linkoping and remembered her
prophecy ol years ago that he would one day be a bishop and
would be the protector of Iter monastery.3
When Vadslcna was finally readied, early in July, Birger,
who had flurried on ahead to see th.it all was in readiness,
met the procession and proudly bore into the temporary
wooden chuich die relics of his mother. Abbess Clausdotter
describes the scene; how Bilger said “with wist delight: Now
J can gladly hold up my head; for often 1 stood very downcast
before my lord King Magnus when lie would say to me: What
may our cousin, your mother, have dreamed of us last
night?’ ”
The relics were received, we read in the early Life of St.
Katherine, with much rejoicing by both Brothers and Sis­
ters. This shows that some beginning of religious life had
already been made in accordance with the permission given
to Bridget four years earlier by Urban V. The future monks
and nuns were, as is known from other sources, following the
Rule of St. Augustine, but they had made no vows, nor were
they wearing a religious habit.4
Katherine’s part was now to form the aspirants according
to her mother’s ideal, and teach them her Rule. Hers was also
the task, probably none too easy, to blend into one harmo­
nious tvhole those who had come with her from Rome intend­
ing to join the new Order and those she found waiting at
Vadstena.
Bridget’s tomb became almost at once a place of pilgrimage
and was soon covered with ex voto offerings in token of cures
worked by her intercession.
One day, a carpenter knocked at the monastery gate and
offered his services. The monastery was still in course of
building; a year’s work could easily be found for a carpenter,

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but money was none too plentiful. But no, he did not Avant
any wages; he had come to give his services in fulfilment of
a vow. Then he told his story. His leg had been badly crushed
in an accident more than a year earlier. He could do no more
work and the doctors gave him no hope of a cure. Then he
heard of the wonders happening at Vadstena, of the blind
receiving sisht, tlie lame able 10 walk, even ol a dead child
being raised to life. So he prayed to Bridget and said he
would give her monastery two cows if only she would give
him back the use of his leg. But, he said, the Lady Bridget
did not cure him. He tried again, offering to visit her tomb
and put on it a wax image of a leg. Still useless. Finally he
promised to work at his trade in her monastery for a year
without wage, and that pleased her so much that she appeared
to him in his sleep, straightened the leg, and he evoke cured.
Katherine and the rest were delighted with the story and
the carpenter fulfilled his vow faithfully.5
Sweden began to clamour for Bridget’s canonization. Some­
one must go to Rome, and bishops, clergy, and nobles all felt
the one who could most successfully carry on the necessary
negotiations was Bridget’s daughter.
A year after her arrival at Vadstena, Katherine accordingly
found herself again in Rome in the familiar house in the
Campo dei Fiori. Prior Peter and Magnus Persson were with
her, and she had found Alfonso waiting for her, ready to give
every help in his power.
Five strenuous years were spent in working for the two
causes she had so much at heart: the canonization of her
mother and the full confirmation of the Rule of her Order
in its original form, since Bridget had expressed herself dis­
satisfied with certain changes made by Pope Urban s advisers,
and had told her daughter to do her best to have the Rule
approved in full agreement with her revelation.6
More than a year passed before Katherine could present
her petitions to the Pope in person. Gregory XI, the para­
lysed man of Bridget’s revelation, still tarried at Avignon,

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St. Bridget in Her Order

but finally broke his chains in October, 1376, and under the
forceful guidance of Catherine Benincasa, sailed for Italy.
Gregory had known Bridget, having as Cardinal been pres­
ent at Montefiascone when she made her last desperate effort
to dissuade Urban from leaving for France. The new Pope
had already shown practical interest in the matter of the
canonization by instituting an enquiry in Sweden, and Kath­
erine’s request was being supported besides by the petitions
of others. One came from the Emperor Charles IV whose
interest and help Bridget had vainly tried to enlist in the
matter of her Order. Queen Joanna of Naples was another
petitioner.
Two formal proposals for the canonization were made in
consistory this first year after Gregory’s return and a third
was promised, when quite unexpectedly the Pope died in
March, 1378, which brought all proceedings to an end for
the time.7
The next Pope, Urban VI, was approached, and again
Katherine received encouragement and sympathy.
“Ah, my daughter,’’ exclaimed the Pope, as he looked at
the eager face of his petitioner, “you have indeed been nour­
ished with your mother’s milk!’’8
Almost immediately came the tragic schism which was to
divide Christendom for many long years, one part giving
allegiance to the pope in Rome, the other to the anti-pope
at Avignon. Those who have studied the contemporary docu­
ments relating to the stormy episode of Urban’s election,
when the excited Roman crowd broke into the Vatican, tell
us that it was easy enough for anyone to doubt the freedom
and therefore the validity of the election, and as is well
known, saints were found some on this side, some on that.
Katherine of Sweden, like Catherine of Siena (I keep to the
traditional spelling of their respective names), never wavered
in allegiance to Urban, and to both women the harsh and
unlovable Pope invariably showed himself kind and fatherly.
These two future saints formed a friendship at this time and

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the Pope wished to associate them in a mission to Queen
Joanna who had now ranged herself on the side of the Anti­
pope, Clement VII. The failure of the plan of a visit to
Naples is commonly laid at the door of Katherine of Sweden,
who is said to have refused point blank to see again the
woman she had such good reason to know. Raymund of
Capua, biographer of St. Catherine of Siena, gives a different
version of the episode, however, and says he himself dissuaded
the Pope from exposing two women to dangers and insults.9
A fresh commission of cardinals and theologians was ap­
pointed by Urban to examine Bridget’s writings and as a
result, we are told, they were “again by Urban as by his prede­
cessor Gregory, declared genuine, full of truth and instinct
with the Spirit of God; highly profitable to those who should
read them or hear them read, and most wholesome teaching
for the faithful of the Church of God.”10
This pronouncement had the effect of making Bridget and
her writings widely known, for the rulers of various lands at
once sent messengers to Rome to obtain copies of the
revelations.
Katherine’s appointed procurator had drawn up in the
required legal form fifty articles concerning Bridget’s life and
alleged sanctity, and these were presented to the Pope with
the formal petition for the canonization. During the summer
months of the year 1379, the examination of many witnesses
took place. Chief of these of course were Katherine herself,
Alfonso, Magnus Persson, and other of Bridget’s intimates,
while the testimony of Prior Peter, given at the beginning of
the following year, is a book in itself and is given the title
Depositio copiosissima.
In the course of the year (1379) two formal proposals rvere
made in Urban’s presence.11 The end so long desired seemed
near. But those who were watching affairs in Rome and in
Italy generally saw that there was little hope of anything so
momentous as a canonization taking place under present
conditions, and Katherine was advised to leave all the docu-

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I
6

r

a

f
ί

i54

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

nients concerning the Process in safe keeping awaiting the
Pope’s final ratification, and herself to return to Sweden.
Disappointing as this check was after all her persevering
efforts, Katherine had one great consolation.
By the end of ig/8 she had seen her other -wish accom­
plished when Urban ratified Bridget’s Rule and confirmed
the foundation of her Order, and this in no uncertain terms,
for the Bull he issued was ad perpetuam rei memoriam.
The entry which records this momentous pronouncement
of the Pope, found in the chronicle of the monastery at
Vadstena, is as follows: “She [Katherine] received from
Urban VI the confirmation of the Rule of St. Saviour by
way of Constitutions.”12
From these last words we see that the hope of the new Rule
being ranked as one of the great religious rules of the Church
was not fulfilled. It would have needed much consideration
and handling on the part of the Holy See to override the
decree of the Lateran Council already referred to, and
Urban’s stormy pontificate, the divided allegiance of Chris­
tendom, and his own personal unpopularity were not likely
to incline him to make such an exception in favour of the
new Order. Practically, how’ever, the wish of the foundress
was realized. Though obedience is vowed by the Bridgettine
religious to the Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitutions
of St. Bridget, there is no question of their being called or
considered as Augustinians. The Church’s designation of the
Order, commonly known as Bridgettine, is the Order of Our
Most Holy Saviour.
Katherine seems to have felt fully satisfied with the results
of her efforts in regard to her Order, for in a letter written to
the Archbishop of Upsala after her return from Rome, she
says: “I desire Your Most Reverend Paternity to know that
all my affairs for which I went to the Roman Court have been
perfectly expedited according to my wish except that the
canonization of my most dear Mother, the blessed Bridget,·
is not yet manifestly and solemnly declared according to the

St. Bridget’s Rule Rati lied

155

style and solemnity of the Curia, because of the dissensions
between the true Pope and the Anti-pope. However, the Most
Holy Father our Apostolic Lord calls her a saint, saying he
has canonized her in his own heart, and promises, if he lives,
to consummate the Cause.”13
Not only had the new Rule been confirmed but Katherine
had the satisfaction of having received, only a few months
after Urban’s election, the privilege denied to Bridget. This
was the ‘‘spiritual dowry” which came to be known as the
Vincula Indulgence, that is, the plenary indulgence granted
at the church of St. Peter ad Vincula in Rome on August t.14
It was a really remarkable concession to a wholly new Order,
whose Rule, moreover, had not at that time been formally
approved.

CHAPTER II

St. Bridget in Many Lands
Some nine months after the return to Vadstena, Katherine
followed her mother. She died on March 24, 1381. She had
brought back from Rome not only the confirmation of the
Rule and the Vincula grant but many other privileges, and
to the very end of her life she worked for the good of her
Order. She left all in readiness for the development of regular
monastic life.
Practically all we know of the life lived at Vadstena is what
we find in the monastery’s Diary. Of this interesting monastic
document, a Swedish author, Dr. A. V. Lundberg, has thus
written: “The history of the monastery is drawn chiefly from
its diary which is also an important source for the mediaeval
history of the North. It witnesses to the morale of the monas­
tery being good. The chronicles were never intended for
circulation, yet they contain hardly an utterance which,
though whispered in the ear, could awaken shame if spoken
aloud on the housetop. Neither in the prosperous days nor in
the ensuing ones of heavy persecution is there an arrogant
word, only words of childlike gladness; neither hatred nor
ill-will is shown, only silent submission. Memoirs are seldom
edifying reading, but the Diarium Vazstenense stands the
proof with honour.’’15
Three years after Katherine’s death the buildings, though
still in course of erection, were yet sufficiently ready to
allow of the formal enclosure of both communities, after
which the observance of St. Bridget’s Constitutions became
binding. A temporary superior had been placed over the
156

œisssinæ^

St. Bridget

in

Many Lands

157

Sisters after Katherine’s death, but four years after the enclo­
sure ceremony, the first regular abbess was elected, blessed,
and installed.18
Meanwhile, the permanent monastery church grew slowly
but steadily, the work done by the monks, just as in our own
day we have seen the great abbey church of Buckfast rise by
the labours of the Benedictine monks.
St. Bridget’s detailed directions, as recorded in the revela­
tion of many years before,17 were faithfully carried out, and
Vadstena served later as a model for churches of the Order
in other lands.
This first Bridgettine church, “plain, humble and strong,”
can be seen to-day. Its peculiar feature (no longer existing)
was the arrangement of the altars. These stood, thirteen in
number, at the west end instead of the east, each one dedi­
cated to one of the Apostles (including St. Paul). St. Peter’s
altar was the high altar, and on each side were six others on
descending steps. The monks’ choir was behind the altars,
and the celebrants at Mass thus faced east.
At the east end of the church was a small Lady Chapel,
raised somewhat above the level of the nave. It was behind
a grille and reached only from the ambulatory of the monks.
At its altar the nuns’ Mass was daily celebrated. Their choir
was somewhere between the east and west ends of the church,
but high up, with some of the pillars below piercing its floor.
It no longer exists, but traces of the entrance to it on the
north wall (beyond which was the monastery of the nuns)
can still be seen. Looking down, they could see both the high
altar of the monks and the Lady-altar, without themselves
being seen.
The monks were cut off not only from sight of the adjacent
community, but also from the world outside, with almost the
same strictness as the nuns. They, too, had their parlours for
seeing visitors, separated by grilles. The only door leading
from their cloister into the main part of the church was never
opened save for the reception of new subjects or for the visi-

158

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

ration of the Bishop. They were seen only when preaching
or saying Mass.18
In 1391 Bridget’s canonization took place at last. Magnus
Persson, now Confessor-General — the name given in the
Order to the superior of the monks — was summoned to
Rome for the great event, and was one of the very few of the
old “familia” to be present. Prior Peter was dead, Master
Peter had died before Katherine, and Birger had lately fol­
lowed his sister.19
The death of Urban VI in 138g had prevented him from
carrying out his intention of canonizing Bridget in 1390,
which was to be a year of Jubilee, but all the evidence was
ready in Rome, and when the next Pope, Boniface IX, was
approached, he showed himself favourable to (he petition
and after instituting another formal examination of Bridget’s
writings, fixed October 7 as the day for the great ceremony.
It is described with jubilation in the Vadstena Diary: the
enthusiasm in Rome, the Pope’s eulogy of the new saint, the
miracles that took place.
Two years later, amid great rejoicings, there was a solemn
ceremony at Vadstena, when St. Bridget’s relics were placed
in a silver shrine and venerated by a vast congregation of the
faithful.20
As we should expect, soon after the canonization the new
Order began to spread its wings. Naturally enough, the first
foundation was made in Italy. A request reached Vadstena in
1394 for a foundation to be made near Florence at a place
known, on account of its fine position, as Porta Paradiso. A
monastery was already built and subjects from the mother­
house were asked for. Magnus Persson was enthusiastic over
the project, resigned his office as Confessor-General, and set
off for Rome to obtain the necessary permission. Two years
later, he died in the new monastery.21
Early next century came the offer of an English knight,
Henry FitzHugh, to found a Bridgettine monastery in his
own land. He had visited Vadstena as one of the suite of

St. Bridget en Many Lands

159

Queen Philippa, daughter of Henry IV, lately married to
Eric XIII of Sweden. The result of FitzIIugh’s gift was finally
the foundation of Syon monastery at Isleworth by Henry V,
as part fulfilment of his father’s vow to found three religious
houses in reparation for the murder of Richard II and Arch­
bishop Scrope.22
In these early years of the fifteenth century we find foun­
dations being made also in Esthonia and in Denmark. The
daughter houses of Vadstena, in turn, made their own foun­
dations, and so the Order quickly spread over Europe.
With the rapid rise of monasteries arose some natural diffi­
culties as to organization.
St. Bridget’s Rule shows each house as a separate little
kingdom, ruled over by the abbess and confessor-general with
the bishop of the diocese as “Father and Visitor.’’23 But some
way had to be found of ensuring uniformity of spirit and
observance, more especially as the Order was a new one. So
we find General Chapters being held at this place and that,
and a tendency in some quarters to centralize government.
This was resented by the Vadstena nuns as an innovation.
The question was undoubtedly a difficult one, since the
Order was instituted primarily for women, and the nuns, who
outnumbered the monks, could not, because of their enclo­
sure, attend chapters, so that there was danger of their opin­
ions being overridden or at least not given full weight, and
also of the ideal of the foundress being superseded by a novel
form of government.21
In the English monastery of Syon, monks and nuns alike
dung always jealously to her first constitution, and though
the exit of monks on affairs of the Order was provided for by
St. Bridget, this permission was sparingly taken advantage of.
In 1425 a special grant was obtained from the Pope by which
Syon should enjoy complete independence from Vadstena
and other monasteries of the Order, and independence of the
decrees of general chapters, which she might attend or not
as she judged best. This does not mean, however, that there

ιβθ

Sr. Bridget

in

Her Order

was any lack of good spirit. On the contrary, we find Syon
sending monks to Vadstena on occasion to make enquiries as
to points of the Rule, and of Vadstena appealing to Syon, the
most powerful and influential of hex- daughter houses, for
help and support in various difficulties.25
The independence and autonomy which St. Bridget’s Rule
dictates has, of course, both advantages and disadvantages. To
the modern mind the disadvantages will seem most obvious.
Yet it is worth noticing that Syon alone of all Bridgettine
houses founded direct from Vadstena, and alone of all Eng­
lish pre-Reformation communities, has survived with an un­
broken family life, in spile of suppression, persecution, and
exile.
Chapters continued to be held at intervals in this monas­
tery and that, and in the seventeenth century the ConfessorGeneral of Altomünster in Bavaria held the position of
General Prior of the whole Order. But there was never any
detailed and definite organization such as is seen to-day in
one form or another in the various monastic orders, and the
after history of the Bridgettines would in itself have made
such impracticable. For in this house and that the monks
gradually died out, and the Order became not primarily but
entirely one for women, living the strictly enclosed life that
had been theirs from the outset.20
It was only at the beginning of the past century that the
double monastery of St. Bridget’s plan finally disappeared.
But as early as 1422 there was a movement in Italy to do
away with the arrangement. A papal decree sent to Vadstena
caused dismay, and urgent petitions went to Rome from both
Sweden and England. Syon obtained exemption, but Sweden
was not so fortunate. However, the papal prohibition of
double monasteries never took effect outside Italy, and a later
Pope annulled the Bull.27

St. Bridget had dedicated her Order to the crucified
Saviour. From the sixteenth century onwards the way of the

W4W4

St. Bridget in Many Lands

161

cross was the only one open to most of her communities. The
cross came in different forms: now it was a devastating fire,
now military occupation; flight, perhaps restoration for a
time, then once again flight. Persecution the whole Order
had in abundance; in some cases it brought imprisonment,
in others martyrdom. Bridget had some valiant followers.
Monasteries dedicated to the Virgin Mother continued to
be founded even into the seventeenth century. Each one bore
her name. Mary had her Heavenly Stairs, her Throne, her
Vale, her Spring, her Mount, her Crown. Of all these houses
scattered over Europe, three alone remain, going back to early
days: Syon — or to give the full title: St. Saviour, St. Mary
the Virgin, and St. Bridget of Syon; Maria-Altomünster, and
a monastery at Uden in Holland. Syon, after many wander­
ings, has returned to her own land though not to het' original
home; Altomünster, founded in 1407 from Maria-Mayingen,
has come back to the place of her first planting, while the
monastery at Uden began its life in 1434 at Bois-le-Duc. In
1843 this house made a foundation at Weert which still exists
and carries on the early traditions of the Order.
When the heavy hand of Gustavus Vasa fell on the reli­
gious houses of Sweden in the sixteenth century, a few nuns
remained at Vadstena in hopes of better days, though under
conditions that must have made life almost unbearable.28 The
better days came, but not to last, and finally an edict was pub­
lished ordering all Catholics to leave the land forthwith. As
the nuns sailed across Lake Vetter on their way to exile,
legend says that the bells of the empty monastery pealed a
farewell.
The nuns’ cloister is now used as a hospital for the insane.
The monastic church is used for Lutheran worship and the
former home of the monks is, or will soon be, a museum.
In 1918, a “Bridgettine Exhibition” was held in Stockholm
in the States Historical Museum. An appeal sent out for
contributions had met with a remarkable response. The
Museum Society of Vadstena dived into its stores and brought

ji’~

Bridge!

in

Her Order

out xvhaL was leil of the former treasures of the monastery
cninch — statues, altar pieces, embroidery. Like some poor
capthes horn an underground dungeon they came blinking
up to the light. (A day, dusty, discoloured, and in most cases
maimed.
1 he Exhibition over, the monastery church once again
reached its own, and to-day these pathetic reminders of
\ adstena s past glory can be seen displayed in different parts
of the church. ?\o longer objects ol devotion, the treasures of
prc-Rcformation days now stand thcie in patient dignity to
be looked at and explained by the guide to the passers-by.
Here is a finely carved crucifix, said to be one of the master­
pieces of Swedish art, there a wooden statue fitly named “The
beautiful Madonna,” and somewhere else stands the elab­
orately carved triptych which once belonged to St. Bridget’s
altar.29
At the west end of the north aisle is to be seen a chest cov­
ered with red velvet to which are attached many silver-gilt
ornaments. Of these more than a hundred and fifty once
there, the guide-book tells us, have been wrenched off; many
of those that remain bear the badges of distinguished families
connected with St. Bridget and her relatives. The chest is
known as “St. Bridget’s shrine.” It is carefully locked, and if
opened by request, will be found to contain some bones, in­
cluding two skulls. The custodian won Id like to be able to
assert positively that here are true relics of St. Bridget and
her daughter, St. Katherine, but too much has happened since
the sixteenth century to make certainty possible.
Early in the eighteenth century appeared a Swedish work
by Pastor Peter Kylander, bearing the title; “An account of
St. Bridget and St. Katherine and their bones preserved in
Vadstena during and after the Papacy.” The author is de­
scribed by one who printed his work some years later as “one
of our most industrious and experienced collectors of the
chronicles of the Fatherland.” From this account and from

St. Bridget in Many Lands

163

the Vadstena Diary has been taken tvhat follows, supple­
mented by what the nuns of Altomünster have put together
in a work published by them on the Bridgettine monasteries.
The wooden chest we see to-day may have held St. Bridget s
relics after her daughter’s return from Rome, until they were
placed in the silver shrine some years later.
In 1512, the Diary says, an elaborate shrine was begun to
hold the relics of St. Bridget’s daughter.
The Bridgettine Order had made strenuous attempts
towards the end of the fifteenth century to obtain the canoni­
zation of Katherine. Finally in 1481 by permission of Pope
Innocent VIII, there was a solemn translation and veneration
of her relics at Vadstena, and a promise was received that the
canonization would follow. It. nerer did, but as in the case
of some other saints, St. Katherine’s cult has been recognized
and she has been given her place in the Roman martyrology
without formal canonization. The privilege of celebrating a
feast in her honour was given first to Sweden and later was
extended to all houses of the Bridgettine Order.
One day in the year 1524, we read in the Vadstena Diary,
King Gustavus Vasa extorted from the monastery some of the
silver intended for St. Katherine’s shrine, in order to fill the
royal treasury. More was extorted later, but the shrine itself
was left in its place. Life at Vadstena was at this time going
on much as usual, but the storm-clouds had begun to gather.
It was some sixteen years after this that a representative of
the King came to forbid the celebration of Mass and to order
that all Church ceremonies be abolished. After this the
Abbess took the precaution of having the monastery’s treas­
ures put in hiding.
As said above, better days came after the death of Gustavus.
His son John was friendly, and had a devoui Catholic wife,
a Polish princess. On his death, his son Sigismund came from
Poland, of which country he was already king, to claim
his inheritance in Sweden, but was driven out by his uncle

164

St. Bridget in Her Order

the Duke Charles, youngest son of Gustavus, who was deter­
mined to pursue his father’s policy and establish the
Lutheran religion.
“Now,” writes Pastor Kylander, “the time was approaching
when these relics [of St. Bridget and St. Katherine] so highly
venerated in the days of popery, should, after a clearer light
had arisen, be either forgotten or entirely destroyed. ... At
the Upsala meeting and also at the Swedish Diet ... it was
resolved that all popish practices should be abolished at
Vadstena, that the nuns should be expelled and the
monastery turned into a high school or hospital. In conse­
quence . . . Duke Charles repaired to Vadstena to carry out
the resolution of the Diet. The nuns, who had been previ­
ously warned by their friends of the impending doom, had
not only removed their articles of value to Wisingborg, but
had also hidden the bones of St. Bridget, St. Katherine and
St. Ingrid, as well as other bones in their house. But on the
Duke’s sharp reprimand, the Abbess was not only forced to
confess where the treasures were preserved but also where
their saints’ shrines and relics were. The shrines were on this
occasion left intact, but the bones of other deceased nuns
were secretly buried.”
The Altomünster book does not wholly agree with this
account. It tells that Duke Charles, after trying to make the
Abbess and the eleven remaining nuns renounce their Faith,
which they steadfastly refused to do, forced them to give up
the monastery’s treasures and took away the two magnificent
silver shrines. He then had the relics secretly buried. A foot­
note adds that it is believed these precious relics were taken
to Poland some years later, with the greatest secrecy. Of the
wooden chest now at Vadstena nothing is said.
Pastor Kylander goes on to say that in 1598 King Sigis­
mund had a search made at Vadstena for the relics, but only
recovered the shrines, as the bones had previously been
hidden. He further states that, during the Polish war of
Charles Gustavus X, the Swedes in 1636 regained the velvet-

St. Bridget

in

Many Lands

165

covered shrine which was then in Warsaw. It was finally taken
to Vadstena (in 1766) to enclose the bones which, according
to tradition, were those of St. Bridget and St. Katherine.
A modern writer, describing a visit to Vadstena, mentions
having been told that the supposed head of St. Bridget had
been venerated in France. According to a French statement,
Gaspar Coignet de la Thuilerie, ambassador at the Swedish
Court, himself took the skull out of its grave in 1653 (conse­
quently fifty-eight years after the total suppression of the
monastery). The ambassador’s son later gave the relic to the
parish church of Courson near Auxerre and the bishop of
the diocese testified to its having been venerated when he was
examined as to its genuineness.
Kylander’s conclusion, with which the author just men­
tioned seems to agree, is that the relics disappeared entirely
in 1599, and that the so-called bones of the two saints were
sought for in the charnel house perhaps as late as the
eighteenth century, in order that a town so celebrated in
Catholic times might have some mementoes of the former
days to show to visitors.30
After all this, we shall feel no surprise that the Church does
not recognize the relics at Vadstena as those of St. Bridget and
St. Katherine. Some of the precious dust which once formed
the bodies of St. Bridget and her daughter and which will
flower in the day of mankind’s resurrection, still receives in
various parts of Europe the honour the Church’s children pay
to the relics of God’s saints, but Vadstena guards the secret
of what it was once her glory to possess.
Three hundred years ago, the Bridgettine tree put forth
a new shoot.
Marina Escobar, foundress of the Spanish Bridgettine
nuns, bears a curious resemblance to St. Bridget in certain
respects. She was never a religious, though she had felt drawn
to the cloister; her foundation was made with intense shrink­
ing on her part as a result of visions and revelations. It was

166

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

Christ, she said, who appeared to her in company with His
Blessed Mother and told her to found a monastery of Bridgettine nuns in Spain. Certain regulations of the existing Rule
were to be altered to suit the time and country; certain new
ones were to be added.
Dona Marina, who knew nothing whatever before of St.
Bridget and her Order, asked the help of her confessor and
the King of Spain (Philip IV), and her Rule was sent by
them to Pope Urban VIII. It was approved, and the King
himself founded the first monastery at Valladolid. Four other
houses of the “Recollects of Sr. Bridget" have been founded
in Spain and came safely through that country’s ordeal of
civil tvar, and of two foundations made in Mexico, one still
exists.
Again, in our own times, the Bridgettine tree has put forth
a new shoot.
Early in the present century, Mother Elisabeth Hesselblad,
a Swedish convert, founded a community of nuns in Rome
and has since made a number of other foundations. The nuns
lead a life of adoration and reparation, combining with this
and the recitation of the Divine Office a certain amount of
apostolic work by having houses of rest and retreat attached
to their convents. They profess the Rule of St. Augustine and
have their own Constitutions based on St. Bridget’s Rule and
suited to their particular organization. They have houses now
in Sweden, Switzerland, England (at Iver Heath), and in
recent years have made a foundation in India, the community
there including Indian subjects. These communities are
governed from their mother-house in Rome by a superior
general to whom they give the title of Abbess General.
It was the great desire of the foundress to be able to benefit
St. Bridget’s fellow-countrymen who are also her own, and
this desire has been realized in a twofold way. Two houses
have been founded in Sweden, and one of these stands actu­
ally on a part of what was once the site of the monks’ cloister
at Vadstena. Again, in Rome within the past few years, these

St. Bridget

in

Many Lands

nuns have acquired as their mother-house that spot so sacred
to the Order, Casa Brigida in the Piazza Farnese. St. Bridget’s
house, after being taken over by the monastery at Vadstena —
the gift of Francesca Papazzura — went through many vicis­
situdes, which it would take too long to detail, and was finally
lost to the Order. But through the generosity of the late Pope,
Pius XI, and surely in answer to the prayers offered by
Mother Elisabeth during many years, the house has been
assigned to her nuns in perpetuity. Here, in a very true sense,
the life of St. Bridget and her “familia" is lived again in
Rome. The hospitable doors of the guest-house at Casa
Brigida open as of old to the many Scandinavians who find
their way thither to receive a welcome which recalls St.
Bridget’s own. In that room in which the Saint once lived,
watched, prayed, suffered, heard her last Mass, and finally
gave back her soul to God, the unchanging Sacrifice is again
offered. And as she and her household sang the Hours of the
Divine Office at the appointed times, so now the voice of
praise rises from the nuns’ choir, and in the words of one of
the revelations, those gathered there “seek mercy for living
and dead and make expiation.”31

Attacked — and Vindicated

CHAPTER

III

Si. Bridget Attacked—and Vindicated
Sr. Bridget had many hard things said of her in her lifetime,
and living on in her Order she continued to be the object of
a criticism which no doubt had its rise in envy. Sweden as a
whole was proud of possessing a religious order of its own,
founded by a saint and enriched with many privileges. But
in some other countries it was not long before opposition
showed itself both among the members of other orders and
among the secular clergy, to the claim that heaven itself had
placed Vadstena and its daughter houses in a position enjoyed
by no other monastic family.
There was first and foremost the famous indulgence of
August i — St. Bridget’s “spiritual dowry,” given to her
Order by its Divine Founder. Denied to her, as already told,
it had been granted at her daughter’s request by Urban VI,
and it drew yearly crowds of pilgrims to Vadstena, giving to
the monastery the name of the “Rome of the North.”
Again, what is known as the Portiuncula Indulgence,
granted to St. Francis of Assisi, became also a privilege of the
Bridgettine Order, though it was to be gained on Mid-Lent
Sunday instead of in August.32
Yet these important privileges and other lesser ones had
been granted during the time of schism; the Order had only
received its full confirmation after the schism had begun and
St. Bridget owed her canonization to a pope whose authority
was denied by a large portion of Christendom. All this put a
powerful weapon into the hands of those unfriendly to the
Order.
168

169

The Bridgettines and their supporters seem to have been
fully alive to the perils and uncertainties of their position
and during the years between the canonization in 1391 and
the Council of Basle in 1431, many were the petitions that
were sent to pope or council or to some powerful patron.
Monks from Vadstena and other houses go back and forth
between their monastery and Rome or to the great Church
Councils; kings and queens are among the supplicants. Every
opportunity is seized to make sure that no part of the Order’s
inheritance shall be forfeited.
The attempt made in 1409 to end the thirty-year-old schism,
by assembling a council at Pisa, only resulted in there being
three claimants instead of two to the throne of Peter. Vad­
stena, with a portion of Sweden, accepted the decision of the
self-styled oecumenical council and acclaimed the new Pope
with enthusiasm.
What would St. Bridget have said to her monastery thus
setting aside a pope who had ruled from Rome and had until
now been accepted at Vadstena as the rightful successor of
St. Peter? Yet in those distracting years who can be blamed
for sharing in the ever increasing confusion of ideas — when
theologians were openly proclaiming theories unheard of
before, as to the authority of councils and as to the pope’s
relation towards them?
When the Pisan Pope, Alexander V, died only ten months
after his election, he was succeeded by Cardinal Cossa under
the name of John XXIII, and this Pope, too, was naturally
accepted by the Bridgettine Order as Head of the Church. His
confirmation of the Rule and Order was sought, and from
him came its most important charter, commonly known as
Mare magnum. It was a gathering together of all that had
hitherto been granted, in a definite and orderly form.33
But in spite of having received this sign of favour, when
John XXIII announced that a General Council would meet
the following year (1414) at Constance, Vadstena recognized
the expediency, not to say the necessity of sending envoys in

170

St. Bridget

in

(1er Order

order to obtain the formal ratification of St. Bridget’s canoni­
zation and of all the privileges granted by various popes.
Father Thor r\ndersson, one of the most distinguished and
diplomatic of the Vadstena monks, was chosen to accompany
the deputation from Scandinavia, and was at Constance early
in 1414.
This is not a history of the Count il of Constance except in
so far as it is found to affect the Bridgettine Order, so all that
need be said concerning John XXIII, who opened it in per­
son, is (hat after a year he disappears horn the scene. Gregory
XII, the Roman Pope, deposed at the Council of Pisa, is
allowed, after promising his abdication, to summon the
Council of Constance in his own name, and then fulfils his
promise, and finally the schism ends by the election of the
Roman Cardinal Odo Colonna, known henceforth as
Martin V.
However, before Pope John’s flight from Constance, at one
of the opening sessions of the Council, he had confirmed St.
Bridget’s canonization at the petition of the Scandinavian
deputies, after the authenticity of her miracles had been at­
tested by nine chosen theologians.
Though the decision as to the re-affirmation of the canoni­
zation is said by Hefele to have been unanimous, it is certain
that had not the French delegation arrived late, there would
have been decided opposition. For John Gerson and the
other representatives of the University of Paris were well
known to be opposed to what they considered an excessive
number of canonizations during past years, and in particular
to show disfavour to Bridget’s having been placed on the roll
of the saints. Gerson had written a treatise De Probatione
Spirituum, dealing among other things with this very matter
and censuring what he called the blind, extravagant faith of
the time in all sorts of alleged divine relevations. It was at the
door of St. Bridget and St. Catherine of Siena that he laid the
responsibility of the schism, since it was these two who had

Attacked —

and

Vindicated

171

worked so strenuously for the return of the Pope from
Avignon to Rome.
The Bridgettine envoys in their letters to \zadstena speak
of this opposition to the Order shown by France, and, on the
other hand, count on the support and help of the King of
England. It was during the Council, in February, 1415, that
Henry V laid the foundation stone of the monastery at Isle­
worth — Syon Abbey — and he became henceforth one of the
doughtiest and most influential champions of St. Bridget’s
Order in all its difficulties.31 Even before the schism ended,
together with his brother-in-law, Eric XIII of Sweden, he had
prepared a petition in favour of the Order’s rights and privi­
leges to be delivered to the “future pope,” whoever he
might be.
The Council had met to consider many weighty matters
and to effect various reforms. One of these concerned the sup­
pression of indulgences granted to particular shrines, and
when Martin V was elected, a concordat was made by the
Pope with various nations, in which one of the articles dealt
with this question.
The system of voting by nations had been adopted at the
Council, and this was to the Bridgettines a disaster, for Scan­
dinavia was assigned to the German nation, and its small
delegation had little chance of voicing its wishes. When it
came to the concordat with Germany, the Swedes had to
stand by helplessly and see their much prized Vincula grant
disappear.
In this matter Syon alone was fortunate, for the concordat
made with the English nation left the question of the sup­
pression of indulgences to be decided by the English bishops,
who were to report later to the Holy See. The Bishop of
London was hardly likely to wish to deprive his diocese of the
famous Pardon, and to make things doubly sure, Henry V
succeeded two years after Martin’s election, in obtaining
from the new Pope a ratification of all the Order’s privileges

172

St. Bridget in Her Order

in favour of the monastery he had founded. It was in this
same year, 141g, that St. Bridget’s canonization was affirmed
for the last time.
While Vadstena submitted to the conciliar decree, the
monks of a Bridgettine monastery at Lübeck took up a defi­
ant attitude. On August 1 they openly preached about and
proclaimed the indulgence, and quoted the authority of
Christ Himself as their' justification. This act of disobedience
and their insistence on the divine origin of all St. Bridget’s
writings, for which they demanded the same credence as that
given to the Gospels, gave the none too friendly Bishop and
Chapter of Lübeck a splendid opportunity, and they sent to
Rome demanding that the monastery of Maria-Wald be
forthwith suppressed.
To the action of the monks of Lübeck we can certainly
trace the troubles that came to the Order fifteen years later.
Martin V had summoned a General Council to meet at
Basle in 1431. It had not opened when the Pope died. He teas
succeeded by Eugene IV, and for a time it seemed as if there
would be a repetition of the irregularities of the synod of
Pisa, for the new Pope distrusted the Council; and when he
ordered its transference to Bologna, the members refused to
separate, so that once more the Church was threatened with
schism. The party that supported the new theories as to the
superiority of the Council to the Pope had become a power­
ful one. Its adherents gained the name of the Moderni, while
those who still upheld the supreme authority of the Pope and
Curia were nicknamed the Antiqui.
Vadstena heard of the temper of the assembly at Basle and
grew alarmed for the safety of the Order. A perturbed letter
reached Syon begging that monks might be sent to defend it.
Though no representatives of the English monastery were
sent to the Council, assurances went to Vadstena that their
King and Council would see to it that the envoys of England
defended the Order if attacked.
One day a writ from the Council arrived at Vadstena which

Attacked — and Vindicated

*73
caused consternation. The Confessor-General and the Abbess
were summoned to appear at Basle and bring with them the
documents concerning the revelations of St. Bridget and the
indulgence of the Feast of St. Peter’s Chains.
The Confessor-General obeyed the summons and took with
him a distinguished priest of the Order who later became one
of Sweden’s bishops. The two went first to Rome, and while
there made acquaintance with the Dominican, John Torquemada, Master of the Sacred Palace, the Pope’s official canonist
and theologian.85 It was for St. Bridget’s Order a happy meeting, since Torquemada’s later defence of her writings was to
prove the turning point in its affairs.
The Vadstena monks found on arrival at Basle that the
Lübeck chapter had carried its suit against the monks of
Maria-Wald to the highest tribunal, namely, the Council;
that the defendants persistently harped on the divine inspira­
tion of the Vincula grant, and so attention had naturally
been drawn to the question of the authenticity of private
revelations in general and of St. Bridget’s in particular. This
was the reason for the peremptory order to Vadstena to produce all the documents concerning the Vincula indulgence.
The General Procurator in Matters of Faith, a delegate of
the University of Paris, an official plaintiff in the proceedings
instituted against the monks of Lübeck, called on the conciliar Judge in Matters of Faith (Cardinal Cervantes) to consign St. Bridget’s Revelations to a commission of theologians
for examination.
Quite apart from the question of revelations, the temper
of the Council grew ever more contentious. St. Bridget, be­
cause of her severe words to more than one Pope, has, as said
earlier in this book, been hailed by some as a forerunner of
Luther. At Basle, she was regarded as far too staunch an up­
holder of the papacy. All her defenders at this time were on
the papal side; all her opponents on the conciliar.
The Commission appointed to examine the Book of Reve­
lations had among its numbers some doughty adversaries of

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174

St. Bridget in Her Order

the Bridgettine Order, one of whom, Master Boring, author
of a polemical pamphlet, is described in a report issued later
at Vadstena, as “princeps et Achilles.”
It was in April of the following year that the report of the
commissioners was finally issued, stating that a hundred and
twenty-three doctrinal errors had been found in St. Bridget’s
writings. It was made evident that the spiritual favours said
to have been showered on the Saint were specially repro­
bated. Six days later it was decreed that a fresh commission
should sit, with the Judge on Matters of Faith at its
head, and the following year before any report had been
given, an auxiliary commission was appointed by request of
the Confessor-General of Vadstena to test the incriminated
articles. For this commission a member was chosen by each
of the five nations at the Council. Torquemada, the presi­
dent, recognized as one of the leading theologians of the
day, was the representative of the Spanish nation. He clearly
and concisely vindicated the hundred and twenty-three arti­
cles said to contain errors. Several, he said, had been copied
inaccurately, others had been falsified. Other members of this
commission examined a certain number of the articles and
pronounced favourably.
In March, 1436, came the opinion of the conciliar com­
mission of which Cervantes had been head. He bad been suc­
ceeded in his office of Judge in Matters of Faith by Cardinal
Louis d’Allemand, the most virulent of the Moderni, so the
Bridgettines cannot have expected much from him.
No reference whatever was made to the writing in defence
of St. Bridget and her revelations which must certainly have
been delivered to the Council earlier. The report delivered
jointly to Cardinal d’Allemand as a so-called avisamentum,
stated that thirty-eight of the articles, if rightly understood,
were not contrary to the Church’s doctrine, thus leaving
eighty-five errors to be condemned. Thereupon the Cardinal,
in his capacity as Judge, forbade the Bridgettines, either
openly or secretly, directly or indirectly, to announce in their

Attacked — and Vindicated

175

monasteries the special indulgences. All must conform to the
earlier papal prohibition. The conduct of the Lübeck monks
was condemned, but the monastery was not suppressed. So
far, the sentence was what all would have expected.
The Judge then went on to speak of the Book of Revela­
tions in general, condemning its title and its contents. (St.
Bridget's Revelations bore the title Libri Divinarum seu
Caelestium Revelationum S. Birgittae.) Much, he said, in
these writings needed to be adjusted and explained by wise
and skilled theologians. Therefore no one might expound or
promulgate them in their present form. They needed to be
brought into harmony with the teaching of the Church and
the avisamentum mentioned above was to be added as a com­
mentary to all collections of the Revelations. The assertions
of some of the Bridgettine monks (this refers to those of
Lübeck) were condemned, but stress was laid on the fact that
the decree in no wise implied an attack on St. Bridget’s sanc­
tity, canonization, cult, or Order. Finally came the penalties
to be incurred by those who should not conform to the
decree.
And so, in spite of Torquemada’s vindication, and the con­
trary judgement of the commission of which he was the head,
so far the Aioderni had won the day. A Bull issued by the
Council ratified the adverse verdict, but as a result of later
events at Basle the decree was never promulgated and re­
mained a dead letter.
The Swedish Bridgettines returned to Vadstena the same
summer, but the entry in the Diary recording their arrival
shows they did not consider their case hopeless. “The day
after John and Paul day,” it notes, “the Confessor-General
came from the Church Synod at Basle without the affairs of
the Order being settled.”
Meanwhile at Basle the conflicting religious, political, and
personal interests contending for the supremacy, or at least
eager to secure an advantage, were reaching a climax. It came
in September, 1437, when there was a complete rupture be-

Eæ

176

St. Bridget in Her Order

tween the Pope and Council now controlled by the Moderni.
.Negotiations with the Greek Church had been opened, and
the question of a meeting place was being discussed. The
majority at Basle voted for Avignon, but Pope Eugene con­
firmed the opinion of the minority; thereupon he was sum­
moned before the Council to answer to many charges.
The Pope’s reply was vigorous. lie published a Bull an­
nouncing that on the arrival of the Greeks, the Council
would be transferred to Ferrara. There he -would himself
preside.
Though the synod at Basle declared the Bull invalid and
threatened the Pope with deposition, a deadly blow had been
dealt to the adversaries of papal supremacy. Cardinal
Cesarini, who had been president of the Council and its
guiding spirit in opposition to the Pope, now left Basle and
joined him at Ferrara. He was followed by all the cardinals
except d’Allemand, and by the majority of the bishops.
The defeat of the Moderni had its effect on the Bridgettine
Order. Torquemada, who had done so much at Basle to up­
hold the Pope’s authority, was created a cardinal in 1439.
And it was he, the Pope’s official canonist and theologian,
who had defended St. Bridget’s orthodoxy when attacked. He
had based his defence on the fact of her canonization, which
had required for its completion that nothing against faith or
morals should be found in her writings. These waitings had
been examined by theologians of the Pope’s appointing, and
at the close of the schism the canonization had, as we have
seen, been ratified by Martin V.
Vadstena could therefore feel assured that no slur rested
on St. Bridget’s orthodoxy in the eyes of the Church.36
All the same, every precaution must be taken against any
such charge being made in the future. So in 1444 two monks
left Vadstena for Rome on a threefold errand: to obtain the
formal approval of the Revelations, the signatures of Torque­
mada and the theologians who, rvith him, had examined and
vindicated them, and finally the confirmation of the Order.

Attacked —and Vindicated

177

With this last was bound up the hope of regaining the lost
privileges.
The envoys were robbed on the way and one of them re­
turned to Vadstena. But next year the Confessor-General
himself set out.
There seems to have been no personal interview with the
Pope, though the petitions were presented, but the monks re­
turned to Vadstena with the full authentication of Torquemada’s “Defence” and his signature to it.
The “Defence” is printed at the beginning of all the Latin
editions of the Revelations. It is introduced by tvhat the
Cardinal wrote in Rome at the request of the monks. After
stating that he has been asked to give witness to the truth
that the “Defence” was indeed written by him, he says:
“. . . From zeal for the truth and ardour for the honour of
St. Bridget, we eagerly and carefully read all the books of
the said Revelations, and according to the grace given us and
the capacity of our scant intellect and the shortness of time,
produced these explanations and comments ... in confirma­
tion whereof we have signed and attested with our great seal
the following writing.”
The monks also obtained the signatures of other theolor
gians who had sat on the commission with Torquemada, but
they did not succeed in regaining the A^incula indulgence.
The decree of the Council of Constance still held good. Not
until 1484, when Pope Sixtus IV annulled that Council’s de­
crees, was the much prized grant restored to Vadstena by a
motu proprio,31
Cardinal Torquemada, who had shown himself such a true
friend of the Order — not only at the Council but also in
Rome over affairs connected with the Hospice of St. Bridget
— received a horse from Vadstena, in acknowledgement of
his services. It was one of the breed for which Vadstena was
famous, and in days when horseback was the chief means of
transport, would be a gift much valued.

K

178

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

During all the years of stress and anxiety between the
councils of Constance and Basle, one monastery of St.
Bridget’s Order went peacefully on its way. In spite of having
come into existence at such a critical moment. Syon Abbey,
thanks to the foresight and watchfulness of her royal founder,
never forfeited either the Vincula or Mid-Lent indulgence.
Over and above the security given by the concordat made
with the English nation, King Henry had, as said above, ob­
tained from Martin V, the same year as that in which St.
Bridget’s canonization was finally rc-aihnned, the ratification
of all the monastery’s privileges. Again, under Henry’s suc­
cessor, a charter of privileges was drawn up in 1425 which
was to serve for all the Bridgettine houses that might be
founded in England. And when the storm broke at Basle,
though Syon’s independent position seemed to keep her safe,
the precaution was taken of having all privileges confirmed
before the verdict of the conciliar commission was given.38
And so, as Mid-Lent Sunday and August 1 came round
each year, pilgrims came in crowds to the monastery church
by the Thames to gain the great “Pardon of Shene.” Among
these, in 1434, the very year of the troubles at Basle, came, as
we read in her “Book,” that tireless and intrepid traveller,
Margery Kempe.39

CHAPTER

IV

St. Bridget’s Legacy
St. Bridget’s Order has been seen growing from infancy to
its full stature, spreading in different lands, meeting attacks
from without, suffering persecution, and even giving martyrs
to the Church. We are not told whether any of this future
history of her Order was foreseen by the foundress, except its
spread into other countries than her own, which is expressly
mentioned in her revelations.49 Something must now finally
be said of her Order’s more intimate life, that it may be seen
how her creation is, in its aims and ideals, a real part of her­
self, and in its own way a picture of its foundress. For found­
ers of religious orders bequeath to their spiritual descendants
not merely the actual prescriptions of a rule, but something
also of their own personality. This it is, surely, which gives
to an order that rather undefinable thing — its particular
“spirit.”
St. Bridget’s Order is not exceptional in this matter, even
though she claimed to have received its Rule by quite direct
inspiration. The outstanding features of her spirituality are
stamped upon it throughout. Of her Order she dreamed, for
it she planned, concerning it she constantly prayed and asked
for guidance. Her great consolation at the end of her life
was to know that her long-cherished hopes of herself tending
her new vine would not be frustrated; that she would be
reckoned as a nun and the true Mother of Vadstena and that
to the church of her first monastery her earthly remains
would be taken.
It has to be borne in mind that, just as St. Bridget’s writ­
ings teach nothing new but rather emphasize truths which in
*79

180

St. Bridget in Her Order

her day were being forgotten or ignored, so her Rule makes
no claim to originality. Nor does it aim at the reform of any
particular order. She says she understood Christ’s complaint
to be that many of the religious orders once pre-eminent in
holiness, had fallen away from their high ideals, and that the
founding of a new order would rekindle fervour and these
ideals would again be set up as a beacon for mankind.
Therefore, as it was the re-assertion of the monastic idea in
general that St. Bridget felt herself charged with, it is to be
expected that her Rule should be something in the nature of
a blend, emphasizing now this, now that characteristic of the
older orders, but especially such characteristics as made the
strongest appeal to her own sold.
In all monastic orders the first place is given to the corpo­
rate worship and praise of Almighty God. The monastic life is
primarily one of adoration, an offering of the homage of all
creation to its Creator by the lips and hearts of those who
pledge themselves to this great work.
Though St. Bridget was never a nun, her life was quite
certainly one in which adoration had the first place. Her
spirit of adoration, of deepest reverence, breathes through
her writings. Her Book of Revelations begins with the asser­
tion of God’s incomprehensible Being, of His creative power,
of the mystery of the Trinity in Unity. The thought of God’s
majesty is never far away. But it is not only a spirit of adora­
tion that is found in her life but the actual practice of it.
From the time that her disciplined life at Alvastra began
until the day of her death, the Church’s liturgical offering of
praise in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Canonical
Hours was her daily offering also and her spiritual meat and
drink. Not content with this, she would recite the Hours of
the Trinity daily as an act of private devotion?1
Not only was direct adoration of God to be given the first
place in her Order, but that adoration was the very reason
of its existence; and coupled with this and never separated
from it was the praise of Mary, Queen of Heaven.

St. Bridget’s Legacy

181

'.A.':;

“I will institute this Religion,” we read at the beginning
of the Rule — words still retained in their original form at
the beginning of the nuns’ breviary — “in honour of My most
beloved Mother.”*2
Bridget, from the time of her childhood’s visions onwards,
may be said to have lived in thought and affection with
Christ and His Mother. And as the ties that bound her to
earth were loosed one by one, the intimacy deepened. Surely
the almost overwhelming joy she felt when the revelation
of the Rule came to her, making it seem, as she expresses it,
as if her heart would burst, was in large measure caused by
the realization that here was a way and a new way by which
she could give honour to the Queen of heaven. The Order
would be Mary’s own. It was she who would be at the head
of the double monastery, even as after the Ascension she had
been “Head and Queen,” as the revelation puts it, of the
apostles and disciples. She would have a breviary all her
own, a new Divine Office in the Church, whose Lessons at
Matins were a hitherto unheard-of praise, brought from
heaven by one of God’s angels.
And so in Bridget’s regulations provision is made for an
almost constant offering of loving praise and worship; adora­
tion of God, praise of God’s Mother. Just as Bridget would
rise at midnight to begin her prayer, so in her monasteries
each new day would begin with the Divine Office of the
monks, sung in their choir, and some two hours later the long
procession of nuns would enter their upper choir and would
sing for another couple of hours or thereabouts the praise of
their “Saviour, their Creator and of St. Mary.” The Office of
monks and nuns alternated thus all through the day, and the
monastery church can seldom have been empty or silent. The
place of honour was given by Bridget’s directions to the new
Office of Our Lady, that all might see “how greatly Christ
would have His Mother honoured in her monasteries.”
If adoration is to be of the heart it is to be of the body
also, and this not merely of the lips. We cannot think of

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St. Bridget’s Legacy

St. Bridget in Her Order

Bridget ever offering a worship that was hurried or perfunc­
tory. Her genuflections, her prostrations, her habit of lying
face down with arms outstretched, expressly mentioned by
her daughter, show that she gave her whole being its share
in her work of adoring God. And so in the directions for the
choir service, the ritual to be observed is described with de­
tailed care — the beautiful, unhurried manners of the court
of heaven which are the glory of monastic worship. There is
to be nothing slovenly and nothing that is merely individual;
all are to be “as angels,’’ we read, “kneeling together, rising
and inclining together, all after one form.” Even the depth
of the inclination is indicated and is in itself a lesson in
reverence.
The recognition of God’s absolute sovereignty and right
to adoration implies the acknowledgement by the creature of
its own nothingness. Profound humility has been seen as one
of Bridget’s most marked characteristics. We recall her con­
fusion when praised, her joy not only in self-condemnation
but in the rebukes of others, and her willingness at all times
to submit her judgement. The virtue of humility is continu­
ally stressed both in her Rule and in her teaching. Here Ben­
edictine influence is evident, for the Confessor-General is
told to expound the degrees of humility as taught in the
Rule of St. Benedict, so that Mary’s daughters may learn the
foundation of those virtues on which their spiritual edifice
will stand firm.
Even in the worship in choir there is room for humility,
and here we find another influence at work. The religious
hidden behind their grilles are offering their adoration to
God in company with the hosts of heaven by whom alone
they can be seen, but their chant as it rises from the choir
can be heard by earthly ears. And so let it be serious, simple,
uniform, and above all humble, as is the chant of the Car­
thusians. For if singing is done to please men, it is odious
to God, says Bridget, but if it is humble and devout it edifies
hearers and gives glory to God.

i

183

This note of something like austerity is struck again in
the forbidding of organ accompaniment. We read: “Though
it is good and pleasing to hear organs and in no way con­
trary to good discipline, yet in My Mother’s monastery there
shall never be any such. Here must be gravity of chant, purity
of mind, the cultivation of silence . . . and above all, true
humility and prompt obedience.”
It is not, it may be said in passing, the actual chant of the
Carthusian Order that is here enjoined, but the mode of its
execution. The music found in the Bridgettine Office is in
parts original — as already said, the work of Master Peter of
Skeninge — but for the most part, his adaptation of the early
chant of the Church as found in different uses.
Before leaving the subject of the nuns’ life of prayer, we
may mention the privilege granted to the Order of having
the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a crystal pyx, which no
doubt is the earliest instance of a direction for Exposition as
a part of devotional life. St. Bridget’s love for the Holy Sacri­
fice of the Mass was intense, her Holy Communions were
frequent. She could not bequeath to her daughters the visions
which at times were her privilege during Mass or when at
prayer; these were God’s gift and at His disposal alone. But
she could help to keep keen and constant a spiritual hunger
and thirst for God, and this practice of allowing the religious
to gaze daily at their Lord under the sacramental veils was
specially intended to awake or sustain their longing to possess
Him. “That seeing Me daily under another form,” as we read
in the revelation, “they may more fervently desire Me.”
The express permission of authority for this privilege was,
of course, required.
Love of the hiddenness and silence which would have been
Bridget’s by choice, finds its counterpart in her Rule in the
careful provision for enclosure not only in the case of the
nuns but also in that of the monks. A writer on religious
rules has remarked on the number of times directions as to
enclosure are mentioned in the Constitutions of the Bridget-

184

St. Bridget in Her Uroir

tine Order. The same writer speaks also of die extreme strict­
ness of the poverty enjoined, and this reflects another charac­
teristic of the foundress which has already been touched on
more than once/3
St. Bridget’s spirit of poverty was Franciscan in its ardour,
and not content with denying herself die power of spending
money for her own use, we have seen lier strip herself even
of the power of bestowing aims ficcly and according to her
own judgement. Poverty as she practised it was something
more than detachment; something positive rather than
merely negative. Yet, though the influence of St. Francis is
thus felt in her teaching as in her practice, it was no mendi­
cant order that she founded. A Swedish witter says in his
work on the Bridgettine Order: “St. Bridget’s Rule forbade
first and foremost the individual right of property in the
most authoritative terms . . . but on the other hand ... in
nowise aimed at forming any new mendicant order, which
would indeed have been quite incompatible with the whole
Bridgettine organization. The monastery’s right to possess
property, both real and personal, is expressly acknowledged.”11
However, the Rule is exceedingly strict as to the sources
of such possessions. No matter how great the necessity, noth­
ing may be received while any doubt remains as to its having
been in the first instance lawfully acquired. Extreme simplicity also is insisted on in the monastic buildings, with the
warning that should these be stately it will be reckoned as
robbery of the poor of Christ.
In the after history of the Order there is no evidence of
relaxation of observance in this matter. It is a temptation
perhaps to students of the Middle Ages not too well disposed
towards monastic life, to see in the careful arrangements
made for things temporal, evidenced by account books, proof
of a falling away from the simplicity and poverty St. Bridget
had so tirelessly taught. Certainly to her English monastery
some historical writers have been none too kind in regard to
such matters. The large income received yearly from the

St. Bridget’s Legacy

185

lands bestowed on Syon by a generous royal founder, inven­
tories reproduced which suggest a well-appointed table, have
made it seem to readers who know nothing of St. Bridget’s
Rule as if the monks and nuns lived in luxury. But here, as
at Vadstena, estates were scattered over the land, and officials
were needed to gather in rents and oversee affairs which
strictly enclosed religious could control in no other way. A
steward lived in the outer court of the monastery and royal
visitors were often entertained. The linen and silver men­
tioned in the inventories were assuredly not for the use of the
monastic refectories. The Abbess was required by her Rule to
make a strict reckoning of the necessary expenditure for the
coming year and to give all superfluous income to the poor.
It must also not be forgotten that it was forbidden to accept
a dowry from anyone entering the monastery when it had
been sufficiently endowed at the time of its founding, and
that the full number of religious was eighty-five.
No doubt, in certain details — indeed it seems inevitable —
life changed to some extent in the course of years. Yet Syon
was noted at the time of its suppression for its strict observ­
ance, and not the most carping critic was able to bring evi­
dence of laxity or luxury.45
There is no provision in the Rule for the religious to live
by the work of their hands; no mention, either in the origi­
nal Rule or in the “Additions,” as they were called — drawn
up by the Cistercian Prior Peter, who was St. Bridget’s helper
during so many years—of the field of labour which forms such
an important part of St. Bernard’s plan. The strict enclosure
of the monks would in any case have made extensive land
cultivation impossible. The thought seems to have been to
provide for monks and nuns alike a life of seclusion and
peace; a mountain top where they would be removed from
the noise and glare of the world though never unmindful of
its needs and sorrows; from which intercession for living and
dead would rise to heaven day and night.
The life of the priests was quite definitely to be one de-

186

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

voted to prayer and study. For this purpose they were to have
as many books as they might need. The monastery of Vad­
stena had one of the finest libraries in the North, and Syon
Abbey one of the finest in England at the time of its sup­
pression. Of the Bridgettine monks of Scandinavia a Nor­
wegian historian, P. A. Munch, says: 'The Vadstena Order
exercised a great influence both on the manners and language
of the North, and formed in a certain sense an idiom that
might fitly be called lingua brigitlana. It is Swedish mixed
with Danish or Norwegian phraseology according to the land
for which it was intended. It is found in many manuscripts
of the fifteenth century, at which period nearly all Nor­
wegian documents bear traces of this Swedish monastic
language.”
Among the English Bridgettine monks distinguished for
their learning, two names stand out prominently in the fate­
ful sixteenth century.
Richard Reynolds is called “Blessed” by the Church, for
he was martyred at Tyburn in 1535 for denying the right of
Henry VIII to assume the title of Supreme Head of the
Church in England. Reynolds was already a priest and a
distinguished scholar before he joined the Bridgettine Order.
A Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, he had been
appointed preacher to the University because of his elo­
quence. Later it was said of him that he was not only noted
for his holiness of life but also for his learning, being the
most learned monk in England, with knowledge of Latin,
Greek, and Flebrew. Nearly a hundred books in the Syon
Library were inscribed with his name.
A contemporary of Richard Reynolds was Richard Whytford, and both alike were close friends of St. Thomas More.
Whytford spent long, quiet years in the cloister in prayer,
study, and writing. A number of books came from his pen,
signed usually, “The Wretch of Syon.” The beautiful de­
votion called “The Jesus Psalter” is his, and he made an out­
standing translation into English of the Imitation of Christ.

St. Bridget’s Legacy

187

The first edition of this remarkable work (circ. 1530) has,
quite recently, through the scholarship and research of the
Rev. Dr. Edward Klein, been reprinted, for the first time
since the sixteenth century, and published in America.
St. Bridget valued learning as a help to prayer and to a
deeper knowledge of self and of God, and so, also, a help
to humility and adoration. She wished above all, that the
priests of her Order should study in order to become apostles,
giving the fruit of their reading, their prayer, and their
contemplation to souls in words easily understood — the
simple, fervent preaching of the first friars. It was preaching
such as this, simple and direct, that had gained for Bridget
in early childhood that devotion to the Passion which never
left her.
The eight lay brothers of St. Bridget’s Rule were admitted
as in other orders to do manual work necessary in house and
garden, and so set the priests free for their choir duties and
studies. In the case of the nuns, the Rule prescribes that their
days are to be divided, as were those of the Mother of God,
between the praise of God with their lips and work for God
with their hands. Reading, study, and the work of illuminat­
ing manuscripts, some of which, now scattered over the li­
braries of Europe, may be seen to-day, occupied hours left
over from those devoted to the Divine Office, but humble
manual work was the definite duty of a part of each day,
work such as Bridget delighted to do in imitation of that
done long ago at Nazareth.
There is no need to say more than has been said in earlier
chapters concerning St. Bridget’s spirit of penance. Hers was
no mere resignation to suffering; it was rather a running to
embrace it. If in her Rule she did not demand the extremes
of asceticism she herself practised and delighted in, she yet
pointed out to her religious no other way than that of the
cross. The Rule is indeed everywhere stamped with the cross.
The Order bears the name of the divine Victim under His
title of Saviour; even the habit worn is to be a constant

188

St. Bridget

in

Her Order

reminder of the Passion. Bridget has no wish to hide the fact
that the way to perfection is a sleep, uphill climb. On the
contrary, she requires that none shall be admitted to her
Order until its “hardness and sharpness" have been shown
them and they are prepared willingly to embrace the life with
all that it involves.. Yet with the austerity there is mingled a
remarkable discretion. In renewing dimmed ideals of monas­
tic perfection there is no trace of the harshness that is some­
times seen in reformers, This ardent soul, whose own morti­
fication of the flesh could only be restrained by the still
harder mortification of the will imposed by obedience, never,
in prescribing for others, loses her sense of proportion. True
discretion may be a part of humility, we read; histing is good
but not the highest good, which is charity. This, says St.
Bridget, Christ Himself taught her. And so the abbess is
given a wide power of dispensation which she is to exercise
in case of feeble health, old age, sudden or unwontedly hard
labour; but there must be a just cause, and those dispensed
must accept the relaxation of the Ride in the spirit of obe­
dience. In the consideration to be shown to the sick there is
something of the tenderness of the Saviour whose name the
Order bears.
But sickness and necessary dispensation apart, does this
outline of St. Bridget's ideals and rides for her Order leave
on the minds of readers an impression of almost unrelieved
austerity, even of gloom? Possibly; one may say almost
certainly in the case of those who have no personal knowledge
of enclosed, contemplative orders. To complete the picture,
something must be added which cannot be stated in terms of
a religious rule but rather is its outcome, and which to omit
would be unfair, even disastrous, since it was to the home
at Nazareth St. Bridget looked to find the model for her
religious family.
The word penance bears a sinister sound to many ears;
silence suggests perhaps a depressing taciturnity; doesn't
humility, constantly stressed, come dangerously near to an

St. Bridget’s Legacy

189

inferiority complex? Enclosure surely means imprisonment
not only of bodies but also of minds and souls — something
narrowing if not degrading? Yet those who go to the grate
of the Bridgettine cloister commonly say that the glimpse
they get of happy family life, the evident good health, peace,
joy, and even gaiety of those with whom they converse, make
an impression which remains. St. Bridget’s “laughing face’’
has its reflection in her monasteries.
What is the explanation of this apparent contradiction?
It is not simply because they belonged to the Latin races
that certain saints devoted to the practice of penance and
poverty were noted for their joyousness; St. Catherine of
Siena and St. Teresa for the freshness of their laughter, St.
Francis and St. Dominic for their song as they tramped the
highroads. Our English martyrs of the sixteenth century,
faced with a ghastly death, showed the same lightheartedness.
It was the Bridgettine monk, Blessed Richard Reynolds of
Syon, of whom an eye-witness of his martyrdom said: “When
he put his neck within the murderous halter, he seemed
rather to put on a regal chain than an instrument of death,
such was the alacrity manifested on his countenance.”43 A
few weeks later, St. Thomas More mounted the scaffold with
a jest.
Nor can we regard this joy only as a token of rare sanctity,
although the instances just given are its finest expression. It
is neither peculiar to the saints nor to this or that individual.
It is a heritage come down through the centuries that have
passed since the cross was raised on Calvary, something which
belongs of right to those who, having nothing, yet possess all
things. It is the paradox of losing life to find it and of the
meek who possess the earth.

ΐ9θ

St. Bridget in Her Order

POSTSCRIPT

St. Bridget has a bequest for others besides her cloistered
daughters. The claim was made at the outset of this book
that she could be an inspiration and example to those in vari­
ous walks of life because of her own faithful fulfilment of
duties that are those of the majority of mankind. It was not
because of the unusual things found so abundantly in her
life that she was declared eminent in sanctity, though these
marvels, joined as they were to utter humility, were powerful
signs that her life xvas pleasing to Cod. F.ach call as it came
was obeyed, whether it was a call to domestic affairs, to char­
ity towards her neighbour or, later, to a painful apostolate.
She had struggles as have all the saints; she had to strive
with her pride, with her naturally masterful will, with her
spirit of independence. She gained her victory by an entire
self-surrender.
Our times, so different from hers in almost every respect,
are yet like them in one point: the poxvers of evil are ever
active. If their attacks take varying forms, they are always
directed to one end — the destruction of goodness and truth
among the children of men.
As a challenge flung to these malign forces by those who
watch to-day at the gates of the city, there is a vigorous
Christian activity, whether called Catholic Action or by some
other name, which is bringing out what is best and most self­
sacrificing among the laity. Were St. Bridget alive to-day she
would assuredly have no need to urge forward the Chief Pas­
tor of the Church and his under-shepherds; no need to exhort
them to be faithful to their charge, for she would see them
going before the flock, guarding it in all danger, helping it in
all difficulties. But can xve not see her among the most loyal,
steadfast, and eager of their followers, praying for the peace
of the nations, working for the reign of justice? Self-surren­
der, unfaltering courage, and, above all, charity; these are

191

§

the qualities needed in every conflict with the powers of
darkness, in every struggle to raise aloft the standard of
Christ. All were found in the woman whom her contempo­
raries described as fortis et intrepida.
And to those who strive for truth and justice she can
promise a prize — their guerdon even while they fight. It is
the same as was her own, and the only one she ever coveted:
a blessing from Hands that bear the marks of wounds.

?

St. Bridget’s Legacy

MS j»f ΐ < i

;

Λ P P END!

I

Noies and tleier onces
The most important ami most frequent references in this book are to the
Process of St. Bridgets Canonization. The edition used is one brought out
within recent years in Sweden by Dr. Isak Collijn, Librarian of the Royal
Library, Stockholm. He calls his work: Acta el Processus Canonizacionis Beate
Birgitte. With the Process is bound up the earliest Life of St. Bridget written
a few months after her death by her two confessors, as their sworn testimony.
This edition is the result of long' research and careful comparison of the
various codices extant, two of which had never before been made use of.
The Vita b. Brigide appears twice. It is both at the beginning and at the
end of the Process proper, the first being according to the codex hitherto
used, the second, and in Dr. Collijn’s opinion the most valuable because
the fullest, following two codices used for the first time. The references found
in this book to the Vita are to these last two codices. The spelling through­
out is a reproduction of the original, and in the case of some of the proper
names is unusual. We find “Katherina” and “Alfonsus,” for instance, instead
of the usual Latin forms of these names, and in spite of the fact that St.
Bridget’s name in the title appears in the accepted Latin form — her name
in Swedish being Birgitta — in the various depositions in the Process it is
always “Brigida.” I have followed the spelling in these references as found.
The folios referred to are those from the codex as given by Dr. Collijn in
the margin of his work.

PART I

Chapter I. The Child
1. Vita b. Brigide Prioris Petri et Magistri Petri; Cod. olim S. Laurentii
in Panisperna, f. 2 r.
2. Ibid., f. 1 v.
3. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., super art. 2, f. 200 v.
4. Although the name of St. Bridget’s mother is given in the Process as
Sigrid or Sigredis, it seems to be an established fact that Sigrid was the wife,
not the daughter, of Benedict Magnusson and that the daughter’s name was
Ingeborg. The correction is noted in the text as printed by Dr. Collijn.
5. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 2, 201 r.
6. Ibid., 29, 213 r. He states that he heard of the vision from Master
Mathias, Canon of Linkoping, St. Bridget’s first confessor.
7. Vita b. Brigide,
8. Ibid., 2 r., 2 v.

Appendix I

193

Chapter II. The Wife
9. Svensk Litteratur — Historia by H. Schtick and K. Wurburg, p. 176.
10. Svenska Folkets Saga Hafdar by A. A. Azelius, IV, 176.
11. Proc. Can. clep. Katherinae, sup. art. 4, 125 r.
12. These details of the ceremonial — traces of which are still seen at peasant
weddings in Sweden to-day —are to be found in Prof. Hammerich’s book:
Den Hellige Birgitta og Kirken i Norden, footnotes to pp. 47, 51, in which
the author quotes old chronicles; also they are given by Nordstrom, author
of a history of Swedish social institutions. Countess de Flavigny, in her Vie
de Ste. Brigitte de Suède, and other writers after her, state that Ulf came
to fetch his bride, possibly confusing the betrothal with the marriage
ceremonies.
13. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 5, f. 125 r.
14. Vita b. Brigide, f. 3 v.
15. Revelationes, VI, 52. (All references to St. Bridget’s Revelations are
to the Latin edition.)
16. Revelationes Extravagantes, 56 (a collection of short revelations printed
at the end of the last book of the Revelations proper); Proc. Can., art. 16;
ff. 7 r., 7 v.; dep. Pr. Pet., f. 205 r.; dep. Kath., f. 12 v.
17. Sveriges Medeltid by H. Hildebrand, II, 3; Revel. Extrav., 53; dep.
Pr. Pet., sup. art. 8, f. 203 r.
18. Vita b. Brig., 3 r.
19. Proc. Can., art. 20, 8 r.: dep. Kath., 129 v.
20. It has sometimes been stated that St. Bridget was the foundress of
a military Order. The author of Histoire des Ordres monastiques religieuses
et militaires (Paris: 1715), gives the names of Hermant and Schoonbeck as
writers who have declared that such an Order was founded by St. Bridget
in 1366, and received the approbation of Pope Urban V. They even
describe the insignia of the supposed Knights, who are said to have
followed the Rule of St. Augustine. However, the author of the first work
quoted is of opinion that the Order never existed, since St. Bridget was not
in Sweden in 1366, and having by then disposed of her fortune, could not
have assigned it to the Order as stated. Nor is there any allusion to
such a creation in the Bull of Canonization. I have seen within recent
years a brochure, written by a Swede, describing the military Order as
if it were a fact of history, but enquiries sent to Swedish scholars brought
the reply that St. Bridget’s military Order was a myth.
21. Vita b. Brig., 3 v., Revel. Extrav., 56.
22. See Sveriges Historia by Emil Hildebrand, II, 193; and F. Hammerich, op. cit., p. 68.

Chapter III. The Mother
23. Vita abbreviata S. Birgittae (included in all the Latin editions of
the Revelations. The author is uncertain) .
24. Vita b. Brig., f. 3 r.
25. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 20, 129 v.
26. Revel. Extrav., 56.
27. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 29, f. 132 v.
28. De Vita Nicolai, published in the original Latin in “Anticvarisk Tidskrift for Sverige,” Part V, 316. The prophecy concerning Nicholas is also
alluded to in the Diarium Vazstenense or Chronicle of St. Bridget’s first

194

Appendix I

monastery, in the notice of Bp, Nicholas Hcrmansson’s death, which seems
to show it was a tradition. Yet among the various instances given in the
Process of Canonization concerning St. Bridget’s power of seeing future
events, there is no mention of her conversation with Nicholas, although,
when the evidence was being collected, he was still alive and most active
in furthering her Cause.
29. The chronicle referred to is one written by Margaret Clausdotter,
tenth .Abbess of Vadstena (1473-1486) and published at the beginning of
the eighteenth century by Erik Benzelius, Jr., under the title: Margaretae
Nicolai Filiae Abbatissae. Vadstenenso de Birgitta Chronicon.
30. Vila sive Legenda D. Catharinae, Filiae S. Birgittae de Regno Suetiae,
printed at the end of the Latin editions of St. Bridget's Revelations, and

written in the early part of the fifteenth century by Ulf Birgersson, monk

of Vadstena.
31. Diplom. Suce., V an., No. 3558.
32. Vita b. Brig., 3 r.

Chapier IV. The Queen’s Lady-In-Waiting
33. See Note 30 to Chap. Ill, Part II, of this work.
34. Revs., VIII, Chap. 3, 4.
35. Ibid., Chap. 11.
Chapter V. The Widow
36. Vita b. Brig., 1 r.
37. In the Consuetudines of the Canons of Hereford Cathedral, it is stated
that for a Canon to go abroad to the tomb of St. Denis seven weeks' leave
of absence was considered legal; sixteen weeks were allowed for the pilgrimage
to Rome or Compostela and a year for Jerusalem.
38. Adami: gesta pontificum Hammaburgensium, Hanover, 1876, II, 82.
39. Proc. Can., art. 13, f. 6 v.
40. Ibid., dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 15, 205 r., Revel Extrav., 72.
41. The Way of St. James by Georgiana Goddard King.
42. Epistola Solitarii, cap. 3. This is the name given to the Preface
written by Alfonso, former Bishop of Jaen, to Book VIII of St. Bridget’s
Revelations.
43. Revel. Extrav., cap. 56.
44. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 13, 126 v.
45. Revs., IV, 103, 104, 105.
46. This interesting manuscript, says Margaret Howitt, was the subject of
an article which appeared in The Universe, May 4, 1928. It was called: "A
Pope’s First Tourist Guide.”
47. Revs., VI, 36, Declaratio (end of chapter) .
48. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 13, 203 v., Revel. Extrav., 92.
49. Ibid., Kath., sup. art. 4, 125 v.
50. Ibid., dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 5, 202 v.
51. Studier i Vadslcnas Klosters och Birgittinordens Historia by Torvald
Hojer, p. 31; trans, by M. Howitt.

Chapter VI. The Bride of Christ
52. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 5, 202 v.
53. From the Defensorium of Cardinal Torquemada which prefaces the
Latin edition of St. Bridget’s Revelations; see also Vita b. Brigide, f. 4 r.

Appendix I

195

54. Revelations, 1, 2.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.

Bulla canonizationis; dep, Kath,, 126 r.
Vita b. Brigide, cod. olim S. Laurentii in Panisperna, 4 v.
Proc. Can., 8th, 9th, 10th witnesses at Vadstena, 26 v.
Dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art, 17, 206 r.
Revs., Bk. I, Chap. 2.
Dep. Pr. Pet., f. 206 r.
Proc. Can., 25 v.
Dep. Pr. Pet., 208 r,, 5 m.
Vita b. Brigide, 7 v.
Dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 18, 206 r.
Ibid., sup. art. 17, 206 r.
Ibid., 214 r.

i

Chapter VII. The New Vineyard
67. The exact date is not given but is assumed from events following St.
Bridget’s appearance at Court — events belonging to history.
68. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 29, 213 v.
69. Ibid., 215 v. Although the Process makes the child who asked the
last question the younger son of Magnus, namely Hâkan, who was already
King of Norway, this is obviously a copyist’s error and an example of the
inaccuracies found in medieval history. St. Bridget’s prophecy was fulfilled
to the letter in regard to Eric, the elder of the two boys, since he was later
continually at strife with his father, certainly no joy to his mother, and
died suddenly with his wife and children, probably as the result of
an epidemic.
70. This seems to be a clear indication of place. The revelation of the
Rule is commonly said to belong to the time of retirement at Alvastra.
But Margaret Howitt, after a most careful study of the history of the
time, the movements of King Magnus, and the deed of gift he made to
the future monastery, was convinced that the revelation came to St. Bridget
in Norway when she was one of the royal household, and this view
I have adopted as having so much more to support it than the opinion
expressed above as to Alvastra. It may be noted, too, that in her description
of the way in which the revelation came to her, quoted later on in this
chapter, St. Bridget speaks of her making it known “after several days” to
Prior Peter, whom she calls “the friend of God,” and this points to her
not being at the time at Alvastra.
71. The Regula Salvatoris follows Book VIII of St. Bridget’s Revelations.
It is prefaced by Alfonso’s Prologue of three chapters and is itself composed
of thirty-one chapters. The actual Rule ends with Chapter 27. The remain­
ing chapters deal with the confirmation to be sought from the Pope and
with promises as to the future of the Order.
72. The quotations from the Rule here given are taken from the fifteenth­
century English translation as used in the Monastery of Syon.
73. At Fontrevault the Rule followed was that of St. Benedict. The abbess
(as in the Bridgcttine Order) represented the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, after
the Ascension of our Lord, was, as St. Bridget’s Rule puts it, "Head and
Queen” of the apostles and disciples. In the church of this abbey both King
Henry II of England and King Richard Coeur de Lion were buried. The
Order lasted until the time of the French Revolution.

K

Ns
w

ί

ί

196

Appendix I

74. See Unions Perioden of the History by the Norwegian, P Munch
PP· 452. 454> 455·
75. Revel. Extrav., 32.
70. Proc. Can. dcp. Rath., sup. arc. 19. ί2δ v.; dcp. Pr. Pet., 207 v ·
Revs., IV, 122, Additio.
77. Proc. Can. dep.
plt., sup. ait. 22, 211 r.
78. Ibid., art. 30, 218 r.
79. Vila b. Brig., g

Chapter VIII. The U’av of Faith
80. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., I. 210 r.
81. Revel. Exlrav., 26.
82. Regula S. Salvatoris, cap. 26; Revel. Exlrav.. 2.
«3. Proc. Can. dcp. Pr. Pet., sup. ait. 5, 202 r.
84. Reg. S. Salvatoris, cap. 30.
85. It has often been said that St. Bridget went to Rome in 1346, no
doubt because of. what Prior Peter says in the Notes lie adds to some
of the Revelat ions. In Revel. Exlrav., 8, he is quite precise in stating her
age tvhen she left Sweden and the length of time she was in Rome before
she saw Pope and Emperor together. Vet, worked out, one finds the dates
do not tally. The date of the meeting of Pope and Emperor belongs to
history: 1368. Fifteen years before this (the number given by Peter) would
make St. Bridget's arrival in Rome after the Jubilee year in which we
know she took part. It is Peter who says it was two years after she went
to Alvastra that she was told to go to Rome. 1346 is the date given in
the Vadstena Diary, showing it was a tradition. The reasons for adopting
the date 1349 are, briefly, two. One is the testimony of the three monks
of Alvastra that St. Bridget spent four years there, and the second, and
surely convincing one, is given by the Countess de Flavigny in a footnote
to p. 228 of her work Ste. Brigitte de Suède. Quoting cod. 86 of Upsala
Library, she says that, according to the passport, St. Bridget arrived in
Rome “anno videlicet proximo jubilei," that is, 1349.
86. Revs., VI, 63.
87. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 29, 214 v., 10 m.
88. Prologus editus per Venerabilem Virum Matthiatn de Suetia (it
prefaces the Latin editions of St. Bridget’s Revelations).
89. Sveriges Historia by Hildebrand, II, 273.
90. Revs., VII, 39; VIII, 43; IV, 37.
91. Den Hellige Birgittas Lif och Skrifter by R. Steffen, p. XV. In the
Preface to an edition of the Bridgettine Breviary published in 1697, the
then Confessor-General of Altomünster, Simon Hermann, states that St.
Bridget before leaving Sweden, carried out all the directions received as
to founding her monastery at Vadstena, introducing sixty nuns and twentyfive monks. Hornrann says he has this from the Chronicles of the Friars
Minor by Luke Wadding, who, in his turn, followed the Chronicle of
Marianus Florentius. No doubt, this statement of Wadding’s is responsible
for that of many writers since, who say St. Bridget left her monastery all
in order (some even say, ruled it) . It seems strange that Hormann did
not know of the Vadstena Diary which speaks of the site of the monastery
containing only ruins in 1367, cleared away by Bridget’s directions — she was
then in Rome —so that the building of her monastery could be begun.
See Part II, Chapter V, of this work, and the reference. But besides this,

Appendix I

197

there is the express statement in the Process that St. Bridget founded her
monastery “after she came to Rome.’’ (See art. 21, and dep. Pr. Pet., 210 v.)
How could it be possible for her to have a monastery with sixty nuns
and twenty-five monks, when she had not received tire papal confirmation
of the Rule and Order she was told to seek and obtain? See also: Revel.
Extrav., cap. 24.
92. Revel. Extrav., cap. 27. There is nothing to indicate a definite time
as to this revelation. It might be that it was after St. Bridget went to Rome
that she heard of the destruction of the buildings, but I have followed
Margaret Howitt, who in her turn followed R. Steffen, the writer quoted
above, who speaks of the anger of Magnus and the defection of the bishops
as having taken place while the Saint was still in Sweden. though he gives
no reference. The point is not important in itself. What is important is
that the buildings were destroyed and the whole enterprise had to be
begun over again.
93. Proc. Can. dcp. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 5, 202 v., 2 in.
PART Π

Chapter I. The Holy Year

of 1350
1. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., 215 v.; Prior Peter here states that he
remained in Sweden some time after St. Bridget left for Rome.
2. The Life of Master Peter from which this quotation is taken, forms
part of Cod. Harl., 612, Brit. Museum, a codex which once belonged to
Syon Abbey. It is called Pita Petri Olavi. It was very likely written with
a view to his possible canonization.
3. For the description of Rome as St. Bridget found it, see Rom, by H.
Schück (Stockholm: 1862-1867) . Also Cronica di Matteo Pillard, libro primo,
p. 43, a copy of which is in the Bodleian Library.
4. M uratori Antiqu. Itai. Ill, 482 et seq.
5. Revs., Bk. IV, Chap. 10.
6. Proc. Can. dep. Ingeburgis Eric, f. 25 r.
7. Revs., VI, 96.
8. Reg. S. Salv., Cap. 5. “Sorores omni die ob reverentiam Matris meae

Virginis Mariae cantabunt solemniler Horas ipsius cum tribus lectionibus,
tam festis quam privatis diebus.” In the Rule as confirmed by the Church,

the above is put in the third person, but is printed in the original form
at the beginning of the breviary.
9. Prologus in Sermonem Angelicam de Excellentia Pirginis Mariae. The
Angelic Discourse, as it has been called, has been translated into English
together with certain prayers of St. Bridget by Dorn Ernest Graf, O.S.B.
(Revelations and Prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden, Burns, Oates and Wash­
bourne, 1928).
10. The Bridgettine Antiphonariurn shows evident traces of Cistercian
influence. St. Bridget was, of course, accustomed to the Offices at Alvastra
Abbey. Again, certain settings are those found in the Dominican rite. It was
lately pointed out to me that the psalms at Compline in the Bridgettine
breviary are those also found in the Little Office of Our Lady in the
Dominican rite and nowhere else. Master Peter, who was responsible for
the music and also for the distribution of the psalms through the days of
the week, came from Skeninge where there was a Dominican House of

ig8

Appendix I

Appendix I

Studies. The praise of Master Peter’s work can be read in Revelationes Extra­
vagantes, 113 and 114.
Chapter Π.

The Promised

Helper

11. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., 207 r., 5 in.
12. See Days near Rome by Augustus Haie, II, pp. 22, 23.
13. Revel. Extrav., cap. 97.
14. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pel., 220 r. Revel. Extrav., 105.
15. The revelation concerning St. Dominic is in Revs., Ill, 17, but there
is nothing in it to indicate time or place.
16. Vita D. Catharinae, from which the contents of this chapter are almost
wholly taken. The Life was ul isten bv I'If Birgersson, a monk of
Vadstena, and can be found at the end of most of the Latin editions of
the Revelations as well as in manuscript in both Stockholm and the British
Museum (cod. Harl., 612) .
17. Ulf Birgersson (St. Katherine’s biographer) says it was five years after
St. Bridget left for Rome that Katherine felt she must follow her there. He
supposes Bridget left Sweden immediately after her husband’s death, but
as already said, it was not (ill the end of 134g that she arrived in Rome,
that is some five years tiller she became a widow. See Part I. Chap. VIII.
18. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 29, f. 133 r. See also Studier i Vadstena
Klosters och Birgittinordens Historia by Torvald Hojer, p. 273 (footnote).
19. The majority of St. Bridget’s biographers seem to be convinced that
the meeting between the Saint and het daughter took place at Farfa. The
point is left uncertain in Acta Sanctorum, Tom. IV, 1780, a Jacobo Bueo
(and others) ; De Birgitta, p. 432, par. 264; also p. 438, par. 268; also De
Cath. Svecica, Tom. Ill, Antwerp, 1668, pp. 507, 508. But James de la Bue
is strongly inclined to Farfa and supposes the name Parpensis, given by
Ulf in his mention of the monastery at. Bologna, is his faulty rendering of
Farfa, a place he knew only by hearsay. Countess de Flavigny — author of
Ste. Brigitte de Suède and a most painstaking historian — makes no reference
whatever to any journey to Bologna undertaken by St. Bridget, only of the
one to Farfa, at which place she describes the meeting. This author places
the revelation about St. Dominic in connection with a reform of a Dominican
house in Sweden which she asserts St. Bridget worked before she left her
native land. There is an account in the Process of a Dominican Provincial
named Assor who, by St. Bridget’s counsel, teas led to stricter observance
(see dep. Kath., f. 134 r.), and it may be to this incident the French writer
refers. In regard to Farfa she is obliged to admit that the Abbot’s friendly
reception of Katherine is a mystery.
Again: Margaret Howitt, following in part a German biography (later
translated into French) written by a nun of the convent of Perpetual Adora­
tion, Mainz (1875), and based, its author asserts, on old documents, says that
St. Bridget reformed the Dominican Priory at Bologna, but later than Farfa
Abbey, and that Katherine was already in Italy and accompanied her mother
to Bologna. In order to make sure of this supposed reform at Bologna, the
Prior of the still existing Dominican house was written to and gave the
answer quoted in this chapter. His assurance that some monastery (name now
unknown) at Bologna was reformed by St. Bridget seems to fit in with the
abbot’s gracious reception of Katherine, as told by her early biographer. Why
should not Parpensis, whether faulty or correct, be the name of the monas-

199

tery at Bologna? Those interested in the question must form their own
opinion as to the evidence. To me it seems clear that St. Bridget was found
by her daughter at Bologna.
20. Revs., Bk. VI, Chap. 118.
21. Proc. Can. dep. Goliciae de Ursinis, sup. art. 24, 194 r.

Chapter III. St. Bridget

and

Her Friends

22. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 18, 206 v.
23. Revel. Extrav., cap. 103.
24. Revs., VI, 46.
25. Diarium Vazstenense, an. 1396; dep. Magni Petri, sup. art. 15. If, as
the Diary says, Magnus Persson went to Rome with St. Bridget, he must at
some time have gone back to Sweden, since he says he lived with her eighteen
years. He was certainly with her during her last years and present at her death.
Magnus Persson has been called Magnus of Eka, as in Countess de Flavigny’s
work, and also in Dr. Collijn’s Index to his edition of the Process. Margaret
Howitt says it is a confusion between two families; that the Magnus of the
Process had as coat of arms three lilies slanting on a shield, while that
of the Eka family had a bend sinister. I should hesitate to differ from
Dr. Collijn.
26. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., sup. art. 19, 128 v.
27. Revel. Extrav., cap. 112.
28. Proc. Can. dep. Alfonsi olim episcopi Giennensis, sup. art. 3, 149 v.
29. Revel. Extrav., cap. 98.
30. P. Munch, the Norwegian historian, maintains that the story of Eric’s
having been poisoned by his mother and at his father’s instigation, was
a calumny invented by the Swedish nobles who were bitter enemies of
King Magnus. The story has come down through history and is repeated to­
day. See, for instance, the article on Sweden in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
The Swedish Rhymed Chronicle openly stated that Queen Blanche herself
administered the poison, but the Danish Chronicle, belonging to about the
same time, gives no intimation of such a crime. Its wording rather points to
some pestilential sickness being the cause of these deaths. Smallpox is known
to have been raging in Sweden in the year after Eric’s death.
31. Revs., VI, 27.
32. Ibid., I, 3, Declaratio; Proc. Can. dep. Kath., art. 29, 133 r.
33. Proc. Can. dep. Magni Petri, 113 v.; Revel. Extrav., 81.
34. The Book of Margery Kempe, a Modern Version by W. Butler-Bowdor
(ΐ93θ) . Chap. 38, pp. 140, 141.
35. Revs., IV, 46.
36. Ibid., IV, 74.
37. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., art. 34, 223 v.; dep. Magn. Pet., i12 v.
38. Ibid. dep. Kath., art. 20, 129 v.
39. Revel. Extrav., 107.
40. Proc. Can. dep. Franciscae Papazzurae, sup. art. 3, 188 r.; art. 8, 188 v.
See Minnen och Marken i Rom by C. Bildt, p. 5.
41. Vita D. Catharinae, Chaps. XI and XII.
42. Revel. Extrav., cap. 8.
43. Revs., VI, 74·

200

Appendix I

Chap 1ER IV. Her Daily Life
44. Proc. Can. dep. Kath.. art. 5, 125 v.
45. Revel. Extrav., 65: Proc. Can. dcp. Kalh., art. 15, 127 v.
46. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., art. 8, 12G r.
47. Ibid. dcp. Alfonsi, art. 36, 170 r. (13): art. 4, 149 v.
48. Ibid. dep. Alfonsi, art. 36, 170 r. This is possibly the origin of a some­
what similar practice at table in Bridgettine monasteries: a pause is made
two or three times during the meal, when prayers in commemoration of
the Passion are said in silence.
49. Vita b. Brigide, f. 6 r.
50. “Tu nova lux ecclesiae." These words occur in an antiphon in honour
of St. Bridget, appointed to be sung at Vespers daily. In the Mass proper
to her feast on October 8 as observed in the Order, the Epistle is taken
from the Book of Wisdom—the same as that assigned to the Feast of St.
Thomas Aquinas —and contains the words quoted in the text.
51. Revel. Extrav., cap. 116.
52. Proc. Can. dep. Dili Hartlevi, sup. art. 38, f. 123 v.
53. Dep. Kalh., sup. art. 17, 128 r.
54. Dep. Nicol, de Ursinis, 93 v,; dcp. Kath., sup. art. 15, 127.
55. Revel. Extrav., cap. 90.
56. Revs., Bk. VII, cap. 3.
57. Ibid., VII, 4, Additio; VI, 103; IV, 129, Additio; VI, 107; IV, 125,
Declaratio (H); IV, 131.
58. Dep. Kath., sup. art. 29, f. 132 r.
59. Dep. Kath. and Magni Pet., sup. art. 34, ff. 136 r., 112 r.
60. See Birgittinska Gestalter (1929) by Isak Collijn, p.-19, note 17. The
letter, written in Latin, was discovered within recent years by Dr. Isak
Collijn in an old volume in the State Archives in Florence. There is, the
author says, in the same old volume, a statement to the effect that the
original of St. Bridget’s letter was found in 1552 in the monastery La
Certosa among other papers of Donna Lapa.
61. Dep. Elziarii Card. Theatini, sup. art. 30, f. 103 v.; dep. Kath., sup.
art. 29, 132 r.; Revs., Bk. VII, cap. 5.
62. Dep. Joh. de Pormacio, sup. art. 12, 79 r.
63. Proc. Can., art. 10.
64. Dep. Dm Alfonsi, ff. 150 v-155 v.
Chapter V. Before the Pope
65. Revs., Bk. IV, Chap. 136.
66. Ibid., IV, 49; Proc. Can. dep. Magni Pet., sup. art. 19, f. 107 v.
67. Dep. Pr. Pet., sup. art. 5, 202 r.; dep. Kath., sup. art. 32, 135 r.
68. Revs., IV, 45; VIII, 51.
69. Regula S. Salvatoris (printed after Book VIII of the Revelations) ,
cap. 31·
70. Proc. Can. dep. Nicol, de Ursinis, sup. art. 21, f. 94 r.
71. Diarium Vazstenense, an. 1405.
72. The dates of St. Bridget’s various pilgrimages are difficult to fix, and
Margaret Howitt refers to the journey to Amalfi as “indefinite,” but after
a careful reading of all references to the various happenings on the journeys
about southern Italy, of two distinct visits to Ortona, and of a passport

yg * y

-.

rt^r,· η

Appendix I

201

issued by Pope Urban V in 1369 for Bridget, her sons and daughter, it
seemed to me the only explanation was that a second round of visits to
more or less the same shrines was made during this time of waiting for
the Pope’s final decision as to the Order to be founded in Sweden. And

I was glad to find that St. Bridget’s French biographer, Comtesse de
Havigny, had reached the same conclusion. So, with no wish to be
dogmatic, I have placed the journey to Amalfi, the second visit to Ortona,
and other shrines visited before, as found in this chapter.
73. Revs., VI, 107.
74. “Urbani P. nob. mul. Birgittae et Katerinae. Dat. ap. montem Flas. II
id. Jun. pont. VII (12 June, 1369) Viaticum pro Dna Birgitta ejusque liberis
Carolo de Ulfasa, Birgero et Catharina, de Romana curia, recedentibus ad
S. Nicolaum de Baro et locum Sancti Angeli de Monte Gargano. Siponte
diocesi. Dat. Rom. ap. S. Petri IX kal. Dec. P. VIII (23 Nov., 1369) . Celsi

Bull., 131-132. Quoted in Comtesse de Flavigny’s work, p. 377. Note i,
ed. 1892.
75. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., f. 137 r.; dep. Magn. Pet., art. 35, 112 v.;
Revs., VII, 4, Additio.
76. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pet., art. 34, 223 v.; dep. Magn. Pet., 112 v.
77. Id. dep. Dili. Alfonsi, art. 3, 149 v.
78. Id. dep. Nicol, de Ursinis, art. 29, 95 r.; Revs., IV, 137.
79. Hojer, op. cit., p. 61; Pope Urban’s Bull has these words following
the direction as to the adoption of the Rule of St. Augustine: “salvis omnibus
constitutionibus infraseriptis," referring to St. Bridget’s Rule; Diarium
Vazstenense, an. 1370.
80. Revs., LV, 138; Proc. Can. dep. Alfonsi, art. 19, 152 v.; dep. Latini de
Ursinis, art. 19, 146 v.; see also Den Hellige Birgittas Uppenbarelser i Urval
och Ôfversattning (Stockholm: 1909), an edition in Swedish of the Revela­
tions prepared by R. Steffen, in which they are grouped according to their
subject matter, p. 73.
81. Revs., IV, 139, >4°· Proc. Can. dep. Nicol, de Ursinis, art. 19, 94 r.

Chapter VI. The Hol
Revs., VI, 6; Vita b. Brig., 4 v.
Revs., VI, 9.
Proc. Can., art. 14, 6 v.
Id. dep. Alfonsi, art. 29, 155 v.
Id. dep. Pr. Pet., 217 v.
Id. dep. Alfonsi, art. 30, 157 r.
Id., art. 19, 152 r.; dep. Kath., 128 v.;
Saintship by Ernest Hello, in its English tran
89. Proc. Can. dep. Elziarii Card. Theatini,
90. Id. dep. Alfonsi, art. 19, 152 r.

82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.

91. Richard Coeur de Lion, when on his w’ay
captured the island of Cyprus from Isaac Co:
Eastern Emperor, and gave it to Guy de Lu
King of Jerusalem.
92. Proc. Can. dep. Alfonsi, art. 19, 152 r.; o
(an Englishman whom no one, I believe, has y<
93. Dep. Alfonsi, art. 29, 155 v.
94. Revs., VII, 13.

202

Appendix I

95. Ibid., VII. 15: Proc. Can. def). Keth., art. 32. 1 34 v: dcp. Alf., 15« r.
96. Revs., A ll, 2t.
97. Ibid., VI I. 26.

Chapter VII. Last Warnings ανγ> Revelations
98. Revs.. VII, 19; Proc. Can. dtp. Alfonsi. art. 19, 153 r.; dcp. Karoli
Malansel de Janra, 185 r., 185 v.; also dep. Guill. Guillesis. 186 r.
99. Proc. Can. dcp. Kalh., art. 25. 130 v.
too. Id. dep. Magni Petri, art. 29. 109 v.
101. Id. dep. Dili. Card. S. Ciriaci, f. 23 { v.
102. Id. dep. Alfonsi, art. 36, 170 r.
103. Revs., IV7, 141, 142.
top Proc. Can. dep. Alfonsi, art. 19, 132 v.: art. 25. 155 r.
105. Pita b. Brig., 17 v.

Chapter VIII. Fti.fii.meni
106. Proc. Can. dcp. Latini de. Ursinis, art. 30, 147 v.
107. Id. dep. Alfonsi, art. 3, 156 v. For the tacts concerning Gomez de
Albornoz ami the extracts from St. Bridget's letters to him. see Dr. Isak
Collijn's book. Birgillinska Gcslultcr (19219 . The letters, there given in
Swedish, were translated into English by M. Hon ill.
108. Proc. Can. dep. Kalh., art. 8, 126 r.
109. Revs., VI, 94. There is nothing to indicate a date for this revelation
which may belong to some earlier time, but. it seems to accord with the one
which certainly belongs to the Saint’s last days.
110. Revel. Extrav., 67.
111. Revs., Bk. IV, 143.
112. Diarium Pazstenen.se, an. 1372; Revs., ΛΖΙΓ, 31; Proc. Can. dep. Kalh.,
If. 130 v., 131 r.; dep. Pr. Pet... 212 v.; dep. Magn. Pet., 109 r., sup. art. 25.
Although the Bull of Canonization (Boniface IX, 1391) states that St.
Bridget's death took place during Mass, which may mean that a second
Mass was said in her room, I have preferred to keep to the account of those
who were present, at her death eighteen years earlier. These eye-witnesses
agree in saying that it was after Mass and her reception of the Last Sacra­
ments that she gathered her household round her and gave them the
directions she said she had received from Christ for them, and that all
having been arranged, she raised her eyes . . . and the rest as in the text.
One more thing may be noticed in this connection. St. Bridget’s French
biographer, Comtesse de Flavigny, and at least one other author of recent
times, has stated that Magnus Persson said a second Mass, during which
the Saint’s death took place. The statement is considered to be supported
by an entry in the Vadstena Diary. The entry certainly says that after the
return from Jerusalem Magnus was ordained priest, but the words which
follow seem to have been overlooked: “Quia unus erat de illis personis quas
S. Birgitta parum ante obitum in spiritu vidit, adstare ante Deum ut habetur
in Legenda sua. Et tunc praeceptum fuit ut presbyter ordinaretur.” This

quite obviously refers to the vision five days before St. Bridget's death, when
she saw certain persons, as she said, “before God” and received commands
concerning them. Magnus Persson was for years Confessor-General at Vad­
stena, following Master Peter, and the information in the Diary must have
come from him. In the Process, Magnus is always given the title of priest,
since at the time the evidence was being given he had been ordained for

Appendix I

203

some years. In one place we find Alfonso refer to him as “chaplain of the
Lady Bridget” (f. 158 v.), but as he was at that very time in Rome with
Katherine, as her chaplain, may it not have been merely a slip of the tongue?

PART III

Chapter I. St. Bridget’s Rule Ratified
1. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., art. 50, 141 r., 141 v.; dep. Pr. Pet., art. 26, 213
dep. Magn. Pet., art. 49, 117 v.
2. Relacio Galhardi, ep. Spoletani, cod. Siena (printed at the end
Dr. Collijn’s edition of the Processus).
3. Proc. Can. dep. Pr. Pel., art. 45. 230 r.; dep. Kath., art. 50, 142
Vita D. Cath., cap. 14.
4. Torvald Hojer, op. cit., p. 80, Latin footnote.
5. Proc. Can. dep. Kath., art. 45, 13g v.
6. Id. dep. Franciscae Papazznrae, art. 24, 18g v.; Proc. Can. states (4

r.;
of

r.;

r.)
that Katherine was in the Palazzo Papazzuri (that is, the house in Campo
clei Fiori where St. Bridget lived and died). Some writers have wrongly stated
that St. Bridget’s daughter on her return to Rome lived in the convent by
S. Lorenzo in Panisperna.
In regard to St. Bridget’s dissatisfaction with the Rule as amended when
Urban V saw it, this is following the account of the Bridgettine Order of
which Hojer makes use, which says that the Saint told her daughter to
work for the ratification of the Rule in another form, so that clauses
omitted, altered, or introduced against her will in the decree of 1370, might
be duly corrected, condensed, or explained, and that other matter, which she
said had been revealed to her might be added. (See p. 65 of Hojer’s work.)
In the deposition made by Nicholas Orsini (Proc. Can., f. 94 r.) he says,
as already stated in Part II, Chap. 5, of the present work, that Bridget was
satisfied with the amendments made. Probably she accepted the alterations
as the best that could be done for the moment; one cannot imagine her
resting satisfied with a Rule that differed from the one of her revelation.
7. Proc. Can., f. 24 r.; id., if. 20 v-23 v; the date of the first proposal for
the canonization is given as 1376: “coram Gregorio papa Xlmo in palatio
sanctae Mariae Maioris in consistorio publico de mense Maii, anno Dni.
MCCCLXXVI” (1 v.). Whatever reckoning is here used the year certainly

cannot have been 1376; since Gregory did not leave Avignon until the
September of that year and entered Rome only at the beginning of 1377.
8. Attestatio sanctimoniae B. Catharinae Filiae Divae Birgittae, which
introduces Vita D. Catharinae.
9. Raymund of Capua in his Life of St. Catherine of Siena gives the
following account of his interview with the Pope and his own part in the
affair: “I thought the Queen of Naples might follow the counsel of Satan’s
agents who surrounded her and cause these two good women to be insulted,
or even forbid them to enter Naples. I went therefore ... to Pope Urban
. . . and made him acquainted with my view of the matter. His Holiness
looked disappointed and remained for a long time reflecting. ... At last he
looked up and said: ‘You say well, it is better that they should not *go.
Then although it was late, I went to Catherine and announced to her
the decision of the Pontiff. She heard me with indignation. ...”
to. Prologus D. loannis Cardinalis de Turrecremata in defensorium

204

Appendix I

eiusdem super Revelationes Caelestes S. Birgittae de IVatzsteno, cap. primurn.
11. Proc. Can., i v. There is a confusion as to the proposals of the canoniza­
tion. Hojer (op. cil., p. 208), quoting a letter written by Bishop Alfonso,

says the third proposal was made by a fatuous λίaster of Theology from
Germany, John of Basle, while the text of the Processus says the third
proposal was made by William, Bishop of Acltary in Ireland. Again,
Torqueraada (writing much later, of course) makes the Bishop of Orvieto
the second proposer in the presence of Pope Urban VI instead of that
of Pope Gregory XI.
12. The Bull of Urban VI “super confirmatione Regulae Sancti Salvatoris”
is printed on folio 694 of the 1680 Latin edition of St. Bridget’s Book of
Revelations. For some reason unknown, the Vadslena Diary has placed this
event, so important for the Order, a year later than that in which it
occurred. (See Vadstena Diary, an. 1379.) Vet Pope Urban dates this Bull
from his palace by S. Maria in Trastevere, and in the first year of his
pontificate. Owing to the occupation of Castel Sant’ Angelo by French
troops, Urban lived at. his palace across the 'l iber during (his fust year,
but by 1379 he had moved to the Vatican, from which place other Bulls
in favour of the Order were issued.
13. Scriptores rerum Svecicarum, Tom. Ill, S. 99. Translated from the
original parchment.
14. See Hojer, op. cit., p. 98. Urban VI, by a Bull dated July 30, 1378,
granted to Vadstena and all Bridgettine houses the plenary indulgence
"veram et aeternam remissionem omnium peccatorum,” belonging to the
church of St. Peter ad Vincula in Rome. Magnus Persson, when in Rome
with Katherine, obtained in March, 1380, from the Chapter of St. Peter
ad Vincula the certificate and transcript of the Vincula indulgence, which
could be gained on August 1, the Feast of St. Peter’s Chains.

Chapter II. St. Bridget in Many Lands
15. See Vadstena Anteckningar by Dr. A. V. Lundberg, p. 68.
16. See Diarium Vazstenense, annis 1384. 1397, 1388.
17. Revel. Extrav., 28.
18. We read in this chapter of directions: “There must be an ambulatory
within the church, with iron gratings, in which the Brothers can go, and
thus not come where the people are [i.e., into the nave of the church, used
by seculars]. There shall be no door into the ambulatory except one by the
high altar, and it shall always be kept locked except when anyone will
enter the Order, or when the Bishop makes his Visitation.’’ So strict whs
the enclosure that when one of the monks was consecrated bishop and the
ceremony was to take place in the monks’ choir, the chronicler shows obvious
uneasiness over the entrance of the necessary three prelates, as an infringe­
ment of the Rule as defined in a recently issued Bull. (See Diary, an. 1422.)
"U tinam non sit periculum cum sit ingressus episcoporum sub gravi poena
prohibitus.”
19. In the Vadstena Diary Master Peter’s death is noted in 1378, Prior

Peter’s in 1390, and that of Birger, St. Bridget’s second son, in 1391, very
shortly before the canonization.
20. Vadstena Diary, 1391, 1393.
21. Ibid., 1394, 1396. See Gesammelte Nachrichten Uber die einst bestandenen Kloster vom Orden der hl. Birgitta, p. 210. This work, published in
1888, at the Bridgettine monastery at Altomunster, Bavaria, gives a brief

«h®

Appendix I

205

history of all the foundations made from Vadstena and its daughter houses.
22. Vadstena Diary, 1406. The deed of gift made out by Sir Henry FitzHugh
is printed in full at the end of Benzelius’ edition of the Vadstena Diary. See
also The Story of the English Bridgcttines of Syon Abbey by John Rory
Fletcher, Chap. I, pp. 17, 18.
23. Reg. S. Salvatoris, cap. 26.
24. See Torvald Hojer, op. cit., as to rations
taken in the
matter of organization, pp. 133, 284-287.
25. Ibid., p. 192 (footnote) ; also The Story of the English Bridgcttines of
Syon Abbey by John Rory Fletcher, p. 26.
26. The last Confessor-General of Altomunsicr died in 1808.
27. A certain John Sermini had started a movement in Italy against the
Bridgettine double monasteries, and as a result, a number of houses of
the Order were founded for monks only — in Rome, Venice, Murano, and
Bologna. These monks sent a petition to Pope Martin V for a revision of
the Rule of St. Saviour. Confcssors-general, abbesses, and prioresses of the
double monasteries were to be cited to appear in Rome or in some other
city appointed by the Pope. Hence the peremptory summons received at
Vadstena. But for some reason, says Hojer, a decided change took [dace in
papal politics regarding this affair, and the reform of the Order and the
settling of the dispute between the double and single monasteries was
committed to a general chapter to be held at Vadstena in 1429· After this,
no trouble seems to have arisen, and the Bull of Martin V was annulled
by his successor Eugene IV, March 18, 1435.
28. For some two years the community rvas without any spiritual help and
often the Abbess was dragged from her cloister and flogged. See Gesammelte Nachrichten, op. cit., p. 100.
29. Dr. Andreas Lindblom, at that time curator of the States Historical
Museum, and therefore mainly responsible for the Exhibition of 1918, wrote
a “Guide,” descriptive of the monastery church and its art treasures.
30. A translation into English of Pastor Kylander’s account was found
among Margaret Howitt’s notes, and the extracts from Nordische Fahrten by
Fr. Alexander Baumgarten, S.J., are also her translation.
31. Revel. Extrav., 24. The title of Abbess General has apparently caused
some writers of articles on the Bridgettine Order to suppose that the Order
has been revived in our day and reconstituted, with its central house in
Rome and under the governance of an abbess general. As explained in the
text, the jurisdiction of the Abbess General in the convent in Rome extends
only to the houses founded from it and following the same way of life.

Chapter III. St. Bridget Attacked — and Vindicated
The events related in this chapter are taken mainly from Hojer’s carefully
documented work on the Bridgettine Order, already often quoted, and which
was translated in parts, with its author’s permission, by Margaret Howitt.
Pastor's History of the Popes (Eng. translation), Vol. I, has also supplied
me with information, and Hefele’s History of the Councils (French trans­
lation), Vols. X and XI, I have made use of. References to other works
are given below.
32. Diarium Vazstenense, an. 1408.
33. The date of this important Bridgettine charter was May 1, 1413.
34. “Anno primo in MCCCCXV in festo cathedrae sancti Petri . . . positus

I

Hi
r
>

'1

2o6

Appendix I

fuit primus lapis in monasterio S. Salvatoris" (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 2285);
see aLo Aungier's History of Syon, p. 31.
35. Diarium Vazs., an. 1433; see also, Klosterfolket i Vadstena by Carl

Silverstolpe, p. 126, as to the meeting with Torquemada.
36. Concerning the vindication by Torquemada of St. Bridget's orthodoxy,
Margaret Howitt says in the Introduction to Iter unpublished work: "Were
such a thing conceivable as that the Pope, discarding the official decision of
his own theologian, Torquemada, had signed and sealed the Bull of the
recalcitrant Council of Basle, then its Avisamentuni and not the Defensorium
must of necessity have been inserted in every copy of the Revelations.” She
adds that a collection of dissertations in praise of St. Bridget and her
writings was carefully preserved at Vadstena. It is still extant, in the
L'nhersity of Cpsala (cod. 518). Chief among these writings is, of course,
Torquemada's Defence. Others come from theologians of varying nationalities,
including a "doctor anglicus.” Alfonso's Pieface to Book VIII of the
Revelations, called "Epistola Solitarii,’’ is in the collection, and again, this
time rather surprisingly, the famous Avisa ment uni of the Council of Basle.
It is suggested that its inclusion may be due to the historical interest of the
document and to the Council’s assertion (though surely a contradiction in
terms) that its verdict contains no charge against St. Bridget's sanctity,
cult, or Order. The Defence of Torquemada was, of course, something quite
different from the claim made by the Lübeck monks that the revelations were
‘‘of faith.” This the Church has never allowed in the case of approved but
private revelations. (Benedict XIV in De Canoniz. Sanct., lib. II, cap. 32.)
37. See Catholic Encyclopedia: article "Sixtus IV.”
38. "Quantum ad indulgentiarum publicam denuntiationem absolutiones
auctoritatem . . . omnia vobis in claro patere poterent huic monasterio nostro
a domino papa gratiose indulta ac a consilio generali Basiliensi, a singulis
quoque summis pontificibus usque in hodiernum confirmata.’’ (Extract from

a letter sent from Syon to Vadstena in 1473.)
39. See the Chronology in the modern edition of The Book of Margery
Kempe (W. Butler-Bowdon) .

Chapter IV. Sr. Bridget's Legacy
40. Regula S. Salvatoris, cap. 31.
41. Proc. Can., art. 7, f. 5 v.
42. The quotations from and allusions to the Rule and regulations of
St. Bridget’s Order, found in different places in this chapter are, in order,
as follows: Reg. S. Salvatoris, cap. I, cap. 29; Revs. Extrav., cap. 3; ‘‘Syon
Additions,” Chap. 14. (The “Additions” are proper to each monastery, but
are all based on those drawn up for Vadstena in accordance with St.
Bridget’s wish, by Prior Peter. They supply details as to observance.) Revs.
Extrav., cap. i, cap. 4, cap. 10, cap. 37; Rev. S. Salv., cap. 20, cap. 12, cap. 15,
cap. 23; Revs. Extrav., cap. 13, cap. 14.
43. Analecta Juris Pontificii, Vol. V, sect. XI: “Règle de Ste. Birgitte.”
I owe this reference to the kindness of the Librarian of the London Oratory,
the late Brother Vincent.
44. Hojer, op. cit., pp. 49-51.
45. a.d. 1539. “The 25 daie of November the house of Syon was suppressed
into the Kinges handes and the ladies and brethren putt out, which was
the vertues [virtuousest] house of religion that was in England, the landes

Appendix I

207

and goodes to the Kinges use.” (Contemporary Chronicle of Wriothesley,
quoted in The Story of the English Bridgettines of Syon Abbey by John
Rory Fletcher, p. 36.)
46. Blessed Richard Reynolds, monk of Syon, was martyred at Tyburn,
May 4, 1535, for denying the Supremacy of Henry VIII in the Church of
England. In a Life of the martyr, The Angel of Syon by the late Dom
Adam Hamilton, O.S.B., the author quotes (p. 77) from Cardinal Pole's
Defence of the Unity of the Church (using, he says, I-r. Stanton’s trans­
lation), in which occur the words in the text, to which this note refers. The
description of Blessed Richard at Tyburn was given to Pole, as he him­
self says, by an eye-witness of the martyrdom.

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APPENDIX

II

Some Sources of Information Concerning
Si. Bridget and Her Writings
What follows is taken, in a much abbreviated form, from Margaret
Howitt’s Introduction to lier uncompleted Life of St. Bridget.. But as,
strangely enough, she omits all mention of the early Lives composed in
England — far more numerous than those written in any other country
except Sweden —these have been noted in their place.
The earliest Life of St. Bridget is the Vita b. Brigidae, written only five
months after her death by her two confessors, Prior Peter Olafsson, Cistercian
monk of the Abbey of Alvastra, and Master Peter Olafsson, secular priest
of Skeninge. This work was used for the very much fuller Acta et. Processus
canonizationis beatae Birgittae and remained the chief source of all that
followed. A manuscript copy of the Vita is extant in the Royal Library,
Stockholm.
Next, there is the Vita Abbreviata given in all the Latin editions of the
Revelations. It is uncertain whether the two Peters produced this Life
or whether it was the work of Nicholas Hermansson, Bishop of Linkoping.
A Swedish translation tvas made betwteen 1373 and 1385.
Again, there is Vita S. Birgittae, auctore Birgero Archepiscopo Upsaliensi.
Birger, Archbishop of Upsala, was a contemporary of St. Bridget, an ardent
promoter of her canonization, and owing to his position and his acquaintance
with others of the clergy appointed to examine the miracles attributed to
the Saint, was able to write with authority. A Bridgettine monk, John
Michael van der Ketten, found a copy of the Archbishop’s book in a monastery of his Order — Maria-Baum, near Calcar. It was published for the first
time in 1780 in Acta Sanctorum.
In the Upsala Library is a manuscript called Vita Metrica S. Birgittae.
Its authorship is still, I believe, the subject of research.
We come now to works wiritten by Englishmen. The earliest is in Latin,
found at the end of a copy of the Revelations made at the close of the
fourteenth century and therefore very soon after the canonization of St.
Bridget. It is now at Merton College (Merton 215). The author is unknown
but presumed to be an Englishman, both because the script belongs to
England and because it would be hardly likely that a copy of a foreign
manuscript would be made so soon after the canonization. The chronology
is faulty, but the Life is interesting in that it makes two statements found
in no other account of the Saint — namely, that she founded in Rome a
hospital for the poor, and that it was her great desire to travel back to
Sweden from Rome by way of Siena “ut visitaret et salutaret beatissimam
208

i

Appendix II
virginem Katherinam
devulgabatur.”

209

de Senis cuius fama mire [mirae] sanctitatis per orbem

Next, we have a Salutacio Sanctae Birgittae virginis (sic) , wtritten in
English by the blind and deaf poet, John Audelay, soon after 1426. The
only extant copy is in the Bodleian. The Salutation takes the form of
a poem giving a sketch of St. Bridget’s life. The writing of it shows that
devotion to her had quickly spread over England, as Audelay was chaplain
to a monastery in Shropshire, and Syon Abbey had at that time only been
founded a few years.
Another Life written in English belongs to about the same time. It is
incomplete, and precedes a translation into English of the Revelations
(MSS. Cotton Claudius B. I.). But the fullest and most valuable account
published in the vernacular is that now in the Bodleian (Mason H. 192) ,
belonging to the end of the fourteenth century. It was printed in 1516 by
Pynson and included in his Kalendre of the Seyntes. It was at one time
supposed to be written by Thomas Gascoigne, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and a great friend of the community of Syon, for he is
known to have written a Life of their Foundress for the use of the nuns.
However, as a miracle which he himself says elsewhere he has included
is not to be found in this work, the supposition has been abandoned. In his
Liber Veritatum Gascoigne has a good deal to say about St. Bridget's
*
canonization.
To return now to works written in countries other than England. Lauren­
tius Surius, the Carthusian hagiographer (1522-1578), included a biography
of St. Bridget in his work De probatis sanctorum historiis ab Al Lipomano

«

olitn conscriptis.

The last part of the eighteenth century produced the biography of St.
Bridget found in Volume IV (October) of Acta Sanctorum. Fr. James de
Bue gives in this careful work all the information he has been able to gain
from every available source, and prefaces each part of the text with a
preliminary study in order to determine its author and its historical value.
He also adds notes of explanation to clear away possible difficulties. The
Bollandist biography with its commentary became henceforth the chief
source of information for students of St. Bridget and her work. An Italian
abridgement, called Istorico della vita di S. Brigida, was made by Giuseppe
Marconi, Roman Professor of Theology and Morality, and published in
Rome in 1789. This work was again translated into Swedish by an un­
known author and published in 1830. It was Witten with the idea of
discrediting the Catholic Church and showing that it was St. Bridget’s
misfortune to live at a time when “the Pope was counted as higher than
God.” This work has long since been forgotten, but thirty years later
appeared a work of outstanding merit by Frederick Hammerich, a Dane, and
for years a Lutheran pastor. He became professor of Church history in the
University of Copenhagen, and his book Den Helliga Birgitta og Kirken
i Norden (St. Bridget and the Church in the North) was published in
• I owe the information concerning the manuscript at Merton College
and the notice of other English Lives to a yet unpublished Essay on the
development of the legend of St. Bridget in England during the fifteenth
century, which I was privileged to read by the kindness of its author,
Mr. F. R. Johnston.

8

2 10

Appendix II

1863 by îhe Danish Historical Society. Though written from the Lutheran
standpoint, the author has a wide outlook on the facts of history and a deep
appreciation of tqhat is beautiful and poetic in the imagery of St. Bridget's
Revelations.
Lives of St. Bridget have been written also in French, German, Spanish,

and Italian. Of those that go to the original sources of information and are
therefore historical, probably the most scholarly among the modern ones is
Sainte Brigitte de Suède, sa Γίν, ses Revelations et son Oeuvre, by the
Countess de Flavigny, written for the occasion of the fifth centenary of the
Saint's canonization (1891). In this work the author shows her knowledge
of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Swedish. Danish, Italian, Spanish, and English.
Her book has detailed notes of reference. She made a special journey to
Sweden in order to gain knowledge from original sources, and her portrait of
the Saint is both sympathetic and convincing. Yet with all her care, thete
are occasional slips ami also occasional substitution of hypothesis for fact,
the more misleading because she seems qualified to be such a valuable guide.
A work which concerns St. Budget's family, and which fills in details not
given in the early Lives of the Saint, was published at the beginning of
the eighteenth century by Erik Benzeliu.s, Jr. It is the Latin chronicle
written by Margaret Clausdolter, an Abbess of the monastery at A'adstena
(J- i.jBii). and he gives it the title Murgaretae Nicolai Filiae abbatissae
Vadstenemis de Birgitta Chronicon. Bcnzelius also published the Record
Book of the monastery under the title Diarium Vazstenense, which gives a
vivid picture of the life lived at Vadstena.
During the last century the learned Swedish scholars Klemming, Annerstadt, Geete, and Schtick, were at work throwing fresh light by their
researches on St. Bridget and her work, and during the present century
others continue this work by studying mediaeval documents and giving in
print the results of their research. The most valuable of these is the edition
of the Processus, edited by Dr. Isak Collijn, referred to so often in this book.
St. Bridget usually wrote her revelations herself, but all these precious
documents are lost except two parchment sheets now in the Royal Library,
Stockholm. The first contains a revelation belonging to the year 1367, just
after Pope Urban V arrived in Rome, and concerns a plan of reformation.
It is given in a much condensed form at the end of Book IV, with the last
bit suppressed. On the back of the manuscript in missal penmanship of
the fifteenth century is written in Swedish: “St. Bridget wrote these words
with her own hand about the Pope and Cardinals.” The second sheet
contains advice to Magnus, King of Sweden, and belongs to the year 1360.
A later hand has written at the end: “Creditur scriptum esse propria.” Some­
thing followed which has been carefully erased.
St. Bridget realized that her revelations, though intended for particular
people, must be given a permanent form and so convey God’s message to
others besides those for whom they were originally intended. She, therefore,
appointed Alfonso da Vadaterra. her friend and confessor, as her literary ex­
ecutor. Someone was needed with litetary ability and sound judgement whose
opinion as a theologian would carry weight. Someone, too, who had relations
with the Roman Curia. Such a one was Alfonso, former Bishop of Jacn.
He accepted the task, and Prior Peter handed over to him his collection
of the revelations which he had divided into seven books. To this collection
Alfonso added an eighth book which he called Liber caelestis imperatoris

Appendix II

2 11

«

ad reges and to it he wrote a long preface or prologue bearing the title
Epistola Solitarii. (Alfonso was an Olivetan hermit.)

This collection of the revelations was ready to be shown to the com­
mission appointed in 1377 by Gregory XI to examine Sc. Bridget’s writings,
and many copies were made at this time. One of these copies, used by the
members of the commission appointed by Gregory’s successor, Urban VI, was
preserved in the former Royal Library, Berlin.
Alfonso’s edition forms the groundwork for all later printed editions of
the Revelations. It includes as a separate treatise the Sermo Angelicus or
Lessons for Matins used by the nuns of St. Bridget’s Order, and also four
prayers of St. Bridget, known as the Orationes. The Regula S. Salvatoris
seems to have been issued separately to the commissioners, but it follows
the prayers in the printed editions and is in its turn followed by the
Revelationes Extravagantes. It was during the last years of his life that
Prior Peter arranged these. He had brought from Rome a number of quite
short revelations written from Bridget's relation on scraps of paper. He
gave all these to the Bishop of Linkoping, affirming on oath that they had
been revealed to Bridget and were a faithful translation into Latin. Some
were already in Alfonso’s collection; the rest, 116 in all, were made into
a book and called Extravagantes. Peter also wrote at this time explanations
of some of the longer revelations, which are termed Declarationes, though
some of these would seem to have come from a later commentator.
By the end of the fourteenth century the Vadstena monks had produced
a Swedish edition of the Revelations. Whether this version was wholly
or in part taken from St. Bridget’s original writings or was a re-translation
from the Latin has been a matter of discussion among Swedish experts.
Prior Peter returned to his ottfn monastery, but was often at Vadstena,
watching over Bridget’s foundation and working at the completion of the
constitutions (called the Additions'), and it was at Vadstena that he died
in 1390. Probably the transcribers of the Revelations did their work under
his direction, as he must still have had in his possession the first notes
made by Bridget herself.
When printing was invented in the fifteenth century, one of the new
presses was set up at Lübeck, and thither in 1491 went two of the Vadstena
monks to have the Revelations printed in their Latin form. In a year’s
time they returned to Sweden with 800 copies printed on paper and sixteen
on vellum. Some fifty of the paper copies are still extant in various impor­
tant libraries. Of the sixteen on vellum only four are notv! known, and
of these one is in the Bodleian Library. The printed edition of 1492 became
the authorized one and later editions followed it in contents and order.
It includes Torquemada’s Defensorium, the Bull of Canonization issued by
Boniface IX, and Martin V’s confirmation.
All translations of the Revelations — Italian, French, German, Dutch, and
English, are from this Latin edition and from those which followed it.
There were manuscript translations in Polish and Bohemian as early as
1392. Nine Latin editions in all have appeared, the last being printed in
Munich in 1680.
In the British Museum there is a codex of 303 pages (cod. Harl. 612)
which once belonged to Syon Abbey. It contains St. Bridget’s Revelations as
found in the usual Bridgettine codices. Then follows Tractatus ad pontifices.
This is a collection made by Alfonso of St. Bridget’s various revelations to

Is

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l'î* J'S μ*'

the popes which was not included in the earliest editions of the Revelations
out of political caution. Chapters 136-144 of Book IV in the printed editions,
however, contain some of these omitted revelations. Foliowin; the
’ ~
Tractatus
in the Harleian codex is another collection made by Alfonso and dedicated
to the nuns of Vadstena. ft is a weaving together of revelations to form
a book of devotion and is called Celeste Tiridiurittm. «There is another copy
of this
Library.) Sonie explanations follow. Then
come various defences of the Role of St. Bridget's Order and of lier
revelations. Next we have the text of the Proces·, of Canonization, and
lastly three biographies: a Life of St.
one of Master
Peter of Skeningc, nd one of Nicholas Hcrmansson, Bishop of Linkoping,
canonized the ccntur alter St. Bridget’s death.
Members of the Syon community translated portions of St. Bridget’s
-William
......
Revelations into English and in 1483
Caxton translated into
English and printed the popular Legenda aurea which had included the
story of St. Bridget in its later editions. As we have already seen she became
well known to English readers.

1

Index
Albert of Mecklenburg, 88
Albornoz, Cardinal, 109. 117, 138
Albornoz, Gomez, 138, 149
Alfonso da Vadaterra, Bp. of Jaen,
Olivetan Hermit, ix, si), 48, 71, 8G,
107-108, 118-122, 124, 126, 128, 130,
132. 134. 137-139. 143. 153
Allemand, Cardinal Louis d’, Judge
in Matters of Faith, at Council ol
Basle, 174, 176
Andrew, St., 103, 115
Antioch, Duke of, Regent of Cyprus,
129
Antiqui, papal party at Council of
Basle, 172
Arnold, Abbot of Farfa, 73, 78
Augustine, Rule of St., 119, 150, 154
Benedict Magnusson, Governor of E.
Gothland,
grandfather
of St.
Bridget, 5
Benedict Ulfsson, third son of St.
Bridget, 17, 20, 55
Bernard, Archbishop of Naples, 125,
135
Birger, Archbishop of Upsala, 52, 87,
!54
Birger Persson, Governor of Upland,
father of St. Bridget, 4-5, 7, 10-11,
16
Birger Ulfsson, second son of St.
Bridget, 17, "8, 47,
“ 63, 87, no,
124-125, 128, l45—146, ’5°> 158
Blanche, Queen of Magnus II of
Sweden, 23-28, 53
Botvid, St., 30
Bridget, St., birth, parentage and
childhood, 3-9, 4, 5-6; early visions, 3-6: goes to E. Gothland, 8:
spiritual favours, 9; her marriage
arranged with Ulf Gudmarsson,
ίο-ii; life as mistress of Ulfâsa,
12-16; becomes a Franciscan Ter­
tiary, 13; as mother, 17-22; at
Court, 23; relations with the King
and Queen, 24-28; pilgrimage to

Nidaros, 30; vision of St. Botvid,
30; resigns her post at Court and
goes to Compostela, 30-32; her
vision of St. Denis and his proph­
ecy. 33: makes a vow with her hus­
band to enter a religious order,
34; first year of widowhood —
"mystical marriage,” 36-38; sets
her affairs in order, retires to
Alvastra, 38: her mortifications and
temptations, 38-41;
her daily
round, 41; her health fails, 42;
she is publicly praised, 43; Peter
Olafsson, Sub-Prior of Alvastra,
becomes her secretary and trans­
lator, 43-45; her work as apostle
begins with a mission to the
Court of King Magnus, 46-48;
revelation of the Rule of a new
religious order she is told to
found, 49-52; she incurs the enmity and criticism of others, 5455; returns to Alvastra to the
deathbed of her son Benedict,_
55;
visits her property and gives alms,
56; makes preparations for her
new monastery, 57; is commanded
during prayer to go to Rome for
the coming Holy Year, 57; sends
her first letter to the Pope at
Avignon, 59; approbation of her
Rule withheld, 60; King Magnus
spurns her advice, 60-62; the new
monastery buildings destroyed by
fire, 62; King and bishops turn
against her, 62; her dread of leav­
ing country and family, 63-64;
leaves for Rome, 67; in Rome to
gain the Jubilee, 68-70; her resi­
dence by S. Lorenzo, 70-71; revela­
tion of the Lessons for the new
Breviary, 71-75; goes to Farfa
Abbey on a mission of reform, 73;
her reception, 74; another mission
to Bologna, 75; her daughter
Katherine joins her, 76; life of

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