Vadstena and Saint Bridget of Sweden

14th century: "My Mother’s monastery"

The Revelations of Saint Bridget (1303-1373) constitute a true story of Mary. In 1370, Bridget founded a male and female order in Vadstena. According to the Revelations she received, Jesus had called the monastery of Vadstena "My Mother’s monastery" [1].

The Abbess read a Marian thought every day, for example: "The conversation of the humble pleased me very much and I did not wish to rejoice outwardly of some privilege, because I had at heart all that concerned humility." 2]

Bridget's favorite hymn was the “Ave Maris Stella”

The abbey church of Vadstena soon became the most important shrine in Sweden, and the "Revelations" were known and appreciated throughout Christian Europe. Bridget's order, although cloistered, had an important spiritual, mystical and Marian influence.

16th century: Reformation and eclipse of the monastery

The introduction of Protestantism in Sweden by King Gustav I Vasa (1495-1560) greatly reduced that influence.

20th century: Renewal and ecumenism

Mother Elizabeth Esselblad (1870-1957) revived Bridget's order. Converted to Catholicism in 1902, she helped create a new attitude and Marian devotion among Lutherans toward Catholicism. The convents in Stockholm and Vadstena became ecumenical centers of national importance.

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[1] St Bridget, Revelations X, 4

[2] St Bridget, Revelations, VII, 21