At 10 years old, Bridget had a vision of Christ on the cross and asked, who treated him like this. The Lord answered: “They who despise me and spurn my love for them.” Since then, the Passion of Christ became the center of her spiritual life.
An ascetic and visionary since she was 7, Saint Bridget received personal messages and revelations. One day, the Lord revealed to her the number of blows He received during His passion, which she had desired to know.
“I received 5,475 blows in my body. If you wish to honor them in some way, pray 15 Our Fathers and Hail Marys.”
The Lord also taught her 15 Our Father and 15 Hail Mary for an entire year in the church of Saint Paul in Rome. Compiled by the Order of Little Souls of the Merciful Heart of Jesus, the prayers are titled, the “Secret of Happiness.”
A mystic is born
On June 14, 1303, while the curate of Rasbo was praying for the happy deliverance of Bridget, a luminous cloud enveloped him and the Blessed Mother appeared and said: “A child has been born at Birger; her voice will be heard by the entire world.”
Born to a family in Uppsala, Sweden, her parents were Birger Persson, governor of Uppland, one of the richest landowner of the country, and Ingeborg.
At 13, she married Ulf Gunmarsson, Lord of Narke, who became governor of the province of Nerecia. In their 28 years of marriage, they had four sons and four daughters, one of them became Saint Catherine of Sienna.
In 1335 she was appointed lady-in-waiting to Queen Blanche of Namur and Swedish King Marcus II. A contemplative in action she made attempts to change their frivolous lifestyle but was not entirely successful.
After the death of their youngest son, Gudmar, Bridget and Ulf made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. On their return, they decided to live the rest of their lives in monasteries, but Ulf died.
Bridget donned the clothing of a penitent and started to live a life of an ascetic. Visions and celestial revelations became frequent, and insistent that she started to believe the devil was deceiving her, she confided them to Peter Olafsson, her confessor who was prior of Alvastra.
Assured they are of heavenly origin, the prior and Matthias, canon of Linkoping translated the celestial revelations to Latin. In 1349, unafraid, she disregarded a plague-stricken Europe to travel to Rome for the Holy Year of 1350.
With her daughter Catherine, they engaged in works of mercy, sheltering homeless and sinners. They likewise involved themselves on political and social dimensions of mystical revelations of the Lord to Bridget: “Warnings in times of unrest and corruption, reforms in the church, abuses of abbots and bishops and the return of the popes from Avignon to Rome.”
“The world would have peace if men of politics would only follow the gospel,” she announced, as she advised kings and princes in power.
From the papacy of Saint Clement V (1305-1314) to Pope Urban V (1362-1370) the popes lived in Avignon, France. A total of seven popes, reigned in Avignon. She traveled to establish peace between England and France. She likewise worked to bring the pope back to Rome and openly denounced the nobility at Naples and Cyprus for their wrongdoings. Her prophecy on a friendly meeting between Pope Urban V and Emperor Charles IV did happen.
Unique Blue Church
In 1370 she made specific instructions to construct a seminary, now called the Blue Church after the unique color of its granite and insisted that an abbess “signifying the Virgin Mary preside over both nuns and priests,” as recorded by Matthew Milliner in “Not So Secular Sweden.”
She founded the Order of the Holy Savior, a double monastery for men and women at Vadstena. The men and women lived in separate monasteries but used the same church for religious activities. In imitation of Christ’s 12 disciples, it has 12 priests to personify the 12 apostles of Saint Paul. It has four deacons and lay brothers and 60 nuns to preach the apostolate of priests. Only the nuns’ congregation exists today.
Saint Bridget died on July 23, 1373, in Rome at the age of 70, and buried in Vadstena, Sweden. She was canonized by Pope Boniface IX on October 7, 1391, which was confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415.
****
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater RedemptorisCollegium in Calauan, Laguna, and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.