St. Bridget of Sweden

St. Bridget of Sweden was born in 1303 into a noble family at Finsta, Sweden, and died on 23 July 1373 at Rome. Married young to a devout nobleman, Ulf Gudmarsson, she was a happy wife and the mother of eight children — among them St. Catherine of Sweden — and for a time served at the royal court. From childhood she experienced visions of Christ, and after her husband's death she gave herself entirely to the religious life.

Her mystical Revelations, recording what she believed Christ and the Virgin had shown her about the faith, the Passion, and the reform of the Church, were widely read across medieval Europe. She founded the Bridgettine Order (the Order of the Most Holy Savior), whose mother house rose at Vadstena. Settling in Rome, she labored for the return of the popes from Avignon and for the renewal of a corrupt Christendom, boldly admonishing prelates and princes. Canonized in 1391, she was named a co-patroness of Europe in 1999 by Pope St. John Paul II.