Saint Bridget of SwedenArticle Free Pass Saint Bridget of
Sweden, Bridget also spelled Birgit or Brigid, Swedish Sankta
Birgitta av Sverige (born c. 1303, Sweden—died July 23, 1373,
Rome [Italy]; canonized Oct. 8, 1391; feast day July 23,
formerly October 8), patron saint of Sweden, founder of the
Brigittines (Order of the Most Holy Savior), and a mystic whose
revelations were influential during the Middle Ages. In 1999
Pope John Paul II named her one of the patron saints of Europe.
The daughter of Birger Persson, governor of Uppland, she had
from an early age remarkable religious visions that influenced
her entire life and outlook. In 1316 she married Ulf Gudmarsson,
later governor of the province of Nericia, and bore eight
children, including St. Catherine of Sweden. On the death of her
husband in 1344, Bridget retired to a life of penance and prayer
near the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra on Lake Vetter. To the
prior, Peter Olafsson, she dictated the revelations that came to
her, and he translated them i