"True wisdom, then, consists in works, not in great talents, which the world admires; for the wise in the world's estimation . . . are the foolish who set at naught the will of God, and know not how to control their passions." --Saint Brigit of Sweden.

Bridget was the daughter of Birger, the wealthy governor of Upland, Sweden, and his second wife, Ingeborg, the daughter of the governor of East Gothland. When Bridget was 12, her mother died, and she was raised by an aunt at Aspenaes on Lake Sommen. When she was 14, she was wedded to 18-year-old prince Ulf Gunmarsson. The fruit of their happy, 28-year marriage was eight children, including another saint, Karin or Catherine of Vadstena.

For several years she acted as the feudal lady on her husband's estate at Ulfasa, and, uncharacteristically for women of the period, she cultivated friendships with many erudite men. In 1335, she was summoned to be chief lady-in-waiting at the court of King Magnus Eriksson (Magnus II), who had married Blanche of Namur. Magnus was weak-willed and Blanche, rather frivolous. It was Bridget's duty to correct the lives of the immature king and queen.

Bridget's personal revelations, which were to make her famous later, were already guiding her opinions on subjects as varied as the necessity of washing, to the terms for peace between England and France. The court remained largely deaf to her suggestions and some whispered against her. Bridget became more preoccupied with her own family when her daughter made an unfortunate marriage and her youngest son, Gudmar, died in 1340.

The saint made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Olaf of Norway at Trondheim. When she returned to court, she renewed her efforts to guide the steps of the young royal couple. Still unsuccessful in this task, she begged leave and was given permission to make a pilgrimage with her husband to Santiago de Compostella.

On the way home, Ulf fell ill and received the last sacraments at Arras. He finally recovered as Bridget had foreseen in a vision of Saint Denis, and the couple vowed to devote their lives to God in religious houses. Ulf entered the Cistercian monastery at Alvastra, where he died in 1344. Bridget continued to live as a penitent at that double-monastery for another four years.

When her visions and revelations became frequent, she grew afraid that she might be imaging them all. After experiencing the same vision three times, she submitted them to Master Matthias, canon of Linkoeping. He pronounced her visions to be originated from God. From that point until her death, she submitted them to Peter, the prior of Alvastra, who copied them down in Latin.

A vision commanded her to go to court and warn Magnus of the judgment of God on his sins. She did so, denouncing the whole royal court in her warning. Magnus briefly changed his ways, and endowed a monastery, which Bridget, in response to a vision in 1344, planned to found at Vadstena on Lake Vattern.

The monastery provided for 60 nuns. There was a separate enclosure for monks, including 13 priests (in honor of the twelve apostles and Saint Paul), four deacons (representing the four great Latin Doctors of the Church), and eight choir brothers not in orders, totalling the number of the Lord's apostles and disciples (12 plus 72 or 84 in all).

Bridget prescribed a constitution, which was said to have been dictated to her by the Savior in a vision. The men were subject to the abbess of nuns in temporal matters, but the women were subject to the men in spiritual ones, the reason for which men were asked to join. The convents were separate, and while they used the same church, it was designed so that the men and women could not see one another. The community was named the Order of the Most Holy Savior, or the Bridgettines, as they came to be called.

Extra income from the monastery was given to the poor, and ostentatious buildings were forbidden. The religious were allowed to have as many books for study as they wished, however, and the monastery was to become the intellectual center of Sweden in the 15th century.

In 1349, Bridget travelled to Rome with her confessor, Peter of Skeninge, and others for the 1350 Jubilee even though no Pope in residence there. She hoped to obtain approval for the order. In Rome she settled down to devote herself to the poor, reform monasteries, and to lobby for the return of the pope to the city.

She is associated with the churches of Saint Paul's Outside-the- Walls and San Francesco a Ripa. In Saint Paul's, a crucifix of Cavallini is said to have spoken to her. In San Francesco a Ripa, she was visited by a vision of Saint Francis of Assisi. She took this to be an invitation to visit Assisi, which she did. Bridget toured the shrines of Italy for two years.

Her prophecies and revelations made reference to the prominent religious and political events of the day, both in Rome and in Sweden. She refused to support Magnus in his crusade against the pagans in Latvia and Estonia, saying it was an excuse for a marauding expedition. She wrote to Pope Clement VI telling him that a vision demanded that he return to Rome and that he secure peace between England and France. She prophesied that the pope and emperor would be able to meet peacefully in Rome. Like her contemporary, Saint Catherine of Siena, Bridget was famous for her criticism, even of popes.

In 1371, in response to another vision, she travelled on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with her daughter Karin, sons Charles (Karl) and Birger, Alphonsus of Vadaterra, and others. Her son Charles became involved with Queen Joanna I, who despite the fact that both were already married, wanted to marry him. Horrified, Bridget prayed ceaselessly for a resolution. It came when Charles was sickened by a fever and died in her arms a few weeks later. He had been one of her favorite children.

After the funeral, she went to Cyprus, grieving terribly. She nearly drowned in a shipwreck off Jaffa, but her journey to holy places was enriched by a series of comforting visions of things that had occurred there. She returned to Rome in 1373, but ailing. Bridget died after receiving the viaticum from her friend Peter of Alvastra. Her body was taken to Vadstena.

Bridget's visions were written in a book called Revelations.

Today there are only 12 Bridgettine convents left (Martindale, White).

In art, Saint Bridget is portrayed as a crowned Brigittine abbess with a cross on her brow, holding a book and a pilgrim's staff. She may also be shown writing with a pilgrim's attributes near her; as Christ and the Virgin appear while she is writing; reading, holding a cross, with builders in the background; in ecstasy before the crucifix with instruments of the Passion nearby; as a small child present at the Scourging of Christ (one of her revelations); as a nun with a cross on her brow witnessing the Birth of Christ (another revelation); enthroned, with Christ above her and hell below, she gives books to the emperor and kings; or giving a book to Saint Augustine (Roeder).

Bridget is the patron saint of Sweden (White).