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Oct 8 – S Bridget of Sweden
Description
Sources Used Today:
- "The Wedding Garment" — From the Assumption to Advent
- "SSPX Pilgrims Left at the Gates of the Chiquinquirá Basilica" (FSSPX.news)
- "Your Best Self Is Your Holiest Self" (SSPX Sermons)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Saint Bridget of Sweden was a wife, a mother of eight children, a widow, a mystic, and eventually a religious foundress. And somewhere along the way, she also found time to tell kings and popes what they were doing wrong.
She was born in 1303 into one of Sweden's wealthiest noble families. As a young girl, Bridget developed a deep love for Christ's Passion, and according to tradition, she began experiencing visions when she was still a child.
At thirteen, she married a nobleman named Ulf Gudmarsson.
And by all accounts, they had a happy marriage.
Together they raised eight children, including their daughter Catherine, who would also become a saint. Bridget managed their household, helped the poor, and eventually served at the Swedish royal court. She and Ulf even made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
After Ulf died, Bridget's life took a very different direction.
She began receiving the extraordinary visions that would eventually fill several volumes known as her Revelations. These included detailed meditations on the Nativity and Passion of Christ, many of which influenced European religious art for centuries.
But Bridget wasn't content simply to write down visions.
She acted on them.
At the time, the popes were living in Avignon, France, rather than Rome. Bridget became convinced that the papacy needed to return to the Eternal City, and she wasn't parti