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Saint Birgitta- The most famous Swede

Friday the 4th October, hundreds of priests, nuns, monks, archbishops and cardinals from Italy and the Nordic countries came together to celebrate the 700 years memory of Saint Birgitta. The ceremony lasted for two days and took place in St:Peters church in Rom. Saint Birgitta is one of three patrons in Europe, next to holy goddess Edith Stein and holy Katarina of Siena. That Birgitta should have been something old and forgotten is totally wrong. She stands high above many of them who are fighting for equality today. But who was that woman and why is she so wellknown and popular?

Birgitta´s adolescence and her first spiritual experience with God
Saint Birgitta is one of the most famous women from Sweden. She was born in 1303 in Finstagård, Uppland . She grew up with her father, Birger Persson, who was an important layer in Sweden. Her mother’s name was Ingeborg Bengtsdotter and she belonged to the royal relatives. Already in her childhood Birgitta felt that she was chosen by God. When Birgitta was ten years old she heard a Sermon about the death of Jesus. The same night she saw him in her dream, and it was then she felt like she was chosen and it was the motive which was going to be essential in her Spiritual meditation. When her mother died in 1314, her aunt (Katarina Bengtsdotter) took care of her, At the age of thirteen, her parents decided that she was going to get married with a five years older boy, who was called Ulf Gudmarsson . He was like her father, a man who was in a high position. And later he became a layer. Birgitta served during a period as head waiter to the Queen Blanka. Together they got eight children, four boys and for girls. The family lived in Ulvåsa. In the neighbourhood she became famous because she built a sort of hospital for people who were sick. As a nurse at that hospital she helped many people who had furuncles and wounds.

Birgitta-God’s speaking-tube
Because of her strong belief in God she and her husband went to St: Jacobs grave in Compostela, north west of Spain, in 1343. But the journey became Ulf´s death. About one year later he died. After her husband’s death and when her children had grown up, Birgitta could devote herself to the tasks of God. The death of Ulf became the decisive turning- point in her life. Birgitta moved in to a nunnery, in Alvastra. All her messages from God were written down in the shape of revelations. These revelations also founded Birgitta´s rules of nunnery. After her first messages from God she became loved by many persons. All her revelations were attentioned in a positive manner and in a negative manner. From that moment relatives, friends, bishops, priests, monks, common people and the opposite came from different places. Even the king and his queen came to ask for advice. Birgitta took their problems in to consideration in her prayer and after that she wrote down her visions from God. But of course there were doubts in certain people. Although Birgitta could not keep her activity, she was full of enthusiasm to let other people know about the messages from God. Because of that she left Sweden in 1349 in order to go to Rome.

Birgitta- a saint and a creator of a new orden
Soon she became wellknown in Italy, and her house became a meeting-place for people from all over the world. In 1367 her dream turned in to reality. The pope and emperor met eachother in Rome, and together they permitted the rule of nunnery. (Birgittinorden) Of course Birgitta did more journeys outside Rome. After the visit in Jerusalem which she had seen so many times in dreams as revelations, she returned to Rome and there she died in 1373, but her remains were brought to Vadstena in 1374. In 1391 she was declared a Saint. Today there are still many Birgittin nunneries in the world. There are also the Swedish Birgitta sisters with their nunnery Casa S Brigida of Piazza Farnesse in Rome.