St. Catherine of Sweden

St. Catherine of Sweden was born around 1331, a daughter of St. Bridget of Sweden, and died on 24 March 1381 at the monastery of Vadstena. Raised in piety and given in marriage while young, she and her husband agreed to live together in continence out of devotion to God. Widowed early, she joined her mother in Rome, where she shared in Bridget's life of prayer, pilgrimage, and works of charity, and accompanied her on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

After her mother's death she brought Bridget's body back to Sweden and became the abbess of Vadstena, guiding and consolidating the young Bridgettine Order that her mother had founded. She devoted much of her remaining life to promoting her mother's canonization and defending the order's rule before the papal court. Renowned for her own holiness and purity, she is venerated as a saint and is invoked as a patron against miscarriage.