The feminine genius of Saint Bridget of Sweden

The ideal woman, as depicted by pop culture, is a selfish woman. The “girl power” stereotype so common in today’s entertainment is a woman who is so focused on her personal goals that she is perfectly comfortable using her body, mind, family, and friends solely to maximize her own success. Sometimes that “woman” wasn’t even born a woman at all.

In Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope Saint John Paul II suggested that our current age is the perfect time for “that ‘genius’ which belongs to woman” to be made manifest and to correct modernity’s distorted understanding of womanhood.

But what does this “feminine genius” look like in the life of an actual woman? The great medieval saint, Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303-1373), can teach us.

On the surface, Bridget might seem an unlikely example for modern women. If her biography were retold according to today’s values, it would sound like a horror story of white privilege and female oppression.

According to those ideologies, Bridget certainly experienced white privilege. Her father was a member of a privileged class. As a “lawman”, he was an intelligent, well-educated man who had memorized “the law” and therefore had the right to govern his people. Bridget’s mother was also a member of the nobility.

Similarly, one could say that Bridget was oppressed by her family. As was the custom at the time, Bridget had little or no say in her arranged marriage. Initially, she opposed the marriage because she had been persuaded that the chaste life of a nun was a superior vocation. But eventually she obeyed her parents and agreed to marry.

After bearing her husband eight children, she was ordered to leave her home to serve in the court of the young Swedish king. When the pope offered a jubilee indulgence in the year 1350, the recently widowed Bridget traveled as a pilgrim to Rome but was never able to return to Sweden. Instead, during the decades she spent in Italy, she was alternately welcomed by members of the Vatican or completely ignored, depending on who happened to be sitting on the papal chair. She exhausted all her financial resources while in Italy and was forced to beg to support herself and the small community of nuns she established. After her death, her body was returned to Vadstena, Sweden, where she became the patron saint of her country.

While all of this is true, these bare facts leave out all the details that made Bridget into a saint and a model for Catholic women today.

Bridget may have inherited some of her intellectual gifts from her father and may have become literate because of her family’s position, but she developed a passion for reading on her own. She loved to read the Bible, and she learned Latin so that she could better participate in the Mass. She earned the respect of those around her, not by living a life of detached privilege or by seeking power, but through her personal witness of Christlike virtue and her inspired wisdom.

Bridget experienced almost all the vocations available to a woman; she was a daughter, wife, mother, widow, and nun. As she passed through each of these stages of life, she peacefully accepted them as gifts and sought to do God’s will according to what was needed at the time.

As a beautiful young girl, she prayed to determine whether God was calling her to a life of virginity. As a dutiful daughter, she recognized that the answer to that question was no.

According to tradition, on her wedding night, the teenage Bridget tearfully explained to her teenage husband that she wanted to live a chaste life. Ulf, Catholic gentleman that he was, agreed to live as brother and sister with her for two years. After those two years had passed, Bridget and Ulf had grown to love and respect one another, and their first child was born less than a year later. That child was followed by seven more.

Bridget joyfully accepted her roles as wife and mother, and she patiently took over all the practical aspects of running a large household. She deeply loved her husband, children, and servants, so she tried to guide, educate, and correct them, hoping that someday they could all be happy together in Heaven.

The entire household learned from Bridget’s personal example. Her servants knew she regularly arose in the middle of the night to pray, and they watched her deal honestly and charitably with others. Her children were taught by Bridget herself about loving Jesus Christ, how to live a virtuous life, and the importance of avoiding sin. Her husband knew that he had a loving helpmate to assist him in their life together, a woman who sometimes gently chided him to spend less time drinking with his friends after dinner.

When the King of Sweden, Magnus, married the French princess, Blanche of Namur, Bridget was summoned to the Swedish court. Bridget was made a lady-in-waiting to the queen, and she immediately recognized that the frivolous young queen needed guidance in virtue. Bridget also attempted to influence Magnus, who was both a weak king and a weak man. It was widely believed that his relationship with a favorite (male) courtier was not a platonic one. Over the years, Bridget earned the respect of the king, queen, and many members of the court through her forthrightness about how to live a Christian life. Whether they obeyed her recommendations is another matter.

In 1341, Bridget and Ulf left Sweden to go on a spiritual pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. When Ulf miraculously recovered from a serious illness during their return journey, everyone attributed it to the power of his wife’s prayers. But a year after returning home, Ulf died.

At that point, Bridget was finally able to live the penitential life she had longed for since she was a girl. She lived as a hermit and cared for the poor for several years. Then, in 1350, she traveled to Rome for the Jubilee Year with a small group of Swedes on a spiritual pilgrimage.

That pilgrimage to Rome lasted the rest of her life. Her daughter Karin, now known as Saint Catherine of Sweden, joined her in Rome. The Eternal City was so plagued by violence and kidnappings at the time that Catherine, who was as beautiful as her mother had once been, had to spend most of her time hidden in their apartments. The Black Death also swept through Europe during Bridget’s years in Italy.

However, the key to understanding Bridget’s life—the foundation on which her life was built—was not power or privilege but prayer. Bridget was only ten years old when she received her first vision and saw Jesus Christ, hanging on His Cross, suffering for others, even those who spurned and rejected Him.

Bridget responded to that great love by trying to love Him with her whole heart in return. She prayed in the middle of the night at her home; she prayed as she walked hundreds of miles as a pilgrim; and she prayed in many holy places simply to honor Him.

But God gave Bridget another gift that she particularly used to draw God’s wandering sheep back to the Church: dreams. Sometimes the visions Bridget experienced were for her own spiritual growth. Sometimes they were for the sake of others. Sometimes they were even somewhat humorous. For example, she shared a dream with the Swedish court about the importance of regular bathing. One can only assume that some courtiers needed that maternal reminder.

But many of Bridget’s visions sound like they come from a page in the Bible. Sometimes our Lord or the Mother of God would speak directly to her, while other times she would see images with hidden meanings that needed to be deciphered and shared with others, similar to the revelations given to the prophet Daniel. Like an Old Testament prophet, Bridget would confront a priest who was living with a woman, a rich man who was unconcerned with the needs of the poor, and a king who was entering into dangerous political alliances.

Sometimes her descriptions of her visions moved her listeners to repentance. Her words also convinced others that she was a prophet when her predictions proved true. Bridget repeatedly attempted to convince several popes to leave the comfort of Avignon, France, and return to Rome. They ignored her words, leaving Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), who was young enough to be Bridget’s granddaughter, to finish the job.

But Brigid was not acclaimed a saint simply because of her mystical gifts or powerful friends. And the “feminine genius” admired by Pope John Paul II was not simply a lofty term he used to describe only powerful women able to socialize with world leaders, receive prophetic visions, and affect papal policy.

Instead, every Catholic woman is called by God to live out her vocation in a uniquely feminine way. That way involves taking time to prayerfully discern one’s God-given vocation, treating others with respect and dignity rather than as mere stepping stones to personal fulfillment, embracing the natural roles of daughter, wife, and mother, and loving our family members and friends even when they make mistakes.

The life of Saint Bridget of Sweden demonstrates that the feminine genius is how women, as women, can incarnate the love of Christ as they live out their vocations, in homes and workplaces, in palaces and poverty. And that is why she remains an inspiration to Catholic women today.