Who Was Saint Bridget of Sweden?

She is known as the Patroness of Failures, acknowledging the projects she never saw completed. Already, I feel a certain kinship to St. Bridget of Sweden.

Born in 1303 to a devout and prominent Swedish knight, she began having visions of Christ crucified when she was a child. This first of these resulted in her asking Christ who had done this to him. He replied “All those who despise my love.” As even her early life showed, St. Bridget was not one of those who despised his love but rather sought it and ordered her life to live within it.

As was common in the late Middle Ages, Bridget was married at the age of 13 to 18-year-old Ulf Gudmarsson. In their 28-year marriage, they had eight children - including St. Catherine of Sweden. Because of her kinship with Swedish royalty at the time, Bridget was asked to be the lady-in-waiting for the new Queen, and her family found favor and plentitude within the court.

There is a softness to this image of a saintly Swede, going about castle duties while doting on her children. But that wouldn’t be a complete picture of Bridget’s life.

For one thing, it was still the Middle Ages. Within her lifetime, Bridget witnessed both the Great Famine (1315-1317) and The Black Death (1346-1353). She was alive nearly one hundred years after St. Francis of Assisi and one hundred years before Martin Luther’s Reformation. She was widowed after Ulf grew ill during their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to visit the tomb of St. James the Great, apostle of Jesus.

It was after the death of her husband that Bridget completely devoted herself to the service of God, joining the Third Order of St. Francis and intensifying her life-long dedication to the poor. Throughout her life, the visions that began in childhood continued, and with them a confidence and courage uncommon in her time. Because of her role serving the court and her position in society, she freely but unsuccessfully spoke with Swedish royalty discouraging what would turn into the Hundred Years War. She fearlessly pilgrimaged to Rome to witness the corruption and hypocrisy that Christ warned her about in her visions, and personally admonished Pope Urban V for taking residence in Avignon, allowing Rome to continue falling short of Christ’s vision for the church.

St. Bridget’s bold nature was not without a source. The visions that had accompanied her since childhood were not only sacred insights into the divine, but were solid directives from God, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Detailed in her writings, The Revelations of Saint Bridget, her visions gave her the extraordinary strength and conviction to stand up for her Lord and her faith in front of kings, popes, and her peers.

Not only did Our Lord direct her in ways of giving counsel to others, but He also provided a rule for a new order she was instructed to establish, and she founded a monastery at Vadstena in 1344 where she served as Abbess. After relentlessly petitioning the pope for permission to make The Order of the Most Holy Savior official for nearly 20 years, her request was finally granted - just 3 years before her death in 1373. Her daughter, Saint Catherine of Sweden, took over as Abbess and the order became known simply as The Bridgettines. 

Between her unconvincing attempts at persuading kings to avoid war and the decades-long attempt to formalize her order, Saint Bridget of Sweden provides hope as the Patron Saint of failures. Failures, in this case, that were hard-fought. Her failures were not a result of laziness or lack of effort; they were divine directives that she barely (or sometimes never) saw completed in her lifetime.

This is a complex saint: privileged but penitent, bold yet obedient, unwavering yet sometimes unsuccessful. St. Bridget of Sweden was willing to give voice to her visions, and in doing so called the Church into greater holiness during her lifetime. The words given to her are now ours to witness. In pouring through a few of the volumes, all of which are worth examination, one instruction stood out to me as particularly relevant in today’s hurried and uncertain world.

In Book I, Chapter 30, the Lord reveals to Saint Bridget:

“I am your God and the Lord of the angels. I am Lord over life and death. I myself want to live in your heart. See what a great love I have for you! The heavens and the earth and all the things in them cannot contain me, and yet I want to live in your heart, which is only a little piece of flesh. Whom could you then fear or what could you need when you have inside you God Almighty in whom all the good things are?

There should be three things in the heart where I live: First, there should be a bed where we may rest. Second, there should be a seat where we may sit. Third, there should be a lamp that gives us light. In your heart there should be a bed to rest in so that you can rest from evil thoughts and worldly desires and always remember and contemplate the joy of eternity. The seat should be your will of staying close to me, even if something happens that you have to go out. For it is against nature to be always standing or sitting. But the one who is always standing is the one who always has the will of being with the world and never to sit with me. The light shall be the faith by which you believe that I am able to do all things and am almighty over all things.”

He wants to live in our hearts. Saint Bridget of Sweden made a home for Him in hers, and what might have appeared as worldly failures we now see as triumphant victories: not because she was wildly successful, but because she was unwaveringly faithful. What would happen if we, too, were to give ourselves a resting place away from the distractions and evils of the world; if we were seated firmly at the feet of the Father, ever ready to stand at His command; if we were to keep a lamp shining on His goodness and faithfulness?

What could happen if we were willing to fail in front of the world in order to remain faithful to our God?