Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 04-15-08
Birgitta of Sweden
/Birgitta Birgersdotter /Bridget of Sweden (1302/03-1373)
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"IT IS GOOD FOR THE BRIDE TO GROW TIRED TOILING ALONGSIDE
THE BRIDEGROOM."
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Birgitta Birgersdotter was born to an aristocratic family related to the kings of Sweden and influential at court. By the time she was 10 years old, her mother had died; when she was 13 or 14, Birgitta was married to Ulf Gudmarsson. She had eight children and served at court for several years. In 1341, the couple went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain; on their return to Sweden, her husband retired from public life, and they apparently discussed plans for both to enter monasteries. However, at Ulf's death in about 1345, Birgitta decided to remain a lay person for a time, until she could found a new religious order.
Her first written descriptions of the visionary experiences that had begun after her husband's death concerned her proposed foundation, but they soon included directions for admonitory letters to be sent to the king of Sweden and Swedish nobles, and later to the kings of England and France and the current pope. Some of her visions she wrote down in Swedish, others she reported to a series of clerical advisors who then wrote them in Latin. This procedure continued until her death, although she soon learned to read and write Latin.
Birgitta went to Rome for the 1350 Jubilee year, in part to get the pope's approval for her religious order and for a Rule that she had written, but the pope, then living in Avignon, France, did not attend the Jubilee. Birgitta, however, remained a resident of Rome for the rest of her life, although she traveled considerably. As a Swedish noblewoman, she made influential friends, and so her reports of her visions (frequently described in letters that were widely circulated) could not merely be ignored. In most of these visions, Christ and/or his mother Mary gave Birgitta messages to be given to others; their theme was usually the need for the reform of the Church through the reform of the lives of the pope, cardinals, clergy, and the secular rulers. Birgitta believed that the prerequisite for any reform involved the permanent return of the pope to Rome from Avignon, where all popes had lived since 1305.
For the most part, Birgitta failed in her mission: her order was approved in 1370, but not according to the Rule she had written; the papacy did not return to Rome during her lifetime; there was no noticeable improvement in the habits of the leaders to whom she wrote. But among the people of Rome and the clergy with whom she dealt directly, she was seen as a "friend of God": she lived in relative poverty, she cared for the poor in a practical way and with her own hands, and even those whom she irritated never questioned her sincerity.
Although Birgitta directed that her writings be collected
in about 1370, it was only after her death that her reports of
some 700 visions were edited and published in Latin. By 1377,
the Liber celestis revelaciones (usually called simply
Revelaciones /Revelationes) was prepared, containing seven
books. By 1380, a Liber celestis imperatoris ad reges
(which would become Book 8) and a Tractatus de summis pontificibus
(which would be incorporated into Book 4) had been published;
these were collections of visions concerning political and clerical
leaders. Other materials were also published: the Extravagantes
(mostly reports of visions in Sweden, apparently left behind
in the move to Rome); material concerning Birgitta's religious
order --- her Rule (Regula salvatoris) and lessons to
be used in recitation of the Office (Sermo angelicus)
--- and some prayers and songs. Her writings were much copied
and translated throughout the 1400s.
A complete English translation of Birgitta's writings is in preparation;
for now, enough is available in English to allow a distinctive
voice to be heard.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Revelaciones
Sermo angelicus
Extravagantes
A Middle English Revelations of Saint BirgittaInformation about secondary sources.
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1. Links to the individual chapters of five of the eight books of Revelaciones (1-3, 5, 7), to Sermo angelicus, to each of the four prayers of Quattuor oraciones, as well as to the earliest biography, written by two of her confessors and used in the process of her canonization (which would occur within 20 years of her death). The translators are not identified, but appear to be Denis Searby and Albert Ryle Kezel (for information on and excerpts from their print versions, see below, under "In print").
2. After an introduction, Julia Bolton Holloway's 1991 modern English version of a 1516 translation (perhaps by Thomas Gascoigne) of another early biography.
3. Excerpts from Revelaciones by other translators:
(a) A passage from Book 7, on the birth of Jesus.
(b) Also from Book 7, Mary instructing Birgitta on clerical celibacy (for an alternative translation of part of this passage, see "In print").
(c) Three sections, translated by Holloway, from a c.1475 Middle English version of Revelaciones, on Mary's help for women and on humility.
(d) Another passage by Holloway from the same Middle English version, on Birgitta's hope that she would be able to preserve her virginity (for more from Holloway's translation, Saint Bride and Her Book, see "In print").
(e) An essay on Birgitta by Holloway, which includes three excerpts from Ch. 48 of Liber celestis imperatoris ad reges.
4. Latin editions:
(a) Birgitta's complete works, from a 1967-2001 edition by Birger Bergh, et al. You can link not only to Books 1-8 of the original Revelaciones, but also to the Extravagantes, Sermo angelicus, Birgitta's Rule (Regula Salvatoris), and Quattuor oraciones. At another site, English-language reviews of the edition's Book 2, by Bridget Morris, and of Book 3, by Harriet Sonne.
(b) Tractatus de summis pontificibus, edited in 1997 by Arne Johnson. The work would later be incorporated into Book 4 of Revelaciones, but the organization is different here than in the above; in addition, the English-language introduction and conclusion ("Results and discussion") contain useful explanations. Elsewhere, Daniel Williman's English-language review of the edition.
5. In Swedish:
(a) At the bottom of the page, a manuscript page in Birgitta's hand, describing a 1361 revelation, with a description (in English) of how the text differs from the later Latin manuscript.
(b) From an 1857-84 edition, the complete Swedish version of the revelations, Uppenbarelser; the arrow at the bottom of each section will take you to the next.
6. Essays:
(a) A 2000 essay by Lars Bergquist, translated by Roger Tanner, provides a biography and clear summation of the themes of Birgitta's various works and includes substantial quotation.
(b) "St. Bridget in Rome" (1997) a detailed biographical essay by Eva Ahl.
(c) "St. Birgitta: The Disjunction Between Women and Ecclesiastical Power," by Joan Bechtold, discusses the conflicts between Birgitta's concern for women and her allegiance to ecclesiastical authority. (Above the essay is a woodcut by Anton Koberger from a 1500 edition of Revelaciones; another is given below in #8)
7. Reviews (for information on the books' treatment of Birgitta, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Yvonne Bruce on Bridget Morris' 1999 study, St. Birgitta of Sweden.
(b) Rebecca Krug on the 2005 essay collection, Voices in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages.
(c) Anna Dronzek on Prudence Allen's 2002 second volume of The Concept of Woman series, The Early Humanist Reformation, 1250-1500.
(d) Brian Patrick McGuire on Rosalynn Voaden's 1999 study, God's Words, Women's Voices: The Discernment of Spirits in the Writing of Late-medieval Women Visionaries.
8. Early illustrations:
(a) Seven pages of a 1390s Bridgettine breviary; enlarging each will bring you a fuller description.
(b) From a 1400s manuscript, Birgitta dictating to a scribe while being watched (or inspired?) by a haloed figure at the upper left.
(c) At the end of the first page of a 2005 essay by Catherine Lawless on artists' treatment of the birth of Jesus, a paragraph on Birgitta's influence and a 1400s painting of Birgitta witnessing the nativity. (For a brief part of her account of a vision at Bethlehem, see under "In print.")
(d) The first of ten pages with illuminations from a 1400s psalter, which give the Latin (with English summaries) of "The Fifteen O's," prayers popularly (though apparently erroneously) attributed to Birgitta in the 1400s. Clicking "next" at the bottom will take you to the other pages.
(e) A 1500 woodcut by Koberger, showing a seated Birgitta surrounded by her followers, with Jesus and Mary above.
9. Holloway's Birgitta website, from which you can link to some of the above and to other relevant material. At another site, after a biography by Sheldon Broedel, a 2005 annotated bibliography of print and online sources.
10. For historical background, an essay on the "Avignon Papacy" (1305-1378), by Lynn Harry Nelson.
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[Denis Searby has translated Books 1-3 of Revelaciones for this first of a four-volume translation of a 2002 critical edition of Birgitta's complete works. The introduction and notes by Bridget Morris include research updated since Morris' 1999 study (see below, under "Secondary sources"). The book includes a detailed chronology and a description of all of Birgitta's writing. The index is a bit sketchy; a fuller one is promised for the final volume of the series. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden / translated by
Denis Searby; with introductions and notes by Bridget Morris.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006-. (v. <1-
> : ill.)
LC#: BX4700.B62 E5 2006; ISBN: 0195166442 (v. 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index
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" I will give you... myself to be your bridegroom."
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[Chapter numbers are given so that you can see the originals online. At the opening of Book 1, Jesus claims the widow Birgitta as his bride:]
"I... have a rightful claim on you, since you surrendered your will to me when your husband died. After his death, you thought and prayed about how you might become poor for my sake, and you wanted to give up everything for my sake. So I have a rightful claim upon you....
"My bride, if you desire nothing but me, if you hold all thinks in contempt for my sake --- both children and relatives as well as wealth and honors --- I will give you a most precious and delightful reward. I will give you neither gold nor silver as your wages but myself to be your bridegroom, I, who am the king of glory....
"For this reason, embrace your small hardships cheerfully so that you can be cleansed and reach your great reward all the sooner! It is good for the bride to grow tired toiling alongside the bridegroom so that she can all the more confidently take her rest with him." [Bk.1: Ch. 2, pp. 55-56]
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"Why were you afraid?"
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[When Birgitta has doubts about the origin of her visionary experiences, Jesus challenges her:]
"Why were you afraid of my words? Why were you wondering whether they came from a good or an evil spirit? Tell me, did you find anything in my words that your conscience did not dictate to you to do? Or did I command you anything against reason?"
To this the bride answered, "No, on the contrary, they are all true and I was badly mistaken."
"Therefore, do not doubt that God's good spirit is with you, seeing that you desire nothing other than God and are completely on fire with his love. I am the only one who can do that." [1:4, p. 58]
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" I demand rationality."
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[Birgitta must learn a way of life far different from that she had known as an aristocrat:]
"Inasmuch as you have come from the instability of the world unto stability, you must learn a new language, that is, how to abstain from useless words and even from legitimate ones due to the importance of silence and quiet. You should be dressed in interior and exterior humility so that you neither extol yourself inwardly at being holier than others nor are outwardly ashamed of acting humbly in public. Third, your time should be regulated so that just as you often used to make time for the needs of the body, so now you should only have time for the soul.... Fourth, your new food is prudent abstinence from gluttony and from delicacies, as far as your natural constitution can endure it. Acts of abstinence that go beyond the capacity of nature are not to my liking, for I demand rationality and the taming of the lusts." [1:34, pp.109-110]
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"Make the words of my mouth publicly known."
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[However, she must not only live a new life herself but also accept a public mission:]
"Make the words of my mouth publicly known and bring them personally to the head of the church! I shall give you my spirit so that, wherever there may be dissension between two persons, you may be able to unite them in my name and through the power given to you, if they but believe." [1:52, p. 146]
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"...because I wanted to."
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[In Book 2, we learn that during her years in Sweden her mission was not accepted cheerfully by some clerical and civil leaders. Jesus asserts his right to choose:]
"Many people wonder why I speak with you and not with others who live a better life and have served me for a longer time....
"However, it pleased me to choose you in my Spirit, not because you are better than they or equal to them or better qualified, but because I wanted to --- I who can make sages out of fools and saints out of sinners. I did not grant you so great a grace because I hold the others in disdain....
"Humble yourself then in every way, and do not let anything trouble you except your sins. Love everyone, even those who seem to hate and slander you, for they are only providing you with a greater opportunity to win your crown!" [2:16, p.216]
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"Just do all that you can!"
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[But Jesus' words were apparently not enough. John the Baptist and Mary, the mother of Jesus, both had to come to give encouragement:]
John the Baptist spoke to the bride, saying: "The Lord Jesus has called you out of darkness into light, from impurity into perfect purity, from a narrow into a broad place. Who is able to explain these gifts or how could you thank him as much as you should for them? Just do all that you can!"....
Then the Mother spoke to the bride and said: "....Care nothing for honors, do not bother about favors, pay no attention to praise or reproach! Fro these things come inconstancy of soul and the lessening of love for God. Be steadfast!" [2:29, pp. 247-49]
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" They have no need to fill their chests with gold and silver."
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[Book 3 often speaks of buildings, both physical and metaphorical. While still in Sweden, Birgitta worried about the ornate churches being built from the donations of the laity. Mary responds with a practical building design:]
Again the bride said: "Should those friars who build tall and sumptuous churches for your Son be rebuked? Or are they to be censured and criticized if they ask for a lot of donations in order to construct such buildings?"
The Mother answered: "When a church is wide enough to hold all the people coming into it..., when its walls are thick and strong enough to withstand any wind, when its roof is tight and firm enough that it does not leak, then they have built it sufficiently....
"Accordingly, they have no need to fill their chests with gold and silver for works of construction, for it did not do Solomon any good to have built such sumptuous buildings when he neglected to love God for whom there being built." [3:18, p.296]
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"Yet Rome is still not without friends of God."
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[When Birgitta arrived in Rome in 1349, she was shocked at the physical condition of the center of Christendom. Since the papacy had moved to Avignon at the beginning of the century, Rome had become depopulated, its citizens impoverished, and the church buildings dilapidated or abandoned. Birgitta would spend the last 24 years of her life in Rome as a "friend of God":]
"O Mary, I have been unkind, but still I call you to my aid. I pray to you that you may graciously pray for the excellent city of Rome. I can physically see that some of the churches are abandoned where the bones of the saints lie in rest. Some of them are inhabited, but the heart and conduct of their rectors are far from God."...
[After Mary and Jesus give Birgitta a description of the history and present condition of Rome, Jesus concludes:]
"Such is Rome, as you have seen it physically. many altars are abandoned, the collection is spent in taverns, and the people who give to it have more time for the world than for God.... Yet Rome is still not without friends of God. If they were given some help, they would cry out to the Lord and he would have mercy on them." [3:27, pp. 311-14]
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"What awaits next if not her collapse?"
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[The condition of Rome's buildings soon became a metaphor for the state of the whole church. Birgitta was convinced that its reform must be begun with the reformation of the lives of the pope, cardinals, and clergy. In early 1350 she sent a message from Mary to one of the highest ranking ecclesiastics, a papal legate of the current pope:]
"...[T]he Church of God is dangerously tottering, and if she is tottering so badly, what awaits next if not her collapse? I assure you that if she is not helped by repairs, her collapse will be so great that it will be heard throughout all of Christendom....
"The men who should be placating the wrath of God along with me are instead provoking God's wrath against themselves. Such men should not be promoted in the church of God. I, the Queen of Heaven, will come to the aid of anyone who, knowing his own insufficiency, is willing to take on the task of making the church's foundation stable...." [3:10, pp. 276-77]
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[This translation by Albert Ryle Kezel includes the following: Book 5 of Revelaciones, written before the move to Rome and sometimes called Liber questionum; Book 7, written in the last two years of Birgitta's life; Quattuor oraciones, four prayers written before her husband's death; and a vita that was used in Birgitta's canonization process. Tore Nyberg's introduction and Kezel's notes are thorough:]
Life and selected revelations / Birgitta of Sweden; edited
with a preface by Marguerite Tjader Harris; translation and notes
by Albert Ryle Kezel; introduction by Tore Nyberg (The Classics
of Western spirituality). New York: Paulist Press, c1990. (x,
350 p.: ill.)
LC#: BX4700.B62 E5 1; ISBN: 0809104342, 0809131390
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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"For your heart was as cold toward my love as steel...."
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[In Book 5, Jesus again speaks of Birgitta's conversion:]
"For your heart was as cold toward my love as steel; and yet, in it there moved a modest spark of love for me, namely, when you thought me worthy of love and honor above all others. But that heart of yours then fell upon the sulpherous mountain when the glory and delight of the world turned against you and when your husband, whom you carnally loved beyond all others, was taken from you by death....
And when at your husband's death your soul was greatly shaken
with disturbance, then the spark of my love --- which lay, as
it were, hidden and enclosed --- began to go forth, for, after
considering the vanity of the world, you abandoned your whole
will to me and and desired me above all things." [5:111,
pp.147-48]
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"Why are you so disturbed?"
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[Birgitta has just told Jesus that a particular sinner should be severely punished; his response suggests that his patience was greater than hers:]
"Why are you so disturbed because I put up with that man so patiently? Do you not know that it is a grave thing to burn eternally?...
"...[W]hy are you disturbed because that man distrusts my words unless more evident signs be shown? Was it you that bore him, or do you know his interior as I do?" [5:112, p.153]
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"I will direct your way."
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[Book 7 describes Birgitta's 1371-72 pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Here Jesus gives his order to the apparently hesitant woman, in her late 60s and living in relative poverty:]
The Son of God speaks to blessed Birgitta his bride and says: "Go now and depart from Rome for Jerusalem. Why do you plead your age? I am the Creator of nature; I can weaken or strengthen nature as it pleases me. I will be with you. I will direct your way. I will guide you and lead you back to Rome; and I will procure for you everything necessary, more adequately than you have ever had before. [7:9, p.171]
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"...should by no means live in the easily contaminated,
carnal delight of marriage."
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[During the pilgrimage, Mary gives Birgitta God's view on clerical celibacy; the identity of the archbishop willing to accept married priests is unknown:]
O you to whom it has been given to hear and see spiritually, hear now the things that I want to reveal to you: namely, concerning that archbishop who said that if he were pope, he would give leave for all clerics and priests to contract marriages in the flesh. He thought and believed that this would be more acceptable to God than that clerics live dissolutely, as they now do. For he believed that through such marriage the greater carnal sins might be avoided; and even though he did not rightly understand God's will in this matter, nonetheless that same archbishop was still a friend of God.
"But now I will tell you God's will in this matter; for I gave birth to God himself....
[Mary describes Old Testament practice concerning marriage of priests; then:]
For after he [Christ] instituted in the world this new sacrament of the eucharist and ascended into heaven, the ancient law was still then kept: namely, that Christian priests lived in carnal matrimony. And, nonetheless, many of them were still friends of God because they believed with simple purity that that this was pleasing to God....
After those earlier Christian priests had observed these practices for a time, God himself, through the infusion of his Holy Spirit, put into the heart of the pope then guiding the Church another law more acceptable and pleasing to him in this matter... so that he established a statute in the universal Church that Christian priests, who have so holy and so worthy an office, namely, of consecrating this precious Sacrament, should by no means live in the easily contaminated, carnal delight of marriage." [7:10, pp.172-73]
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"As often as prelates... mount big horses, the devil mounts
the prelates' necks."
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[In a letter, Birgitta gives instruction to a bishop on his lifestyle:]
Of your clothing, I advise you never to have in your possession more than three pairs at one time; everything beyond this, you should immediately give to God himself....
Of silver vessels, reserve for yourself just enough for your own person and for the guests who eat at your own table; donate the superfluous pieces to God with a cheerful mind. For the rest of your household and the guests who sit at other tables certainly can, without any embarrassment, eat and drink using vessels of tin, clay, wood, or glass....
Nor should you have overly large and expensive horses, but rather those that are moderate in size and price.... Indeed, I tell you that as often as prelates, out of pride and vainglory, mount big horses, the devil mounts the prelates' necks. [7:12, pp.179-180]
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"...with them they had an ox and an ass."
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[Perhaps the most widely popular part of Revelaciones is in Birgitta's account of a vision at Bethlehem. Her detailed description of the birth of Jesus has had a lasting influence on the iconography used in depictions of the Nativity. The passage begins:]
When I was at the manger of the Lord in Bethlehem, I saw a Virgin, pregnant and most very beautiful, clothed in a white mantle and a finely woven tunic.... Her womb was full and much swollen, for she was now ready to give birth. With her there was a very dignified old man; and with them they had an ox and an ass. [7:21, p.202]
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[[In about 1354, optimistic that her religious order would soon be given approval, Birgitta wrote (or had dictated to her by an angel) a set of readings to be part of the Office that would be sung by her nuns. This translation by John Halborg is from a Latin version of a Swedish original. The translation's text seems obscure in spots; since the Latin text isn't given, one can't tell if the problem is with the translation or the Latin (or with the dictating-angel's command of the original Swedish). The introduction and notes are moderately helpful:]
The word of the angel: Sermo angelicus / by Saint Birgitta
of Sweden, translated, with introduction and notes, by John E.
Halborg (Peregrina translations series). Toronto, Ont.: Peregrina
Pub., 1996. (76 p.: ill. ; 21 cm)
LC#: BX4700.B63 E5 1996; ISBN: 0920669476
Includes bibliographical references.
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"There is no other joy in marriage but in repaying honour
and glory to God."
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[The Office's 21 lessons (three for each day of the week) trace the role of Mary in the history of salvation. Here the angel, while speaking of Mary's parents, describes the purpose of marriage. For an alternate translation, see online: the second reading for the first Wednesday:]
Devout spouses are like beautiful trees: they have one root from two hearts. They are married for one reason: to provide honour and glory to God....
In all their works they observe the fear of God and they love each other honourably, procreating children according to the precept of God and to his praise. The Betrayer does not desist from attacking them with his force and wiles. There is no other joy in marriage but in repaying honour and glory to God. [Ch.10, p.39]
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"She declared rationally and revealed perfectly what they
did not know...."
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[On Mary's life after the ascension into heaven of Jesus (and perhaps on Birgitta's mission?); see online's second and third readings for the first Saturday:]
All the Apostles came to her. She declared rationally and revealed perfectly what they did not know about her son.
She gave heart to martyrs who rejoiced at tribulations and sufferings for the name of Christ.... She taught confessors salutary doctrine that they might teach perfectly from her doctrine and example.... Virgins learned to govern themselves honourably..., to fly loose talk and all vanity....
The glorious Virgin reported to widows for their consolation that... she chose humbly to sustain all her tribulations so that God's will might be completely done rather than to dissent from the divine will and want whatever pleased her. With such conversations she made the widows' souls patient in tribulations and constant in bodily temptations.
She counseled married persons that they should love one another with true, not false, love in body and soul alike, and that their will should be one, to the honour of God. [Ch.19, pp.62-63]
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[This anthology has brief excerpts, translated by Barbara Obrist, of the Revelaciones (including sections not in the books cited above), the Extravagantes, and the Regula Salvatoris. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Medieval women writers / edited by Katharina M. Wilson. Athens,
Ga.: University of Georgia Press, c1984. (xxix, 366 p.)
LC#: PN667 .M43 1984; ISBN: 082030641X, 0820306401
Includes bibliographies
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"You must approve."
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[From Extravagantes. Jesus gives Birgitta a message for Pope Urban V (1362-70) about the Rule for the religious order she wished to found; despite Jesus' instructions, the original form of the Rule was not approved:]
...[G]o and tell him on my behalf: "Your time is short. Get up and look at how the souls that have been entrusted to you can be saved. I have brought you the rules of the order that has to be founded and begun in Sweden, at Vadstena. It has come forth from my mouth.
"Now I want you not only to confirm it through a mandate, but also to strengthen it through your benediction, you who are my vicar on earth.... You must approve publicly, in front of men, that which has been sanctified in the presence of my heavenly assembly...." [Ch. 44, pp.245-46]
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A Middle English Revelations of Saint Birgitta
[Julia Bolton Holloway has translated into modern English part of a c.1475 Middle English version of Revelaciones. The Middle English translation was itself an abridged and rearranged version of the original. Of the 29 Middle English chapters, Holloway's modern version gives 19 in a complete form and parts of others. An introduction (which gives excerpts from the vita that can be seen online), an interpretive essay, and a bibliography are generally helpful. The edition given here is a "new edition" of the original 1992 book; there are some different illustrations and a few new items in the bibliography. For the text itself, however, the 1992 edition will suffice. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Saint Bride and her book: Birgitta of Sweden's Revelations
/ translated from Middle English, with introduction, notes, and
interpretative essay [by] Julia Bolton Holloway ( Library of
medieval women). Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer,
2000. (xvi, 151 p.: maps)
LC#: BX4700 .B62 E5 2000; ISBN: 0859915891
Originally published: Newburyport, Mass.: Focus Information Group,
1992. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-146) and index
. Life from Latin of Johannis Johannis, Kalmar, 1397; text of
Princeton's Garrett ms. of Revelations.
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"They heed not how many thousands die."
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[From a vision of the judgment of an unjust king:]
Then I heard a voice out of the earth, of innumerable thousands, crying and saying, "O Lord God, rightful Judge, give your judgment upon our kings and princes, and take heed of the shedding of our blood, and behold the sorrows and weeping of our wives and children.
"Behold our hunger and our shame, our wounds and our imprisonments, the burning of our houses, and the violation of the chaste maidens and women. Behold the wrong done to churches and all the clergy. And see the false promises and deceits of kings and of princes, and the pillage that they wreak to them with violence and anger. For they heed not how many thousands die, so that they may spread abroad their pride." [Ch. 23, pp.94-95]
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"Write the things which you see,... tell them to such people
as you are ordered."
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[Mary tells Birgitta of the different kind of visionaries and of Birgitta's particular assignment:]
"I will tell you how understanding of spiritual visions is given to you; for the saints of God receive the holy Spirit in different ways. "For some of them know before the time when those things should happen which were shown to them, such as holy Prophets. Others knew before what end any battle should have, before they who should fight entered battle. Others knew in spirit what they should answer to persons who came to them when any thing was asked of them. Others knew whether they were dead or alive who were far from them.
"But it is not lawful for you to know other things, but to hear and see ghostly things, and to write the things which you see, and to tell them to such people as you are ordered. And it is not lawful for you to know whether they be alive or dead, to whom you are asked to write; or whether they will obey the counsels of your writing given to you from God in spiritual visions from him." [Ch.23, pp.96-97]
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[This biography by Bridget Morris is a good place to start. Morris presents what is known of Birgitta, using a broad range of sources. In the process, Morris translates many passages that are not available elsewhere in English and summarizes what she does not translate. The introduction clearly describes the rather complicated growth of Revelaciones; the bibliography will lead you to earlier studies:]
Morris, Bridget. St. Birgitta of Sweden (Studies in medieval
mysticism, 1465-5683; v.1). Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1999.
(xi, 202 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: BX4700 .B6 M65 1999; ISBN: 0851157270
Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-192) and indexes.
---------------------
[Claire L. Sahlin's study focuses on how Birgitta saw herself,
as revealed in Revelaciones, and how she was perceived
in her own time and in the following century. Sahlin gives her
own translation of many passages, with the original Latin in
the notes. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Sahlin, Claire L. Birgitta of Sweden and the voice of prophecy
(Studies in medieval mysticism; v. 3). Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester,
NY: Boydell Press, 2001. (xvi, 266 p.: ill.)
LC#: BX4700.B6 S24 2001; ISBN: 0851158218
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-256) and index
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[Katherine Zieman's essay in this collection, "Playing Doctor: St. Birgitta, Ritual Reading, and Ecclesiastical Authority," discusses Birgitta's creation of her authority, focusing on the work Sermo angelicus, which establishes Mary's role as teacher, "doctrix," and which by extension establishes Birgitta in a similar role. Zieman's essay is followed by a response from Margot E. Fassler, "Voices Magnified," which places the readings of Sermo angelicus in the wider context of the whole Bridgettine Office (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Voices in dialogue: reading women in the Middle Ages / Linda
Olson and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, editors. Notre Dame, Ind.: University
of Notre Dame Press, c2005. (xvii, 508 p.: ill.)
LC#: HQ1143 .V67 2005; ISBN: 0268037175
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
----------------------
[This collection includes Kari Elisabeth Borresen's essay,
"Religious Feminism in the Middle Ages: Birgitta of Sweden,"
which discusses both Birgitta's presentation of Mary (and of
herself) as an active partner in Jesus' work of salvation, and
the cautious ecclesiastical treatment of Revelaciones
during and after the process of Birgitta's canonization. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Maistresse of my wit: medieval women, modern scholars / edited
by Louise D'Arcens and Juanita Feros Ruys (Making the Middle
Ages; v. 7) . Turnhout: Brepols; Abingdon: Marston, 2004. (x,
384 p.)
LC#: HQ1143 .M34 2004; ISBN:2503511651
Includes bibliographical references and index
-----------------------
[Rosalynn Voaden's study includes a chapter on Birgitta; one
section of it (pp.93-108) is especially useful in showing how
Birgitta establishes her authority as a visionary in Revelaciones.
The book's first two chapters are a valuable review of medieval
thought on visions. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Voaden, Rosalynn. God's words, women's voices: the discernment
of spirits in the writing of late-medieval women visionaries.
Suffolk, UK; Rochester, N.Y.: York Medieval Press, 1999. (204
p.)
LC#:BV5091 .R4 V62 1999; ISBN:0952973421
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------------
[This second volume of Prudence Allen's study on the philosophy of gender includes a useful section (pp. 366-80; 428-37) on Birgitta's presentation of philosophical thought through analogy. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Allen, Prudence. The concept of woman. Volume 2, The early
humanist reformation, 1250-1500. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans
Pub., c2002. (xxiv, 1161 p.: ill.)
LC#: BD450 .A4725 2002; ISBN: 0802847358
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1091-1129) and index
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Updated 04-15-08