Brigitte Swedish

Brigitte was born in 1303 into an aristocratic Swedish family, her father was a lagman in Uppland, one of the most important regions of Sweden. Mother Ingeborg Bengtsdotter (d. 1314) also had a noble origin and led a family tree from the royal Volkung dynasty. At 13, she was married to a nobleman, Ulf Gudmarsson, had 8 children in a marriage, one of the daughters of St. Brigitte was later glorified as St. Catherine of Sweden . Her son Karl lived at the court of Queen Giovanna of Naples , who laid eyes on him and made him divorce his wife. Not having time to marry the queen, Karl died, and Brigitte and her family considered the queen guilty in his death.

Despite the fact that her views were formed in an aristocratic environment, Brigitte, from her childhood, preferred spiritual values ​​and cared little for material ones, helping the poor and sick throughout the district.

In 1335, Birgitta was at the court of King Magnus Ericsson , where he served his wife Blanca Namurskaya .

In 1341, during a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela , which Birgitta performed with her husband Ulf, she was first visited by a vision of the Virgin Mary. During the trip, Ulf became seriously ill, and Birgitta promised to devote herself to Christ in the event of her husband’s recovery. When the disease went away, Birgitta convinced her husband to become a Cistercian monk, and she settled next to the Alvastra Monastery. In 1344, Ulf passed away.

In 1346, St. Brigitte received orders from Jesus to establish a new monastic order. Magnus Ericsson was favorable to this idea and allocated land in Wadsten for the future monastery of the order. However, Pope Clement VI of Avignon rejected the request of St. Brigitte.

Clement VI is accused of revelation for not making enough efforts to stop the war between King Edward III of England and King Philip VI of France . In revelation there are such words of Christ: ^[1]

“Write in my name these words for Pope Clement: I have exalted you and made you above all degrees of glory. Get up to make peace between the kings of France and England, who are dangerous beasts, the souls of traitors ... And see the blood of my saints, and I will give you what I must. Also look at the time before, in which you boldly plunged me into anger, which remained unanswered, in which you did everything according to your desire, and not according to duty, from which I suffered, as if I had not heard [all of this]. Since my time is coming and I will ask you for the insolence and negligence of your time. And just as I allowed you to ascend through all degrees, you will spiritually descend through others that you will truly experience in your soul and body if you do not obey my words. And your tongue will be silent, and your name, by which you were called on the earth, will be reproached and forgotten before my faces and my saints. I’ll also ask you what disadvantages (as long as I was allowed) you have achieved all ranks, which, God knows me, are better known than they are remembered by your careless conscience. Why were you indifferent to the restoration of peace [between] kings and preferred one of the parties. Upstairs, nothing will be forgotten, the way the ambition and passion of the church of your time flourishes and increases, and that many of them you were able to change and improve, but you, the lover of the flesh, did not want to. Get up, before your last hour has come, the negligence of former times by the jealousy of the penultimate time of the extinguish! If, however, you doubt what spirit these words are, here is the kingdom and the man who are witnesses of an amazing and wonderful accomplishment. ”

Brigitte left an emotional fragment about his death. On December 2, 1352, the bell tower of St. Peter was set on fire by a lightning strike. All the bells fell to the ground, broke and melted, as if mixed in a crucible. A few days later, news came that Pope Clement had passed away. She wrote about this on behalf of God: ^[2]

“Hear now! The bells burn, and people cry: “Our sovereign is dead, our sovereign the Pope has left us; Blessed be this day, but this sovereign is not blessed. " How strange, because it would be appropriate for them to shout - “God bless our sovereign with a long and prosperous life”; and they shout and condemn with joy: “He fell, and let him never rise!” But this is not strange, for he himself, who should have exclaimed: “Come to me and find peace in your souls,” he called everyone: “Come bow to me and worship me, living in luxury and glory more than King Solomon had. Come to my court, and empty your purses, and we will find forgiveness for your souls. " So he shouted with his lips and parchments. According to this and My anger, the time has come, and I will judge him as one of those who dispersed the flocks of St. Peter. Oh, what a trial awaits him! But still, if he has time to turn to Me, I will come to him and meet halfway, as a caring father. ”

Unflattering reviews in the revelations are also addressed to Edward III and Philip VI, whom the Mother of God calls "greedy and bloody executioners" ^[1] . Revelations were presented to both monarchs, in which it was proposed to end the Hundred Years War with the help of a dynastic marriage between the houses of Edward III and Valois. Marriages between representatives of these dynasties took place only after the death of Brigitte: Richard II married Isabella Valois, and Henry V then her sister Catherine Valois. Henry V and his wife will present the land for the order of brigittes.

In 1350, Brigitte moved to Rome , where she lived until her death, minus regular pilgrimages. She gained good fame in Rome with her virtuous life and her mercy.

The devastation of Rome, abandoned for Avignon, struck Brigitte’s soul to the core and inspired her in eloquent pages worthy of Petrarch: ^[2]

Oh Rome, Rome! your walls are destroyed, your gates are left without guard, your sacred vessels are sold and your altars are left empty, there are no more sacrifices or holy incense for them, and therefore sweet aromas no longer ascend over the Holy of Holies.

With her calls, Brigitte also contributed to the cessation of the Avignon captivity of the popes and the return of the Holy See from Avignon to Rome. In 1370, Pope Urban V , who had arrived in Rome for a short time, finally allowed St. Brigitte establish a new order, later called the Brigittees and build a monastery.

The monastery in Wadsten was completed in 1384 , but the founder herself did not live up to this. St. Brigitte died in 1373 in Rome, immediately after the pilgrimage to Jerusalem . Her body was subsequently reburied in Wadsten.

Canonization

In 1391, she was canonized by Pope Boniface IX . In 1999 she was proclaimed the patroness of Europe by Pope John Paul II . Memory of st. Brigitte in the Catholic Church - July 23 .

Revelations consists of eight books and was published in Latin by Alfonso Jaensky, the executor of Birgitta, shortly after her death. The first printed version appeared in 1492 in the printing house of Bartolomeo Gotana.

In addition to the “Revelations”, Birgitta left “Minor Works” (Opera Minora): Regula Salvatoris - Statutes of the Order of the Brigittes, Sermo Angelicus and Extravagantes - revelations not included in the first eight books.

They had a significant influence on later religious medieval texts. Also, "Revelations" were in the field of attention of mystics and writers of the modern era, for example, Huysmans.

Many politicians and military leaders of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times thought that they recognize themselves in the characters of the prophecies of St. Brigitte. These include Sigismund III , who led the fight for the Swedish throne. Revelations was one of the favorite books of the German Emperor Charles IV .

Among the readers of the texts of Birgitta of Sweden there were also skeptics, such as, for example, Jean Gerson .

• Brigitte, Swedish saint // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Catholic Encyclopedia. Ed. Franciscans. M., 2002.

• Birgitta Swedish, St. - article from the encyclopedia "Catholic Russia"
• Site about sv. Brigitte (Swedish )
• Birgitta (inaccessible link) (inaccessible link from 10-05-2013 [2309 days]) - article from the encyclopedia Religion. (Retrieved October 25, 2010)
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Brotherhood of St. Birgitta of Sweden (Retrieved January 19, 2012)