Catherine of Sweden

CONCERNING S. CATHERINE OF SWEDEN, DAUGHTER OF S. BRIDGET, AT VADSTENA IN SWEDEN,

YEAR 1381.

Preliminary Commentary.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

§ I. Feast day, sacred veneration, memorial in the Martyrology.

[1] Catherine, distinguished by her piety toward her living mother, and by her reverence toward her after death, and to be set before all daughters as an example in both duties, could also serve as a proof of faith that the reward for both merits would be divinely received. For she set aside the love of a most dear husband and homeland for her mother's comfort and assistance, For piety toward her holy mother, as a companion of her holy pilgrimages and labors for twenty-four years; and she spent all the remaining years of her life in so great a zeal to amplify the honor of the deceased, that she died in the business of promoting her canonization, and seemed to have departed this life so that she might more efficaciously accomplish from heaven what, with the affairs of the Church in turmoil, she had almost despaired of on earth. The same was made a participant in the graces divinely bestowed on her mother, both in life and as sole heir in death: she merited to become illustrious in virtue and miracles, and she found God equally wonderful for the glorification of his name, as she herself had been zealous to bring to light the great deeds by which the same God had wished it to be proven that S. Bridget should be numbered among the saints. For here he wisely provided that for writing the Life of S. Catherine, while those who had known and accompanied her in life were still living, a suitable writer should be obtained even by miracle; and when enough time had already elapsed since Bridget was solemnly enrolled among the Saints to firmly establish her veneration throughout the entire North, around the year 1474 she is proposed for canonization: after the middle of the fifteenth century he began to glorify the name of Catherine with such wonders of miracles, that the Council of the Swedish nation, celebrated at Arboga around the year 1474, decreed that the Roman Pontiff should be petitioned for her canonization.

[2] That Pontiff at that time was Sixtus IV, under whom we dare not conjecture that any progress was made in the cause. But his successor

Innocent VIII, Innocent VIII grants the Brigittines her feast, who, created Pope in the year 1484, held the See until the year 1492, granted to the Religious of the Order of S. Augustine, under the name of the Holy Savior, instituted by S. Bridget and established by her daughter Catherine, the faculty by a special Bull, that throughout all the kingdoms and bishoprics in which monasteries of the said Order existed, her feast should be celebrated with the Office and Mass such as are customarily recited for Holy Virgins: as the author is Fr. Hilarion of S. Anthony, a Discalced Augustinian, in the Italian Life of this Saint, which he published at Naples in the year 1641, treating the deeds of mother and daughter together at great length. He adds, moreover, that in the two monasteries of this Order which are the only ones among the Italians, the feast is celebrated on different days. as they do on March 26, on which she was buried; For at Florence indeed, in the convent called Porta Paradisi, it takes place on March 26; which is established as the day of her deposition, inasmuch as it was the day after the Annunciation of the Lord: but at Genoa, where the convent is called Scala Coeli, on the 25th of July: which the same Order follows in Belgium; and July 25, which we suspect was the day of the solemn elevation of her body, and, since the former was more frequently impeded by the mysteries of the Lord's Passion or Resurrection to be commemorated, was deemed more opportune.

[3] In the Appendix indeed to the Acts soon to be given, at number 68, her bones are said to have been elevated, some years after her death having passed, on account of laying the foundations for the pillars of the church; on which perhaps they were elevated, but regarding the day on which the elevation was made, as is commonly known, nothing is said there: which, if it was done solemnly, the translation of those same sacred bones must have been even more solemn, after the building of the new structure was completed. And perhaps neither was left without an annual commemoration. or translated: For in the Proper Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden, at the petition of the Most Serene Sigismund III, King of Sweden and Poland, recognized and approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites with Apostolic authority, and permitted to be recited throughout all of Poland also, which we have published by the Plantin press in the year 1631, the Commemoration of S. Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of S. Bridget, is prescribed to be made on August 2: elsewhere the commemoration is on August 21. but the principal feast under the rite of a double is proposed for March 23, with proper lessons drawn from the Life, and this prayer: O God, who adorn your Church with the illustrious merits of Blessed Catherine the Virgin, and gladden it with glorious miracles: Feast on March 23, Office, grant to us your servants, that we may be reformed for the better by her examples, and protected by her patronage from all adversities.

[4] We have a most ancient Votive Missal, printed around the beginning of printing without year or place of printing, which the index of Masses for new Saints shows to belong to the kingdom of Sweden: and in a Swedish Missal, the first of which is for the Patrons of the kingdom or province or diocese in common, for whom the Sunday nearest after the Octave of the Apostles is commonly held as sacred: and this Mass is followed by ten others for the proper Saints of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; among which S. Bridget occupies the eighth place, and has her name on the 7th of October in the Calendar, as having been canonized already from the year 1391: but after the honor of the Ecclesiastical Office was communicated to her daughter Catherine, there was added at the end of the book, a proper manuscript Mass. in an ancient hand and character attributable to the times of Innocent VIII, a proper Mass under this collect: Lord Jesus Christ, who out of the abundance of charity wondrously declared Catherine, beloved by you, as an example to the faithful by the holiness of her manner of life: by her merits and intercession, make us serve you with devout conduct and pleasing behavior. Then after the Epistle a Gradual is subjoined, such as is customarily recited for the Common of Virgins outside the times of Lent and Easter, and this Sequence.

[6] The first to inscribe the name in the Martyrology was Molanus: She began to be inscribed in Martyrologies by Molanus on the 22nd, but when he had read in her Life this conclusion: The Venerable Lady Catherine died in the monastery of Vadstena in the year of the Lord 1381, on the 11th day before the Kalends of April, a Sunday, namely on the eve of the Annunciation of the Lord, and on the morrow of the same was honorably buried. When, I say, Molanus had read these things, he did not observe that from the two most certain indicators of the day of Sunday and the eve of the Annunciation, an evident slip of the pen became apparent, by which the 11th was written instead of the 9th day before the Kalends of April; and following this erring number, in his additions to Usuard on March 22 he thus wrote: Of Catherine the widow, daughter of Blessed Bridget, but afterwards more correctly on March 24. whom Urban VI canonized, adding in the annotations that the Life had been printed at Rome with the revelations of her mother Bridget: but having read the deeds of both more carefully, he corrected the errors of this first edition, and in the second of the year 1573 he thus rewrote at March 24: In the monastery of Vadstena, of S. Catherine, Abbess, daughter of Blessed Bridget.

[7] Surius committed the same error of inadvertence; and Baronius, following Surius alone, whom he cites without further examination, wrote in the Roman Martyrology at March 22: In Sweden, of S. Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget. Urban VI did not canonize her, Neither Baronius nor those who edited later editions of Surius inspected the second edition of Molanus, nor did Fr. Hilarion and other authors, who understood the last words of the first edition as though Molanus were saying that S. Catherine had been canonized by Urban VI: whereas Molanus should be believed to have directed those words to Blessed Bridget, for whose canonization he had read that her daughter Catherine had pleaded at length before the same Pope; and perhaps he believed that even after Catherine's departure the business had been completed at Rome by the same Urban: although in fact he did not accomplish the matter; but left it so arranged and prepared that, once the republic was at peace, Boniface IX could easily proceed to it. In the time of the latter, moreover, when the care of all the Orders was for the mother to be exalted with fitting honors, it does not seem that there was yet any thought of writing the Life of the daughter, however holy, much less of collecting and receiving miracles performed at her invocation, even compelled to dismiss the cause of S. Bridget itself: since they were then either nonexistent or rare. Moreover, how could it seem probable that a Pontiff, from whom a recent schism arising in the Church had taken away all leisure from deciding the cause of the holy mother, who had died so long before and was more familiarly known to him; that the same Pontiff in the cause of the daughter, recently deceased (if indeed any report of her death reached him at all), should have wished to prejudge anything before it was duly investigated by the Bishops of Sweden and brought before his tribunal?

[8] Setting aside Urban VI, therefore, we can more safely believe Fr. Hilarion in that which he says about Pope Innocent: namely that this Pontiff, What prevented Innocent VIII from doing this? having learned of the cause of S. Catherine, in the same year in which it was presented to him, promised that he would canonically define it on Christmas Day. But with the Romans pressing that he canonize Blessed Frances of Rome and that he give her precedence over Blessed Catherine; both this one and that one were set aside, and nothing else was done beyond what we said about the feast being permitted to the Swedes and the Order: for with these agree both the time of the miracles authentically collected for that end, and what we reported at the Life of S. Frances of Rome, number 182, from the monuments of the Vatican library, that under that very Pope in the year 1487 all things had been prepared for the canonization of Blessed Frances, to the point that even the order to be observed by the ministers of the Church and Curia in that solemnity had been described.

§ II. The Acts and miracles of S. Catherine written down.

[9] What Molanus asserted about the Life of S. Catherine, printed at Rome after the Revelations of her mother, is an edition entirely unknown to us Life, whether printed at Rome before the year 1568: of which he speaks: for the most ancient Nuremberg edition, at the press of Anthony Kobergum in the year 1521, entirely lacks it. It was also unknown to Aloysius Lipomanus, collecting and publishing the Lives of Saints in Italy and even at Rome around the fiftieth year of that century. Indeed Lawrence Surius, in the very year in which Molanus had his augmented Usuard printed, 1568, having the Lives of Saints of March printed, and among them this very Life of S. Catherine (rendered by himself somewhat more compendiously, to avoid prolixity and lest the rather crude style offend the learned reader), seems to have been unaware of such an edition, as also was Baronius, writing at Rome in the year 1584. Finally Gonzalez Durantus, Bishop of Montefeltro, who in the year 1628 published the same Revelations given from the edition of the year 1628, in two volumes, recognized from Vatican manuscripts and illustrated with notes, declares in the last of them that there have been added the Lives and many miracles of SS. Bridget and Catherine her daughter, published by Blessed Bridget, which have been lacking in the printed codices up to now: however since only the miracles can be understood to have been lacking hitherto, we do not wish to undermine Molanus's credibility on this point, as long as the earlier Roman edition lies hidden, that some such edition had appeared before being rendered plausible to that extent by the cited words of Gonzalez, insofar as it is credible that the revelations were printed not only at Nuremberg but also elsewhere and especially in Italy.

[10] Whatever the case, we give the Life from the Gonzalez edition: which we found to be the same in Part 2 of the Legend (as Molanus calls it, in respect of that which is commonly called the Lombardic history) also existing elsewhere, printed at Louvain in the year 1485; but with a few lines omitted at the beginning, with this beginning: Concerning this Virgin Catherine it is said that while she was still in the cradle of this mortal life. In the same way also begins the manuscript codex of the Wilhelmites of Hubergen near Berg aan Zoom, formerly of the Convent of Porta Coeli of 's-Hertogenbosch, written around the same times. In both an appendix of some miracles is added, but different from that which is found in the Roman edition, with an appendix of few miracles: and also from the much more prolix Holmian one, whence we give it here, augmented from the Roman by the last miracle, and in the annotations collated with other codices: so that we may show that it seems to have been written by several persons, or at least at different times, and by a different person than the one from whom we have the Life, praised by Surius as not by a very certain author, but nonetheless faithfully written.

[11] So that this author might be certain and known to us, John Vastovius the Goth, Canon of Warmia, accomplished this in his work, its author Ulpho, published at Cologne in the year 1623, to which he gave the title Vitis Aquilonia, comprising the Lives of Saints who illustrated the kingdoms of the Goths and Swedes by their deeds: among which he has the Life of S. Catherine, contracted from that of Surius, and after other things about Ulpho, a monk of the Order of S. Bridget, subjoins the following from the authentic

codex, of which more below; Ulpho, when as a young man he had undergone a shipwreck, together with John Gerechini (afterwards Archbishop of the See of Uppsala and a glorious exile on the Icelandic island for ecclesiastical liberty, and indeed according to some a generous Martyr in the year 1432), and had clung to a plank for forty days, saved by a miracle, tossed by the waves and destitute of all food; he vowed that if his life were preserved, he would enter the Order of S. Bridget at Vadstena.

[12] After the vow was made, a certain fisherman of Copenhagen in the kingdom of Denmark is warned by a voice sent from heaven to go out to catch fish, and by his vow becomes a Brigittine monk, specially reserved for him. He immediately leaping into his boat, obeys the divine instructions: and behold, the vessel having been drawn a little way from shore, he sees from afar two men sitting upon a certain piece of the ship, and being tossed here and there by the winds: and the thought came to him that these were the very fish singularly reserved for him, according to the voice divinely made to him. Ulpho therefore, having been preserved in life, mindful of the saying, "Vow and render," betook himself to Vadstena and gave his name to the Religious life. Having put off the old man and put on the new, he was most observant of monastic discipline, fought incessantly with the weapons of prayer, protected by the shield of faith against the lurking enemy.

[13] It happened not long after that a certain nun of Vadstena, Benedicta daughter of Gunno, obliged by a similar vow to write, was detained by a grave illness for many years, and was often fortified with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction when near death. She, not unaware of the purity and sanctity of Ulpho her Confessor, earnestly asked him to make some vow for the recovery of her health. Ulpho vowed that he would diligently collect and write the life and miracles of S. Catherine of Vadstena, if through her intercession the sick woman should be somewhat relieved of her illness: upon which being said, without delay the force of the disease abated. But Ulpho, although he perceived what had happened; yet by some negligence, not sufficiently mindful of his vow, was thinking of anything rather than of the Life and miracles of the Saint: wherefore the illness began to grow worse in the Virgin more than usual, until Ulpho, recognizing his negligence, fulfilled the vow he had made with full sincerity of will, wrote the Life and miracles with the utmost fidelity, and the sick woman was restored to her former health; and having been made Abbess, she presided over that same monastery for twenty-five years.

[14] and long after dies a holy death in the year 1433. But Ulpho, relaxing nothing of his accustomed austerity of life, set an example before all: for sixteen years he never rested by lying down, but in a certain seat, religiously preserved in his memory to our times, he spent the time necessary for sleep by sitting: so great a man of spirit and contemplation was he. By devoting himself to prayer he merited to see choirs of Angels, and at the elevation of the Host he often confessed to seeing Christ in the form of a child. Now mature in age, when he celebrated the first conventual Mass on Christmas night at cockcrow, the day of his death was divinely revealed to him: which he also predicted before certain of his fellow ministers and spiritual friends; and so he most happily completed the race of life, in the year of salvation one thousand four hundred and thirty-three, on the Saturday of the Ember days in Advent, that is the 19th of December, the Dominical letter being D.

[15] How, moreover, S. Catherine herself deigned to encourage her writer to the continuation of the work he had begun will be read in the appendix, but he wrote from the account of contemporary witnesses where the aforementioned miracle of the healed nun is described more fully, and that with such modesty of words as to suggest that the author himself, thinking and speaking humbly of himself, wrote those things: although we do not doubt that other parts of the same appendix were added by another hand: for that that Brother (namely Ulpho) is said to have taken pains to investigate the Life and miracles, and thus long before the appendix was written: and especially about the persons who had adhered to her familiarly in the city of Rome: and writing down what he had heard at discontinued intervals, for nearly two years having indulged the sluggishness of his mind, had delayed completing the history of the glorious Lady Catherine: by the last words indeed is given to be known the humility of his soul, candidly acknowledging its faults: but by the former it is signified that the Life was written before certain miracles related in the appendix occurred, namely at that time when many were still living who had been familiar to the Saint herself while she lived.

[16] among the contemporaries was Catherine the Tartar. Among whom without doubt was that Catherine who, born of pagan parents and brought to Naples as a slave, and given by the Queen as a gift to S. Catherine of Vadstena, received her name in baptism, and being led by her to Vadstena, there under the monastic rule she became illustrious with manifold ornaments of virtues: until she exchanged earthly things for heavenly, in the year of the Lord 1414, on November 20: when the priest Catilbernus, a man of upright life, saw her soul, like a most brilliant star, ascending to the heights; warned in spirit that this one whom he saw being carried to heaven was the daughter of a Prince of the Tartars, a glory that had befallen no one else in those parts. So Vastovius, page 141, from the authentic codex, as he says, of the examination of the Life and miracles of S. Catherine of Vadstena, which is preserved in the royal library of the castle of Cracow, and for which to be transcribed for us we acted through letters with the Superior of our House there, most devoted to studies and our work: but we received the answer that a very recent incursion of enemies had caused nothing of that library to be found any longer in the said castle.

[17] To the Life written by Ulpho we subjoin the miracles, for whose reception, nearly ninety years after the death of the Saint herself, Miracles authentically collected after 90 years when the Supreme Pontiff was to be petitioned for the canonization of the same Saint, Bishop Henry of Linköping appointed Commissioners; the commentary composed by whom, together with all the other authentic attestation, was found printed at Stockholm after the Life, and was transcribed from there in the year 1634 by Fr. Paul Holstein, a Brigittine of Marieholm, and offered in the year 1647 to the Fathers and Brothers professing the Order of the Holy Savior at Montesolis or at Aquae Marianae: from whom the document itself reached us, which we here faithfully present.

[18] The last to write the Life of S. Catherine was the already mentioned Fr. Hilarion: Italian Life, who, ending the second part of it with miracles, thus concludes: Nor do I wish to omit here that which happened to me myself and rightly seemed to have some appearance of a miracle. When I had applied myself to writing this history, I gave it the title which it still retains: The Miraculous Life and Death of S. Catherine. When this had soon been printed and I began to review the first pages, a just scruple entered my mind, lest perhaps that title should not agree with the truth; since in the course of the composition itself I had found few miracles up to that point. Therefore fearing a just censure on this account, and afraid lest the title should seem improper to anyone, I began to ask the Saint herself to furnish me with whatever knowledge of herself and her marvels she could. in which miracles from the Process of Canonization. And she did: for soon from the Reverend Mothers of the monastery of Scala Coeli in Genoa, divinely inspired perhaps, at whose request I had undertaken the writing, I received an old manuscript which they kept in their archive, containing the process formed and approved for the canonization of the Saint: in which Francis Patalamius of Padua, Doctor of both Laws as well as of Theology, Auditor of the causes of the Sacred Palace, proves by eight most solid arguments that she is worthy of such honor: and among these miracles hold the last place, which I took care to render faithfully into the Italian language. So says he, whose information having prompted us, we endeavored to obtain that very Process from Genoa: but from there too we received the answer that no memory of the said manuscript remained there; so that it is likely it remained with Fr. Hilarion, through the excessive simplicity of those Virgins, who did not know how greatly such authentic documents should be valued, destined as they are to carry credibility above all other writings even after the passage of many centuries.

LIFE By Ulpho, a monk of the same era and of the Brigittine Order in the monastery of Vadstena.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

BHL Number: 1710, 1711, 1712

BY ULPHO

CHAPTER I

Catherine's education, her virginal marriage, her remarkable humility.

[1] Daughter of S. Bridget and Ulpho The venerable and God-beloved Catherine was the daughter of the noble man Lord Ulpho Gudmarson and his wife Bridget, whose praise is proclaimed in the Church. These from their holy marriage begot not only for the world but for God eight children. Catherine (of whom the narrative is undertaken), the fourth in order of birth, divine providence, as the middle one, more eminent than their other children in virtues and the integrity of her character, brought into this light. While she was still in the cradle of this mortal life, she refuses to nurse from an unchaste nurse: divine grace showed signs of her future sanctity and purity. For being handed over to a nurse's office, she abhorred nursing from her breasts on account of her unchaste and wanton life (as is probably conjectured): but she drank without horror from the breasts of her holy mother and of certain continent women: rejecting the milk of the incontinent like wormwood, with tears and wailing. For it was fitting that she who was wholly to be dedicated to divine service should, in the manner of the Nazarites, not eat anything unclean from her mother's womb.

[2] After she was weaned, therefore, her holy mother, anxious about the education of her daughter, entrusted her to a certain Abbess of devout and holy reputation at Riseberg, to be raised in holy ways. entrusted to the Abbess of Riseberg But the devil, persecutor of innocence, who always strives to extinguish good beginnings, attacked the sleeping girl, while the Abbess was keeping vigil in devout prayers, in the form of a charging bull, and hurling her from her bed with its horns, left her half dead on the pavement. But the Abbess, hearing the girl's dreadful groaning, ran with all speed and placed her, as though dead, in her bosom. To whom the devil, appearing again in horrible form, said: How gladly I would have killed her, if I had been permitted by God! In the seventh year of her age, indeed, she began the demon attempts to kill her: on a certain occasion, led by her peers, to engage in playing with dolls, and lest the vanity of such games, which in most young people subverts the stability of the mind, should also dissolve her innocent spirit; by the permission of the merciful God, who allows every son whom he receives to be scourged, it happened that the following night, after she had engaged in such play, she saw in a dream many unclean spirits entering her bedroom in the form of dolls, who, throwing her from her bed, beat her with scourges, she is deterred from the vanity of play. so much that the next day she appeared bruised all over her body. Whence afterwards, with the cooperation of his grace who with the temptation provides also the way of escape, she perfectly abandoned all occasion of dissolution and the vanity of games: no longer mixing herself with players of any kind, indeed conducting herself with a certain maturity against the slack and wayward tendency of that age.

[3] Moreover, attaining marriageable age, with the confidence which she always had in God and the glorious Virgin Mary about preserving her chastity, married to Egard obedient to her father's will, she consented to marriage with the noble man Lord Egard. When the day of the nuptials came, and in the secrecy of the bridal chamber

they remained alone, that virgin devoted to God and the Blessed Virgin, by her holy exhortations bent her spouse to a vow of chastity; with the cooperation of him who is the infuser of all purity and chaste counsel into the minds of the elect. And so, the vow of perpetual chastity between them having been confirmed with oaths, she leads him to vow chastity; tenderly loving one another in the Lord, under secular display they deceived the enemy of purity with a certain holy cunning. And how pleasing to God their vow was, is clear from the following indication, worthy of being related. For while her husband, always devout to God, was hunting a certain doe with hounds in the manner of nobles, it happened that the Lady Catherine was by chance being conveyed by vehicle along the road of that same wood on her own business, to whom the doe, exhausted in its headlong course before the hounds, how pleasing this was to God is shown by a miracle, setting aside all wildness, as though to a singular refuge, most meekly reclined its head in the lap of the chaste woman, who had cut off bestial impulses in herself. And when the aforesaid Lady Catherine was asked by her husband and others pursuing the beast, she showed it hiding under her cloak, humbly supplicating for it, that he would grant her captive (meaning the beast) its liberty. When he readily agreed, the beast made for the woods, and they for their part rejoiced greatly in the Lord and were consoled, giving thanks to him who tames wild beasts and makes them gentle.

[4] And lest the domestic enemy, namely the flesh, should rise up, after nocturnal vigils in devout prayers and genuflections, Both live in great austerity they were accustomed to sleep on the floor of their chamber, having one covering blanket and a pillow under their heads; in no way altering their abstinence in wintertime; because the more comforts they abandoned for God's sake, the more they were warmed by the fire of divine love. For that venerable Lady often endeavored with words of exhortation to instill in the mind of her devout husband the maternal exercises of virtues and penance: which she as a young woman had seen in her mother S. Bridget, and had learned from others, and abstinence, desiring to be likewise conformed in these. Hence they joined fasting to vigils and holy prayers, so that they might flourish in all the virtues of the soul, so that the flesh, subjected to the soul, might fittingly serve as a handmaid to her mistress. They therefore embraced equally, for the love of God and their own salvation, abstinence, which is very commendable; restraining themselves not only from unlawful things, but even from lawful and permitted ones: knowing that abstinence prolongs life, preserves chastity, appeases God, vanquishes demons, illuminates the understanding, strengthens the mind, subdues vices, overcomes the flesh, and draws and inflames the very body toward the love of God.

[5] Happy, therefore, was this marriage, which not the wantonness and lasciviousness of the flesh had made two hearts one, a wonderful example of conjugal chastity: but the love which is in Christ Jesus had bound them with chaste embraces by the glue of charity. Happy their marriage, who strove as far as possible to imitate the most holy virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph, out of regard for and love of divine mercy. For in their days they were like two lilies, sweetly fragrant in the Lord's garden and in the matrimonial state, having the splendor of chastity before the Lord, the inspector of all, and before their neighbor, through the examples and exercises of virtues, most sweetly redolent with the reputation of good fame. in which detected by her brother Charles Whence certain members of their household, unfamiliar with such unusual abstinence and spiritual life, detracted them as vain and superstitious before Lord Charles, the brother of Lady Catherine. Who, having seized the opportunity, secretly entering their bedroom, found them not as spouses pursuing carnal delights, but like devout Religious clothed in woolen and rough tunics, sleeping separately on the floor, having left the delicate bed. Upon which the aforesaid Lord Charles, being less wise in the things of the spirit, they patiently endure his mockery. reproached Lord Egard and his wife, his own sister, as superstitious and foolish. But they, enduring the descending rains of rebukes, the coming floods of detraction, and the blowing winds of mockery with equanimity, did not in the least fall from their foundation of the resolution of chastity and abstinence; for they were established upon the stable foundation of holy perseverance.

[6] Catherine is studious of humility But because purity of the flesh does not suffice unless purity of the mind also follows, with true humility to the glory of God (for just as purity of the flesh is immunity from the pollution of men, so humility is immunity from the pollution of demons; for demons mingle with souls and corrupt them through pride, just as men corrupt bodies through lust) therefore this venerable Lady strove to have the safeguard of humility for her chastity. She also began gradually to set aside garments distorted from the ancient and praiseworthy custom of the country, she puts aside womanly adornment: in which especially the noble women of modern times are accustomed to indulge; nor did she desist from the observance of humility and the honest custom of her country on account of detraction and mockery. By her example many noble women, her companions and relatives, abandoned their showy garments and superfluous ornaments of the country.

[7] Among whom was a noble Lady, the wife of her aforesaid brother Lord Charles, which Charles's wife also imitates, who, although she at first stubbornly resisted her counsels and examples, was yet by a special oracle of divine visitation converted to a better order of life. For it happened in the city of Kalmar, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, while the Venerable Lady Catherine was standing in prayer together with her brother's wife before an image of the Blessed Virgin; it happened, I say, that that Lady, the wife namely of the aforesaid Lord Charles, fell slightly asleep: and it seemed to her reproved by the Blessed Virgin that the Blessed Virgin regarded Lady Catherine, her husband's sister, with a cheerful countenance; but inspected her with stern eyes and an angry face. Greatly disturbed by this vision, she began with tears to pray to the Blessed Virgin, saying: Why, my Lady, do you look upon me so terribly? because she would not obey Catherine: To whom the Virgin replied: Why do you not obey the counsels of my beloved Catherine? If you shall correct your dress and manners by her counsels and example, I shall look upon you cheerfully by my grace. She, awakening, not ungrateful for such admonition, immediately putting aside the ornaments of pride, strove to conform herself to humility and to the ways of Lady Catherine.

[8] Whence her husband, the aforesaid Lord Charles, still wholly worldly, perceiving the change of dress and devout gestures in his wife, how much she fled to be praised. said with a troubled mind, reproaching Lady Catherine his sister: Are you not content that you have made yourself a beguine, but you must also make my wife with you a beguine and a laughingstock of the people? She therefore bore patiently reproaches and mockeries for the Lord, greatly abhorring being commended for virtuous works, beseeching those who commended her, by the mercy of Christ, not to say or think such things about her. For she very often reproached with tears her special confidants, because out of reverence for virginal chastity, and because she, still inviolate, occupied the marital bed, they called her blessed, adjuring them not to mention such things anymore.

CHAPTER II

Catherine, having gone to Rome, is commanded upon her husband's death to remain as companion to her mother; she overcomes the temptation to return.

[9] A brief time, then, having elapsed after she was given in marriage by her parents, her father Lord Ulpho Gudmarson, Her mother having set out for Rome Prince and Lawgiver of Nericia, having died in a good old age, was honorably given burial in the monastery of Alvastra. After whose death Blessed Bridget, mother of Lady Catherine, according to the Lord's command, set out for Rome. And being anxious about a person who would assist her more familiarly in difficult affairs and be a comfort to her in the land of her pilgrimage, she is inflamed with a great desire for pilgrimage, she received the answer from Christ not to be troubled about this, because he would send her a person who would be a faithful co-worker in the affairs divinely committed to her; whom he would also anticipate with the special grace of his blessing. After about five years had elapsed, therefore, since Blessed Bridget had come from her homeland to Rome, Lady Catherine began to burn with such a great desire to go on pilgrimage to Rome that she appeared almost languid from her sighs and the daily increases of her affections. and after some delay

[10] Which her husband, devout to God, perceiving, inquired the cause of such sighs and unusual feeling. She, trusting greatly in so kind and God-devoted a husband, opened the secret of her heart. But her prudent husband, because of the stability of life which he had experienced in her, presumed that this impulse was being directed by the Lord, and therefore, although he loved her most tenderly, did not dare to contradict: but from that point he feared she at last obtains permission from her husband; lest to so elegant and young a person, being namely eighteen years old, some adversity should occur on the way of so long a pilgrimage. Whence he delayed giving his consent for some time: but at last, overcome by the fear of God, who dissuades from resisting the divine will, he yielded to the importunate prayers of his wife. Meanwhile the expenses necessary for her and her household on the journey were prepared, provision was made for an honorable retinue, and not terrified by her brother's threats in vain and now only the departure from the homeland was awaited.

[11] But that old persecutor of virtues (who strives to extinguish all holy and good resolutions, if he can; if not, at least he tries to hinder them) incited the mind of Lord Charles, the brother of the same Lady Catherine, to indignation against her, so that he wrote to Lord Egard her husband under threat of death, not to permit his sister to go on pilgrimage outside

the homeland. But that letter, while Lord Egard was away from his own home on his business, came into the hands of Lady Catherine: who, suspecting something of the sort, opened the letter, and having learned the course of the threat, brought the matter to her uncle Lord Israel, a powerful man and of complete devotion and prudence. she is encouraged by her uncle. Who, piously consoling her in the Lord, urged her not to fall from that holy resolution because of her brother's threats; and at the same time assured her that he would ward off his threat against Lord Egard her husband: and thus, having greatly consoled her, not only with words but also with gifts, he encouraged her toward a swifter departure from the homeland. Without delay, together with Lord Gorstag Thunasson, Marshal of Sweden, and with two other Ladies of the Kingdom of Sweden, she boarded a ship.

[12] Having crossed the sea with great difficulty, Having arrived at Rome, accompanied by the aforesaid persons, through the lands of Germany and Italy, she arrived at Rome in the month of August. At that time, moreover, her holy and God-worthy mother Blessed Bridget, at Bologna in the monastery of Sarpe, at Christ's command was staying for some time for the correction of the Abbot and community of that place, with the venerable Father, her spiritual director, Lord Peter Olai, and a few others of her household. Lady Catherine, however, with her retinue, was anxiously seeking her mother, because she could not know where she had gone. she finds her mother's Confessor; Meanwhile Lord Peter, Blessed Bridget's Confessor, felt certain wonderful movements and impulses of certain affections in his soul, agitating him so much to cross over to Rome that, from their vehemence, he could neither sleep nor eat until he should set out on the journey toward Rome; and being dismissed by Blessed Bridget, although reluctantly, he quickly reached the city, and meeting Lady Catherine and her retinue in the Church of S. Peter, he received them with great joy; knowing truly that the Lord had hastened his journey for their consolation.

[13] On the following day, indeed, to visit Lady Bridget, by whom she is led to her they returned together with Lord Peter to the aforesaid monastery. Received reverently by the Abbot of that place, on account of the devotion of Lady Bridget, by whose holy exhortations he had already been converted to a better life, they stayed there together for some days. But at the counsel of Blessed Bridget, coming again to Rome, they very humbly completed their pilgrimages through the Stations and the shrines of the Saints. And having spent some weeks at Rome, she returns to Rome with her, Lady Catherine prepared to return to her homeland. But when Lady Catherine was already on the point of returning to her homeland, she was asked by her mother S. Bridget, by Christ's command, whether she wished to remain in Rome with her for his honor, and consents to remain there: and to endure labors and adversities of every kind for Christ. Wholly inflamed in spirit, therefore, she replied that she was willing gladly to leave behind not only her homeland, friends, and relatives, riches and pleasures, but even her husband, whom she loved more than her own body, if it pleased Christ.

[14] Her consent to remain having thus been given, promised to her mother by Christ as a helper, Christ revealed to her mother Blessed Bridget, saying: Your daughter Catherine is the person whom I promised as a faithful co-worker in the affairs divinely committed to you: for she is a beautiful seedling, which I myself wish to plant under my right arm, so that it may grow into a fruitful tree. And because she needs the moisture of grace, I will water her with my wisdom. Advise her, therefore, to remain with you for a time, because it is more useful for her to stay than to return. For I shall do with her as a father does with his daughter: who is loved by two and sought in marriage: of whom one is poor and the other rich, and both are loved by the girl. The prudent father, therefore, sees the feeling of the Virgin and that the poor man is loved by her: he gives the poor man clothes and gifts, but joins his daughter to the rich man: so I wish to do. She loves me and her husband: therefore, because I am richer and the Lord of all, I wish to provide for her from my gifts, more useful to her for the soul: because it pleases me to call him: and the illness from which he is suffering is the sign of his departure. For it befits one tending toward the Most Powerful to have his accounts in his hands, and to be free from carnal things. Her, however, I wish to lead and bring back to her own, she is filled with divine wisdom: until she becomes fit for the work which I foreknew from eternity, and to show her what pleases me.

[15] From that day, therefore, so great a grace of eloquence increased in her that among Princes and the wise she spoke confidently about the testimonies of God. Whence the Lord Pope Urban VI himself was so amazed at her wisdom that when she once spoke in his presence and that of the Cardinals, he said to her familiarly: Truly, daughter, you have drunk of the milk of your mother. And so, some time having elapsed after she had vowed to remain with her mother, she learns that she has been made a widow: shaken by a certain horror of an unaccustomed life and mindful of her former liberty, she anxiously asked her mother for permission to return to Sweden. While her mother was at prayer concerning this temptation, Christ appeared, saying: tempted about returning to her homeland, and seeking a remedy, Tell that Virgin, your daughter, that she has now been made a widow, and I advise that she remain with you, because I myself wish to provide for her. And although she humbly embraced the good pleasure of the divine will, she was nevertheless compelled to revolve in her mind the delightful native soil of her homeland, which indeed she rejected by will and the vigor of reason. Whence she began to ask her kind mother that, if she knew some remedy according to God, S. Bridget orders her to be beaten with rods. she would apply it to her so affected.

[16] Her venerable mother, already triumphant over all such temptations, provided a salutary remedy for her daughter, wounded by carnal affection, calling the master, her Confessor, asking humbly and devoutly that by a beating of rods he should drive out the ailment of mind, and Lady Catherine herself was urgently requesting the same remedy. And sometimes when she was being beaten by the Confessor, she said to the master: Do not spare me, but strike harder, because you do not yet reach the hardness of the heart. And so, with the master continuing the stripes, on one occasion she said with a cheerful countenance: It is enough for me: for I feel my heart changed, and all movement of that temptation to have entirely departed.

[17] At that same time, moreover, the Lord Pope with his Curia was residing at Avignon. Forbidden to visit the Stations Whence many sons of Belial, taking boldness from the impunity, grew powerful in the city against public justice, exercising insolence and violence with impunity in the streets of the city, so that pilgrims and simple folk did not dare to visit the Indulgences and Stations because of such incursions of evildoers. But especially upon young women were grievous annoyances inflicted by those pestilent men. For this reason Lady Catherine was also forbidden by her mother the earlier temptation returns not to go to the Indulgences without a large and powerful retinue. Whence, remaining at home for many days with the maidservants, while her mother and the Confessor visited the Stations and Indulgences, she once began to be agitated by certain bitter thoughts, which were as follows. Here I lead a miserable life, with a most grievous sorrow, others make progress and gain benefits for their souls, they visit the holy places, they attend the divine mysteries: but I am brutishly sequestered from all spiritual goods. Ah, my kinsmen, my brothers and sisters, in my homeland they serve God with all tranquility, why have I come into this misery? Would it not be better not to exist than to live thus uselessly in both, namely in body and soul? She sat consumed by sorrows, inwardly filled with excessive bitterness.

[17] which she reveals to her mother, And while, thus afflicted, she was tossed about by her thoughts, her mother arriving with her Confessor Lord Peter, asked the cause of her sadness: but she, from the vehemence of bitterness and grief, was unable to answer. Her mother, however, requested a reply by virtue of holy obedience, and Lady Catherine herself, at the word of obedience, as though from the depths of her breast, said: My Lady, I am unable to speak. For she was like one dead, with a pale face and eyes distorted from the violence of the importunate thoughts captivating her mind. On the following night, however, it seemed to her in a dream that the whole world was burning, and that she was placed in the middle of the fire on a certain small plain, and greatly fearing and trembling and despairing of being able to escape that fire.

[18] and reproved by the Blessed Virgin in her sleep, Then the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, appeared to her, whom she addressed supplicatingly, saying: O my dearest Lady, help me. To whom the Virgin replied: How can I help you, since you so fervently desire to return to your homeland, to your friends and relatives? You neglect the vow made to your God, having become disobedient to him and to me, your Mother, and to your spiritual Father. To this Catherine said: O my most kind Lady, I willingly embrace whatever you may impose upon me. And the Virgin to her: she promises to adhere to her mother. Be therefore obedient to your mother and to your spiritual Father on my behalf; this I wish you to do: know this to be pleasing to me. Lady Catherine, awaking, hastily came with all humility to her mother, kneeling before her, supplicating that she would forgive her the fault of her obstinate disobedience, by which she had grievously offended God, the glorious Virgin, and herself. The vision of the night having been fully explained to her mother, she then promised to be willing to obey her gladly until death, and to remain steadfastly with her in the exile of her pilgrimage. Her mother, congratulating her on the conversion of such a miracle, said: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High: blessed be he who makes all things work together for good for those who love him.

an army with a desire for martyrdom against schismatics and idolaters, and to have steadfastly refused the offered crown of the kingdom, when the flight of King Magnus Smek had put it in jeopardy: and to have died in the year 1348: which, if it be proven by any ancient document, it will be more certainly established that Catherine set out for Rome in the same year or at the beginning of the following.

CHAPTER III.

S. Catherine, anxious about guarding her chastity, is variously assailed.

[19] She vows obedience to her mother's Confessor. Blessed Bridget therefore, wishing to bind her daughter more tightly under the yoke of humility and obedience, lest from the indulgence of maternal compassion she should live more remissly in the way of holy penance, summoned her master Lord Peter, a man proven in spiritual governance and surrounded with the gifts of all sanctity and virtues, earnestly requesting of him that he would accept obedience from her daughter. When Lord Peter at last consented to the wishes of one so reasonably and piously beseeching, Lady Catherine humbly promised obedience and kept it so effectively that she would not presume to do even the smallest thing without his permission: knowing that the virtue of obedience fights for the truth, directs a person's steps in discipline, and merits the grace of holy conduct.

[20] Armed therefore with this virtue, she advanced into the service of spiritual exercise, Fearing for her chastity, restraining her body with the continence of chastity, lest it should be swept away by deadly pleasure. And although she had lived in virginity, even in marriage with her husband, she nevertheless feared the downward condition of youthful fragility, and was afraid lest the enemy, contriver of all iniquity, should by his cunning overturn the foundation of her holy resolution. She therefore set the Most High as her helper, she asks God for a guardian most devoutly praying that he would grant her strength and fortitude to resist the wiles of the enemy. Whence on a certain Saturday, when she was about to receive the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and approached the altar, with the Priest himself hearing, she prayed within herself, saying: O most bitter Redeemer, who took this Body from the inviolate Virgin and on the gibbet of the cross, with nerves and veins torn apart, most bitterly willed to be stretched out, I, an unworthy sinner, beseech you through your ineffable mercy to deign to preserve me lest I fall into sins. And because by your grace I had an excellent mortal soldier as the guardian of my chastity, being now freed from his marriage, I beg through grace for another zealot of my chastity, S. Sebastian. that most noble soldier, the propagator of your most holy precepts, Blessed Sebastian, to whose custody and care, most loving Jesus, deign to commit me. Saying these and other things devoutly, she received the Body of Christ as a pledge of salvation and preservation from the temptation of the enemy. The sacrifice of which prayer and commendation was so efficacious that from that day it is established that she was divinely preserved from many dangers, not without great prodigies, as will be made clearer below.

[21] This venerable Lady, therefore, having been widowed by death from her husband, She institutes a religious life in imitation of her mother, and standing at Rome with her mother S. Bridget, began to live as though in a monastery under the care of her mother, whom she knew to be illuminated by the Spirit of God and adorned with the gifts of divine virtues. She had as her teacher Master Peter, her mother's Confessor, whose counsels, doctrines, and salutary advice she, as a truly obedient woman, humbly conformed herself to entirely. She always regarded the life and manners of her mother as a spotless mirror, desiring to direct her own manners and actions after her example, and to imitate her in holy exercises of penance. For from her she learned to observe silence at certain times, she keeps silence, knowing that the virtue of silence confers peace of heart and the cultivation of justice, and nourishes and guards peace among neighbors. For unless a person applies a guard to his mouth very diligently, the gratuitous goods which he has he will quickly dissipate, and will fall into many evils. She responded when questioned with reasonable and few words, but ones that were edifying, dealing with the will of God and his precepts. She spoke to all, especially to the poor and pilgrims, familiarly and humbly, observing that saying of the Wise Man: Let all your discourse be of the precepts of the Most High.

[22] Whence, while she was at Rome, she warmly cared for the poor and pilgrims, she studiously instructs the poor. and refreshed many coming from her homeland not only with alms but with sweet and familiar conversation: exhorting them to patience and the love of Christ: frequently impressing upon them that they should especially maintain a continual remembrance of the most bitter Passion of Christ and observance of God's commandments. Of one I make mention, a poor pilgrim whom she at that time called several times into her chamber, reading the Gospel to him and explaining the Lives of the Saints and God's commandments, she earnestly urged him to avoid the seven deadly sins. This man indeed, returning with her to the homeland, as a lay brother in the monastery of Vadstena, fighting the good fight of Christ, was accustomed to recount to the Brothers many praiseworthy things about her sanctity.

[23] When, moreover, this praiseworthy Lady Catherine was at Rome while her mother Bridget was still living, although she was young, being namely about twenty years old, Solicited for marriage she constantly refuses: she was yet notable for the gravity of her manner, and having grey hairs of understanding, and beautiful of bodily appearance, which infects the hearts of many. She was also gracious in the eyes of all: whence many magnates desired to be matrimonially joined to her, declaring their wishes, now in person now through others, to the same Lady, promising great and precious things by way of dowry, if she would consent to a conjugal union with them. To whom she constantly replied that she had vowed the celibacy of perpetual continence, and was not willing to enter into marriage again with a mortal spouse. snares are set for her on this account, But they, captivated by blind love, what they could not obtain by promises and blandishments, strove to extort by threats and violence. They therefore set snares on the public roads in the narrow parts of the streets, to carry her off once captured, lest, strengthened by the holy counsels of her mother, she should deny them consent.

[24] Whence on a certain feast it happened, while her mother was occupied with other business, that but with the ambushers turned elsewhere, while Lady Catherine was going with many noble matrons of the city of Rome to S. Sebastian outside the walls for the Indulgences, a certain Count with a great retinue was lurking among the vineyards, watching whether Lady Catherine might perchance be on pilgrimage there with the other matrons. And when he learned that she was in their company, he ordered his men to be ready to seize her. They hastened from their hiding places to snatch the innocent one; but in vain did they stretch the bow of their iniquities: for the counsel of the Lord prevailed, who always protects and defends those who hope in him. When therefore those wicked men made their attack, behold, a stag came running swiftly toward them, and while they were occupied with its capture by God's direction, Lady Catherine with the other matrons, with quickened step, withdrew into the City, free she returns to her mother who prays for her, snatched like a doe from their hands, and like a bird from the snares of the fowler. When she came to the house, Blessed Bridget her mother, knowing in spirit the danger from which she had been freed, said: Blessed be the stag which today has mercifully freed you from the snares of the roaring adversary, just as the glorious Mother of God deigned to show me while I was at prayer. Whence with that loving spouse she could say: Flee, my beloved, be like a roe or a young stag upon the mountains of spices. Cant. 8:14 and from then on she stays at home. From that day she did not presume to go openly through the Stations, but only visiting a church near her house, she seldom wished to be seen in the streets: for she chose to stand in her house on her own feet, because the feet are firm upon the soles of a stable woman.

[25] At God's command she goes out with her mother to S. Lawrence She in no way presumed to go outside the walls of the City of Rome unless she had been fortified beforehand by a divine oracle, lest her presumption should make the enemy rejoice over her. When, however, she was assured by her mother through a divine revelation, she did not hesitate to go for the Indulgences. It happened indeed, as the solemnity of S. Lawrence was approaching, that Blessed Bridget said to her daughter Lady Catherine on the vigil of the same: Tomorrow by the grace of God we will go together to S. Lawrence. To whom Lady Catherine responded: My Lady, I greatly fear that on the way I may be violently seized from you by that Count whom you well know. And her mother to her: I firmly hope and trust in the Lord Jesus, that he himself will by his mercy free us from his hands and guard us from all danger. On the day of S. Lawrence, going out of the house, they fortified themselves five times with the sign of the life-giving Cross, committing themselves to the five wounds of Christ and the custody of S. Lawrence. Fortified by such protections, they arrived safely at the church of S. Lawrence.

[26] But that Count with his servants, while it was still night, a certain man about to seize her is struck with blindness; had hidden himself near the road in a vineyard, so that, springing from his hiding places as the day dawned, he might seize her unawares. But in his own snare, which he had hidden, God humbled him: For when the sun had risen, and a great part of the day had passed, the servants, weary with boredom, said to the Count: My Lord, why do you delay here? The Count replied: We are indeed waiting on account of that Lady whom we planned to capture for ourselves today. To this the servants said: It is a long time since she passed by, and she has long since reached the church of S. Lawrence. And the Count asked them whether it was already day. They answered him: Certainly, my Lord, the bright daylight shines all around, and the sun is high. Then first the Count recognized the hand of the Lord extended against him, as his iniquity demanded, and opening his eyes he saw nothing, but at his command he was immediately led to the same church of S. Lawrence: and acknowledging his fault, where, when he had come, he asked his servants whether they could see S. Bridget and her daughter there: and they, searching among the multitude of those arriving, reported to him that they were there.

[27] He immediately ordered himself to be led to them, and when he had been brought before them, he prostrated himself in their midst with

great weeping, at her prayers he receives his sight. recognizing in his afflictions his own malice, and humbly seeking forgiveness, that they would pardon his fault for God's sake, promising God that he would never again attempt such things: adding also that he would be, to the best of his abilities, their defender and helper, and would stand ready as a benevolent and willing promoter of whatever pleased them. And so immediately, with them praying for him, he received the light of his eyes. From that day he began to hold them in great reverence and honor, conferring very many benefits upon them. Moreover that Count narrated the grace and miracle done to him before the Lord Pope Urban V and the aforesaid Cardinals, proclaiming the great works of God.

[28] Whence I think it should not be left untold with what assaults the adversary of the human race, through his supporters, attacked her chastity dedicated to God, Having set out with her mother for Assisi and the Lord of hosts, Christ, the King of glory, mercifully freed her from these. It happened, moreover, that S. Francis appeared in a vision to Blessed Bridget, inviting her to visit his chamber. And when she immediately, as one devoutly obedient to S. Francis, prepared to go to Assisi, to the church of the same Saint which is called the Portiuncula, she was commanded by Christ that Lady Catherine should follow her, because she was greatly desirous of making a pilgrimage there. Christ also assured her that he would mercifully preserve them in the impending dangers of the journey, and that they should not be afraid: because although the adversary had raised up many ambushers, he would nonetheless wondrously rescue and save them from their hands. Setting out on the journey, therefore, with a suitable retinue toward Assisi, she scarcely finds lodging, it happened once that, with the day already declining, they could not reach a respectable inn; but wandering among thickets and pathless mountains, they finally came at twilight to a certain poor little tavern: where, scarcely received by the innkeeper, they placed themselves among the narrow recesses of that hovel, so that they might be somewhat sheltered from the rain showers and snow.

[29] And behold, in the dead of night, a great troop of robbers arrived there; they light a fire, which when robbers enter by night are scattered by a sudden terror: they examine the faces of each one, and, captivated by the beauty of Lady Catherine, they cast amorous words. What fear assailed her innocent mind, who can express, when the terrible voice of roaring lions was redoubled. Now all human aid was lacking; they begged only for divine protection with suppliant devotion. Blessed be God, who delivers those who wait upon him. When therefore, inflamed with the torches of lust, they prepared to rush upon her, suddenly there arose a great tumult as of an approaching army: the clashing of weapons was also heard, and the shouting of those urging the capture of the robbers. Those wretched sons of destruction, hearing these clamors, were thrown into confusion and fled, not daring to revisit that lodging that night (for a sudden and unexpected fear had come upon them), the same, lying in ambush along the way, are prevented from seeing her. and so, fleeing, they believed that armed camps of strong soldiers had arrived there. But Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine her daughter, with their retinue, remaining in that place that night under the protection of their God, in the morning set out on the routes of their pilgrimage toward Assisi. But those criminals, terrified during the night by the Guardians of Israel, that same day prepared ambushes along the way, stationing themselves on both sides of the road along which Lady Bridget and Catherine with their household were to pass; so that even in this way they might extend their hands to iniquity. Those women, trusting in the Lord, proceeded along the public road, seeing the robbers on both sides of the road prepared for evil: but they themselves were not at all seen by them, because upon them alone was placed a heavy night and an image of darkness, although all around the whole world was illuminated with bright light. And so they escaped their hands, in the name of the Lord, completing their pilgrimage to the shrine of S. Francis, where, greatly refreshed by divine consolations, they returned to Rome with great joy, praising the great works of God.

CHAPTER IV.

The virtues of humility, prayer, charity, poverty, and meekness in S. Catherine.

[30] Considering thenceforth the divine charity and goodness in the benefit of her preservation, this venerable Lady Catherine, as a grateful daughter of God, S. Catherine devotes herself to profound humility, laid the foundation of humility in her heart, which renders persons pleasing to God, and draws to itself the clemency of God, and preserves the other virtues in their vigor and obtains their primacy: knowing that when the human mind relies upon humility, it is indeed inflamed in the love of God and of heavenly things. Whence she not only had the humility by which she truly despised herself, but she also wished to be despised by others and to be considered worthless. She was indeed great in the merit of her life and pleasing in the eyes of God: but yet she wished to be called by others not holy but a sinner. She strove therefore in the spirit of humility to serve the Lord more closely, always inwardly depressing herself in her own estimation, outwardly humbling herself before people in words and sighs, in dress and in all her deeds. She greatly abhorred being praised for any deed of hers: whence she sharply reproached a certain one of her maidservants who commended her for the graces bestowed on her, saying: By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I adjure you never to say or think such things about me again; since I am a worthless and unworthy sinner: but may he himself be blessed by every creature of his, who works all good in all.

[31] to frequent prayer. How great in charity also and divine fervor she was in the divine service, it would take long to relate: for from her infancy she daily read the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, the seven Psalms, with many private prayers. And how great her fervor was in private prayers can be estimated from the following. For before sleeping, for four continuous hours in genuflections and beating of the breast, with many tears, on account of the remembrance of the most bitter Passion of Christ, every evening she offered herself wholly to the Lord as a holocaust; in bed, gathering her limbs, wearied by the labors of day and night, she took but little sleep: always rising before dawn for prayers in silence, she performed the daily sacrifice, neither when questioned, nor without evident necessity did she desist from her holy occupations before noon.

[32] But how efficacious and acceptable to God were her prayers, which she offered for others in the spirit of devotion and compassion, A pilgrim woman seeks her prayers for her dead brother's wife, is clear from many remarkable miracles. For while her pious mother S. Bridget was still alive and she was staying with her at Rome, one day, as Lady Catherine lay prostrate in prayer before the altar of S. John the Evangelist in the greater church of S. Peter, a certain pilgrim woman appeared to her, dressed in a white tunic, girt with a belt, and wearing a white veil on her head, covered with a black mantle, who with swift step was approaching Lady Catherine, greeting her by name, humbly asking that she would pray for the soul of Norica. Lady Catherine, raising herself, asked her where she was from. The pilgrim woman answered that she was from Sweden and that the wife of Lord Charles her brother had died. Lady Catherine therefore began to invite her to the house of her mother, but that pilgrim woman began to excuse herself, saying that she did not have time to stay, visible to her alone: again repeating her earlier words, namely: Pray well for the soul of Norica; for soon you will have a messenger from your homeland, and good support: because Norica has bequeathed to you the golden circlet of her head, and immediately she disappeared. Lady Catherine, therefore, wondering, turned to the maidservants who stood near her and asked where the person who had been speaking with her had gone. But they answered: We indeed heard you speaking with someone, but we saw no one.

[33] Lady Catherine, therefore, astonished, reported what she had seen and heard to her mother S. Bridget. whom she understands to have been the soul of the deceased, To whom, praying about this, it was divinely revealed that Lady Gydha, the wife of Charles, had died, and her soul, seeking suffrage, had appeared to her. Nor long after came Ingevald Amundsson, a familiar of Lady Catherine, from Sweden, announcing the death of the aforesaid Lady Gydha, bringing to them the testament, namely the golden circlet or crown which she had been accustomed to wear while living according to the custom of her country. For the said Lady Gydha was descended from the nobler stock of the Noricans. The crown, moreover, was of such great value that with its price Blessed Bridget and her daughter, with their entire household, were competently provided for as to provisions for an entire year. and receives the crown bequeathed by her. In this it probably appears how acceptable the sacrifices of her prayers were, since from divine clemency a soul existing in purgatory was granted to seek her intercession for its liberation. The custom of this venerable Lady was, at the time of prayer, to seek a secret place and to flee tumult, so that she might render a worthy sacrifice and service to God; believing herself to be heard the more quickly, the more she cried to the Lord from the innermost depths of her breast. And if the tongue of flesh was silent, yet the purity of her life, together with pious exercises and works, did not cease to supplicate the Lord.

[34] How great in compassion and love toward her neighbor this venerable Lady was, From infancy she was accustomed to accompany her mother to the sick, can be considered from this: that from her infancy compassion for the poor and sick grew together with her. For her most holy mother Blessed Bridget was accustomed to bring her, young and tender, with her to the hospitals, where her mother herself devoutly handled with her own hands without horror the wounds and ulcers and injuries of the sick, conferring many benefits and consoling words upon them: showing her, still young, an example of how she ought to do similar things for the poor and sick for God's sake in every age to come. And if sometimes certain people reproached the pious mother of this venerable Lady because she brought her tender daughters with her to the houses of the poor and sick, she puts on a tender feeling toward the poor, fearing that they might somehow be infected by the stench of the sick; she kindly replied to them, saying that she brought her daughters to the houses of the sick so that they might learn to serve God in the poor and sick. Whence it is quite credible concerning this venerable daughter of S. Bridget that, as her age increased, compassion for the sick and poor persons grew with her, visiting them diligently, offering words of consolation, and relieving their needs with pious alms, devoutly imitating, as far as she could, the footsteps of her holy mother in these things.

[35] Moreover, the words of her mother S. Bridget which she had heard, and the works of piety which she had seen in her mother, had pierced her heart with compassion; and also exercises it toward her mother. so that she was greatly compassionate in her whole heart toward the poverty of the poor, and condoling in speech with those who grieved, and generously bestowing benefits in works to help them. For when her mother herself was sleeping on the hard floor, out of pious filial compassion, she secretly rose at night, placing her hood under her ribs and loins, tempering the hardness of the pavement.

O what pious compassion full of love! which, although it showed little in effect, yet displayed the greatest love in affection, as befitted a good daughter toward her mother. Happy, therefore, the mother who propagated such a daughter for the world in the flesh, but much happier because she spiritually begot her for Christ, the Lord of all, by her holy examples and the sanctity of her life, and fitted her for his holy service.

[36] And since the greatest impediments to devotion and prayer are the desires of the world and the flesh, Having purged the love of the world, she strove greatly to alienate these from her mind as a deadly poison; desiring voluntarily to embrace poverty and the abjection of life for God's sake, so that she might more freely deserve to follow Christ, who became poor for her sake: whom she truly followed, renouncing the riches of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, which torment and trouble their lovers. She loves poverty; She held the glory of the world in contempt and trampled it underfoot in spirit, so that she might enlarge the glory of God: and so that she might make greater progress in the way of God, she subjected herself to another's will through obedience; esteeming it a great glory to be poor for the Lord and to be despised by the world. She entirely sequestered from her mind the possessions of the world and the comfort of brothers and relatives, loving exile over homeland, so that she might more firmly fix the intention of her soul in Christ, her beloved, and in eternal goods. Whence that benign rewarder, who for those who love him exchanges all unworthy things assumed for his sake into their glory and honor, which God honors, not only in the future but also in the present, exchanged the poverty and abjection of this venerable Lady Catherine into praise and beauty.

[37] For it happened once, while her mother S. Bridget was still living, that certain nobler matrons of Rome bestowing on others, asked her to go outside the walls with them for recreation, because she was much loved by all for the manifold graces bestowed on her by God. For she excelled in the principal quality of devotion and gravity of manner, shone in the beautiful bearing of her body and her commendable conduct. Her mother Blessed Bridget, considering their remarkable probity, permitted her daughter Lady Catherine to walk outside the Roman walls, not from the carelessness of levity but for the sake of recreation. Going out of Rome, therefore, they came to the walls of the vineyards: and certain of them, seeing grapes overhanging above the walls, asked Lady Catherine, because she was of tall stature, to pick for them the clusters extending beyond the vineyard. And since she had, on account of the poverty she had chosen, sleeves that were worn out and patched, her bare arms appeared richly covered, among such great Ladies she was not ashamed to be considered poor and lowly. With her arms extended beyond her bosom to gather the fruit of the grapes, to all the Ladies her arms appeared most excellently clothed in hyacinth and purple. Whence greatly astonished, one by one they touched and examined those sleeves, gleaming with precious purple, and said to her: Lady Catherine, who would believe that you would ever wish to wear such precious clothing and attire? The household that was then present testified to this, and Master Peter, her Confessor, of holy memory.

[38] At another time also, while Lady Catherine, her mother still living, lay sick in bed pressed down by a grave illness, and her sick-bed of humble condition, a certain special friend of theirs, a noble Roman Baron named Ludovico, informed Blessed Bridget that he wished to visit her sick daughter. Their household, hearing this, was inwardly embarrassed that so great a Lord should see her lying in so poor a bed. For she lay upon a straw mattress, having one small pillow under her head, covered above with an old and mended cloak. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his poverty exalted the need of his poor with glory and honor, also distinguished the worthlessness and abjection of this voluntary poverty of hers with the riches of his ineffable grace, in the sight of the powerful and rich Lord Ludovico. it appeared richly furnished; For when that Lord, accompanied by many, came to where the sick woman lay, her bed seemed to him excellently furnished with the finest coverings, having above it a golden and scarlet covering. Greatly marveling, he said to the servants following him: These Ladies are considered poor by everyone, whence they often borrow money for necessities: it would be better for them to sell the purple and that noble furnishing of such great value which we saw in their house for necessities, than to be pressed by the want and scarcity of food and clothing.

[39] How much, moreover, her voluntary poverty pleased God and the glorious Virgin Mary, was revealed to Blessed Bridget, praying in sweetness of spirit, in these terms. O my dearest Lady, I beseech you by the charity of your beloved son, [and that she was praised by the Blessed Virgin for this virtue, as told to S. Bridget.] to give me help to love him with all my heart. I feel myself weak to love him with so ardent a charity as I ought. Therefore I beseech you, Mother of mercy, to deign to bind his charity upon my heart, and draw it to your son, completely separated from all carnal love with the whole effort, and the more violently draw it, the more weighty it may be. To whom the Virgin Mary answered, saying: Blessed be he who inspires such prayers in you: but although my conversation seems sweet to you, go nevertheless and sew the tunic of your daughter Catherine, who rejoices more in an old and repaired tunic than in a new one: who has more desire for grey coarse cloth than for silk or other precious garment. Blessed is she who has thus freely left worldly things: she left her husband with his benevolent consent, whose body she loved more than the bodies of both of them. She also left brothers and sisters, relatives and friends in body, so that she might help them spiritually, and she did not care for the possessions of the world. Now for the abandonment of blood relatives, all her sins have been forgiven her. Let her henceforth stand firm, because for earthly possession the Kingdom of heaven shall be given her, and Jesus Christ himself for a husband: and all who love her for God's sake shall profit because of her.

[40] And although she was encompassed on all sides with a variety of virtues, redolent to all with the reputation of good fame and sanctity, yet among her household she was particularly commended for patience; Among her household she sets forth an example of patience, because she diligently considered that the mind, when it does not resist its own disturbance through patience, even confounds whatever good things it may have done with a tranquil mind: and by an unforeseen impulse destroys what perhaps it had long built by provident labor. For it is very easy to have a contemptible garment and to walk with bowed head: but true patience in the face of injury shows the truly humble person. For just as ointments cannot exhale their fragrance more widely unless stirred, so this venerable Lady Catherine became more widely fragrant in the virtue of patience through the persecutions and injuries unjustly inflicted upon her. For she occupied herself entirely with a threefold exercise of the virtue of patience: for from her neighbor she suffered damages, persecutions, insults, and detraction with the greatest patience. Often also reproved by maidservants and household members, she bore offenses and injuries with equanimity; loving her offenders in a spirit of gentleness, as though they were benefactors.

[41] A certain Religious woman and nun of blessed life at Vadstena reported concerning this virtue of patience of hers, she was never seen to be indignant. Margaret daughter of Charles, who served Lady Catherine herself for five years, that she never heard a word of impatience from her, nor could she perceive signs of indignation against those who offended her. Whence it is greatly to be lamented and is reprehensible in some who, for a small insult, or even for some sign or word, so abandon charity that for many days they are unwilling to speak, or to show friendship or signs of friendship toward their neighbor, or to do good things. The Martyrs and the rest of the Saints could not be separated from the love of God by horrible torments: but (alas) we sometimes, by idle gossip, and often for the slightest insult, indeed sometimes for some sign of levity, we abandon the charity of God and neighbor. How great were the temptations she endured from the adversary cannot easily be described: since the life of the just is nothing but warfare upon earth. Bearing gladly the scourges of the Maker with thanksgiving, she in no way broke forth into the excess of murmuring: for she considered that whoever desires the rewards of the future life must bear with equanimity all the evils of the present life.

CHAPTER V.

S. Catherine transfers the body of S. Bridget her mother from Rome to Sweden: she presides over the convent of Vadstena.

[42] Moreover this venerable Lady not only diligently exercised herself with the virtues described below throughout the whole time of her life, The constant companion of her mother's pilgrimages, but also in other exercises of good works. While she was at Rome for twenty-five years with her mother, S. Bridget, to be named with all reverence (whose inseparable companion she had been during the aforesaid time in her pilgrimages), not only the Stations of the churches in Rome for Indulgences, but also with her she visited as a pilgrim various shrines of the Saints, existing in various places and kingdoms, and the sepulchre of the Lord in Jerusalem, in great labors, burning with desire for God. Having traversed, therefore, the holy places, in holy Jerusalem her mother S. Bridget began to be sick with a fever, Bridget, returned from Jerusalem, which lasted until they both arrived at Rome, where the Lord Jesus revealed to his holy Spouse the day and hour of her death, and other things to be done, all of which she communicated to her Lords the Confessors and to Lady Catherine, as had been revealed and commanded to her by Christ.

[43] The debt of death of her mother S. Bridget having therefore been paid at Rome, she buries her at Rome: and the body committed to burial, according to the arrangement of her will, in the monastery of Panisperna; this venerable Lady Catherine, just as she had shown herself to be a most faithful co-worker to her living mother in promoting the affairs committed to her by Christ, so also to the deceased she rendered due execution in all things according to the arrangement of Christ's will. For Christ had revealed to her mother that the body should be deposited at Rome and afterwards transferred to Sweden,

which she diligently carries out with the Confessors of S. Bridget, and the flesh having been quickly resolved, a period of five weeks having elapsed. In the time, therefore, written above, after her death and in the same year, the translation was begun, but not without remarkable prodigies concerning the resolution of the flesh from the bones wondrously accomplished, nor without miracles done on the way, and was completed, and transferred to the monastery of Vadstena, as has been more fully written elsewhere. And when this venerable Lady was carrying the Relics of her mother S. Bridget, with the sacred bones, noble and common matrons came to her, venerating and kissing the sacred Relics out of devotion. To those coming to her she gave counsels of salvation, that, having set aside the displays of perishing worldly luxury, they should burn more ardently with desires for future goods. At her salutary admonitions, many noble men and matrons, filled with compunction, came to their senses, becoming, with the cooperation of God's grace, followers of a better life.

[44] She arrives at Danzig, At length she arrived with the sacred Relics in Prussia, and at the city of Danzig, where two of the leading citizens, who had followed her from the City of Rome with the rest of her household, praised the grace of God's power in the holy woman: and there she boldly rebuked the transgressions of the Teutonic Knights, and, wholly inflamed with the Spirit of God, set forth the terrible threats divinely revealed to Blessed Bridget against them; everywhere she acts effectively against vices; not fearing their secular power, so that she might truly say to that eternal Judge and faithful witness: I spoke of your testimonies in the sight of Princes, and I was not confounded. For astonishment seized them, on account of the wonderful eloquence full of divine wisdom, whence at her words all iniquity stopped its mouth, nor could the wisdom of the world oppose the truth. Then she left the city of Danzig, and having landed in Sweden, boarding a ship with the sacred Relics and her household, sailing to Sweden. And when they had sailed, they arrived at a port of Sweden not at all anticipated, with a star leading and shining more brightly than the sun at midday, and afterwards they put in at the port of Söderköping in Östergötland, with all their possessions safe.

[45] When her long-desired arrival was known, there came to meet her from all parts of Östergötland an innumerable multitude of men and women, with the Relics, nobles and commoners, Clergy and Religious: conducting her and the sacred Relics of the blessed mother Bridget, and of other various Saints with which the mother and daughter had been honored by great persons, the Queen of Naples, Cardinals, Barons and noble Roman matrons, and many religious, with special devotion and no little joy, S. Bridget's virtues being proclaimed by Peter, all the way to the monastery of Vadstena. The venerable Peter, Prior of Alvastra, of the Cistercian Order, of happy memory, who had followed Lady Catherine from Rome, in this conveyance of the holy Relics, from Söderköping all the way to Vadstena, frequently preached to the people thronging in the cities and towns; explaining how great things the benign God had deigned to work with her, and with what stupendous prodigies he had glorified her mother Blessed Bridget in the parts of Germany, Italy, and Spain, she is received honorably by all orders. and in the regions beyond the sea. Nor do I think it should be passed over with what great reverence and devotion Lady Catherine, coming to Linköping with the sacred Relics, was received by the Venerable Bishop of Linköping, Lord Nicholas, of holy memory. For he went out to meet her with Clergy and Religious, in a solemn procession, with the people of the city following: the bells were rung, the organs resounded, a voice of jubilation with a canticle resounded in the Clergy, blessed be the God of gods in Zion, who glorifies his Saints on earth.

[46] The venerable Lady Catherine having at length been conducted with the sacred pledges to the Cathedral church, she admonishes the Bishop about moderating the rigor of his penance, and the sermon being finished, she privately summoned the Lord Bishop and his Chapter; and having narrated the affairs that pertained to her, she addressed the Lord Bishop with all reverence concerning certain fasts and abstinences that were less than discreet. For he had secluded himself for a long time, devoted solely to God, in fasts, vigils, and prayers, with pastoral solicitude neglected. For he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ; not on account of the restlessness of labor and solicitude: but because with evils multiplied in the kingdom of Sweden, he could not, without harm to the Churches and his Clergy, set himself as a wall for the house of the Lord; the zeal for the house of God consumed him, and the reproaches of those who reproached the privileges of the Church fell upon his heart. But having heard the counsel of the holy woman, seasoned with spiritual wisdom, with remarkable benefit to him. he chose to be afflicted with the people of God, esteeming it riches to bear the reproach of Christ with longsuffering and patience. In him was verified that saying of the wise man: Give, he says, the wise man an occasion, and wisdom shall be added to him; teach the just, and he shall hasten to receive. Prov. 9:9 From then on the holy Pontiff greatly venerated her, seeing that the wisdom of God was in her, whose lips consider things pleasing to God, and whose tongue sounds prudence like chosen silver.

[47] She is received at Vadstena: Finally arriving at the monastery of Vadstena on Wednesday within the Octave of Peter and Paul, she was received with immense joy by the whole congregation of Sisters and Brothers. For she embraced all the Sisters with maternal affection, rejoicing greatly at their well-being and the progress of their devotion: and so, having held a conference with the Brothers, enclosed with the Sisters, with all the spirit of devotion she offered to God the sacrifice of praise, where she explains the Rule of the Savior: rejoicing that she had safely escaped the dire whirlpools of this fluctuating world. She therefore began at that time to preside over the Sisters and to demonstrate to them the Rule of the Savior, which she had learned over twenty-four years, while her mother S. Bridget was still living, in the spiritual life, in vigilant study of holy conversation; offering herself as a conspicuous exemplar of all things contained in the Rule. And therefore whatever was reprehensible in holy conversation, such as detraction and other insults, she greatly abhorred. Whence she is reported to have once said to her niece Ingegerd, then a young woman, afterwards the first consecrated Abbess at Vadstena, she most greatly abhors detractions, when she was once doing some needlework, as is the custom of young women: My daughter Ingegerd, what are you embroidering with a needle in that work which you hold in your hands? She answered: My Lady, here I am depicting two biting each other's backs from either side. But the venerable Catherine, drawing deep sighs from the bottom of her breast, burst forth into these words of supplication, saying: Most kind Jesus, through the most worthy intercession of your most loving Mother, turn away from this Order, dedicated to your Virgin Mother, the pestilent bites of detractors. For she considered the saying of a certain Saint, that the detractor and the willing listener both carry the devil on their tongue.

[48] The entire Congregation of Sisters and Brothers, therefore, saw in her, as in a mirror, she becomes an exemplar of every virtue to her subjects. the pattern of all integrity and sanctity: and how fervent she was in the divine service, and patient in tribulations. They regarded her as the brightness of the sun on a mountaintop, which by the refraction of its rays illuminates the valleys. In her, finally, divine charity claimed dominion for itself, which in the gathering of all virtues is acknowledged to be the more solid firmament. For by the mastery of this excellent virtue, the venerable Catherine became wonderful in reputation, gentle in humility, sweet in kindness, compassionate in piety, steady in patience, affable in conversation, cheerful in the giving of alms, and composed in all integrity of manners. After her Hours, indeed, and prayers, she would read the Psalter with some Sister: calling the Sisters to her now one by one, now all in turn, she urged them to the observance of the Rule with a sweet and maternal affection.

is accustomed to call the feast itself the first of the Octave, the fourth day of the Octave would have been not July 3 but July 2. Moreover, with July 5 it is fully consistent that (as the Continuator of the manuscript chronicle of Marianus Florentinus supplied to Durantus through Wadding) in the year immediately following the burial of S. Bridget, just as she herself had ordered while living, half of her bones were translated to the monastery which she herself had founded in Sweden, on the 12th of July. For the solemnity of the Translation, to be concluded on the eighth day, could have surpassed the magnificence of the first day by such splendor, that those who wrote about this matter to Italy deemed it worthy of honoring that day, as the principal one, with the title of Translation.

p That Rule is found printed in volume 2 of the Revelations from page 251 and following.

q Hence the author of the Italian Life thinks Catherine should be called the Foundress of the entire Order, as though only then, with her introducing it, the Rule of the Savior had begun to be observed at Vadstena: all of which seems harsh to us: granted that the holy mother was not clothed by Christ in the habit of the Order she had founded until a little before her death.

r Brother Charles is recorded as having begotten only twin offspring, Charles and Bridget: therefore this girl was from one or the other of the two sisters whom the authors mention as happy mothers from noble marriages; from Merita, alias Martha, or Cecilia.

s Therefore Catherine never bore the title of Abbess, but governed the monastery as Superior without consecration: but after her death the title designated in the Rule began to be used.

CHAPTER VI.

Catherine, sent to Rome to obtain her mother's canonization, spends five years in that business.

[49] It happened, therefore, that after the venerable Lady Catherine had transferred the holy Relics of her holy mother S. Bridget As S. Bridget's miracles grew more frequent, from Rome to Sweden, to the monastery of Vadstena, they began to shine there with many miracles. And the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Bridget, having been published everywhere throughout the world, many came from diverse parts to Vadstena, praising and magnifying God for the miracles and prodigies which he deigned to work abundantly through her merits. The glory of which miracles having inflamed the King and Prelates and Nobles of the kingdom and the Clergy, they decreed, with the unanimous consent of the entire congregation and the same monastery, that Lady Catherine should cross over again to Rome Catherine sets out for Rome from obedience, for the business of the canonization of her mother S. Bridget. In the following year, therefore, after the glorious body of the holy mother Bridget was deposited in the monastery of Vadstena in Easter week, with all the expenses for so arduous a business prepared, and when she was already about to set out on the morrow, she said to her household: God knows, the most faithful witness of all secrets, that I desire with all the longing of my mind to be wearied for this holy business and to spend my very life, so that it may obtain its due effect: but I so love obedience that if my master should say to me with a single word, "you shall not leave this monastery until you end your present life," I would most readily acquiesce in his will. For she knew that obedience is rightly preferred to sacrifices, because through sacrifices another's flesh is slain, but through obedience one's own will is sacrificed.

[50] At length, under God's guidance and with all safe, she came again to Rome, where, with the business of the canonization proposed, with the miracles of S. Bridget, and the humble and devout petitions of the King of Sweden, the Lords, and the Prelates of the kingdom, and finds the minds of the courtiers favorably disposed: all the members of the Pope's Court, both Cardinals and the rest, who while S. Bridget was alive had always been devout and supportive of her, were likewise inclined to promote this holy business. And when the fame of the sanctity and good reputation of Lady Catherine had reached the ears of the Romans, they remembered her prayers are sought by various people. how efficacious her devout prayers were with God while her holy mother Bridget was still living: whence very many nobles humbly sought the suffrages of her prayer for themselves and for the conversion of their people, as will appear more clearly from what is written below.

[51] There was therefore a certain Lady, the widow of a certain Baron, To a noble and pleasure-loving widow leading her life in secular pomp outside Rome in her castle, a sister of Latinus, a noble Roman Baron, many times admonished by her brother and spiritual men to live more continently in the state of widowhood, setting aside vanity: who, despising the counsels salutary to her soul, gave herself more and more to pleasures. At length her brother Lord Latinus, by much insistence, prevailed upon her to come to Rome to stay with him. She came to Rome with great pomp, not for the purpose of gaining Indulgences; and there she began to fall gravely ill, dangerously ill at Rome, to the point that she was given up by the physicians. Her brother, the aforesaid Lord Latinus, always anxious about the salvation of his sister's soul, urged her through himself and through other devout persons to confess her sins purely: but she, with a hardened mind, always answered that she had confessed sufficiently. Whence the same Lord Latinus, trusting greatly in the sanctity and devotion of Lady Catherine, asked her to deign to visit his sister, now near death, and to advise her to make a true confession before death.

[52] Lady Catherine, always kind to the consolation of the sick, Catherine being summoned, fruitlessly urges Confession, coming to her, strove by devout exhortations to induce her to make a full confession of her offenses: but that sick woman, as before, said she was sufficiently confessed and was unwilling to confess further. Whence Lady Catherine, understanding her hardened heart, asked all those present to pray for the salvation of her soul and for the obtaining of the grace of contrition, and kneeling down she gave herself to prayer. And suddenly it seemed clearly visible that from the river Tiber there was ascending a certain smoke blacker than soot, but as she prayed a storm suddenly arose, spherical in form but in size like a wagonload of hay; which, lifted up on high above the house in which the sick woman lay, hung suspended. In which house such darkness was created that no one could see another there on account of the density of the shadows. That dark whirlwind, moreover, which had inwardly darkened the mind of that sick woman, also prefigured the outer darkness shortly to be upon her, unless help had come to her by the remedy of penance through the grace of God, and that, as is piously believed, on account of the devout prayers of Lady Catherine.

[53] For that dark whirlwind destroyed to the ground the house nearest to the room in which the aforesaid sick Lady was lying: it bends the mind of the obstinate one. at whose immense impact and crash the sick woman, terrified, called for Lady Catherine, and with tears promised to do whatever she would advise for the salvation of her soul. Whence Lady Catherine, giving immense thanks to the Lord, who always regards the vows of his humble ones, advised the sick Lady to confess her sins fully. A Confessor was immediately called: and what she previously could not hear without mental horror, now filled with compunction, she fervently sought with groaning of heart and sorrow. And so, confession having been made several times, the following morning, having received the Sacraments, she fell asleep in the Lord. This grace is believed to have been truly obtained by the prayers and merit of Lady Catherine, as all those present testified, praising the clemency of the Savior, who heard the prayer of the poor and makes many mercies for those who love him.

[54] The sincerity of her devotion will also be evidently known to all from the following divine benefit. There was, moreover, a certain Lady at Rome, To a pregnant woman accustomed to miscarry, who had borne seven stillborn children to her husband, for which reason she was less loved by her husband. And when she was now pregnant, she feared she would as before bring forth a dead child. She therefore went as a suppliant to Lady Catherine, knowing her to be holy and worthy of God, and explained her remarkable case to her. Whence Lady Catherine gave her a small piece of the clothing of her mother Blessed Bridget, exhorting her always to carry it with her until the time of birth: relics of her mother being applied, she also promised her that she would be present when she gave birth. The woman, therefore, trusting in her sanctity, devoutly fulfilled what was enjoined upon her. When the time of birth was at hand, she called Lady Catherine, that she might obtain for her by her holy prayers before God the delivery of a living child: nor did she delay in coming to her, as she had promised: whence, coming quickly to her, already in the pains of labor, adding her own presence she procured a happy delivery. she humbly rendered the due care to the pregnant woman, not ceasing to pray and beseech until the woman gave birth to a living girl, whom she named Bridget out of devotion to Lady Catherine. For she truly believed that she had obtained this kind of grace through the presence, merits, and prayers of the venerable Lady Catherine. This deed was spread abroad in the City and held as a great miracle, and all who heard of it praised the Lord together, who through the merits and devotion of Lady Catherine had conferred the benefits of salvation on mother and child in their danger.

[55] It also happened at Rome while she was staying there, that once the Tiber, overflowing excessively (so that the flood of waters passed over the Lateran bridge and the monastery of Blessed James and many other surrounding buildings), the Romans, fearing the destruction of the City on account of the excessive flooding, The dangerously overflowing Tiber, having taken counsel, came to the house of Lady Catherine, asking that she deign to go down with them to the course of the flooding waters, to pray to the Lord about these troubles. She, however, a nursling of humility, deeming herself unworthy, began to refuse with tears. But when they saw that they were gaining nothing by the urgency of their prayers, they used force, leading her out of the house, and cast her before the oncoming floodwaters. A wondrous thing, the ancient miracle returned. cast before the waters by the Romans, For as in the time of Joshua the Jordan was turned back; at the touch of her feet the torrent returned with all speed, seeking its channel, and the floodwater fled at the approach of the holy woman. All were astounded, and the Lord of immense power was praised, who through his Saints works wonders even in the waters. Whence the venerable Father, she restrains the waters. and of holy memory, Brother Peter, Prior of Alvastra, of the Cistercian Order, present at this spectacle, calling the household of Lady Catherine to witness, addressed them with these words: Keep carefully in memory the marvels you have seen today, because concerning these and her other miraculous deeds and virtues, which God has deigned to work through her, testimony will be required in future times.

[56] Then when this venerable Lady Catherine crossed over to Naples, To a noble widow troubled by an incubus, and tarried there on account of the aforesaid business of canonization, to write and collect miracles which the Lord had deigned to work through S. Bridget her mother, both during her life there and after her death, the fame of her sanctity was celebrated. Whence a certain great Lady according to the dignity of the world came to her, explaining to her with tears how her daughter, widowed from her husband, was most grievously tormented by a nocturnal demon, and did not dare to reveal such shameful disturbances to any of her relatives; but seizing the opportunity on account of the reputation and fame of her sanctity, she disclosed the troubles of her daughter to her. Lady Catherine, hearing of

their horrible affliction, asked by her mother, Catherine, she sympathized with them from the depths of her being; and reading one Hail Mary softly, as she always used to do when consulted on spiritual matters, she gave them most salutary counsel: first, that they should make a pure confession of all their sins, because on account of unconfessed sins such illusions frequently happen to many; and that they should go with bare feet, without linen shirts, with all humility to the church of the Holy Cross, for eight consecutive days reading seven Our Fathers and Hail Marys before the Crucifix in reverence for the Passion of Christ: and that she would gladly pray for them; gives salutary counsel, although she humbly considered herself unworthy to obtain anything, yet from the spirit of compassion she most humbly promised.

[57] The said Ladies, acting according to her counsel, on the eighth day returned to her, praising God, because he had already done great mercy with them, on account of her salutary counsels and prayers. For that monstrous demon appeared to the same young woman in the silence of the night, terribly threatening and saying: and sends away the demon. Cursed be that daughter of Bridget who has separated me from you; I shall never return to you again. And so the prayer of the holy woman shut out the pursuing enemy and bound the demon in the desert of infernal Egypt. Whence on account of these and other signs of her sanctity, Lady Catherine, when she was after the death of her mother at Rome, Naples, and in various other parts of Italy and Germany, was reputed and held as a great Saint and without doubt accepted by God: so that many, placed in necessities, fled to her for counsel and for obtaining help from God, taking away grateful remedies for their troubles, through her glorious prayers and merits.

CHAPTER VII

The death and burial of S. Catherine, with the prodigies attending both.

[58] The business at Naples having been completed, and the records of the miracles of her holy mother Bridget, Having returned to Rome the venerable Lady Catherine returned to Rome and continued the process of canonization which she had begun under Gregory XI: but as the business of canonization required, it could not have its due effect, because the Pope was prevented by death. Whence that entire business of canonization had to be begun from scratch and devolved not indeed with the business completed, upon Urban VI, the immediate successor of the same Gregory. Which Urban indeed, having had knowledge of Blessed Bridget while she was still living and experience of her sanctity, attempted her canonization, but did not complete it, on account of the various incidents that occurred in the Church in those days and the schism then newly begun. Therefore the venerable Lady Catherine, having thus spent five years at Rome for the aforesaid business in great and heavy expenses, when, on account of the dangerous schism that threatened, there was no hope of being able to attain the due end of so arduous a business as was fitting; using the sounder counsel of the Prelates, she deposited at Rome the life and miracles of her holy mother Bridget, written up with their attestations under many public, authentic instruments and seals of Cardinals, but with the business of canonization fully prepared, Prelates, Lords, and Ladies in various parts of the City and the world, all giving true credence, committing that holy business to divine disposition and providence for the future.

[59] And when she had obtained from the aforesaid Apostolic a Bull, in which is contained the Rule of the Savior in the third person, and other privileges for the monastery of Vadstena, she prepared to return to her homeland; She obtains a confirmatory Bull of the Rule leaving to all then residing at Rome a celebrated memory of her name and fame of sanctity. Lord Eleazar the Cardinal, moreover, bestowed upon the same Lady Catherine the solaces of devotion and benefits of affection, counsel and assistance in procuring whatever business of hers, by the favor of Cardinal Eleazar, on account of the eminence of her life, singularly and devoutly. For that Cardinal had from his youth a singular grace of devotion toward S. Bridget, both living and dead, because while she was alive he devoutly and humbly conformed himself in the way of God and life according to her holy counsels and salutary admonitions. and also a letter of recommendation for the journey The Supreme Pontiff Urban VI, moreover, together with the sacred College of Cardinals, receiving her with singular favor of love, gave her, with the Apostolic blessing, an exhortatory or travel Bull, to the Dominions, cities, and castles at which she might happen to stop, for protection and security on the way. Whence he ordered a man of great authority from the curia to accompany her through the parts of Italy with a safe conduct all the way to the Alps.

[60] With what fitting honors, therefore, on account of the grace of the Lord Pope and his Bull, she was received on which account she is everywhere honorably received; by the leading citizens of cities, by Dukes and Princes, both of Italy and Germany, the pen would be drawn out at length if all had to be narrated. One thing, however, I deem necessary to say, that everywhere to all who came to her she gave salutary advice, which not only the sincerity of her holy life confirmed, but also the novelty of miracle commended. It happened in Prussia, a servant crushed under a wagon when on the journey, greatly fatigued from labor and illness, she was being conveyed by wagon, that one of her household, sitting on the wagon, fell asleep, and from the shaking of the wagon fell headlong between the feet of the horses; and the succeeding wheels so broke his ribs that he could scarcely draw breath and was lifted into the wagon. To whom, as she was always accustomed to all the sick and afflicted, compassionately, reading a Hail Mary, she gently touched his broken side and fractured ribs with her hand. But where the hand of the holy woman touched the fractured ribs, she heals by touch. the divine power solidified them, the pain ceased. And he who could scarcely breathe because of the immense torture, that same day ran about happy and entirely healthy: rendering praises to God and Lady Catherine for the benefit of his recovered health. For he considered that in the touch of this Lady's hands there was a salutary medicine suitable for his pain, and not in a poultice, which is obtained from physicians at great expense.

[61] At that very time, moreover, when she departed from Rome, she began to be weak in body on the way, She herself, since leaving Rome, begins to fall ill and the languor grew stronger from day to day; yet the strength of her soul and the devotion of her mind in the Lord never withered in her. Nor did she seek the remedies of physicians, because with all the desire of her heart she longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ. From the time, moreover, when she returned from Rome to the kingdom of Sweden and the monastery of Vadstena, until her death, namely from the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul until the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, she grows weaker day by day. she labored with the continuous, various sufferings of bodily infirmities. But the weaker she was in body, the more vigorous she was in mind, knowing that virtue is perfected in weakness, and steadfastness hastens to the crown.

[62] Nor were the signs of miracles lacking to so great a sanctity, one fallen from a height because a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. It happened, therefore, that a certain member of the monastery's household fell headlong from a certain high building upon stones and timber, but having suffered this violent fall, with the ribs of his right side broken and shattered, as is usual, he could scarcely draw breath with difficulty. When this was reported to the pious mother of the monastery, Lady Catherine, she herself, sympathizing with the suffering one, descended to the door of the monastery, and having first prayed, touched the injured limbs, and at her touch the divine power consolidated the broken limbs, and the injured man, made healthy and whole, she heals by touch: immediately returned to his labors, magnifying God, who gave such power to human beings. That man, moreover, knew that poultices of ointment and plasters were suitable remedies for his injury: but he judged the touch of this holy Lady's hand to be far more excellent than all these, and proclaimed to all that the power of God was present in her hand.

[63] she confesses daily, With the illness of the venerable Lady Catherine growing daily, she strove to fortify herself frequently with the Sacraments. From fervent devotion, even after she had undertaken the pilgrimage with her mother, she made Confession daily, in contrition of heart: and sometimes she approached the bath of confession humbly two or three times. For she knew that Confession is the salvation of souls, the scatterer of vices, the restorer of virtues, the vanquisher of demons, and that it shuts the mouth of hell and opens the gates of Paradise. The Sacrament, moreover,

of the Body of Christ, and communicates spiritually: on account of the sufferings of her stomach, she did not dare to receive during this final illness, but venerating the most sacred Body of the Lord with gestures of devotion as best she could, and with eyes raised to heaven, for a long time with the tongue of her heart (because the tongue of her flesh had already become mute) saying something known to God alone, with the Sisters standing by and commending her departure to God, she happily fell asleep in the Lord.

[64] Immediately prodigies from heaven, testifying to her sanctity, appeared to certain devout persons. a star is seen over the house of the dying woman For a star was seen standing above the house in which her lifeless body lay, for days and nights, until the body had been committed to burial. When the body was carried for burial, the star seemed to move from its place, as though about to render service to her funeral: and when the bier was placed in the church, during the solemnities of the Masses, the star remained as though suspended above the bier of the dead body; but when her body was buried, the office of that star ceased. She was indeed fittingly honored by the service of a star, who while she lived was said to have been bright in purity of life and firm and persevering, shining in her holy resolution as a commendable exemplar of conduct with all integrity of manners. also lights before the bier. Certain devout persons also asserted with oaths that they had seen wonderfully radiant lights carried in the air before the bier while she was being carried to the church for burial: but by whom those lights were carried they were unable to see.

[65] On the day of her deposition, moreover, very many Prelates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots had assembled at Vadstena, She is carried to burial by all orders from the kingdoms of Sweden, Gothia, Denmark, and Norway, as well as from the secular power Lord Eric, son of the King of Sweden, with many Princes, Magnates, and Barons, and a copious multitude of those of lower estate, both Clergy and laity. There were no small sighs with lamentations from each one, especially of the enclosed Virgins, who celebrated the obsequies of their kind mother with groans and tears. The aforesaid Lord Eric with the Princes of the kingdom carried her dead body for burial, and there was a great press of people, and they were scarcely able to carry the sacred body to the sepulchre, because the whole crowd was seeking to touch that precious pearl. The Lord Nicholas, Bishop of Linköping, of blessed memory, with Archbishops and Abbots assisting him, and a numerous multitude of Clergy and religious, tearfully performed the due office of burial.

[66] Among these was present a certain master of great authority and learning, Tordo, Bishop of Strängnäs, a solicitous and devout minister at her obsequies; Bishop Tordo's hand is clasped by the dead woman, who, on account of the devotion and familiarity which he had had toward her while still living, was touching the hand of Lady Catherine by feeling it, commending himself to her intercession before the eternal Judge. Wonderful to tell, the Bishop felt his hand strongly held and pressed by the hand of Lady Catherine, as is accustomed to happen between friends and pledgers, who strongly clasp each other's hands as a sign of greater love and firmness. For she herself, while at Rome, had labored greatly on behalf of the same Bishop, as though reminding him of her promise. who had come to the Apostolic See for the confirmation of his election, before the Lord Apostolic, the Cardinals, and the Officials of the Curia. In this act of clasping the Bishop's hand, it was given to understand that just as while alive she had exhorted him to remember the pledge he had made to God, for whom in a certain way she had stood surety before the Lord Pope for his confirmation; so, freed from the burden of the flesh, standing before the eternal Pontiff, she admonished him to keep the faithfulness of his promise, as though pressing upon him that saying of the Wise Man: If you have pledged yourself for your friend, you have bound your hand to a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth; therefore do what I say, and deliver yourself. Prov. 6:2

[67] The venerable Lady Catherine died, moreover, in the monastery of Vadstena, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and eighty-one, * the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, on a Sunday, namely on the eve of the Annunciation of the Lord, and on the morrow of the same she was honorably buried. At whose tomb and sacred memory many benefits are granted to those who devoutly ask, by the gift of him who is praiseworthy and wonderful in his Saints forever and ever. Amen.

* Indeed the ninth. Day of death and burial.

APPENDIX.

Miracles of healings granted to the sick at the invocation of S. Catherine.

[68] A boy fallen into a torrent Concerning her miracles after death, which the glorious God grants for the sake of her merits to the faithful, let some be set forth on this page for those who wish to know. Some years having passed after her death, on the day when her bones were being raised on account of laying the foundations of the pillars of the church, in the parish of Molaby a certain little boy, an infant not yet three years old, fell from a bridge into a swift torrent, and was sought by his parents as drowned for two days: but on the third day they found the infant, against all hope, alive, clinging to the post of a certain mill. The father and mother questioned the infant, who previously spoke unintelligibly, as to how he had clung to that post. preserved for two days by S. Catherine appearing to him. The boy answered, now speaking clearly: When I fell from the bridge into the torrent, a certain Lady, dressed in white garments, received me clinging to the post under her cloak, so that the waters did not harm me, and she said she was called Catherine of Vadstena: and she encouraged me to come to Vadstena: but when you lifted me from the water, that Lady disappeared. His parents therefore came with the boy to the monastery of Vadstena, to the tomb of the venerable Lady Catherine, with their offerings, reporting with oaths the grace done to them through the merits of Catherine, and so, having fulfilled their vows, they returned to their own home.

[69] A nun in the monastery of Vadstena, detained by a grave illness for many years, A Confessor asked to make a vow on behalf of a sick woman to the extent that having received Extreme Unction and the other Sacraments many times, she was wholly despaired of for life and seemed destined for the death of the flesh: with the intense pains somewhat alleviated at intervals, she asked a certain Brother, her Confessor, to make vows to some Saints, so that by their merits she might be restored to such health that she could read the Hours and attend to devotional prayers to some degree: for she despaired of being restored to full health. To that Brother, deliberating what acceptable vow he should make for her, he conceives a vow to describe the Acts of S. Catherine, the memory of Lady Catherine came to mind, namely that he should write her life and collect her miracles, if by her merits some relief from the illness might be granted to her. When such a vow was made, the sick woman began to fare more mildly. But as time passed, that Brother, forgetful of the promise made, neglected to write the life of Lady Catherine and to collect her miracles: whence the illness of

the aforesaid nun began to grow worse than usual. Wherefore that Brother, recognizing his inertia and negligence, to fulfill which he is encouraged by a vision, feared that punishment and judgment were imminent for him because he had delayed fulfilling his reasonable vow. And so he renewed the former vow with full will, even with an imprecation of God's vengeance. A few days having passed, when that Brother had begun to write her life, he saw in a vision of the night that he entered the refectory, and it seemed to him that Blessed Bridget was sitting at the head of the table, where the Confessor usually sits: he also saw other persons sitting beside her, but who or what kind they were he could not understand. At the table Lady Catherine seemed to be serving, who met that Brother in the middle of the refectory, and thus within two years obtains health for the sick woman. offering him her hand: which she applied to his hand, signifying to him that if he fulfilled the vow he had made, that sick nun would recover her health. And this vision was repeated on consecutive nights twice. Whence that Brother took pains to investigate her life and miracles; and especially about the persons who had familiarly adhered to her in the city of Rome, in the parts of Germany, and in the kingdom of Sweden until her death; and writing down what he heard at discontinued intervals, for nearly two years having indulged the sluggishness of his mind, he delayed completing the history of the glorious Lady Catherine: and throughout the entire intervening time the aforesaid nun, although slowly, labored under the troubles of her illnesses: but with her Life and holy acts written down, she was restored to her former health.

[70] The Vicar of Vadstena is freed from a terrible headache, Furthermore, concerning the frequent and almost daily miracles at her tomb, through the generosity of him who is always wonderful and praiseworthy in his Saints, I have taken care to add some things, lest the lamp of such great beauty, hidden under a bushel, be extinguished by the torpor of forgetfulness. A certain priest called Peter Kraaka, Vicar in the parish church of Vadstena, was so oppressed by a headache that he could not move his jaws or tongue, or open his mouth to take food. Therefore, deprived in this crisis of all human aid, he turned himself with his whole mind and devotion to the help of God and the Saints, indicating by signs and nods that vows should be made to some Saint on his behalf. Whence it pleased some of his friends that a vow and offering should be made at the tomb of Lady Catherine, that by her merits he might be relieved of this most grievous affliction. others making a vow for him. This vow having been made, on the following day, his strength being now exhausted, that sick man, placed as if in an ecstasy, saw two reverend Matrons entering toward him, of whom one said to him: Since you directed your vows to me, I would gladly come to your aid, but you are very impatient; yet know that I have come to help you. And he, having come to himself, felt the pain diminished, and his mouth, tongue, and the rest of his senses restored to their natural function: and he who for seven continuous days had wasted away without food, drink, or the faculty of speech, having taken the comforts of nature, proclaimed with a cheerful mind the great works of God shown to him through the merits of Blessed Catherine; offering a head of wax at the tomb of Lady Catherine, in testimony of his health fully recovered.

[71] A certain nun named Bridget suffered so vehement a toothache Another freed from an intolerable toothache that her jaw swelled so much from that pain that she could not see with one eye. On a certain night, with the pain somewhat allayed, when she was sleeping, Lady Catherine appeared to her, saying: Do you wish to be made well? She answering said: My Lady Catherine, with all my heart I desire to be saved from these pains. Upon which that venerable Lady, gently touching that swollen jaw with her hand three times, shook her hand each time: once and when she awoke, she felt the pain mitigated and in her eye she received some sight: but within a few days she fully recovered, giving thanks to God and Lady Catherine, by whose merits she knew herself to have been healed. and again freed. Likewise on another occasion she suffered such a vehement toothache that the pain seized her brain and her right ear, so that she feared she would lose her senses: but having used better counsel, she asked for the Relics of Lady Catherine to be brought to her: which being brought, she touched her ear and jaws with them, and the pain vanished within a few days.

[72] I considered it worthy not to omit how in the year of the Lord 1448 a certain nun was cured by her merits of the disease of paralysis: Also a paralytic for it happened that she received a bloodletting in the veins of her hands on Tuesday of Pentecost, and after dinner she was deprived of the function of her tongue to no small degree. On which account, for the purpose of obtaining a remedy, on Thursday, to obtain sweating and the dissolution of the matter of this weakness, she entered a bath: from which on the following days she incurred such disability that she could not speak, nor take food, nor move any of the limbs on her right side: her mouth and right eye had an obliquity, and her tongue a thickness with whiteness: the other limbs also were deprived of their strength, showing signs of the disease of paralysis on the right side. And while she thus lay in the infirmary as though half dead, brought to the point of death she could give no signs or answers, being totally alienated from her senses. The Sisters, fearing death was imminent for her, called the Confessor to fortify her with the Sacraments as she labored at the doors of death. When he came to her, she could not speak or open her mouth; he anointed her with holy oil. Which done, on the following night one of the infirmary Sisters, an infirmary sister making a vow for her, devoutly considering her languor, greatly compassionate toward her with a pitiful eye, it occurred to her mind to supplicate Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, for the recovery of the sick woman. And immediately, with knees bent, she prayed Lady Catherine to mercifully come to the aid of the sick woman by her merits and prayers before God: making a vow that, if she recovered from this illness, she would make her offering at her tomb in memory of this event. She immediately on the following day began to bring forth words, not completely, in the manner of infants: but within the next six days she gradually recovered fully in all her limbs, making an offering of wax at the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits she believed herself restored to health, giving thanks to God, who glorifies his Saints and shows them glorious in his presence by their merits.

[73] In the year of the Lord 1454, a maidservant of Lord Andrew, a Clerk in Wezendra, a swollen and ulcerated hand is healed: Ingredis by name, had a hand swollen for three weeks with the greatest pain and ulcerous, so that she could perform no domestic work with it. Though many medicines were applied, no remedy came to her. On a certain day, coming to the monastery for the first Mass, she read her customary prayers. While she was thus praying, the memory of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, came to her mind, to approach her tomb for the recovery of the health of her hand: which she immediately did, vowing to offer a wax hand to her if she obtained the health of her hand by her merits. The vow having been made, before noon all that swelling vanished, and the hand was fully restored to health.

[74] A certain woman in the parish of Linderaas, having been poisoned, wished to vomit a serpent from her mouth, also a poisoned woman. but by no means could she: then those who stood by her, seeing death imminent for her, because she could not breathe, vowed to Lady Catherine that they would make an offering for her if, with life preserved, she vomited the serpent. The vow having been made, she ejected the serpent, and immediately after the ejection there followed fourteen toads: and she was made well this time and made an offering at the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits she trusted she was saved.

[75] Since the aforesaid benefits, or miracles, are many, various, and admirable, and most worthily comparable to the virtues and merits of other Saints, Lake Vättern, in wintertime namely in the cure of all kinds of necessities, illnesses, diseases, and possessed persons; it is sufficient to have recourse to those things which, by the finger of the right hand of God, she worked both abroad in her pilgrimage and at home in her most excellent and most virtuous way of life. One therefore of the many, more stupendous than the rest, which occurred in her most frigid homeland, shall here be inserted. Adjacent to the monastery of S. Bridget in the kingdom of Gothia or Sweden is a certain lake, called Vättern, sixty Italian miles in length and twenty in width; which is of such a nature that when it has been frozen by a stormy wind, and that wind has subsided, and the time of thawing is imminent, customarily dissolving dangerously, with a most violent rumbling it begins to boil and churn in its depths, and to burst forth with great violence into the small cracks or fissures that form in the ice; and these it makes very wide in a short space of time, even though the ice at that point may have been more than one or two arm-lengths in thickness; and then, with the upper force cooperating, all the ice is divided into many pieces, so that many who are upon them are more often (unless they find protection by God's help and the invocation of the Saints) drowned. S. Catherine being invoked People caught in this strait with their beasts and vehicles, seeing the horrible collision and dissolution and chasm of the ice and death imminent, with great groaning invoke God and S. Catherine, or her Mother, or both, that they may be saved. she releases them unharmed. Nor does this usually happen in vain: for not only is the part of ice on which the distressed remain strengthened, or they leap from one to another; but also against the tempest and the force of the winds they are carried safely to the shore by a twofold miracle, with the ice dissolving into water in almost a momentary space.

circumstances, and is found in the Holmian edition alone.

MIRACLES

Juridically received by Episcopal Commissioners, from the Holmian printing.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

BHL Number: 1713

FROM THE PUBLIC INSTRUMENT.

CHAPTER I

The tenor of the letter of commission of the Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Henry, by divine providence Bishop of Linköping, concerning the miracles of the Lady Catherine of happy memory, daughter of S. Bridget, to be received and collected.

Henry, by the divine compassion Bishop of Linköping, to his beloved sons in Christ, It is prescribed to the Commissioners Lords Benedict, Parish Priest of the church of Hazhaby, and John of Aby, John Ormeri, and Lawrence of Straa, Altarists in the monastery of Vadstena, eternal salvation in the Lord. Although the examination of miracles, by which the glorious God glorifies and exalts his Saints in this world, is one of the greatest causes which pertain to the Supreme Roman Pontiff alone, or to him to whom he may see fit to commit and delegate it: nevertheless, so that the nations may know and declare the wonderful works of God, and that all flesh may bless his holy name, who alone does great and wonderful and inscrutable things without number; we have deemed it necessary, for the instruction of the ignorance of human frailty, that such exalted and wondrous powers of God be substantiated by the assertions of trustworthy witnesses. Since indeed we have not only received from many, but have also truly learned from the experience of events, that the miracles of S. Catherine, which is the teacher of all, that our formerly beloved daughter in Christ, the noble person Lady Catherine, by carnal descent the illustrious daughter of Blessed Bridget, our most renowned patroness, widow of the late noble man Egard, a knight of our diocese of Linköping; leading a life exemplary to all and notably and singularly acceptable and devout to her Creator and to all, having entered the way of all flesh, migrated to the Lord for her virtuous works, and her body was buried in the monastery of Vadstena of our aforesaid diocese; where after her departure from the present life, he to whose devout service she totally devoted and dedicated herself deigns to show many signs to the faithful of Christ in testimony of her Blessedness, and to bestow them wonderfully and generously: which ought not to lie hidden under a bushel, but, as though placed upon a candlestick, to be made known and published to the Church of God. Wherefore to your discretions, in whom we have and hold full trust in the Lord in these and other matters, by the tenor of the present letter we commit and command, and to each of you individually, in virtue of holy obedience strictly enjoining, by ordinary authority we direct, that with all reverence and mature and careful circumspection, they should authentically collect them, and also with the fear and love of God due and fitting, concerning all things whatsoever which are reported as shown or done to the glory and exaltation of the aforesaid Lady Catherine by the Author of wonders, which God for the praise of his name deigns in any way to work through the merits of the same, with the complete substance and legitimate, necessary, and opportune circumstances of the same, through trustworthy witnesses, with the administration of a due oath, by the authority, commission, and mandate to you and each of you individually, as is premised, specially made, committed, and enjoined, you should take care to collect and write down, all of you together or one of you who shall then be present: so that the infirmity itself, the manner of the cure, the name of the person, the village, town, and parish or city and diocese in which such persons around whom any miracles may have occurred reside, should be expressed separately and specifically: and also three or four of the more respectable and better known witnesses who were present and actually saw the miracle take place, with their proper names and towns and diocese expressed, should similarly be inscribed immediately after the person then cured. And this writing, at the same time, after the description of the miracle then done and declared, should be recited to the said witnesses being present and diligently listening: to serve in the instruction of the process. so that if the Apostolic See should not be content with those things which have been collected and written on its behalf, or which have been directed to it; but should decide to send one or more Prelates from the kingdom or from parts outside the kingdom to the place itself at Vadstena, for a more diligent investigation and more ample and more exact examination to be made, required, and conducted: then such witnesses already received, collected, and inscribed may be cited for making and bearing full witness, and opportunely convoked according to the needs of the business, and seriously and specifically required and examined. But concerning the premises to be diligently and faithfully observed and carried out, we burden your consciences under the attestation of the divine judgment. Done and given at Vadstena, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, with our seal affixed to the present document.

There follows the instrument of the commissioners appointed for the examination and reception of witnesses.

The glorious God, who gives power and strength to his people, They, with a preceding eulogy of the same Saint, who graciously raises up and enriches with happy increases his rational creature, happily united to himself through the Holy Spirit and made a participant of his divinity: who also with tranquility judges and with great reverence disposes all things, graciously coming with his ineffable wisdom to us, dwelling in the remotest ends of the earth, namely the kingdom of Sweden, found a woman of great price, namely the venerable and holy memory Lady Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget, very strong in the arms of virtues against vices, as is more fully declared in the book about her Life: whose glorious body rests in the monastery of Vadstena of the diocese of Linköping, and not only while she lived on earth did he illumine her, excellently adorned with the gifts of graces, with the rays of divine wisdom: but also now, snatched from the labors of this present life, he glorifies her among his Saints with various prodigies and signs of miracles, and makes her celebrated in fame among men, and shows her glorious in merits. Therefore for this purpose, that the praiseworthy name of the divine magnificence may be exalted all the more fervently by devout children, and that every age may recognize how great a glory the wonderful God in his Saints signifies his aforesaid handmaid, Lady Catherine: they profess to have collected only the better attested, by the command of the venerable Father in Christ, and our dearest Lord, Lord Henry, by divine compassion Bishop of Linköping and local Ordinary, through his open letter sealed with his seal, we Benedict, Parish Priest in Hashaby, and John of Aby, although unworthy Priests, residing in the monastery of Vadstena of the diocese of Linköping in the aforesaid kingdom of Sweden, have applied what diligence we could to writing, with witnesses and the names of persons and of the places in which they live, some miracles by which the virtuous God glorifies the same his handmaid: but by no means all. For many very stupendous things are reported to us, which (because we cannot have the names of the persons for these, or see with our own eyes the persons with whom they were done, or have suitable witnesses) we do not care to write. many others being omitted: We also truly believe that many wonderful things are done through her which are never reported to us: which is apparent from the many pilgrims here, and those hanging wax in various forms, who come and depart in such a way that they say nothing whatsoever to us. It should also be known that there are many in these parts who have no surnames: such persons, therefore, we name from the towns in which they live. Likewise it should be noted that some come not remembering to tell us precisely the day on which their illness began or ended. The day and year, therefore, on which they come to us, we record, and that they had noted the time at which it was reported. perceiving from most of them that immediately upon the end of their suffering they set out on their journey: some of whom attempt this while still very weak, and arriving at the place of Vadstena itself, rejoice that through the merits of the venerable Lady Catherine they had tasted in advance the antidote of perfect healing on the journey. Those miracles, however, which have been brought to our presence and examination, by the mandate of the venerable Father and Lord aforesaid, according to the form given us in the letters of Commission, we have written down as best we could, and they follow in this manner.

CHAPTER II.

Four dead persons restored to life by a vow made to S. Catherine.

[1] In the year of the Lord 1441, not only by chance but rather by divine grace so arranging, an Official of the monastery of the holy Mary and Bridget of Vadstena came for the purpose of resting, A three-year-old girl killed by an accidental wound, named Porsse (a man truly worthy of trust and of great devotion, who afterwards became a monk and entered the Carmelite Order), to the house of a certain man while conducting the business of the monastery, and there he found the head of the household with his wife and their friends mourning and lamenting: and wishing to ease their grief, he asked the cause of their sadness. To him the man of the house and his wife said: We mourn our own daughter, who a short while ago ran here in the manner of infants, playing, and playing with a hatchet, with which she pierced the membrane dividing the thorax and the viscera, which is called the diaphragm, and she immediately expired. The aforesaid Porsse, however, withdrawing to the bench where the body lay, with the parents and others present and persevering in weeping, at the urging of the monastery's Official, said: Dearest ones, do not grieve or despair, because the power of God is immense, and his mercy is at hand in every place and at every time. For it must not be thought that God despises the prayers of his friends, and

especially those who always assist him in serving. For at Vadstena there is a certain blessed Lady called Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, by whose prayers almighty God works wonders throughout the world. If therefore we invoke her name and aid, we shall see wonders today, that is, the resuscitation of this infant. The father and mother with all those standing by most humbly knelt upon the ground, and inwardly touched with grief of heart, commended to S. Catherine by the parents, they began to pray to Lady Catherine with great devotion and urgency, making a vow of pilgrimage with an offering, that if Lady Catherine would obtain life for the dead girl, the father and mother with their dead daughter would make their way on pilgrimage toward Vadstena without delay. With the prayers and vow of each thus completed, after a short interval the dead girl, she is resuscitated and brought to Vadstena. as though waking from sleep, rose alive, to the no small joy and astonishment of all those present and of others who later heard of it. The mother, wishing to fulfill the vow, came with her resuscitated daughter to Vadstena in the locutory of the Sisters at the sixth hour of vespers or thereabouts, calling for Sister Benedicta Gudmari, who was then Abbess: to whom, coming with some Sisters listed below in testimony of the foregoing (namely Catherine Petri the Abbess, Ragnhild Nicolai a Senior, Catherine Ergei a Senior, Merita Petri a Senior, Ingeborga Suenonis a Senior, Margaret Nicolai, Christina Caroli, who was then expecting admission to the Religious life, and was carrying the infant in her arms outside the monastery), she narrated the benefits of God done to her through the intercessions of Lady Catherine, in the manner and order touched upon above, which they subsequently reported to the other Sisters who were not present, some of whom are still alive with the same, namely the Sisters Anna Pauli the Prioress; Bridget Olavi a Senior, Catherine Joannis a Senior, Bridget Alberti a Senior, Iliana Matthiae, Ingeborg Nicolai. The name of the resuscitated girl was Christina, about three years old.

[2] A certain woman of nobler birth, from the parish of Wanga, the town of Sattaïn in Östergötland, of the diocese of Linköping, had a small daughter named Ingrid, about three years old: who was seized by so grave an illness that she was judged dead by all those around for three hours, because she lay stiff and cold. Another three-year-old girl dead from disease, Her father, returning from a distant place, entered the house where the dead girl lay, and standing beside the corpse said: What is this? Those present answered: Your daughter. He therefore, commanding that no one touch the body, prostrated himself with flowing eyes, praying the Lord from the depth of his heart that he would deign to show his mercy and the sanctity of his handmaid Lady Catherine in his now deceased daughter. The prayer being finished, therefore, and a vow made to Vadstena, after a Mass of the Holy Trinity was offered, where the Relics of Lady Catherine rest, he went to the church to have a conference with his Parish Priest in this matter. And when he had reached him, he most humbly asked him to celebrate one Mass of the Holy Trinity, in honor of that same supreme and undivided Trinity and of the venerable Lady, his handmaid Catherine, and to pray for his now deceased daughter. When the Mass had been said, returning to his own house, he found his daughter alive beside her mother, and praising God above all things, she is found alive by her father. as is most fitting, in great joy he fulfilled the vow he had made, sending the mother with her daughter to the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits and prayers she was restored to life. The mother, moreover, being at the tomb of Lady Catherine, with trustworthy witnesses publicly proclaimed to all who wished to hear this great miracle, not without wonder and congratulation. The name of this girl's father was Peter Frenderus, very famous: names of the witnesses: Lawrence Nicolai and Haakon Joannis with many others.

[3] In the year of the Lord 1471, after the Octave of Corpus Christi, Lawrence Nicolai, A young man drowned while fishing, living next to a mill called Holm, in the parish of Motala, in the territory of Askacherade, sent two sons to fish for salmon: and when at night they were drawing their nets, they were suddenly swept into the depths of a certain channel or whirlpool, where the younger remained drowned, while the older was freed with God's help: who quickly ran to the nearest neighbor, so that with his assistance he might find his dead brother. Having heard of such a sad and tearful misfortune, the said neighbor followed to the channel where he had perished: and when they arrived there, they saw one hat floating on the water, and there they began to search: and carried home dead, and soon finding him, they brought him to the shore: where, leaving the corpse with the boat, they hastened to the father, telling him what had happened. When the father had heard this, not without the greatest sorrows he hurried to the place of the deceased, and transferring him from the boat with the help of others, he placed him on a board prepared for that purpose: and the aforesaid father, the body being firmly fastened with ropes, carried him to his house and placed him on the floor of the heated room, and in this vehemence of grief he began to hope in the power of God, who holds the key of life and death, and in the suffrages of his Saints: and especially he began to invoke Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, saying: O blessed Lady Catherine, if you are as holy and powerful with God as public voice and fame declare, share with me of your mercy, and give me back my son alive, who here lies dead: by a vow made by the father he returns to life: and he vowed him, that if he should come back to life, he would visit the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, with offerings of wax and other devout exercises. Which done, the dead son first extended one leg: which the father and all the others present who were watching this saw, and cried out more loudly for the help of the said Lady Catherine: and so he extended the second: then his arms and head, and thus the whole body: so that in a short time he fully recovered, and came to Vadstena in person to the tomb of Lady Catherine. His father, moreover, fulfilling everything according to the requirement of his vow, gave thanks to God and Lady Catherine for so great a gift graciously given to him. Witnesses: Lawrence Petri, the nearest neighbor, who drew the drowned man from the water, and Nicholas Laurentii with his father and many other neighbors.

[4] In the same year, John Olavi, from the parish of Norenbosa, the town of Schonaberg, in the diocese of Linköping, a boy crushed under a falling sack of grain, having completed his business, around the feast of John the Baptist at Vadstena, got on his wagon with his son to ride back to his home: and when he had come to a certain village called Granby, on a certain descent of the ground, the horses pulling the wagon violently left the road by a rapid course, running among the thickets, and the boy, falling from the wagon, and a sack full of three measures of grain was entirely crushed upon him, and so for three hours he lay utterly lifeless. The father, seeing this, nearly dead himself with grief, having silently considered the fame of the sanctity of Lady Catherine, resuscitated by a similar vow of his father, made a vow to the same Lady Catherine, that he and his son, if she would deign to obtain life for him from the Lord, would visit her tomb with offerings by which they would please God himself in his beloved. And from the most ardent charity he implored the help of the said Lady Catherine, that his son might be given back to him alive. Which done, the boy, who had been dead, began to move and raise his eyes on high: on account of which he was received by his father with immense joy, to be carried to the nearest village, and afterwards in a very short time he was fully restored to his former health, and both together, father and son, most joyfully fulfilled the vow they had made with true humility and thanksgiving. Witnesses: Stephen in Fingstadha, Magnus Joannes, Magnus Nigelli, Magnus Olavi, and Canute, the tax-collector in Byristada, near Finitstada in Alkahanrat, and five of their neighbors there. Note that these three who were resuscitated, in the same year as above, and with the two earlier ones are exhibited to the people. on the day of S. Peter in Chains, were at Vadstena. And when a sermon was delivered to the people of innumerable multitude, they were there raised up before all, so that they might be seen by all: and when they saw them, they burst into strong cries, praising and glorifying God in his chosen virgin Catherine, by whose merits and prayers he deigned to do such wonders, for the exaltation of his holy faith and the honor of the homeland.

CHAPTER III.

Various miracles done in the year 1470.

[5] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain courtier named Peter Joannis, in the war of Västergötland, was lethally wounded, A head fatally wounded by an arrow suddenly healed. so that the arrow which entered through his mouth appeared penetrating the back of the head on the outside, and having lost his speech he lay in bed for six weeks, so that no one hoped for his life: but rather all and sundry despaired. At length, with divine grace inspiring, his friends came together, invoking the mercy of God and imploring the help of God's handmaid, Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, at Vadstena; and they made a vow that he would visit her tomb with an offering of wax, if he were healed. Immediately upon the vow being made, he began to speak, praising and glorifying the great works of God, who by the merits of Lady Catherine restored him to his former health, to such an extent that after a short interval he personally fulfilled his vow, and eagerly and devoutly showed to both literate and illiterate how mercifully he had been dealt with. Witnesses: all the servants of Stephen Benedict, a knight.

[6] In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, A girl snatched from the straits of death, Peter Laurentii of Linköping sent his daughter around the twilight of one day outside the city into the field to bring back his geese: and she was

suddenly struck by so grave an illness that she lost the use of both reason and senses as well as speech. And there was no hope for her life, because the signs of death appeared most evidently: on which account her father, with her mother and other friends, bending their knees, prayed the Our Father and Hail Mary in honor of Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine her daughter, and made a special vow that the child, if she escaped death healthy, would visit the tomb of Lady Catherine with her offering and wax. When these things had thus been done, the child began to move, then to speak, and after a little while she recovered perfectly, and came with her offering to the tomb of Lady Catherine, proclaiming to all the mercy of God done to her through her prayers and merits. The truth of this miracle is known to very many, both at Linköping and at Vadstena, and especially Lawrence Ulphonis and his wife, and Thelseca his mother.

[7] likewise another rescued from a similar danger. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, Nicholas Petri of Vadstena was seized by a sudden illness in a certain forest called Warpawidh, so severely that he felt death was imminent. Then with whatever urgency and devotion he could, he turned to God and Lady Catherine, pledging this to that Lady Catherine: that if by her prayer he were snatched from so great a peril of death, he would present his offering to her. Which done, he was made healthy from that illness, and returned on horseback to his house, magnificently praising God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Olaus Brynolphi, Matthias Joannis Braske, citizens of Vadstena, and Olaus Petri in Raasleth.

[8] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain man of Vadstena, with many other merchants of Linköping, Söderköping, Skänninge, Merchants rescued from the hands of pirates. Vadstena, and Skara, sailing from Germany to Sweden, bore testimony to the truth that the enemies of the King of Sweden had organized five hundred pirates to seize them tyrannically with their ship and goods: which they rather ardently desired, as the outcome of the affair showed. For they invaded them so closely that by natural skill or strength they had no way of escaping. Fearing greatly in this very situation, they called upon God with loud voices, and especially upon God's handmaid Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, vowing their devotions to her, with offerings of wax and candles for the veneration and honor of her tomb. Immediately upon the vow being made, God gave them a favorable wind through the prayers of his beloved, and they raised sail on high and were torn away from their tyranny with a prosperous course. A wonderful thing! The pirates pursuing through larger and smaller ships were sailing around them with the same wind, but could not harm them, and so by the merits of Lady Catherine they rendered praise and glory, fully fulfilling their vows as they had vowed: Witnesses: Peter Caroli, Chief Magistrate of Linköping; Lawrence Stwnt, Consul of Söderköping; John Onstins Augustini, Consul of the same; Lawrence Dynies, that is, of Dionysius, Consul of Skänninge.

[9] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain man called Wittecop, a servant of Lord Trotto the knight, An eye-pain cured by vow, suffered such a vehement pain in his eyes that blood issued from them and he could find no rest. He vowed two wax eyes to Lady Catherine and was healed. Witnesses: Nicholas Ebbonis and Ulpho Torstani.

[10] a sudden collapse, In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, a certain man of Vadstena named Andrew the tailor, while sitting at the table of Lord John Ormeri, was seized by a sudden illness so grave that he was believed by those present to be inevitably about to die: and vowing his devotion with an offering to Lady Catherine, with all delay entirely removed, he deserved to be restored to the desired health. Witnesses: Lord John Ormeri and Lord Benedict of Zwillinge, Priests.

[11] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain priest named Sueno, of Sorckhem in the diocese of Skara, wishing to travel to Uppland, where the wedding of his sister was to be celebrated, a horse's swollen foot. when he came to Skänninge, the foot of his horse together with the leg swelled to a wondrous size, so that it could in no way move. And he fled to divine help, since human help was not available, praying on bended knees to God and Lady Catherine, and vowed his service and offering to the same Lady Catherine: which done, he mounted the horse and completed his journey without any difficulty that same hour. Witnesses: Lord Benedict of Zwillinge and Brother Nicholas, one of the four familiars of the monastery of Vadstena.

[12] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain young man from Tiwst, taken captive in his father's house, A captive youth was placed in the tower of the castle called Stekaholm, not for a just cause but the contrary, and there he was detained from the feast of S. Lawrence until the feast of S. Bridget. And then he was let out into the courtyard to labor, splitting wood, and other things as it pleased those commanding; and lest he should be able to escape, a certain long and thick iron shackle was placed around his leg: escapes by a vow made, and because he was deprived of all hope of human relief, he raised himself on high, invoking God, Blessed Bridget, and especially her daughter Lady Catherine, and promised her himself and his offering, to be offered at Vadstena. Immediately upon such a pact being made and being confirmed in this resolution, with a small stone he attempted to break the said shackle, the iron easily loosened and at the first blow it was loosened, and he was freed, and afterwards he escaped the hands of the wicked: and he came to Vadstena, fulfilling his vow, and there, leaving the shackle next to the tomb of Lady Catherine as a sign of the miracle, he preached the name of the Lord, of Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine, to be praised forever and ever. Witnesses: Lord Nicholas the Chaplain and Brother Nicholas, a familiar of the monastery.

[13] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain nun, Sister Christina Ammund by name, Paralysis dispelled, from the monastery of Skänninge, while she was whole and healthy in her entire body and strong in all senses and powers, suddenly there fell upon her from the left side of her body a most severe disease of paralysis, to such a degree that her left leg with her arm hung as though a cloth, and from the eleventh hour until the third hour she spoke not a word. But then she began to speak a little, urging the Prioress herself and many Sisters with her to vow to Lady Catherine, a vow made for the sick girl by the nuns: daughter of Blessed Bridget, one nun of wax: who, kneeling on the ground, prayed to the Lord with devotion, doing what the sick woman desired. When all things had now been done at her bidding, strength returned again to the limbs of the left side, so that she raised her arm above her head, and on the morning of the following day she walked, improving day by day in accordance with her vows, glorifying God and Lady Catherine, by whose merits she obtained health. This happened on the day of the Commemoration of Souls, when after the sung None she went out of the church into the dormitory. We testify to this, who were present: I, Sister Catherine Petri, Prioress; Sister Ragnhild, Sister Bridget, Sister Christina the Sacristan, with one part of the convent, and two religious women, Helena of Söderköping and Christina Olavi.

[14] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain woman of Vadstena, the mother of Lord Peter Olavi, suffered such headaches that she greatly lost her senses, and had absolutely no rest. two women freed from headaches: She vowed one head of wax to Lady Catherine, and was immediately made well. Witnesses: Lord Peter Olavi and Lord John Ormeri, Prebendaries of the monastery of Vadstena.

[15] In the year of the Lord 1470, the wife of Nicholas the Crossbowman of Vadstena, Elisabeth by name, suffered intolerable headaches for three weeks, so that she was deprived of all comfort and joy, both day and night: she vowed one woman of wax to Lady Catherine, and immediately, with all sorrow and languor departing, she was filled with joy, magnifying the power of the Savior, who by the merits of his handmaid Catherine restored her to her former health. Witnesses: Lord John and Peter the cobbler.

[16] another freed from an enormous swelling of the body. In the year of the Lord 1470, the body of a certain woman of Wisingroo swelled to the size of a very large barrel, so that many doubted more of her death than of her life; she made a vow to Lady Catherine that she would devoutly bring wax with an offering to her. Then immediately the swelling ceased, and the flesh returned to its natural form and state. Witnesses: Nicholas the cutler and Magnus Joannis.

[17] A poisoned woman In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain married woman in the parish of Renna, in the village of Jernstat, the sister of Ulpho Torstini, named Christina, had been poisoned, but when or where she was utterly unaware. Harmful guests were growing within her, so that their voice was heard, as it were, from the whole parish in the woman's belly: whence her pain increased daily. Her husband said to her: I will send you to Vadstena to your brother, so that you may receive some remedy there. The woman, coming to the basilica of S. Bridget, during High Mass wished to refresh her soul before the general Confessor; by S. Catherine appearing to her but because the Confessor was occupied somewhere, she could not have speech with him: therefore she withdrew to the tomb of the venerable Lady Catherine and made a vow, that if the Lord by her merits would confer health upon her, she would have an image of a woman made, according to her means and in demonstration of the miracle: and she prostrated herself before the tomb of the said Lady, praying humbly and devoutly that the Lord would have mercy on her: for she was very weary: she fell asleep: and to her as she slept appeared a woman unknown to her, of elegant form, who said to her: she is sent to the tomb of S. Bridget, Go to the altar of my mother Bridget, and go around it on bare knees, and you will feel the effect. The woman, awakening, began to think about the dream vision, went to the altar of S. Bridget, as she had been commanded, and bending her knees, she went around it once with bare feet; further she could not, but placed her garments underneath, and went around a second time: and then the custodian of the church rang the bell for all to leave, and then the woman also left the church and walked around the cemetery: coming to the place of Calvary, she could go no further, because then a vehement pain rushed upon her. A wonderful thing! There she vomited three serpents, which were, according to the woman's estimation, in length of a double ell: one of them had various colors. and after repeated vomiting Again, having somewhat recovered her strength, she walked further through the cemetery, and when she came to the gate which leads to the city, then also a most vehement pain seized her; and there she vomited a second time a horrible mass, like a ball or knot. A certain pilgrim came upon this miserable spectacle, who said to the woman: Daughter, you have evil guests: the pilgrim began to stir the matter, and there appeared more than twenty heads. Again,

having somewhat recovered her strength, she entered the cemetery of S. Peter: she vomits various things ingested by sorcery. then she began for the third time to feel the most grievous distress, and there for the third time she vomited horrible blood of various colors, and that blood appeared poured out there for a long time. Again after this, having regained her strength, she hastened to her lodging, fearing however that some remnants might remain, and had a certain potion prepared for herself, which she also drank; and then for the fourth time she vomited pure blood, as a sign that she was totally purged. Then they began to restore her and she recovered immediately, and remained at Vadstena for some days, praising the power of God: and she gave thanks to the daughter of Blessed Bridget, who had appeared to her so gently and predicted and obtained health for her; nor did she neglect the mother, who comes to the aid of all. Witnesses: Lord Magnus of Ruglorsa, Olaus of Harrjtestada, Lord Lawrence of Strar, Lord Ulpho the Knight.

CHAPTER IV.

Others of the year 1471.

[18] In the year of the Lord 1471, a certain bell-ringer, seized by madness, so that he entirely lost his senses; A madman restored to sound senses; his friends, bending their knees, made a vow that he would visit in person the tomb of Lady Catherine with gifts and other pious works. Not without the wonderful and praiseworthy grace of God, which knows no slow measures: the weak things yielded, and the strong returned, bringing perfect and much-desired health: he set out on the journey, directing it to Vadstena, and brought it to a praiseworthy end: and now, with everything carried out according to the vow, he returned to his home exulting and rejoicing. Witnesses: Lawrence in Betestadha, Gudmund and Magnus, his neighbors.

[19] In the same year, a certain woman of Motala in the diocese of Linköping lost her hearing, a deaf woman restored to hearing, hearing absolutely nothing: she made a vow to honor Lady Catherine and to recover the integrity of her senses, that she should go to Vadstena to the tomb of the same Lady, with wax and other works of mercy: when she had arrived at the place, the deafness having been wiped away, she received what she had asked, and then fulfilled her vow. Witnesses: John Nicolai and Hemming Haquini, her nearest neighbors.

[20] In the same year, a certain woman of Lundby, in the province called Zyrstrinzxherradhe, a stillborn child resuscitated: in the diocese of Linköping, gave birth to an infant who was dead for two hours after it came from the womb into the world. The women present, however, who were watching this pitiable spectacle, made a vow to the distinguished handmaid of Christ, Lady Catherine, namely that they should offer her a boy of wax with other devotion. Immediately upon the vow being thus made, the vital spirit from the fountain of life entered the dead one, with all turning to wonder and congratulation. Witnesses: Siwrdus and Thomas, his neighbors.

[21] In the same year, a certain man called Lawrence Prijdem, those healed who fell from a height, from the mountain called Ashwidaberg in the diocese of Linköping, working in the mines, fell into a pit which was twenty-four cubits deep, and was entirely crushed, the knee being broken through the middle, so that it was held together only by the skin: and he was then extracted with the greatest difficulty. And when he was carried onto the flat ground as though dead, those who were present vowed him with his offering to the tomb of Lady Catherine, and shortly after the one who was vowed came in person, leaping and rejoicing, to the said place, and fulfilled everything that had been promised; glorifying the power of God, who by the merits of Lady Catherine freed him. Witnesses: Magnus Joannis, Prefect of the same mountain, Matthias called Anchamman, with many others.

[22] one brought to extremity, In the same year, a certain man named Nicholas Laurentii, from the parish of Hedha in the diocese of Linköping, suddenly seized by a most grievous illness, lay in bed for twelve weeks, and there was no hope for his life. In this desperation, kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, who wishes his beloved Lady Catherine to be made known to the world, he directed himself to her, hoping through her merits to be healed and saved. And he made a vow to visit her tomb in person, intending to offer her one man of wax. Which done, he immediately felt relief, and health increased for him day by day, until he set out on the journey: and all that he had promised he faithfully and devoutly fulfilled, praising God and Lady Catherine with a joyful heart and willing spirit. Witnesses: Lawrence Nicolai and Magnus Hudz with many of his parishioners.

[23] In the same year, a certain man named Benedict the Goldsmith of Vadstena, a dying boy, having with his wife Bridget a seven-year-old child suffering from excessive illness, who once lost his natural color, an alien color came upon him, appearing now blue to those standing by, and foam proceeding from his mouth in great quantity covered the area around his mouth. Lying in this condition for an entire hour, he was believed by all to be dead: but the father together with the mother and other friends, trusting in the power of God and his Saints, turned especially to the aid of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, humbling himself on his knees and praying, vowing his gifts to her with other works of piety. Which done, the foam was suppressed, and he who was thought dead revived, and in all his limbs recovered a decent color and form in a short time. Witnesses: Lord Nicholas, Chaplain of the Church of Vadstena, and Ervastus the goldsmith of the same place, with many others.

[24] a mother suffering from a lack of milk, In the same year, a certain man of Vadstena, called Peter Petri, with his wife had already begotten thirteen children, and their own mother, with her milk failing, was unable to rear any of them at her breasts: but the father was continually compelled to have them raised through hired wet-nurses or caretakers. Whence he conceived great indignation against her, despising her with reproachful and insulting words. On which account, much troubled, she began to think about Lady Catherine, whose sanctity is held to be celebrated throughout the world on account of the miracles which God works through her, and she said within herself: O holy Lady Catherine, if you are truly holy, as you are considered by all Christians, help me, that I may be able to nurse my child with the milk of my own breast, and at least through this my husband will be pacified. When she was revolving these and similar things in her soul, she added a vow, saying: If in this necessity, O Lady, I perceive you to be effectively my benevolent helper before the Lord, then to the honor of God's name and yours I will offer at your tomb two silver breasts: and I furthermore entreat you to urge your most illustrious mother, Blessed Bridget, to pour out prayers to the Lord for me, a sinner: for I promise myself a debtor of daily service to you both until death. having signed her breasts in the name of S. Catherine: When these things had been done from the deepest devotion of her heart, she signed her nipples with the sign of the holy Cross, then giving them to the infant to suckle, and immediately the infant began to suckle, and the mother both by sight and touch felt the milk flowing and benefiting him for growth. At this novelty the husband was called, and what had long been desired was now revealed to him. For the woman explained to him at length, in order, the grace done to her through the merits and prayers of Lady Catherine: who, unable to contain his tears from the immense jubilation of his heart, together with his wife, likewise weeping, prostrated himself on the ground, giving thanks to God and Lady Catherine for the mercy done to them, and fulfilled the vow with all reverence and glory. Witnesses: Lawrence Siggonis, Matthias the cutler, and other inhabitants of the same town.

[25] a certain woman freed from arm pain: In the same year, a certain man named Lawrence, a tailor of Vadstena, had a vehement pain in his left arm, as though the hand should be separated from the arm from the intense pain. At length, coming into the church, he wandered here and there until he approached the tomb of Lady Catherine, where he was illuminated by a certain supernatural light, and spoke in his soul, saying: Perhaps here you will have a remedy? And he placed his hand upon the stone, and in that instant he felt as though one hand were touching his hand. Which done, the pain of both arm and hand vanished. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence in Straa and Eric in Sandby.

[26] In the same year, certain merchants of Skänninge were in Västergötland on business of trade, Goods lost in a river and when they were already on the return to their own, they proposed to cross a certain river; one of them drove his horse together with merchandise of great weight onto a structure made of timbers, commonly called a fluuta, and was submerged with horse and goods. Various persons watching this, with the greatest efforts freed the man with his horse; but the goods, which were bound together according to the customs of the country and are commonly called Klyff, they could not at all find. Among them, moreover, was one smith named Torkil Simonis, who fabricated iron instruments for investigating what was lost: and he together with others labored for nearly two natural days around the feast of John the Baptist; but all in vain. Therefore, despairing of further success, they left them, and asked a certain old man to make the attempt himself. While he was going down to investigate, the above-named smith remembered that the Lady Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of Blessed Bridget, had done many and great miracles,

recovered by a vow made. and he urged his companions to bend their knees, which they also did, invoking the patronage of the said Lady Catherine; and they vowed to her a mass of wax in the likeness of the lost goods, according to their means, for greater evidence of the miracle. They had scarcely completed the words of prayer before the old man who had been sent to investigate cried out: at whose cry all running quickly found the long-desired goods in his hands. But not without astonishment and a great wonder: because when the same old man fixed his eyes on the water where the aforesaid goods had been submerged, they rose up to his hands as compactly bound together as they had gone down. Praise and honor be to almighty God, who had done this and infinite other miracles, and does so every day at the prayers and merits of his beloved Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Harold, Vicar of the church of Vadstena, and Lord Olaus, Parish Priest in the parish of Haridzstadha, to the above and to the completion of the vow.

[27] In the same year, certain merchants crossing the sea from Germany were pursued by pirates without hope of escape: then one of them, called John Craff of Söderköping, urged his companions to invoke the suffrage of Lady Catherine, and they, agreeing with him, unanimously made a vow of abstinence from meat until they should come on foot to the tomb of the same Lady. merchants freed from pirates by a double miracle: Immediately upon the vow being made, there came a wind consoling and strengthening the worshippers of God and Lady Catherine, and driving back and entirely withdrawing their pursuers from their harassment. And now, as though secure from all dangers, they hastened to the desired port, which on account of the density of the atmosphere overtaking them they could not find, although at the same time and moment elsewhere the light of day shone more brightly. Blessed therefore be the goodness of God, which on account of the merits and prayers of his handmaid, the said Lady Catherine, for the second time freed them from other pirates hunting in the sea, who were lurking in the very port which they so ardently sought: therefore they were led by the mercy of God into a port they had not desired, where they learned more fully the truth of the matter: on account of which they glorified God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence of Söderköping and Nicholas the cobbler.

[28] In the same year, Sueno Nicolai, of the village called Haghaby, parish of Helbon, province of Gorstrinsxharade, a hard swelling of the neck and chest healed: in the diocese of Linköping, lay in bed for three weeks with an illness of the neck and chest: because both were horrible to the sight of those looking and more horrible to the touch of the patient himself, on account of the thickness and hardness, which generated from itself the hardness of the hardest trunk, and whoever saw him quickly predicted that death was imminent. But his wife, fixing her hope in the power of God and trusting in the aid of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, turned herself with her friends to her, bending their knees humbly and devoutly, and solemnly made a vow that if she obtained for her husband his former health, the husband himself would visit her tomb in person with offerings and other pious works. Which done, he obtained a change in the illness: the sore opened and the pain ceased: and health was restored to him: on account of which he fulfilled with cheerfulness of spirit the vow which his friends had pledged for him. Witnesses: Brother Benedict Stephani, Sueno Nicolai, John Jacobi, citizens of Skänninge.

[29] One with his chest transfixed by an arrow In the year of the Lord 1471, Torstan Laurentz of Ilesthada in the diocese of Skara was shot with an arrow in the chest, where it was hardest and thickest, and the arrow fixed itself behind between the shoulder blades: from which he contracted a grave illness, so that he hoped more for death than for life. At length Lord Torkil of Hwalstadha came, who under the guise of reconciliation and consolation addressed the man with such words and similar: Lady Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of Blessed Bridget, works many and great wonders with those who invoke her devoutly and humbly: do you also show her some reverence, imploring her, and you will be freed from this illness. To whom the sick man assenting, makes a vow and recovers his health. he vowed his pilgrimage with gifts and sacrifices of prayers to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine: which done, the illness began to cool and to change, so that hope was now had for his life, both by the sick man himself and by others standing around: and shortly after, to the astonishment of many, by the merits and intercession of Lady Catherine he earned complete health, and fulfilled his vow in his own person as devoutly as he could; offering wax and other devotions in the honor of God and his most beloved handmaid. Witnesses: Lord Torkil in Hwadstadha, and John Germundi, and Sueno Beronis.

[30] In the same year, Nicholas Biorus, in the parish of Askersund in the diocese of Strängnäs, An illness of the stomach rejecting everything is removed. suffered a most grievous illness of the stomach, so that he could retain nothing of the food taken, but immediately after taking it he rejected it. He lay in bed for half a year, and was so exhausted that he bore true signs of death and not of life. He vowed many things to many Saints, namely pilgrimages and other things; but nothing availed. At last he turned his desire finally to Lady Catherine, and he himself as well as his friends made a vow that if she would grant him aid in this necessity, he would make his pilgrimage with the deepest devotion to her tomb, bringing an offering with him. This vow having been thus made and confirmed in his inmost heart, the vomiting ceased, and asking for food and drink he ate and drank: and whatever he took in from that hour he retained, recovering day by day. And when he was now made well, he came to Vadstena and most devoutly fulfilled the vow which his lips had spoken, magnifying God, who by the merits of his beloved Lady Catherine freed him. Witnesses: John in Ullauo, Olaus Joannis, Andrew Olavi, his neighbors.

[31] From a demon appearing to her, In the same year, a certain woman named Catherine, in Sortenij, parish of Aby, in the diocese of Linköping, on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, while she was crossing over to draw water, was blown in the face by a malignant spirit whom she encountered. Whence, greatly frightened, she began to languish and take to her bed: then her head and face swelled so much that neither eyes nor nostrils could be seen. And from the most vehement pain and swelling the head opened, so that the brain was plainly visible, and she was as though dead, and was judged by all who examined her to be impossible to survive. Her husband, Olaus by name, vowed her to many places and Relics of the Saints and nothing availed. At last, by divine instinct, together with his friends he cast lots, a woman strangely bewitched, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget. And by the judgment now as though fallen from heaven, all those present prostrated themselves, praying humbly and devoutly, and pledged a vow that the sick woman would make her pilgrimage to Lady Catherine of Vadstena. Which done, she is rescued from the danger of death: she began to move her head here and there, blessing God and his beloved Lady Catherine: and shortly after she rose from her bed; the opening which she had in her head, together with the illness, entirely vanishing. Furthermore, completing the vow with sincere devotion through pilgrimage and other works of piety, healthy and joyful, she came to Vadstena, extolling the name of the Lord and Lady Catherine immeasurably. Witnesses: Peter Beronis, Peter Laurentii, Harold Petri, her neighbors.

[32] In the same year, Peter the Smith of Västergötland, from the city of Lidköping, sight is restored to a blind man. had not seen the light of day or the sun for four years: and on account of his lack of sight he made a vow to Lady Catherine of Vadstena with wax and a devout offering for the recovery of his health. When, moreover, he came to the tomb of the said Lady, he received his sight, and returned to his home without a guide, glorifying God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lawrence, Notary of the town of Vadstena, and Olaus the cobbler of the same place.

CHAPTER V.

Miracles of the year 1472.

[33] A boy long missing, In the year of the Lord 1472, a certain man from Värend, Haakon by name, of the province of Alboharat, parish of Slatha, lost his grandson, the son of his daughter, aged one and a half years, for whom he did not cease to search, both by himself and through others, though in vain for a long time. At length, by God's direction, he unexpectedly cast his eyes into a deep well which he had on his property, and there he found the one he sought, feet up and head down: whom with his mother's help he himself extracted, and at last found in a well by his grandfather, and placing him in his mother's lap, he turned and turned him, to see if he could find life in him: but it was not found, because he was completely cold and stiff. And now the joy of the mother and grandfather was turned to sorrow, and there was none found on earth who could console them: because there is none who returns the spirit once released except the Creator of the spirit, who is in heaven: who at the prayers of his Saints always works wonders on earth, as at the prayers and merits of this Blessed Lady Catherine, to whose prayers and merits they submitted themselves with tears and sighs, revived by a vow made. most humbly beseeching her to deign to obtain life from God for their dead one: making also a solemn vow to her of wax and pilgrimage toward her tomb, if the dead one should be given back to them alive. Which done, he who had been dead came back to life in the sight of all present, and recovered day by day: and the joy, not without the greatest astonishment, was acquired by those desiring and deserving such a spectacle, and especially by the mother grieving for her lost son, above whose sorrow there is no sorrow, which was fulfilled with the greatest joy because of the vow made. Witnesses: Peter Mule and Nicholas Sweningi.

[34] In the same year, a certain man named Haakon Petri, in the parish of Vreta, in the diocese of Linköping, One pierced by an arrow is healed: province of Sutberchsharide, shot through both jaws by an arrow, having abandoned the art of physicians, turned to the grace of God and the Saints, to recover the grace of health. To whom the Spirit of God inspired that he should present himself to Lady Catherine, to beseech her to fulfill his desire: which was also done. For at the direction of the divine inspiration he vowed to the said Lady Catherine

his pilgrimage to her tomb, and without much pain he received his former health, and fulfilled his vow humbly and devoutly according to his promise. Witnesses: Nicholas Magni in Bro and Arvid in Holgha, his neighbors.

[35] In the same year, a certain man named Magnus Thoreri, of the diocese of Växjö, parish of Bjornschken, captured and bound through both legs with a strap and a strong fetter by the enemies of the kingdom of Sweden, captured by enemies as a spy, as a spy while he was on pilgrimage toward Kotnaby; when he sat in chains full of sorrow and expected no human aid, he began to meditate on the sanctity of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, with whose good and sweet fragrance the world is now full: he vowed to her that if he were saved from so great a danger in which he was, and from tribulation unharmed, he would visit her tomb with his offering and other pious works. With the vow thus made, not without worthy admiration of divine power, the following night when he had fallen slightly asleep, around cockcrow the chains with which he was bound were loosened, and immediately fell from his legs to the ground. And when he had awoken and recognized himself freed, his fetters loosened at the vow made, he gave thanks to God and Blessed Catherine, and taking the fetter in his hand, he set out on the journey to his home: and through armies and watchmen who kept the night watches he passed so securely that he could be detected neither by men nor by dogs. And from then on for two natural days he joyfully completed his journey, he returns to his own through the midst of the guards. during which he suffered no one meeting him or pursuing him: but peacefully he arrived at his own house, freed from the hands of cruel men: and not only to himself a cause for joy, but also to all who perceived this grace done with him, a cause for astonishment. And not procrastinating on the vow he had promised, he prepared himself anew, setting out on the journey toward Vadstena, and completed everything according to what was promised above. Witnesses: Lord Magnus of Rogxlosa, Lord Peter Braske, and he personally swore upon the holy Gospels that it was true.

[36] In the same year, a three-year-old girl, the legitimate daughter of Nicholas and his wife, named Bethwi, of Gotland, the town of Visby, A girl dead from a precipitous fall, while she sat playing upon a certain window of a high house, the window fell and hurled the girl down onto the hardest pavement, laid with stones, and she expired. While she thus lay lifeless, the Prefect of the castle came and lifted her from the ground and carried her to her mother inside the house. The mother, however, inestimably distraught, seeing her daughter dead and miserably surrounded with blood, embraced, handled, felt, turned, and turned her again for the space of nearly three hours: yet the spirit, separated from the body, did not at all return: therefore she ordered the corpse to be carried to a private room, as is the custom. When these things had thus been done, unexpectedly, but taught and led by the Spirit of God, as is believed, for the present occasion, a certain young man by occupation a writer came; who, understanding what had happened, began to confer with those present about the sanctity and fame of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, persuading them to invoke her help. To whom the parents of the deceased humbly assenting, inwardly touched with grief of heart, and commended to the Saint by her parents with a vow, they invoked, standing on their knees with streaming eyes, with great devotion and urgency, the said Lady Catherine, and making a vow of pilgrimage with an offering, that if the same Lady Catherine would obtain life from God for their dead daughter, they would make their way on pilgrimage with their daughter toward Vadstena. The vow having scarcely been made, they contemplated from the face of the dead girl the soul beginning to breathe, she revives. the eyes opening, and yawning. Then shortly after she was most perfectly restored to her former life and health, so that the mother, wishing to fulfill everything she had vowed, came to Vadstena with her daughter, praising the Lord God in his handmaid Lady Catherine beyond telling. Witnesses: Haakon Joannis, who first carried the dead girl to her mother, and John pridempridz with many others.

[37] Likewise a youth suffocated and crushed under a collapsing heap of hay, In the same year, a certain youth named Tozerus, about ten years old, the son of Peter Laurentii, from the parish of Eeckbyborne in the diocese of Linköping, according to the duty assigned to him by his father, namely to bring fodder to the beasts, ascended by a certain ladder to pull from a certain great heap of hay, amassed from many cartloads. As soon as he began to pull, the hay came loose, separating itself from the wall and threatening to fall on the boy. The boy, standing leaning on the ladder, seeing that he could not escape, threw himself backward upon the ladder, laboring as much as he could to avoid the danger. But nothing availed, because together with the ladder he fell, and the hay, easily numbering ten or twelve cartloads, followed upon him and completely suffocated him, and crushed him severely by the pressure of the ladder. And when he was extracted from there, he was found between the ladder and the wall, as though placed in a press, utterly lifeless, his eyes driven out of his head, his eyes torn out, hanging down to his cheeks. His mother, however, seeing this lamentable spectacle, was stunned with astonishment at so miserable a misfortune and trembled all over: nevertheless recalling to memory the holy reputation of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, whose fame spreads itself through the world in miracles and wonders, she burst forth into these words, saying: Almighty God, Creator and Redeemer of the world, if it is true what is believed about Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, who reigns with you in heaven crowned, and you by her prayers and merits do such great wonders on earth, show mercy to me also, that by her prayers you may give me back my son alive and whole. For I will make a vow to visit her tomb at Vadstena together with my son and offerings. a vow made by the mother and many others, Likewise all those present, bearing faithful testimony to this miracle, vowed: whose names are these: Suno in Asmumstadha, Sueno Caroli in Warberghon, Peter Joannis in Korby, Olaus Danielis in Torpom, and the boy's brother Charles Petri, who together with the mother brought him out dead from the hay, wishing to carry him off to be wrapped in a shroud and buried. Immediately upon the vow being made, the dead boy opened his eyes and rose up healthy, and with every scar removed, the eyes returned to their places: and the mother joyfully fulfilled the vow, alive, he is exhibited to the people of Vadstena. leading the boy to Vadstena to the tomb of Lady Catherine: and on the second day of Pentecost the said boy, during the high sermon, before the people, who were then present in great numbers, was raised up three times in testimony of the foregoing: with all praising God, who is always wonderful and glorious in his Saints.

CHAPTER VI.

Miracles of the year 1473.

[38] In the year of the Lord 1473, a certain man called Olaus Magnus, living in the parish and town of Styra, in the diocese of Linköping, in the territory of Boharozk-baridh, Amid festivities, from the Sunday within the Octave of Blessed Martin, had invited his friends to the celebration of a baptism, and with them, as is the custom of the generous, rejoiced greatly until vespers: but as the sun was already tending toward its setting, he began to grow faint and to fail in bodily strength, so that he was compelled to leave the festivity of the joyful guests and take to his bed. The guests, hearing this, judged by rash judgment that he was doing this out of excessive parsimony, although it was otherwise: for before midnight the illness had so increased that, suddenly seized by illness, with the Parish Priest called, who was one of the dinner guests, he could barely make his Confession. Which, however, having been made with great difficulty, he was judged by all present to be about to die immediately: because he bore with him all the signs of death. While he was thus in his agony, his wife and his brother Nicholas Magnus, with knees bent and tearful eyes, invoked the patronage of Blessed Catherine, that she might obtain for him from God so much time of life that he could receive the Sacraments and make his will. and soon brought to extremity, When this had thus been done, they sent a second time for the Parish Priest: who coming without delay, was asked with many urgencies to go to the church to bring the Sacraments. To whom the Priest said: It is already too late, because he labors at the last point of death: nevertheless he performed everything requested according to their wishes. At length, returning with the Sacraments, a candle was held in his hands, and scarcely could the vital spirit be recognized in him: upon which, a vow made, his brother, as before, and the wife of the sick man herself, now for the second time vowed to Lady Catherine a pilgrimage to her tomb, and to the commendation of her honor their best horse, if she would obtain life for him from the Lord, who holds the key of life and death, at least for so much time that he could have the reception of the Sacraments. the ability to receive the Sacraments, When all these things, as has been said, were promised and completed, he who was as though dead began immediately to come forth from the doors of death to life, and by the merits of Blessed Catherine, in which the vow-makers trusted, he was restored to full health. And as everyone can attest, he very cheerfully commended the aforesaid Lady, then he receives complete health: who had obtained such mercy for him from the Lord: in great joy he performed and completed each and every thing according to the nature of his pledge. Witnesses: Lord Martin, Parish Priest of the same place, who sent the present miracle under his seal according to the aforesaid Order to our monastery of Vadstena; Nicholas Magnus his brother; Magnus Petri; Magnus Laurentii in Gothalom; John Asteri in Vinberghom; Nicholas Magni in Karlaby; and his own wife.

[39] A certain youth from the parish of Hobergha in the diocese of Skara, seized by a sudden illness, immediately expired, and thus remained dead for eight hours of the natural day. dead for eight hours he revives: Those present, however, attentive to this lamentable spectacle, kindled by the Holy Spirit, with knees fixed on the ground, made a vow for him to Lady Catherine. The vow scarcely made, the dead man without delay rose again, and all things that were promised for him he faithfully fulfilled. Sworn witnesses: John Petri in Sathene, Sueno Tordonis in Falahe, and Lawrence Petri in Hobergha.

[40] A certain tailor from the parish of Dingetuna, Andrew by name, a javelin hidden within the body of the injured man, when on a certain Sunday he was visiting the church and was now near the threshold of the cemetery, a certain armed man came toward him, commonly called Stock, having a taut bow and above it a javelin prepared for evil: for as soon as he caught sight of the aforesaid tailor,

he released the catch of the crossbow, and the javelin, once fired, first penetrated the neck of the same tailor: then lower down it lodged itself within the viscera, where for eight days it remained so firmly fixed that it could be extracted from there neither by force nor by skill. Which a certain one of those present considering, advised the wounded man to test the sanctity of Blessed Catherine of Vadstena, by a vow made it exits. vowing his devotion to her: to which he assenting, did as advised. Therefore by the merits of Blessed Catherine, that same following night the aforesaid javelin began gently to exit from the left side, after whose exit he was perfectly and completely healed, and immediately performed his vow according to his own pledge, by visiting Vadstena. Witnesses: Lord Peter Olavi, Lord John Henrici, Prebendaries of the monastery of Vadstena, and a certain virgin of the household of the monastery of Vadstena, named Cecilia.

[41] In the same year, a certain student of Stockholm named John Nicolai, of the diocese of Uppsala, suddenly seized by illness, Speech restored to a mute man: lost his speech for four days: and while he thus lay despaired of this temporal life, a certain pilgrim came, who had recently been at Vadstena, and urged all those present to vow the aforesaid student to the tomb of Blessed Catherine of Vadstena, which was also done. Therefore at the prayers and merits of Blessed Catherine, the mute spoke directly, as before, and confessed his sins, and thereby recovered his full health: and cheerful and rejoicing he came to Vadstena, faithfully carrying out all things according to his promises. Witnesses: two respectable matrons of Stockholm, Anna and Margaret Ergei, and James Henrici of the same place.

[42] to a girl given up after a three-month illness, A certain knight named Gregory Benckters, with his legitimate wife named Christina, of the diocese of Uppsala, province of Samingiahundar, from the parish of Wadha, the manor of Benhamer situated beyond Stockholm, had one only daughter, and she was tormented for three months by a most grievous illness, and around the end of the third month no hope of surviving was seen in her: but because she was the only one, she was therefore most tenderly beloved, and lots cast to various Saints brought no remedy. Likewise they promised many vows and promises, but all in vain, until Lord John, their Chaplain, came, saying: It appeared to me in a dream that you ought to vow the child to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget: she asks for a vow to her and thus she will be saved. her life is preserved, a Mass having been celebrated in honor of the Saint. To which the knight and the Lady assenting, with knees bent, vowed the child to Vadstena with offerings and other devotions. Then, after a Mass celebrated by the said Chaplain, the pain began to be mitigated, and hope of life appeared in her, and day by day she grew stronger: the parents themselves fulfilling the vow, as is premised, with great cheerfulness of spirit, of which one offering was an infant of silver and another of wax. Witnesses: Lord John the Chaplain, Magnus Finwidi, and Magnus the Goldsmith, citizens of Vadstena.

[43] The child of Lawrence the scribe of the castle of Stockholm, which he has with his legitimate wife, on the day of S. Mark the Evangelist, A paralytic infant healed, was seized by a pitiable seizure, so that he was made mute and paralytic, and totally alienated from his senses. Lots were cast, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget. Which done, they humbly bent their knees to the ground, vowing, not without showers of tears, their pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. And immediately the infant recovered his senses fully, and greater signs of recovery than before appeared in him, and he was strengthened from hour to hour until he was perfectly healed, and they faithfully fulfilled the vow they had made. Witnesses: Lord Ivar Axillis, a knight, Lady Magdalena his wife, and Martin Jacobi.

[44] likewise a blind and disabled man: John Michaelis, in the parish of Malbak, province of Vestrahardh, in the diocese of Linköping, completely exhausted of all bodily strength, having become blind, could not move himself anywhere without two sticks. Therefore he was entirely useless both to himself and to everyone else. In such affliction, his Parish Priest persuaded him to invoke the help of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, and to make a vow to her with the greater devotion which the clemency of the Savior would assign him: which he also did: he came to Vadstena to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine with the support of the said sticks in the greatest labors, and there he was restored in his whole body to his former health, leaving the same sticks there as evident testimony of the miracle: and after this he returned to his house with great joy, giving magnificent thanks to God in his beloved Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Conrad, Chaplain of the church of Vadstena and public Notary, and Giord Laurentii, Chief Magistrate of Vadstena.

[45] Olaus Joannis, a citizen of Arboga, was seized by such an illness that, from the madness of his head, he was completely alienated from his senses, a madman restored to reason: and so he remained demented for eight days. His friends, however, afflicted with sorrows and tribulations, vowed him to make a pilgrimage to Vadstena to the tomb of Lady Catherine, and to offer the image of a man in wax, if by the merits and prayers of Blessed Catherine the power of making the pilgrimage were granted him. A wonderful thing! Immediately in the same lunation, after the invocation of the said Lady Catherine, the senses returned fully to the demented man, and his limbs received perfect health according to their natural disposition: and having been made well, he devoutly completed all things according to the order of the premises, praising and glorifying the great works of God in Blessed Catherine, through whose patronage he was made whole. Witnesses: John Jacobi and Nicholas Joannis, his fellow citizens.

[46] an infant dead soon after birth, Andrew Olavi, from the parish of Skrukrabij, province of Gorstringsxheridh, in the diocese of Linköping, with his legitimate wife begot a male child, who, when he was born into the world, was for three hours pronounced entirely dead by three matrons of respectable and good reputation who were present, because no signs of life appeared in him. They humbled themselves from great compassion on their knees, imploring the help of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, promising her the image of one boy of wax with other pious works, if in such necessity she would come to the aid of the said dead one, obtaining life for him. The parents, moreover, of the same dead boy, pledged such a vow that they would not eat anything that had suffered death, resuscitated by a vow made. before they had completed their pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. With the pacts thus promised and confirmed by oaths, blood was seen to flow from the eyes, mouth, and nostrils of the dead infant, and afterwards to breathe and revive. Then he obtained the grace of Baptism, and was strengthened in the Lord, and now was making daily progress in health. The mother of this infant, when these things were thus being done, by the vow made, as already said, was made well. And each and every thing they had promised they fulfilled with full jubilation of their hearts, praising the power of the Savior and the mercy of Blessed Catherine. Witnesses: John Haquini and Nicholas Olavi, living in the same parish.

[47] A boy swallowing a grain spike, Lawrence Andersson, from the parish of Kalvesteen, village of Fronberghom, in the diocese of Linköping, province of Aslaheridh, had a boy of one and a half years with his wife: which boy, sitting in the heated room, secretly, with no one noticing, swallowed a certain spike of great size made of rye, from which he suffered such distresses, and for five weeks was often so tormented that no one could recognize any vital spirit in him. The father and mother, seeing this and lamenting more than can be believed, made a vow with all humility, namely an image of wax, to the tomb of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget: and not without the great mercy of God, which at the invocation of Lady Catherine was present, he is freed, on the third following night the spike came out through the nostrils, and the boy was freed from his long languor: on account of which the aforesaid parents of the boy devoutly and cheerfully completed each and every promise. Witnesses: John Nicolai and Berger Joannis, his neighbors. A certain man from the parish of Birckeberga, in the diocese of Linköping, a dying horse is healed. placed his horse, tied by a certain halter or rope, in the pastures, healthy and without any ailment, vigorous; and without delay it threw itself on the ground, tossing itself up and down as though about to die. The owner of the horse vowed to Lady Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget, one horse of wax: which done, it was immediately restored to its former health. Witnesses: Lord Benedict and Lord Birger.

[48] A certain boy named James, from the parish of Birnista, in the diocese of Västerås, while suffering from a lethal illness unto death, A Parish Priest's paralytic, with all hope of life removed, became mute and paralytic, so that in half of his body he was completely destroyed: and in these afflictions he was grievously tormented for three months. For whose cure the faithful of Christ, sympathizing with him, made a vow to the tomb of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, with offering and pilgrimage: which done, he soon obtained a change in the illness, and within a short time recovered so much that he personally and faithfully fulfilled all that had been promised. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence, Parish Priest of the Church of Straa, and Lord John Henrici, Altarist of Vadstena. A certain woman named Regnhild, in the monastery of Söderköping, a woman endangered by being trampled, on the feast of Blessed Lawrence, when she was making a pilgrimage there for the sake of Indulgences, was so pressed and trampled by the people that she was carried outside the church, as though dead, in a certain covering or woolen cloth: for the recovery of whose health her friends and acquaintances made a vow for her to Lady Catherine, with wax and other devotions; and she immediately received her former well-being, and fulfilled each and every thing that had been promised with great joy. Witnesses: Haakon in Sandkollom, of the parish of Rinna, and Magnus the furrier, of the parish of Windistadha.

[49] A certain man named Bondo Siuatti, in the parish of Fagz, province of Wadzbo, in the diocese of Skara, at the time of pestilence, struck by a most grievous ulcer, a man freed from a pestilent ulcer, was most violently tortured, so that his right hand was contracted upward all the way to the shoulders, and the art of medicine was not expected to confer any remedy upon him. Therefore, turning to the aid of the Saints, he began to invoke the patronage of Blessed Catherine, attaching a vow of pilgrimage toward Vadstena with the greater reverence that he could. And from his long languor he was immediately freed, and all things he had vowed he fulfilled in full in his own person. The witnesses are named in the following miracle. The wife of the aforesaid Bondo, afflicted by a sudden swelling, his wife from a swelling of the whole body. was tormented throughout her entire body, from the crown of her head to the sole of her foot, with inestimable pain, and all who saw her said that they had never before seen such an illness in any person, and each one despaired of her further well-being and life. In this despair, therefore, of human aid or counsel, they made a similar vow for her as for her husband, that they should make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. Which done, that sick woman without delay merited her former health,

the swelling entirely vanishing, glorifying God in his holy Lady Catherine. Witnesses to these two miracles: Lord John in Fazhro and Lord Benedict in Fazhro.

[50] Worms spread over entire fields, A certain man of nobler lineage, Tordo Pappason by name, of the diocese of Skara, province of Wartophzaridh, parish of Tidatorpa in Faradal, when he went into his field, found it full of worms which had covered the entire face of the earth, devastating everything: for they had devoured the crops and herbs, and when he came to the meadow, a similar misfortune met him. These worms indeed, descending from the clouds in a certain rain, had eight feet on each side: and when they first came, they were small of body, but in the briefest passage of time they grew in length to the likeness of a human finger: in running also they were very agile. Whence the owner, seeing such intolerable damage in his property, by a vow made by the owner, and that still more intolerable damage was imminent, was utterly at a loss where to turn for comfort and remedy. But placed in such fear, on a certain evening he felt a certain impulse tickling his mind, through which he began to recall how wonderful and stupendous things God does in his beloved Lady Catherine in the world. Whence, emboldened, he fixed his knees on the ground, with humility and devotion adoring the said Lady Catherine to come to his aid, that she might obtain for him from the Lord God deliverance from such a peril: and he vowed that if he escaped this plague, he would offer her one living cow with other pious works. With such a vow made in the evening, the next day, when he rose in the morning, driven away the next day, he went around again his field and other places, to explore whether he had been heard before Lady Catherine. And truly it was so, that Lady Catherine had obtained from the Lord for him what he wished: because where before going to bed he had seen the whole land covered with worms, as with dust, together with the remaining lands, there now he could not find even one, not even the smallest. Having surveyed the field, therefore, he entered the forest, and by chance was led to a certain deep lake, where he saw a mass of worms heaped together, and found dead together in one pit. which according to human estimation three larger barrels could scarcely contain, however great their capacity might be: on account of which he was greatly cheered in his spirit, and praised God in his holy Lady Catherine with all his heart: and he afterwards fulfilled his vow with all possible joy of heart, and many others in the same province, following his example, pledged similar vows to the aforesaid Blessed Lady Catherine, that she would mercifully free them by her merits and intercessions from such plagues and misfortunes. Witnesses: Lord Arvid, his Parish Priest, Lawrence Torkilli in Tidhatorp, and Magnus Laurentii of the same place.

e April 25.

CHAPTER VII.

The remaining part of the miracles, and the commissioners' subscription.

[51] In the year of the Lord 1471, a certain woman of Stockholm, A worm tormenting a woman's ear, named Bridget, was inconsolably tormented on account of a certain worm which had violently entered her ear, which she was unable to expel. Therefore her illnesses and pains were increased daily, and especially for a month lying in bed, she was entirely deprived of the use of reason and senses. Her husband, however, and respectable women sympathizing with her, cast lots upon her to many Saints, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena. On that account, both the husband and the other respectable women then present humbled themselves upon their knees, removed by a vow of pilgrimage: praying the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation in great devotion: and with the same devotion they vowed the said sick woman and one silver head with her to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena. Which done, she soon obtained the comfort of sleep, and refreshed by sleep, she awoke in the integrity of her senses and reason, and shortly thereafter she was most fully restored to health: and now healed, she came on pilgrimage with her husband to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, most devoutly fulfilling her vow and glorifying God in his handmaid Lady Catherine in manifold ways. Sworn witnesses: Lawrence, a caster of pitchers, the husband of the same, Peter Cap the smith, and the women present.

[52] In the same year, Sueno Bondonis, a servant of Lord Henry, Bishop of Linköping, was wounded in the head so dangerously a most grievous wound of the head healed, that one hand could easily be placed between the head and the ear, and bones were extracted from his head: moreover he was pierced internally between the shoulder blades to the length of one palm, from which he fell into a most grave and incurable illness, so that by all who saw him he was judged to be departing without escape: but by divine instinct, some attempting to care for him conceived a sounder counsel by seeking the benevolence of Lady Catherine, that she might pray for him; and they made a vow to her, that if he should escape death, he should personally go on pilgrimage to her tomb at Vadstena with his offerings. The vow scarcely made, he felt relief immediately, and health increased for him from hour to hour until he was perfectly cured, and what had been promised he fulfilled with great devotion, glorifying God. Witnesses: Bero Longius, Andrew Finno, with many other familiars of the Bishop.

[53] In the same year, Andozus, of the parish of Hellestadha, living near the church, province of Wadzbo, likewise a neck illness, in the diocese of Skara, fell ill in his neck so severely that he was judged by all to be approaching death and by no means able to escape; but his wife with friends, lots having been cast to various Saints, the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, and this three times, according to the attempts: for this reason and for the judgment of the same Virgin's sanctity, humbling themselves on their knees, they vowed the sick man to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine at Vadstena: which done, the ulcer was broken, and the illness yielded to health, and he who was made well faithfully fulfilled what had been promised for him, according to the manner of the promise. Likewise the wife of this man, secretly burdened by the temptations of the enemy, especially from hardness of heart and impurity, vowed a certain secret and perpetual service, and a hidden temptation. likewise secretly, and to the same Virgin Catherine and Lady, and was immediately freed. Sworn witnesses: Helgho Arffuidi and Sueno Laurentii, his neighbors.

[54] In the same year, Algothus, in the parish of Erigxbergha, province of Gansenekrande, in the diocese of Skara, sent his wife to the pastures with the flocks: A boy lost for three days in the forests, who took with her her five-year-old son. When they had come to the interior of the forests, the boy from weariness lay down and fell asleep: but at the customary time, with the flocks returning to the folds, the woman followed somewhat behind, thinking the little boy was going ahead with the flock. But when she came to the house, not seeing her son, she told the father about the absent son: the father, dismayed at the unexpected misfortune, gathered the neighbors and relatives to investigate the lost son. They, greatly distressed, on the first, second, and third day until noon, began to search through the forests and fields, near and far, but accomplished nothing. Therefore those who had helped in the search, weary, were preparing to return to the houses of their dwellings. The father, however, considering this and inwardly afflicted with grief, with many prayers obtained from them that they would accompany him in searching until the evening: after invocation of the Saint, first, however, a vow having been made to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, kneeling, in this manner: that if the boy were found again, then the father himself together with his son would make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, with wax and other offerings. The vow, therefore, having been made, they began to search again until the evening, and then they found the boy walking obliquely, where no passage of men was customary. Upon which the father's heart rejoiced, and likewise all rejoiced who had not labored in vain, magnifying the great works of God in his holy Lady Catherine, to whom, as was promised, he is found unharmed. payment was duly and rightly made. Sworn witnesses: Arson and Gustavus, with those who were searching with him.

[55] In the same year, Bridget, from the parish of Olmistadha, province of Rydhneck, in the diocese of Linköping, A woman infected with poison is freed: was infected with poison, for whose remedy she invoked Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, and vowed to her that she would go on pilgrimage to her tomb, with an offering of wax and other devotions, if she were restored to her former health: the promise having been made and fulfilled, she expelled the poison and was freed, and most devoutly completed her vow. Sworn witnesses: Magnus and John Caroli.

[56] In the same year, the wife of Peter Nicolai of Warn, parish of Motala, province called Askaharade, another three-year-old boy. in the diocese of Linköping, following the herds of cattle in the fields and forest pastures, brought with her her three-year-old son, and the boy, weary of walking, lay down, and sleep immediately overtook him. The mother, however, neglecting her son, followed the cattle wherever they went, until in the evening they returned to the folds: only then did she remember the son left behind in the forests, and approaching her husband, not without vehement sadness, she told him what had happened: who, overcome by excessive grief, without delay entered the thickness of the forests to search: but that day he accomplished nothing, likewise on the second, by a similar vow, although he had procured many helpers to search with him. On the third day, however, in great tribulation and anxiety of mind, he placed himself on his knees, vowing that he would make his pilgrimage to the tomb of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, with offerings: and from the inmost affection of his heart he beseeched the same Lady Catherine to grant him

aid in finding his lost son: found by his father on the third day. when these things had thus been done, he returned with his friends to the forest to try once more whether the boy would be returned to him. And when they had already passed the day, around evening they found him where he lay, languishing and trembling on the ground, and the father received him into his bosom and with joy returned him to his mother to be restored: the mother, moreover, with maternal affection and compassion, nurtured him, so that in a short time he was totally refreshed. Witnesses: Olaus Laurentii and Olaus Hemmingi in Biscops-mothala.

Instrument of the Lords Commissioners.

Let all know, whose interest it is or may be in any way in the future, that we, John of Aby and John Ormeri, [The Commissioners testify that all and each thing have been ascertained by suitable witnesses,] Prebendaries in the monastery of Vadstena, acknowledge and declare, according to the commission and mandate given to us in this matter by the venerable Father and Lord, Lord Henry, by divine compassion Bishop of Linköping and local Ordinary, as the letter or tenor of the letter composed on this matter and inscribed above in the present booklet declares, that all the miracles written in this booklet after the said tenor of the commission have been written, received, and examined by us, except a few received, examined, and written similarly by the honorable man Lord Benedict of Haghaby, prevented by death, and together with us by the same Lord of Linköping appointed for this purpose, and inserted into this present booklet. Which miracles indeed, so that they might carry credibility, with their complete substance and opportune circumstances, through trustworthy witnesses, with the administration of a due oath being collected, we applied the utmost diligence in the same. others less attested being omitted. We also acknowledge and declare that we received and wrote down many other miracles, which, because the names, villages, and parishes of the persons with whom such miracles were done are unknown to us, and not having suitable witnesses and therefore not carrying credibility, we have not cared to insert here. In witness and testimony of all and each of the foregoing, we have subscribed here with our own hand, appending our seals, which we use. I confess this to be so, I, John Nicolai, Prebendary of Vadstena. I confess this to be so, I, John Ormeri, Prebendary of Vadstena.

And I, Benedict Pauli, Clerk of the diocese of Uppsala, public Notary by Imperial authority, Subscription of the Notary. because I was personally present at the presentation, reading, hearing, examination, and discrimination from article to article of the present book, and finally at the appending of seals, and at all other things both collectively and individually done and transacted in the holy Council of Arboga in the diocese of Västerås, and saw and heard them so done as is aforesaid: therefore I have inscribed my customary sign together with my name in this present book, asked and required by the Religious men Brother John, General Confessor, and Brother Rodker, Conventual of the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, in witness and testimony of all the foregoing, in the presence of the venerable men and Lords Eric Andreae, Provost of Uppsala, and Simon, Doctor of Decrees and Cantor of Linköping, witnesses summoned and asked for the foregoing. Printed at Stockholm.