Birgitta of Sweden (also called Bride and Bridget) was born to aristocratic parents and married at the age of 13.  The marriage yielded 8 children, but after a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the couple took a vow of chastity.  Birgitta also manifested her religious preoccupations by upbraiding power figures whose actions were inconsistent with Christianity, especially at the Swedish court where she had been a lady-in-waiting.
After her husband’s death, Birgitta increased her self-discipline, fasting, eschewing fine clothes, and undertaking penances.  She also experienced many visions whose authenticity she doubted.  She sought the advice of the canon of Linkoepking, and he attested to their validity.  Thereafter, Birgitta wrote down her visions in Swedish, eventually to be compiled and translated into Latin and other languages.  Birgitta’s visions sometimes addressed political and social issues, (messages which she transmitted to various powerful figures, including Pope Clement VI) as well as instructing her on the founding of the Bridgettine order.  (Her monastery became the intellectual center of 15th-century Sweden).
	She eventually made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where she had visions of the religious events that had occurred there.  She died in Rome.

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Two portraits of Bridget writing

St. Bridget at the Nativity (far right)

Woodcut of Bridget