Birgitta Birgersdotter was born about 1303 into a noble family of Uppland, in Sweden; her father was the lawman of the province. At about thirteen she married Ulf Gudmarsson, and they had eight children, among them St Catherine of Sweden. She served for a time at the court of King Magnus Eriksson, and with Ulf she made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
After Ulf's death in 1344 she lived near the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra, where her visions became frequent; her confessors wrote them down and translated them into Latin. She planned a new order of nuns and monks, the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, whose mother house was founded at Vadstena. In 1349 she went to Rome for the Holy Year of 1350 and never returned home.
Bridget of Sweden in the library (1 work)
- Revelations of St Bridget on the Life and Passion of Our Lord — 14th century; translation 1862
Selections from the revelations of the Swedish mystic on the life and Passion of Christ — a private revelation, not Scripture or dogma.