Bridget of Sweden and Maria Valtorta

St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), co-patroness of Europe

In her revelations to Saint Bridget of Sweden, Jesus called her "very dear spouse." This title, indicative of the mystical union she had attained, hints at a spiritual richness not necessarily reflected in her Autobiography. It was written by two of her confessors immediately after her death. The panegyric intent, in the style of the time, undoubtedly took the place of the intimate mystical approach so well described in the works of Maria Valtorta.

It is known that being the spouse of Christ has a price: "Crucified Bridegroom, I marry by crucifying" said Jesus to Mother AmElijah de Gibergues. This is the mark of the souls who are "co-redeemers" thanks to whom so many treasures of Heaven have become accessible to us. The gift of the work to Maria Valtorta is an illustration of this.

Bridget of Sweden and the other visionaries

The comparison between the two visionaries is not based on the historical value of the visions: in Bridget of Sweden, they are limited to a few major events (Nativity, Passion, etc.) and often imbued with apocryphal traditions popular at the time. Like Anne-Catherine Emmerich, Bridget did not write them herself but dictated them to her secretary confessors who translated them from Swedish into Latin. These intermediaries were no doubt detrimental to the integrity of the original visions.

The real parallel seems to us to be in the spiritual catechesis for the time. A troubled era that saw the papacy (7 popes, all French) migrate to Avignon (1309-1418) leaving Rome prey to the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. The general laxity, like the political troubles, which Bridget denounces, soon led to the Great Western Schism heralding those of the Reformation. It is in this period that St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) emerged, co-patroness of Europe with St. Bridget and, like her, known for her visions and advice to the popes.

Maria Valtorta also transmitted Heaven’s advice to Pope Pius XII. The dictations of Jesus to Maria Valtorta indeed occurred in a politically troubled and spiritually lax era: the "century of Satan" according to the vision that Leo XIII had on October 13, 1884. Jesus, by gifting a work intended to renew the proclamation of the Gospel (and not to announce a new one), confides to Maria Valtorta that He is gagged, as in His time, by the Pharisees (denial of mercy) and the Sadducees (denial of the supernatural) The Church here is understood as all believers in their universal dimension. Paul VI affirmed this painful observation on June 29, 1972: "Before the situation of the Church today, we have the feeling that through some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the people of God" and he added: "We believe in the action of Satan which is exercised today in the world".

In all these cases, the eternal Shepherd used His souls given to Him to teach, exhort, correct, recalling the immutable truths during these troubled periods.

Bridget’s visions were recorded in 8 books under the title "Celestial Revelations". Long dismissed and therefore ignored, these revelations regained interest in the 19th century. John Paul II, then Benedict XVI have fully recognized their value (cf. below "value of these revelations").

The life of Bridget of Sweden

St. Catherine of Sweden (1322-1381), one of the four daughters of St. Bridget

Bridget was born in 1303 into a noble and wealthy family, in Upland, at the castle of Finstad, not far from Uppsala, to the west of Sweden. She was the daughter of Birger Petersson (or Persson) and her mother was of Swedish royal lineage.

Barely fifteen years old, she was married to the seneschal Ulf Gudmarsson, who, like her, came from the very high Swedish nobility. In twenty-eight years of married life, they had eight children: four boys and four girls, including the future Saint Catherine of Sweden (1322-1381). The kinship of Saint Bridget of Sweden and her husband with the royal and princely families explains why they were appointed to important functions at the Court by the king and queen.

In 1335, she was indeed appointed by the young king Magnus, aged twenty and newly married to Blanche of Dampierre, as "hostess" of the court. Ulf, her husband, was appointed counselor to the young king. This socially elevated position seems to explain the "immunity" Bridget of Sweden enjoyed when, in her visions, she expressed reproaches about the impiety of priests or the worldly life of some popes. Mary of Ágreda, corresponding directly with the king of Spain, also benefited from the cautious diplomacy of the ecclesiastical authorities regarding such protection.

Pilgrimages, revelations, and establishment in Rome

In 1341, she made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with her husband Ulf. In 1344, Bridget became a widow and began to receive from Christ, the Virgin and the saints, prophetic visions and revelations which she dictated to her spiritual directors. These messages, later compiled under the title "Celestial Revelations," concern the Passion of Christ, but also the political and religious situation of her very troubled era.

It was in this context that she founded, in 1346, the Order of the Most Holy Savior and laid the first stone of the monastery of Vadstena in Sweden, where from the beginning about sixty nuns gathered.

Saint Bridget of Sweden wished to found a double monastery, one for men and the other for women, under the unique authority of the abbess assisted by a priest, following the model of Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou (France). But this project was not accepted by Pope Clement VI.

In 1349, she moved to Rome in anticipation of the Jubilee year. Bridget did not reject the Pope, who had gone to exile in Avignon. A new revelation indicated her mission: to bring the sovereign pontiff back to Rome. With harsh tones worthy of the prophets of the Old Testament, she wrote to successive popes to remind them of their duty.

In 1367, she believed she succeeded: Urban V returned to Rome, but left three years later.

Many places in Italy still saw her on pilgrimage, eager to venerate the relics of the saints. She visited Milan, Pavia, Assisi, Ortona, Bari, Benevento, Pozzuoli, Naples, Salerno, Amalfi, and the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel on Mount Gargano.

Her last pilgrimage, made between 1371 and 1372, shortly before her death (1373), took her to the Holy Land.

Death in Rome and legacy

Saint Bridget of Sweden died in Rome, where she had lived for twenty years, on July 23, 1373, at the age of 70, a rare longevity in the Middle Ages. Her coffin, escorted by her son Birger and her daughter Catherine, was brought back to her native country, to the abbey of Vadstena which she had founded nearly thirty years earlier. She was canonized as early as 1391 by Pope Boniface IX.

Saint Bridget of Sweden is particularly popular in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Poland, and Hungary. Even today, 700 years after their foundation, the "Brigittines" remain active in Rome, India, and Mexico.

Value of these revelations

John Paul II officially commented three times on the revelations of St. Bridget:

• On October 1, 1999, during the proclamation of St. Bridget of Sweden as co-patroness of Europe with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) by the motu proprio Spes Aedificandi. On this occasion, he situates the value of her revelations and their degree of recognition in a text which can quite well be applied to Maria Valtorta:

It is through the profound sense of the mystery of Christ and the Church that Bridget participated in the building of the ecclesial community, at a notably critical period in its history. Her intimate union with Christ was indeed accompanied by particular charisms of revelation which made her a point of reference for many persons of the Church of her time. One feels in Bridget the force of prophecy. Her tone sometimes seems an echo of that of the great ancient prophets. She speaks confidently to princes and popes, revealing God's designs on historical events. She spares no severe warnings even in matters of moral reform of the Christian people and the clergy themselves (cf. Revelationes, IV, 49; cf. also IV, 5). Certain aspects of her extraordinary mystical production raised, in her time, understandable questions, towards which the Church exercised discernment; it referred to the unique public revelation, which is fulfilled in Christ and normatively expressed in Sacred Scripture. Even the experiences of great saints, indeed, are not exempt from the limitations that always accompany man’s reception of the Voice of God. However, there is no doubt that by recognizing the holiness of Bridget, the Church, without pronouncing on the various revelations, affirms the overall authenticity of her interior experience. Bridget presents herself as a significant witness of the place that the charisma, lived in full docility to the Spirit of God and in total conformity with the demands of ecclesial communion, can hold in the Church.

Indeed, the authenticity of a private revelation is assessed by its capacity to be centered on Christ and to lead to the unique Revelation. This was later echoed by Benedict XVI in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini §14. John Paul II does not hesitate to use the term "revelations," which was actually used by the liturgy until its reform in 1962. The feast of St. Bridget was then fixed on October 8 and its collect. However, the feast of St. Bridget has been moved to July 23 and the latest official translations speak only of "meditations".

• On September 21, 2002, the pope emphasized the spiritual enrichment of the revelations where "many times, she learned from Mary the meaning of the mysteries of Christ" (Message to the General Abbess of the Order of the Most Holy Savior of Saint Bridget).

• On October 4, 2002, John Paul II again emphasized the qualities of St. Bridget that led her to the co-patronage of Europe (Ecumenical Vespers Celebration for the 7th Centennial of the Birth of Saint Bridget of Sweden).

The Benedict XVI, known for legislating on private revelations and ultimately giving his "nihil obstat" to those of Maria Valtorta (The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me), explains at length, during the General Audience of Wednesday, October 27, 2010, the nature and value of the revelations of St. Bridget. This text can be read thinking of those of Maria Valtorta.

"After the death of her husband, Bridget, having distributed her goods to the poor, never choosing religious consecration, settled in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra. It is there that the divine revelations began, which accompanied her for the rest of her life. These were dictated by Bridget to her secretary confessors [...]

The Revelations of Saint Bridget present very varied content and style. Sometimes, the revelation is presented as a dialogue among the Divine Persons, the Virgin, the saints, and also demons; dialogues in which Bridget also intervenes. Other times, it is the account of a particular vision; and others still narrate what the Virgin Mary reveals to her about the life and mysteries of her Son. The value of the Revelations of Saint Bridget, which were sometimes subject to some doubts, was clarified by the Venerable John Paul II in the letter Spes Aedificandi: By recognizing the holiness of Bridget, the Church, without pronouncing on the various revelations, affirmed the overall authenticity of her inner experience (n. 5).

Indeed, reading these Revelations, we are challenged on important themes. For example, there is frequently described, with very realistic details, the Passion of Christ, for which Bridget always had a special devotion, contemplating in it the infinite love of God for men. On the lips of the Lord who speaks to her, she boldly places these moving words: O my friends, I love so tenderly my sheep, that if it were possible, I would prefer to die as many times for each of them from the death I suffered for the redemption of all, rather than be deprived of them (Revelationes, Book I, c. 59). The sorrowful maternity of Mary, who made her the Mediatrix and Mother of mercy, is also a theme that often recurs in the Revelations.

Receiving these charisms, Bridget was aware of being the recipient of a great predilection gift from the Lord: Now you, my daughter — we read in the first book of the Revelations —, whom I have chosen for myself [...] love me with all your Heart [...] but above all things in the world'' (c. 1). Furthermore, Bridget knew well, and was firmly convinced, that each charism is intended to build up the Church. It is precisely for this reason that many of her revelations were addressed, in the form of sometimes severe warnings, to the believers of her time, including political and religious authorities, so that they might live their Christian life coherently; but she always did this with an attitude of respect and in full fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church, especially to the Successor of the Apostle Peter."

Benedict XVI, mastering the subject well, does not hesitate to speak of "divine revelations" which he knows how to contextualize and insert, with all their value, into the life of the Church.

First part of the Bible from the book of Genesis until before the coming of Jesus Christ. Parallel

Gift conferred by divine Grace for the common good.

Gift conferred by divine Grace for the common good.

Authority in matters of faith and morals exercised over the Catholic faithful by the pope and all bishops in communion with the pope.