Bridget

(1303–73)

   Saint, Mystic and Order Founder.

   Bridget was the daughter of a governor of Upland in Sweden. She married at a very early age, had eight children and was appointed lady-inwaiting to the Queen of Sweden. In about 1340 she began to have visions and, after the death of her husband, she retired from public life. In 1346 she founded the Brigittine order at Vadstena. This was organised in a double community, one of men and the other of women, who lived in separate parts of the monastery, but who shared a chapel. They were to live an austere life, but there was to be no limitation on the number of books they purchased. The order survives today in Germany, the Netherlands, England and Spain although the plan of double communities was abandoned in the sixteenth century. Bridget died in Italy. She was involved in the negotiations which brought Pope Gregory XI back from Avignon to Rome. Her visions were held in great reverence throughout the Middle Ages. She is the patron saint of Sweden.

   H. Redpath, God’s Ambassadress: St Bridget of Sweden (1947).