Saint Bridget
SAINT BRIDGET
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“The Mystic of the North”, “ the Spokeswoman of God”: with these and other titles the gigantic figure of Bridget of Sweden imposes herself on our attention as a unique personality, powerful in the vehemence and incisiveness of the message of peace. Belonging to the royal family did not hinder her from climbing the mountain of holiness, evidenced mainly in the “Revelations”, a writing which has made her famous and which, for a correct understanding, must be read and judged in the light of her own life “unceasingly orientated towards God, spent in the study of the Bible, in prayer and meditation, in mysticism and mortification.” A deeply cultured and very practical woman, wife and mother of eight children, humble but bold pilgrim, counsellor to the highest Royalties of the time, she founded the Order which she dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour.
We find the Swedish Saint fully involved in events which six centuries later were to engage her spiritual heirs, namely, acting as “a bridge of unity between Rome and the noble Sweden, between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches of Northern Europe”, as Paul VI nicely described it. On the 7th October 1391 the Bull of Canonisation by Boniface IX declared Saint Bridget worthy of veneration in the Universal Church “for the glory of the true Faith … For the solution of the schism in the Church and for the unity of the Faith and of the Church”.
She is truly a Saint with European dimensions: since October 1999, together with Blessed Therese of the Cross and Saint Catherine of Siena, she is co-Patron Saint of Europe, a continent with common traditions, faith and history in spite of its various historical vicissitudes.
The Swedish Saint has worked hard for the unity of Christians. Her European dimension is recognised by the Catholics and Lutherans alike.
July 23rd feast of Saint Bridget Copatroness of Europe