St. Bridget of Sweden - Revelations of St. Bridget: On the Life and Passion of Our Lord and the Life of His Blessed Mother

REVELATIONS
OF ST. BRIDGET

St. Bridget of Sweden

REVELATIONS
OF ST. BRIDGET

ON THE

LIFE AND PASSION
OF OUR LORD

AND THE

LIFE OF HIS BLESSED MOTHER

At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last. from the Stabat Mater

TAN Books

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.TANBooks.com

The Revelations of St. Bridget were examined by the learned divine, John de Torquemada, later a Cardinal, and approved as being doctrinally conformable to the true Faith.

This book of excerpts was translated from the 1611 Antwerp edition of the Revelations of St. Bridget. This book of excerpts was published by Academy Library Guild, Fresno, California; republished in 1965 by Apostolate of Christian Action, Fresno, California. Re-typeset and published in 2015 by TAN Books.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 8351547

ISBN: 0895552337

EISBN: 978-1-61890-728-8

Typography is the property of TAN Books and may not be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

CONTENTS

St. Bridget of Sweden, also known as St. Birgitta, was born in June of 1303 in Finsta, in the province of Uppland, Sweden. She was the fifth child of Birger Persson, a knight and governor, and Ingeborg Bengstdotter, both parents being just and devout and of noble lineage.

Mysterious prophecies attended Bridgets birth. Ingeborg narrowly escaped drowning not long before Bridget was born, and afterwards an angel appeared and told her she had been saved because of the child to be born to her. The angel added, Bring her up in the love of God, for she is His gift to you.

As a child, Bridget did not speak until she was three years old, but when she did begin to speak it was more perfectly than is usual for children of that age. At age seven she saw her first heavenly vision: a beautiful lady offered her a precious crown; when Bridget accepted it, it was placed on her head so that she felt its touch. When she was ten years old she had another vision, a vision of Christ crucified, with blood flowing from His wounds.

Bridget was eleven years old when her mother died. She was then sent to live with her aunt, the Lady Katherine. When Bridget was thirteen years old, her father chose a husband for hera young man of eighteen named Ulf, rich, noble and wise. Bridgets heart had long since belonged to God, and looking back on this time years later, she said, I would rather have died than marry! Yet she accepted her fathers choice as the will of God. She loved Ulf and lived her married life to the full.

At Bridgets request, she and Ulf lived in continence for one to two years, praying that if they came together carnally God would give them children who would serve Him and never displease Him. Bridget bore eight children, one of whom was to become St. Katherine of Sweden, also called St. Karin. St. Bridget brought her children up with great care; she was a gracious hostess to her many guests, and she practiced much penance and many works of charityincluding tending the sick and reclaiming girls who had fallen into sin. She also spent six years as advisor and chief lady-in-waiting at the court of King Magnus II and Queen Blanche of Sweden and Norway.

When her husband died about the year 1343, St. Bridget increased her fasts and prayer vigils and dressed in poor garmentsbelow those of her social rank. Her revelations became frequent. God made known to her that He had chosen her to be His bride and to give His warnings and messages to many people. He also revealed to her His will that she found the Religious Order of Our Most Holy Saviour (now commonly called the Bridgettines), which was to give a special honor to His Blessed Mother.

St. Bridget was told to go to Rome for the Holy Year of 1350. The Pope at that time was living in Avignon, France, and it was St. Bridgets missionby pleading, prayer, and sufferingto try to bring him back to his rightful place at Rome.

Bridget lived in Rome for over twenty years. She performed many miracles. Her daughter Katherine joined her there, and together they worked among both rich and poor, showing to all an inexhaustible love. St. Bridget was remembered as homely and kind, and as having a smiling face. She died on July 23, 1373 and was canonized in 1391. The Pope declared her Patron Saint of Sweden in 1396.

To many of His saints, who meditated so devoutly and so affectionately on His Life and Passion, Our Blessed Lord has been pleased to exhibit them more clearly. Where supported by the recognized sanctity of the individual and the absence of delusion, the Church has permitted their circulation as useful and edifying, and many have in all ages had a certain weight with the faithful. It is not easy to explain what that weight is, except by saying that the use and influence of these revelations is purely devotional.

Among the revelations of canonized saints and other holy personages, none have exercised a wider influence, or been more frequently cited, than those of St. Bridget; and to make accessible to the English reader writings of which he has heard from childhood, we have selected from the old Latin folio such as bear on the Life and Passion of Our Lord and the life of His Blessed Mother, in the hope that they may increase the readers love for both.

Nothing is more famous in the life of St. Bridget, says the learned Alban Butler, than the many revelations with which she was favored by God, chiefly concerning the sufferings of Our Blessed Saviour, and revolutions which were to happen in certain kingdoms. It is certain that God, who communicates Himself to His servants in many ways with infinite condescension, and distributes His gifts with infinite wisdom, treated this great saint and certain others with special marks of His goodness, conversing frequently with them in a most familiar manner, as the devout Blosius observes. Sometimes He spoke to them in visions, at other times He discovered to them hidden things by supernatural illustrations of their understandings, or by representations raised in their imaginations so clearly that they could not be mistaken in them; but to distinguish the operations of the Holy Ghost and the illusions of the enemy requires great prudence and attention to the just criteria or rules for the discernment of spirits. Nor can any private revelations ever be of the same nature, or have the same weight and certainty with those that are public, which were made to the prophets to be by them promulgated to the Church, and confirmed to men by the sanction of miracles and the authority of the Church.

The learned divine, John de Torrecremata [Torquemada], afterwards Cardinal, by order of the Council of Basil [Basle], examined the book of St. Bridgets revelations, and approved it as profitable for the instruction of the faithfulwhich approbation was admitted by the Council as competent and sufficient. However, it amounts to no more than a declaration that the doctrine contained in that book is conformable to the orthodox faith, and the revelations piously credible upon an historical probability. The learned Cardinal Lambertini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIV, writes upon this subject as follows: The approbation of such revelations is no more than a permission that, after a mature examination, they may be published for the profit of the faithful. Though an assent of Catholic faith be not due to them, they deserve a human assent according to the rules of prudence, by which they are probable and piously credible, as the revelations of Blessed Hildegardis, St. Bridget, and St. Catherine of Siena.

The revelations of St. Bridget, as taken down by her confessors, were printed as early as 1492, and many subsequent editions have appeared. The following translations are made from the Antwerp edition of 1611, and are probably the first in English of any part of her revelations, although the Angelical Discourse, or Office of Our Lady, was printed at London, by Caxton, the first English printer.

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