St. Bridget of Sweden - July 23rd

 

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, who was born about the year 1303. She was raised in a pious family. Her father would go to confession every Friday. At the age of 7, Bridget had a vision in which our Lady placed a crown on her head. At the age of 10, after a sermon on the Passion, she saw Jesus in a dream wounded and bleeding.

After her mother died in 1314, she lived with an aunt until she was 13. And out of obedience married, Ulf Gudmarsson in an arranged marriage. They had four boys and four girls. One of her daughters, Catherine of Sweden, who would become a saint.

On their pilgrimage to Compestella, Spain, Ulf became very ill. Bridget feared he may die and prayed at his side all night. A bishop appeared to her, and promised Ulf would recover and ‘God had great things for her to do.’ He told her he was Denis, Patron of France. Ulf recovered and was able to continue his work, until he died in 1344.

After Ulf died, Bridget began to live a penitential life near a Cistercian monastery. When she was 41 years old, God called her to be His bride and asked her to found a new religious order. She planned the Rule and Office of the order she was called to found, but she never saw come into existence. After Bridget’s death, her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden would become the first abbess of what was to be called the Bridgitine Sisters, who have a devotion to Our Lady and to the Passion of Christ.

She lived an ascetic life, eating very little, sleeping short hours, and praying continually. She followed a strict rule and practiced charitable works, and even went about begging. She had the gift of prophecy and worked many cures. She received inspirations known as her 'Revelations’.

For the rest of her life she saw visions concerning the reform of the Church, she gave messages to kings and popes and many other persons in high places, directing them to work for the Church. However, nothing she set out to do was ever realized. She never had the pope return to Rome, she never managed to make peace between France and England, she never saw any her religious order founded, and never returned to Sweden. Rather, she died in what seemed to be an apparent failure in July 1373. She can be called the Patroness of Failures. In this she was like her Lord. He was also classed as failure as He hung on the Cross. Bridget was canonized only 18 years after her death.

Today, let us ask St. Bridget to pray for us that we may imitate her perseverance and her love of Jesus. May we seek not so much to be successful, but rather to be faithful until death.