St. Bridget, patron saint of Sweden, was born into an aristocratic family at Finstad about 1302 or 1303. Her father was the governor of the Province of Uppland. When she was about fourteen years of age, she was married (1316) to Ulf Gudmarsson, and of that union four sons and four daughters were born. In 1335, she was invited to the court of King Magnus II to serve as principal lady-in-waiting to Queen Blanche, and she remained there for two years. After her husband’s death in 1344, she lived as a penitent near the Cistercian monastery at Alvastra, and during this period her visions and revelations, which had begun in her youth, became more frequent, and she began to record them in writing. In about 1346, she made the first plans for a new religious congregation, the Order of the Most Holy Savior, more commonly known as Brigittines, after its founder. The new congregation was established to initiate reform in the monastic life and to promote devotion to Christ’s Passion. In 1349, Bridget went to Rome to seek approval of her order, and there she worked for the pope’s return from Avignon and cared for the poor and the pilgrims in the city. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she died in Rome on July 23, 1373, and in the following year her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, took her body to her homeland. Throughout her life, St. Bridget enjoyed mystical graces and revelations, many of which were connected with our Lord’s Passion. These were published in 1492 as Revelations and were held in great esteem during the Middle Ages. St. Bridget was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391. The prayer of today’s Mass affirms that God revealed the secrets of Heaven to her while she meditated on the suffering and death of our Lord.
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