Birgitta

ON ST. BIRGITTA, WIDOW, AT ROME,

In the year MCCCLXXIII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Birgitta, widow, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1337, 1346, 1347, 1348

BY J. B.

§ I. Some works on St. Birgitta are reviewed, but such as are either doubtful or unknown to us.

What John the Evangelist says in chapter 3, verse 8: "The Spirit breatheth where He will," The deeds of St. Birgitta the supreme Pontiffs saw, the kings and princes saw, the whole Catholic world saw, in the fourteenth century of the Christian era as it was slipping by, in which it pleased the divine goodness to raise up from the rough and frozen North St. Birgitta, who, breathed upon by the Spirit of God, the salutary fear of the supreme Judge

might strike into the peoples, and might everywhere kindle the fire of love toward the Creator and Redeemer of the human race. This holy Woman, as she was celebrated above all throughout her whole life for the splendour of her birth, the excellence of her virtues, the multitude of her prodigies, and the singular favour of the divine Godhead; so, from the time she departed from among the living, she not undeservedly called forth the talents and pens of many to her praise. But would that there survived even today, and were at hand, whatever was formerly consigned to written records concerning this holy Widow, whose Acts we now undertake to illustrate, and that the diligence of our forebears did not convict the sloth of posterity!

[2] Scarcely had St. Birgitta departed from this mortal life, a little after her death when her deeds, her virtues, and the very many prodigies which, whether living or dead, she had performed in a few years began to be collected from every side with the greatest care and zeal. Already from the year 1379 (St. Birgitta died, however, as will be shown in its place, in the year 1373) St. Catherine, her daughter, who in the year 1375 had come to Rome to procure the canonization of her Mother, withdrawing from there because of the disturbance of the times, left there a codex which contained the Life and miracles of St. Birgitta, as Ulpho, an author of nearly contemporary age and a monk of Vadstena, writes in the Life of St. Catherine, with us in volume 3 of March, page 516, in these words: "Therefore the venerable lady Catherine, having thus spent five years at Rome for the aforesaid business" (of the canonization of her mother Birgitta) "at great and heavy expense, since, because of the dangerous schism which was impending, there was no hope that so arduous a business could be brought to its due end, as was fitting; using the sounder counsel of the prelates, she deposited at Rome the Life and miracles of her holy mother Birgitta, written out, with their attestations under many public authentic instruments and the seals of Cardinals, Prelates, Lords and Ladies in various parts of the City and of the world, all affording true credence: committing that holy business for the future to the divine disposition and providence."

[3] were collected And from this, as also from the miracles which happened from the year 1375, in which St. Catherine left Sweden for Rome, to the year 1389, there grew together, as I think, a volume called the Book of Attestations, which in the year 1390 was offered by Magnus Petri, grandson of Israel, St. Birgitta's brother, through his son Peter, to Boniface IX, recently raised to the Chair of St. Peter; concerning which Laurentius Romanus, an eyewitness, in the Description of the ceremonies of the canonization of St. Birgitta, which we have in Belgic, whether written or translated, wrote to roughly this effect: that when in the year 1389 Urban VI had determined that a jubilee should be celebrated in the following year, he likewise at the same time gave letters to the convent of Vadstena in Sweden, which St. Birgitta had founded, by which he summoned Magnus Petri to Rome as soon as possible, promising that his help would not be lacking in the canonization of St. Birgitta, unaware, namely, how near the end of his life was impending over him. Moved by these, the people of Vadstena, Nicholas bishop of Linköping, Margaret queen of Sweden and the senators of the kingdom urged Magnus Petri to take the road to Rome as soon as possible.

[4] Having set out from Vadstena in the year 1390 about the feast of St. Michael, together with John Svensson, in the Book of Attestations who died on the journey, and Andrew Olofsson, as Thorir writes in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1390, he came to Rome about the feast of the Lord's Nativity, when, Urban VI having died, Boniface IX had already succeeded. To him, therefore, Magnus Petri offered the suppliant letters of Margaret, queen of Sweden, of the senators of the kingdom and of the monastery of Vadstena; these having been kindly received, the Pontiff gave the cause of St. Birgitta to certain cardinals to examine, namely Philip of France, Adam of England, and also him of Bari. These, the matter having been maturely examined, in the year 1391 about the feast of St. Lawrence asked the Pontiff to inscribe St. Birgitta on the roll of the Saints: the Pontiff answered that he would do what should seem to be fitting. St. Birgitta's cause having been brought to that point, Magnus Petri offered the Pontiff a twin volume, of which the one contained her revelations; the other, called the Book of Attestations, her Life, family, morals and miracles. Magnus moreover ordered, employing the work of thirty copyists, sixteen copies of the latter volume to be written as quickly as possible at a price of twenty gold coins (they call them ducats) each, which he gave as a gift to as many cardinals. So, roughly, Laurentius Romanus, an eyewitness, as I have said, of the event.

[5] With Laurentius Romanus there roughly agrees Laelius, a Swedish writer of the sixteenth century in the Mirror of Virgins, offered to Boniface IX in the year 1390: to whom these words are attributed by John Gustafsson in the Brahe Genealogy, page 37: "In the year MCCCXC Pope Urban VI" (he died in the year 1389) "commanded by letters Lord Magnus Petri" (who was the nephew of Lady Birgitta and son of Lord Peter Israelsson) "to come to Rome for the Jubilee year; having set out thither, furnished with a great treasure and many letters of commendation, Urban meanwhile dies, to whom Boniface IX succeeds, who commanded three Cardinals to unfold and examine well the Acts and Writings, or, as it is commonly said, the Birgittine Legends, for whose sake Lord Magnus had three copies written." Laelius agrees, I say, roughly with Laurentius: for although Laelius mentions only three copies of the Life of St. Birgitta offered to cardinals by Magnus Petri, the other sixteen; yet there is no conflict between the two writers; because Laelius's discourse is of three copies first offered to as many cardinals, named at the preceding number, before the examination of the Birgittine cause was instituted by them; whereas Laurentius's is of copies of the same Life offered by Magnus Petri, after the examination of the three cardinals had been completed, to the other cardinals, in whose presence he had offered to Boniface IX the volume of the Life and miracles of St. Birgitta. For the rest, Thorir Andersson makes mention of this Book of Attestations in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1373. Of Thorir himself, moreover, these things are read in the same Diary at the year 1406: "In the same year, within the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, brother Thorir Andersson, who had written the aforesaid things up to this point, was sent a second time from the monastery of Vadstena toward Florence for the spreading of the Order." It is well to have noted the age of this author, at least nearly contemporary with St. Birgitta and a monk of Vadstena, because we shall make use of his authority from time to time hereafter.

[6] but it has been possible to find it nowhere, It also appears most probable that the same Book of Attestations was indicated under the name of the Legend of St. Birgitta by Peter, Prior of Alvastra (it is a convent of Cistercians in East Gothland), in various places in his Additions or Declarations to the Revelations of St. Birgitta; as also by Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, in the Prologue to the Book of the heavenly emperor, both of whom, as we shall say below, were not only contemporary with St. Birgitta, but also joined to her in intimate familiarity. It is indeed to be wished as much as anything that so precious a record, if perchance it has not utterly perished, may at some time see the light: to unearth it from somewhere, Father John Michael van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, toward the end of the seventeenth century went through various monasteries of the Birgittine Order situated in our regions, as I learn from his Notices sent to our Predecessors: but the man's diligence was in vain in this matter. John Scheffer, in volume 3 of the Northern Library, enumerates various Swedish writers who flourished under Magnus Eriksson, Albert, Margaret, Eric of Pomerania, Christopher and Charles Knutsson, and among these some who wrote of St. Birgitta: but of the Book of Attestations he says not even a word.

[7] not even at Rome, where it is said to have still existed in the 16th century: Does it perhaps lie hidden somewhere at Rome? At Rome indeed, in the house or hospice of St. Birgitta, a book not altogether different from the Book of Attestations is read to have still existed in the sixteenth century, in the History of the archbishops of Uppsala of John Magnus, published at Rome by his brother Olaus Magnus, both of whom stayed for some time in the aforesaid house; where in book 4, concerning Birger, I find these things noted: "This Birger, with his fellow-bishops and all the abbots of the kingdoms of Sweden and Gothland, wrote to Urban V, Gregory XI and Urban VI for the Canonization of St. Birgitta, as can be shown in her examination among the Acts produced under their seals at Rome in the hospital of the same St. Birgitta." Of what examination the discourse is here (for the cause of St. Birgitta was examined repeatedly) is not clear: but if the examination of the same instituted under Boniface IX is here treated, it becomes very probable that this book, preserved at Rome in the hospice of St. Birgitta in the age of Olaus and of John Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, was similar to the copy which we saw above that Magnus Petri offered to the three examining cardinals. However that may be, I strongly suspect that the aforesaid book is now missing in the Roman hospice: both because it is not probable that Burlamacchi, who published the Life of St. Birgitta at Naples in the year 1692, neglected to inquire into a book of this kind, which he nowhere mentions; and because Durante, bishop of Montefeltro in Italy and commentator on the Revelations, published an abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, of which below; and served up to the reader the miracles of St. Birgitta from the codex of the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna at Rome, he who would probably not have neglected the codex of the hospice of St. Birgitta if it had been found there. We, finally, having written letters to Rome on that matter, made no more progress. But enough of the Book of Attestations.

[8] whether wrote a Life of St. Birgitta Among the biographers of St. Birgitta there is reckoned by Scheffer, praised above, by Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, and by others, Nicholas Hermansson, bishop of Linköping in Sweden, whose work, if indeed it ever existed or survives still, we would lack the more regretfully the better instructed he was concerning her affairs from the age in which he lived, indeed even from his familiarity with St. Birgitta; as may easily be gathered from those things which Thorir Andersson writes of him in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1391: "Likewise on the Eve of the Finding of the holy Cross died the venerable Father Lord Lord Nicholas Hermansson, bishop of Linköping, who first introduced and blessed" (in the year 1384) "the conventuals of Vadstena to the observance of the regular life. Concerning the doing of which, when he still frequented the schools, being the tutor of the sons of St. Birgitta, it was divinely revealed to the same St. Birgitta. He was a man of great holiness. He composed the history of St. Birgitta which begins: 'Rosa rorans bonitatem, etc.' and many other histories of the Saints."

[9] But the words with which the beginning of the history of St. Birgitta written by Nicholas is here said to be conceived Nicholas of Linköping seem rather to sound like a hymn or canticle than a full and expansive explanation of the life of St. Birgitta: whence perhaps in this place the opinion of Eric Benzelius in his Annotations to Vastovius is not to be disapproved, that no Life of St. Birgitta ever came forth from Nicholas; but only a hymn, which even today is found more than once among the manuscripts in Swedish Libraries: and that Nicholas was reckoned among the historiographers or biographers of St. Birgitta by some for no other reason than that they did not sufficiently notice that for Swedish writers the same

"History" sometimes means what "Hymn" or "Chant" does: and that this held among the Germans too at about that age I understand from Gobelinus Persona in the Cosmodromium, age VI, where in chapter 90 he says this of himself: "He" (John XXIII, elected Pontiff in the year 1410) "confirmed, or ordered to be confirmed, the history or chant which I had made in the preceding year on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which chant begins: 'Tecum principium, etc.'" Indeed, I do not think that the author of the Vadstena Diary, Andreas Thorir, would have so acted as to mention a hymn composed by Nicholas in praise of St. Birgitta, but pass over in silence a fuller Life of St. Birgitta, if Nicholas had written one.

[10] Perhaps also Alphonsus of Jaén, and whether Alphonsus of Jaén did, is not clear: in the common tongue Jaen, first bishop under the kingdom of Castile and then a hermit, who was confessor to St. Birgitta while she was living in Italy and her companion when she went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, wrote a Life of the same holy Woman: for in the Life of Bl. Clare of Pisa, written by a contemporary nun, with us in volume 2 of April, page 510, number 16, this may be read: "About the same time there had come to Pisa the bishop Alphonsus, formerly the confessor of St. Bridget, who had once been familiarly known at Jerusalem to Peter, the father of Clare; when he had been most courteously received by him, Peter made known to him what had befallen him regarding his most beloved daughter, and begged that he would persuade her to comply with her father's will. Alphonsus gladly undertook what he was asked: but having spoken with the girl and found her constant fervour and her supreme desire of serving God alone, not only did he not try to draw her away from her holy purpose, but he even exhorted her to pursue it, setting before her the example of St. Bridget; and that she might know it better and imitate it more ardently, he left her the written history of her life. Clare accepted the gift and the counsel gratefully, and thenceforth, most piously affected toward the Saint, she began to hold and venerate her as her special advocate, and, heaped with many graces by her, she was the first to establish that a sermon on the life and virtues of St. Bridget should be held publicly at Pisa; and in her monastery her feast is celebrated every year to this day." Whither this Alphonsine Life of St. Birgitta has gone, or in what hiding-places it lies concealed, if it ever existed, I cannot divine: but its loss is perhaps repaired in some fashion by the things which the same Alphonsus left written of St. Birgitta elsewhere, of which mention will be made in their time and place; and perhaps he gave St. Clare a Life of St. Birgitta indeed, but one written by another, to read through.

[11] Likewise of another Life of St. Birgitta, Of another Life of St. Birgitta, moreover, our literary store affords some sort of notice, in which I found a fragment of a Life of the same Saint with this opening: "Just as the merits of holiness of very many holy parents were the seeds of the holiness shining forth in their children, so the grace of pious progenitors won great aids for our Saint": from what source it was written, the author himself sets forth in this manner at the end of a rather long Prologue: "And that I may render the reader secure about the credibility of the things which I shall relate, let him know that whatever I shall bring forward I have received from the process of her canonization, in which not only the Life, but also nearly two hundred miracles, confirmed by witnesses and by oath, before the legates of the Apostolic See, sent both by Gregory XI, Supreme Pontiff, into Sweden to inspect the Life and miracles, and before four other cardinals named by Urban V [*] to discuss the same at Rome." If this was truly and faithfully said by him, there is surely reason why that Life should not be made of little account: would only that we had it entire: our fragment contains only the first three chapters, and those not very long, besides the Prologue, mutilated at the beginning: nor have I anywhere found noted, which is contrary to their custom, whence a copy of it was furnished to our Predecessors. Father van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, saw it, as also a certain German or rather Flemish Life of Birgitta, and he judged the latter to be a compendium of it: and not undeservedly, as it appears: for there is such agreement between our fragment and the opening of that Flemish Life, transmitted to us by the praised Prior, that words answer to words almost everywhere.

[12] some sort of notice, though not of the original one. Nor did Father van der Ketten's labour stop here: having gone through that German or Belgic life, if anything singular occurred in it which was either not found at all elsewhere commonly, or not in the same manner, he noted it diligently and transmitted it to us. He judged that Flemish little book worthy of credence, chiefly because it was drawn from the Latin Life of which I have just treated: and this, as he writes in his Notices sent to us, is either the one which was found in the Book of Attestations, or certainly a most authentic one. Nor would I wish to detract from its authority: yet I would not think that it was written out in the Book of Attestations, or that it is the primary Life of St. Birgitta, from which the others flowed. Not the first; because it arose from the Book of Attestations itself, as from a foundation, on the testimony of its author in the Prologue. Nor the second, because of the things which Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, writes, speaking, as I scarcely doubt, of the primary Legend of St. Birgitta, in the Prologue of the Book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, chapter 3. These are they: "Indeed, at a certain time, when the king of Sweden wished to burden his subjects throughout the whole kingdom with great exactions, that he might pay a certain quantity of money in which he was bound to his creditors, then blessed Birgitta said to the king: Lord, do not do this, but take my two sons and place them as hostages until you shall be able to pay, and do not offend God and your subjects." To this memorable deed of St. Birgitta, full of love of her country, Alphonsus presently subjoins: "And this is found more clearly in the Legend of her Life." But this is not to be read in the Excerpts made by Father van der Ketten from that German Life, nor therefore, as it is right to suspect, in the Latin from which that flowed; I add, nor anywhere else, so far as I know: which I wish to be observed not only for this, but also for the other Lives of St. Birgitta, those at least which we have, to be reviewed below.

* read VI

§ II. The principal Lives of St. Birgitta extant hitherto: which of these are to be published by us: notice of the authors familiar with the Saint.

By Birger, archbishop of Uppsala, In the preceding § we touched upon those records whose antiquity indeed is to be commended; but which either no longer exist, or are so hidden that we do not know the way and means of procuring them for ourselves: I come to others, which, having enjoyed a better fate, so to speak, have either been printed or are in our hands in manuscript. And first, as Father van der Ketten deserved well of our Museum by various notices concerning St. Birgitta which he once sent us, so we owe him truly the amplest thanks chiefly on this account, that he was willing to communicate to our Predecessors a very ancient Life of St. Birgitta, unknown, as he writes, even to his own Order, happily unearthed from the darkness. It was written a few years after St. Birgitta's death by the archbishop of Uppsala, Birger Gregersson, and is most worthy at length to behold the light which it has hitherto lacked. "How great was his knowledge in sacred letters and in divine and human laws, the ecclesiastical histories which came forth from his most fertile genius sufficiently show," says John Magnus the Goth in book 4 of the Pontiffs of Uppsala, his predecessors. He wore the mitre of Uppsala from about the year 1366 to the year 1383, in which he died on the fifth day before the Ides of March, according to the same Magnus. He flourished, therefore, in the same age as St. Birgitta, who, as will be said below, was given to the world not far from Uppsala. Moreover, that Birger was of the number of those Swedish prelates to whom it was most at heart that St. Birgitta should be enrolled on the roll of the Saints is abundantly clear from what has already been said above: nor therefore is it to be doubted that, in keeping with the dignity of his office, with the excellence of his learning, and with the veneration with which he was borne toward Birgitta, he applied himself with all due zeal to look more deeply into her deeds, and to commit to writing about her only those things which he had well known and explored. Hence Gudmar Fredriksson, John Giurderi and Batismundus, monks of Vadstena, who in the year 1374 and the two following collected Birgitta's miracles by order of Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, fortified all these things which they had gathered concerning St. Birgitta's miracles with the authority of Birger and other prelates of Sweden, as most approved witnesses, as may be seen in the Miracles performed by St. Birgitta in Sweden, to be published below, at number 5.

[14] written A Life of St. Birgitta written by such a man, and not yet printed hitherto, as we think, we cannot but insert into our Work. But, someone will say, is it certain enough that that Life which Father van der Ketten drew from darkness into light had for its author Birger Gregersson, archbishop of Uppsala, a contemporary of St. Birgitta? He will moreover warn, together with Eric Benzelius in the Annotations to Vastovius's Vitis Aquilonia, page 70, that concerning Birger only these things are read in the Chronicle of the archbishops of Uppsala: "He composed the History of St. Birgitta, which begins: 'Birgittae matris inclytae'": but that by these words not a full and expansive Life of the same Saint, but only a hymn is indicated, according to a manner not unusual with Swedish writers. I hear, and indeed partly for this reason I admitted in the preceding § that Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, probably wrote only a hymn about St. Birgitta. It is altogether otherwise with the Life of St. Birgitta written by Birger. John Magnus the Goth, or his brother Olaus, not only says that a Life of St. Birgitta was written by Birger, but also teaches us the words with which he began it, writing thus: "This archbishop Birger composed the Legend of saint Birgitta, in which these words are contained: 'Blessed Birgitta, sprung in the kingdom of Sweden, not only, according to the revelation divinely made to her, drew an illustrious descent from the line of the holy kings there, who by their holy merits deserved that the Lord should magnify His mercy with her, but was also born of noble and devout progenitors and parents'": with which words the Life of St. Birgitta, to be published by us under Birger's name, also begins. The words of Bureus in the Description of Sweden, page 306, which do not differ from those just transcribed, I do not care to repeat. I add, however, the words of John Moller in the Hypomnemata subjoined to John Scheffer's Svecia literata, page 352. "Writings on her life" (St. Birgitta's) "by Birger Gregersson, just now praised, and composed by Nicholas of Skänninge, bishop of Linköping, and by our Scheffer

(page 10) and by John Messenius (in the Chronicle of the bishops of Sweden, chapter 5, page 44, chapter 7, page 84), have without doubt perished." If Birger's writings on St. Birgitta have without doubt perished; without doubt they also existed.

[15] and to be published here And indeed it is not at all strange that the Life of Birgitta written by Birger was nowhere seen in Sweden by Benzelius, after the ancestral religion had long since been cast off by the Swedes and the monasteries dispersed: John Magnus the Goth certainly saw it, or his brother Olaus, if the Additions subjoined to the histories of the Pontiffs of Uppsala are his. What if it was among the number of those ancient records of the church of Uppsala and of the Swedish kingdom which they say John Magnus the Goth carried off elsewhere when the Catholic faith was going to ruin in Sweden? For thus Moller speaks of him in the Hypomnemata, page 364: "He presided over this unique office" (the archiepiscopal) "for four years, and in the meantime dispatched much public business of great moment, until in the year MDXXVII, when he not only neglected the ecclesiastical reformation" (so it pleases non-Catholics to speak) "decreed in the assembly of the kingdom, but even resisted it, he incurred the indignation of King Gustav, who had inveighed against him in vain, and was sent by him as envoy into Poland to negotiate for him a marriage with Hedwig, the daughter of King Sigismund, so that he might be no further hindrance to the patrons of Lutheranism. For when he had betaken himself there in the same year MDXXVII, having first secretly packed up all his things, and at the same time the charters and the ancient historical records of the kingdom and of the church of Uppsala … he never returned to his homeland, but having set out for Rome from the beginning, etc." Whence, as Moller adds a little later: "To seek out again the ancient records of Swedish affairs which he had carried away with him from his homeland, and to recover them for the Swedes by postliminy, a whole century after his death, in the year MDCXLIX, Job Ludolf, an illustrious man, removed to Rome by order of the august Christina, but he could neither find nor recover any of these things."

[16] But however these things may be, not only the Swedish libraries, from an old copy of the monastery of St. Mary at the Tree, but also the monasteries of the Birgittines scattered through various regions of Europe should have been consulted before it was denied that Birger wrote a Life of St. Birgitta, or before it was said that this had certainly perished: for it could not have the appearance of truth that the older nurslings of the Birgittine Order had been so negligent of the things pertaining to their holy Mother that they took care to have her ancient records transcribed nowhere else than in Sweden, and preserved them diligently. The contrary is taught by the Life of St. Birgitta found by Father van der Ketten in the monastery of Mary at the Tree, commonly called Marienboom and situated in Cleves, which these words subjoined to the Life demonstrate to have been Birger's: "Here ends the Legend of blessed Birgitta, our mother, by nation of Sweden, compiled by the reverend lord father Birger, archbishop of Uppsala"; which words indeed are clearly not Birger's, but those of a Birgittine monk who copied it from an older exemplar: yet they do not on that account cease to be of great weight; as being of an author who wrote these things about 58 years after the death of Birger, and who therefore drew what he wrote of Birger either from the older exemplar which he had in his hands, or received it from the first fathers of his order, at least of an age nearly contemporary with Birger: for Father van der Ketten writes that in the aforesaid monastery he found a twin volume of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, in one of which the Birgerian Life of St. Birgitta was found at the end, the year, however, in which it was written out being omitted; but the other was noted as written out in the year 1441: and since, on the testimony of the same father, both volumes were written by the same hand, it is most probable that the antiquity of both is about equal.

[17] Further, lest the authority of Benzelius move anyone more than is right, the Life of St. Birgitta is vindicated; I do not wish to pass over this unsaid, that the same, in his Annotations to Vastovius's Vitis Aquilonia, page 58, for the same reason for which he takes away the longer Life of St. Birgitta from Birger, also takes away from St. Brynolph, bishop of Skara, the Life of St. Helena, venerated at Skövde in Sweden, which, however, Peter Bosch gave in volume 7 of July from page 332 from a manuscript codex of the convent of Böddeken, and abundantly vindicated to St. Brynolph in the Preliminary Commentary, numbers 7 and 8, so that Benzelius seems to have committed an equal error in both cases. Nor in Belgium only, but in Italy also in the fifteenth century it was seen by St. Antoninus, who died in the year 59 of the same century, so that it will be by no means doubtful, I think, to one comparing with the Birgerian the Life of St. Birgitta written and somewhat contracted by him in part 3 of the Chronicle, printed at Lyons in the Office of the Giunti and of Paul Guittius in the year 1586, from page 793; so much more like is Antoninus's work on St. Birgitta to our Birgerian than to that of Surius, which is praised there in the title. Let the Life of St. Birgitta asserted to Birger therefore stand, although I would not dare to say that it is that primary Life of St. Birgitta from which the others flowed, and which was mentioned by the old writers, because it lacks that indication of which I made mention at number 12.

[18] the bull of her Canonization will be inserted in the Commentary. Besides, a compendium of the Life of St. Birgitta, which the present Commentary will exhibit where her Canonization is treated, was given by Boniface IX in the Bull of the Canonization of St. Birgitta, issued in the second year of his Pontificate, of Christ 1391, at Rome at St. Peter's on the Nones of October, which may be seen in volume 1 of the Papal Bullarium, page 233, in Fontanini in the codex of Canonizations from page 151, and before the Revelations of St. Birgitta, printed by the work of Simon Hörmann, a Birgittine, at Munich in Bavaria in the year 1680 together with the notes of Consalvo Durante on them. This compendium, however, was beyond doubt excerpted from the Book of Attestations, of which above, or from the process of canonization of the same Saint: so that, whether you look at the Pontiff's authority or at the source from which it came forth, any commendation of it whatever may seem superfluous, especially to those to whom it is not unknown with how great accuracy the supreme Pontiffs are accustomed to proceed in these matters. Another Life of St. Birgitta occurs in Hörmann, just praised, from page 797, which they call abbreviated. This indeed we shall employ as the matter requires, but we shall not publish it, because it seems to have been composed partly from the books of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, partly from her Life written by Birger: when, or by what author, is not clear to me. I say as much of the Life of St. Birgitta which we have from the manuscript of St. Saviour's at Utrecht. The beginning of the Prologue is: "The glorious God, who gives power and strength to His people, gladly raises on high His rational creature, happily united to Himself in the Holy Spirit and made a partaker of His divinity, etc." The beginning of the Life: "Blessed Bridget, noble in descent but nobler in morals, having powerful progenitors, lofty according to the dignity of the world, etc."; the end, however: "And because, like an excellent star, she shone on earth with the adornment of all virtues while she lived, now that she has been translated from the world, not only in the aforesaid monastery of Vadstena, where her body rests, but also at Rome and in other various parts of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, wonderful in His Saints, to whom be honour for ages of ages, Amen, has made her wonderful among His Saints by various prodigies of miracles and by signs, and has made her famous among men and shown her glorious in merits." In which words indeed this seems to differ sufficiently from the Birgerian Life: but the rest so agree with the Birgerian Life that it may deservedly be held to be some compendium of it, though with the order of things somewhat changed from time to time: wherefore it has seemed good to abstain from printing this too.

[19] the Life, however, which Surius Surius too published a Life of St. Birgitta at the 23rd day of July, on which she died at Rome, but adapted according to his custom to his own style, and Baronius in his Annotations to the Roman Martyrology acknowledged it as genuine. But which Life is that which Surius published in his own style? Our Papebroch, in volume 3 of March, page 514, in the Annotations to the Life of St. Catherine, Birgitta's daughter, written by Ulpho the monk, a nearly contemporary author, at letter f, on these words of Ulpho: "At the time written above, therefore, after her" (St. Birgitta's) "death, and in the same year" (1373), "the translation, having been begun, was completed, but not without notable prodigies in the wonderful separation of the flesh from the bones, and also not without miracles done on the way, and she was translated to the monastery of Vadstena, as has been written more fully elsewhere," notes thus: "That Life seems to be indicated which Surius published with the style changed and more contracted." But I think that here either the Book of Attestations is designated, as Father van der Ketten indicates in passing in his manuscript Notices, or some other writing on St. Birgitta, for this reason, that there Ulpho does not treat of St. Birgitta's miracles in general; but of those which accompanied the translation of the relics of St. Birgitta: whereas this Surian Life touches on this only briefly and generally, in this manner: "In the next year" (1374), "however, after the shining forth of many miracles, and the sudden and beyond measure wonderful cleansing and drying of her bones, she was translated from the City of Rome, many miracles having been wrought on the journey, to the monastery of Vadstena on the twelfth day of July, with a great throng of the peoples and with joy, by her holy daughter Catherine." Why, then, should not Ulpho's words rather designate the miracles of St. Birgitta, of which below at number 25, where the fifth part of the miracles of St. Birgitta to be published here will be treated?

[20] To me at least the Life of St. Birgitta which Laurence Surius, seems to have interpolated, a Carthusian monk of Cologne in the sixteenth century, interpolated seems to be that which we have in the History of the Saints, as they call it, printed at Louvain in our Belgium as early as the year 1485 in the house of John of Westphalia, from folio 142, and which therefore Surius very probably saw in the sixteenth century. That this may be plainer, I am pleased to transcribe here the opening of each: the Life of St. Birgitta in the said History begins thus: "Saint Birgitta, sprung in the kingdom of Sweden, drew an illustrious origin not only from a father and mother noble and powerful before God and the world, but also from the lofty progenitors of her parents, fervently seeking after the justifications of God, and most eagerly fulfilling pilgrimages and other pious acts. For all her kindred and generation, like Tobias's, abode in good life and conversation: so that they were acceptable both to God and to men and to all who dwell upon the earth. For her grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, etc."

[21] See now, if you please, how little the Surian differs from these: because it has been made public in print, will not be published here: "Saint Birgitta, sprung in the kingdom of Sweden, not only had parents noble and powerful both before God and before the world, but

also excellent grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers, fervently seeking the law of God, and undertaking pilgrimages, and most eagerly performing other pious works. For all her kindred and stock, as also that of blessed Tobias, followed a good life and holy conversation: so that they were acceptable and dear both to God and to men and to all who dwell upon the earth. For her grandfather and great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, etc." The rest of the series of both Lives proceeds at nearly an equal pace right to the end: so that you might not undeservedly say that the Life of St. Birgitta which the aforesaid History exhibits was interpolated by Surius. It seems indeed quite ancient and accurate, but by what author it was written is not clear to me. If it were established that a fuller Life of St. Birgitta had been written by Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, this might perhaps be attributed to him. But however the matter may stand, it has not seemed necessary to reprint it here, as being already printed.

[22] A Life of St. Birgitta was also put together from the Book of Attestations, or the Acts and Process of the Canonization of St. Birgitta, by Berthold of Rome, on the other hand another will be given, confessor general of the Birgittine monastery near Florence to which the name of Paradise was given. Hear Father van der Ketten about it in the Birgittine Notices sent to us: "I have found," he says — but the place where he found it he does not express — "in an old book, which once belonged to the monastery of Mary at the Waters near 's-Hertogenbosch, of our Order, a Life of our holy Mother written at length, and divided into three parts, in the first of which the author treats of the acquired virtues of our holy Mother; in the second of the graces acquired; in the third of the miracles worked after death." The source, however, from which he put together the Life of St. Birgitta the author himself discloses, beginning his Prologue thus: "While I was carefully reading here and there in the Acts or process of canonization of our holy Mother Birgitta, etc.": from which, moreover, it is plain that the author, who keeps silent about his name, was a Birgittine by profession. But though the author kept silent about his name, the following notice, subjoined at the end of the Life of St. Birgitta in the codex found by Father van der Ketten, betrayed it together with the year and the place in which that Life was copied. It runs thus, on the testimony of the same: "Let the reader devout in Christ, and also the zealous lover of the holiness of the virgin Mary and of Lady Birgitta, know that the original compiler of the foregoing Little Work was Brother Berthold of Rome, confessor general of the monastery of the same our Mother Bridget of Paradise near Florence, and it was copied out in the monastery" (the one undersigned, as I think) "of the same Order in the year of the Lord MCCCCLII, in the month of December. Let us pray for one another, that we may be saved. Done at the Waters of Mary near 's-Hertogenbosch, of the diocese of Liège" (as it then was).

[23] copied formerly in Belgium, A copy of this Life was at length furnished to us from the records of the monastery of St. Alto in Bavaria, by the courtesy and kindness of the Birgittine Fathers who dwell there, who gave it to Father Crammer, a priest of our Society, that he might have it copied for us (which he did both faithfully and accurately). It has at the end the same subjoined words which we have just produced from Father van der Ketten's notices; so that either it is the 's-Hertogenbosch copy itself of the Life of St. Birgitta, or else he copied this one whose name is there expressed in this manner: "Pray for the writer, the Reverend Father Bartholomew Laucius, professed priest of the Order of St. Birgitta in the monastery of Sion at Cologne." But in the year in which this Life of St. Birgitta prepared by Berthold was copied out, an enormous discrepancy occurs: Father van der Ketten noted the year 1452 in his Notices: but our Bavarian copy has the year MCCCCII; as indeed has the very copy of the Fathers of Altomünster from which it was taken; since Father James Scheckh also marked the same year 1402 in express words in his little book on the monastery of St. Alto, printed at Freising in the year 1730, page 57. The error lies hidden in the St. Alto copy, in which the numeral sign L has been omitted: for since the monastery of Mary at the Cold Waters near 's-Hertogenbosch, as the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana relate in volume 5, column 411, with John Francis Foppens agreeing in the Supplement to the Diplomatic Works of Miraeus (volume 3, page 497), was founded only in the year 1434, it becomes manifest that the Life of St. Birgitta could not have been copied there in the year 1402.

[24] Nor would I dare to assert that Berthold discharged the office of confessor general in the Florentine monastery of Paradise at the beginning of the fifteenth century: the Vadstena Chronicle makes no mention of this matter. and written by Berthold of Rome; In the year 1394 the founding of the monastery of Paradise near Florence began to be seriously treated under the auspices of Magnus Petri, Thorir writing thus in the praised Chronicle at the aforesaid year: "On the day of the Apostles Philip and James brother Magnus Petri took the road toward Rome to begin a cloister of the Religion of St. Saviour near Florence, in whose company were Eric Gudmundsson, priest, and Lucas, who was then a layman, but was ordained priest at Rome." Magnus Petri died at Florence in the monastery of Paradise in the year 1396, on the testimony of the same Thorir. Who succeeded him on his death in the office of confessor general, he does not declare: but at the year 1429 he writes that Lucas, the companion of Magnus Petri, confessor general of the monastery of Paradise, departed from life in that year, when he was returning into Italy from the assembly of the Order held at Vadstena: so that perhaps Berthold was made confessor general of the monastery of Paradise only after the death of Lucas, and composed the Life of St. Birgitta from the Acts of her canonization between the year 1429 and 1452; which conjecture indeed is confirmed by the fact that from the year 1403, in which the monastery of Paradise was first duly completed, Lucas seems to have presided over it. For Thorir writes thus at the year 1403: "Likewise in the former year" (1402) "about the feast of Michael two brothers, brother Eric and brother Thorir, crossed over toward Rome for certain business touching our monastery in the highest degree. These having been dispatched, Lord Eric returned, and the other, namely brother Thorir, with brother Lucas, crossed over to Florence, where a monastery had been begun near the city in the castle which is called Paradise, for the instruction of the brothers and sisters to be established there according to the Rule of the holy Saviour."

[25] After these Lives of St. Birgitta we shall add from Hörmann, praised above, the Miracles of St. Birgitta, which the Miracles of St. Birgitta will follow. which she worked living and dead, divided into various parts: the first of them contains eight miracles which were worked in Sweden: the second, some miracles collected by order of Bernard, archbishop of Naples, in the year 1376, copied, as Hörmann says, from a very ancient codex: the third, some miracles done at Nola and at Rome before and after the death of St. Birgitta, from the same codex: the fourth, some miracles which the count of Nola, familiar with St. Birgitta while she lived, sent, confirmed by his testimony, to Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén: the fifth, certain miracles which took place either in the translation of St. Birgitta's body from Rome into Sweden in the year 1374, or in Sweden afterwards, written, as it appears, by someone who accompanied the Saint's relics: so I conjecture from his words in miracle 1: "When, going on from the city of Bruma, we were lodged in a certain little town, etc.": likewise in miracle 2: "When we turned aside to the monastery which is called Clairvaux of the kingdom of Poland, etc.": and in miracle 3: "When we were still at sea between Germany and Sweden, etc.": the sixth, some other miracles done in Poland and Sweden, written by three monks of Vadstena by order of Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, before which is placed a brief Sermon on Blessed Birgitta, copied from the same very ancient codex, namely that of the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna at Rome, with whom St. Birgitta was given burial. To these last miracles, finally, so that you may not be ignorant of the time in which they were written, the following are subjoined at the end: "Here end the miracles of blessed Birgitta of Sweden, finished and written in the year of the Lord MCCCLXXVIII, in the Octave of St. Martin, by the hand of Nicholas Misner, otherwise called Vyogeler, a cleric of the diocese of Brandenburg, being at that time at Rome, etc.": from which you may understand that they were set down on paper at Rome when her canonization was being treated. St. Birgitta indeed worked more miracles, some of which we shall relate in their place: for we think that all can hardly be related. Meanwhile from these which will be given it will be easy for everyone to perceive of how great merit St. Birgitta is before God.

[26] Who Matthias was, It remains that I should discuss a few things concerning three authors especially, whose testimony we shall not rarely use, and suggest some notice of them to the reader: they are Matthias, canon of Linköping, who published a Prologue to some revelations of St. Birgitta; Peter, Prior of the monastery of Alvastra in Sweden, of the Cistercian Order, who wrote out with his pen most of the revelations of St. Birgitta, illustrated them with declarations, and enriched and increased them with those which they call Extravagantes; and Alphonsus, first bishop of Jaén, who afterwards embraced the solitary life, who, besides the Life of St. Birgitta perhaps written for the sake of St. Clare of Pisa, of which above, wrote a Prologue to the book whose title is The Book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, etc., into which Prologue he inserted here and there a kind of compendium of the Life of St. Birgitta. Of these, Matthias, born in Sweden of a respectable station, and from his tender years a lover of letters and piety, when he was older went to various academies of foreigners, whence, returning to his homeland, on account of the praise of his learning and probity he not only deserved to be enrolled among the canons of Linköping, but also to be made privy to the secrets which God revealed to St. Birgitta, while he was her confessor: many things are read of him in the books of the Revelations, which see in book 1, chapters 3 and 52; book 5, the last question; book 6, chapters 75 and 89, and elsewhere. He died at Stockholm in the year 1350, and was buried in the church of the Dominicans.

[27] canon of Linköping, So, roughly, Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, with Benzelius contradicting nothing in his Annotations to Vastovius. He left various monuments of his genius, before one of which, on the testimony of Benzelius, in a parchment manuscript codex of the public Library (of Uppsala, as I think), marked number 54, these words are placed in an old hand: "This book written below, which begins 'Absolution confers much benefit,' is called the Copy of examples, which Master Matthias, canon of Linköping, made and collected. This venerable man Matthias was the first confessor of our glorious mother St. Birgitta, because he was very distinguished in life and religion, and in his time the highest of all the Masters, who made many books, namely Concordances on the whole Bible, which we have at Vadstena in three volumes of great size. Likewise one book which is called 'Homo conditus.' Likewise on the Apocalypse. Likewise a treatise on the modes of speaking, and very many others." Of his work on the Apocalypse likewise the Vadstena Diary at

the year 1438, in these words: "On the morrow of St. Eric, king and martyr, died Brother Peter Olofsson… He wrote … the exposition on the Apocalypse of master Matthias of Linköping": from which it is clear how greatly Oudin is deluded, in volume 3 of the Ecclesiastical Writers, column 1110 and following, confusing Matthias of Linköping with Matthew of Cracow, bishop, as he writes, of Worms, who died in the year 1414, and attributing to Matthias Works which, if you take away the exposition on the Apocalypse, are as different as heaven from earth. Possevino says in the Apparatus sacer that he was called Blessed in his own age, and that he saw his notable house dedicated to God and his bones at Vadstena. From which it follows that the authority of this man in the affairs of St. Birgitta ought to be of no small moment, whether you look at his age and his knowledge of the things done by St. Birgitta, or his learning, or finally the holiness of his life and so his love of truth. For what reason this has been said will be plain a little later. I come now to Peter, Prior of Alvastra.

[28] He too was familiar with St. Birgitta, on the testimony of Thorir Andersson in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1390, who Peter was, where he speaks thus: "Likewise on the ninth day of the month of April in the episcopal court at Vadstena died brother Peter, Prior of Alvastra" (Vastovius is therefore mistaken, for whom he died about the year 1378), "the translator and writer of the greatest part of the Revelations divinely shown to blessed Birgitta, and the companion of her pilgrimage to holy Jerusalem: whose body was translated with great honour to his monastery by bishop Nicholas of Linköping and abbot Tydheman." That he was also confessor to St. Birgitta (for 30 years, on the testimony of Alphonsus in Raynaldus at the year 1379, number 8) and translated eight books of her Revelations from the Swedish tongue into Latin, and moreover composed the chant proper to the Birgittine Order with Hymns and Antiphons, Vastovius writes in the Vitis Aquilonia; but as he wrongly confused the year of death of Peter, monk of Vadstena and first confessor general, with the year of death of Peter Olofsson, Prior of Alvastra of the Cistercian Order, so he falsely made Peter of Alvastra, and a Cistercian, the author of the Birgittine chant, who was Peter of Vadstena: for of Peter of Vadstena, not of Alvastra, Thorir speaks thus in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1378: "On the morrow of the Octave of the Nativity of blessed Mary the Virgin died master Peter, the first confessor general at Vadstena. He was the master and confessor of St. Birgitta, remaining in virginity through the whole time of his life. He composed the chant of the sisters." His (namely Peter of Alvastra's) are the Declarations inserted here and there, as I said above, in the books of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, as also the other revelations which, gathered into one volume, they called Extravagantes: how this was done, receive from the Prologue of the Extravagantes: "After lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén" (not of Siena, as Moller writes where he treats of Birgitta), "and afterwards a most approved hermit, had by Christ's command distinguished into books the heavenly revelations made to St. Birgitta of the kingdom of Sweden, lord Peter, Prior of Alvastra, the first writer of the Revelations themselves (as to the greatest part), gathered separately into slips and gatherings some other revelations passed over outside the original books. These, in the presence of the reverend father of blessed memory lord Nicholas, at that time bishop of Linköping, and of very many other lords secular and ecclesiastical, he handed over to the first brothers at Vadstena, affirming on the word of truth that those revelations, and many others which he had laid up in his monastery of Alvastra, had been divinely revealed to Blessed Birgitta, and faithfully translated and written down by himself from her mouth. Some of which revelations, because of the agreement they have with the revelations contained in the original books, have been inserted here and there with pious effort into the original books themselves, as declarations and additions of them, a diligent discussion having first been held."

[29] Prior of Alvastra, Mention of him is also made by John Cardinal de Torquemada in the Prologue to the Revelations of St. Birgitta, chapter 1, in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapters 46, 48, 109. To Oudin, where his discourse is of St. Birgitta, both Peter, Prior of Alvastra, and Bishop Alphonsus are at one moment simple and credulous and unworthy of credence, as men who believed too easily that the revelations of St. Birgitta were sent by God; at another moment fraudulent men, as men who attached the name of St. Birgitta to revelations invented by themselves, in order to win credence and authority for them. That Peter of Alvastra was simple of heart, but at the same time most religious, Matthias, canon of Linköping, also says in the Prologue: but how his simplicity hinders his having handed down the revelations of St. Birgitta sincerely and faithfully, I do not see: he could have branded a mark of this kind on St. Catherine too, the daughter of St. Birgitta, who is read in the Prologue of the Extravagant Revelations to have attested the same thing as Peter in the Acts of the Canonization of St. Birgitta. But of the Revelations of St. Birgitta it will be spoken in its place: I meanwhile observe here that it is no wonder that Peter of Alvastra, a Cistercian monk, is received with little kindness, indeed contemptuously, by Oudin, once a nursling of the Premonstratensian Order and afterwards a deserter, who put off the religious habit and together with it, which is much worse, the faith as well. On the contrary, Peter Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology at the 6th day of May, Chalemot and Bucelin call him Blessed; at which day in our Work, volume 2 of May, these words are read among the Passed Over: "Peter, Prior of the monastery of Alvastra in East Gothland, who wrote the Revelations of St. Birgitta, is reported with the title of Blessed by Chrysostom Henriquez, and by Chalemot and Bucelin who followed him. He may be treated at the Life of St. Birgitta, the 8th of October": but since what the praised authors have of him was drawn from Vastovius, and neither he nor they furnish any indication or argument of sacred cult shown to Peter of Alvastra, it is not necessary to discourse further on this matter. I turn my discourse to Alphonsus.

[30] and Alphonsus, Alphonsus, in the first place, John Cardinal de Torquemada, in the Prologue of the Defence of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, chapter 1, numbers among the eminent men who examined the Revelations of St. Birgitta both while she lived and after her death; and indeed he says that Alphonsus was twice deputed by the supreme Pontiffs to examine the Revelations of St. Birgitta; first by Gregory XI in the year 1377: then by Urban VI in the year 1379. That he was familiar with St. Birgitta, and her companion on her journeys, is gathered from book 7 of the Revelations, chapters 16 and 31, from Revelation 48 and following among the Extravagantes; from the letters given to him by the count of Nola, which you have in Hörmann, page 813. A fragment of the Jerusalem journey, described by Alphonsus, Benzelius published from a manuscript codex of the public Library of Uppsala after the Chronicle of Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, of which later. That the Revelations of St. Birgitta were distinguished into books by him we have already said above; as also that he prefixed to the Book to the kings, etc., a Prologue composed by his own effort, published by Hörmann from page 625. He had as father Ferdinand Rodriguez, by birthplace of Siena, and as mother a woman called Martinez, by birthplace of Segovia; he was declared bishop of Jaén after Andrew about the year 1368, as Martín de Ximena writes in the Bishops of Jaén, page 340: but shortly afterwards he renounced the bishopric and went to Rome, where he contracted familiarity with St. Birgitta.

[31] Among the various things which he did at Rome, Odorico Raynaldi records bishop of Jaén, often to be cited. that he defended the election of Urban VI as supreme Pontiff in a written Commentary, which he exhibits at the year 1379 from number 8, from which it is understood with how great zeal he burned to avert, as far as lay in him, the schism impending over the church, and how intimate a connection he had with St. Birgitta; as we shall note in its place. This I remark here, that Alphonsus so speaks of himself in the aforesaid Commentary that he seems to have been not an Italian by nation, but a Spaniard: for in Raynaldus at the cited number 16 he has this of brother Alphonsus of the third Order of St. Francis: "Who is now in our kingdom in Galicia near the city of St. James of Compostela"; in which manner he does not seem likely to have spoken after resigning the bishopric of Jaén, if he had been an Italian. He died and was buried, as the same Ximena reports, according to some in the monastery of St. Bartholomew of Lupiana, according to others in the chapel of St. James of Guadalajara: but the very contradiction which occurs here brings it about that we should assent to neither; but rather to Lancellotti in book 2 of the Olivetan History, where, treating of the monastery of Quarto at Genoa, whose founder Alphonsus is believed by most to have been, he asserts that he was buried there, where also he says his tomb and epitaph are extant, inscribed on marble, in these words: "Here lies the reverend father lord Alphonsus de Vadatera" (de Pecha, Ximena writes), "a Spaniard by nation, who, having dispersed his own patrimony for God's sake and left the bishopric of Jaén, that as a poor man he might follow the poor Christ, led the eremitical life. At length coming to Genoa, with the alms of the faithful he founded this church under the title of Blessed Jerome, which he obtained to be ruled by the venerable monks of Mount Olivet. And at last he passed to the Lord. In the year MCCCLXXXVIII, on the 19th day of August." And these things, indeed, concerning Matthias of Linköping, Peter of Alvastra, and Alphonsus, first bishop of Jaén, then hermit, it has pleased me to gather somewhat more fully, so that it may be clear that they were not so simple, credulous and unworthy of credence as it pleased Oudin to assert, and that I shall hereafter, for just causes surely, employ their testimonies, chiefly in those things which pertain to the purely historical deeds of St. Birgitta and the arrangement of her daily life, and which they could have had explored from other sources than from her Revelations.

§ III. St. Birgitta's native soil: who were her parents, brothers and sisters; likewise what was the nobility of her family.

St. Birgitta was born not far from Uppsala. Sweden, an ancient kingdom of the Northern world, is divided, on the testimony of Anders Bure in his Description of it, printed by the Elzevirs in the year 1631 at Leiden, page 28, into Sweden, Gothland, Finland, Ingria and Estonia: Sweden again is distinguished into Svealand properly so called and the Norrlands; the provinces of Svealand are Uppland, Västmanland, Dalarna, Närke and Södermanland. That St. Birgitta was born in the kingdom of Sweden is so attested not only by her biographers and by Boniface IX in the Bull of her canonization, but also in other Swedish records, that I plainly do not know with what appearance of truth she is called by some the daughter of Adolph, Count Palatine, in Wolfgang Lazius, On the Migrations of certain peoples, etc., book 7, entitled On the Boii, page 269. She was born, moreover, in that part of Sweden, or, to speak more precisely, of Svealand, which has found the name of Uppland, on her father's estate of Finsta, not far from Uppsala, then an archiepiscopal city and the ancient seat of the Swedish kings, which has now been translated to Stockholm. So, above the others, Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, teaches plainly in the Chronicle, which indeed she wrote in her native tongue, but Benzelius rendered into Latin, interpreting Margaret's words on this matter thus: "Nor should it be unknown that she

(St. Birgitta's mother) had her dwelling with her most noble husband in Uppland, and indeed on the estate of Finsta, not far from Uppsala, and that St. Birgitta and their other children were born to them there." We shall bring forward more things hereafter from this Chronicle, as they call it, of Margaret: wherefore it will be well to exhibit here in passing, from Benzelius, some notice of this Margaret.

[33] on the testimony of Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, She was consecrated a nun of Vadstena in the year 1440, and died in the year 1486, after she had discharged the office of abbess for fourteen years, as may be seen at the cited years in the Vadstena Diary: nor is there doubt that, although she is somewhat more removed from the age of St. Birgitta, she nevertheless used records of good mark preserved in the monastery of Vadstena: and, even if she had lacked these, there were not lacking in the convent of Vadstena after her profession religious persons of both sexes who had perhaps already given their names to the Birgittine institute there toward the end of the fourteenth century or the beginning of the following, by whom therefore she could be well instructed in doubtful matters: to pass over others, in the year 1446 died John Johnsson, born about the year 1363, who had discharged the office of deacon for 41 years: Eric Johnsson, confessor general, died in the year 1447, in the 50th year of his profession: in the year 1450 Christina Pedersdotter, who had professed there as a nun from about the year 1386; examples of which kind occur here and there in the Vadstena Diary in greater number; and that Margaret used ancient records of the convent of Vadstena no one will fail to suspect who compares what she wrote of St. Birgitta's family with what John Gustafsson published on the same matter in the Brahe Genealogy, page 13, from a codex formerly of Vadstena, now preserved in the library of Visingsborg: for the things that are read written there of St. Birgitta's family are also found word for word, though not in continuous series, in Margaret's work: she mixed with these, however, many things from elsewhere besides what is found in the aforesaid codex, namely, as I said a little before, most probably received from the older monks or nuns of the monastery of Vadstena; of which she herself seems to warn the reader when she says that she describes the family of her holy Mother and of her descendants as far as could be established for her from men who loved the truth: so that Margaret's writing probably grew together partly from that Vadstena book, partly from the report of the older and first inhabitants of the convent of Vadstena; and Benzelius not undeservedly judged it worthy to behold the public light by the help of type. Now I return to St. Birgitta.

[34] That St. Birgitta was born of a very illustrious station in Sweden, illustrious is the one voice of all: Birger, prelate of Uppsala, began the Life of St. Birgitta from the renown of her family thus: "Blessed Birgitta, sprung in the kingdom of Sweden, not only, according to the revelation divinely made to her, drew an illustrious origin from the line of the holy kings there, who by their holy merits deserved that the Lord should magnify His mercy with her, but also from noble and devout progenitors and parents"; he has here, agreeing with him, the Life of St. Birgitta printed at Louvain as early as the year 1485 and interpolated by Surius; likewise her abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 797; the Bull of Canonization of Boniface IX; Alphonsus in the Prologue to the Book of the Heavenly emperor to the kings, chapter 3; and others, whom I pass over in silence. Her father, according to the Bull of canonization, was Birger, whose piety and virtue drawn from his forebears Birger, bishop of Uppsala, admirably proclaims at number 2, though with his name suppressed. From Birger, moreover, as she drew life and blood, so she seems to have drawn also the name of Birgitta: for although she has more often been called Brigitta or Brigida, yet the Swedish records and Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization constantly name her Birgitta: the appellation of Brigida, indeed, Boniface ascribes only to the custom of the common people, generally less accurate in matters of this kind: "whom," he says, "the common people call Brigida." And Martin V in the Bull of the confirmed canonization of St. Birgitta: "whom the common people called Brigida, as they call her."

[35] Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, pours herself out in praise of Birger no less and of a pious father, Birger, than the prelate of Uppsala; receive her words too, because they comprise certain particulars about St. Birgitta's father, from Benzelius's version: "She" (her discourse is of St. Birgitta's mother), "joined to a most honoured husband, Birger, son of Peter, lawman of Uppland, a most excellent and most religious man, the founder and builder of many churches and monasteries, and by name of the monastery of Skokloster" (which was of Cistercian virgins by Lake Mälaren), "visited Rome, Jerusalem and many other holy places after the manner of her father and forebears. Of so great an ardour of religion God Himself testified." Thus Margaret in Benzelius. Birger, St. Birgitta's father, is moreover reckoned by Scheffer among those who under Birger, son of Magnus, king of the Swedes, emended the code of the Uppland laws; and there is extant in the royal archive an autograph letter of King Birger to Birger, by which he prescribes to him the emendation of the aforesaid laws, given at Stockholm in the year 1296: he is called in it Lawman or supreme judge of Tiundaland, which is one of the three Folklands, as the Swedes speak, of Uppland; so that he must have been distinguished not only by family and piety, but also by civil learning. But let it suffice to have said this much thus far of Birger, the father of St. Birgitta.

[36] but by a mother not unequal to Birger in piety, Birger had a wife not unequal to himself in praise of piety: this most excellent and most upright woman, as Abbess Margaret calls her, went about publicly adorned indeed after the manner of other illustrious matrons, but hid piety secretly in her breast: whence it came about that, when she was once staying in the monastery of Skokloster, as the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta has it, a nun, beholding the splendid adornment of the matron's person, turned it into a proof of a proud mind. But on the following night a venerable person appeared to the nun, rebuking her with angry face in this manner: "Why hast thou detracted from my handmaid, saying that she is proud, which is not true? For of her stock I will make one daughter come forth, with whom I will do my great deeds in the world, and I will pour into her so great grace that all the nations shall wonder." So the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta in Hörmann, page 797 and following, with which Birger below at number 3 agrees: but Margaret somewhat otherwise, though relating the same as to force and sense; for she attributes to the venerable man who had appeared to the nun these words: "Thou hast judged the handmaid proud, altogether falsely, for she shall bear a daughter with whom My will shall be in harmony." The death which she foreknew and foretold she underwent most readily at the nod of God, as Birger writes at number 5, and as is likewise read in the Life interpolated by Surius: in agreement with which Margaret of Vadstena writes: "This was granted," she says, "to the integrity of morals of this lady, that she should be called out of this world, and, seized with illness, should both foreknow and foretell her death some days before she died: and when her husband and the rest were already standing by, sad and weeping, she with a cheerful mind said: 'Why do you weep? I have lived enough; rather you should rejoice, for now a more honourable Lord calls me away.' Having said this, she prayed for every blessing upon her husband and children and fell blessedly asleep."

[37] whose name was Ingeborg, But before we go on from here to another point, a twofold knot occurs here: one of which lies in this, whether the nun of whom above passed that rash judgment on St. Birgitta's grandmother, or on her mother? The other, whether her mother was called by the proper name Sigrid, or Sigridis, or Ingeborg? As regards the first, it must indeed be confessed that the author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta related it of St. Birgitta's grandmother, whom he expressly names: but since Birger, prelate of Uppsala, and Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, have related the same of St. Birgitta's mother, I judge that these should by all means be adhered to in preference to him. A greater difficulty appears in the other: for Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization manifestly calls St. Birgitta's mother Sigrid, whose words I exhibit: "This glorious woman, namely, drew her origin from her father Birger and her mother Sigrid, spouses descended from the most noble royal stock of the Catholic kings of Sweden, and renowned no less for orthodox faith and constancy of mind and virtues than for nobility." On the contrary, the codex formerly of Vadstena, but afterwards of Visingsborg, and Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, expressly call St. Birgitta's maternal grandmother Sigrid, but her mother Ingeborg, and there is extant even today at Uppsala, in the choir of St. Catherine in the cathedral church, the epitaph of Birger Persson of Ulfåsa, St. Birgitta's father, conceived in these words, on the testimony of John Gustafsson, page 27: "Here lies the noble lord Birger, son of Peter, Lawman of Uppland; pray Christ for us; whose wife, lady Ingeburgis, with their children, whose souls rest in peace." That Birger and Ingeborg, husband and wife, were buried in the same place, the Visingsborg codex also affirms: the barbarism of the style, indeed, is not out of keeping with the rudeness of the fourteenth century.

[38] Benzelius likewise takes up Vastovius, because he said St. Birgitta's mother was Sigrid, was not Sigris or Sigridis: thus, at column 66: "He errs an error common to very many when he writes that Sigrid was the mother of blessed Birgitta, whose name, however, was Ingeborg. Sigrid was her maternal grandmother. I do not wish to explain at greater length a matter now very well known. The very sepulchral monument of her father Birger in the cathedral church of this our city, nearly contemporary with that age and most skilfully engraved, abundantly teaches the truth of the matter." By what way, then, will the Bull of canonization be reconciled with Margaret and with Birger's sepulchral inscription? Will it be said that St. Birgitta's mother had both names, both Sigrid and Ingeborg? Or that Birger had two wives, of whom one was named Sigrid, the other Ingeborg, and of these two Sigrid was St. Birgitta's mother? The first seems to have been very rare in Birgitta's age, as is clear from the Vadstena Diary, where you will perhaps find no woman who, besides a single forename with her father's name added, has another: the second you would say with Abbess Margaret, together with the Visingsborg codex, protesting: and both, indeed, without a suitable witness. To speak openly what I think, I suppose that the name of Sigrid crept into the Bull of canonization by error, namely chiefly through the fault of him who drew it up in the Pontiff's name, deceived perhaps on this head, that, since in the Process of Canonization the name of Ingeborg was nowhere found, as neither in Birger, nor in the Life interpolated by Surius, nor anywhere else, so far as I know, than in the cited records, yet the name of Sigrid occurred somewhere, he judged her to be St. Birgitta's mother, whether from inattention, or from the doubtful sense of the writing which he had in his hands, or finally from any other cause whatever; by error indeed, but one doing nothing at all to the substance of the matter, that is, to the canonization of St. Birgitta which the Pontiff intended. In the meantime, however, most of the more recent writers will have to be corrected, very many in number, who, from ignorance of the cited records, thinking that they could safely follow the Bull of canonization in this matter, have said that Sigrid was the mother of St. Birgitta.

[39] Seven children were begotten of that marriage of Birger and Ingeborg; Who were St. Birgitta's brothers and sisters, three males, four females; they are reckoned by Abbess Margaret in this order: Peter, Benedict, Israel, Ingrid, Margaret, Catherine and St. Birgitta. The Visingsborg codex numbers as many, and names Israel lawman of Uppland: concerning the daughters of Birger and Ingeborg, moreover, it has besides this: "Whether the two first daughters were given in marriage is not clear; for the third daughter, Lady Catherine, was the wife [*] of Lord Magnus Gudmarsson, lawman of Västergötland" (or West Gothland, which is a part of the one mentioned above), "of whose stock no small part still survives in this region." But John Peringskiöld, in the Genealogy of St. Birgitta, which we have in manuscript, says that Margaret, St. Birgitta's sister, married Nicholas Ingevaldsson, the progenitor of the Hammerstads or Griffins. Of Peter, Benedict and Ingrid I have found nothing more. Much better known is Israel Birgersson, St. Birgitta's brother. Archbishop Birger praises him at number 2 as an emulator of his father's piety: for when he has said of the father: "He too was accustomed every Friday to confess his sins humbly, very often uttering these words: 'So do I wish to prepare myself on Friday toward God, that whatever He shall give me on the other days, I may be ready to bear with equanimity.' Recalling that saying of the Wise man: 'Boast not of to-morrow, putting off repentance, not knowing what the day to come may bring forth'": he subjoins of the son: "Which in like manner his son faithfully observed all the days of his life, secretly beating his body with the sharpest scourges after confession, so that, ready for the scourge, he might glorify the scourged Christ in his own body, and continually crucify his flesh with its vices and concupiscences." Vastovius has more of him in the Vitis Aquilonia, page 83 and the two following, where he weaves his eulogy, of which I shall touch upon briefly only the chief heads. Emulating his forebears, he gave himself from his earliest age to piety and virtue, so much so that, when by age he was equal to undertaking the highest honours and had been proclaimed lawman or governor of Närke, he scarcely at length acquiesced so as not to refuse that office. Of which matter he gave a more illustrious proof when, Magnus Smek, king of Sweden, having fled into Denmark, he most constantly refused the sceptre of the kingdom offered to him. At length he died most piously at Riga in Livonia in the year 1348; his body, carried from Livonia into Sweden, his wife Ramfrid ordered to be placed in his father's tomb at Uppsala. But there are some things in Vastovius at this place to be corrected, because he has handed down true things mixed with false.

[40] concerning whom some things It seems true indeed that Israel only very reluctantly accepted some distinguished office offered to him by the King of Sweden: concerning which matter these things are found in chapter 95 of book 6 of the Revelations of St. Birgitta: "When a certain great nobleman of the kingdom of Sweden, who was called Lord Israel" (brother of St. Birgitta, as is added in the Declaration of the chapter), "was called many times by the king with many prayers to the higher dignity of the government of the kingdom, and he, having a desire to go against the pagans and there to die in the service of God for the holy faith, could in no way be moved to accept the dignity," it was revealed to St. Birgitta, as follows in the same place, that his desire would at some time be satisfied, and it was commanded by God that Israel should meanwhile accept that office for the sake of the divine honour. Israel therefore consented to be made lawman, not of Närke, as Vastovius has it, but of Uppland, as the Visingsborg codex has and an ancient charter to be cited a little later. Then in that chapter there follow, concerning Israel's death, things not unlike the Vastovian account, namely these: "So truly afterwards all these things came to pass. For, some years having passed, this lord went out against the infidels, and came into Germany into the city of Riga, where he fell ill. And feeling death near, he went up with some others into the cathedral church, and there he pressed a precious ring onto the finger of an image of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, which is venerated there with the greatest reverence, and left it there, saying openly: 'Thou, Lady, art and hast always been most sweet to me; upon which I call thee as witness; therefore I leave myself and my soul to thy providence and mercy.' Then, having received the Sacraments, he died most devoutly." But Israel's death, which Peringskiöld, praised above, fixes to the year 1363, could certainly not have happened in the year 1340, as Vastovius writes: for in the year 1349 he subscribed a charter of Andrew Eskilsson, a gilded knight, in which he is expressly called lawman of Uppland, as may be seen in John Gustafsson in the Brahe Genealogy. Benzelius also warns on this passage of Vastovius, column 65, from Messenius (whose works I have not hitherto seen) in the Chronology of Scandinavia and the Analecta, page 200, that it is established that Israel was living in the year 1363, in which, to escape the troubles of the rule which the citizens offered him without his knowledge and against his resistance, he withdrew to Riga in Livonia.

[41] There survives even today at Uppsala in the cathedral church a distinguished sepulchral monument, venerable for its age, cut in marble, of the Birgerian family from Ingeborg, are observed here, which John Gustafsson exhibits expressed in figures at the end of the Brahe Genealogy, and which we touched upon above in passing. It has depicted on one side the image of Birger, on the other that of Ingeborg: at Birger's right side are placed the smaller effigies of three sons in this order, Peter, Benedict, Israel, with the names of each expressed: to Ingeborg likewise on the opposite side are joined the smaller images of four daughters, and their names likewise in this order: Ingrid, Margaret, Catherine and Birgitta, though not expressed accurately enough: the inscription, of which at number 37, goes round the whole monument, but conceived somewhat differently. The lowest side, where it is placed beneath Birger's feet, bears these words: "Here lies the noble"; the second side: "lord Birger, son of Peter, lawman of the Upplands"; the upper side: "Pray for us, and his wife"; the fourth: "Lady Ingiburgis with their children, whose souls"; finally the lowest side, in the part where it lies beneath Ingeborg's feet: "may rest in peace." That it is very ancient, and was made at least before the year 1391, it is right to gather even from this, that to the image of St. Birgitta, who was enrolled in the album of the saints in that year, no sign was added by which her holiness and heavenly glory would be indicated, which after that year would certainly not otherwise have been omitted by the descendants of Birgitta herself or by those zealous for her glory. And let these things that have been said of St. Birgitta's parents, sisters and brother suffice: now discourse is to be held of her forebears; so that it may be plain not only that she was born, as we have already seen, of a most noble station in Sweden, but also that she was descended from the royal blood of the Swedish kings, as her biographers likewise testify.

[42] From the time when Sverker II, or the Elder, obtained the kingdom of Sweden about the year 1139, as also who was and St. Eric succeeded him, the rule of Sweden was by turns now with the Sverker family, now with the Eric family, as Charles VII, son of Sverker the Elder, ordained, until Valdemar and Magnus Ladulås; in whom both the Sverkerian and the Erician nobility flourished: the former indeed from their father Birger Jarl, administrator of the Swedish kingdom; the latter from their mother Ingeborg, sister of Eric the Stammerer, the great-great-grandson of St. Eric, who died without children, as Loccenius writes in book 2 of Swedish affairs: whence it came about that after Sverker the Elder and Charles VII his son, in the meantime, before the kingdom of Sweden devolved upon Valdemar, the kings of Sweden were Sverker, son of Charles VII, and finally the son of this Sverker, John I, surnamed the Mild; as may commonly be seen in Swedish writers. Now that St. Birgitta drew her origin from the blood of Sverker the Elder, and indeed in the paternal line, is shown thus: her father was, as we have said, Birger Persson; Birger's was Peter Andersson, surnamed of Mohammer: Andrew of Mohammer, finally, by male kinship touched Sverker the Elder, king of Sweden; so the Visingsborg codex in these words: "The third daughter" (of Sigrid, St. Birgitta's grandmother), "Lady Ingeborg, joined to the most illustrious Lord Birger Persson of Finsta, lawman of Uppland, whose father was Lord Peter Andersson of Mohammer, touching King Sverker by male agnation." But that St. Birgitta likewise drew blood from Sverker in the maternal line is deduced thus: Sverker (by his 2nd wife Sophia, daughter of Boleslaw, king of Poland, as Peringskiöld will have it), besides Charles VII, whom he perhaps begot of Ulvhild the Norwegian, begot a son Sune, surnamed Sik. To him was born, of a wife I know not who, a daughter Ingrid, called Ylva, married to Magnus Minnesköld; of which marriage was born Birger Jarl, afterwards governor of Sweden, and father of Valdemar and Magnus, kings of Sweden; as also Benedict Magnusson: whose wife, further, was Sigrid, surnamed the Fair; and of her he had Ingeborg, who, placed in marriage with Birger Persson, at length brought forth St. Birgitta in a happy birth.

[43] from the royal family of the Swedes The things just said are read in the Genealogy of St. Birgitta written by John Peringskiöld and sent to us from Stockholm in the year 1714 by the illustrious Lord Sparwenfeldt; as also in the Genealogical Tree of Lord Israel Birgersson, St. Birgitta's brother, put together by Lord Baron Guldenstiern and painted in the Birgittine monastery called Sion at Cologne; with agreement from John Gustafsson in the Brahe Genealogy, page 23, and from Benzelius, in the Notes to Abbess Margaret, column 39, noting this of Benedict, lawman of East Gothland: "He was the son of Magnus Minnesköld, and of Ingrid Ylva, granddaughter of Sverker the Elder, king of Sweden, through his son Sune." These men, skilled in their country's affairs, I would not wish to contradict; I could wish, however, that ancient records had indicated, and were at hand for us, by which I could confirm what they have said here of Sune, son of Sverker, and of Ylva, married to Magnus Minnesköld: the rest, moreover, from the Visingsborg codex and from Abbess Margaret, appear certain enough. So the former, from the version from the Swedish idiom by John Gustafsson: "Let us here also make mention of the family of the Divine Birgitta, whose history is certainly established for us: first, the maternal grandfather of St. Birgitta was Lord Benedict, lawman, brother of the governor of the kingdom of Sweden, Birger Jarl, who for her beauty took in marriage a wife inferior to himself in birth; therefore, both his brother and the other kinsmen being indignant, Birger Jarl sent to his brother, in contempt of the woman, a tunic divided in two, one part of which was of pure silk and the other of mean cloth; which her husband, Lord Benedict, had adorned with pearls and gold, so that it might appear more precious than the former part; but when the brother and other kinsmen came to know Sigrid's present beauty and modesty of mind, they at length consented to such a marriage, as accomplished by fate, in which also they lived piously for some years with singular sweetness, and so, four children having been born (namely one son and three daughters), Lady Sigrid, a most pious life (this quite entirely

does not seem to have been rendered from the Swedish) exchanged it for death, her body is carried to Stockholm, and honourably committed to the tomb in the church of St. Clare.

[44] family "The daughter, moreover, of the aforesaid Benedict, Ramborg, the wife of the noble Erngisl Plata, who is buried in the church of East Gothland commonly called Svanshals, where of old was their court or seat, was buried in the convent of Riseberga. Another daughter, Lady Catherine, revealed to the master and bishop Peter Sca many pious actions of St. Birgitta, which she had learned from her in the time of her upbringing. The third daughter, Lady Ingeborg, was joined to the most illustrious Lord Birger Persson"; to whom it subjoins three sons and four daughters; and among the daughters it reckons St. Birgitta in the fourth place. With these Abbess Margaret often agrees word for word, although from time to time she inserts more. Thus, treating of Erngisl Plata and of Ramborg his wife, she says: "Near death, this most noble man professed that his most honourable wife was still a virgin as unblemished as she had been when she was first led into his house; that this should be publicly established she, as long as she lived, bore with the greatest vexation of mind." There is also a point in which Margaret is opposed to the Visingsborg codex. For the second daughter of Benedict the lawman, who there is Catherine, is called Ingrid by Margaret. "The second daughter of Lady Sigrid," she says, "was Ingrid, who dwelt at Aspanäs, a lady distinguished for probity and piety, to whose custody also, her mother having died, our beloved mother Birgitta was committed. And of her, while still a girl, the said lady saw very many proofs both of innocence of morals and of divine kindness, especially how the Blessed Virgin Mary sat beside her and helped her either when embroidering with the needle or when attending to other tasks." Birger also relates these things of a certain maternal aunt of St. Birgitta, but keeps silent about her name: so that I truly do not know to which one should adhere, the Visingsborg codex or Margaret.

[45] I am pleased also to confirm St. Birgitta's royal family from elsewhere: sprung Magnus Ladulås, king of Sweden, of whom above at number 42, had three sons, Birger, his successor, Eric and Valdemar: to Birger, driven from the throne of the kingdom and from his country, was given as successor Magnus, son of the Eric just mentioned, surnamed Smek, that is, as Loccenius interprets it, "beguiled by soft words and promises." To him St. Birgitta, while she was still living in Sweden, as we shall see in its place, foretold many things: but he made no account of the warnings of the holy Woman, his kinswoman: his kinswoman, I say, for so Margaret has it, writing among other things this of Birger, St. Birgitta's son: "And when the shrine of St. Birgitta was carried for the first time, Birger himself with other noblemen put his shoulders beneath it, and on that same day, suffused with pious joy, he broke out into these words: 'Now rejoicing I shall lift up my head erect, I who formerly often stood with my eyes fixed on the ground before my lord King Magnus, when again and again he asked of me: What, I pray, has our kinswoman, your Mother, dreamed of us this night?'"

[46] But if we follow up the forebears of Benedict the Lawman according to the mind of the Swedish writers, as also of the Danes, is explained. we shall find that St. Birgitta drew blood also from Ingrid, daughter of St. Canute, king of Denmark and martyr, and of Adela, daughter of Robert the Frisian, count of Flanders: for Ingrid bore to Folke, a most noble man of the Swedes and her husband, two sons (see Loccenius, Swedish affairs, book 1, page 34), Benedict, called Snivil, and Canute: of Canute (elsewhere, however, this is attributed to Benedict) was begotten Magnus Minnesköld, and of him Benedict the lawman, the maternal grandfather of St. Birgitta. But of the royal lineage of St. Birgitta and her forebears I judge that enough and more than enough has now been said, although more could be added to these, especially from Peringskiöld's Genealogy of St. Birgitta; and so as not to be compelled to wander further than is just, I proceed to St. Birgitta's birth. If anyone, however, desires to know the proper arms of that most illustrious family, John Gustafsson in the Brahe Genealogy exhibits the seal of her father Birger before the dedicatory Epistle: where notice a rose inserted between two eagle's wings, in the part where their tips overhang each other, which is not found in the two following. 2. The seal of his brother Israel Persson, found in the royal archive and appended to an instrument of the year 1349, page 19. 3. The arms of Birger Persson, as they are cut on his sepulchral monument at Uppsala, near the end of the little book already named so often.

* supply: fuit

§ IV. The birth of St. Birgitta, who was born about the beginning of the 14th century, is made illustrious by various prodigies, and she was adorned by God with many prerogatives from her earliest age.

The Saint's nativity to a nun, Born of parents and forebears conspicuous for so singular and unwonted a praise of piety and religion, St. Birgitta not only kept entire and unblemished, from her tender nails to her extreme age, the piety which she drew from them and the holiness of life, but even increased it, so that her future holiness was declared by God from time to time by no doubtful portents even before she beheld the light of this life. And first indeed Birger speaks thus on this matter at number 3 and following: "The mother of this glorious Lady was likewise noble and devout, whose father, since he was born of royal seed, loving the beauty of the house of God, founded many churches and monasteries and established and gave to them, in keeping with his magnificence, most ample revenues by way of endowment. When, however, on a certain day his wife, hiding the devotion of her mind, and going about according to her nobility and the custom of nobles, so that all her glory from within, in golden fringes, might please God alone, was despised by a certain nun as if proud; immediately on the following night, when the said nun had fallen asleep, there appeared to her a person of wonderful countenance, saying: 'Why hast thou detracted from my handmaid, saying that she is proud, which nevertheless is not true; for of her I will make one Daughter come forth, with whom I will establish My covenant, giving her so great grace that all nations shall not suffice to wonder.'" It has pleased me to transcribe Birger's words here entire, because the matter which I touched upon in passing above at number 37 comes to be discussed here somewhat more accurately. It is indeed sufficiently ascertained from the unanimous assertion of Birger, of Abbess Margaret, praised above at number 36, and of the author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, that it was foretold by God, when she was not yet born, that she would be adorned with notable gifts of heavenly grace: but whether this happened on the occasion of her grandmother Sigrid, or of her mother Ingeborg, being undeservedly condemned of pride for the adornment of her person by the nun of Skokloster, or Skogh, is not so clear because of the disagreement of Margaret and of the author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta on this matter.

[48] concerning her mother, But the author of the abbreviated Life seems here to be put after Margaret; both because she seems to have been more accurately and more fully instructed about the things which she writes; and because she has Birger agreeing with her, whom he perhaps, or some other author who wrote here of St. Birgitta's mother in the same manner as Birger, that is, somewhat obscurely, misunderstood: that the matter may become plainer, let us repeat, as far as necessary, Birger's words recited at the number immediately preceding: "The mother likewise" (of St. Birgitta, he says) "was noble and devout, whose father, etc." These last words of Birger, "whose father," can, considered at first sight and in themselves, be referred both to the Father of St. Birgitta's mother, that is, her maternal grandfather, and to St. Birgitta's father: whence it comes about that when a little later he says, "whose wife, etc.," Birger may seem to be speaking here as well of her grandmother as of her mother: whose words, or those of another author speaking here in the same way, he who composed the abbreviated Life probably interpreted in the former manner.

[49] But that Birger makes mention of Birger, St. Birgitta's father, and therefore of Ingeborg, St. Birgitta's mother, not to the grandmother, judging rashly, it was foretold. can be gathered from the circumstances of the persons: for he says that the man of whom he speaks was a founder of churches and monasteries, which indeed we saw above at number 35 to have been said of Birger, St. Birgitta's father, not of her maternal grandfather. Moreover, these words related by Birger: "For of her I will make one daughter come forth, with whom I will establish My covenant," whom do they properly indicate, except St. Birgitta and her mother Ingeborg? So that you would explain the mind of Birger the biographer less accurately if for "of her" you write "of her family," which the author of the abbreviated Life does. For the rest, someone will perhaps ask here who was that person of wonderful countenance, or, as is read in the abbreviated Life, of wondrous beauty, who is said to have rebuked the rashness of the nun of Skogh with the words reported above? Hörmann, in the Verbal Index at the word Birgitta, judges that it was the Most Blessed Virgin Mary: but whoever weighs the words of the person appearing will, I think, agree with me that they are rather Christ's, who afterwards deigned to take St. Birgitta as His bride, and who ought to be called, properly speaking, the fountain and author of grace infused into men. Abbess Margaret agrees in some fashion, writing thus: "But to her there afterwards appeared by night a venerable man, reproaching the rashness of her judgment, saying: 'Thou hast judged My handmaid proud, altogether falsely: she shall bear a Daughter with whom My will shall be in harmony.'"

[50] Behold another portent of the future holiness of St. Birgitta, Her mother, pregnant, for the Daughter's sake shown before her nativity: "For while she was still carried in her mother's womb," says Birger, "it happened that her mother suffered shipwreck in a bay of the sea, and when many of both sexes had been drowned, the duke of the kingdom, seeing her placed in danger, by all the means he could brought her alive to the shore: but in wondrous manner on that very night a person in shining garment stood by the mother, saying: 'Thou hast been saved because of the good which thou hast in thy womb" (namely by the decision of God, willing to rescue St. Birgitta together with her mother from destruction, not by the merits of Birgitta, which then as yet were none: whence, however, the suspicion was put into the mind of someone that St. Birgitta received in her mother's womb the grace which Theologians call sanctifying; but indeed for too slight a cause): "nourish it with the love of God, because it has been specially given to thee by God.'" You have the same things in almost the same words in the Bull of Canonization to be published below, in the Life of St. Birgitta interpolated by Surius, as also in her abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 798, in St. Antoninus, and elsewhere; so that this portent cannot deservedly be called into doubt. Abbess Margaret relates the same things in few words, and adds one or two circumstances of the event passed over elsewhere: wherefore I transfer her words also here: "It happened also," she says, "that this lady" (Ingeborg), "when she was pregnant with our holy mother Birgitta, suffered shipwreck off the shores of Öland, but by the help of that duke who was starved to death at Nyköping, not without the greatest

labour and most present danger of life, many having been drowned, was delivered. On the following night there appeared to her the likeness of a man clothed in a shining garment, saying to her: 'Know that thou hast been snatched from the jaws of death because of that good which thou bearest in thy womb; see that thou imbue with the love of God that which thou must render back to God as something received.'"

[51] is delivered from shipwreck, From these words of Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, we learn first, indeed, in what tract of sea Ingeborg, St. Birgitta's mother, was snatched from shipwreck because of the daughter whom she was bearing in her womb; then by whose help chiefly she escaped safe, which you will find indicated elsewhere only in general terms. For Öland is a pleasant and fertile island of the Baltic sea, a part of East Gothland, distant only half a mile from Kalmar, a maritime town of Småland. And when Margaret asserts that the duke who rescued Ingeborg from the danger of shipwreck was afterwards starved to death at Nyköping (it is a market-town of Södermanland, a province of the Swedes), she abundantly indicates that this was Eric, who, through the fraud and impiety of King Birger, no account being taken of the bond of brotherhood, was shut up together with his other brother Valdemar in the castle of Nyköping and destroyed after three days of starvation, as Swedish writers commonly hold. See Loccenius, Swedish affairs, book 2, at the year 1317, where he also writes that Birger paid the deserved penalties of the parricide, being driven from the kingdom on that account.

[52] who, why she entrusted herself to the sea, is uncertain. What was the reason of this sea journey undertaken by Ingeborg, what its end, I at least do not care to divine: but Burlamacchi, in book 1 of the Italian Life of St. Birgitta, chapter 1, says that Ingeborg, St. Birgitta's mother, imitating her husband Birger, who had undertaken the pilgrimage of Compostela, set out for devotion's sake, together with Henry, or rather Eric, duke of the kingdom of Sweden, to St. Brigid, a virgin famous for miracles in Scotland; and that, returning from there, near her homeland she ran into the danger of shipwreck. He cites in the margin Surius and the Bull of Canonization: but as regards the cause and end of the said journey, I judge that nothing like Burlamacchi's assertion will be found there, nor in the older writers who wrote of St. Birgitta; so that this seems to be taken as a mere conjecture of that writer, no better founded than another conjecture of the same kind which occurs in the same writer at the same place, namely that it came from the same devotion of Ingeborg toward St. Brigid of Scotland that the name of Brigid was given to St. Birgitta: but that our Saint rather obtained the name of Birgitta from her father Birger, and was not called Brigida except by the common people, generally little accurate in matters of this kind, has been shown already before. And these portents, indeed, preceded the birth of St. Birgitta.

[53] the birth of Birgitta is divinely made manifest to Hemming, Presently, however, Birger subjoins another at number 4, which happened when she was born; and it is likewise related in the Bull of Canonization in these words: "And when the girl Birgitta had been recently brought forth from her mother's womb into the world, the parish priest in a neighbouring church, of approved life and of mature age, while he was giving himself to prayer by night, saw a bright cloud, and in the midst of the cloud a virgin sitting, having a book in her hand, and saying to him: 'There has been born to Birger a certain daughter, whose voice shall be heard wonderful through the whole world.'" The abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta in Hörmann, page 798, has the same, adding that that parish priest was afterwards made bishop of Åbo in Sweden. Peter of Alvastra betrays his name (if we believe Vastovius) in the Declaration to chapter 125 of book 4 of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, writing thus: "Concerning this bishop there are several revelations in the Life of lady Birgitta" (in ours and in others there is only this single one, if indeed mention of him is made here; and so the primary Life of St. Birgitta, other than those which are known hitherto, seems to be indicated here), "who was lord Hemming, bishop of Åbo, and a friend of the blessed Virgin Mary."

[54] Not obscurely, indeed, does Peter of Alvastra here name Hemming, who was not the bishop of Åbo of whom Vastovius speaks. bishop of Åbo: but it cannot be that that heavenly voice concerning St. Birgitta was heard by this Hemming, as Vastovius says, page 89: this, further, I make out thus: according to Vastovius at the cited page, as also in the Chronological syllabus, Hemming did not die before the year 1367, aged 70. Paul Juusten, indeed, in the manuscript Chronicle of the bishops of Åbo, as Benzelius notes at column 66, says that Hemming died in the year of the Lord 1367, in the 27th year of his episcopate and the 77th of his life; he would therefore have been born about the ninetieth year of the thirteenth century; and about the beginning of the following century, in which, before it had advanced to its fifth year, St. Birgitta without doubt had already been born, as will presently be shown, he could have counted only about 15 years of his age. But he who received that heavenly voice was a man of advanced age, on the testimony of Birger and of the Life interpolated by Surius; of mature age, on the testimony of the Bull of canonization; a curate or parish priest of some village, on the testimony of the abbreviated Life. It must therefore have been another who heard that voice, unless both Paul Juusten and Vastovius himself were not a little deluded in assigning Hemming's age; which I wonder was not observed by Benzelius. The thing itself meanwhile is confirmed by witnesses sufficiently suitable, as is clear from what has been said, so that it can be believed prudently and without the mark of excessive credulity: for we know it is not unusual from other instances that something portentous was divinely interposed at the births of other Saints also.

[55] In what place St. Birgitta was born we have said above from Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, She died in the year, namely on her father's estate, by name Finsta, not far from Uppsala, in Uppland, a province of Sweden; but in what year? That question depends on the year in which she departed from among the living, and on the length of the age for which she lived on earth: concerning both not all write the same things. Birger at number 33 writes that she died in the year 1372 on the tenth day before the Kalends of the month of August, or the 23rd day of July. St. Antoninus followed Birger: but the author of the abbreviated Life, as also of the Life interpolated by Surius, in the year 1373. A Chronologer, as Benzelius writes in the Annotations to Vastovius, column 69, who wrote about the year 1415, has this in Benzelius's Collection of ecclesiastical Records, page 81: "MCCCLXXIV blessed Birgitta died at Rome on the 10th day before the Kalends of August." Again, on the testimony of the same, a certain anonymous author in the manuscript codex number 15 of the public library fixed St. Birgitta's death to the year 1372 in these rude verses:

After the rising of the Lord Christ who reigns everywhere, A thousand and three hundred and seventy-two Years having passed, there departed from this world Brigida of Sweden, shining with great virtue, On the feast of Saint Apollinaris, on which it fell.

"But a few leaves farther on," says Benzelius, "the same verses are repeated, and likewise in an old hand, but with no concern for the laws of verse it is emended: Septuaginta tribus." But more clearly than all these does Thorir Andersson describe the year of St. Birgitta's death in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1373, adducing also in testimony the Process of canonization of St. Birgitta, or the Book of Attestations, so that it may be openly clear that certain persons in his age had fallen into error on this matter, whom he himself studiously refutes, writing thus: "MCCCLXXIII, on the day of blessed Apollinaris the martyr, there died at Rome our venerable mother of holy memory blessed Birgitta, in the year XXI (read X) of the solar cycle, and the Dominical letter was B, and, as is found in the Attestations, she died on a Saturday; which those contradict who think that she passed away in the year MCCCLXXII. And she died in the LXXth year of her age."

[56] not in 1372 or 1374, That the year 1373 was St. Birgitta's last is also said by the author of the German, or, if you prefer, Belgic, Life of which at number XI, on the testimony of Father van der Ketten in the Notices: but least of all is Olaus Rosencrantz to be heard, who, Benzelius affirms in Margaret's Chronicle illustrated by him with Annotations, page 43, puts off St. Birgitta's death even to the year 1383 in a Letter to Thomas Bartholin. Surely, to refute Olaus, even if other things were lacking, the single letter of Bernard, archbishop of Naples, given in the year 1376 on the 25th day of August (see it in Hörmann, page 804 and following), would suffice, by which he orders an inquiry to be held into the miracles which St. Birgitta worked at Naples both in life and after death. For the rest, as regards the ancients who tied St. Birgitta's death to the year 1372, or 1374, or finally to the year 1373, I would not easily say whence this variety and inconstancy of theirs flowed: but from whatever source it at length arose, we must stand by the year 1373, assigned by Thorir Andersson, in whose favour, besides the Book of Attestations, which he cites, is also the day of Saturday, on which St. Birgitta was joined to her heavenly Spouse in heaven, which in the year 1373, but not in 1372 or 1374, fell on the 23rd day of July. In its favour also is Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, in the Fragment of the Jerusalem journey which he made together with St. Birgitta; from which it becomes manifest that St. Birgitta in the year 1372 was still surviving among the living beyond the 23rd day of July, on which all agree that she died.

[57] but in 1373, For the year 1372 had already been carried on to March before St. Birgitta, about to sail from Naples to Jerusalem, went down into the ship, as may be read in Benzelius after Margaret's Chronicle, page 28: for thus Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, or at any rate someone of St. Birgitta's companions on that journey, writes there: "In the year of the Lord MCCCLXXII St. Birgitta of the kingdom of Sweden made this voyage to the holy Sepulchre from Naples, as follows below: On Thursday, the 11th of March, we put (N.B.) ourselves on the ship, in the harbour in the city of Naples. On Passion Sunday, the 14th day of March, the ship went out of the aforesaid harbour and began the voyage." Could St. Birgitta, who in the year 1372, when it had advanced to the middle of the month of March, first gave herself to the sea, in the same year, not yet advanced beyond the 23rd of July, after making some stay at Jerusalem, return to the City, and in it, after a year-long illness by which she was afflicted partly at sea, partly on land and at Rome, depart from among the living? For thus Birger writes of St. Birgitta's last illness at number 30: "But after she returned to Rome, held by a grave illness for a whole year, which, however, she bore most patiently both at sea and on land amid labours and pains, she began from day to day to be weighed down with heavier sicknesses": which indeed is also read in St. Antoninus and in the Life of St. Birgitta interpolated by Surius. Moreover, in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 6, in the year 1371, in the month of May, on the day of St. Urban, that is, the 25th of the same month, St. Birgitta, still being at Rome, is read to have been divinely admonished

to prepare herself for the journey to Jerusalem; she could not, therefore, in the same year commit herself to the sea from Naples in the month of March. It does not seem doubtful, therefore, that St. Birgitta died in the year 1373 on the 23rd day of July, which indeed Hilarion of St. Anthony also rightly writes in the Italian Life of St. Catherine, Birgitta's daughter, published at Naples in the year 1641, page 225; but he contradicts himself when he affirms that St. Birgitta died on a Friday.

[58] As regards, moreover, the last year of St. Birgitta's age, of age, as it appears, 71; born therefore in the year 1302 or the following, it is commonly said here to have been the 70th year of her life. So Thorir Andersson, praised at number 55, and the abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 801. Peter of Alvastra, in Revelation 8 among the Extravagantes, writes that St. Birgitta, having left Sweden, came to Rome in the 42nd year of her age: and that after she left her homeland she lived 28 years, which, added to 42 years, make the sum of 70 years. In this manner Thorir Andersson seems to have counted St. Birgitta's years in the Vadstena Diary, writing that she died in the 70th year of her age; but perhaps he is to be understood of the 70th year of St. Birgitta's age wholly completed, and therefore of the 71st year of her age current: however that may be, plain are the words of the Bull of canonization, and to them therefore I prefer to adhere here, until something else is shown from elsewhere equally clearly, in which she is said to have been called to the Heavenly ones in the course of the 71st year of her age. Here they are: "And when she had passed beyond the seventieth year, the end" (of life) "foretold already approaching, having called her household, she declared what must be done, etc." These things being so settled, St. Birgitta would have been born in the year of Christ 1302 or 1303; in the former indeed if, when she died, she had already carried her 71st year beyond six months and 23 days; but if by less than six months and 23 days, in the latter; so that I think Benzelius is mistaken when, in the Annotations to Vastovius's Vitis Aquilonia, column 67, he writes that St. Birgitta was born in the year 1304; which, however, can be true if she died in the course of the 70th year of her age; but that the Life of St. Birgitta was prolonged beyond the 70th year has already been said from the Bull of canonization.

[59] For the rest, St. Birgitta, whose birth we have seen made illustrious by more than one heavenly prodigy, with many, from her earliest age, admirably confirmed the hope of her holiness conceived from it, as soon as her age allowed: Birger touches briefly on her first age up to the twelfth year from number 4 to number 10: and it is wonderful with how great virtues, already so far beyond her age, she shone; he praises her especially for purity of body and mind, for sobriety and modesty, for simplicity and bashfulness, for humility and obedience, for patience and charity, for zeal in prayer and flight from concupiscence, but most of all for a most ardent love toward the suffering Christ, whom she could scarcely remember without tears. Nor does Pope Boniface speak much otherwise, though more strictly and more generally, in the Bull of canonization, praising her childhood in this manner: "Advancing indeed in years, she passed her childhood in wonderful devotion, namely in prayers and fasts, and at other times never idle from good works." Which, although in so tender a virgin they are most worthy of admiration, yet it was very easy that this should be so with Birgitta, because of the manifold favours which she enjoyed from God, and by which she was driven again and again by a certain sweet force and power to the pursuit of holiness. For almost the whole first three years of her life she was dumb, without speech, but He who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, says Birger, with Boniface IX agreeing in the Bull of canonization, so loosed the impediment of the tongue which was at some time to be the interpreter of the divine will before kings, Pontiffs, and every kind of men, that thereafter she used, not stammering in the manner of other infants, but as if of adult age, a ready and easy speech.

[60] with gifts and graces As St. Birgitta's age increased, there increased likewise the divine favours in her. She had not yet completed the seventh year of her age when she was bereaved of her mother Ingeborg, of whom I made mention at number XI, and whose sepulchral monument, cut in marble, I have likewise said in the foregoing existed at Uppsala in the choir of St. Catherine in the cathedral church. John Peringskiöld, in the manuscript Genealogy of St. Birgitta, writes that she died in the year, as it seems, 1310, which agrees with Birger's reckoning. Now Birgitta had a maternal aunt, on the testimony of Birger the biographer, distinguished by the praise of prudence, to whom her father Birger committed his daughter Birgitta to be brought up; she was named Ingrid, and had her dwelling at Aspanäs, if we believe Margaret of Vadstena; but on the contrary was called Catherine, if we believe the Visingsborg codex: however that may be, to this maternal aunt of St. Birgitta, whether Catherine or Ingrid, Margaret and the author of the codex just cited ascribed the things which follow concerning St. Birgitta from Birger, her biographer. "She saw opposite her bed an altar, and a lady sitting upon it in shining garments and holding in her hand a crown, who said, 'Birgitta, come': and she, hearing this, rose from her bed, running to the altar. To her the Lady said: 'Dost thou wish to have this crown?' And when she nodded assent, she placed the crown on her head, so that she felt as it were the circle of the crown covering her head. But when she returned to her bed, that vision disappeared, which, however, she could never forget." It does not seem doubtful that under that likeness of a lady clothed in shining garments the Most Blessed Virgin Mother of God was shadowed forth, to whom St. Birgitta was most tenderly devoted throughout the whole course of her life. This event, which may also be read conceived in almost the same words in the abbreviated Life, happened in the seventh year of St. Birgitta's age. Not long after, in the tenth year of her age according to her abbreviated Life, Christ appeared to her in like manner, whence the great love of St. Birgitta toward the suffering Christ, with which she burned most of all as long as she lived, seems to have taken its beginning.

[61] received from God; Birger relates the matter thus: "But because it was necessary that the great eagle, flying forth to the heights, should place her nest in lofty places; therefore the Virgin devoted to Christ, when on a certain day she heard preaching in the church on the passion of Christ, devoutly writing it on the tablets of her heart, at once on the following night saw Christ as if crucified at that very hour and saying: 'Thus have I been wounded': and she, thinking that this had been done recently, answered the Lord in the Spirit: 'O Lord, who has done this to Thee?' Christ answered: 'They who despise Me and neglect My charity.' Then, returning to herself, she was so affected from that day toward the passion of Christ that she rarely called to memory the mysteries of the passion without tears." Which may be read not only in our copy of the Life of St. Birgitta written by Birger and in the abbreviated Life, but also in St. Antoninus, and in the Life interpolated by Surius, and printed at Louvain in the year 1485, as I noted before.

[62] That two years later, when she was applying herself to a girl's work, and it perhaps did not succeed well enough for her, adorned. the Most Blessed Virgin was seen giving her helping work, we have already said at number 44, adducing the words of Abbess Margaret, with which both the abbreviated Life and Birger agree exactly. Thus the latter: "Moreover, when the twelfth year of her age came on, when one day blessed Birgitta, a wonderful vessel and work of the Most High, was intent upon embroidery with girls of her own age, and was much anxious in mind because she could not do her work as she wished, she raised the eyes of her mind more attentively to Him who is holy in all His works, and behold, her maternal aunt, entering the house in which she was sitting, by the ordering of Him whose works are great and sought out according to all His wills, saw a certain unknown virgin sitting opposite her and doing the work with her. And when at her entrance that Virgin had disappeared, she asked who that girl was who had sat with her in doing the work; the most pleasing Bride answers that she had seen no one. But because her aunt found the work so finely made that it was given to those who saw it to understand that it was not the work of so tender an age, but was to be wonderfully made by the Lord in the eyes of all; therefore her aunt faithfully kept the aforesaid work among her relics." More things of this kind which befell her from God occur in Birger and in the abbreviated Life, which you will go and consult below in Birger, if you wish: for these suffice to let you understand what sort and how great Birgitta was even from the first threshold of her age, and how pleasing to God and to the Heavenly ones.

§ V. St. Birgitta enters into marriage: she bears eight children: notice of the sons.

She married at about 14 years of age It could scarcely be that St. Birgitta, who had begun her life so admirably, should not grow up no less in virtue and merits before God and men than in age. Having entered the years of puberty, she entered into marriage, as Birger writes, with a noble youth, not for the sake of pleasure, but of her father's will. He was, as the old author of the abbreviated Life has it, eighteen years old; by name Ulpho of Ulfåsa, as the Swedes write. "At length," says Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization, "although she" (Birgitta) "longed with all her desires to serve the Lord in the virginal state, yet, compelled by her parents" (understand her father and kinsfolk: for her mother, from what has been said, had already died), "she is betrothed in marriage to the late Ulpho of Ulfåsa, prince of Närke, a most noble and most Christian youth"; namely in the year, as the Bull of canonization has it, thirteenth, or, as the Visingsborg codex, in the XIVth year of her age. Birger did not express the year, but only intimates that St. Birgitta had passed the twelfth year when she was joined in marriage to Ulpho; Abbess Margaret, however, writes thus: "When St. Birgitta had reached marriageable years" (which can be taken equally of the 14th year and of the 13th), "her father joined her in marriage to lord Ulf, son of Gudmar, a most noble man, most excellent, most pious, most observant of equity and justice, lawman of Uppland."

[64] to Ulf Gudmarsson, An error, indeed, has here crept in upon Margaret, when she called Ulf Gudmarsson lawman of Uppland: for the lawman of Uppland, as Margaret had said a little before, was Birger, St. Birgitta's father: Ulf, however, was lawman not of Uppland, but of Närke, which, like Uppland, is a province of Sweden properly so called: from this, however, it is understood why Birgitta is often called princess of Närke; namely because she was the wife of Ulf, not lord of Närke, still less, as some have handed down, king, but its supreme judge. Hear the Swede Bureus in the Description of Sweden, explaining in general the office of lawmen: "The lawmen," he says in book 7, page 282, "were also of the highest authority and power among the Swedes and Goths: nor has anything been taken away from their authority today, except that, the kingdom having now been made hereditary, they no longer, as of old, designate the king. Nine

are there in the kingdom of Sweden lawman's offices, or districts of lawmen, and each has assigned to it its own particular guardian of the law, whom they consult concerning right and justice in any controversies whatsoever which devolve to them by appeal from the lower court, and to whom they contribute an honourable salary every year."

[65] lawman of Närke, The lawmen of the provinces, moreover, as the same Bureus writes, were accustomed to be men of eminent nobility and dignity; whence, as also from the illustrious birth of his wife St. Birgitta, it is easy to perceive that Ulpho is not undeservedly praised for the nobility of his family by Birger, Boniface IX, Margaret and the author of the abbreviated Life: and if anyone desires to know his progenitors too in some fashion, here they are, on the credit of John Gustafsson in the Brahe Genealogy, page 24. Of Philip, duke of East Gothland, was begotten Canute, senator of the kingdom of Sweden; of him Jonas Knutsson, a gilded knight: the son of Jonas, further, was Gudmar, of whom was begotten Ulpho, called in Swedish fashion Gudmarsson from his father, a gilded knight, the husband of St. Birgitta. But that no empty praise for piety is attributed to him, both the things which will have to be said of him hereafter will sufficiently show, and he himself gave a clear demonstration of it immediately after entering into marriage with St. Birgitta. For the pious spouses, having entered into marriage, out of the fear of the Lord, before they gave their attention to begetting children, kept perpetual continence by mutual consent for about two whole years, that they might afterwards beget offspring that would be pleasing to God, as may be read in the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta in Hörmann, already often praised, page 798, column 2. Which neither did Boniface IX pass over in silence in the Bull of canonization, subjoining to the words adduced above: "And when they should have come together, although they were fit for the embraces of wedlock, the husband being namely in the eighteenth and the Bride in the thirteenth year, yet by common will, imitating the younger Tobias and Sara the daughter of Raguel, they abstained from intercourse for a continuous year and more, humbly beseeching God that, if it were expedient for them to be joined, they might not sin in their union, and that God would grant them such offspring as should be for His service."

[66] of whom eight children, Not unheard were the vows of Ulpho and St. Birgitta: for whether you look at the number of the offspring or at their life, spent most Christianly, you will confess that nothing was left undone for the pious desires of the spouses: "Afterwards, however," says the author of the abbreviated Life, "always first sending up prayer to God that He would keep them blameless in the act of matrimony, and would deign to give them offspring that would not offend God, with the fear of God and purity of mind they fruitfully begot infants of both sexes eight in number, future dwellers in heaven." He said all were future dwellers in heaven because he did not doubt that all, on account of a life piously and uprightly led and completed, obtained the reward promised by God to all the just; not, however, because all, as some seem to affirm, were enrolled in the album of the Saints, which happened to St. Catherine alone, the daughter of Ulpho and Birgitta: wherefore also, in general, he only adds to the words just related: "Whose living together is recognised from what follows to have been acceptable to God and devout. For the Lord is in the just generation." For the rest, the same author enumerates among St. Birgitta's children four males and as many females; namely of the male sex Charles, Birger, Benedict and Gudmar: of the female Merita, Catherine, Ingeborg, and Cecilia, the youngest.

[67] Nor does the Visingsborg codex dissent from that author as to the number and names of the sons and daughters, whether males or females, she bore although it reckons the latter in another order; its words are: "St. Birgitta, moreover, in the XIVth year of her age, with her father's consent, was piously married to Lord Ulpho [*] Gudmarsson, with whom she begot four sons and as many daughters. Namely Charles, Birger, Benedict, who died a minor at Alvastra, Gudmar, who likewise died an infant. The males (read FEMALES), however, Mereta (that name means the same among the Swedes as Martha), lady Cecilia, and the divine lady Catherine, and the virgin Ingeborg." Abbess Margaret of Vadstena follows the Visingsborg codex, as she commonly does: "Eight children," she says, "were born to them, four sons, Charles, Birger, Benedict and Gudmar; and as many daughters, Märta, Cecilia, our holy mother Catherine, and Ingeborg." John Peringskiöld also reckoned the children of Ulpho and Birgitta in the same order as the Visingsborg codex and Margaret, in the Genealogy of St. Birgitta: but with the order of age disturbed, since the author of the abbreviated Life makes Cecilia the youngest of the daughters.

[68] It will be well now, these things having been premised in general concerning St. Birgitta's children, the praises and deeds of Charles, to bring forward those things which pertain to each, since the praise and virtue of the children must be joined with the glory of the mother, and overflow into the same. The praises of Charles the author of the abbreviated Life excerpted here and there from the books of the Revelations, and contracted into a few words in this manner: "Their first son, then, was lord Charles, an excellent knight. He first and alone up to that time dedicated his knighthood to God, as is taught in the second book of the Revelations, chapter 13. For this reason he merited that salutary investiture of spiritual knighthood which is found in the 4th book of the Revelations, chapter 74, throughout. He finally, going on pilgrimage with his holy Mother on the way and with the purpose toward the city of Jerusalem, ready to lay down his life for the recovery of the Holy Land, fell ill and died in the city of Naples on the 12th day of the month of March. And on the day of the Lord's Ascension next following his soul sought the heavenly mansions, as is beautifully set out in the 7th book of the Revelations, chapters 13 and 14, throughout." So he of Charles: but Abbess Margaret relates more things about him, and more singular, which, because I do not think they can be found elsewhere, I am pleased to transcribe here in her own words; thus then she has it: "We must further mention that Lord Charles, son of Ulf and St. Birgitta, the brother next in age to Märta" (she therefore was the eldest of all St. Birgitta's children), "had three wives in succession. Of these the first was Catherine, daughter of Gisl, the second Goedha, a Norwegian by nation; the third again Catherine, daughter of Lord Ketil Glysing."

[69] Papebroch being corrected in passing, But here Goedha, Charles's second wife, bids me interrupt Margaret's narrative for a while; for when our Papebroch had found mention of her in the Life of St. Catherine under the proper name Gydha and the appellative Lady of Norica, and had not seen Margaret's Chronicle, he wrote, in volume 3 of March, page 507, in the Annotations to chapter 1 of the Life of St. Catherine illustrated by him, letter b, that she was called Norica from her husband (Charles), prince of Norica or Närke; but, as is clear here from Margaret, the word Norica means the same as Norwegian, or sprung from Norway, the kingdom bordering on Sweden. How that Goedha was made a follower of modesty through St. Catherine, see in Papebroch just cited. She departed from this life while St. Birgitta was at Rome, and is read in her Revelations to have provided by her testament that a certain precious necklace should be sent to St. Birgitta. But these things having been said in passing, let us hear Margaret pursuing her narrative of Charles.

[70] from Abbess Margaret's She goes on thus: "Charles was a very cheerful man and of festive disposition, yet he venerated the virgin Mary" (emulating his Mother in this) "with singular love, and indeed so great that he often professed that he would rather be tormented eternally than that the Virgin Mother of God should be removed even a little from God," or, as I think this is to be interpreted, than that she should suffer even the least loss of her glory, by which she approaches more nearly to God than the other Heavenly ones. "When he had spent some years with St. Birgitta at Rome, God commanded" (so at least Margaret judged) "that she should present her sons, adorned in their knightly habit, to the Pontiff, as a proof of splendour and magnificence" (which St. Birgitta was accustomed not to boast of but to hide), "and that hereafter the business entrusted to her by God" (this indeed has a little more likelihood) "might experience happier success. Charles and Birger therefore come to Rome. Some time later St. Birgitta, accompanied by both her sons, met the Pontiff; and Birger indeed went in a long and ankle-length garment, girt with the usual belt, and altogether arranged in the most seemly manner; but Charles, adorned in knightly habit, as those are wont who are dying for love of these worldly things, with a silver belt, a dagger … and a collar according to the fashion of those times, wearing also a tunic sewn with ermine skins from top to bottom, so that, when he walked, those animals were seen, very like living ones, running about some upward, some downward; from the neck of each hung a gilded little bell, and a golden ring projected from its mouth. When the supreme Pontiff had seen both, he said to Birger: 'Thou art thy Mother's son'; but to Charles: 'And thou the world's.' Presently St. Birgitta, falling on her knees at the Pontiff's feet, began to beg pardon of sins for her sons. Then the Pontiff, touching Charles's belt and the rest of the clothing which he wore, said: 'Let these heavy ornaments suffice for doing penance for sins.' To whom Birgitta again: 'Let Your Holiness absolve him from his sins; the belt I myself will indeed take from him.'

[71] Vadstena Chronicle "It must now be known that there followed St. Birgitta when she went away to the holy sepulchre three of her children, Lord Charles, Lord Birger, and our blessed mother Catherine: likewise two servants, and the blessed master Peter" (St. Birgitta's steward and afterwards confessor of the convent of Vadstena, whose Life and miracles brother Matthias Laurentii wrote, on the testimony of Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, page 140, where he also adds that his canonization was attempted under Pope Leo X, but not completed) "and Peter, Prior of the monastery of Alvastra, so that there were eight" (that this number may be completed, there must be added to the rest Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, not Matthias, canon of Linköping, who had died as early as the year 1350, as Vastovius, just praised, wrongly makes it) "companions in all; and God revealed to St. Birgitta that all, excepting one, would return. When they had come to Naples, which is part of the Sicilian kingdom, and Queen Joanna, a very great friend of St. Birgitta, then a widow, was administering the realm, St. Birgitta taught her sons with what reverence they should venerate the queen when present, according to the custom of that land, namely with bent knees and the kissing of the feet.

[72] "Charles, when, coming nearer to the queen, he had shown the due reverence, are chiefly related, also kissed her lips. The queen was so moved by this boldness that she was wholly carried away into love of him, and, refusing him leave to depart, she affirmed that she would marry him. St. Birgitta flatly denied that this could be done, since her son's wife was still living at home; but the queen, tenacious of her purpose, insisted that she did not care for that, and that her will must be complied with. Then St. Birgitta implored the divine grace with her most devout prayers, by which it came about that Charles was seized with a deadly illness and died a few days later. The queen followed his death with many tears, and the due

funeral rites she paid with no less pomp than if he had been her husband, as master Peter, an eyewitness, related all these things. On the day which is sacred to Matthias the Apostle he fell ill in the city of Naples, and on the fifteenth day next following he died, and was buried there; thence on the feast day of the Lord's Ascension his soul flew away to heavenly glory, as the same holy master Peter asserted that it had been divinely revealed to St. Birgitta. See book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 13." These things Margaret of Charles; but a few things are to be noted here.

[73] Birgitta, as is clear from Margaret, lost her son Charles at Naples, on which a few things when she had already begun the journey to Jerusalem: the same is read in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1413, where, writing of the death of Catherine, daughter of Ketil Glysing and the third wife of Charles, the continuator of the Vadstena Diary has this of Charles, her first husband: "Her first husband was Lord Charles Ulfsson, son of St. Birgitta, who died at Naples of the kingdom of Sicily on the way, while he was crossing with his mother St. Birgitta to the Holy Land." From which it follows, first indeed, that Charles died at Naples in the year 1372, on the 12th day of March, since in that year, on the 14th day, after Charles had probably been buried, St. Birgitta set sail from Naples, as we have already seen above at number 57 from the Itinerary of Alphonsus. And then, that Vastovius is mistaken in the Vitis Aquilonia, writing rightly indeed on page 133 that Charles died at Naples in the year 1372; but wrongly on page 132, after his mother's return into Italy from the journey to Jerusalem: the words in which Vastovius does this are these: "Charles meanwhile, already at home in virtue and judgment" (he was lawman or judge of Närke), "was much turning over in his mind by what means he might employ the remainder of his mature age, and achieve something worthy of God and of his family. He had heard frequently from boyhood of the oppression of the holy Church in the East by the Turks and Saracens; he had read also the distinguished expeditions and heroic deeds of many against that wicked race; moreover, a few years before, his most holy Mother had visited those places with much labour for religion's sake, and had related some things about the hardships of the Christians there. Wherefore, etc."

[74] are observed. But let this be Vastovius's error: but is it not also an error of Margaret's own, when she writes that Joanna was then a widow? Whatever may be the case concerning the perverse love of Queen Joanna (who is from time to time ill spoken of among writers for conjugal incontinence and lust for men) toward Charles; I read these things concerning James III of Majorca in the History of the kings of Majorca prefixed to volume 3 of June, page XC: "In the year one thousand three hundred and sixty-two, on the Kalends of May, he delivered himself from this unforeseen punishment" (he was destined to death by Peter of Aragon): "he spoils the keys, breaks the bars, cuts down the guards and recovers his liberty. But who could sufficiently wonder at the inconstancy of human affairs, and their various and changeable character? Who in tranquillity would not fear shipwreck? He who was about to pay with his blood for the renown of his family, if he had been in prison two days more, before a year had come round, contracted marriage with Queen Joanna, the fourth after the Brunswicker, the Hungarian and the Tarentine." And somewhat later of the same man: "Thence his strength was gradually consumed, and James himself was affected with weariness, until in the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-five he yielded to fate at Soria." But in agreement with Margaret, Summonte in book 3 and Giannettasio in book 25 of the History of Naples write that James died in the year 1368; and that Joanna many years afterwards (namely in the year 1376 according to Summonte) married Otto of Brunswick. I pass on to Birger, the other son of St. Birgitta and Ulpho.

[75] What of her other male sons, "Birger," says Margaret, "the son of St. Birgitta, had two wives in marriage; the former was Benedicta, daughter of Glysing, who bore two sons, Ulf and Gudmar. She having died, he set out with his holy Mother for the holy sepulchre, where he obtained knightly honours. But after he had returned with his sister St. Catherine and had brought home the bones of his holy Mother, and his sister had gone to Rome a second time, he married a second wife, Märta, who, whether she blessed her husband with children, is not established. His sister, having returned home, reproached her brother with this, and, rebuking him, threatened him in these words: 'Because, against God's will, thou hast married a second wife, thou shalt lose both thy sons'; which also came to pass. For Ulf was associated with the Order of the monks of Vadstena, but died before the community was consecrated. Gudmar, the other of the sons, lived with his father outside the monastery, and not long after died here at Vadstena." The consecration of the monastery of Vadstena is said in the Vadstena Diary to have taken place in the year 1430, in these words: "On the morrow of Sigfrid, namely on the fifth weekday after Septuagesima Sunday, in the presence of the king and of the nobles of the kingdom, and also of the bishop of Linköping, brother John Haquini, archbishop of Uppsala, dedicated the monastery of Vadstena in honour of Blessed Mary the Virgin and of St. Birgitta, without the consecration of the altar." But Margaret's discourse here seems to be either of the first introduction of the community made in the year 1384, or of the introduction and blessing of the conventuals of Vadstena to regular observance, as Thorir speaks in the Vadstena Diary, made by Bishop Nicholas in the year 1391; for in the same year Birger, the father of Ulf the monk of Vadstena and son of St. Birgitta, died and was buried at Vadstena, on the testimony of Thorir Andersson, whose words are these: "Likewise" (in the year 1391 there died) "Lord Birger Ulfsson" (or son of Ulf), "son of St. Birgitta, who went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his mother and sister and others. He fell ill on the day of St. Bartholomew, and on the third day following died in the castle of Ringstadholm, and is buried at Vadstena." Faultily, therefore, it is read in the Visingsborg codex: "This Lord Birger, as faithful curator of this monastery, dying without offspring in the court of Ringstadholm, left by testament all his hereditary goods to this monastery, where also on the day of Bartholomew" (indeed he died only on the third day after) "in the year MCCCXXXIX" (read: MCCCXCI) "he is buried with great solemnity."

[76] With the Vadstena Diary, or Thorir Andersson, Margaret agrees, chiefly of Birger. weaving the rest about Birger thus: "Nor must we keep silent that Birger himself presided over all the cares of the monastery and acted as its steward, which office, enjoined on him and on St. Catherine by God, was administered with the greatest integrity. And as he lived longer, so whatever he could exchange and negotiate for the uses and advantages of the monastery he diligently provided, as all these things stand consigned in writing in the book of the monastery's possessions" (behold Abbess Margaret consulting the primitive codices of her monastery). "And when the shrine of St. Birgitta was carried for the first time, Birger himself with other noblemen put his shoulders beneath it, and on that same day, suffused with pious joy, he broke out into these words: Now rejoicing, etc.," as at number 45 above. "God afterwards called him from this earthly station in the year MCCCXCI. On St. Bartholomew's day illness seized him on the estate of Ringstadholm, and three days later death followed. His body, translated here, was honourably laid to rest, as was fitting." The shrine of the relics of St. Birgitta was solemnly carried about, according to the Vadstena Diary, in the year 1393 by four bishops; but since Birger was not then among the living, Margaret is to be understood of the first reception of the relics of St. Birgitta in Sweden, which took place in the year 1374. The two remaining sons of St. Birgitta Margaret dispatches in a few words in this manner: "The third son of St. Birgitta, Benedict, died as a boy and was buried at Alvastra. The fourth, Gudmar, likewise carried off as a boy by an untimely fate, was attending the school at Stockholm."

[77] Most excellently indeed did Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, to whom certain special warnings and after her Benzelius, who published her writings in print, deserve of posterity: I cannot, however, refrain from adding here from elsewhere one or two things, of which one pertains to Birger, the other to Benedict, and both to St. Birgitta. The first we owe to John Gustafsson, that is, certain instructions and admonitions written out from Rome by St. Birgitta to her son Birger, lawman of Närke, which on account of their antiquity John Gustafsson inserted in the Brahe Genealogy; we, because they contain a clear testimony of the maternal solicitude in St. Birgitta for the salvation of her sons, gladly transcribe them here from him for the memory of posterity also. They run, then, thus: "Greeting. Glory, praise and honour be to our Jesus Christ, especially for His bitter passion on the cross for our sins." This pious inscription having been placed first, here are the salutary warnings which St. Birgitta imparts to her son Birger. "First. My most beloved son, if thou desirest sincere charity toward thy Creator and Redeemer, be mindful at all times of His passion, and, according to the pastor's admonition, make pious use of the holy Eucharist as often as possible. Second. In whatever place thou art, be mindful of the poor, and help them as thou canst, which God will most generously recompense. Third. Pay the workman his wage willingly.

[78] St. Birgitta wrote out, "Fourth. In the chastisement of subjects be compassionate. Fifth. Be faithful toward God, the magistrate and thy neighbour. Sixth. When thou hast risen, commend body and soul to God, imploring that He may rule all thine actions and deeds, and mark thyself on face and breast with the sign of the cross, saying: Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, King of the Jews, have mercy on me. Seventh. During sermons be mindful of the power of God and consider the passion of the Redeemer, and also thy sins. Eighth. When reclining at table join thy mind to God, and flee vicious conversations. Ninth. When leaving the table beware lest thou be a swine, after the manner of the ungodly, etc. Tenth. Do not name the devil. Eleventh. In speaking and answering mark thyself with the sign of the cross, adoring the Lord Jesus Christ, who will adorn thee with wise speech. Twelfth. Before thou pronounce sentence, consider well the circumstances of the actions and thy words. Thirteenth. Judge thy neighbour justly, and remember that an account of all things is soon to be rendered. Fourteenth. If thou art hurt by an injury from thy neighbour, use the common laws toward him. Fifteenth. In anger do not boil over [*] to vengeance. Finally, be not impatient if justice is not administered to thee, and commend thy soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

[79] was handed down. The other, concerning Benedict, Birger relates at number 23, and the author of the abbreviated Life, agreeing with Birger. "A third son," says the latter, "they" (Ulpho and St. Birgitta) "begot, Benedict in fact and in name. When he was long ill in the monastery of Alvastra, his devout Mother, weeping over so long an illness of his, reckoned that this was on account of the sins of the parents. Then the devil, appearing, said to her: 'What is it to thee, Woman, that thou weakenest thy sight with so many waters and labourest in vain? Can thy waters ascend into heaven?' And presently Christ was present, saying: 'The illness of this boy is not from the stars, nor on account of his sins or his parents', but on account of the condition of nature and his greater crown. Therefore, if up to now he has been called Benedict, from now on he shall be called the son of the waters

and of prayers, and I will make an end of his need.' On the fifth day after these things, therefore, there was heard a most sweet singing, as of birds, between the wall and the boy's bed, and then too his soul went forth from his body." Now let us see what Margaret relates of St. Birgitta's daughters; and first indeed of Märta, the eldest of all.

* read domino Ulphoni

* read effervescas

§ VI. Notice of her daughters and grandchildren.

Who were "Märta," says Margaret, "when she was marriageable, was given by her father to a man of eminent authority, Lord Sigvid Ribbing. He was of a stern and ungovernable mind; indeed, he is that robber of whom mention is made in the Revelations. St. Birgitta grieved that her daughter had come into the power of an ungovernable man, and would not even enter the wedding banquet-hall; but alone, apart, she was anguished in mind; and she was at the same time pregnant with her Cecilia, who, lying in the womb, addressed her mother thus: 'Beware lest thou kill me, most beloved Mother.' To whom she: 'Sweetest offspring, the life given by God I will by no means take from thee.' Presently Birgitta, clothed in the most ornate garments, went in, and made all the guests more cheerful." She adds that Märta, Sigvid Ribbing having died, entered into a second marriage with Knut Algotsson, and afterwards dwelt long in Norway, where she was mistress of the court to Margaret, wife of Haakon, king of Norway, and daughter of Valdemar, king of the Danes. What, however, the abbess of Vadstena writes of Märta's children I shall report below, where I treat of St. Birgitta's grandsons and granddaughters.

[81] Meanwhile let us hear her discoursing of St. Birgitta's other daughters. St. Birgitta's "The second of St. Birgitta's daughters, Cecilia, was thrust, not of her own will, into the monastery of the virgins of Skänninge" (of the Order of St. Dominic in East Gothland, founded by Ingrid, a widow, whom Vastovius, page 76, falsely says was enrolled among the Saints by Martin V in the year 1418; on which matter Eric Olofsson writes, page 74: "In the year of the Lord MCCLXXXII died Ingrid of Skänninge, who founded the monastery there"), "of which matter God Himself also makes mention in book IV of the Revelations, chapter LXXXI. She" (led out of the monastery by her brother Charles, as the Visingsborg codex has it, but written first at Vadstena) "was given in marriage to Lawrence, son of John" (her first husband, namely, a certain gilded knight, having died, as again the Visingsborg codex has it), "a most experienced physician and at the court of the king (Magnus, who had been freed from poison by his work) then reigning, who also gave her in marriage" (to the aforesaid physician), "the kinsfolk and friends of the bride resisting in vain … Cecilia, passing to a second" (indeed a third, according to the Visingsborg codex) "marriage, was joined to a most noble man, Lord Benedict, son of Philip, which marriage was barren of children. After her husband's last fate, however, she fixed her dwelling at our Vadstena, adorning the monastery with very many estates, as is abundantly established from the book of possessions. Having passed a blameless and upright life, she was bidden to put off mortality in the year MCCCXCIX on the day of St. Gregory in Lent."

[82] "She was buried beside her brother Lord daughter: Birger on the North side," adds Thorir Andersson at the cited year in the Vadstena Diary; where also he calls her the last-born of St. Birgitta's daughters, so that the abbess of Vadstena seems not to keep the order of age among them, as I observed at number 67. Thorir adds besides that St. Birgitta in the birth of this Cecilia prodigiously experienced the help of the Virgin Mother of God; which see related more fully by Birger at number 13 and in the abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 800. "The third" (they are again the words of Abbess Margaret) "daughter of St. Birgitta was our blessed mother and Lady St. Catherine, whose manner of life and statutes are very well known to all." More could be said of her here; but go to her Acts, illustrated by Papebroch in volume 3 of March. "The fourth," says Abbess Margaret finally, "of the daughters, Ingeborg, placed in the monastery of Riseberga" (of the Cistercian Order in Närke, founded by King Sverker), "lived piously there, and now exults in heavenly joy, and is believed a saint, because many miracles are seen at her tomb by those who, coming there, implore help." She died while St. Birgitta was at Rome, as is read in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 98.

[83] who from her sons Charles We have hitherto reviewed St. Birgitta's children chiefly from Margaret for this reason, that from time to time she mingles in her narrative some deeds of St. Birgitta often not described elsewhere: for the same reason I shall now bring forward some things concerning St. Birgitta's grandsons and granddaughters, chiefly from the same work of Margaret, which I have purposely passed over hitherto, being about to put an end here to St. Birgitta's descendants; lest, if I go further, I become endless, saving, however, the right of the several illustrious families still flourishing in Sweden or elsewhere and deriving their origin from St. Birgitta's blood. That Charles, St. Birgitta's son, entered into a threefold marriage we saw at number 68; the first with Catherine, daughter of Gisl; the second with Goedha the Norwegian; the third with Catherine, daughter of Ketil Glysing. Whether he had children by the former wives or not, Margaret does not declare: but of the third he begot Ulf and Charles. "Ulf died young and unmarried," says Margaret; "Charles applied himself to letters in school and university, to be employed one day in the sacred ministry of the church, as the divine will had indeed destined: but when he had taken it ill that his mother, Charles Ulfsson having died, had hastened to another marriage, he too turned his mind to marriage, taking as wife Catherine, daughter of Algot, son of Magnus, of whom he had one only daughter, whom in memory of his Grandmother he called Birgitta." He died in the year 1398, at which year the Vadstena Diary has this of him: "Likewise on the day of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr, died Charles Karlsson, the son of the son of St. Birgitta. He was of great learning and of great reputation in the university, who, having returned from his studies, after some years took a wife for himself, and for some time lived praiseworthily in matrimony, and at length died and was laid beside his paternal uncle Lord Birger in the monastery of Vadstena."

[84] and from Birger Of the same the Visingsborg codex also: "He joined to himself in partnership Catherine, daughter of lord Algot Magnusson, of whom he begot one only Birgitta, who in the seventh year of her age was consecrated to the convent of Vreta, at whose death, as also at her father's, many wonders were done; both are buried here at Vadstena." What these wonders were Margaret explains in this manner. "It happened that this Charles once came to our Vadstena, as he was frequently accustomed, and was giving himself to prayer in a wooden chapel which was here before the church was built. Then St. Birgitta appeared to him, holding in her hand an hourglass hastening now to the last moment of the hour, and saying to him: 'Dost thou see, Charles, this hourglass?' To whom he: 'I see it.' 'Dost thou know what it means, that it is now verging to its running out?' 'I do not know at all,' said Charles. Then she: 'So little of thy life, and nothing more than what thou seest, remains; but if thou hadst obeyed the divine will and allowed thyself to be initiated into sacred orders — for to these thou wert destined by divine decree — thou wouldst have lived the longest life of all our family, and wouldst have been appointed bishop of Linköping, a pillar and prop of holy Church.' Then he said: 'My Lady, intercede for me; I will amend my life.' Birgitta again: 'Too late; the hour has run out; the sentence has been passed.' He afterwards, turning to his servants, asks whether they had seen or heard anything. They deny that anyone had been either seen or heard by them except himself alone speaking. But at the same moment of time it seemed to many of the sisters within the walls of the monastery and to others outside that the whole chapel was ablaze; and presently, seized with fever, he went back to his estate of Ulfåsa, and, fixed to his bed, having received the Sacraments of the Church, he died; and was afterwards carried here and buried.

[85] "His daughter Birgitta was then eight or nine years old. descendants: Some time afterwards she is sent by her mother to the monastery of Vreta to learn letters; there, when she was suffering from a deadly illness, a priest is summoned to whom she might confess her sins. And the priest had already gone away when St. Birgitta, being present, said: 'My Birgitta, confess thy sins; thou wilt die at once.' The maiden retorted: 'Most beloved Lady, I have just now confessed.' Again St. Birgitta: 'Confess this too, that, when thou wert about to wear the mantle and crown, on the night next preceding thou couldst scarcely take sleep for joy.' At once she orders the priest to be called back, and confesses as St. Birgitta had admonished. After this she was seized with a desire for strawberries, which the maidservants who attended her denied could be found at this season of the year, that is, between the feast of the Nativity of Christ and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Then the girl said: 'Go out to the hill near the monastery, and having brushed away the snow you will find enough; this the holy mother Birgitta has just now confirmed to me.' They therefore went out at once, and found by the very deed that what the girl had said was true, nor had it ever before been established that strawberries grew there. Then, having died, she was carried to Vadstena, and laid in her tomb beside the rest of St. Birgitta's offspring." Of Birger's sons Ulf and Gudmar it has been said above at number 75: Benedict and Gudmar, indeed, carried off by an untimely fate, left no children.

[86] Of the children of St. Birgitta's daughters, Märta and Cecilia, Margaret writes thus: likewise who from her daughters, "Our Märta had by Sigvid Ribbing one only son, Peter Ribbing, who" (Peter) "afterwards married" (Christina) "the sister of Lord Charles of Tofta, daughter of Lord Ulf, son of Abjörn, the daughter of the sister of Lord Erengisl Jarl" (that is, the daughter of another Christina, who was the sister of Erengisl), "to whom" (Erengisl) "had been joined in marriage St. Birgitta's niece" (Ingeborg), "daughter of her sister" (Catherine). "This Peter Ribbing had no offspring of this his wife Christina. He set out for the holy sepulchre, and never returned; for he died on the journey itself." Light will be added to Margaret's somewhat obscure words by the genealogical scheme of the wife of Peter Ribbing, or Christina, which Benzelius exhibits of this kind.

SUNO, lawman of Tiundahärad.

[87] of Märta From the other marriage, however, which she entered into with Knut, son of Algot, there were born to Märta two daughters, Ingegerd and Catherine: the latter, Abbess Margaret writes, was married in Norway (to Jonas, son of Hagthorn, according to Benzelius and Messenius): the former, however, was consecrated the first abbess of the monastery of Vadstena; which monastery had hitherto been administered without that title. Thorir agrees in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1388, writing thus: "Likewise on the very day of St. Eric immediately following was consecrated the first abbess after the introduction of the community at Vadstena, and this was Ingegerd Knutsdotter," that is, daughter of Knut. A grave lawsuit was raised against her concerning the affairs of the monastery badly administered, as may be seen in the Protestation of the brothers and sisters made to the Pontiff on that matter, and

published by Benzelius, and in the letters of Boniface IX, by which in the year 1402 he committed the hearing of the cause to Peter, bishop of Strängnäs, and ordered Ingegerd, if she were guilty, to be removed from office. These are published at the end of the Vadstena Diary. Ingegerd, however, gave up her office in the year 1403, and in the ninth year after died piously, so that she seems thereafter to have amended what she had earlier sinned. So the Vadstena Diary has it of her at the year 1412, in which she died: "In the same year, on the night which is between the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Octave of blessed Mary the Virgin, died the venerable sister Ingegerd Knutsdotter, granddaughter of St. Birgitta, who came to the monastery of Vadstena in the same year" (1374) "in which the relics of St. Birgitta came there, and remained there until death; she was then scarcely yet eighteen years old. She was the first consecrated abbess in the order of Vadstena, in which office she stood for XVIII years, and at length nine years before her death she resigned this office. Standing afterwards in good humility she served God with her whole heart. She had then stood in religion for XXXIX years when she died. She had, according to human judgment, the best end of her life; for for a long time before she was always ill, although she did not always lie in bed; for she suffered a most violent pain of the head, and at that time she most attentively confessed all her sins; but at length, falling into bed, having most devoutly received all the Sacraments, and coming to the end, she held the crucifix in her arms, and gave her last word, expiring: 'O Sweetest Mary, Mother of God, help now'; and so her soul was released from the body, and she was buried behind the high altar on the steps." Abbess Margaret adds that the other daughter of Märta, Catherine, was mistress of the court to Philippa, queen of Sweden, although she discharged neither this office nor her life thereafter for long, and was buried at Vadstena.

[88] and of Cecilia. Finally, of the children of Cecilia, St. Birgitta's daughter, Margaret has this: "Three" (but she names only two) "children they" (Cecilia and Lawrence Johnsson) "had: Birgitta, who, associated with the sisters of our monastery, a most pious virgin, died before the consecration of the community. Catherine, wife of Sten, son of Sten, a most noble man, the mother of two sons, Sten and Ulf. But both of these, and indeed the mother herself, died while Cecilia was still living, and are buried here." Benzelius finally exhibits a Genealogical Scheme according to Margaret's mind, in which, however, he judged that some things should be changed and some added; as, to Sigvid Ribbing, besides the son whom Margaret says was his only one, also Arvid, whom the Visingsborg codex mentions. The Genealogical Scheme of Benzelius, moreover, fitted to Margaret's Chronicle, which could not easily be printed here, see in him after the Chronicle just praised, page 26 and following.

§ VII. Joined in marriage she exercises various virtues, and draws her husband to continence.

Joined in marriage, solicitous for her good name, What sort and how great Birgitta was even in the very beginning of her childhood and in the virginal state we have already seen. Joined in marriage by her parent's command to Ulf, lawman, or supreme judge, of Närke, she was no less: the state of matrimony is indeed wont to be a manifold hindrance to those who seek God with their whole heart, as Paul teaches in the first to the Corinthians, chapter 7: "And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of the world." But St. Birgitta had put down deeper roots in virtue than that hindrances of this kind should delay the steps of one hastening to the summit of Christian perfection. For, as Ecclesiasticus says in chapter 26: "Everlasting foundations upon a solid rock, and the commandments of God in the heart of a holy woman." She so arranged the whole plan of her life and her actions above all that she gave room to no one for sinister suspicion of her or for detraction; for which reason also she employed neither household attendants nor maidservants except those whose probity had been ascertained, lest from those with whom she dealt any sinister opinion should perhaps be drawn upon herself: "But she, having God before her eyes," says Birger at number 10, "so wished to choose a good life as also not to neglect a good name. She took the greatest care that no one should speak ill of her, or that she should give occasion to others of detracting from her in life or morals. Levities, places and persons by which she might be marked, she fled like poison; considering that the vices of each one are more readily attended to than the virtues: nor is it recognised what good anyone has done, but, if he has done any evil, it is scrutinised. She had with her honest maidservants and compliant companions who could bear witness to her good conversation, attending to this, that nothing more clothes minds with honesty, and recalls to reason those inclined to depravity, than the conversation of good men." St. Antoninus writes almost the same things in part 3, title 24, § I, and the author of the Life interpolated by Surius.

[90] Well aware that idleness is the devil's pillow, she always avoided it with the greatest care: and fleeing idleness, "She was intent," says Birger, "with her maidservants upon work for divine worship and for the advantage of her neighbours, lest she should eat her bread in idleness." Somewhat more fully and distinctly the Life interpolated by Surius: "And lest she should afford the devil an occasion of tempting, she abhorred idleness, and, constantly applying herself to good and blessed exercises, at one time she gave herself to the work of her hands with her maidservants for divine worship and the advantage of her neighbours; at another she read over the Lives of the Saints and the Bible, which she had had written for her in the Gothic tongue; at another, frequenting the thresholds of the churches, she rejoiced to be present at the divine offices." The flight from idleness and the other pious works and customs of St. Birgitta while placed in matrimony Boniface IX touches upon briefly in the Bull of canonization, saying: "while meanwhile the devout Woman omitted neither fasts, nor prayers, nor other pious and customary works." At St. Birgitta's request the sacred Scripture was probably rendered into the vernacular or Swedish tongue by Matthias, canon of Linköping, of whom see number 26 and following; the very same, namely, who in book 1 of the Revelations, in the Declaration to chapter 3, is said to have glossed the whole bible excellently.

[91] and zealous for purity of soul, Tenderness of conscience also was very great in her: for although she regulated her life most accurately by the divine precepts, yet frequently, if she had perhaps contracted any little stains of sin in her soul, she expiated them by sacred confession: "Confessions also, which stop the mouth of hell and open the gates of paradise, she frequented continually," says Birger at number XI, adding a little later with how great feeling of mind and accuracy she was accustomed to do this: "Whence also the confessor himself used to say familiarly to his friends: This is in lady Birgitta a sign of some future grace, that she bewails light sins as others do the gravest, and leaves nothing undiscussed in her words or morals." That Ulpho, St. Birgitta's husband, made it his custom to confess his sins every Friday we saw above, very probably both at the exhortation and by the example of his wife: for of her too Boniface IX writes in the Bull of canonization: "And while her husband survived, when she had confessed every Friday, after his passing she strove to repeat a true confession at least once a day with great contrition, deploring light sins as bitterly as others do the gravest, and passing over nothing undiscussed of her words, morals, thoughts and acts."

[92] the greatest reverence and obedience toward her confessors She was besides of notable veneration toward those who were her confessors, and, what is the chief thing, of obedience. "Choosing for herself," says Birger, "as confessor a certain master, most skilled and devout for the salvation of souls, whom she obeyed in all things most eagerly": and Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization, embracing much in few words: "She observed a tenacious obedience toward prelates and her superiors and confessors, so much so that without at least her confessor's leave she would scarcely presume to raise her eyes." To the same effect Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, writes in the Prologue to the Book of the heavenly emperor, etc., chapter 3, in Hörmann, page 628: "The other spiritual father of this Lady was a certain priest of Sweden, also a virgin, venerable and of most holy life, who ruled the whole household of the aforesaid Lady and taught her with her daughter Grammar and chant by Christ's command, and directed her in the way of the virtues, virtuously correcting her with fatherly corrections. These fathers she so humbly obeyed in all virtues throughout her whole life, as a true humble monk is wont to obey his prelate. On account of which she came to such humility and obedience and perfect mortification of her own will that, when she went about to the indulgences and sanctuaries, always accompanied by the aforesaid priest, her spiritual father, she did not dare to raise the look of her eyes from the ground unless she had first asked and obtained special leave for this from the same her spiritual father." So Alphonsus, a beholder of her life in Italy after her husband's death. If you desire the notable humility and obedience of this most illustrious Matron illustrated with some example, go to Berthold below, book 1, chapter 4.

[93] These things indeed appear to have been done after the death of Ulpho, she shows. but even from this it can be sufficiently gathered how greatly she cultivated obedience even when bound by the bond of matrimony; since we have it from Alphonsus, praised above, that throughout her whole life she was most loving of obedience. Further, who St. Birgitta's confessors were I have already said at numbers 26 and following, which consult; where also you will find more said of them, namely of Matthias, canon of Linköping, and Peter, Prior of Alvastra. Of Peter, however, the Birgittine monk and confessor of Vadstena, I add these things from the Vadstena Diary at the year 1408: "In this year Lord Peter" (died in the year 1378), "who was the master and confessor of St. Birgitta, and her inseparable companion on her journey for more than XXX years, began to shine with miracles, so that from the feast of Peter's chains to the end of that year more than XV miracles took place, which the signs and images hung above his tomb in token of a miracle prove. God also did many other miracles on his account even with the poor, who are not able because of poverty to offer any sign of wax; but they promise that they will say daily one Our Father or more in his honour, who at once obtain the swift effect of their petition. All these miracles are written elsewhere." But let us return to St. Birgitta.

[94] How often she was accustomed to communicate in the Lord's Body and Blood She often receives the Eucharist, Birger indeed keeps silent; but Boniface IX discloses it in the Bull of canonization: "On every Sunday also and on solemn days she received with devotion and tears the venerable Sacrament of the body of Christ." Alphonsus agrees with Boniface in the Prologue to the Book of the Heavenly Emperor in Hörmann, page 628, where, when he had said of St. Birgitta, already a widow and staying at Rome: "Every

day she confessed (not once only, but even) twice or three times," he goes on thus: "And every Sunday she and her aforesaid venerable daughter" (St. Catherine), "who lived with her praiseworthily and persevered most honourably until death in penance and most chaste widowhood, received the body of Christ with the greatest devotion and humility." Alphonsus here speaks indeed of those things which he himself saw done by St. Birgitta in Italy and elsewhere, when she had already been bereaved of her husband: but from this again it may prudently be gathered that St. Birgitta, not only as a widow but also while married, was accustomed to approach the sacred Synaxis frequently, as far as was permitted.

[95] In the Life of St. Birgitta printed at Cologne with copper plates, that she was, however, refreshed with it by Christ Himself, is not clear to us. plate 30 exhibits Christ, while meanwhile the priest celebrates Mass, refreshing St. Birgitta Himself with His Most Holy body, and there is noted at the foot of the plate that this singular favour was often conferred on St. Birgitta, from the Life of the same St. Birgitta. Which Life of St. Birgitta is praised at that place I do not know: but neither in Berthold, nor in the Birgerian, Louvain, Surian, or St. Antoninus's Lives of St. Birgitta, nor in our Utrecht manuscript, have I hitherto found anything of this kind. On what foundation, then, does an assertion of this kind rest? On those things, unless I am mistaken, which are read in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 42. The first part of the title is this: "The Mother of God, praising herself for the solicitude which she had to please God, says that she does not praise herself in order to seek her own praise, but that God may be praised and honoured by this." The other: "And she asks of her Son for the Bride" (St. Birgitta) "the heavenly garments of virtues and the sacred food of His Body and a more fervent spirit. Which the Son grants, if the Bride first have humility and fear and thanksgiving." I do not indeed doubt that, if this vision did in fact befall St. Birgitta from God, Christ assented to His mother's requests; but neither in the title of the chapter nor in the chapter itself does anything occur from which you could make out that she asked of Christ that He would Himself refresh Birgitta with His sacred Body: I shall judge, therefore, that here the Mother of God only asked for St. Birgitta a fruit more abundant than usual from the Eucharist, to be ministered and received in the usual manner, unless that singular favour be confirmed by an older and more solid testimony. Burlamacchi indeed relates it in book 3, chapter 7 of the Italian Life of St. Birgitta: but he offers no surety for his statement besides the Life of St. Birgitta expressed in pictures at Cologne.

[96] Devoted to prayer After Birger has commended our holy Matron earnestly for her flight from idleness, for obedience, for purity of life and cleanness of mind, by which she avoided even the least sins with the greatest solicitude, or, if perhaps committed, even if light, expiated them most zealously by the Sacrament of penance; he goes on to praise her no less for her zeal in prayer and the rigour of her life: "But lest she should occupy her mind only with household business, but rather might be able to meditate continually on the law of the Lord, she entered with Judith into a secret chamber, where, the motions of the billows calmed, led as it were into a harbour of delight, she was accustomed to water the couch of her conscience with tears so much that, when her husband was absent, she prudently watched almost whole nights in prayers, not without tearful sobs; nor would she spare her body from genuflections and secret disciplines, that she might bring the body into servitude to discipline." Antoninus here copies Birger almost word for word. Nor is the Louvain Life of St. Birgitta, or the one interpolated by Surius, much different: "Frequently intent also on fasts, vigils and prayers, she subdued the flesh by the spirit, and secretly abstained from more delicate foods" (which Birger also says somewhat later), "lest she should be noticed by her husband or others. Always, moreover, by day next to her body, and by night in bed, when her husband was absent, she wore a hard and rough garment."

[97] she is taught a special manner of praying by the Blessed Virgin, It happened once that a desire came upon St. Birgitta, while, removed from the eyes of men, she was giving herself to prayer according to her custom, that she might be taught a special manner of praying, to which she might thereafter constantly adhere: nor indeed was God wanting to her wishes: "For the Blessed Virgin," says Birger, "bringing forward the shield of her prayer before her blessed Son, as a faithful advocate, delivered over the desire of her Handmaid to swift effect [*]. For on a certain day blessed Birgitta, her mind raised in wondrous manner into heavenly things, had poured into her a most beautiful prayer on the Passion of Christ, and also on the life and praise of the most blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, which she took care to commit so to memory in her heart that she read it every day." There are extant in Hörmann from page 738 some prayers which they will have to have been revealed by God to St. Birgitta: that they were in use by St. Birgitta I would easily admit: but whether they were, as is said, revealed to her by God in a special manner is neither so certain, nor ought it to be believed by any private man, as will be said more fully later. After these there follow in Hörmann fifteen other prayers composed by St. Birgitta herself; but since this is said to have been done after the death of Ulpho, we shall treat of these in another place.

[98] Both from the prayers which St. Birgitta was accustomed to recite and from various places of the revelations it is clear that she was of the greatest devotion and love toward the Virgin Mother of God: to whom she was always whence also the latter more than once honoured her with singular favour: Birger at number 13 mentions that St. Birgitta was once relieved in a difficult childbirth by the help of the same Virgin; as does Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization, whose words are these: "And since she was always especially devoted to the blessed Virgin, and, time going on, was almost in peril in childbirth, and the midwives and the women standing by despaired of her life, a certain commanding but unknown woman, clothed in white silken garments, was seen to enter the bedchamber, and stand by the bed, and handle each of the limbs of the one lying there: presently, when that woman had disappeared, the same Woman in childbed remained delivered without pain by a sound birth." Who this daughter of St. Birgitta was has been said at number 82 from the Vadstena Diary and the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, where she is expressly named, namely Cecilia.

[99] A clear testimony, moreover, of St. Birgitta's love toward the most blessed Virgin is in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 1, most devoted. where these things are read: "When Blessed Birgitta, the bride of Christ, was at Rome, and on a certain occasion was giving herself to prayer, she began to think of the childbearing of the Virgin, and of that supreme goodness of God who willed to choose for Himself such a most pure Mother; for her heart was then so inflamed with love of the Virgin that she said within herself: 'O my Lady, queen of heaven, my heart rejoices so greatly in this, that the most high God chose thee beforehand as mother, and deigned to confer so great a dignity on thee, that I would rather choose for myself to be tormented eternally in hell than that thou shouldst lack by one least point of thy so excellent glory and thy heavenly dignity'; and so, inebriated with the sweetness of love, she stood above herself, estranged from the senses, suspended in a certain ecstasy of mental contemplation." And again in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 63, where she is read to have addressed the most blessed Mother of God thus: "Blessed be thou, O Mary, mother of God, and blessed be the same God, thy son Jesus Christ, for all the joy which He had given me from this, that thou art His mother. He, the same, knows that Mary, the daughter of Joachim, is dearer to me than the children of Ulpho and Birgitta. And I would rather that Birgitta, the daughter of Birger, had never been born, than that Mary, the daughter of Joachim, had not been brought forth. And I would more lightly choose that Birgitta should be in hell than that Mary, the daughter of Joachim, should not be the mother of God in heaven."

[100] Thence Birger seizes upon another matter for praising the holy Matron, of her children namely the perpetual care and solicitude which she always had for the right upbringing and the salvation of her children. And of this indeed you already have one or two distinguished examples recorded in the foregoing: the first at number 72 from Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, where she relates that St. Birgitta preferred to seek from God by her prayers the death of her son Charles rather than that he should perhaps commit anything against the sacred rights of matrimony: then at number 77 and following, where I transcribed from John Gustafsson's Brahe Genealogy her salutary warnings to her son Birger about living rightly and Christianly. A third at the following number, where we saw that St. Birgitta, if anything adverse befell her children, was accustomed to fear lest it had happened because of her sins. And indeed that this care of hers was not vain was declared by the probity of her children, described in passing in § VI, but most of all by the holiness of Catherine, her daughter, acknowledged by the whole Catholic world. Let us hear Birger on this matter: "Her sons also and daughters she brought up with great solicitude and the highest diligence, whom, as an eagle provoking her young to fly and flying over them, she exposed with the talons of correction and of sound doctrine to the rays of the sun of justice, appointing for them masters who should instruct [*] them in the faith." One of the masters of St. Birgitta's children the Vadstena Diary betrays by name at the year 1391 in these words: "Likewise on the Eve of the Finding of the holy cross died the venerable father and Lord Lord Nicholas Hermansson, bishop of Linköping, who first introduced and blessed the conventuals of Vadstena to the observance of the regular life; concerning the doing of which, when he still frequented the schools, being the tutor of the sons of St. Birgitta, it was divinely revealed to the same St. Birgitta. He was a man of great holiness." Vastovius exhibits his brief Life in the Vitis Aquilonia, page 138 and following, published at Uppsala in the year 1608: he errs, however, in saying that Hermansson was enrolled in the album of the Saints at the council of Basel.

[101] salvation To the words cited above Birger presently subjoins an example from which you may gather how great was St. Birgitta's care that her children should not offend God in any matter: "Whence," he says, "blessed John the Baptist, appearing to her, said: 'Because thou hast wept that thy son offended me, not fasting on my vigil, and wouldst rather that he should serve me than be a king, therefore I will help him, I will arm him with my arms'"; on which matter see book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 74. Peter, Prior of Alvastra, exhibits another in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 98, in these words: "The Bride of Christ, hearing that her daughter Lady Ingeborg" (of whom at number 82), "a nun in the monastery of Riseberga, had died, said exultingly: 'O Lord Jesus Christ, O my lover, blessed be Thou, because Thou hast called her before the world ensnared her.' And at once entering her oratory she sent forth such tears and sighs that she could be heard by those standing round. When those who were present said, 'Behold

she weeps for her daughter,' then Christ, appearing to her, said: 'Woman, why weepest thou? For although I know all things, yet I wish to learn it from thy speaking.' She answered: 'O Lord, I do not weep because my daughter is dead; nay, I rejoice, because if she had lived longer she would have had a greater account to render before Thee. But I weep for this, that I did not instruct her according to Thy commandments, and because I gave her examples of pride, and corrected her too remissly when she did wrong.'" Which words of St. Birgitta prove not so much her negligence in rightly bringing up her children as her very great solicitude.

[102] she is anxiously careful, Distinguished also, and bearing on this point, is what Ulpho the monk writes of her in the Life of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 511: "For her most holy mother, Blessed Birgitta, was accustomed to take her, young and very tender, with her to the hospitals, where her mother herself devoutly handled with her own hands, without shrinking, the sores and ulcers and wounds of the sick, conferring very many benefits and words of consolation upon them: showing her, while still young, an example of how she ought to do the like to the poor and sick for God's sake in every age to come. And if at any time some blamed the pious Mother of this venerable lady because she took her tender daughters with her to the houses of the poor and sick, fearing that they might in some way be infected by the stenches of the sick, she answered them kindly, saying that she took her daughters to the houses of the sick for this reason, that they might learn to serve God in the poor and sick."

[103] But since mention has now been made of the poor and sick, let us see with what charity and beneficence she was toward them. the kinder to the poor "She also gave the most generous alms," says Birger at number 12, "having a house assigned for the poor, whom she very often served by washing their feet and clothing them." And from Birger St. Antoninus: "She gave the most generous alms, because she had much wealth, so that she did not turn away her hand from any poor man. She had a house assigned for the needy, whom she very often served by washing their feet and giving them garments." Her Life which guided Surius: "This happy and renowned mother of the sick and the poor gave the most generous alms, having a great house assigned for the poor, and women attending them with continual services, whom she herself frequently ministered to with great humility, washing and kissing their feet." Berthold: "For while her husband still survived, she was accustomed to feed twelve poor people every day in her own house, serving them and supplying necessaries. And on the fifth weekday, mindful of the Lord's supper, she washed their feet. From her own resources too she repaired several hospitals in the parts of her origin, and especially one in her estate of Ulfåsa, and as a pious, kindly, merciful and diligent minister she ministered almost every day to the poor and sick dwelling in them, and handling their ulcers without shrinking and disgust she washed, bound and tended them." The statements of the biographers Boniface IX admirably confirms in the Bull of canonization, saying: "Considering" (Birgitta) "the paths of her house, lest she should eat her bread idle, she opened her hands to the needy and stretched out her palms to the poor, for she exercised unweariedly, out of reverence for God, the offices of inexhaustible charity toward needy, sick and abject persons. For while her husband still survived, she was accustomed every day to feed twelve poor people in her own house, serving them and ministering necessaries. And on the fifth weekdays, mindful of the Lord's supper, she washed their feet with her own hands. From her own resources too she repaired in the parts of her origin" (that is, in Sweden) "many desolate hospitals, and as a pious, kindly, merciful and diligent minister she visited with the highest piety the poor and sick dwelling there. Their ulcers she handled, washed, bound up and tended without shrinking or disgust."

[104] The kinder she was toward her neighbour, the more severe on the contrary toward herself: the harder on herself. "And not only," says Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization, "did she observe those vigils or fasts which holy mother Church commands, but she added many others besides, so that even beyond the Church's command she fasted four times a week; and likewise four times a week, while her husband had not yet departed this life, and after his death continuously until a few years before her happy passing, clothed in her usual garments, upon a carpet laid on the ground or floor, without straw, mattress or the like, she refreshed with a thin and short sleep her body wearied with prayers, abstinences and divine labour. Every Friday, in memory of the most sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, content with bread and water only, she did not omit the fast, while she also passed many other days in like abstinence out of reverence for various Saints. And whether she abstained by fasting or reclined at table otherwise, since she was most sober, she rose from the table not sated but refreshed." Her husband Ulpho she embraced with a chaste love, as was fitting, solicitous for his salvation no less than for that of her children: hear Birger the biographer at number 14: "The Bride lovable to God, however, wishing not only to love her children by skilfully bringing them up, but also fervently to extend her love to her husband, that, as they were two in one flesh, so they might also be one in Christ by the glue of charity, like the turtle-dove, which always sings the same and always loves the same, invited her husband, strenuous in warlike affairs and most skilled in the counsel of kings, the more skilfully to the fear and veneration of God. Whence so noble and strenuous a man, led by the sounder counsel of so great a wife, by learning to read the Hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary and by applying himself to various works of piety, strove to serve God and the blessed Virgin in holy fear; taking care to fulfil effectually whatever belonged to law and justice" (namely in keeping with the office of lawman of Närke, which he discharged), "whatever to morals and an honest life. And so that proverb of the Wise man seems to be verified of them: A strong woman delighteth her husband, and shall fulfil the years of his life in peace."

[105] her husband to continence, Him too, as St. Birgitta induced him to continence for about the first two years of marriage; so she afterwards enticed and drew him to keeping it on fixed days, and at last to perpetual continence. The first the Life interpolated by Surius explains in these words: "But after they had come together in the flesh, always in Lent" (which Berthold also writes) "and on great feasts and on every Friday they abstained from carnal intercourse, and then she secretly slept clothed outside the bed on the floor or on a board upon a carpet." The second Boniface IX in the Bull of canonization: "And when the said spouses were still young and fresh, the husband, persuaded by the holy admonitions of his happy wife — for the heart of the man, not lacking spoils, trusting in her, rendered her good and not evil all the days of his life — and the Woman herself, enjoined upon themselves of their own accord, mutually, and kept, perpetual continence." It is indeed not doubtful that Birgitta and Ulpho at some time entered into a pact of continence; but at what time? Boniface, cited, after the words just brought forward, goes on thus: "And nevertheless the devout spouses, ever more fervent in the fear of God and love of their neighbour, by a common vow visited as pilgrims the threshold of blessed James the Apostle at Compostela, and, having returned to their own country, when they had deliberated to enter different monasteries according to the difference of sex, so that they might give themselves more freely to devotion, the said prince rested in the Lord in such deliberation": from which manner of narrating it appears indeed that the pious spouses consented to perpetual continence before they undertook the journey to Compostela: but on the contrary Birger mentions the pact of their perpetual continence only after he has narrated their journey to Compostela and return to their homeland.

[106] she brought before they went to Compostela, The same is done in the Life which, interpolated, guided Surius, as also in the Sermon on St. Birgitta prefixed to her Miracles done in Poland and Sweden and collected before the year 1378, where in Hörmann, page 821, these things are read: "Who" (St. Birgitta) "from the first years of her youth subjected (herself) to the most light yoke of His" (God's) "service. So that when she devoutly visited with her husband Rome and Compostela and many other places in which the relics of Saints rest, and returning to her homeland, she brought him to the perfection of continence, so that for many years they lived together without the exacting and rendering of the conjugal debt; while still bound in matrimony, she bore widow's sobriety in food and clothing." But since Birgitta and Ulpho are here said to have lived together for many years without the conjugal act; whereas he was made a monk not long after his return to his homeland, as will be said in the following §, and thenceforth lived separately from St. Birgitta, it seems that Ulpho and Birgitta made the pact of continence between themselves before entering on the journey to Compostela, as Boniface seems to assert; but that after their return into Sweden, being now about to embrace the monastic life, they renewed it; which perhaps is all that Birger and others wished to indicate. This is urged by the circumstances of the matter, by the ancient love of chastity in St. Birgitta, and by the eight children whom the pious spouses had already begotten, but most of all by Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, in the Prologue to the Book of the heavenly Emperor, chapter 3, whose words on this matter are clear: "Who, while still living in wedlock, brought her husband to the perfection of continence, so that for many years they lived without carnal intercourse, and so both set out as pilgrims to St. James of Galicia with great labours and expenses and with the greatest devotion. And afterwards they returned to their homeland of the kingdom of Sweden, where then the aforesaid husband passed to the Lord." And these indeed are the more notable virtues of St. Birgitta with which she chiefly made illustrious her conjugal state: it remains that we should now inquire into her other deeds while her husband was among the living; and if anyone desires to know more of her virtues in particular, he has at hand the Life of St. Birgitta written by Berthold, who explains them more fully, and to be published below.

* mancipavit

* erudirent

§ VIII. She has care of the kings of Sweden and of the kingdom's welfare.

Birgitta, made mistress of the court of Blanche, queen of Sweden, Although true virtue is its own ample reward, yet such from time to time is its force and efficacy that even against its will, especially if it is joined with renown of family, it is heaped with honours and dignities. St. Birgitta's family was illustrious and she had kinship with Magnus, king of Sweden and Norway; she had also singular virtue, as was said in the foregoing. Although she was so disposed in mind that she preferred to be occupied at home and with the poor rather than in the courts of princes, yet she could not prevent being summoned to the court of Magnus. He had married about the year 1335, as Loccenius writes, Blanche, daughter of John I, count of Namur, and wished that out of the whole number of Swedish matrons St. Birgitta should act as

mistress of her court. This indeed is gathered from chapter 59 of the Extravagant Revelations, where these things are found: "At the time when Blessed Birgitta was mistress of Blanche, formerly queen of Sweden, she obtained from her a most beautiful ivory chest in which the relics of many Saints were enclosed": but in what year, or for how long she discharged that office, I cannot declare with certainty. Burlamacchi, in book 1 of the Life of St. Birgitta, chapter 7, says that she withdrew from Linköping, which is a city of East Gothland, to Stockholm, the royal city of Sweden, I know not whence taught this: to me it surely appears more probable that St. Birgitta, when she was summoned to the court of King Magnus to act as Blanche's mistress, had her dwelling in Närke, most probably on the estate called Ulfåsa: for Ulpho her husband was also lawman of Närke, and seems to have drawn his surname of Ulfåsa from that place; and that St. Birgitta dwelt there is expressly read in chapter 53 of the Extravagant Revelations.

[108] To King Magnus salutary From the time, however, when she discharged that office (namely, so far as appears, from the year 1335), she strove to benefit the king, the queen and the kingdom of Sweden, partly by prayers poured out to God, partly by salutary warnings: nor indeed at the beginning without fruit: for Magnus, as Loccenius writes, while he used the counsels of Matthias Ketilmundsson, administered the commonwealth rightly: but when that man had died, about the thirtieth year of his age, or, by Loccenius's reckoning, about the year 1346, he openly gave himself loose to vices. That St. Birgitta too had a share in the happy beginnings of Magnus and Blanche seems to follow above all from book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 31, where it is related that, being in prayer, she saw the king and queen as the sun and moon, at first shining, but afterwards bereft of all splendour: she is said to have seen these things at Stockholm, and to have received their interpretation eleven years afterwards, or about the year 1346, about which, according to Loccenius, Magnus began to plunge into vices. The words of the cited chapter run thus: "Eleven years, however, having passed after these things" (there are as many from the year 1335 to the year 1346), "I heard the voice of Christ saying to me: Remember, Bride, what I showed thee" (as she was praying for the safety of the king, the queen and the kingdom of Sweden) "in the city of Stockholm concerning the troubled sky. Now I will expound to thee what those things signify. The sky," He said, "which I showed thee troubled, is this kingdom of Sweden; for this kingdom, which ought to be as it were heavenly and quiet and just, is now tossed by a whirlwind of tribulations, and trampled down by iniquities and exactions" (these perhaps St. Birgitta deprecated, as was said at number 12, even offering her sons). "Nor is it any wonder: for the king and queen, who were shining as the sun and moon, have now been blackened like coals, because they have been changed in morals and will." That it is here a question of Magnus, king of Sweden, surnamed Smek, or beguiled by blandishments (so called because, deceived by the blandishments of Valdemar, king of Denmark, he transferred Scania from the Swedes to the Danes), and of Blanche, is shown not only by the reckoning of time, but also by what follows at the cited place. These are the words: "For they have raised up a man from the root of the viper, that they may lay low My friends and simple ones… But the sun shall grow pale until it shall have come under the crown, because it would not stand justly in the crown. And it shall be said of him that according to his splendour his darkness was multiplied." Which apply exactly to Blanche and King Magnus.

[109] she suggested warnings; For when Magnus, because of his enormous and most shameful life, as the Swedish writers commonly met with write, and because of the commonwealth badly administered, had fallen into grave hatred among his people, the nobles of the kingdom took Eric, the son of Magnus, into partnership of the rule: and when Magnus and Blanche took this very ill, Benedict Algotsson was named duke of Sweden by Magnus against Eric: but when he had been slain by Eric in Scania, the hatred of Magnus and Blanche so blazed out against Eric that his mother, with the father privy to it, as they say, cut off the life of her son Eric with monstrous savagery by poison. And that Algotsson seems indeed to be the same who is said, in the words cited a little before, to have been raised up from the root of the viper both by the king and by the queen. But, you will say, in this way that revelation made to Birgitta, of which at the preceding number, could not have happened about the year 1346, contrary to what we have said; since only in the year 1360 was Eric named king of Sweden by the nobles, and about the same time Benedict Algotsson was named duke of Sweden by King Magnus and his wife Blanche. I answer that most probably in the praised revelation it is not a question of Algotsson raised to the dignity of duke of Sweden, but of the same man appointed to the office of chief minister of King Magnus, perhaps already at the time when Ketilmundsson, of whom above, had departed from among the living. For that Algotsson had already discharged this office before, Loccenius, cited, teaches in these words: "The father, impatient of his son as partner, appointed Benedict Algotsson, a nobleman, formerly his minister, duke of Sweden." What is further intimated at the same place concerning that king to be thrown down from the throne also had its place in Magnus; since in the year 1363 he was deprived of the kingdom by public sentence of the Swedish senate, and miserably, after seven years' imprisonment, at length perished drowned at sea in Norway. Another example of her care for the king of Sweden occurs in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 26, where, being in prayer, she is recorded to have received various warnings from God, namely to be intimated to the king, which beyond doubt she also did: the words bearing on this are these: "Therefore this king, for whom thou prayest, ought to gather together spiritual men, wise with My wisdom, and let him question those who have My spirit, and inquire diligently according to their counsel how the wall of My Church may be rebuilt among Christians, and honour be shown to God. Let the right faith flourish again, let divine charity glow, and let My passion be imprinted in the heart of men. Let him inquire also how the vessels of My house may be restored to their former state, namely that clerics and religious, leaving pride, may take up humility again. Let the innocent love chastity. Let the covetous and worldly abstain from excessive desire of the world, that they may be able to give light to others. Let him labour also strongly and wisely that My commandments may be loved more attentively. Let him gather together just Christians, that with them he may spiritually rebuild what has been destroyed." Here now also are some examples excerpted from the same books of the Revelations, from which it is plain with how great solicitude she was toward Queen Blanche, who had been especially commended to her.

[110] In book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 4, is described the struggle nor less which was being stirred up in the mind of Queen Blanche (why I interpret this of Blanche I shall explain a little later) by the good spirit on one side, urging upon the queen a Christian and humble life; and on the other by the evil spirit, enticing her to a worldly and vain life. Birgitta, taught this by God, as indeed is related there, was also found worthy to hear from God salutary warnings which she should suggest to the wavering queen: but whether she received these from God or not, I would not dare to deny that Birgitta gave these same or similar ones to the queen. They are these: "Therefore, because that Lady is assailed" (so St. Birgitta seemed to herself to hear Christ speaking) "by these thoughts, therefore I warn" (her, through thee, Birgitta) "of three things. First, that she should bring back to memory to what honour she has been chosen. Second, what charity God had shown her in her marriage. Third, how kindly she has been preserved in this mortality. Again I make her wary of three things. First, that she is to render account to God of all her temporal goods, even of every farthing, namely how it was raised and paid out. Second, that her time is very short, and she will not know it before she falls. Third, that God spares a lady no more than a handmaid. Therefore I counsel her three things. First, to repent of what she has committed, to amend fruitfully what she has confessed, to love God with her whole heart. Second, I counsel her to flee reasonably the pain of purgatory. For as he who does not love God with his whole heart is worthy of great punishment, so he who does not amend his sins" (that is, who, having duly detested his sins, neglects further to satisfy the divine justice for them as to temporal penalties), "when he can, is worthy of purgatory. Third, I counsel her to dismiss her carnal friends for a time for God's sake, and to come to the place where there is a short way between heaven and death, for escaping the pain of purgatory, because there are the indulgences there, which are the raisings and redemptions of souls, which holy Pontiffs have given, and the Saints of God have merited by their blood."

[111] concerning Blanche, queen of Sweden, These things I have interpreted of Blanche, both because at the beginning of the chapter that queen is said to be known to St. Birgitta (such as Blanche was, if anyone was); and because those words apply exactly to her: "That her time is very short, and she will not know it before she falls." For Blanche, in the year 1363, as Pontanus writes in book 8 of Danish Affairs, at the wedding of Haakon, king of Norway and her son, with Margaret, daughter of Valdemar, king of Denmark, was killed, and indeed by poison, as they say, administered to her, from which, among others, King Magnus himself also underwent danger of life. Which tragedy the author of the Visingsborg codex also touches upon in these words: "The other daughter of St. Birgitta, Cecilia, when she was thrust against her will into the convent of Skänninge" (in East Gothland, of the Order of St. Dominic), "having been led out by her brother Charles, was first associated with a certain gilded knight, who [] was killed by poison at the wedding of Queen Margaret celebrated in Scania []; afterwards she is betrothed to a certain Lawrence Johnsson, a most excellent physician, by King Magnus by way of reward, because with singular care he had freed the king from the aforesaid poison, administered to him too at that time." Pontanus affirms that this happened at Copenhagen in Denmark, not in Scania, a part of East Gothland.

[112] was solicitous Blanche, when she was tossed inwardly in her mind by various motions, had sought out the counsels of God through St. Birgitta: but when she had understood them from St. Birgitta, as we have just said, it appears that she did not have spirit enough to put them into execution with the readiness and constancy of mind that was fitting; wherefore God willed that she should be warned again through St. Birgitta of the brevity of her life, of the most grave account to be rendered on the day of the last judgment, and of the unhappy catastrophe of her life. All these things are gathered from chapter 14 of book 8, where Christ is introduced addressing St. Birgitta: "That queen, of whom I had spoken to thee before, sought counsel from Me through thee, and, having heard the counsel which I gave her, it seems to her most grievous. And therefore I now say to her that there was a certain queen in the time of Elias the Prophet who loved her quiet more than Me, and persecuted the words of truth, and believed that she stood by her own prudence: therefore it came about that she was not only contemned and despised by all,

as she had been honoured before, but was also afflicted in her death," namely Jezebel, daughter of the king of the Sidonians, as Durante interprets. "And therefore I, God, who see more clearly and know things to come, say now to this queen that her time is short. The account which she is to render on the day of judgment is heavy. And her end will not be as her beginning, unless she shall have obeyed My words."

[113] In the same book, moreover, chapter 10, St. Birgitta is said to have received some warnings from the Most Blessed Virgin, most probably to be imparted to the same Blanche; seems: which sound in this manner there: "Tell the queen that I, the Mother of mercy, received her like a kernel gnawed within an apple, which was not beautiful to look on, but bitter to the taste and insipid to swallow. Nevertheless I planted her in a distant land" (Blanche, as I have said, was the daughter of the count of Namur, and so these things suit her exactly), "that she might bear good fruit. Therefore, as trees put forth from themselves leaves, flowers and fruits, so she ought to bear the leaves of the virtues, namely by hearing willingly the words of God, which are useful to the soul, and like the leaves of trees. Let her speak also those things which are for the honour of God and the advantage of her neighbours, because then she bears beautiful flowers. Let her love God also and her neighbour, and then she has the best fruit. But she now speaks willingly scurrilous things, and those by which she can acquire the honour and favour of the world; and therefore let her turn to me, namely by bearing to my Son, by hearing and speech and the work of charity, that fruit which tastes sweeter to Him, that is, her soul, which He desires from His heart to possess." Again, in chapter 12 of the same, the same Virgin teaches St. Birgitta what virtues most become a queen: "To a queen," she says, "belong humility of mind, modesty of works, prudence in what is to be done, compassion for the wretched." Toward the end of the chapter, however, these things are read: "Therefore, because this queen, for whom thou prayest, seeks counsel from me through thee, answer her on my part and tell her that she has certain infusions and suggestions from two spirits, namely from the good and the evil spirit, which I will indicate to thee at another time"; which, from what has been said before of Blanche, are most probably to be understood of her. Nor further is there doubt, the truth of these revelations made to St. Birgitta being supposed, that she carried out with the highest fidelity and freedom whatever she received from God in command.

[114] But to return to Magnus, king of Sweden; but Magnus, although he for the most part received St. Birgitta's warnings with deaf ears, she did not cease, as she was commanded from God, to admonish the king of his office, and, setting before him the enormity of his crimes, to recall him to a better course, as far as lay in her. A clear testimony is borne to this matter by what is read on this point in Revelation 80 among the Extravagantes, where the Mother of God is said to have addressed St. Birgitta in this manner: "I am she to whom the angel said: Hail, full of grace. And therefore I show my grace to all who wish to have it in necessity. I show my help for the government of the kingdom in which thou wast born, against the corporal and spiritual enemies of God. Whose inhabitants I warn to labour with one mind that they may obtain a king who will rule the inhabitants of the kingdom to devout works and honest conversation. To whom also I make known that the divine justice proposes to separate the king and his whole generation from the government of this kingdom, and another, born in the kingdom, has been elected king, who is to reign according to the counsel of the friends of God and the advantage of the kingdom. Do you four, therefore, act according to my counsel, so that you may draw more to yourselves; hold this counsel secretly with the friends of God, and hidden from His enemies, that the honour of God may be increased, and good custom renewed, and also that the things alienated from the crown may be restored to the kingdom.

[115] the warnings of St. Birgitta "Let one of you, therefore, or more, go to the king, saying to him: We have some things to say to you touching the salvation of your soul, which we ask you to keep under the seal of confession. Add also more words, as seems expedient, of which the sense should be this: You have a very evil reputation in the whole kingdom, saying that you have and practise natural intercourse and foulness with males against the natural disposition. Which seems likely from this, that you love certain men, against God and your own soul, more than your own wife. Second, it may be doubted whether you have the right faith, because, though forbidden by the church to hear Mass, you nevertheless entered churches and heard Masses. Third, you are a plunderer of the crown and of the goods of the kingdom. Fourth, that you are a betrayer of your servants and subjects, who served you and your son faithfully, whom you voluntarily delivered into the hands of their worst enemy together with the whole land of Scania, against whose malice and deceit they can never be made secure while he lives. If you have decided to amend these sins and to win back the alienated lands, we will serve you. But if not, commit it to your son under an oath taken, that he will win back the alienated lands, love the commonalty, be faithful to his knights, and rule and govern all things justly and piously according to the laws of the fatherland.

[116] and threats "But know, you four, that God had provided for Himself another king for the future, who can in such manner come forward in public with less loss and danger, because the Lord is able to shorten the life of the younger as well as of the elder, or otherwise to expel him from the kingdom, and to dispose, shorten or even prolong all things according to His will. But if he will not obey, then consult secretly some of the princes and knights of the kingdom, and when you have found some well-disposed and faithful to the same end with you, tell them in public what you said before to the king in secret, that you will serve no heretic or traitor: nor his son either, if he has decided to be an imitator of his father's crime. This done, take to yourselves one as prince, who can fight the battles of the kingdom on the part of the crown of the kingdom. He who is elected, if he is perfect in good, will be my friend. But if not, he will quickly be destroyed. Do you set against them money and the like; I will add a manly heart and boldness, so that he who will not obey willingly may be compelled to obey unwillingly. But if the king wishes to withdraw from the kingdom, beware lest any of you imitate his footsteps."

[117] neglecting, Although, however, the name of the king of whom the discourse is here is not expressed, yet there is no doubt that these things ought to be understood of the king of Sweden surnamed Smek, not only because of the agreement of time, but because the other circumstances also suit him exactly, as can partly be gathered from what has already been said of him. "Magnus Smek," says Bureus further in the Series of the kings of Sweden, "son of Eric, killed by his brother Birger, in the year MCCCXIX. Not at all frightened by the footsteps of his paternal uncle" (cast out of the kingdom, namely, for his cruelty), "by contempt of sacred things, by portents of lusts and savage cruelty he merited the eulogy of a public robber." Among the causes, however, for which he too was expelled from the kingdom of Sweden, Loccenius, at the end of book 2 of the History of Sweden, reports these: "That he persevered in an impious, lustful life, pestilent to public morals, and would not return to soundness. That he had again separated Scania and Halland, bought with so great a sum of money, from the body of Sweden, and transferred them into foreign hands. That he had exhausted the kingdom with unjust burdens and tributes." Of the same Magnus, finally, Eric Olofsson, dean of Uppsala, says in book 4 of the History of the Swedes and Goths: "He was excommunicated by the Pope on account of money raised for the Apostolic chamber, an interdict being placed on the kingdom; which excommunication he, as one desperate, making light of it and damnably thrusting himself into divine things while others observed the interdict, was an occasion of scandal and error to many." Magnus handed over Scania to Valdemar in the year 1360, and in the year 1363 was removed from the kingdom; from which the time of the revelation made, which Birgitta, then living in Italy, sent through her people into Sweden, is gathered in some fashion.

[118] But at other times too she was often at hand for Magnus with salutary warnings, of his rashness though mostly with no or little fruit: Magnus had once decided to bring war upon the Muscovites (he brought it, however, in the year 1348); "when this," says John Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, in the History of the Goths and Swedes, book 21, chapters 3 and 4, "had become known to the most holy widow Birgitta, then becoming renowned in Sweden, she took care to admonish him faithfully and from divine revelation that he should remove from his army those soldiers who seemed to have proposed to themselves another end of war than the public peace of the Christian people, as men who cared more to extend rapine, burnings and the sacking of cities than the true worship of God to the schismatic nations: which she said she had forewarned chiefly of the German and Danish soldiery; and that in their place he should choose Swedes and Goths, who would take nothing else from the enemy than the licence of doing evil. But the imprudent king, despising not only this but all the other revelations inspired by God, dragging with him a rabble of a huge and disorderly soldiery, at the first assault subjugated a great part of Muscovy with victorious hand, their principal stronghold Pechense having been occupied. But the most crafty Muscovites did not lack the wit to mock the avarice of the enemy with most cunning promises. For when they understood that the king laboured under an excessive hunger for gold, they promised that they would very soon bring as much gold and silver as he and his whole army could scarcely have wished.

[119] "But what happened? The unhappy king believed the most perfidious schismatics, grave who earlier would not believe Birgitta, a most holy woman. Straightway, therefore, paying the penalty of his rashness, he saw an infinite multitude of Muscovites, Tartars and Lithuanians fly up, bringing not gold or silver, but iron turned into the points of arrows, and ready to inflict death. And so, when he had been brought to extreme and almost unavoidable dangers, he escaped, saved by the Swedes alone, whom he had placed in the last pay. For these, with great labour and no less industry digging out the channel of a neighbouring river, led the king (though he had deserved ill) out of a thousand dangers, not without the admiration of all. Those, however, who had remained in the garrison of the stronghold fell, put to a most cruel kind of death and butchered by the Muscovites." Eric of Uppsala writes almost the same in book 4. The war ended, a heavier disaster afflicted Sweden: for since King Magnus was plunging daily into worse, a most grievous pestilence ranged through Sweden, which St. Birgitta had likewise foretold, and at the same time had taught how the divine justice could be placated and mitigated, namely if to pride, gluttony and cupidity, which were then chiefly the vices ruling in Sweden, there should succeed humility, decency in dress, moderation in drinking, and restraint of worldly cupidities. The revelation and prediction of this pestilence seems to be intimated in Revelation 74 among the Extravagantes, where Christ is introduced addressing St. Birgitta thus.

"I said to thee before that I will visit upon the knighthood of this kingdom with sword, lance and wrath… Behold, I will rise; I will not spare the young nor the old, the rich and the poor, the just and the unjust, but I will go with My plough, and overturn the stubble and the trees, so that where there were a thousand, scarcely a hundred will remain, and the houses will be without inhabitants… Nevertheless My justice can be placated and mitigated on account of three things, etc."

[120] he paid the penalty. To this also Revelation 76 seems to refer, conceived in these words: "Tell thy master that he should not cease to cry out and lift up his voice, because I come quickly. Happy will they be who flee to true humility." Likewise 77: "I will plough this land in judgment and tribulation, until its inhabitants learn to ask the mercy of God": on which matter Thorir Andersson in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1350 writes thus also: "It" (the year just mentioned) "was the first jubilee at Rome, Pope Clement presiding. At that time there prevailed in the kingdom of Sweden a great mortality, greater than which no one remembers to have existed either before or after, which blessed Birgitta had long before foretold would come. For Christ in a certain revelation foretold it to her thus, saying: 'I will go through the world with My plough, etc.'" Magnus laughed at these and other warnings of the most holy Woman; whence Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, often praised in the foregoing, relates that he was accustomed to taunt Birger, her son, with this question: "What, I pray, has our kinswoman, your Mother, dreamed of us this night?" But to how great evil of his own and of his people he then closed his ears to dreams of this kind, as he indeed kept calling them, the outcome taught, and the Swedish historians have set forth more fully.

* read quo

* read exstincto

§ IX. Some journeys of St. Birgitta are reviewed, which she undertook for piety's sake into Norway, France, etc.

Her journey When St. Birgitta had now for some time acted as mistress of the court (for it is not ascertained by me for how many years she discharged that office with Blanche), whether weary of the tumults of the court and from desire of a quieter life, or dismissed by Magnus, who was already disgusted with her warnings, she betook herself to her own home, to give herself thereafter more freely to herself and to God. Ulpho seems to have imitated the example of his wife: nor is there doubt that the most pious pair of spouses gave themselves wholly to God, the barriers to their piety now being removed. Certainly from that time when they left the Swedish court, they undertook various sacred and very laborious pilgrimages: these are related in summary in Simon Hörmann after the Miracles of St. Birgitta, page 839, from a Fragment of a certain very ancient codex of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, printed at Rome in her houses: it runs thus: "How many and how laborious pilgrimages holy Birgitta had made to various places of the Saints, sometimes with her husband accompanying, is sufficiently expressed in the books of her revelations." From the words "sometimes with her husband accompanying," the author of the said Fragment may be seen to have distinguished St. Birgitta's sacred pilgrimages into two classes, of which the first comprises those pilgrimages of the holy Matron which she undertook with her husband accompanying; namely before he had hidden himself at Alvastra and while they still had a common dwelling in Sweden: the other, those which she herself undertook when her husband had either died, or entered the monastery of Alvastra (as we shall see later), or after she had set out for Rome, never to see Sweden again. Of the former only shall we speak here, being about to treat of the latter in their place.

[122] The author of the Fragment, then, describes the former thus: "From the North with her husband and a great company of both sexes, of clerics and laymen, by turns sometimes on foot, into Norway sometimes on horseback, she went to St. James at Compostela and to many places in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Norway, where, passing XXXVI days' journeys elsewhere from her homeland, she visited St. Olaf, king and martyr; and although on so great a journey she had abundant riding-horses, yet she more frequently walked on foot, even in the stony places of which that region is full, to weary her body. Likewise she went to Cologne to visit the three Kings and to honour infinite other Martyrs. Likewise to St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martha, and to Tarascon, and returning to Rome, where, remaining XXVIII years, etc." At least two pilgrimages seem to be distinguished here, of which in one she went to Compostela, and to places of devotion in Spain, France, Italy and Germany, whether in going or in returning; in the other she departed into Norway to honour St. Olaf the king there; as indeed these words of the praised Fragment seem to intimate: "where, passing XXXVI days' journeys elsewhere from her homeland": the last words, further, "and returning to Rome," seem to imply a second visit of St. Birgitta to the City; so that she seems to have visited the City too on the same pilgrimage on which she went to Compostela. And let these things be observed in general concerning the pilgrimages of St. Birgitta after her own and perhaps her husband's withdrawal from the court and before her last departure from her homeland: now I set out what I have observed concerning each.

[123] And first indeed, as regards St. Birgitta's journey into Norway, to St. Olaf: although neither the Bull of canonization nor the Lives to be published below mention it, there is nevertheless no reason why it can justly be doubted that it really took place: for we learn not only that it did in fact take place, but also that on it she was affected by God with singular grace, from the preface of the Rule of St. Saviour in Hörmann, page 696, whose beginning is this: "In the dominion of the king of Norway, who is the last of all kings toward the North, so that beyond the lands of his principality no place habitable by men is found, it befell lady Birgitta, while she was giving herself more intently to prayer, that, the strength of her body being as it were exhausted, her soul began to be made most perfectly vigorous with all its powers for seeing, hearing, speaking and feeling those things which are spiritual. In such manner, then, that, often rapt, she heard many things in the spirit, etc." Since, however, St. Birgitta is said to have gone to St. Olaf, king and martyr of Norway, it is by no means hidden what city of Norway she then went to; namely Nidaros, the chief city of the kingdom of Norway, called by the natives Drontheim or Trondheim, where he obtained both burial and a church dedicated to his name, and notable cult while the Catholic religion stood in Norway, as may be seen more fully in our predecessors in the Commentary prefixed to the Life of the Holy King and martyr, volume 7 of July, page 87 and following.

[124] another into Spain Most fully attested is the journey of St. Birgitta in which, together with her husband Ulpho, she went from Sweden to Compostela to venerate St. James, then celebrated there by the throng of those flocking together from the whole Catholic world. Let Pope Boniface IX stand for all, speaking thus of it in the Bull of canonization of St. Birgitta: "And nevertheless," he says, "the devout spouses, ever more fervent in the fear of God and love of their neighbour, visited as pilgrims by a common vow the threshold of blessed James the Apostle." And a little below, treating of St. Birgitta's return to the City from the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he speaks thus: "Having returned also to the City, since before, wherever, whether in her homeland and the surrounding parts, or in Germany, or in Gaul, or in Spain, or in Italy, or in other parts on this side of the sea or overseas, the bodies or memorable relics of male and female Saints rested, very few had been passed over without the personal visitation of the said holy Widow, she spent the rest of her life in the same City." On the journey to Compostela I find that two things chiefly happened: of which one Peter of Alvastra relates in the Annotations to chapter 36 of book 6 of the Revelations; namely that, while Birgitta was making that pilgrimage, the sun was seen by a certain monk, a companion of that journey, wrapped in darkness (King Magnus, of whom above at number 108 and following), but on the contrary St. Birgitta, whose warnings Magnus had spurned, girt with seven crowns.

[125] to St. James; Peter's words run thus: "This brother" (of whom mention is made in chapter 36 of book 6 of the Revelations) "was following lady Birgitta to St. James; he saw in the spirit lady Birgitta as it were crowned with seven crowns, and saw the sun wholly blackened; and wondering, he heard a voice saying clearly: This darkened sun signifies the prince of your land, who as he had shone like the sun shall be most despised through the reproach of men; and this Woman whom thou seest shall have the ear of the sevenfold grace of God, which the seven crowns which thou hast seen signify; and this shall be a sign to thee, that thou shalt be healed of this infirmity, and shalt return to thy own, and shalt be raised to a higher grade. He, returning, was made abbot, advancing from virtue to virtue."

[126] returning from which, at Arras she nearly loses her husband; The other, which happened on that journey, Birger relates at number 15 in these words: "But that they" (St. Birgitta and her husband Ulpho) "might free themselves more freely from the vanities of the world and bind their hearts more strictly to the divine service, like Abraham of old, they went out from their land and kindred and their own house, visiting with great labours and expenses the threshold of the glorious Apostle James at Compostela. Having, then, travelled through the places of many Saints, when they were already on the return, the man devoted to God began to be gravely ill at Arras: and as the illness grew stronger, the Bride of God, placed in great anxiety, merited to be consoled thus by St. Denis: 'I,' he said, 'am Denis, who came from Rome to these parts'" (in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 21, he is said to have been converted by Paul, and so St. Birgitta would have been imbued with the popular error by which Denis of Paris is believed to be the same as the Areopagite, of whom Acts 17) "'to preach the word of God. Now therefore, because thou hadst loved me with special devotion, I therefore foretell to thee that God wills to become known to the world through thee, and thou hast been given over to my custody; therefore I will help thee. And this shall be a sign to thee, that thy husband will not die of this infirmity.' Whence she could rightly say with the Prophet: 'According to the multitude of the sorrows in my heart, thy comforts have gladdened my soul.' Nor is it a wonder, for after some days, in the same place, namely at Arras, she saw certain wonderful things, namely how she was to pass to Rome and to the holy city of Jerusalem, and how she was to depart from this world. All which things God almighty mercifully fulfilled. And after a long illness, her husband recovering, the Lord, who disposes all things sweetly, leading them, both returned safe to their homeland." Almost the same things are read in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 92: but at what time did these things happen?

[127] Binet, in the French Life of St. Birgitta, chapter 6, relates concerning her stay at Arras from a Chronicle, not about the year I know not which, that a certain Swedish nobleman, prince of Närke, with his wife and eight children came to Arras from Compostela in that year in which the Abbot of Liessies was appointed at Arras;

that all had their lodging in the street of the Lombards; that thence that Swedish nobleman was carried into the city because of illness, and lay sick in the house of a certain canon of the divine Virgin, son of lord Bazentin, and was fortified with extreme unction by Andrea Ghini, a Florentine, at that time bishop of Arras. Andrea Ghini Malpigli, according to the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, volume 3, columns 337 and 226, was made bishop first of Arras in the year 1331, and thence translated to the see of Tournai in the year 1334 on the 17th day of October. Further, according to the same writers, in the volume just praised, column 125, Otto de Senzelles, abbot of Liessies, died in the year 1330; John de la Haye, monk of Saint-Ghislain, substituted for him, was removed from office in the year 1331; John was followed by Maurice II, called Paganus, in the month of November, but on the day of the following Epiphany likewise removed from office, as our manuscript Chronicle of Liessies has it. Him finally Sicard de Cardillac followed and ruled the abbey of Liessies until the year 1363. If, therefore, anyone wishes to interpret the Chronicle praised by Binet of St. Birgitta and Ulpho, it will be necessary from what has already been said that he contend that St. Birgitta, returning from Compostela to her homeland with her husband and her eight children, was held at Arras by her husband's illness in the year 1331 or the following.

[128] But in this way the credit of that Chronicle, 1330; since the Life of St. Catherine, St. Birgitta's daughter, written by Ulpho, a monk of Vadstena and nearly contemporary, opposes it, will waver not a little: for on his testimony (see volume 3 of March, page 505) St. Catherine was the fourth in order of birth of St. Birgitta's eight children: and yet she could not have been born except about the year 1330: for whether St. Catherine was 18 years old, as Ulpho the monk relates at numbers 9 and 10, five years after Birgitta's departure from her homeland in the year 1346, and therefore about the year 1350; or whether she was about 43 years old when her Mother died (in the year 1373), as is partly from number 9 already praised, partly from number 42, where she is said to have clung to her Mother 25 years after she set out to her while she was staying at Rome; it is necessary that she was born not before the year 1330: and so it could not be that St. Birgitta together with her husband and eight children was staying at Arras in the year 1331 or the following. And if you hold that St. Catherine, born in the fourth place among St. Birgitta's children, was brought into the world about the year 1330, as we have already shown must be the case, the birth of the last four of St. Birgitta's children will easily bring us to the year 1335 and beyond, before which, as I said above, St. Birgitta did not undertake the pilgrimage to Compostela: for the vow of continence, and that perpetual, made by both spouses, preceded it, as I shall presently show, and so it is likewise necessary that their journey to Compostela was later than the birth of all their children.

[129] but after the vow made That St. Birgitta and Ulpho were bound by the vow of continence before they undertook the journey to Compostela is taught above all by Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta, in the words reported above at number 105. But what happened after their return to their homeland? Hear Boniface again: "And having returned to their own country," he says, "when they had deliberated to enter different monasteries according to the difference of sex, so that they might give themselves more freely to devotion, the said prince rested in the Lord in such deliberation." So, according to Pope Boniface, St. Birgitta and Ulf first made the vow of perpetual continence, then gave themselves to the journey to Compostela, from which at length, returning to their homeland, they resolved to enter monasteries, which last was the confirmation of the former vow. It will be well to have observed this because of the things which might be objected here to the contrary, as I shall say a little later, from the Life of St. Birgitta written by Archbishop Birger, from her Life printed at Louvain in the year 1485, and from St. Antoninus.

[130] by both spouses With Pope Boniface, already praised, there likewise agrees exactly Alphonsus the hermit in the Prologue praised at number 106. The same is also handed down by the author of the abbreviated Life, praising Alphonsus just cited; who, having enumerated each of St. Birgitta's children, presently goes on thus: "But when they had fulfilled the propagation of offspring preordained for them by the Lord, both dedicated themselves to continence and perpetual chastity, as is plain in the Prologue. And having completed wearying pilgrimages, abstinences, vigils, disciplines and the other works of the virtues, the man well-pleasing to God, lord Ulpho, the husband of St. Birgitta, receiving in the monastery of Alvastra the rest of his remains and a falling asleep with piety, in the year of the Lord MCCCXLIV, on the twelfth day of the month of February, has the best grace laid up for him." From which I judge it is clear that St. Birgitta did not give herself to the journey to Compostela until after she had borne her eight children and had bound herself together with her husband Ulf by the bond of perpetual continence. Granted, then, that Birger, St. Birgitta's biographer, in her Life to be published below, likewise the Life printed at Louvain, and St. Antoninus, of whom at the preceding number, do not place the vow of continence made by St. Birgitta before her journey to Compostela, but after it: yet they are not on that account to be judged to contradict the authors just praised: since their statements may be so interpreted that they speak not of the vow of chastity first made, but of it confirmed through the purpose of entering a monastery, as I intimated above, as is abundantly clear from Birger's own words.

[131] the vow of perpetual continence. He speaks thus: "Considering the example [*] that no weighing is worthy of a continent soul, they vowed mutual continence between themselves, resolving to enter monasteries to serve the living God all the days of their life." The Life printed at Louvain in the year 1485 has this: "Some days having passed, her husband recovering, they returned to their homeland" (namely from Arras). "And she, beloved of God" (Birgitta), "converted her husband wholly to God by holy admonitions, and by prayers and examples induced him to live chastely; who, having made the vow of entering religion, seven" (indeed eight) "children having been begotten, keeping this purpose, continence having been long kept, fell happily asleep in the monastery of Alvastra of the Cistercian Order." Thus finally St. Antoninus: "At length, the husband having obtained health, they returned to their own house. But because no weighing is worthy of a continent soul (as the Wise man says), and what is rendered by vow is more pleasing to God than what is offered by one's own will, therefore they together made a vow of continence, proposing, that they might keep it more effectually, to enter different monasteries." Let it stand, therefore, that St. Birgitta's arrival in the city of Arras was placed by Binet too hastily at the year 1331 or the following. But, you will say, in what year, then, did she come to Arras? I answer that nothing has occurred to me anywhere from which it may be accurately determined: I am, however, of this opinion, that it should be put off to about the year 1339: why I think so I now disclose.

[132] From what has been said above we have that St. Birgitta and Ulf, returning to their homeland from the journey to Compostela, were presently in the vow or purpose and between the years 1338 of embracing the monastic life: it is not likely, therefore, that St. Birgitta, returning from the journey to Compostela and intent on carrying out her holy purpose, mixed herself in the tumults of the court and acted as mistress of the court to Blanche, queen of Sweden: moreover, St. Birgitta seems to have undertaken that office when Blanche married King Magnus, that is, about the year 1335, as Loccenius, in book 2 of the History of Sweden, page 69, seems to intimate at the year 1335 in these words: "By the counsel of the same" (Matthias Ketilmundsson, governor of the kingdom of Sweden for Magnus) "he joined to himself in marriage Blanche, a Frenchwoman, daughter of the count of Namur" (John I), "of the royal stock of the Valois"; and Torfaeus hands it down more plainly in the History of Norway, part 4, book 9, chapter 3, in this manner: "In the year which followed the preceding, MCCCXXXV, King Magnus, the counsels of all the nobles of Norway, who most strongly dissuaded the journey into Sweden to receive the crown and kingdom, being moreover disregarded, is invested with the royal diadem by the nobles of Sweden, and now (according to the writers of Sweden about seventeen, but according to ours eighteen years old) joined to himself in marriage a young French maiden of the royal lineage of the Valois, Blanche by name." Not before the year 1335, therefore, did St. Birgitta discharge the mastership of the court with Blanche. Now since nothing prevents her being said to have discharged this office for two or three years, and since besides I find that she was staying in Sweden in the year 1340, as will appear below at number 136; it remains that St. Birgitta should be said to have gone to Compostela between the years 1338 and 1340: for that journey cannot be put off long after that year, since Ulpho survived it not many years, having died in the year 1344, as we shall see below.

[133] But to what I have just said about St. Birgitta's mastership of the court and 1340, the Annotation of Father van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, so often mentioned, from the Revelations of St. Birgitta printed at Rome in the year 1556, is plainly contrary: thus he: "From the Roman Revelations of the year MDLVI. This Blessed Birgitta in MCCCXXVI was mistress of queen Blanche in Sweden, who had as father Louis, king of France, afterwards a saint, etc., and a mother of the same name, Blanche, daughter of the king of Spain; from whom, namely King Louis and Blanche, she had an ivory chest full of the relics of Saints, to which (as a treasure of God) a heavenly splendour showed honour." Of the relics given as a gift to St. Birgitta by Queen Blanche, treatment is made in chapter 59 of the Extravagant Revelations; the former words of which, treating of the relics themselves, I transcribed at number 107. The rest, which concern their unwonted splendour, run thus: "Therefore, by chance, that chest was placed by the servants in a less seemly place, and forgotten. Then blessed Birgitta saw in the spirit a splendid light come forth from that chest. Wondering at this, she heard a voice saying thus: Behold the treasure of God, which is honoured in heaven, is despised on earth; therefore let us migrate to other places. Hearing which, the Lady had the chest placed honourably upon the altar." There is no doubt, therefore, that St. Birgitta received as a gift from Queen Blanche, while she was acting as mistress of her court, a treasure of sacred relics of this kind, among which were some of St. Louis, king of France.

[134] as far as appears; But likewise there is no doubt that this did not happen in the year 1326: for how could King Magnus have contracted marriage in Sweden in that year with Blanche, he who in the year 1335 was in only the seventeenth or eighteenth year of his age? How could Blanche, queen of Sweden, have had as Father St. Louis, king of France, who died in the year 1270 and was enrolled in the album of the Saints in 1397 by Boniface VIII? St. Louis indeed had two daughters by the name of Blanche; but of whom one died in infancy; the other married Ferdinand of Castile; neither Magnus of Sweden

the king. He had, moreover, as wife Margaret, daughter of the count of Provence. Blanche, however, daughter of Alfonso X, king of Castile, was the mother, not the wife, of St. Louis. If the truth is sought, Blanche, the wife of King Magnus of Sweden, was the daughter of John I, count of Namur, whose first wife was Margaret of Clermont, the granddaughter of St. Louis; the second Mary of Artois, she too descended from the stock of the Valois, by whom John was enriched with his daughter Blanche, wife of Magnus. This annotation, therefore, deservedly omitted by Hörmann and by the Nuremberg editors of the Revelations of St. Birgitta in the years 1516 and 1521, ought not to detain us here.

[135] and meanwhile with various To this same journey perhaps ought to be referred what was said above at number 122 of her journey to Cologne to the three Kings, venerated there with particular honour. For whether St. Birgitta visited Cologne too, in going or returning, on the same journey on which she went to Compostela, or on a different one, cannot be clearly gathered from the words transcribed above. Here also perhaps belongs what Crusius, in book 7 of the Swabian Annals, part 2, chapter 5, explaining the origin of Schwäbisch Hall, writes in these words: "Hence Hall was called the city of the seven towers, or burghs, or the heptapyrgium, Zu den Sieben Burgen. Of these one especially, with a court, situated near the church of St. Michael, is named Berlerhofa: in which burgh or castle St. Birgitta the Swede, making for Rome about the year of Christ 1363" (rather 1346), "is held to have lodged. Which court, because it was afterwards the dwelling of the Beguines, or converted women, was called by the name Nunnenhove": although Crusius referred these things to St. Birgitta's Roman journey (wrongly perhaps, as also to the year 1363, as will be said later). For the rest, although I have nowhere found plainly explained what befell St. Birgitta in these various pilgrimages, undertaken for the sake of piety and of honouring the sacred remains of the Saints, and carried out with great labours and hardships of body, yet from those things which we have already said of her Norwegian and Compostelan journey it can be gathered sufficiently that the holy Matron was affected, not only at Nidaros and at Arras, but also elsewhere often, with notable favours by the Saints whose relics she was visiting, which we shall see in its place befell her afterwards too in Italy and at Jerusalem.

[136] Thus Father van der Ketten notes from the manuscript German Life of St. Birgitta so often praised, she is affected with graces. that she once went to St. Botvid, who appeared to her and said that he had merited for her the grace of hearing and seeing spiritual things. This seems to have happened in Södermanland, about the second mile from the city of Stockholm, where his remains were buried and he has a church dedicated to his name, called Botkyrka from the holy martyr, as was said in volume 6 of July from page 635, where he was treated. The same is related in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 72, which, because it expresses the year in which the thing happened, and because from it is confirmed that St. Birgitta's journey to Compostela is probably to be fixed between the year 1338 and 1340, as I said above at number 132, I am pleased to transcribe here entire: it runs, then, thus: "In the fourth year before the death of her husband" (so I read in both the Nuremberg editions of the years 1517 and 1521, and in the Cologne edition of the year 1628; in Hörmann, page 780, by the fault of the typesetter, "Vir" is read), "a certain Saint of the land of Sweden, Botvid by name, appeared to lady Birgitta as it were in a certain ecstasy of mind, saying: I with other Saints have merited for thee this grace of God, namely to hear and see and feel spiritual things, and the spirit of God will inflame thy soul." Ulpho, St. Birgitta's husband, departed from this Life in the year 1344. This therefore happened in the year 1340, and indeed, according to the German Life of St. Birgitta, while she was near Stockholm in Sweden, which I was saying at number 132.

[137] Among the places which are expressly named above, and which St. Birgitta probably visited either in going or in returning on the journey to Compostela, Whom besides Ulpho as companions of this journey besides Compostela, Rome, Arras and Cologne, there occur moreover Marseille, where St. Magdalene, and Tarascon, a city of Narbonese Gaul, like Marseille, where St. Martha, the hostess of Christ our Saviour, were then held in particular honour. That St. Birgitta likewise visited very many other places adorned with the remains of more celebrated Saints, and therefore frequented by the concourse of the faithful to them, is not doubtful: but since we find nothing said of these anywhere by name, we are compelled, even unwillingly, to keep silent about them. We add a few things about St. Birgitta's companions on the journey to Compostela. That Ulf, St. Birgitta's husband, joined himself to her as companion on this journey is sufficiently clear from the foregoing. That she did not lack an abundant company, whether of clerics or religious, or of laymen, is likewise clear from what has been said. On the other hand, I have nowhere found that St. Birgitta had as companion on the journey to Compostela any of her children, nor does the age at that time of most of them, about the year 1338, to which we have tied that journey, allow us to suspect it; since St. Catherine, fourth in order of birth, as we said before, was then in only the eighth year of her age.

[138] Burlamacchi, in book 1, chapter 9 of the Life of St. Birgitta, says that Peter of Alvastra, a nursling she had companions, is not certainly established. of the Cistercian Order, was St. Birgitta's companion on this journey; nor is this indeed altogether unlikely; though not certain either. He is said in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1390, in which he died, to have accompanied St. Birgitta on the journey to Jerusalem, indeed, of which later; but of the Compostelan no mention is made there. I know from the Extravagant Revelations, chapters 48 and 109, that he was familiar with St. Birgitta for at least thirty years, and occupied in writing her revelations: but these things could have happened even if he had not been St. Birgitta's companion on the journey to Compostela, undertaken between the year 1338 and 1340, St. Birgitta having died in the year 1373; although I would not dare to deny that the same was familiar with our Saint before he had begun to write St. Birgitta's revelations, and perhaps accompanied her to Compostela. The same thing that Burlamacchi says of Peter of Alvastra seems possible to be said with equal or better right of Peter, the first confessor general of the monastery of Vadstena, who died in the year 1378, of whom, besides what was said from the Vadstena Diary at number 28, Vastovius moreover writes in the Vitis Aquilonia, page 140: "His Life and Miracles were written with approved fidelity by brother Matthias Laurentii of the same order" (a monk of Vadstena of this name, and much praised for piety, is read in the Vadstena Diary to have died in the year 1486), "a man of great age and conspicuous in piety and religion toward God"; which, however, I have not yet been able to see. "Supplication was made for his canonization before Pope Leo X; but, heresy spreading, nothing was completed." These things concerning Peter, confessor General of Vadstena, who in part also, as is expressly found in the Extravagant Revelations of St. Birgitta, chapter 48, wrote them out, I wished to transcribe here, that certain persons may see what men they taunt as men of the worst and most worn-out credit, when they do not blush to sell and mock the revelations of St. Birgitta as figments of credulous, simple and fable-mongering monks. But let us now proceed elsewhere.

* redundant

§ X. Bereaved of her husband Ulpho she is chosen as bride by Christ: she changes her manner of life, and despises the reproaches of men, which she also did at other times.

Having returned to her homeland Ulpho and St. Birgitta, having returned to their homeland from the journey to Compostela, held nothing more important than to satisfy in deed the vow which they had pronounced of entering religion. St. Birgitta, who was already destined by God to found a new Religion, and who had perhaps already been somewhat taught by God on that matter at Arras, which Birger, St. Birgitta's biographer, praised at number 126, seems to intimate, took for herself a little more time, that she might deliberate more maturely about the kind of life to be established thereafter. But Ulpho, as soon as he returned to his homeland, seems to have put his hand to the work at once: for Birger, immediately after the narrative of the journey to Compostela and of the vow of entering religion pronounced by both spouses, subjoins these things of Ulpho: "Whence, having set in order his affairs and goods, a man of great devotion and honest conversation, that he might be able to persevere more firmly in his holy purpose, he stayed for some years in the monastery of Alvastra. Whence at length in a good old age he passed happily out of this life." Alvastra, where Ulpho hid himself, is a monastery of the Cistercian Order, as Vastovius writes in the Notice of the monasteries which formerly flourished in Sweden and Gothland, prefixed to his Work, which he entitled Vitis Aquilonia, sacred to St. Mary and erected in the year 1150 by King Sverker: but Charles de Visch assigns to it the birth-year 1143 in the Chronology of the monasteries of the Cistercian Order, subjoined to his Library of the writers of the same Order, page 367, where he corruptly calls it Alnastrum. For the rest, Benzelius adds in the Annotations to the Vitis Aquilonia, page 65, that this monastery drew its name from Alvhild, the wife of Sverker the Elder, and that its ruins survive even today in East Gothland.

[140] Whether Ulpho in fact put on the Cistercian habit and made the profession of the Order, she is deprived of her husband Ulpho, the following words of Boniface IX concerning Ulpho, in the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta, seem above all to make doubtful: "The said prince rested in the Lord in such deliberation" (of entering a monastery): which seem possible to be understood thus, that Ulpho indeed had a serious purpose of putting on the religious habit, but, prevented by death, could not carry it out. Alphonsus, in the Prologue to book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 3, says only that Ulpho, having returned into Sweden, passed to the Lord there, no mention being made of the Cistercian habit taken or of profession made. The author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, however, says only that Ulpho received in the monastery of Alvastra the rest of his remains and a falling asleep with piety; which could surely have happened even if he had neither taken the Cistercian habit nor made religious profession according to the institutes of the same Order. Nor are more things read on that matter in Surius at the 23rd day of July, where he treats of St. Birgitta. By Antoninus, indeed, he is only said to have entered a certain monastery.

[141] Hence partly, as I think, and partly from the years whom the Cistercians among their own in which he holds that Ulpho returned into Sweden and died there (1343 and 1344), Baillet carps at Henriquez for having inserted Ulpho in the Cistercian Menology, since, namely, in Baillet's opinion Ulpho departed from life before he could make profession: Hippolyte Hélyot, however, in the History of the monastic Orders, volume 4, page 27, judged for the same reasons that Ulpho indeed did not complete the year of his novitiate; but that he nevertheless made the vow of religious profession because of the danger of death, which is also customarily done in the other Orders. It is true indeed that Ulpho was not very long among the living after his return into Sweden: but that return, which about the year 1340

we have determined to have taken place, is to be put off to the year 1343, and that Ulpho, who died in the year 1344 on the 12th day of February, lacked the space for completing his novitiate, seems plainly foreign to the truth: since Birger, St. Birgitta's biographer, praised at the beginning of this §, hands down in express words that from his return into Sweden he stayed for some years in the monastery of Alvastra: whence what I said above concerning the time of the journey to Compostela undertaken by St. Birgitta, and of her return to her homeland, is not a little confirmed, and it is clear that Ulpho was enrolled by Henriquez and others in the number of the Cistercian nurslings not for so light a cause as Baillet intimates.

[142] For about four years, then, Ulpho stayed in the monastery of Alvastra before he put off life: deservedly, as it appears, the year and day of his death, certainly, namely the year of Christ 1344, and the 12th day of February, are not doubtful, both from the author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, just praised, and from Thorir Andersson, beginning the Vadstena Chronicle thus: "MCCCXLIV. On the 12th of February died the noble knight Lord Ulpho Gudmarsson, formerly husband of blessed Birgitta": so that the author of the Catalogue of the men illustrious for holiness of the sacred Cistercian Order ought by no means to be heard here, who writes that Ulpho (you will find his words below) died about the year 1358 on the 26th day of July. Ulpho, moreover, died "in a good old age," according to Birger's words, weightier, however, in merits than in years: for according to the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta, who was born about the beginning of the fourteenth century, Ulpho was in the eighteenth year of his age when St. Birgitta was in the thirteenth; wherefore Ulpho must have come into the world about the end of the thirteenth century. Of his virtues, with which he shone in the world, something has already been touched upon at number 104 from Birger, where he indicated sufficiently indeed that he rendered distinguished service to king and country in war and at home, but praised him more abundantly and more solidly for piety toward the most blessed Virgin, for the fear of God, for the frequency of pious works, and for love of justice and honesty of life. How great, moreover, was his love of conjugal continence even in the very flower of youth was most of all plain when for almost two whole years, unwilling to use the right of matrimony, he willed both his own and his Wife's chastity to be unblemished, and never approached her, as Boniface IX testifies in express words in the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta, except in the fear of God and in love of posterity. Unless, further, he had been likewise eminent in veneration of the Saints of God, he would not have undertaken, with great loss, as it is fair to believe, of his estate, and with grave hardships of body, so long a journey for their sake far from his homeland and friends. Whence it is easily established that he advanced not a little in virtue, while he lived with her, by the exhortation and example of his most pious Wife.

[143] not, however, so far as to enrol him among the Blessed, From his life led in the world, moreover, we can easily conjecture with what holy and upright morals he lived after he sent his notice of departure to the world and preferred the hiding-places of the convent of Alvastra to the splendours of the court and of his country: so much so that among some Cistercian writers he has even found the title of Blessed. The Series of the men illustrious for holiness of the Cistercian Order, but already refuted above as to the year and day of his death, has this of him: "Bl. Ulf of Ulfåsa, prince of Närke, the husband of St. Birgitta, monk of Alvastra in Sweden, on the twenty-sixth day in the month of July, about the year MCCCLVIII." Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology, likewise at the 26th day of July: "At Alvastra in Sweden, Bl. Ulpho of Ulfåsa, prince of Närke: who in youth married St. Birgitta and, the spirit of God breathing upon him, honoured matrimony most honourably, and, dear both to God and to men, had happy progress. He was borne with wonderful affection toward the Mother of God, and fervent in spirit, having set out with his wife into Spain, he visited the threshold of St. James. Having returned home, he put on the Cistercian habit at Alvastra, and there, a happy contest having been completed, he flew away to heaven." Sartorius likewise calls him Blessed in the Cistercium bis tertium, page 452. Indeed, Ferrarius too, in the General Catalogue of the Saints at the 12th day of February, announces him in this manner: "In Sweden, of Bl. Ulpho, prince, husband of St. Birgitta." He was also reported by our predecessors at the 12th day of February among the Passed Over, because they judged that sacred and public cult had never been rendered to him, which we judge even today.

[144] although he may piously be believed to live in heaven. That he has nevertheless been mingled with the ranks of the Blessed the notable virtue of the man does not allow us to doubt, which I finally set forth here also from chapter 56 of the Extravagant Revelations, where he is read to have appeared to St. Birgitta after his death, and, when she asked what had most profited him for salvation, to have answered: "There are six things which profited me. First, namely, my confession, which I made every Friday, when I had the opportunity, having a firm purpose of amending myself thereafter. Second is that, sitting in judgment, I did not judge for love of money or favour, but examined all my judgments diligently, ready to correct errors and retract things less well done. Third is that I obeyed my master, who counselled me not to have intercourse after I knew that the child had quickened. Fourth is that I was careful, as far as I could, that neither by me nor by my people should I be ungrateful, or burdensome or costly, to the poor in being lodged, applying all solicitude not to contract debts unless I foresaw whence they would be paid. Fifth is the abstinence which I took upon myself on the way of pilgrimage to St. James. For I resolved on the way not to drink between times. Therefore through this abstinence was blotted out that long sitting which I had at table, and the talkativeness and excess. And now I am certain of my salvation, though I am uncertain of the hour. Sixth is that I committed my judgments to those whom I believed just, that they might pay my debts. And because I feared to be entangled in debts, I reassigned while living to the king his provinces, lest my soul should undergo the judgment of God." Which no one will deny are surely the marks of a man most upright before God and men, and of one who has long since received the reward of his merits. But enough now of Ulpho. I return, therefore, to St. Birgitta.

[145] What did she do after her husband's death? She cultivated widowhood perpetually, Thereafter Birgitta goes away to Alvastra, divided her goods among her children and the poor, changed her habit, left her house and withdrew to Alvastra, increased the austerity of her life. "But when her husband had died," says Birger her biographer at number 18, "after the holy and modest Woman had composed her mind together, she never joined herself bodily to another. For she was like another Judith, joined to the virtue of chastity, so that she knew not a man all the days of her life from the time her husband died, but, always dwelling solitarily and persevering in groanings in the purpose of holy widowhood, as under the clearest crystal, lest she should be stained by the dust of vainglory or broken by the touch of human praise, she most purely guarded the remnants of her life." Alphonsus, in the Prologue to the Book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, hands down the same briefly: "She then" (her husband Ulpho having died), "kindled with perfect love of chastity, gave herself wholly and entirely to Christ." That St. Birgitta withdrew after her husband's death to Alvastra to lead a solitary life there Birger indeed does not say openly in these words; yet he intimates it tacitly, as it seems, in these words, "always dwelling solitarily," but a little more clearly at number 20, where she is said to have been "commanded to stay in the monastery": from elsewhere, too, St. Birgitta's stay at Alvastra is established, of which express mention is made in chapter 55 of the Extravagant Revelations in these words: "A certain monk of holy life" (Gerechinus) "of that same monastery of Alvastra related with tears and an oath to Prior Peter himself that when lady Birgitta came there to reside in the same monastery" (or near it) "the monk wondered, etc."; which also happens not rarely elsewhere in the same Revelations of St. Birgitta. This stay of St. Birgitta at Alvastra lasted from the year 1344, in which Ulpho died, until the year 1346, in which she came to Rome, never to return to Sweden while she lived. What was done at that time will be told below.

[146] As regards the division of her goods and the change of habit, hear Birger at number 20: "The Bride of Christ, desiring from then on to rest from all the disturbances of the world, and to sleep in the bosom of the Bridegroom, She divides her goods, of life earthly cupidities being lulled, immediately after her husband's death distributed all her goods among her children and the poor, changing her habit and life." The author of the abbreviated Life of St. Birgitta, however, speaks thus: "He" (Ulpho) "having forthwith died, she, holy Birgitta, chosen beforehand by God, reckoning as of little account earthly expenditures, possessions, friends and kinsfolk, chose with Magdalene the best part, which shall not be taken away from her." Of the austerity of life, which, her husband having died, she increased not moderately, Birger again thus: "And because she considered that every perfect soul does not easily lose that in which it has long exercised itself, therefore, not content with the penance which she had done secretly while her husband lived, after his death for thirty" (for about so many she survived her husband, who died in the year 1344, she having died in the year 1373) "she did not use linen garments, except in the veils of the head, but, clothed in rough haircloth, she bridled the flesh, which lusts against the spirit. Before the bed she had placed one coverlet and a little cushion under the head, and so she was accustomed to sleep there, having over her a simple garment or a mantle. When she was asked how she could rest there" (which surely was the more worthy of admiration, the more intensely cold reigns in those Northern regions) "in the most intense colds which press in those parts, she answered, saying: I feel within me so much heat from divine grace that that cold which is outside does not much urge me to a softer bed; kindled without doubt by that heat of spiritual fire of which the eminent one of the Prophets says: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out."

[147] austerity Not unlike this is what is read of St. Birgitta, so glowing with the fire of divine love that she seemed to be without feeling of external cold, in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 84: thus it runs there: "When the Bride, in the midst of the colds in the kingdom of Sweden, had come by sailing to a certain island, and all were now asleep, not wishing to disturb anyone, she remained in the ship until day. And when the servants were suffering beyond measure from the cold, she felt so much heat that those who touched and saw her wondered." But let us hear Birger speaking further thus of the austerity of life of St. Birgitta, now a widow. "She was accustomed also to make so many genuflexions, bowings and venias by day and night that it was wonderful that so tender a person could sustain the weight of such great labours… She was accustomed moreover on Fridays to pour flaming drops from a burning candle upon her bare flesh, so that wounds remained from them. Which if at any time of themselves

they were somewhat healed before the next Friday, then at once, putting in her nails, she so ploughed in them that her body was not without the suffering of wounds. And this she did on account of the Passion of Jesus Christ; having also knotted cords about her body, which she did not separate from herself either by day or by night, attending to this, that our affection is never perfectly kindled to the desire of things eternal unless the care of the flesh, even in things lawful and necessary, is frequently and strongly repelled. Every Friday, on account of the Passion of Christ and the bitterness of the gall drink given Him before death, she was accustomed to hold in her mouth a certain most bitter herb which is called Gentian. She observed the same on other days when she had uttered some word without consideration."

[148] Boniface IX, in the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta, not only she increases, has almost each of the things which have just been said from Birger of the increased austerity of her life, now that she was a widow, and which can be seen below, but also adds to these some things, which I transfer here: of the fasting which she kept from her husband's death he says this: "But after her husband's death … not only did she observe those vigils or fasts which holy mother Church commands, but she added many others besides, so that even beyond the Church's command she fasted four times a week, and likewise four times a week while her husband had not yet departed this life." And a little below: "Every Friday, in memory of the most sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, content with bread and water only, she did not omit the fast, while she also passed many other days in like abstinence out of reverence for various Saints. And whether she abstained by fasting or reclined at table otherwise, since she was most sober, she rose from the table not sated but refreshed." Of her frequent confession, however, he has this: "And while her husband survived, when she had confessed every Friday, after his passing she strove to repeat a true confession at least once a day with great contrition, deploring light sins as bitterly as others do the gravest, and passing over nothing undiscussed of her words, morals, thoughts and acts." More concerning the exercises of virtues of St. Birgitta after her husband's death you will find both in Birger and in Boniface and Berthold. Let us now see what befell the holy Widow in those two years in which she stayed at Alvastra.

[149] The divine kindness did not long put off repaying to St. Birgitta, she becomes the special bride of Christ, now glowing with so great a fire of heavenly love, the return of His love: but presently God Himself deigned to adopt her, widowed of a mortal spouse, as His own singular bride. Birger relates this at number 19 in the following words: "But because Christ for the most part visits the hearts of the perfect, and manifests to them the sweetness of His kindness, that through them He may afterwards come and descend to the weaker, some days having passed after the death of her husband, when the Bride of God, in whose desire and love she always panted, was solicitous about her state, rapt in spirit, she saw a bright cloud, and heard from the cloud a voice, as once the children of Israel heard the Lord speaking on mount Sinai from the cloud, and saying to her: 'I am thy God, who wish to speak with thee': and she, terrified and thinking it an illusion, heard again: 'Do not fear,' He said, 'for I am the maker of all, not a deceiver; I do not speak for thy sake alone, but for the salvation of others. Hear what I speak, and go to master Matthias, who has experienced the discernment of the two spirits, and tell him on My part, for I tell thee, that thou shalt be My bride and My channel, and thou shalt hear and see spiritual things, and My spirit will remain with thee until death.'" So Birger, from whose words it is understood that St. Birgitta was not only received by God as bride a little after her husband's death, but was also singularly chosen to be one who, instructed by divine revelations and inspirations, should not only promote the salvation of others, but should even admonish the Pontiffs themselves and princes of their office in the name of God.

[150] not after some years, The same things are read in almost the same words in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 47, in Hörmann, page 769; as also in the Nuremberg editions of the same Revelations both of the year 1517 and of 1521, the Cologne and the Munich. But in these St. Birgitta is said to have been chosen by Christ as bride not only some days after her husband's death, as Birger speaks, but some years. In which way, since according to Birger at number 24 she spent only about two years at the monastery of Alvastra, either St. Birgitta's adoption as bride of Christ would have to be put off beyond that, or at least it did not happen, contrary to what has been said above, a little after Ulpho's death. I think, however, that we must stand by Birger's words, and I think that in the cited editions of St. Birgitta's Revelations days should be substituted for years, both because in the same editions of the Revelations Alphonsus writes in the prologue to the Book of the Heavenly Emperor, chapter 3: "Where" (in Sweden) "then the aforesaid husband" (of St. Birgitta, Ulpho) "passed to the Lord. She then, kindled with perfect love of chastity, gave herself wholly and entirely to Christ, who FORTHWITH received her as His bride, kindly embracing her with His words": and because Thorir Andersson, in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1344, in which Ulpho died, writes of St. Birgitta: "In this year also revelations were first made to blessed Birgitta"; not that she had no revelations before, but that, her husband having died and having been singularly adopted by Christ as bride, she then began to have revelations either more frequently or a clearer knowledge of the things divinely shown. "And then," says Alphonsus, just praised, "she began to have divine visions more clearly."

[151] but only some days, Moreover, Matthias in the Prologue of the Revelations says that St. Birgitta, immediately after the death of her husband, cast away her goods, and was for that reason visited by God with wonderful consolations and graces: "And when she was now loosed from the law of her husband," he says, "distributing her goods to the heirs and the poor, and freeing herself from the bonds of the world, and following, poor, the poor Christ, she kept for herself nothing but the simplest food and contemptible clothing. On account of which Christ visited her, who had rejected all the consolation of the world, with wonderful consolations and graces"; by which last words St. Birgitta's election as bride of Christ seems to be signified. That St. Birgitta was chosen by God as bride immediately also after the division of her goods, which most probably took place a little after Ulpho's death, seems to be intimated in book 1 of the Revelations, chapter 2, where Christ is introduced addressing her thus: "I have chosen thee, and taken thee to Myself as bride, that I may show thee My secrets, because it so pleases Me. Thou too by a certain right wast made Mine, when at the death of thy husband thou didst resign thy will into My hands. When also, he having died, thou didst think and ask how thou mightest be poor for Me. And thou didst wish to leave all things for Me, and therefore by right thou wast made Mine." Since St. Birgitta is said to have done these things in Sweden after her husband's death and before she went away to Rome, and she came to Rome in the year 1346, it is surely more probable, even if only the order of events is regarded, that all these things happened a little after Ulpho's death, or some days after it, as Birger speaks, than some years after, as the editions of St. Birgitta's Revelations praised above have it.

[152] Certainly what Father van der Ketten notes from the manuscript German Life of St. Birgitta in the Notices which he sent to our predecessors seems far from the truth; from her husband's death namely that that revelation of the bright cloud made to St. Birgitta happened in the year 1338; since, from what has been said, it certainly happened later than the death of Ulpho, who without doubt departed life only in the year 1344. Finally, from Birger at number 20 we have that St. Birgitta, after she had already been chosen by God as bride, survived 28 years; which being subtracted from the year 1373, the year of St. Birgitta's death, we shall be brought back at least to the year 1345; and so there is no reason for suspecting that "days" is read in Birger perhaps by error for "years." Who, moreover, the Matthias praised above was, to whom Birger relates that St. Birgitta was sent by God, I have sufficiently explained at number 26 and following of this Commentary. What, however, the discernment of spirits means which Matthias is said by Birger to have experienced, Peter of Alvastra teaches in these words of Chapter 3 of book 1 of the Revelations: "Observe the right faith" (so Christ is said to have addressed St. Birgitta there) "which he" (Matthias, of whom the discourse is here) "will teach thee, who, having experienced in himself the conflict of the two spirits, namely of falsehood and of truth, overcame it with My help," subjoining the following Declaration: "This one who was to teach the Bride of Christ was a certain holy man, master in Theology, who was called master Matthias of Sweden, canon of Linköping, who glossed the whole bible excellently. And he was tempted by the devil most subtly with many heresies against the Catholic faith, all of which he overcame with the help of Christ, nor could he be overcome by the demon."

[153] The changed manner of life and habit of the most noble woman, and various examples "much humble and abject," to use the words of Boniface in the Bull of Canonization, stirred up the gibes, sneers and reproaches of many against her: but, not at all moved by these, she nobly despised the talkativeness of men. Hear Birger: "And when she was despised by nobles, who judged her life to be madness, on account of the sudden change and the meanness of her habit, she answered: 'Neither for your sake do I begin, nor for your sake do I leave off. For I had resolved in my heart to bear words. Pray that I may be able to persevere.' Knowing, namely," says Birger, "that as the praise of one who extols does not heal a bad conscience, so the reproach of one who reviles does not wound a good one." These things Birger in general, intimating sufficiently that St. Birgitta, when, her manner of life changed, she was staying at Alvastra, had to bear reproaches neither light nor few. And indeed, since she did not so lead a solitary life at Alvastra but that again and again, by God's command and for the salvation of others, she had to go forth into public and into the court itself, manifold occasion of detracting from and reviling the most holy Woman could not be lacking. Certain particular deeds, because they do not a little to commend her patience and constancy, and are not set forth individually by Birger or other biographers of St. Birgitta, at least those readily met with, I bring forward; from which it could not altogether absurdly be conjectured that she bore many things, and perhaps indeed more bitter than these which will be told.

[154] Thus first on this matter Father van der Ketten in the Excerpts from the German Life of St. Birgitta, notable patience prepared by his care and transmitted to our predecessors: "It is to be known that at a certain time

it came about, after the death of her husband, that she was commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the king of Sweden" (Magnus). "Then she was anxious what she should do there, or what she should say, if she came to him. Then she received the answer from God: When thou comest before the king, open thy mouth, and I will fill it, that is, I will pour into him what thou speakest. Then, obedient, strengthened in faith, she went to the king. When she came to him, divine words were at once inspired into her, which moved both the king and the princes of the kingdom, because she admonished the king and foretold to him that the wrath of God would come upon that land unless they turned aside from certain defects and sins. So the chosen vessel of God preached the words of God before the king and the princes." But what gain accrued to her from this? "These things having been done," so the Excerpts of the German Life just praised go on, "certain of the chief men murmur against her, and would gladly have confounded her, had they not looked up to her family" (that she was joined to the king himself by kinship we have already said at number 45) "and great lineage. Meanwhile they held her in much mockery, reviled her, joking and deriding her, and called her a witch, and named her a cheat and a seducer, so that her sons, indignant, wished to avenge things of this kind. But she" (behold the patience and meekness of the holy Woman), "becoming a suppliant to her children, begged them to do nothing in the matter, saying: God is my witness that for love of Christ I would rather suffer such contempts and derisions than wear the king's crown on my head."

[155] and of other virtues she gives. Berthold also relates this, as far as substance is concerned, below at number 42: in the following numbers, namely 43, 44 and 45, he narrates certain deeds not unlike the one already related, although perhaps not each of them took place at the time when Birgitta was staying at Alvastra after Ulpho's death. The first happened at Stockholm, where a certain nobleman, on account of the sound counsels which she had given to King Magnus, but not in his own interest, poured water from a window upon Birgitta as she passed; which insult Birgitta not only did not take ill, but even endeavoured to deprecate before God. The second at Arboga (it is a town of Sweden in Västmanland), where, assailed with a bitter taunt, she both placated the author of it by a humble and gentle answer and snatched him from the vengeance of others. The third took place before King Magnus, before whom, having been contemptuously thrust by a certain nobleman, likewise her detractor, she became a suppliant to the king and obtained from the king pardon for the insult offered to her, indeed, but God a little afterwards avenged the injury of His Handmaid. Finally, that while she was staying at Alvastra she not rarely gave very many examples of wonderful patience and austerity, and likewise of most perfect obedience and other virtues, it is easy to gather from those things which Berthold relates of her below at number 52.

§ XI. The revelations of St. Birgitta, written by her in the vernacular and rendered into Latin, were examined and approved more than once.

Her Revelations Since we have now touched upon that part of St. Birgitta's life in which, chosen by Christ as bride, she began to be honoured by God with more frequent revelations, it does not seem out of place in this location to discuss some things concerning these. In what manner and when this took place has already been said in the foregoing at number 149 and following, where we made words concerning Christ appearing to St. Birgitta in a bright cloud, from chapter 47 of the Extravagant Revelations, written by Peter of Alvastra. But this happened not once only, but a second and third time, as John Cardinal de Torquemada teaches in the Prologue, whose words are these: "For which it is to be noted that these Revelations are found examined at two times, namely while blessed Birgitta herself was living; secondly after her death. In her life indeed; for since she was not light in believing revelations quickly, when she first began to have revelations of this kind and had seen a bright cloud, and had heard a voice as of a man saying: 'Woman, hear Me,' she, fearing to be deluded by an angel of satan, at once went to her confessor, a certain most devout man of most approved life, master Matthias of Sweden, an eminent professor of sacred Theology, who wrote on the whole Bible. He, not ignorant in such matters, enjoined upon her fasts and prayers and other spiritual exercises, and, having heard her confession, communicated her with the Sacrament of the body of Christ.

[157] "And while, applying herself to such things, she had a similar vision again, she writes in the vernacular, she once more, on the counsel of the said master, increased her prayers and other good works. And then a third time she likewise saw a cloud, and in the cloud the likeness of Christ, the son of God. And she heard a voice: 'Woman, hear Me; I am thy God, who wish to speak with thee; do not fear. I am the maker of all, not a deceiver. I do not speak with thee for thy sake alone, but for the salvation of others.'" Two addresses of Christ from the bright cloud to His bride Birgitta are indicated in the cited chapter of the Extravagant Revelations in these words: "She, terrified lest perhaps it should be an illusion of the enemy, heard again: 'Do not fear, etc.'" The third is perhaps intimated in book 1 of the Revelations, chapter 2, where Christ says to Birgitta: "I have chosen thee and taken thee to Myself as bride, that I may show thee My secrets, because it so pleases Me." Although there no mention, at least express, is made of the bright cloud from which St. Birgitta heard Christ speaking. Birger too, praised at number 149, makes mention of only a twofold apparition of Christ addressing St. Birgitta from the bright cloud, who, however, adds that St. Birgitta had it in command from Christ to set these things out to Matthias her confessor: "Hear what I speak, and go to Matthias, etc." Since, however, the divine revelations were made not for Birgitta's sake alone, but also for the salvation of others, as is clear from what was adduced before, it was surely fitting that they should also be committed to writing, that their fruit might be more abundant among many: St. Birgitta herself, therefore, wrote them in the vernacular or Gothic tongue, and indeed at Christ's command. That they might, however, be handled more easily not only by those learned in Gothic, but also by others to whom they pertained, Christ willed besides that they should also be given Latin dress.

[158] which, by Peter of Alvastra This task was enjoined chiefly on Peter of Alvastra. Alphonsus teaches both in the Prologue prefixed to the Book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, chapter 3, in Hörmann, page 628, column 2, in these words: "And because the Lady herself wrote the Revelations, as is said, by Christ's command in her Gothic tongue, therefore by the same command of Christ the Prior" (a Cistercian monk and afterwards Prior, or Peter of Alvastra) "translated from that her mother tongue into Latin all the books, and this present one" (namely the Eighth, or the Book of the Heavenly Emperor to the kings) "divinely revealed to the same Lady." The command of Christ by which Peter of Alvastra, at that time Subprior of the place and afterwards Prior, was ordered to make into Latin the revelations made to St. Birgitta, is related in chapter 48 of the Extravagant Revelations, which he himself compiled; where he is read at the beginning indeed to have obeyed not readily enough Christ's command indicated to him by St. Birgitta; and for that cause, struck by a blow from God, to have lain half-dead from it, and at length to have been restored again to health by God when he had shown himself ready to write the aforesaid revelations in the Latin tongue. From the time, moreover, when he gave himself to the writing or translation of those revelations, he who from boyhood had been accustomed to be afflicted with a most violent pain of the head remained thereafter immune from that ill throughout the whole thirty years during which he clung to St. Birgitta. So it is read of him in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 109. He died in the year 1390. "Likewise on the ninth day of the month of April," says the author of the Vadstena Chronicle at that year, "in the episcopal court at Vadstena died brother Peter, Prior of Alvastra, the translator and writer of the greatest part of the Revelations divinely shown to blessed Birgitta, and the companion of her pilgrimage to holy Jerusalem."

[159] and rendered into Latin by Peter of Vadstena, He is called "the translator and writer of the greatest part of the Revelations, etc.," because, although he himself put most of them into writing as they were made in succession of time, yet not absolutely all: for the other Peter also, the first confessor general of the convent of Vadstena, had his part in that matter, of whom, at the end of chapter 48 of the Extravagant Revelations, after it had been said there that Peter, Prior of Alvastra, now restored to the health of which he had been deprived by God for obedience shown not readily enough to the same command, had begun by Christ's command to write the Revelations made to St. Birgitta and to turn them into the Latin tongue, these words are presently added: "Although Peter, his" (Peter of Alvastra's) "fellow, and her" (St. Birgitta's) "confessor and writer, wrote" (or rendered into Latin) "some things in the said Revelations for thirty years, until the death of lady Birgitta herself." The Revelations of St. Birgitta which Peter of Alvastra and Peter the confessor of Vadstena had given Latin dress were afterwards, while St. Birgitta was still among the living, handed over, likewise by divine command, into the hands of Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén in Spain, as is read at the end of the chapter of the Extravagant Revelations just cited in these words: "Which afterwards Christ, before her" (St. Birgitta's) "death, commanded to be given to lord Alphonsus the Spanish Hermit, formerly bishop of Jaén."

[160] For what end they were handed over to Alphonsus Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, distinguished them into books: is explained in the following chapter, or 49, of the Extravagant Revelations in this manner: "Now therefore" (so Christ is held to have addressed St. Birgitta at that place), "that it may suit several languages, hand over all the books of the Revelations of these same words of Mine to My hermit bishop, who may write them out and elucidate them and hold the Catholic sense of My spirit." For the rest, Alphonsus distinguished the Revelations handed over to him into eight books; the Additions, however, and Declarations which are seen subjoined to some of them in the published books of St. Birgitta's Revelations have as author Peter of Alvastra, of whom above, who afterwards added to the eight books a ninth, which they called that of the Extravagant Revelations; which indeed are read set out in the Prologue prefixed to the Extravagant Revelations in these words: "After lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, and afterwards a most approved hermit, had by Christ's command distinguished into books the heavenly Revelations made to St. Birgitta of the kingdom of Sweden, lord Peter, Prior of Alvastra, the first writer of those revelations, gathered separately into slips and gatherings some revelations passed over outside the original books. These, in the presence of the reverend father of blessed memory lord Nicholas, at that time bishop of Linköping" (he died in the year 1391), "and of very many other lords secular and ecclesiastical, he handed over to the first brothers of the monastery of Vadstena, affirming on the word of truth that those revelations, and many others which he had laid up in his monastery of Alvastra, had been divinely revealed to Blessed Birgitta, and faithfully translated and written down by himself from her mouth.

[161] "Some of which revelations, because of

the agreement which, however, they call Extravagantes; the same Peter of Alvastra collected. which they have with the revelations contained in the original books, have been inserted here and there with pious effort into the original books themselves, as Declarations and Additions of them, a diligent discussion having first been held"; namely by the monks of Vadstena, who saw to the first Lübeck edition of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, and who seem to have composed the Prologue of the Extravagant Revelations which I have just praised and shall praise further presently. Of the Lübeck edition the Vadstena Chronicle has this at the year 1491: "On the day of SS. Cosmas and Damian there crossed over brothers Peter Ingemarsson, priest, and Gerard, layman, toward Lübeck to have the heavenly books of the Revelations of St. Birgitta printed. And after a year had passed, eight hundred volumes having been printed and completed on paper, and only sixteen on parchment, they returned to their monastery in the year of the Lord MCDLXXXXII about the feast of St. Catherine, virgin and martyr." For the rest, why the Revelations of the last book were called Extravagant, the monks of Vadstena explain thus: "The rest, however, studiously gathered together into one volume, will appear in the number and order written below. And although these Revelations are named Extravagant by some, because they were not from the beginning joined to the Original books themselves of the heavenly Revelations, yet they are piously believed to have truly emanated from the same fountain of the wisdom of God as the others, whence we receive all": and, what serves to win credence for these Extravagantes, they add a little below: "The truth of these revelations, however, that they were divinely revealed, will for the greater part plainly appear to anyone who faithfully looks at the Attestations of lord Prior Peter and of Blessed Catherine, St. Birgitta's daughter, made for the canonization of the oft-mentioned St. Birgitta." So the monks of Vadstena (at least in the Nuremberg editions of the years 1516 and 1521: for the Lübeck edition of the year 1491 or 1492 I have not been permitted to see), whom it is right to believe to have been well instructed about these matters from the records of their monastery. And let these things be said of the books of the Revelations considered in themselves, and of the manner in which they were written or translated; now let us see what fortune they enjoyed, and how rigid an examination was more than once instituted concerning them.

[162] They were often examined, whether while she lived, We have already seen above, at the beginning of this §, from John de Torquemada, afterwards cardinal, that St. Birgitta's revelations were called to examination both while she lived and after her death; and first indeed that they were subjected by St. Birgitta, who did not trust herself, to the judgment of Matthias of Sweden: besides him, moreover, many other distinguished men also, while she lived, diligently discussed them, and, having discussed them, approved them by their vote: "While, however, revelations of this kind were being multiplied," says Cardinal de Torquemada, "she, not content, took care to reveal those revelations to many other spiritual men most skilled in every science, and especially, according to the command of the Lord in Deuteronomy 17, verse 8, commanding that doubtful judgments be referred to the priests, to the greater prelates of the Church. Whence she humbly and reverently set them forth to the lord archbishop of Uppsala" (this was either Birger, her biographer, or Henry, Birger's successor, of whom see the Vadstena Diary at the year 1408) "and to three other bishops and to a certain most religious abbot then being at Rome, and to lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén. Who, mature deliberation and treatment having been held upon these things, concluded harmoniously that they proceeded not from a deceiving spirit, but from the Holy Spirit. The same was judged by many other eminent men, an accurate examination of these revelations having first been held, as is gathered from many places in which her acts and life are described, from which, for brevity's sake, I have taken care to refrain." With the acts of which John de Torquemada speaks here agrees the Prologue to the Rule of the Saviour, where these things are found: "She heard many things in the spirit, or in spiritual and intellectual vision, spiritually narrated to her, which afterwards the same person" (St. Birgitta) "humbly made known with great reverence and fear of God to the archbishop of Uppsala together with three other bishops and to a certain most devout master" (Matthias) "who was held a great theologian, and to one abbot devoted to God and very religious, fearing to be deluded under the appearance of an angel of light by the deluding angel of darkness; and all these, and many friends of God, hearing these things and conferring together maturely and spiritually upon this, proved that all things had been revealed to the same person divinely, by the good spirit of truth and light, from a special grace of the Holy Spirit." See also on this matter Alphonsus himself in the Prologue of the Book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, chapter 3.

[163] or after her death in the year 1377 under Gregory XII After, however, St. Birgitta departed from among the living, and treatment began to be had of her solemn enrolment in the album of the Saints, the business of her revelations was discussed no less accurately than while she lived. Hear John de Torquemada again: "At length, secondly, after her death revelations of this kind" (namely those contained in the first eight books of them) "were given to examination, and appear approved by the judgment both of wise men and of the supreme Pontiffs. For which it is to be noted that in the year of the Lord MCCCLXXVII, after the death of Blessed Birgitta, the heavenly revelations divinely made to her, written in several volumes, so that they might thus be more conveniently both seen and examined by many, were presented to the most holy Father Lord Gregory XI by the hands of the venerable persons Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Birgitta, brother Peter, prior of Alvastra, and lord Peter Olofsson, confessor of the aforesaid lady Birgitta." Gregory, moreover, as John de Torquemada relates more fully, gave them to be examined to the Cardinal of Montmajour, the Cardinal de Agrifolio, and the Cardinal de Luna. Besides, to Martin de Salva, doctor of both laws and archbishop of Pamplona, likewise to the master of the sacred palace of the Order of St. Dominic, to John of Spain, master of the sacred Page, and to Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, of whom often above: who, an examination of the aforesaid revelations having been made, brought back to Gregory XI a most honourable testimony concerning them. "These having been inspected" (St. Birgitta's revelations, says Cardinal de Torquemada), "and having been gone through often with all diligence, and attentively understood, nothing could be found in them reprehensible, or suspect, or discordant with or adverse to our orthodox faith; but the whole, whatever was contained in them, stood out conspicuous with all truth, and illustrious with holiness, full, most clear and perfect." Such was the judgment of the examiners on St. Birgitta's revelations, which are comprised in the first eight books of them, under Gregory XI, about the fourth year after St. Birgitta's death.

[164] It happened meanwhile that Gregory XI departed from this life at Rome on the 27th day of March of the year 1378: and in the following year under Urban VI, whence it came about that the business of the Canonization of St. Birgitta, and so also the things which concerned the same Saint's revelations, could not be brought to a conclusion; so that in the year 1379, under Urban VI, Gregory's successor, that whole business had to be examined and handled over again from the egg. What, therefore, had already been duly accomplished under Gregory XI was, the gravity of the matter so requiring, repeated under Urban VI, that is, the same persons as above, St. Catherine and Peter, prior of Alvastra, and besides brother Andreae (or rather perhaps Andrew Olofsson, of whom the Vadstena Chronicle at the year 1390) and Magnus Petri, again offered St. Birgitta's revelations to the examination of the same Pontiff; who entrusted this province to some Cardinals and other learned men, of whom Cardinal de Torquemada enumerates the Cardinals of Corsica, of England, de Ursinis, of Genoa and de Manupello: the bishop of Orvieto, John of Legnano, doctor of both laws, John of Basel, master in the sacred page, Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, Augustine of Rome of the Order of St. Augustine, master in Theology, Matthew of Cracow, lord Louis, licentiate of both laws. "Which commission, indeed," says John de Torquemada, "having been made as is premised, and a diligent examination of them having been held most attentively in every way by the commissioners themselves, as is expressed above, and at length, as was fitting, a report having followed to the ears of the lord Pope, they were again found by Urban himself, as by Gregory his predecessor, to be authentic, and full of truth, and truly taught by the spirit of God; and also to be observed perpetually in the holy Church of God, with devotion and reverence, more zealously, for the advantage of those reading or hearing them, as a most salutary teaching of the faithful."

[165] and dispersed everywhere, Hence no small desire for the Revelations of St. Birgitta was stirred up in various regions, so much so that princes, commonwealths and cities, as if in rivalry, had them copied for themselves. "Wherefore" (I recite again the words of Cardinal de Torquemada) "many princes and nobles coming to Rome, and others sending their envoys, for the obtaining of the books of the Revelations, which, after they had urgently asked for them, they had written at their own expense with exquisite diligence." The aforesaid Cardinal then subjoins that the Bishop of Worms carried a copied exemplar of the Revelations of St. Birgitta to the emperor (Wenceslaus was then presiding over the empire), brother Peter of Aragon to the king of France (Charles V), the envoy of the queen of Castile into Spain, the envoy of the queen of Cyprus into Cyprus, the envoy of the queen of Sicily to Naples, the envoy of the university of Prague into Bohemia; to whom he joins brother Peter of Burgundy of the Order of Minors, the envoy of the Crusaders, the Romans, the Genoese, the people of Breslau, and very many other cities, and men who were princes of other kingdoms: and he testifies that all these things are written in the Registers of the Canonization of St. Birgitta.

[166] New weight too accrued to the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations (namely the first eight, and afterwards praised by Boniface IX, and confirmed by prodigies, as I noted above) in the year 1391 from Boniface IX, who in the Bull of canonization of St. Birgitta, afterwards confirmed by Martin V, expressly praised them in these words: "By which holy works, continued without intermission, this noble Widow merited through the grace of the holy Spirit to make known to many their thoughts and inmost affections and most secret deeds, and to see and hear various visions and revelations: and by the prophetic spirit to foretell many things, some of which have been fulfilled in effect, as these and other things are most fully described in the volume of her Revelations." Indeed, God Himself from time to time undertook the patronage of St. Birgitta's revelations against their detractors, both while she lived and after her death: while she lived indeed, as is related in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 90, where a certain religious, who said it was incredible to him that God should reveal His mysteries to grand ladies, such namely as St. Birgitta was, is said, in punishment of his rashness, to have been struck with paralysis and snatched from this life. Another likewise, who had tried before the king of Sweden to lessen the credit of St. Birgitta's Revelations, is said in the same book, chapter 92, to have been refuted by Christ appearing to St. Birgitta. But after

St. Birgitta departed from this life, a certain doctor of Leipzig in Meissen, a province of Saxony, having said, "Unless you cease to speak of this new heresy and of the books of that old woman" (so he named St. Birgitta), "I will hand you over to the fires to be burned," and having gone to bed in health, was found on the following day to have perished of the falling sickness, and to have rotted most foully. A certain Religious, when he had spoken of St. Birgitta and her revelations in almost the same manner, going to his bed, was thrown headlong from the steps and put off life. A third religious likewise, insolent against St. Birgitta's revelations, paid for his talkativeness, as long as he lived, struck with a horrible leprosy. These things are related more fully in Miracles 6, 7 and 8 of St. Birgitta, subjoined immediately to her abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 802; but whence they were drawn he does not declare.

[167] and already before celebrated in England, But already earlier, about the year 1373, or a little after St. Birgitta had departed from among the living, we learn from Pits and Bale that the volumes of her Revelations had not only been carried into England but had even been illustrated by the writings of doctors in the schools of London and Oxford: the words of the former are at the year 1381, where he treats of Richard Lavenham, a Carmelite, professor of Sacred Theology at Oxford, and among his writings reckons "Notable Determinations publicly read at Oxford and London on behalf of the book of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, seven books. Astonishment and wonders have been heard"; with which words Matthias began the Prologue of the Revelations. The latter's, reviewing the works of the same Richard, are these in century 7: "On the revelations of Brigitta" (whom elsewhere he wrongly makes a holy Scottish Virgin), "book VII. Astonishment and wonders have been heard." Pits likewise, at the year 1373, enumerating the works of Thomas Stubbs of the Order of the Fathers Preachers, reckons "On the Revelations of St. Brigid, one book, whose beginning is, Blessed and venerable lady." Bale, indeed, in century 14, chapter XI, which is about St. Brigid of Scotland, writes thus petulantly after his manner: "The dreams of this Diana" (Brigid of Scotland, as he falsely says), "or, as they themselves call them, revelations, great doctors in their age expounded in the schools of Oxford and in public magisterial chairs, Thomas Stubbs, a Dominican, Richard Lavenham, a Carmelite, and many others still of that kind, about the year of the Lord MCCCLXX."

§ XII. The same, assailed in the councils of Constance and Basel, came out immune from all censure.

The same, in the councils of Constance, But although the credit of St. Birgitta's Revelations seemed sufficiently established in this way, yet in the fifteenth century a dispute was raised against them, yet so that they came away unharmed. And first indeed various writers relate that they were assailed, but in vain, in the council of Constance, of whom Simon Hörmann cites Anthony of Cordova, book X, question XLIV, in the 4th Proof of the sixth conclusion, on the Revelations of St. Birgitta, speaking thus: "The Revelations of St. Birgitta have already been approved and commended in the council of Constance, and by Urban VI and Martin V, and finally by the Church in the manner aforesaid": likewise Ambrose Catharinus, book 3 on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin: "Who would dare to object that the Revelations of Blessed Birgitta are either fantastic or inspired by an angel of satan, which nevertheless in the council of Constance, even in a contradictory judgment, were approved and commended." To the same effect Hörmann also brings forward the words of Alphonsus de Mendoza, an Augustinian, in the Quodlibets, question 5. Nothing occurs in John de Torquemada about St. Birgitta's revelations being assailed in the council of Constance; nothing in the Acts of the council itself in Labbe, volume 12 of the Councils. In the Vadstena Diary indeed, at the years 1414 and 1416, I read that Thorir Andersson went to the council of Constance for the confirmation of his Order, and John Hildebrandsson and John Haquini likewise for arduous business of their Order: but there is no mention there, at least express, of a dispute raised against the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations: this, however, is certain, that Martin V in the year 1419, as we shall see below, the council of Constance having been brought to its conclusion, confirmed at Florence by an issued Bull the Bull of Boniface IX by which he praises the books of the said Revelations. But clear on that matter is the testimony of Gerson in the Treatise on the Testing of Spirits, held at Constance in the year 1415, where he speaks thus: "On which matter we find not only one treatise and from one person, but several composed by different persons, which it would now be right to have in hand and inspect diligently, while in this sacred council treatment is sought concerning the canonization of the Saints and the examination of their doctrines, especially of one who is named Brigitta, accustomed to visions, which she asserts she received divinely, not only from angels, but from Christ and Mary and Agnes and the other Saints, in constant familiarity, as the Spouse speaks to the Bride."

[169] and Basel The council of Constance was followed not long after, in the same century, by that of Basel, in which there was keen contention about St. Birgitta's Revelations: of which matter the Vadstena Diary makes mention thus at the year 1433: "On St. Hippolytus's day there came from the council of Basel a certain strict citation, by which the confessor and abbess were cited to the council itself with documents concerning the revelations of Blessed Birgitta and concerning the indulgences of the feast of St. Peter's Chains. On the day of SS. Cosmas and Damian the confessor went out, and with him brother Acho" (afterwards bishop of Västerås), "to the council mentioned": and at the year 1436: "On the morrow of John and Paul the confessor returned from the council of Basel, the business of our Order unaccomplished, as he had done before." Likewise at the year 1438: "On the morrow of St. Eric, king and martyr, died Brother Peter Olofsson… He wrote… the declarations of the doctors on the articles extracted from the Revelations of St. Birgitta in the council of Basel." What was done in this matter in the council of Basel John de Torquemada sets out in general in the Letter to the faithful of Christ, namely that articles were extracted from the books of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, some of which certain persons strove to condemn as erroneous in the council of Basel. And since John de Torquemada was one of those whom the same Council had deputed in the year 1435 to examine the aforesaid articles, Gervin, confessor of Vadstena, and Acho asked him that, the matter having been diligently inspected, he would set forth and declare his opinion on this controversy: complying with whose desire he wrote a work in which he defended St. Birgitta's revelations with all his strength.

[170] vehemently assailed There is extant his Letter which he wrote on that matter to the aforesaid Gervin and Acho, in Hörmann at the beginning of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, published by his work at Munich in the year 1680, where he writes thus: "In the days indeed that have passed, in which the matter of certain articles of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, your mother and the foundress of your Order, was being examined before the judge of the faith and certain deputed masters and doctors, it pleased your charity to exhort me with multiplied prayers that I would attend with watchful care and accurate study, among the other reverend masters who were intent on the same work with equal zeal, namely to see and examine whether the aforesaid articles, as was asserted by some rivals of yours, as you said, contained anything against sacred Scripture, or the doctrine of the holy Doctors, or what would offend good morals." So far John de Torquemada, then master of the Apostolic palace, indicating briefly on what the hinge of the matter then turned: then, having said something by way of preface both of himself and of the magnitude of the matter, he goes on thus: "It pleased me to apply my mind to study and to see, according to the powers of the wit entrusted to me from above, whether the aforesaid articles presented to us could be sustained with the truth of the Catholic faith safe and without injury to the doctrine of the holy Doctors; and what seemed good to me I have noted in what follows, according to the slender capacity of my sense, and quickly, as you yourselves know."

[171] There is subjoined then in Hörmann and others John de Torquemada's work, came out immune from all censure, in which he defends St. Birgitta's Revelations at length: toward the end, however, he declares his opinion on them briefly thus: "Plainly all and each" (of the articles of St. Birgitta's Revelations extracted by the adversaries and proposed to the council) "I have examined with study accurate enough according to my powers, and finding none of them, piously and modestly understood, adverse to sacred Scripture or to the opinions of the holy Fathers, but each one sufficiently consonant and conformable, I reckon that all of them, according to their modest and pious understanding, are to be admitted, and can be read in the holy Church of God in that manner in which the books of many other Doctors, and the Histories and Legends of the Saints, are licensed to be read by the faithful." So John de Torquemada determined concerning St. Birgitta's Revelations, or their books, after an accurate examination; whose opinion must have pleased most of the other examiners and the council of Basel itself, since they were permitted to be read and handled by the faithful after the council of Basel just as before it, and are held even today as approved, among which Benedict XIV recently reckoned them in book 3 on the beatification of the Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, last chapter, number 15.

[172] But indeed, if St. Birgitta's revelations, as has just been said, these acting as patrons assailed both in the council of Constance and in that of Basel, at length came out immune from all censure, they triumphed over their adversaries only after a keen and laborious contest, some defending them keenly by authority and prayers, others by writings and the pen. Among the first may with full right be reckoned Eric, king of Sweden, and the bishops and prelates of the kingdom of Denmark, who, that they might be kept untouched and unharmed, insisted vehemently by letters of commendation given to the council of Basel: Eric's letters, indeed, in Severin Binius, volume 4 of the Councils, printed at Cologne in the year 1618, part 1, page 231 (where they are noted as read in the general congregation on Friday, the 26th of the month of March of the year 1435), run thus: "To the most Reverend fathers in Christ, and most excellent lords, to be venerated with especial honour, lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit at Basel for celebrating the general council, Eric, by the grace of God king of Sweden, Norway, the Slavs and the Goths, and duke of Pomerania, greeting and sincere recommendation of ourselves.

[173] "Most reverend fathers and lords, the dignity and office of royal pre-eminence requires, by Eric, king of Sweden, and it ought continually to turn this chiefly in the little cupboard of its breast, that after the worship of the divine Majesty it should bring into effect, by the ways and means it can, that the people subject to it may be able to enjoy and rejoice in the tranquillity of peace, and especially those who, having spurned the cares and vanities of the passing world, burn with all their desires to cleave to God (since to serve Him is to reign). Of which kind are religious persons of both sexes, and especially that most devout Order of Blessed Birgitta, named of St. Saviour, which in the place of Vadstena of our kingdom of Sweden, by the dispensation of God (as is piously believed), took its praiseworthy beginning,

and afterwards, through various parts of the world, for the salvation of many who were straying from the way of rectitude, had received a commendable increase. For the most holy life of that same Blessed Birgitta, the illustrious merits of her virtues, and also the magnificent and stupendous works which the glorious and wonderful God in His Saints had done through her, and does without intermission in these ends of the earth, draw the minds of men to believe that this Order with its Rule of living and Constitutions proceeded specially from God.

[174] by letters written to the council "The same appears from the devout and irreprehensible life of the persons living in it, by the examples of holiness and most salutary doctrine, by which a countless people, divinely enlightened, leaving the broad and slippery way which leads to death, walk confidently the narrow path of the heavenly fatherland. But alas! most venerable fathers and lords, we have lately learned, which we report with sorrow, at the instigation, we do not doubt, of him through whose envy death entered into the world, that certain dangerous splits and contentions have crept into the aforesaid Order, dear to us, on account of which the confessors general and other persons of the said Order from the monasteries of our kingdoms have been cited to the presence of your reverend paternities, namely the most holy general synod of Basel; even (as is asserted) to answer certain articles written against the books of the Revelations of the holy Lady our patroness: which books of Revelations had been published here and elsewhere scattered through the world, and solemnly preached, for the salvation without doubt of many who were tottering in the way of faith and morals.

[175] letters, "Wherefore, most reverend fathers, we approach the most sacred congregation of your paternities and lordships, representing the universal Church, with the more devout and effectual prayers that we can, to be entreated the more urgently, that on the part of God almighty and in consideration of Him whose place you hold in this regard, and because of the urgency of our devout prayers, you would recall the dangerous discords of this kind of the persons and places of the oft-mentioned Order to a concord pleasing to God, and also so stop the mouths of the detractors that they may be able henceforth to stand and live in the service of God and in their regular observance, as hitherto they had praiseworthily stood and lived in the monasteries of our kingdoms under the said Rule of St. Saviour according to its primitive constitution. Moreover, that that most holy doctrine of the Revelations of Blessed Birgitta, as at present they had been preached and published in the Church of God to His praise and glory, for the purging of crimes and the introduction of good morals, so also henceforth they may be able to be published and preached and held. Otherwise, from this the hearts of the simple will be healed [*], very many will be scandalised, and finally no small detriment to the Christian faith will be to be feared. May that Spirit of truth, who, proceeding from the chamber of the divine Majesty, penetrated the breasts of the Apostles with invisible grace, deign to enlighten your hearts to make peace and tranquillity in His holy Church. Given in our castle of Vordingborg in the year of the Lord 1434, on the third day of the month of July, under our privy seal, etc."

[176] and by various prelates of Denmark, In the same years and days as those of King Eric, letters of some bishops of Denmark on the same matter were both written and read before the council of Basel, which in the praised Binius, on the following page, run thus: "To the most reverend fathers in Christ and most excellent lords, lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit at Basel for celebrating the council, Peter of Lund, Aslak of Nidaros, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishops, Navne of Odense, John of Roskilde, John of Aarhus, Siggo of Skara, Audun of Stavanger, Thomas of Strängnäs, Herman of Viborg, Peter of Hamar, Gerard of Børglum, and Severin of the Faroes, by the same grace bishops of churches, with all humility and due reverence, their services, and to obey devoutly and faithfully your wishes and commands in all things. We give thanks to the father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who by His ineffable mercy comes to the help and succour of the miseries of the aging world, and of the wretched, lest they slip down into the abyss of despair, with salutary remedies. Hence it is, most reverend fathers, that God, among the other magnificent and glorious works of His compassion which He willed to be done to the praise and glory of His name, in these last ends of the earth, for obtaining the remission of sins, for directing the feet of those who stray into the way of the heavenly fatherland, made Blessed Birgitta, born of the kingdom of Sweden, as it were a vein of a living fountain, His bride and the channel of His grace, to abound with such great waters of graces; and the merciful Lord, of whose mercy there is no number, deigned mercifully to give to drink, not only to the aforesaid kingdom, but as it were to the whole world through her, the honey-sweet cups of salvation and grace.

[177] "From the merits and holiness of which Blessed Birgitta, indeed, first in the kingdom of Sweden, who likewise commendatory namely at Vadstena, that most illustrious Order, named of St. Saviour, grew up and took its glorious beginning. Then, in the course of a very short time, and this miraculously enough, in various kingdoms and parts of the world, by the inflaming of the Holy Spirit divinely brought about in kings and lords of lands and prelates, more monasteries have been renewed and multiplied, in which the fervent and affectionate devotion of the conventual sisters and brothers flourishes, and the observance of regular life instituted according to the order is most perfectly observed, both by continual preachings and by the worship and service of the divine Majesty, namely the solemnities of Masses and the continual psalmody of the divine hours. Whence almost infinite sinners, divinely inspired, are converted from day to day, and, converted, in a short time make progress, heaping up great increases of virtues, and, made spiritual, the cares of the world trampled down, feeling that they carry the corruptible burden with sorrow, to whom it pleases to do nothing except to cleave continually to the desire and love of God alone. Whence, most reverend fathers, we, together with the princes and prelates and magnates, knights and military nobles, the first men and nobles of the kingdoms, assembled for the quiet state of the same kingdoms in a great parliament in the castle and town of Vordingborg of the kingdom of Denmark, have now learned how the confessors of the whole aforesaid Order have been cited to the most holy synod of Basel for the healthy state, praiseworthy reformation and happy increase of the places and persons of both sexes living scattered through the world in the same Order.

[178] to the council of Basel "Wherefore, most reverend fathers and lords, we approach your lordships with humble and devout subjection to be implored, that if anything in this sacred council up to the present by letters, processes, articles, questions or complaints has been in any way attempted against the said Order, whose privileges, rule, constitutions or regular institutes have long since been approved and confirmed by the sacred Apostolic See, and also against the books of the Revelations of the said holy lady Birgitta, divinely (as is believed) shown, you would have it revoked because of the most humble urgency of our petitions. But if anything in the same books of Revelations should perhaps seem to need examination and discussion, let it be emended so cautiously and moderately with the hoe of reformation, with the governance of gentleness, that those things may not in future become offensive to pious ears which had been publicly preached concerning these books of Revelations before the people, not only in these parts and kingdoms but also elsewhere through the world, for the support of the Christian faith. Otherwise, if (which God forbid) from controversies, lawsuits and contentions of this kind so (as is premised) raised and attempted there should arise any defamation of the aforesaid Order, or a departure from the vigour of its primitive regular state, then (as we probably fear) everywhere and especially in these parts, both in the clergy and in the people, there will be the greatest confusion, and the fervour of devotion of the faithful toward God and toward that Saint who had shone with so many, so great and so manifest miracles and merits of virtues will be turned into torpor.

[179] gave letters, "Which surely will turn to the disturbance and diminution of the Catholic faith, to the scandal of many, and, at least in these ends of the world in this dangerous time, to no small detriment of the Church. As to the manner, moreover, of the cohabitation of the sisters and brothers in the monasteries of the aforesaid Order which are situated in these kingdoms, which certain others, rivals of peace and tranquillity, try to calumniate, no occasion of suspicion is given here to any of the faithful of Christ, because their dwellings are so separated and divided by firm and high walls and buildings, as almost all of us, but especially we who are visitors of the same monasteries and places [*], that safely and without scruple of conscience, according to the original institution of the Order, which we so piously believe to have been made, the sisters and brothers, as they dwell together, will be able to abide honestly and lawfully. Farewell, and may the venerable college of your most holy devotion advance in God, inspired by God from heaven, foreseen and preordained from eternity, and now lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit in this calamitous time of the declining world. Given in the town of Vordingborg of the diocese of Roskilde in the year of the Lord 1434, on the 3rd day of the month of July, under our privy seals, etc."

[180] and of learned I come now to those who by their writings strenuously defended St. Birgitta's Revelations against the manifold attacks of the adversaries: there were offered both to the council of Basel and at other times to the Roman curia articles excerpted from St. Birgitta's writings as heretical, namely, or calumnious: from the first book of the Revelations indeed 41 articles, from the second book 15, from the third 9, from the fourth 22, from the fifth 14, from the sixth 35, from the seventh 6, from the eighth 8: from the Rule of St. Saviour, however, 12 articles in the year 1378, from the Prayers of St. Birgitta 5, from the Angelic discourse 30, and against the Prologue of this, finally, 4 articles were objected. There is extant at Rome with the Birgittine Fathers, as we have learned from letters written from Rome to them, a notable volume copied in the year 1596 in the monastery of St. Alto in Bavaria, which exhibits not only the several articles, but also their defences and the authors of the defences one by one. As regards, however, the several articles and their accusations and defences, it has not seemed necessary to treat of them one by one here, both because of the length of the argument, and because St. Birgitta's Revelations, whatever was often raised against them, came out, as has been said, immune from all censure.

[181] As regards, however, the patrons of St. Birgitta's Revelations, men's writings. there were engaged in this dust above all Adam, Cardinal of England, Godfrey of Ballaland, an Englishman, John of Basel of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, and a certain English Doctor, who indeed wrote before the Council of Basel was held. This Adam was called of Easton, born at Hereford in England, a man distinguished in learning, of the Order of St. Benedict, and from bishop of London, as some hold, made Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Urban VI, by whom he was also appointed one of the examiners of the Revelations of St. Birgitta in the year 1379. For John of Basel, a man renowned for learning and the reputation of holiness, Philip Elssius wrote a eulogy on page 34 of the Encomiasticon

of the Augustinians. Those, however, who in the time of the council of Basel undertook to defend them by their works were these: the Reverend Father Louis de Pyracio (concerning whom see Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the years 1378, 1379 and elsewhere), doctor of Sacred Theology, minister provincial of St. Anthony in Italy; John Roberti, doctor of Sacred Theology, abbot of Bonneval; and John de Torquemada. Likewise three English doctors, but whose names are not expressed in the said volume. And finally Heymeric de Campo, who professed Theology at Louvain for 15 years, and was a canon of St. Peter's there, concerning whom see more in John Francis Foppens in the Bibliotheca Belgica.

* perhaps sauciabuntur?

* supply testamur, or something similar

§ XIII. What credence is to be given to the Revelations of St. Birgitta: the statements of Oudin concerning them are refuted.

The Catholic Church, It is placed beyond doubt, therefore, as is clear from what was said in the preceding §, that the Revelations of St. Birgitta (those at least which are contained in the first eight books) were called to an accurate examination, and obtained the approval not only of learned men but also of Pontiffs and councils: but let us see of what sort that approval was. Those who examined St. Birgitta's Revelations in the year 1377 by order of Gregory XI judged that they contained nothing reprehensible (see number 163) or suspect, nothing discordant with the orthodox faith, but were conspicuous for truth, illustrious for holiness, full, most clear, perfect; those, however, in the year 1379 under Urban the sixth, that they were authentic, full of truth and truly taught by the spirit of God, useful to readers, and to be observed in the Church with devotion and reverence: John de Torquemada, in the council of Basel, that they contained nothing contrary to Holy Scripture or the Holy Fathers (see number 170), and could be read in the Church in that manner in which the books of other doctors and the Histories of the Saints are also permitted to be read in it, provided, namely, they are understood piously and modestly. From his opinion, moreover, the Pontiffs and councils which approved them are not foreign: since, as Benedict XIV teaches in On the Beatification of the Servants of God, etc., book 2, chapter 32, number XI, the approval of revelations made to private persons is merely a faculty granted, an accurate examination of them having been instituted, that they may be published for the instruction and advantage of the faithful.

[183] private revelations But since there are not lacking among the non-Catholics those who in general disparage too much private revelations of this kind, and say that they, especially if they are approved by the Pontiffs and the Church, turn to the detriment of the authority of the Church, are adverse to the divine Letters, and bring a hindrance to the conversion of heretics to the Catholic faith, it will not be out of place to discuss some things concerning these revelations and the place in which they are among Catholics, by which calumnies of this kind may be washed away. Oudin, an apostate from the faith, in the Fourteenth Century of the Commentary on ecclesiastical writers and writings, volume 3, column 1105, writes thus on this matter: "Wares of this kind, put on display, lessen the authority of holy mother Church, harm the solid and sacred Page, expose the Orthodox to laughter and guffaws, and hinder heretics or the erring from returning to the folds of Orthodoxy, which admits such trifles." So he: but why should these revelations, if they are approved by the Catholic Church, lessen her authority? Is it because by approving them she defines revelations of this kind as certainly divine? Is it because it thus sometimes comes about that she serves up to the faithful as true what is false, and proposes it as to be believed by divine faith? But the Church does none of these things: since, as we have already said, she only permits them to be read, a mature and accurate examination of them having first been made, as useful for fostering the piety of the faithful and suitable for their right instruction.

[184] approving them in a certain manner, The Church is not unaware that in certain books of private revelations approved by her false things are from time to time found, indeed sometimes even contrary things, diametrically conflicting with one another, of which therefore one or the other must be foreign to the truth: but she does not propose them as true, but only permits them to be read, as things which are probable, even if perhaps false; or at least as not dangerous in faith or morals. Nor does she require that the things contained in the said revelations be believed by divine faith, but only by human faith, so that, if a suitable reason be at hand, it is lawful without sin for the other faithful, certainly those to whom they were not made or to whom they are not directed, to depart from them with reverence. Hear again Benedict XIV in the Work cited above, book 3, last chapter, number 15: "Further, in book 2, chapter 32, number XI, we said," says the Pontiff, "that to the aforesaid revelations, even though approved, the assent of Catholic faith neither ought nor can be given by us, but only that of human faith according to the rules of prudence, according to which the aforesaid revelations are probable and piously credible." Then, having subjoined some testimonies of Catholic doctors on this matter, he goes on thus: "From which therefore it follows that someone, the Catholic faith being safe and entire, may not give assent to the aforesaid revelations, and may depart from them, provided this be done with due modesty, not without reason, and short of contempt."

[185] but not as to be believed by divine faith, Hence John de Torquemada, although the keenest patron of St. Birgitta's Revelations in the council of Basel, did not think it wrong for himself to assert, in a treatise written on that matter, as Échard says, that the blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin, although he had read the contrary in express words in more than one place in the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations. Hence Baronius in the annals at the year 604 was not afraid to proscribe the opinion of those who contended that the soul of the emperor Trajan had been freed from hell by the prayers of St. Gregory, although in book 4 of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, chapter 13, Christ is said to have revealed to her that by Gregory's prayer the unbelieving emperor had been raised to a higher degree. Others have done the same in other arguments without reprehension, because in revelations divine as to substance, and in the very rapture of holy minds, it can happen that these add to the things which are in fact revealed by God certain circumstances from their own judgment and from ideas concerning the same things preconceived from elsewhere, and do not sufficiently distinguish these from the things which God precisely reveals to them. So it could have happened that, while Christ was showing St. Birgitta the efficacy of prayer, there came naturally into her mind in the meantime, from what she had previously read or heard elsewhere, the story of the soul of Trajan freed from hell on account of St. Gregory's prayers, which she did not sufficiently distinguish from those things which Christ was precisely revealing to her; and this indeed you have proved with some examples in our volume 6 of May, page 246; or, if you please, consult Benedict XIV in book 3, cited above, last chapter, number 17, where, citing that place of our Work, he writes thus: "The Bollandists … prove that raptures can be above nature, and divine in their very substance, but in their circumstances conformed to species naturally preconceived, which were left by God in the state in which they were, since this made no difference to the end proposed to Him." So it could have happened that St. Birgitta of her own accord imagined to herself that St. Denis, appearing to her at Arras, was both bishop of Paris and at the same time the Areopagite, being imbued with this namely either by the reading of books or taught it by her masters from the common opinion of that time; whence in similar matters, provided a solid reason to the contrary can be brought from elsewhere, it is lawful for every Catholic, saving reverence to the Saints, to depart even from revelations approved by the Church in the manner aforesaid.

[186] Since, therefore, the Church approves the revelations of the Saints not as certainly divine and to be believed of faith, does nothing worthy of reproof: but only holds them as prudently credible and worthy of human faith, if nothing stands in the way, and leaves their discussion to the judgment and industry of the learned, and, what is even greater, permits men to depart from them where there is a solid and probable reason; on what head, I ask, does she lessen her own authority, as Oudin says? Why does he say that trifles (as it pleases him to speak, in keeping with his modesty toward the Church) are admitted indiscriminately by Catholics; which can at most have place only in certain credulous and too simple persons, who have not such acuteness as to recognise the difference between true and false, between a thing prudently credible and not credible? But in what way, at length, do the revelations of the Saints, approved in the manner I have said, harm the divine Letters, which forsooth is Oudin's other pronouncement? Does Oudin not know that the first and chief care of the Apostolic See in examining the revelations of private persons turns on this, that it be looked into as diligently as possible whether anything is contained in them contrary to the divine Utterances? Does he not know that there is absolutely no good Catholic who is not at once ready to repudiate and cast away any private revelation whatever, if it be established that anything discordant with the divine Letters lies hidden in it? He knows indeed, but he pretends not to know. He warns finally (although the Catholic Church has no need of such monitors) that the return of heretics to the bosom of the Church is hindered while they see trifles of this kind, or fables and dreams, as he speaks, admitted and approved in the Catholic Church. He would have said more truly that the way to the conversion of heretics is blocked by their pseudo-masters, who sell as fables and dreams whatever they please, and falsely say that these are admitted by Catholics indiscriminately and without selection and judgment, and so pour mists and darkness into the minds of their followers, lest they recognise and embrace the sincere sentiments of Catholics, the genuine doctrine of the Church and her prudent manner of acting.

[187] but the revelations of St. Birgitta But, you will say, Oudin shows that at least those which they commonly call the Revelations of St. Birgitta were falsely attributed to this holy Woman, and are mere inventions and dreams either of Peter of Alvastra or of Alphonsus the hermit. So indeed it pleased Oudin to speak; but whether solidly and truly, we shall now see. Oudin, who earlier, in the specimen of his Work on ecclesiastical writers, had ascribed the books of the Revelations of which we speak here to St. Birgitta, in his later Work on the same writers, volume 3, column 1099, retracting what he had said there, writes thus: "Further, in the course of time I recognised that these revelations are not the work of St. Birgitta, but either of Peter, a monk of the Cistercian Order, Prior of the abbey of Alvastra of this institute in the kingdom of Sweden, or of Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén and afterwards a most approved hermit, who wrote these revelations in word under the name of this holy Woman to procure greater authority for them." And these words indeed appear plain enough: for if Peter and Alphonsus wrote the Revelations which they commonly call Birgittine only in word under the name of St. Birgitta, they pertain nothing to St. Birgitta as their author; but in fact they will be nothing but the fictions of Peter or Alphonsus.

[188] But whether he would have these words taken thus

Oudin, were not the dreams of monks, the words which he presently subjoins concerning Peter of Alvastra make me doubt for a while: "Almost all the Revelations made divinely (as he thought) to Birgitta herself he committed to writing by command (as he says) of Christ the Lord and translated into the Latin language." For if Peter only translated them into the Latin language; why could they not in fact be Birgitta's, and written in Gothic or dictated to Peter by St. Birgitta herself? But, unless I am mistaken, Oudin, as above he said that Peter of Alvastra wrote those revelations only in word under the name of St. Birgitta, so here too he means that Peter only in word translated the books of Revelations into the Latin language; but that Peter said lyingly that he had translated them into the Latin language, so that he might thus substitute his own offspring under the name of St. Birgitta: Oudin's words, writing again of Peter, declare this sufficiently: "Was a simple man" (and now not only simple, but also notably lying), "and one born to believe all things indiscriminately, such as this Peter of Alvastra was, fit to thrust his own dreams upon people under the name of St. Birgitta?"

[189] whether in the former books, What Oudin had said in general in the words just cited, namely that the books of the Revelations commonly called Birgittine are spurious and supposititious, but in fact nothing other than the dreams of Peter of Alvastra (we shall hear him below speaking of the eighth), distinguished into books by Alphonsus, he now goes on to prove in particular. And first indeed he will have this fixed and settled, that Peter of Alvastra was the author, or rather the dreamer, of the first seven books of the Revelations. Why so? "Consult," he says, "chapter 48 of the Extravagant Revelations, whence you will learn from the context itself that the first writer of the first seven books was none other than Peter of Alvastra." But there I read that Peter of Alvastra translated them, indeed, into the Latin tongue; but that he was their author and inventor I do not read. There God is read to have said: "Hear therefore these things, thou brother Peter, and write in the Latin language" (not what thou hast dreamed, but) "the words which she" (St. Birgitta) "speaks to thee on My part." Is to turn into another tongue things spoken or dictated by another the same as to dream them and to thrust upon people the figments of one's own brain? And again, a little below, God is said to have commanded St. Birgitta concerning Peter that she should say to him in His name: "Go to, and turn over and over the work of the writings of these words, and write." Will you say again that to render into Latin things written by another in the vernacular tongue is the same as to sell one's own dreams under another's name? But Peter of Alvastra said these things lyingly, to cover the fraud. So you indeed, Oudin; but how do you prove it? The bishops of Sweden must surely have been blind, who examined St. Birgitta's Revelations while she was alive, and not ignorant, indeed taking care and demanding it, and yet did not recognise in them the dreams of a simple monk; blind all who examined the revelations of St. Birgitta under the Pontiffs Gregory XI and Urban VI; blind those who in the councils of Constance and Basel most diligently discussed the books of the Revelations; blind Boniface IX, who not only says in the Bull of canonization that St. Birgitta merited to see and hear various visions and revelations, but also confirms this from the books of the Revelations, that is, from the dreams of Peter of Alvastra, if we listen to Oudin, saying: "As these and other things are most fully described in the volume of her" (namely St. Birgitta's) "Revelations."

[190] These things Oudin of the first seven books of St. Birgitta's Revelations: whether in the eighth, of the eighth he writes thus: "Therefore, out of all that heap of Revelations which came forth under the name of St. Birgitta, there remains untouched the eighth book, folio 592" (a little before he had cited the Antwerp edition), "entitled: 'The eighth book of the heavenly Emperor to the kings, revealed divinely to St. Brigitta of the kingdom of Sweden': beginning: 'The supreme Emperor speaks through the Bride to the kings, etc.' But from the Prologue, page 576, the Letter of the solitary to the kings, of Lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén and afterwards a most approved hermit, which begins: O most serene kings, etc., it is plain that it belongs to the said Alphonsus the Hermit, who wrote it under the name of St. Brigitta, whence the whole Work has been patched together from various other books of the Brigittine Revelations, to which the reader is referred." It stands thus: the eighth book was patched together by Peter of Alvastra partly from the first seven books of the Revelations, partly from other revelations not comprised in those seven books, as Alphonsus, praised at number 158, writes. But that its substance is certainly St. Birgitta's the same Alphonsus declares near the beginning of the said Letter, saying of St. Birgitta: "Who now writes to you by the command of the Heavenly Emperor the book written below, etc." For the rest, Alphonsus was very familiar with St. Birgitta, and she was accustomed to refer her revelations and secrets to him, as he himself testifies in chapter 4 of the same Letter: "Know, however, that, as I, unworthy, often heard from her mouth, always in all these aforesaid modes of visions she felt the greatest sweetness of love and of ineffable divine consolation in her soul and mind": so that it would have been easy for him to distinguish spurious things from genuine, if anything of this kind had been mixed into the eighth book. That he himself, moreover, sold his own things as another's and substituted them under St. Birgitta's name the probity of the man forbids us to suspect, who is everywhere reputed most approved.

[191] or are contained in the ninth. I come now to the book of the Extravagant Revelations: this Oudin again ascribes to Peter of Alvastra, and says that it was written by him under the specious name of St. Birgitta; for the same reasons for which he ascribed to him the first seven books; to which, since answer has already been made, it is not necessary here to add anything to what has been said. For its commendation, however, it will be well to have repeated here what the authors of the Prologue of the Extravagant Revelations, or, as it appears, the monks of Vadstena, who saw to the first printing of the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations in the year 1492, have of it: "The truth of these Revelations, however, that they were divinely revealed, will for the greater part plainly appear to anyone who faithfully looks at the Attestations of lord Prior Peter and of blessed Catherine, St. Brigitta's daughter, made for the canonization of the oft-mentioned St. Brigitta." And if the authority of Prior Peter of Alvastra did not move Oudin, the testimony of St. Catherine certainly ought to have moved him, so that he should not so crudely reject as a supposititious offspring, and disparage as a monk's dreams, this book of Revelations, fortified at least in a great part of itself, from what has just been said, by the authority of St. Catherine. For the rest, what I have discussed thus far in the present § has not been said with this purpose, that I judge that all and each of the things contained in the said books of Revelations were certainly shown or revealed to St. Birgitta by God, but that they could not imprudently have been held as such by Peter of Alvastra and Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, and that these are not to be said to have sold to the faithful so rashly and crudely their own figments under St. Birgitta's name.

[192] whatever Oudin Oudin seems to have acknowledged this in some manner, when he concludes concerning the books of the Revelations in general, but a little more mildly, in these words: "Therefore the whole of whatever stands printed up to this point under the name of St. Brigitta has, all of it, two contemporary writers" (a third could be added, Peter the confessor) "intimate with Brigitta, who published their writings under her name, men, so to speak, most simple and credulous, Peter, Prior of Alvastra of the Cistercian institute, and Alphonsus, the Spanish hermit, who published, in their own style, under the title of divine Revelations, either their own or rather the devout thoughts and meditations of St. Brigitta." It can indeed be that here and there pious meditations of St. Birgitta have been inserted into the books of the Revelations as divine visions and revelations; but it is not permissible on that account to extend this to all everywhere and indiscriminately, as Oudin seems to do, since Boniface IX testifies in the Bull of canonization that she had not a few divine visions and revelations, which have been inserted into the volumes of the Revelations, and we shall bring forward below her various predictions of future things, which, unless divinely taught, she could not know. Further, Oudin, when he writes here that the pious meditations of St. Birgitta were published by Peter of Alvastra and Alphonsus, does not wish this to be so taken as that nothing has been inserted in the books of the Revelations which in no way pertains to St. Birgitta. For after the words just cited he goes on thus: "Surely that these Revelations" (he ought at least to have said some) "are not St. Brigitta's is clearer than the midday light from that one thing, that they contain very many things injurious and adverse to the Roman Church, although it is established that St. Brigitta was most devoted to the Roman Church, so much so that, leaving Sweden, she went to Rome out of piety toward the Apostolic and Pontifical See, and remained there with her whole household until death. She was far removed, therefore, from making known those injuries and revelations adverse to the Roman Church which Peter of Alvastra wrote under her name after her death." Then, having adduced certain texts from the Birgittine Revelations in which Bishops, Prelates, clerics, and even the Roman Pontiff are sharply censured for certain vices, he concludes thus: "It can therefore in no way be believed that these Revelations were written by St. Birgitta, but by another under her name, who was most hostile to the Roman Church."

[193] Most devoted to the Roman Church she certainly was, as being thoroughly Catholic; by one argument, but this does not prevent her, moved by the spirit of God, from having sharply censured the vices of certain prelates and clerics of the Church and their bad administration of their office, from which not even the highest Pontifical dignity on earth renders anyone immune, without injury to them and to the Roman or Catholic Church considered universally: for it is not injurious to her, nor even to her private members, if certain reprobate members of hers, the measure of charity being kept, are rebuked for their vices, especially public and commonly known ones, both that they may amend themselves, and that others may be deterred from imitating them, and finally that the divine vengeance may be turned away from the common Church. Much less ought St. Birgitta's love and reverence toward the Roman Church to have prevented her from foretelling impending evils. St. Birgitta was also borne toward her homeland, kings and secular princes with the reverence that was fitting: and yet she did not omit to censure their vices and to set before their eyes the calamities of impending evils, so commanding or instigating the spirit of God, with whom there is no respect of persons. The Prophets of the old Testament did not hate the people of God, nor their kings, nor the priests, whom, however, it is too well known to need showing here at length, they often pursued most sharply for their vices, and frequently foretold impending evils to them. There is no reason, therefore, why it should be clearer than the midday light, as it pleased Oudin to say, that these Revelations were not made to St. Birgitta; but that they were first after her death by Peter of Alvastra

written or invented: granted that after her death they began to be brought forth into public light, either by Peter of Alvastra or by anyone else, and to be scattered everywhere among the people.

[194] Finally Oudin forges another argument that the Revelations which they call St. Birgitta's and by another are not hers, but Peter of Alvastra's and others', at least to this extent, that, if some of them are to be ascribed to St. Birgitta, he nevertheless mixed with them various things invented by himself, from this, that chapter 55 of the Extravagant Revelations manifestly seems not to be St. Birgitta's but Peter of Alvastra's. For clarity's sake I transcribe it here: the title runs thus: "A narrative of the excellent merit of the holiness of Blessed Birgitta, which brother Gerechinus of the monastery of Alvastra, a man of great holiness, saw and foretold." There follows chapter 55, just praised: "A certain monk of holy life of that same monastery of Alvastra related with tears and an oath to Prior Peter himself that, when lady Birgitta came there to reside in the same monastery, the monk wondered in his heart, and from zeal for the rule and for holiness said in his heart: Why does this Lady reside here in the monastery of monks, introducing a new custom against our rule? Then the same brother, rapt in prayer in a certain ecstasy of mind, heard a certain voice saying to him: For this woman is a friend of God, and has come to the monastery for this, that under this mountain she may gather flowers from which all nations, even beyond the sea and the ends of the world, shall receive medicine. For this brother was called Gerrechinus, who was of such holiness and life that for forty years he never went out of the monastery, but, giving himself to prayers day and night, had this singular grace from God, that he saw the nine choirs of angels almost continually in prayer, and at the elevation of the Body of Christ he saw Christ placed under the species."

[195] he may oppose, This passage of the Extravagant Revelations Oudin takes up thus: "Finally the same" (shows, namely, that Peter of Alvastra, not St. Birgitta, is the author of the Extravagant Revelations) "chapter LV, where he narrates certain dreams of his monks of Alvastra, chiefly of one, some Gerrechinus or other, a visionary man, of whom the same Peter of Alvastra also speaks in book 4 of the preceding Revelations, chapter 121." Oudin rightly notices, and we gladly grant it to him, that the chapter just transcribed is not St. Birgitta's, whether you consider the substance or the words. But even from this it can be deduced that Peter of Alvastra had no intention of selling the figments of his own brain under the specious name of St. Birgitta: for although in this place he thought it permissible to insert into the book of the Extravagant Revelations something of his own which he had not received from St. Birgitta, but which yet pertained to her; yet he spoke here in such a way that it easily appears that what he narrates in the said chapter does not belong to the visions or revelations of St. Birgitta: for as in the other books of the Revelations he distinguished what he wrote in his own name by the title of Declarations and Additions; so he intimates plainly enough that what he narrates in this place is not St. Birgitta's, since to chapter 55 he did not prefix the title of a Vision, Revelation, or Colloquy of Christ with the Bride, or anything else of this kind, as he otherwise does, but of a Narrative concerning St. Birgitta; one received not from Birgitta herself, but from elsewhere, namely from Gerechinus, as he most expressly hands down in the course of that chapter. Wrongly, therefore, is Peter's bad faith argued from this. As to what Peter narrates in book 4, chapter 121, concerning Birgitta, to whom a certain vision concerning Gerechinus is said to have been offered there (I do not speak of Peter's Addition subjoined to that chapter), whence does Oudin have it either that it did not in fact happen, or that Peter of Alvastra did not learn it from St. Birgitta?

[196] falsely asserting that they rest on no other Although what I have already discussed concerning Oudin's censure of the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations could suffice, I cannot refrain from reporting also other words of his, which he subjoins immediately after chapter 48 of the Extravagant Revelations transcribed by him, and answering them in a few words. "Which things," he says, "I have by no means transcribed to move anyone to laughter, although I have beheld the disordered mass of so many Revelations, which many simple people believe most firmly, resting on so weak a foundation. No grave man, I think, no learned man, but will reckon this whole foregoing narrative a monkish dream: which the Roman Pontiffs, prudent in their judgments, grave in their sentences, will never approve. Was a simple monk, born to believe all things indiscriminately, such as this Peter of Alvastra was, fit to thrust his own dreams upon people under the name of St. Birgitta? By no means surely, nor will this ever come into the mind of a sound and whole head. Whence does Peter of Alvastra have it that by Christ's command he followed St. Birgitta wherever she went for thirty years? By what authorities or arguments does he prove that all those things which he wrote under the name of St. Birgitta were either revealed to Birgitta or dictated by her to him?" Not only simple men, but also learned men and men of sound and whole judgment have judged that St. Birgitta's Revelations can prudently be held either as truly divine, or at least as such unless something stands in the way from elsewhere, among whom come not a few who examined the books of the said Revelations under Gregory XI and Urban VI, as also in the councils of Constance and Basel.

[197] It is false, further, that the whole foundation of those who think so lies in Peter of Alvastra's to rest than on dreams. statements in chapter 48 of the Revelations, where it is set out in what manner the books of the Revelations were written, or in a monkish dream, as it pleases Oudin to speak: for besides, after the manifold approval of them made by the examiners and their discussion in the councils just praised, they always remained safe and unharmed, indeed, as we said above, they seemed worthy to Boniface IX to be praised by him in the Bull of Canonization of St. Birgitta. To Oudin's question (for the rest is nothing to the point) whence Peter of Alvastra knew that those revelations were divinely made to St. Birgitta, I answer that he and others prudently judged it from the holiness of Birgitta, from the manner in which these revelations were shown to her and their circumstances, from their end and fruit, and from other indications, concerning which both Theologians and ascetical writers who treat such things professedly discourse at length: that, finally, Peter received them from St. Birgitta herself, he must be believed speaking of himself, unless he be effectually proved guilty, I do not say of simplicity, but of lying and imposture, which could easily have been detected through so many examinations of her revelations, instituted both while she herself was still among the living and a few years after her death; which Oudin does not do.

§ XIV. What was the judgment of Gregory XI concerning the same.

Gregory XI, near death, Of far greater weight, surely, than Oudin's would be the judgment of Gregory XI concerning St. Birgitta's revelations, if indeed it were sufficiently established concerning it. John Gerson teaches in On the Examination of doctrines, consideration 3, that those who are given for the government and example of others must beware lest by their words or deeds they lightly approve the miracles or unwonted visions of silly women, lest a freer and stronger occasion of feigning be thereby afforded them. Which that he may confirm by an example, he goes on thus: "We speak having experienced it many times, and Gregory XI was a suitable witness; but too slow: he, placed in his last moments, having in his hands the body of Christ, protested before all that they should beware of persons, whether men or women, speaking visions of their own head under the appearance of religion: because, seduced by such, he, having dismissed the reasonable counsel of his own people, had dragged himself and the Church to the danger of an impending schism, unless the merciful Jesus should provide: which the horrible outcome has, alas, too much disclosed even to this point": by which, says Spondanus in volume 1 of the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 1378, he is thought to have wished to be understood the persuasions of Peter of Aragon, and of Birgitta and Catherine of Siena, who namely were the instigators of Gregory's bringing back the Pontifical see from Avignon to Rome.

[199] But Noël Alexandre, otherwise less fair toward the supreme Pontiffs, did not complain that he strives to refute Gerson and to vindicate Gregory and St. Catherine of Siena, a nun of his own Order, from the calumny fastened upon them, by these reasons: "That it is false" (what Gerson relates, says Alexandre) "is proved 1. by the silence of the contemporary Author who wrote the deeds of Gregory, and by the esteem of the same Pontiff for the holiness of Catherine of Siena, who even then was discharging his embassy at Florence for settling the dissension of the Florentines. 2. Because he had approved her spirit, and had recognised that she was endowed by God with the gift of prophecy, when she 'showed that she had divinely known his vow, made in secret, of making for the City, and known to himself alone and to God,' as Pius II testifies in the Bull of her Canonization. 3. Because no fear of schism then underlay things when Gregory XI died, nor did the schism come about from the bringing back of the Pontifical see to Rome, but from other causes; and, had it remained at Avignon, it could equally have come about. 4. The most prudent Pontiff set out for Rome not believing merely the visions of holy women, but led by most weighty reasons, that by his presence he might restore peace to Italy and bring the cities rebellious against the Roman Church to obedience. Nor was he frustrated in his hope. For already the people of Bologna had returned to his allegiance, and there was hope that the Florentines would return as soon as possible."

[200] deceived by revelations of this kind, Gregory having died at Rome, the Romans insisted, lest the Pontifical see should again be transferred to Avignon, that a Roman, or at least an Italian, should be made Gregory's successor. From among the Italians was elected the archbishop of Bari, called Urban VI; offended by whose harshness the French withdrew from Rome, and, alleging that Urban's election was not valid, elected Robert, brother of the count of Geneva, as supreme Pontiff, who fixed his see at Avignon. Concerning the things, moreover, which happened to Gregory, both while labouring under his last illness and just after his death, many of those who had been present testified many and differing things according to the differing zeal of parties; but of them, whether he stood with Urban or with Clement, there was no one who ever testified to those things which Gerson relates of Gregory when placed at the point of death; whose silence, added to the silence of the author of the Life of Gregory praised by Noël Alexandre, adds some weight to this opinion. Baluze, however, in the Annotations to the Lives of the Popes of Avignon, column 1224, subjoins to the words of Gerson transcribed above these things: "These things are consistent with those which Hugh (a Frenchman), Cardinal of Brittany, relates in his Deposition that the same Gregory said when dying. I will bring forward the very words: 'First he said that when Lord Gregory felt that he could not escape, he called all the Cardinals, and set forth to them that he had it on his conscience that he had led them to those parts' (Rome) 'and had placed the Church of God in danger. For it was said that after him a certain bad and diabolical man was to be taken up as Pope.'" But here there is no mention of Gregory's protestation or of his deception by women.

[201] The reason for which Gregory judged that he had brought the Church of God into danger, had brought the Church and said that he felt the stings of conscience for the Cardinals transferred into Italy, on the testimony indeed of Hugh of Brittany, who followed Clement's party, was that "(as was said) after him a certain bad and diabolical man was to be taken up as Pope." Let us compare for a while these words of Hugh with the deposition of John de Cardaillac, patriarch of Alexandria, after the example of Baluze, whom we have just heard comparing Hugh's words with John Gerson's narrative. Thus John de Cardaillac in the same Baluze, cited a little before, column 1223: "Likewise he said that he had heard from a certain religious of the Order of Minors, who is a devout man and a master in Theology and a more notable person in that Order than all whom he himself has known, that he had seen at Rome in the time of Pope Gregory, on a certain day, how that G. had sent to a certain devout lady that she should pour out prayers for him and make him certain about certain doubts; and that after that chaplain of the Pope had withdrawn from her, that Friar Minor went to speak with that lady, and she had said to him that a certain archbishop, who was there in her sight, he was to disturb the world and the Church of God, but at the last he would be well chastised; and that she pointed out that archbishop to that religious with her finger, and it was he of Bari," or Urban, afterwards Gregory's immediate successor. This lady was perhaps St. Catherine, St. Birgitta's daughter, who in the year 1377 and the following, in which Gregory died, was staying at Rome for the sake of promoting her Mother's canonization, many seeking her prayers and counsels for themselves, as is read in her Life, volume 3 of March, page 514, chapter 6, number 60. However that may be, if Hugh's words, in some fashion consistent with Gerson's narrative, confirm the latter's statements, as Baluze thought, it could be contended with the same right that John de Cardaillac's words, likewise in some fashion consistent with the words of Hugh of Brittany, likewise confirm his statements; yet so that at the same time they show that Gregory, at least not long before his last illness, was not averse to believing the predictions of women, especially holy women; who otherwise surely would not then have put his doubts before a woman.

[202] For the rest, to return to Noël Alexandre, into danger, he says truly that the schism which shook the Church for a long time after Gregory's death came about not from the bringing back of the Pontifical see from Avignon to Rome; but from other causes. Spondanus, cited, though himself a Frenchman, ingenuously admits this in these words: "So that it cannot be said that the schism which followed proceeded from the bringing back of the Pontificate to its true see; but rather from the greed of the French, desiring to keep it for themselves alone against right and law, and from the just indeed, but too intemperately pursued, desire of the Romans, and finally from the unseasonable harshness and fierceness of Urban VI." But that it is likewise true that Gregory, placed in his last moments, had no fear of schism, I would not dare to assert: for thus I read expressly in the 3rd Life of Gregory in Baluze, column 480: "Lord Gregory falls ill and dies at Rome on the 27th day of March in the year of the Lord MCCCLXXVIII, with much grief and mourning of all, and with a grief truly presaging of future evils, namely of the long schism which followed in the Church of God from his death."

[203] And indeed it could easily have happened that he learned something of those things which happened at Rome while he was alive, and which were the preludes of the schism; these, moreover, the author of the first Life of Gregory describes thus: "Further, that the things also which happened at Rome in the said course of time may be clear and seen, that from Avignon it is to be inserted here that the Romans, or their officials and rectors, called by their own word Banderesi, the twelve heads of the districts, having gathered to themselves very many others, both citizens and outsiders of Italian nation, while Gregory was still living, yet falling ill, had deliberated, on his death following, to work and act altogether so that henceforth the curia should reside and remain at Rome or at least in the parts of Italy. Which, judging that they could not obtain it except through the election of some Roman or Italian as Pope, they held their councils at continued and repeated times, in which they firmly decreed to require and exhort the cardinals effectually, and, if perhaps, having been required and exhorted, they did not acquiesce in their wishes, to compel and constrain them by all ways and means possible to them to elect as Pope someone who should be Roman or Italian by nation, etc."

[204] to Rome the Apostolic see Surely it is also difficult to grasp for what cause he should have blamed himself for the Church of God exposed to danger by his departure from Avignon: for this appears the less likely, the juster the causes of his departure which he had: these the contemporary author of his Life sets out thus, not the least mention being made, as was not necessary, of revelations or visions indicated to him by holy men or women: "While the aforesaid storm lasted, however, it was intimated by letters and special envoys to the said Pope Gregory that if he came in person to the parts of Italy he would at once recover all the aforesaid" (very many cities of Pontifical right in Italy had fallen away from obedience to the Pontiff through the malice of the Florentines and the hope of liberty, as the same author had mentioned before), "and whatever else of the foregoing would be brought back to its due state, and the things contrived and procured and treated further, both against his state and against that of the Church mentioned, would cease, which, according to the reports and considerations of many, were greater and worse than the former. He, however, wishing to provide concerning these things and to oppose them as far as he could, deliberated to transfer himself to the parts of Italy mentioned, and to direct his steps toward Rome, since the Romans too, desiring his presence, for the sake of enticing him to this, promised many and great things which they would do in his favour and honour as soon as he should turn to them. Which he so disposed to do and ordained, although against the counsel and deliberation of almost the whole college and of his friends, namely the French, who did not desire the Apostolic see to be transferred into Italy." Unless, therefore, he had judged that altogether urgent causes required his departure from France, why should he have gone off into Italy against all his friends, of whom he is known to have been most loving? These, moreover, as is clear from what has been said, were chiefly the magnificent promises of the Romans, and the hope of recovering the rebellious cities, held out by many letters and envoys. Why, then, would he have said that he was deceived, not by the false promises of the Romans, not by the obstinacy of the cities of Italy subject to his right and of the Florentines, but only by those, whether men or women, who, under the appearance of religion, as Gerson speaks, had laboured that he should do it? Inasmuch as they had persuaded him of nothing but what, as Spondanus says, all men of sense would have persuaded even without any heavenly visions.

[205] But, you will say, Gregory toward the end of his life had resolved to return into France because he had made little and almost no fruit, had transferred; as Thomas de Petra testifies in Baluze, column 1223, that Urban VI said, or because he saw that he had been deluded by false predictions. But Gregory seems not to have been able to judge this: for although at that time not yet all the cities of Italy, as Alexandre says, had returned to their duty, yet the people of Bologna had returned, and there was already shining the hope of entering into peace with the Florentines, the chief authors of these movements, which presently followed his death. Nor had the time at which Italy was to be wholly pacified been foretold to Gregory so accurately that Peter of Aragon, or St. Birgitta, or St. Catherine of Siena could on that account be said to have sold to him the visions of their own head as divine Revelations: whence Spondanus rightly: "But if the things they had promised could not at once obtain their effect, who shall have penetrated into the secrets of the divine disposition and providence?" Not Gregory, a Pontiff as pious as he was prudent: but I judge it altogether more probable, with our Papebroch in the Propylaeum of May, where he treats of Gregory, that discourses of this kind were held not by Gregory, but by the French and their followers, who took ill the transfer of the pontifical see from France into Italy, and were attributed to Gregory, and that Gerson, from his affection for his country, gave too easy assent to them. And these things indeed make Gerson's narrative suspect in general: now we must speak particularly of St. Birgitta, and show that she was most probably not marked by such general words, even if they be supposed to have been uttered by Gregory when placed in his last moments.

[206] St. Birgitta died at Rome in the year 1373, at which time Gregory was staying at Avignon: and as he did it, about two years later the cities of Italy fell away from Gregory: "At the same time" (in the year 1375, says the contemporary author of the first Life of Gregory in Baluze, column 434) "the commune of Florence rose up against the said Pope Gregory and the Roman Church, and wrought deceitfully and maliciously that almost all the cities and other places which pertained to the said Church in Italy confederated and leagued themselves with it; that henceforth, every other superior or lord having been shaken off from them, they might live and remain in their liberty; and a banner having been made, on which only Liberty was written in great letters, etc.: and so it came about that as it were in one connection or rush all the cities and places and castles of the said Roman Church took up against it the spirit of rebellion, etc."; this rebellion lasted, however, until, peace having been made with the Florentines shortly after Gregory's death, the Church was restored to her rights. This defection of the cities, moreover, St. Birgitta had foretold to Gregory from the very beginning of his Pontificate, indeed had also foretold that, unless Gregory made for Rome at the appointed time, which he did not do, he would afterwards try in vain to bring them back to their duty.

[207] So it is expressly read in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 140, this at any rate concerning St. Birgitta, whose title is: "There follows the second vision, which the Lord count of Nola carried" (to Avignon) "to the same Pope Gregory XI." Toward the end of the said chapter, however, these things are found: "Likewise tell My hermit bishop that he should close this letter and seal it, and afterwards write a copy of it on another paper and show that open copy to that abbot, the Pope's envoy, and to the count of Nola, that they may read it and know what is contained in it. But after they have read it, let him leave with them the aforesaid letter closed and sealed, which they are at once to send to Pope Gregory without delay; but the open copy, after they have read it, let him not leave with them, but I will that he tear it and break it before their eyes into pieces; because, as the letter, which is one, will be torn into many little pieces, so, unless the Pope comes into Italy at the time and year appointed" (he put it off, however, until the year 1377), "the lands of the Church,

which now obey him under his one obedience and subjection, will be divided into many parts into the hands of enemies. And know most firmly that, to the increase of the tribulation of the Pope himself, he will not only hear, but will also see with his eyes that what I say is true, nor will he be able with the whole hand of his power to bring back the aforesaid lands of the Church to the former state of their obedience and peace." Nor was Gregory ignorant of these things, could have said, to whom Birgitta afterwards, as is read in chapter 143, through Alphonsus, from bishop of Jaén a hermit, in the year 1373, in the month of July, foretold that, unless he came into Italy, he would lose not only temporal things but also spiritual, and would feel tribulation of heart as long as he lived.

[208] Gobelinus Persona hands down the same things in almost the same words in the Cosmodromium, age VI, chapter 73, he who about these times stayed at the Pontifical court, adding two things to them; first, that that anonymous abbot was Gerard, abbot of Marmoutier at Tours, afterwards cardinal, at that time sent by Gregory into Italy to collect the treasures of the Church there: and second, that Gregory did indeed afterwards transfer himself into Italy, but did not recover the rebellious lands of the Church. She had therefore foretold, as I was saying above, to Gregory himself not only the loss of the Italian cities, but also that Gregory would not recover them unless he promptly obeyed the will of God, which he put off doing: both he experienced to his sorrow; with what appearance of truth, then, could he, when placed at the point of death he saw with his own eyes that she had foretold true things, have accused St. Birgitta, as they will have it, as though she had deceived him with vain promises and had sold the visions of her own head under the name of divine revelations? Moreover, by order of Gregory himself, not long before his death, in the year 1377, as we said above, St. Birgitta's revelations had been accurately and lawfully discussed and approved, and so it is the less credible that he at the point of death either thought or spoke so abjectly of St. Birgitta.

[209] does not seem. Finally, nothing of this kind is known to have been brought forward in the council of Constance, at which Gerson was present; nothing in that of Basel against St. Birgitta's revelations: or if it was, it was rejected by the Fathers as frivolous or as not sufficiently proved; who otherwise would probably not have so easily permitted St. Birgitta's revelations, after the keen assault upon them, to stand safe and entire. Far be it, then, that we should give credence to Gerson's narrative, or at any rate that we should believe that St. Birgitta was ever marked by Gregory XI with a censure of this kind. And let these things said of St. Birgitta's revelations in general suffice, so that each may be able to value them according to their merit and without the mark of imprudence, and to perceive of how great weight they are among Catholics, and in what place he himself may hold them. To bring them forward and discuss them one by one I judge would be too laborious and not pleasing to the reader; to whose industry and examination, therefore, I leave them; some, however, as I have already done from time to time, I shall touch upon individually hereafter, if at any time the arguments of the matters to be treated shall seem to require it.

§ XV. St. Birgitta writes the Rule of the Order of St. Saviour, Christ dictating, as is piously believed: whether it was in every part such as it is today.

St. Birgitta receives In that space of time in which St. Birgitta resided at Alvastra after the death of her husband Ulpho, that is, from the year 1344, as we have seen above, to the year 1346, as will be seen below, she, already chosen by Christ as a special bride, began not only to be honoured by God with more frequent and more illustrious visions or revelations, but also, she who had already before meditated on the religious life, to be instructed and informed for founding a new Order in the Church. This was not the only favour with which she was then affected by God: for she understood then also from Christ that He willed to found in His Church, by the ministry of Birgitta herself, a new vineyard, or the Institute of a new Religion, as may be seen more fully in Hörmann, page 697 and the following, chapters 2 and 3, prefixed to the Rule of the Saviour. Although that Order was instituted later, as will be said in its place, yet in the very year 1344, or in one of the two following, she was taught in Sweden, word for word by Christ Himself, as they will have it, the Rules of the future order, as indeed the title of the Prologue in Hörmann, just praised, has it.

[211] For the rest, they will have it that that Rule is called of St. Saviour the Rule of St. Saviour because it was delivered by Christ Himself, and indeed in some peculiar manner, not that in which the founders of the other Religions commonly, after many prayers, fasts, meditations and other offices and exercises of piety, breathed upon by the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote their Rules by their own labour; but word for word, Birgitta contributing nothing to it from her own sense. So it is read in Hörmann, chapter 30 of the Rule of the Saviour, page 710, column 2, where among other things Christ is said to have said to St. Birgitta concerning this Rule: "So also now I say that this Rule, dictated from no man's sense, which thou hast heard in the spirit, ought to be confirmed by the Pope, as other Rules, which had earlier been composed from human sense, by the inspiration of the same Spirit." Here you have the difference between the Rule of St. Saviour and the Rules of the other religions, if you look at the manner in which they were founded. How, moreover, the Rule of St. Saviour was dictated to St. Birgitta even word for word, the holy Widow contributing nothing to it from her own sense, is set out in the same place, column 1, chapter 29, in this manner: "God, the creator of all things, with His blessed mouth related all the words of this Rule to me" (Birgitta), "an unworthy person, so wonderfully and in so short a time that I am not able to recount this to any man. Nor indeed is it possible for anyone to comprehend without a bodily likeness how in a very brief hour so many words could be uttered or grasped.

[212] "Thus, then," St. Birgitta goes on to set out the event, seeking an example from bodily things, as far as she could: by Christ "As if in some vessel many and various precious things were held, which, while they were poured out together from the vessel, then by someone seeing this each thing would in one moment be distinguished from another, and those things would also remain before him for so long a time that he could gather each by itself into his bosom: in like manner, at once, when Jesus Christ, who appeared to me, opened His blessed lips and began to speak, immediately in a very brief hour all the articles of this Rule, with all the words which are contained in them, were before me, not as if written on some paper, but in what manner it was, He alone knows by whom they were so wonderfully heard. By whose wonderful power they could be comprehended, and each distinguished from the other by my sense. I remained, finally, in that vision so long a time until I had gathered all into the bosom of my memory, the grace of Christ co-operating." You have the manner in which Christ dictated to St. Birgitta the Rule of the Saviour, that is, if all things were so, truly His own: receive also how it was afterwards committed to letters or written down: so Birgitta goes on: "But after this vision my heart was filled with such fervour and jubilation that no more could enter it; if I had to live longer, it would burst for joy. Like a bladder too full of some wind, so certainly was my heart for some days, until I recounted all the articles of the Rule and the words which are contained in them to a certain religious man, a friend of God, who wrote all down as quickly as possible. These having been fully written down, my heart and body felt themselves gradually return to their natural disposition."

[213] Indeed, so far was it from being permitted to the holy Widow to add or take away anything of her own to the Rule called of the Saviour, dictated, yet subject to the censure of the Pontiff: that Christ even forbade her this in express words: for thus in the same Rule in Hörmann, page 768, column 2, chapter 45 of the Extravagant Revelations, the Son of God is read to have addressed her: "Tell him" (Peter of Alvastra) "that he should write the Rule dictated by My spirit, but beware diligently lest of thy spirit thou either lessen or add, except those things which are said to thee by Me." Someone, however, will perhaps wonder that what was not permitted to St. Birgitta was permitted to Peter, just mentioned, of whom Christ is read to have said in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 2: "Why does the brother not know what is to be placed and constructed? Did I not show him through thee that My servant Benedict had his body as it were a sack, and what sort the habit of Benedict ought to be? Therefore, on account of the weakness of the infirm, let him place useful and necessary things, but nothing superfluous, and it will be tolerable." A wider faculty of adding something to the Rule of St. Saviour is granted to Peter, provided that what he wished to add were drawn from the approved institutes of other holy Fathers, in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 45, in these words: "But if the writer shall add something from the Rules of the Fathers, where he shall see that it suits the matter, and shall feel the accustomed drawing of My spirit to be present to him, it is not displeasing to Me; for Benedict and Francis and other Fathers, after the manner of bees, established many things from their Fathers, and it is pleasing to Me, because they had My spirit." Finally, both what Peter might wish to add to the things dictated by Christ to St. Birgitta, and what Christ dictated, had to be offered to the Pontifical see and approved, because, from chapter 30 of the Rule, Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it, and so willed that Birgitta and her Order, even though she had received the Rule dictated by Christ Himself, should nevertheless be subject to the Pontifical power no otherwise than the founders of the other Religions and their Orders.

[214] And thus indeed it can be understood how the Rule of St. Saviour, whether it was dictated in that manner, at least in some part and in a certain manner, could have been left by Christ to the judgment of Peter, namely the prior of Alvastra, even if as to the rest it was dictated by Himself; but most of all how it lay with the Pontifical see to approve it, or even to bring change to it in some points, which will be seen below to have in fact been done. But, someone will ask here, what is to be judged of the Rule of St. Saviour dictated by Christ? Is it to be judged that it proceeded, either entire or at least in its greatest part, from Christ Himself and word for word? So indeed it is read, not only in the places cited above from the Rule of the Saviour itself and from the chapters of the Extravagant Revelations, but also in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 137, where St. Birgitta was commanded in Christ's name to address Pope Urban (V) thus: "Go and tell him on My part … I offered thee the Rule of the Religion which is to be founded

and begun in the place of Vadstena in Sweden, which proceeded from My mouth." And in book VII, chapter 51, Christ addresses the emperor Charles of Bohemia thus: "Know also, thou who holdest the empire, that I, the Maker of all, dictated one Rule of nuns to the honour of the most loving Virgin, My Mother, and gave it to this Woman, who writes to thee. Read it through, therefore, and strive with the supreme Pontiff that the said Rule, dictated by My own mouth, may be approved also among men by him who is My vicar in the world, which I, God, have approved before My heavenly host."

[215] That St. Birgitta herself reported these things to Pope Urban V, it is not plainly certain; it may, however, be piously believed: when she asked of him that the Rule of St. Saviour be confirmed, I shall show below from the Bull of Urban VI; so that therefore St. Birgitta herself did not doubt that the Rule of the Saviour had been dictated to her by Christ, except perhaps a few things added by Prior Peter. The same was judged by Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, who in the Prologue to the Heavenly Emperor to the kings, chapter 4, writes thus on this matter: "And in such manner she had, as it were in a moment, the whole book of questions, which is the fifth book in number among the books of the heavenly volume, and also the Rule of the Saviour of the nuns revealed to her." So too the canon of Bonn, who wrote the 2nd Life of Urban V, in Pagi, volume 1 of the Lives of the Pontiffs of Avignon, column 412, where he treats of Birgitta's approach to Urban, calls the Rule of the Saviour revealed by God. But Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization deliberately, as it appears, willed to keep silent on that matter, speaking thus of the religious of Vadstena: "Who, both the nuns and the brothers, are bound to observe certain Constitutions issued by the blessed Widow herself, and afterwards approved by the Apostolic see." He affirms that the Constitutions of the monastery of Vadstena were issued by St. Birgitta, indeed, but whether they were dictated by Christ he does not touch.

[216] Urban VI, in the Bull His quae pro divini cultus augmento, it may, however, piously be: given in the 1st year of his Pontificate, says that certain Constitutions were made and ordained by St. Birgitta, while she lived, from divine revelation; but he adds: "as is believed": by which words, although he does not define that those Constitutions were dictated by Christ, yet he seems to intimate sufficiently, as I was saying above, that they were offered as such by St. Birgitta to Urban V, or at any rate to himself by St. Catherine, Birgitta's daughter, at whose prayers he granted that Bull. Moreover, in the Synopsis of the approval and confirmation, etc., of the Order of St. Saviour, prefixed to the Cologne edition of the Birgittine Revelations, §2, these words of Martin V are cited from the Bull which the Birgittines call the English sea: "To the Rule and Constitutions of Blessed Birgitta revealed from heaven, as is piously to be believed, etc." In the year 1417 the archbishops and bishops of Sweden in common name gave letters to the council of Constance (see the Vadstena Diary published by Benzelius at Uppsala in the year 1721, page 200 and following), by which they commended the canonization of Brynolph, bishop of Skara, and of Ingrid the nun: in these, moreover, the regular Constitutions of St. Birgitta, under the name and title of the Rule of St. Saviour, are said to have been divinely revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ to blessed Brigid: but the prelates of Sweden likewise add, "as we piously believe." Although, therefore, it does not appear altogether undoubted that the Rules of the Birgittines, or those called of St. Saviour, were dictated by Christ to St. Birgitta in the singular manner set out above, yet it is better to believe piously with the said Pontiffs and the prelates of Sweden that they were such, at least as to the greater part of themselves, than to deny obstinately and rashly that they were such, perhaps not without some injury to SS. Birgitta and Catherine.

[217] but it The Rule of the Saviour is extant, inserted in the published books of St. Birgitta's Revelations, which we have mentioned more than once, with this title: "The Rule of St. Saviour, given divinely from the mouth of Jesus Christ to His devout bride St. Birgitta of the kingdom of Sweden." But was the Rule dictated by Christ to St. Birgitta, as is piously believed, and offered to Urban V by St. Birgitta herself (as will be seen in its place), in fact in every part such as is exhibited in the praised editions of the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations? There is reason why the opposite may seem the case: for after St. Birgitta had offered to Urban the Rules written by her, and had obtained some sort of approval of them, various changes seem afterwards to have been made in them, whether by Prior Peter or by their Roman examiners, which, approved, however, by the supreme Pontiffs, we now read inserted in the Rule of St. Saviour, the title transcribed a little before being kept. It will be well in this matter to hear Urban V himself speaking of the monastery of Vadstena in the Bull cited above, by which he approves the erection of the said monastery according to St. Birgitta's wishes and requests. Thus, then, Urban V speaks: "Indeed, the petition offered to us on the part of our beloved daughter in Christ, the noblewoman Birgitta, widow, relict of the late Ulpho of Ulfåsa, knight, of the diocese of Linköping, contained that she, with a pious and zealous affection, to exchange earthly things for heavenly and transitory for eternal by a happy commerce [], desires to bring to the end of completion or perfection one monastery, to the honour and under the title of the blessed glorious Virgin Mary, from the goods conferred on her by God, in the town of Vadstena of the aforesaid diocese, by the inspiration of divine grace, in hope of a licence to be obtained from the Apostolic See, already begun with a costly work indeed (for sixty nuns or sisters, their abbess being counted in this sixtyfold [] number, who are to render to the divine Majesty and the aforesaid Virgin under the regular habit a perpetual and devout service with sincere and pure minds and chaste bodies)." Behold one monastery, which St. Birgitta had begun to found for sacred virgins: but she had also decreed to found for its sake another of men, and that separate from the former.

[218] For thus Urban V goes on: "And she intends to found and build another, separate from that one, not in every part in the same town, for seventeen brothers (their Prior, who should preside over them in spiritual things only, being counted in the said number), by whom the aforesaid abbess and nuns, who shall be for the time, may be refreshed with the food of hearing divine things, of salutary preaching and of instruction, and be helped in the cases or articles of their spiritual necessities: and for eight Lay brothers having to serve the said Brothers, with uses and separate dwellings; and also to assign a sufficient endowment for the fitting sustenance of the persons living for the time in the same monasteries, and for the bearing of the other burdens incumbent on them; and she intends that each of these monasteries, and the regular persons living for the time in either of them, be of the Order of St. Augustine, and that the persons themselves live according to the regular institutes of that Order." So from Urban's words it seems to be gathered that St. Birgitta, after the Rule had been revealed to her (as we suppose here) and offered to the Pontiff, wished to found two different monasteries, and those separate, one of nuns, the other of men; of which the one, namely of the nuns, had already been begun; but the other, namely of the men, not yet even commenced: and indeed so separate that they were not only to be placed in different places, though probably not far distant, but also that both were to be provided with different bell-towers, churches, cemeteries and the other buildings necessary to monasteries altogether different.

[219] So again it seems to be gathered from the words of Urban V, in which he appointed the archbishop of Uppsala, perhaps was the same, and the bishops of Strängnäs and Växjö commissaries in that matter. They run thus: "We, therefore, inclined to her" (Birgitta's) "supplications, commit and command by Apostolic writings to your fraternity, in which we have full confidence in the Lord, that you, or two, or one of you, if the places in which, as is premised, the building of the said monastery of the nuns has already been begun, and also in which the said monastery of the brothers is intended to be founded and built by the said Birgitta, seem to you apt and fitting and honest for these things, all the circumstances being attended to which ought to be attended to concerning these things (upon which we burden your consciences), and the said places belong to the person of the said Birgitta, or are acquired by her by just title, you, a sufficient endowment for the said sustenance of the persons and bearing of the aforesaid burdens having first been assigned at the discreet judgment of you, or of two, or of one of you, grant to the same Birgitta full and free licence and every kind of power of completing the monastery of the nuns, already, as is said, begun, and of founding and building the aforesaid monastery of the Brothers, with churches, bell-towers, bells, cemeteries and other necessary workshops, so that each monastery with its buildings be distinct from the other."

[220] So the Bull of Urban V teaches that St. Birgitta in the year 1370, which in the books in which she had long since written her Rule at Christ's dictation, and had asked that it be approved by the same Pontiff, as is not obscurely elicited from the same Bull, had it as her purpose to found a double monastery in the same town of Vadstena, one of women, the other of men, which should be different not only in place but also in church, cemetery and the other buildings. But if we consult the Rule of St. Saviour as it now stands printed in various books of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, Christ commanded her to found not two monasteries, but only one, yet under a double cloister, of which one should contain nuns, the other men, and one and the same church common to both, so that the upper part should go to the use of the women, the lower to that of the men, contrary to what is expressed in the Bull of Urban: for in the Rule of St. Saviour inserted in the said books mention is indeed frequently made of the monastery of Vadstena, but of one only, not of two, otherwise than is done in the Bull of Urban V. Where, however, mention is made of the dwelling of the Brothers, this is called not a monastery but a court, as is done in chapter 12; from which also it is plain that Christ willed that one and the same church, in the manner already said, should go to the use of both the women and the men.

[221] of revelations The title of Chapter XII is: "Christ here determines the number of the nuns and priests and deacons and also of the lay brothers serving the said community" (not communities) "and orders their dwelling, and the choir where both men and women ought to sit and stand." Then immediately these things follow: "The sisters shall be sixty, who shall have clerics, who shall sing daily the Mass of the season and the Office which is held in the cathedral churches of those lands in which monasteries of this kind are. They indeed are altogether excluded from the monastery of the sisters, having by themselves one court in which they shall dwell, and from the court they shall have entrance into the church and the lower choir. But the choir of the sisters shall be above under the roof. Yet so that

they may be able to see the Sacraments and hear the Office." Did Christ dictate to Birgitta two Rules, and those contrary to each other; and did Birgitta offer them to Urban to be approved? Nor is it known that she offered to any other Pontiff besides another Rule revealed to her by Christ: this, however, no one, as I think, would say; it remains, therefore, that the Rule of the Saviour which is now seen in the printed volumes of St. Birgitta's Revelations seems to be different in this matter from the Rule of the Saviour, the only one which St. Birgitta offered in person to Urban V to be approved.

[222] is now read, Nor indeed in this matter only, but in various others also, the Constitutions of St. Birgitta which she herself offered to Urban V seem afterwards to have undergone change. That Urban V either inserted in his Bull or subjoined to it the Constitutions offered to him by St. Birgitta, these words inserted in the Bull teach: "Saving all the Constitutions written below." These the editor of the Cologne edition of St. Birgitta's Revelations, where he treats of the Foundation of the Order of St. Saviour and exhibits the Bull of Urban V, probably omitted on account of their length, nor has it been permitted me to compare them with the Constitutions inserted in the volumes of St. Birgitta's Revelations. They were seen by the author of the little book on the Foundation or solid institution of the simple monasteries of St. Saviour, commonly called of St. Birgitta, etc., published in the year 1677 at Douai, printed by Marie Serrurier, who in chapter 1, page 4 and the two following, besides the difference of which I made mention a little before, exhibits, the sources whence they were drawn being cited, other differences also between the Rule offered by St. Birgitta to Urban V, which he calls the first, and the Rule of the same Saint inserted in the books of the Revelations and afterwards approved by Urban VI, which he names the second: here they are, expressed in their author's own words.

[223] "First, the Rule (approved by Urban V), or the first, everywhere expresses two formal monasteries, one of nuns, as the examples brought forward the other of men separate from it, in the same town of Vadstena, with their own particular and proper churches, bell-towers, cemeteries, gardens, etc.: but the second expresses only one monastery, and that of nuns, and one church: but it makes the residence of the brothers altogether contiguous to the church and monastery of the nuns, and names it the COURT of the Brothers." You have these things proved a little before: that author cites, however, the Bullarium, folio 183, through that whole Bull. Likewise folios 7, 10, 16 verso, 18, 21. "Second," he says, "the first calls the superior of the brothers Prior, the second names him confessor general. The first wishes him to be elected by his community from three years to three years, and confirmed by the abbess. The second wishes both the abbess and the confessor to be elected by all the nuns and brothers together, and confirmed by the bishop of the place: both she, however, and he are perpetual in their offices by Apostolic privileges afterwards obtained by the Religion; the second Rule disposing nothing about the duration of the aforesaid offices." Bullarium, folio 188 verso, 18 and 100. "Third, the first Rule disposes that both brothers and sisters ought to make a year of probation before profession in the regular habit and within the monastery. But the second on the contrary disposes that for a year, and indeed not only outside the monastery but also in secular habit, the constancy of the men and women ought to be tested, and that, this year being finished, on the day of their clothing he or she ought to make profession, both the community and the one professing having first renounced the year of probation customarily observed in other religions." Bullarium, folio 11 verso, 12, 185.

[224] "Fourth, the fasts both of the brothers and of the nuns in the two Rules differ very much from each other. seem to urge here Bullarium, folio 10 verso, 187, 188 verso. Fifth, the first, as to the other observances of the Order which are not specified in it, wishes that both monasteries live according to the regular institutes of the Order of St. Augustine. But the second ordains that other things necessary for regular observance, which are not contained in the said second Rule, be taken from the Rules or observances of the Order of SS. Benedict or Bernard. Bullarium, folios 27, 183 and 183 verso. Sixth, the first lays down that the nuns, before they are admitted to the habit of religion, ought to have reached the eighteenth year of their age. The brothers, however, to have completed it before. But the second wishes that the nuns be not received before the eighteenth year, and the brothers before the twenty-fifth. Bullarium, folios 24, 185 verso and 188. Seventh, the first enjoins enclosure on the nuns, but by no means on the brothers, leaving them in the observance of the Order of St. Augustine, which does not keep enclosure: indeed it disposes that temporal things be administered by religious to be elected by the prior and the community of the brothers, and approved by the abbess, who presides in temporal things over both communities. But the second enjoins enclosure not only on the nuns but also on the brothers. Bullarium, folios 183 and 183 verso, 185 and 189 verso."

[225] If these things are so, as they are said to be by the author of the said little book, seem to urge; the Rule of the Saviour offered by St. Birgitta to Urban V, and revealed, as is piously believed, by Christ, seems indeed to differ on more than one head from that which is seen inserted in the aforesaid published volumes of the Revelations, although this too is said in the title prefixed to it to have been revealed by Christ, perhaps for this reason, that, since very many other things had been left in it which were contained in the Rule offered by St. Birgitta to Urban V and revealed by Christ, their editors thought it permissible to adorn both with the same title. It would, however, be less to be approved that, even before those articles separately which had afterwards indeed been changed by lawful authority, but on that account had not been revealed by God, those words should be read prefixed or inserted by which they too are indicated to have been revealed by Christ. For example, in the chapter cited above this: "Christ here determines the number of the nuns, etc." In chapter 22: "Christ here disposes concerning the age which the nuns ought to have, etc.," if the things are true which were said above on that matter in the first and sixth difference, and so of the rest.

[226] the change, further, if it underwent any, was lawfully made. If, further, it be asked by what authors, in the opinion of a changed Rule, and at what time the change was made in the Rule of St. Saviour revealed to St. Birgitta and offered by her to Urban V; it most probably took place after St. Birgitta's death, Peter of Alvastra being the author, namely in that space of time which ran from the death of St. Birgitta to the Rule approved by Urban VI in the year 1379, as will be said later: for we have already seen above that it was granted to Peter by God that he might add to the Rule what he judged pertinent: and hence perhaps he judged that it was also in his power to bring some change here and there to the Constitutions revealed by God to St. Birgitta, for just causes, however, and to be approved by the Apostolic see. So he may have thought it lawful for himself to substitute in place of a double church, etc., one proper to both women and men, lest the expenses to be incurred should grow too great. There may perhaps also have come to share in the changes made in the Rule of the Saviour those who were deputed by Urban VI to examine it, and who at least approved them by their vote. I would not wish to pronounce anything with certainty in this matter: for although I judge it probable that St. Birgitta would not easily have allowed the Rule revealed to her by Christ to be changed while she was alive and seeing, and it seems difficult to believe that another Rule was offered by her to Urban V than that which she had received from Christ; yet it could have happened that she believed some changes could lawfully be made by Peter of Alvastra, which Urban V approved, but Urban VI afterwards removed. It could also have happened that Christ so revealed the Rule to Birgitta that He did not plainly determine some of its articles, but left them to be determined by the Pontiff; e.g. whether at Vadstena she should found two altogether different monasteries, or one, yet so that the women should be separated from the men by enclosures and cloisters: in which way both the Rule offered to Urban V and the Rule offered to Urban VI can be said to have been revealed by Christ.

* supply: volens

* computata

§ XVI. She migrates from Sweden to Rome.

By Christ's command After St. Birgitta, deprived of her husband but received by Christ as bride, had led at Alvastra for two years or even more a life slender indeed in food and clothing, yet sweet with heavenly meditations and heaped with divine favours, and had now received the Rule of the Order to be instituted by her, dictated, as they will have it, by Christ, and committed to writing by Peter of Alvastra, she was bidden by divine command to hasten to Rome. For thus in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 8, Christ is introduced addressing Birgitta while she was staying at Alvastra: "Go to Rome and thou shalt remain there until thou seest the Pope and the emperor, and thou shalt speak to them on My part the words which I shall say to thee." Peter of Alvastra presently adds: "The Bride of Christ therefore came to Rome in the XLIInd year of her age" (of Christ 1346), as is expressly read in her abbreviated Life in Hörmann, page 801, column 1: "And at the command she went to Rome in the year of the Lord MCCCXLVI." And in the Vadstena Diary at the same year: "Blessed Birgitta went to Rome according to the command of Christ." Birger too, St. Birgitta's biographer, mentions this Roman journey, undertaken by her at Christ's command, in these words: "Almost two years having passed after the Bride of God came to the monastery" (of Alvastra), "Christ commanded her to take up the labour of pilgrimage, saying thus familiarly: Go to Rome; there the streets are paved with gold and reddened with the blood of the Saints, where, on account of the indulgences which the holy Pontiffs have merited by their prayers, there is a short way to heaven."

[228] No less expressly does Boniface IX testify in the Bull of canonization that this journey was undertaken by St. Birgitta by divine command: to Rome "The holy Widow," he says, "who from the beginning of her early age had been dedicated to God, that she might give herself unweariedly to fasts and prayers, the marriage being dissolved and having become her own mistress, like the merchant's ship bringing her bread from afar, forewarned by the Holy Spirit, going forth from her land and kindred, went on … to the kindly City." Finally, that St. Birgitta went away to Rome after the Rule of St. Saviour had already been written down is read in chapter 41 of the Extravagant Revelations in this manner: "Christ the son of God speaks. Now the Rule has been written down, now its flowers have been set, and its colours ordered; go now to the place where thou art to see the Pope and the emperor. For this Rule will go forth as a light and a lamp, and will contract itself that it may make progress, until the third fruit shall show itself, which will thresh the ears and lay up the pure grain in its barn": from which words it is also understood that St. Birgitta was not only bidden by God to make for Rome, the Rule having already been written,

but had also already then learned from Christ that it would be approved by the Pontiff, and would produce abundant fruits in its time. The end of the journey, moreover, was, as will become plain partly from what has already been brought forward, partly from what is to be said, that she might promote the approval of her Rule and Order, that she might gain the indulgences, of which there was a vast abundance at Rome, that she might toil with all her strength for the salvation of her neighbours and the good of the whole Church, while she admonished Pontiffs, kings, princes and men of every kind of their office, freely and at the same time bravely, God so commanding.

[229] perhaps with some Those who accompanied her as she made for Rome, or afterwards followed her there, seem to have been first of all Peter of Alvastra and Peter Olofsson, afterwards the first confessor of Vadstena: for so Alphonsus seems to intimate in the Prologue of book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 3, in the following words: "And so, going on pilgrimage to Rome, she" (Birgitta) "came to stay there in a life of penance and to visit humbly the thresholds of the Apostles and the relics of the other Saints, until Christ commanded her otherwise, having always with her two other elders, aged and mature, virtuous and virgins, and experienced spiritual fathers, who followed her until death." Peter Olofsson is read in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1408 not only to have been St. Birgitta's confessor, but also for more than thirty years the inseparable companion of her journeys: the same was staying with St. Birgitta when St. Catherine visited her mother, who had set out for Rome five years before, as Ulpho, St. Catherine's biographer, writes in volume 3 of March, page 507: the same, finally, in the year 1350, in which the Jubilee was celebrated, heard the confessions of the pilgrims there, according to chapter 71 of book 6 of the Revelations and the Addition subjoined to it. A third companion of St. Birgitta on the Roman journey was perhaps Magnus Petri, the second after the Peter just mentioned as confessor general of Vadstena and a diligent promoter of St. Birgitta's canonization, of whom the Vadstena Diary at the year 1396, in which he died: "He was first married, then, coming to Rome with St. Birgitta while she was still living, he stayed there for several years, and also followed her to the Holy Land." To these perhaps is to be added besides Gudmar Fredriksson, a priest, who in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1389 is said to have been St. Birgitta's chaplain, and to have followed her from Rome to Jerusalem; although no mention is made there of the Roman journey undertaken by him together with St. Birgitta.

[230] companions, Of a certain Swedish lady, who likewise accompanied St. Birgitta going to Rome and died at Milan, Peter of Alvastra makes mention, but with her name suppressed, in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 101, of whom he relates a history of this kind: "A certain Lady of Sweden, following blessed Birgitta to Rome, and fearing the inconstancy of her husband, asked blessed Birgitta to pray to God for her husband. To her, as she prayed, Christ appearing said: Go, be not moved from the journey and the holy purpose, for I will shorten the journey for this woman. I will prepare the body, that, when the sack has been emptied, the soul may be filled with sweetness, and the husband shall have his desire. When, therefore, they had come to Milan, this Lady fell ill and died in peace. She having been buried, Lady Birgitta, praying, was rapt in spirit, and heard the devil complaining about her soul, because it was not adjudged to him. To whom Christ then said: Go. If thou hast purged her by afflicting the sack" (or her body), "now I will possess and honour the soul which lay within." Gobelinus Persona, in the Cosmodromium, age 6, chapter 72, says that St. Catherine accompanied her Mother Birgitta and came with her to Rome while Clement VI was sitting at Avignon. "In his times," he says, "there was renowned at Rome a certain woman Brigida, named by the common people Brigitta, who had come from the kingdom of Sweden after the death of her husband, a certain prince of that kingdom, with her daughter to Rome for the sake of pilgrimage, and there led a celibate life": but Gobelinus errs, although a contemporary writer; for what is presently to be said will disclose that none of her children accompanied their mother on this journey: Catherine came to Rome indeed in the time of Clement VI, but almost five years, or at least three, having elapsed from her mother Birgitta's arrival in the City, as Ulpho the monk, a contemporary writer, testifies in her Life at the place praised above. Burlamacchi, in book 2, chapter 1, adds to Birgitta as companion on this journey her son Birger: but he visited his Mother at Rome when she had already stayed there some years, as is gathered from the words of Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, which I recited at number 70.

[231] How arduous this command was, namely that, deprived of her husband, leaving her kindred and homeland, leaving her homeland and kinsfolk, and above all her most beloved children, it is permitted to measure from the eminent love with which she was borne toward them: yet she put these things after the will of God, and obeyed with a noble mind the command of Christ so bidding, although it may be sufficiently gathered that she had to do herself some violence to do it, from the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 95, where this is found: "It happened once in the monastery of Alvastra that the mind of blessed Birgitta, when she was about to go to Rome, was kindled to love of her children, pitying to leave them, as it were bereaved of maternal consolation. Fearing also that after her departure they would offend God more boldly in something, because they were young, rich and powerful." But this love toward her children she learned to put after the love of Christ: here is in what manner: "And then she saw in a vision" (so run the remaining words of the cited chapter) "a pot placed upon the fire, and a certain boy blowing the coals, that the pot might be heated; to whom blessed Birgitta said: Why dost thou strive so much to blow, that the pot may be kindled? The boy answered: That the love of thy children may be more kindled and inflamed in thee. Blessed Birgitta answered: Who," she said, "art thou? To whom he: I," he said, "am a trader. Then she, understanding that some inordinate love toward her children existed in her heart, at once corrected herself, so as to prefer nothing to the love of Christ."

[232] St. Birgitta therefore obeyed Christ's command, and, leaving to whom afterwards joined herself whatever was dear to her in Sweden, took the road to Rome; and about five years had already passed since, living at Rome, she had seen none of her children, although St. Birgitta wished someone to be with her who might be a help and solace to her in the arduous affairs of her family: then at length, that is, about the year 1350, Christ promised her that a person would come to her from Sweden who would be according to her wishes; and there came into Italy, to visit her Mother with her husband's good leave, St. Catherine her daughter, accompanied by Lord Gorstagus Thunasson, a commander of war in Sweden, and two Swedish ladies: all these things have been drawn from Ulpho, monk of Vadstena and writer of the Life of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 507, numbers 9, 10 and XI of the Life of the same St. Catherine: her arrival in the City the same Ulpho describes thus at number 12 and following: "Having crossed the sea with great difficulty, accompanied by those aforesaid, through the lands of Germany and Italy she came to Rome in the month of August. At that time, finally, her mother too, worthy of God, Blessed Birgitta, was staying for some while near Bologna in the monastery of Sarpa" (perhaps Farfa) "for the correction of the abbot and community of that same place, by Christ's command, with her venerable spiritual father Lord Peter Olofsson and a few others of her household.

[233] "Lady Catherine, however, with her company sought her Mother in Rome for eight continuous days, her daughter Catherine, migrates; much anxious, because she could not know whither she had turned aside. Meanwhile Lord Peter, the confessor of Blessed Birgitta, felt in his soul certain wonderful motions and instincts of certain affections, agitating him so much to cross to Rome that, for their vehemence, he could not sleep or eat until he took the road toward Rome; who, dismissed by Blessed Birgitta, though unwillingly, came swiftly to the City, and, meeting Lady Catherine and her company in the church of St. Peter, received them with great joy; recognising indeed that the Lord had hastened his journey for their consolation. On the following day, then, they went back together with lord Peter to the aforesaid monastery to see lady Birgitta. Received reverently by the abbot of that place on account of his devotion to lady Birgitta, by whose holy exhortations he had already been converted to a better life, they stayed there together for some days. But, coming again to Rome at the counsel of Blessed Birgitta, they completed their pilgrimages very humbly through the stations and thresholds of the Saints." The arrival of her daughter Catherine must have befallen St. Birgitta the more acceptably, the more like this daughter was to her mother in virtue: but scarcely had a few weeks passed, as Ulpho goes on to relate, when Catherine was meditating a return to her husband in Sweden: this grieved St. Birgitta very much: wherefore, turning to prayer, she heard from Christ that it was according to His will that Catherine should remain with her Mother, and she remained thereafter, since she also understood a little later that her husband had died in Sweden. If, therefore, it was hard for St. Birgitta for some while to lack the sight and company of her children, the divine goodness did not fail to mitigate that grief when it pleased Him. But let us return to Birgitta departing from her homeland.

[234] the monastery of Vadstena not yet founded. Burlamacchi, cited at number 230, writes that St. Birgitta, going away from Sweden, appointed to the government of the monastery of Vadstena Elizabeth, sister of the count of Holstein, whom she already then had in her company: Burlamacchi followed an untrustworthy guide, Albert Krantz, book X of the Saxonia, chapter 13, speaking thus: "Birgitta too, a woman of notable holiness, who is said to have left her memory at Rome in the church of St. Paul, having returned into Sweden, her homeland, built at her own expense the monastery of Vadstena (for she was born of a great military family), and, living there in holy conversation, at this time" (under Boniface IX, raised to the pontificate only in the year 1389) "flew up to Christ, renowned for miracles: already then having in her company Elizabeth, sister of the counts of Holstein, a sacred virgin, whom she left in her place as governess of the place." As if St. Birgitta, when she had left Sweden in the year 1346, had ever afterwards returned there, and had died not at Rome but at Vadstena, and that monastery had already existed then when she made for Rome; all which things will come out as altogether foreign to the truth from what is to be said afterwards. More probable is what Burlamacchi hands down concerning St. Birgitta's having visited the town of Skara when going away to Rome in the year 1345 or the following.

[235] Whether on the same journey For in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 31, St. Birgitta is said to have seen the soul of a certain man flying away into heaven like a shining star, concerning whom Peter of Alvastra subjoins this in the Declaration:

"At the end of this revelation there is found the matter of brother Algot, prior of Skara" (Skara was an episcopal see in Gothland, a province of Sweden) "and master in Theology, who, blind for three years and suffering from the stone, rested in a blessed end," namely in the year 1345, as Hueber writes in the Menology, Arthur in the Martyrology at the 9th of August, Wadding in the Franciscan Annals at the same year, numbers 6 and 7. "For as Blessed Birgitta was praying for him that he might be healed, she heard in spirit the answer: He is a shining star; it is not expedient that the soul be darkened by health of body. For he has now striven and completed, and nothing remains but that he be crowned. And this shall be a sign to thee, that from this hour the pains of the flesh will be lightened, and the whole soul will be inflamed with My charity." Although, however, the year of Algot's death agrees well enough with the year of the beginning of St. Birgitta's Roman journey, and Peter of Alvastra testifies that she was at Skara when Algot was dying, yet it is not certain to me that this happened in the year 1345, or that of the beginning of the Roman journey; because some suspicion underlies it that the year of Algot's death is marked as the year 1345 by the Franciscan writers for no other reason than that they thought by conjecture that it happened when Birgitta was already set on the Roman journey; although nothing on this matter occurs in the Revelation cited; nor perhaps did they have the year of Algot's death known from elsewhere: and if Hueber and Arthur fixed his day of death to the ninth of August, they perhaps did so only at their own discretion.

[236] It may be added that St. Birgitta was at Skara more than once, Skara, if, staying there in the month of August of the year 1345, she saw Algot's soul carried up into heaven: for it is not probable that St. Birgitta, the journey having already been begun, halted at Skara either from the month of February to the month of August, or on the contrary from August to February: but that she was at some time at Skara in the month of February is clear from the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 108, where these words are read: "It happened that, when on the day of the Purification blessed Birgitta was in the church of Skara, etc.": so that, if she was at Skara more often, it becomes uncertain from this also on which occasion and in what year she saw Algot's soul snatched into heaven. For the rest, in this place Birgitta is said to have seen in the church of Skara the Blessed Virgin and a certain man clothed in episcopal garments, whose body was buried there, though not seemly enough for the man's merits: concerning whom the Holy Virgin Mary is said in book 2 of the Revelations, chapter 30, to have addressed her Son thus: "Now, however, his soul is with Thee in glory, but the vessel of his instrument is pressed down and lies in a lowlier place than is fitting. Therefore, My Son, give his body a higher elevation, honour that which honoured Thee according to its measure. Raise that which by its labour raised Thee as far as it could." And the Son answered: "Blessed be thou, who leavest nothing untouched which pertains to thy friends. It is not fitting, Mother, as thou seest, that the best food be given to wolves. It is not suitable that the Sapphire, etc." That man who is said to have appeared here in pontifical garments was Brynolph, bishop of Skara, who died about the year 1316, whose bones, as can be gathered from the words of book 2 of the Revelations, chapter 30, just cited, she was taught by God were to be translated one day to a more honourable place. This, moreover, took place in the hundred and nineteenth year from St. Birgitta's death, of Christ 1492, at which the Vadstena Diary says thus: "On the morrow of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary the translation of the relics of Blessed Brynolph, formerly bishop of Skara, was made to a more seemly place in the same church of Skara by the authority of Lord Pope Innocent VIII." For his canonization the bishops of Sweden insisted through the letters mentioned at number 216, given in the year 1417 on the 1st day of March to the Fathers of the council of Constance, although nevertheless he has not hitherto been enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints by solemn decree of the Pontiff. These things I wished to adduce in this place, first indeed as some example that future things were at times revealed to St. Birgitta which were afterwards proved by the outcome itself; then because these things perhaps happened in the year 1345, when she began the Roman journey of which we treat here, and so, since they cannot be fixed with certainty to another year, they were to be mentioned in some manner in this place.

[237] Arras, Cologne, What road St. Birgitta held when she made for Rome, what regions she travelled through, what towns or cities she visited, is plainly unascertained. She seems, however, to have made the journey through Germany and France. Certainly, when she was making for Rome, there is a tradition that she lodged at Schwäbisch Hall, as was said at number 135: that she likewise at some time stayed at Cologne is found in the Fragment concerning the journeys or pilgrimages of St. Birgitta in Hörmann, page 819, where it is expressly read: "Likewise she went to Cologne to visit the three Kings and to honour infinite other martyrs": which, although someone could refer it to her return from Spain into Sweden while her husband Ulpho was still surviving, at which time it is clear from the foregoing that she was also at Arras, I would prefer to think, if she did not go to Cologne twice, that she did this when, never to return to Sweden while she lived, she made for Rome, for this reason, that in the documents concerning St. Birgitta transmitted to our predecessors there is found a certain writing sent from Rome to Cologne by St. Birgitta, as is noted there, to a certain canon of Cologne, in which she proposes to the said canon certain precepts to be observed, by which he may order his life piously and worthily, and among other things says thus: "Then, beloved friend, it is necessary that you order the night times discreetly to the honour of God: for I noticed that your bells are rung at times sufficiently fixed." Since, therefore, this seems to have been sent by St. Birgitta to a canon of the Greater church of Cologne when she had already fixed her seat at Rome, and in it she testifies that she had been at Cologne, it becomes probable that this happened not long before her arrival at the City, and that by that writing the holy Widow, now applying herself, by Christ's command, more laboriously to the salvation of her neighbours than when she was joined to her husband, suggested these salutary warnings perhaps to her host in testimony of a grateful mind.

[238] Genoa It is believed also that St. Birgitta at some time halted at Genoa in Liguria, and was detained there for some while by the illness of Peter, her confessor: it is likewise believed that at a stone's throw from the monastery of Quarto there exists a dwelling which St. Birgitta inhabited, as Lancellotti relates in book 2 of the Olivetan History, chapter 15. Augustine Giustiniani writes similar things in book 6 of the Annals of Genoa at the year 1518: but he says that this happened too late, not long before the year 1377, though St. Birgitta died in the year 1373 and arrived at Rome in the year 1346. Burlamacchi, citing these in the Life of St. Birgitta, book 2, chapter 2, fixes her stay in the aforesaid dwelling to the year 1345 or 1346, in which St. Birgitta came to Rome; rightly indeed not putting off St. Birgitta's arrival at the city of Genoa as much as Giustiniani put it off; yet no more certain about this very arrival of the holy Widow at the city of Genoa, or about the year in which it took place: since he drew the arrival only from popular report, and Giustiniani himself testifies that he inquired in vain into the year and day on which it took place, nor does Burlamacchi bring forward anything by which to confirm what he said about the year of St. Birgitta's arrival among the Genoese. Nor is what Burlamacchi, just cited, adds more certain, that St. Birgitta went from Genoa in the same year to Milan to venerate the relics of St. Ambrose. That St. Birgitta at some time stayed at Milan, indeed, and that there the two apparitions of St. Ambrose, of which in book 3 of the Revelations, chapters 5 and 6, were made to her, is most probable; but that this happened in the aforesaid year seems to be affirmed only by conjecture, a probable one however.

[239] In chapter 6, just praised, St. Ambrose complains to St. Birgitta of the archbishop of Milan, and went to Milan. that he was more a lover of the world than of the Church, and foretells to him divine vengeance unless he amend: there is no doubt that she disclosed to the archbishop the things divinely shown to her, that he might correct his morals and provide in time for the salvation of his soul: but she availed nothing with the man, hardened by ambition and blinded by the darkness of the senses. From the year 1342 to the year 1355 John II Visconti presided, who, although Sassi writes in volume 2 on the archbishops of Milan, page 793, that he accomplished many distinguished things, yet admits that he was not immune from all stain. "Hence," he says on page 803, "it is clearly plain how falsely, and not without some mark of imprudence, Galesini in the Table of the Prelates of Milan left noted that this John Visconti 'was illustrious rather for warlike praise than for the name of ecclesiastical discipline'; since he waged wars indeed, as being prince and lord in the Milanese Commonwealth, for the preservation of whose quiet he had need to draw the sword; but by no means failed his pastoral office, as we have noted thus far. That he was, however, puffed up and contaminated with no small ambition of enlarging his dominion we are compelled candidly to admit, since he subjugated to himself by force several cities scattered through Italy, and in the year MCCCL invaded even Bologna itself, which then obeyed the supreme Pontiff"; for which cause, Sassi adds, Clement VI subjected the city of Milan and all the lands of the Visconti to interdict. Since, therefore, the things which Birgitta, being there, learned from God concerning the archbishop of Milan suit John Visconti not badly, and she, after she came to Rome, went out of it either never or rarely, as will be said a little later, it comes out somewhat more probable that she was staying at Milan about the year 1346, and reproved the archbishop's morals, though in vain, as Burlamacchi says. But let us now see what was done by St. Birgitta at Rome, when she arrived there.

§ XVII: She applies herself to the good of the Christian commonwealth, is renowned for various predictions, and labours diligently for establishing and retaining the chair of the supreme Pontiff at Rome.

At Rome on account of revelations St. Birgitta, who while she was still living in Sweden, her homeland, had gained herself a great name among very many good people both by holiness of morals and by the frequency of divine revelations, after she came to Rome in the year 1346 obtained, on the same heads, no less fame and celebrity, chiefly throughout Italy. Here, however, I shall treat of the divine revelations made to her, not all, because it would require a longer discourse than would be fitting, but only of those which she is said to have directed by divine command to the supreme Pontiffs Clement VI, Urban V, who confirmed the Rule of St. Saviour in the year 1370, as we shall say in its place, and Gregory XI. Of the rest I transcribe only cursorily these things from chapter 8 of the Extravagant Revelations, or of those related outside the order, to be examined, however, in part more fully below. Thus

then it is read in the same place: "The Bride of Christ therefore came to Rome in the XLIInd year of her age, and remained there according to the divine command XV years before the Pope came, namely Urban V, and the emperor Charles of Bohemia. To whom she offered the revelations for the reformation of the Church" (of which the discourse will chiefly be here) "and the Rule. In those XV years, indeed, during which she remained at Rome before the arrival of the supreme Pontiff and the emperor, she had many revelations concerning the state of the City, in which our Lord Jesus Christ reproved the excesses and sins of the inhabitants of the City with a grave threat of vengeance."

[241] she incurred the hatred of many, The revelations of which the last words just cited speak can be seen in the books of revelations, in which they are inserted here and there: these St. Birgitta, as she had it in command from Christ, disclosed to him to whom they pertained, although she thereby incurred the hatred of many and frequent dangers even to her life, which, however, fenced by the singular protection of God and of His most holy Mother, she escaped unharmed, as Peter of Alvastra goes on to set out in the chapter just cited. "Which revelations," he says, "brought to the knowledge of the inhabitants of the City of Rome, furnished tinder for deadly hatred against blessed Birgitta. Whence some of them threatened to burn her alive. Others blasphemed her as erroneous and a Pythoness; but blessed Birgitta bore their threats and reproaches patiently. But she feared that her household, and others of her kindred and friends" (who either were constantly at Rome with her, or came from time to time from Sweden to visit her), "standing with her at Rome, being scandalised by these tribulations and reproaches, would fall away. And she deliberated to yield for a time to the fury of the malicious, nor did she presume to turn aside anywhere without a special command of Christ. For during XXVIII years after she left her homeland she never turned aside to any cities or provinces or other places of the Saints without the command of Christ. Whence Christ said to blessed Birgitta, as she awaited in her prayers the divine answer upon these things: 'Thou desirest to know My will, whether thou oughtest to remain here at Rome, where very many who envy thee are plotting thy death, or to yield to their malice for a time. I answer thee that, when thou hast Me, thou oughtest to fear none,' etc." He then subjoins that the most holy Virgin likewise promised St. Birgitta that she would be a help to her, and that for that cause it was thereafter established in St. Birgitta's household that the Hymn Ave maris stella should be sung daily, and that this custom passed from there into the Order of St. Saviour. These less celebrated revelations made to St. Birgitta while living in Italy having been observed, I now come to those which concern the supreme Pontiffs.

[242] Clement VI, that he should go to Rome, Altogether miserable under Clement VI was the face of the Christian commonwealth: frequent and atrocious were the incursions of the Turks against the Christians: many likewise the calamities of Italy, both from the absence of the Roman Pontiffs living at Avignon and from Louis the Bavarian: an atrocious war too had blazed out between the kings Philip of France and Edward of England: but, the affairs of Christendom being so placed, Christ commanded St. Birgitta that she should admonish the Pontiff, namely Clement VI, of his office in His name; and first indeed that he should take care to make peace between the kings of France and England; then that he should bring back the Pontifical see from France into Italy and announce the jubilee year to the faithful; finally, that he should amend his own life and his sins, unless he preferred to experience divine vengeance; which things are expressed word for word in book 6, chapter 63, thus: "The Son speaks to the Bride: Write on My part to Pope Clement these words: I have exalted thee, and made thee ascend above all the steps of honour. Arise, therefore, to make peace between the kings of France and England, who are dangerous beasts, betrayers of souls. Come then into Italy and preach there the word and the year of salvation and of divine love, and see the streets paved with the blood of My Saints, and I will give thee that reward which shall not be ended. Attend also to former times, in which thou didst boldly provoke Me to wrath and I was silent. In which thou didst what thou wouldst, and oughtest not, and I, as if not judging, was patient, because My time now draws near, and I will require of thee the negligence and boldness of thy time. And as I made thee ascend through all the steps, so shalt thou descend spiritually through other steps, which thou shalt truly experience in soul and body, unless thou obey My words; and thy grandiloquent tongue shall be silent, and thy name, which thou hast called upon on earth, shall be in oblivion and reproach in My sight and that of My Saints.

[243] "I will require of thee also how unworthily, though with My permission, the kings of France and England thou didst ascend to all the steps, which I, God, know better than thy negligent conscience remembers. I will ask of thee also how far thou wert lukewarm in forming the peace of the kings, and how far thou didst incline to the other side. Moreover, it shall not be forgotten how cupidity and ambition flourished and increased in the Church in thy time, and that thou couldst have reformed and amended many things. But thou, a lover of the flesh, wouldst not: arise, therefore, before thy last hour, drawing near, come, and by zeal in the penultimate time extinguish the negligences of former times. But if thou doubtest of whose spirit these words are; behold, the kingdom and the Person are known, in which astonishment and wonders have been done. For justice and mercy, of which I speak, are drawing near everywhere on earth. Thy conscience too says that what I warn is reasonable, and what I counsel is charitable; and unless My patience had preserved thee, thou wouldst already have descended more deeply beyond thy other predecessors. Therefore inquire in the book of thy conscience, and see whether I speak the truth." So the Revelations of St. Birgitta have it at the place cited, on which some things come to be observed here.

[244] As regards making peace between the kings of France and England, to bring back to peace, although perhaps not always with equal zeal and diligence, as is intimated above, yet at other times for the most part he applied himself to it with all his strength; on which matter the author of his first Life in Baluze speaks thus: "This supreme Pontiff throughout his whole time was very intent on procuring a peaceful and tranquil state of all his subjects, and especially of kings and princes and other powerful men, from whose discords the lower are wont to be moved and disturbed. Which he sufficiently demonstrated in the almost continual sending of his legates and envoys, of which we have often made mention above." The same author says besides that Clement granted to the Romans, asking it through envoys, that the Jubilee year, which by Boniface's decree recurred every hundredth year, should thereafter be celebrated every fiftieth year. For which cause, in the year 1349, on the 15th day before the Kalends of September, he promulgated the Jubilee to be celebrated in the following year by a diploma given, which is extant in Raynaldus at the aforesaid year, number XI. But he never transferred the see to Rome, or into Italy: whence he seems never to have judged that credence was to be given by him to this revelation of St. Birgitta.

[245] and some vices Clement is finally censured here as though he had indulged flesh and blood too much: surely even those who praise him most do not render him immune from this vice: hear the author of his first Life, who, though by no means hostile to Clement, yet writes thus on this matter: "How piously, therefore, it is to be hoped that he has already obtained mercy, or will obtain it in the future, if, human frailty driving him to it, there existed in him anything blameworthy by reason of the things which follow. For he loved very much his brothers, nephews, kinsfolk, relatives, fellow-countrymen and servants. For very many of them who at the time of his promotion were in the ecclesiastical state, or at length wished to be, he raised to great prelacies and dignities, and placed many in lower benefices existing almost everywhere on earth. And although there were among them many fit and sufficient, yet because he sometimes preferred them to others more or equally sufficient, and placed others so here and there and indiscriminately and as it were everywhere, perhaps flesh and blood are judged to have revealed something to him beyond what was due. Of the laymen, and especially of those coming forth from his paternal house, what is to be said? For in his time and by his favour and on his account they obtained in manifold ways many riches, great revenues, very many lordships, honours and lofty estates; and they were confederated through marriage alliances with many and great persons."

[246] should correct, Of Clement VI too seems to be understood chapter 96 of book 6 of the Revelations, whose title is: "While at Rome the Bells of the church of St. Peter were being burned, Christ says to the Bride that she should not wonder, because at times the elements show signs of future events; so those bells show the near death of a certain Pontiff, upon whom a grave judgment presses unless he quickly be converted to God." For Matteo Villani, who was then living in Italy, writes in book 3 of the Histories, chapter 42, that in the year 1352, on the 2nd day of December (four days later Clement died), a thunderbolt struck the bells of the church of St. Peter and melted them; which, although it seems to savour of fable, he says he has ascertained from the clear and certain testimonies of many who saw it. Further, in the place of St. Birgitta's Revelations praised above, Clement is reproved for excessive zeal for pomp and magnificence, of which Peter de Herenthals, Prior of Floreffe, says in the fifth Life of Clement VI in Baluze: "He kept a most sumptuous state, and very pompous and secular, as I have heard and in part have known." Matteo Villani, cited a little before, heaps up more things to the dishonour and ignominy of the same Pontiff in chapter 43. But such was the lot of the Pontiffs living at Avignon, that they were from time to time praised more abundantly by French writers, and on the contrary censured more bitterly by Italian writers. I have not brought these things forward to brand a mark on the name of Pope Clement, who certainly also did many things admirably; but lest anyone too easily convict and condemn the Revelations of St. Birgitta of falsehood, leaving to the judgment of others the things which are found written against this Clement in the authors just cited and elsewhere. However that may be, Clement VI, "finally weighed down by illness" (I use the words of the writer of the first Life of the same Pontiff in Baluze, column 266), "humble, penitent for what he had committed, and having devoutly received the ecclesiastical Sacraments, in the truth and sincerity of faith and in the unity of holy mother Church, commended his spirit to the Lord in the year of the Lord MCCCLII, on the sixth day of the month of December."

[247] Further, that St. Birgitta took care that the revelation described at number 242 and following should come to the notice of Clement VI, she warns from a revelation had, while still Gobelinus Persona testifies in the Cosmodromium, age VI, chapter 72. "Whence in the first year," he says, "of this Pope Clement she wrote to him that she had had a vision of this kind,

that the Pope himself ought to transfer himself from Avignon to Rome, that he might be able to reform the universal Church, and also that he ought to announce the Jubilee year; but the Pope did not care to come to Rome, yet he reduced the Jubilee year, chiefly at the instance of the Romans, from the hundredth year to the fiftieth year." He says rightly indeed that St. Birgitta wrote out her vision to Clement VI: but he who, as we saw above at number 230, was mistaken in supposing that St. Catherine came to Rome together with St. Birgitta, could also easily be mistaken when he says that St. Birgitta wrote, or had made known, to Clement the revelation or vision made to her in the first year of the same Pontiff, which was 1342; but in this year Ulpho her husband had not yet died, who, from what has been said above, died only in the year 1344: and it has likewise been said above that only after his death did St. Birgitta begin to have more frequent and clearer revelations or visions. She had it, however, before she went from Sweden to Rome; and so most probably between the year 1344 and 1346, while she was still staying at Alvastra.

[248] For Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, she was in Sweden, testifies in Odorico Raynaldi at the year 1379, in the Commentary which he wrote out in the year 1378 or the following for the election of Urban VI, that it was made to St. Birgitta while she was in the same kingdom, namely Sweden, and thirty years before, namely before the year of Jubilee (of Christ 1350); which words bring us to the year 1348, or rather, since in that year St. Birgitta had already left Sweden, if they are taken a little more broadly, to about the year 1346, at which time the war between the kings of France and England was most raging. The words of Alphonsus, both because what has already been said is partly confirmed by them, and because they comprise certain particulars about those revelations of St. Birgitta of which the discourse is here, which you will not find elsewhere, I am pleased to copy here entire from Raynaldus, already cited. Alphonsus, then, having premised that he knows that Urban VI is the true and lawful Pontiff by a threefold way, namely by the way of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of the will of God, by the way of fact, and by the way of canon law, begins to set out the first way thus: "And first by the way of knowledge of the will of God; because XXX years ago, namely before the year of Jubilee" (1350), "it was clearly revealed by Christ to blessed Birgitta, princess of the kingdom of Sweden, being in the same kingdom in prayer, concerning the canonization of which lady treatment is now had, and has been from the time of Gregory XI, here" (at Rome) "in the curia; to whom Christ, speaking by way of command, said that she should write on the part of God Himself to Pope Clement, who was then living and staying at Avignon, that he should make peace between the kings of France and England, and that he should come to Rome and hold the curia here and reform the whole universal Church to its former state and that of the holy primitive Fathers, and that then he should preach and announce to the nations the year of Jubilee.

[249] she foreknows the death of Innocent: "Otherwise, that the Lord Himself would proceed against him with terrible judgment and divine justice. Which revelation of Christ, indeed, is found in the VIth heavenly book, divinely revealed to blessed Brigitta, chapter LXIII. A copy of the said books my lord the archbishop of Seville has, and it is found in the monastery of Anayago, and of my brother and lord, brother Peter of the Order of St. Jerome. Which revelation the said holy Lady sent to the same Pope Clement at the said time with lord Henry, bishop of Habo, and with a certain holy man Peter, prior of Alvastra of the Cistercian Order, who is now here with the daughter of the said lady Brigitta in the curia: which prior was confessor of blessed Brigitta for thirty years. Which Pope Clement, indeed, because of that revelation would not come to Rome, and so was made disobedient to the will of God. And after a little time the said Lady had another divine revelation" (in the year, as we have said, 1352) "from Christ against the same Pope, which is found" (see number 246) "in the VIth heavenly book, chapter XCVI." Clement VI having been taken from among the living in the year 1352 in the month of December, in the same year and month Innocent VI was elected in his place, and held the Pontificate until the year 1362, in which he died at Avignon in the month of December; concerning whom Alphonsus says that St. Birgitta had a revelation, but what it contained, and whether it was sent to Innocent or not, he does not declare. It seems to be that which is conceived in these words in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 136: "The Son speaks to the Bride, saying: This Pope Innocent is of better bronze than his predecessor, and material apt for receiving the best colours, but the malice of men requires that he be the sooner taken out of the way, to whom his good will shall be reckoned for a crown and increase of glory. Nevertheless, if he heard My words of the books given to thee, he would become better, and those who carried them to him would be crowned more sublimely." Perhaps she did not take care to have it carried to Innocent because she did not have this in command from Christ, otherwise than we saw she had concerning the revelation which she sent to Clement VI through the bishop of Habo.

[250] to Urban V, Innocent's successor, Urban V, taught by Peter of Aragon, as Alphonsus writes, the will of God that he should betake himself to Rome and remain there until death, betook himself there and arrived in the year 1367 on the 16th day of October, as the author of his first Life writes in Baluze, column 380. But, says Alphonsus, "some years having passed, at once that ancient enemy who suggested to the first-formed that they should eat of the tree of life divinely forbidden to them, and act against the divine obedience, suggested also cunningly to the same Urban, by his coloured reasons, that he should withdraw from Italy and Rome, and transfer himself by all means to Avignon, and so become altogether disobedient to the command of God. Believing which coloured suggestions, like Adam and Eve, the Pope himself at once prepared himself for departure from Italy." At what time and for what causes, which Alphonsus calls coloured, the author of the first Life of the same Pontiff in Baluze, column 390 and following, sets out clearly, writing thus: "Moreover, when the summer season came in the aforesaid year" (1370), "the same Urban, withdrawing from the City and going to Montefiascone, turned aside to Viterbo; where first he manifested openly and publicly that he wished to return shortly to the city of Avignon, and, that all the curials might dispose themselves for this, he proclaimed a vacation from the beginning of the month of June then at hand to the beginning of the month of October thereafter following. And he said that he was moved to do this, inclined chiefly and induced by this, that he saw on the one side that that region was for the time in a quite peaceful and tranquil state, and if there was perhaps any dissension, he hoped that it would shortly, and before his departure, be duly ended by treaty or otherwise.

[251] "On the other side, however, he heard of the evils which were continually being done, and which were expected to become greater, on the occasion of the war newly stirred up and arisen between the kings of France and England mentioned; returning into France, that he might be able to oppose which was much in his mind, and it was his intention, the Lord favouring, to labour and apply himself with all his strength concerning the calming of this war, even by going in his own" (supply: person) "to the said kings for this cause, where otherwise he found that he could not make progress." He then subjoins that Urban was received at Avignon on the 24th day of September. Let us hear now Alphonsus narrating St. Birgitta's deeds in this matter: thus he goes on: "But then the Lord, willing what is above, namely that the Pope himself should not withdraw, but should remain altogether at Rome or in Italy until death, and there reform the state of the Church, then at once deigned, through the blessed Virgin, to reveal this expressly to the aforesaid blessed Brigitta, then living and staying at Rome. Which revelation, indeed, she carried to Montefiascone, where the lord Pope then was, and there, in my presence, she disclosed it to the lord Cardinal of Beaufort, who was afterwards Pope Gregory, that he might deliver it most secretly in writing to the said lord Urban. But the same Cardinal of Beaufort at that time, my lord most familiar, did not dare to do this.

[252] "On account of which the Lady herself, by divine command, presented to the same Pope Urban with her own hand" (not, therefore, through Alphonsus she predicts his death: or Nicholas, count of Nola, as is read elsewhere) "the said revelation written by my hand; in which it was contained that it was the will of God that he should not withdraw from Italy, but remain at Rome or in Italy until death; otherwise, that if he returned to Avignon, he would at once die and render account before God, etc. But the same Urban then did not acquiesce in the will of God, nor obey the said revelation; but at once withdrew from Montefiascone to Avignon: where after a few days, at once, according to the divine revelation, he fell mortally ill. And then, remembering the command of God made to him in the said revelation, and grieving over his disobedience, he was pricked with compunction, and then made a vow to return into Italy and to Rome if he should escape from that illness; and in that same purpose he died. All these things, moreover, are public and notorious in the curia, and my lord the archbishop of Seville well knows this." Pagi the younger writes in the Breviary of the Deeds of the Roman Pontiffs, volume 4, page 200, from Giles of Viterbo in Vittorelli in the Notes to Chacón, that Urban left Italy with this purpose, that he might return, had not death forestalled him: but with whatever purpose at length he left Italy, his death, which followed shortly, and was foretold to him, as no one denies, by St. Birgitta, whether through others or rather by herself, seems at any rate to show sufficiently that it was not approved and pleasing to God, perhaps because of the danger that he would be compelled to stay at Avignon again. The revelation which Birgitta sent to Urban is extant in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 138: the words by which death was signified to him, if he returned to Avignon, are these: "If it shall happen that he return to the lands where he was elected Pope, he shall have in a short time one stroke or one blow, so that his teeth shall be clenched or shall gnash. His sight shall grow dim, etc."

[253] Gregory XI, In the place of Urban V there was elected at Avignon in the same year, or, by the present manner of numbering the year, in the year 1370 on the 30th day of December, Peter Roger, son of William, count of Beaufort, called Gregory XI, to whom also St. Birgitta sent various revelations: "But Urban V having died," says Alphonsus, "at once by wonderful divine providence the aforesaid Cardinal of Beaufort, who alone in the college knew the aforesaid secret of the revelation and had it in writing, was elected Pope

was taken up: and then at once the aforesaid holy Lady, praying at Rome, had another divine revelation, through the Mother of God speaking to her, concerning the same Gregory, in which it was contained that it was the will of God that he should at once come to Rome with humility and pastoral charity, and reform the universal Church here, and persevere until death, etc. Which revelation the Lady herself at once sent" (through Latino Orsini, as the title of chapter 139 of book 4 has it), "confirmed in her manner, to the same Pope Gregory, written by my hand." She signified to Gregory, moreover, not only that God willed that he should fix his see at Rome, in the book of the Revelations and the chapter just cited, but also that he should remain there perpetually, otherwise that he would be forestalled by death, in the following words of the same chapter: "As if He should say that, even if he come to Rome and do not do the aforesaid things, then his life will be shortened, nor will physicians profit him, nor will he return to Avignon, where the air of his native country might profit him, but rather he will die"; which indeed we said in the preceding § actually happened to Gregory as he was meditating a return to his homeland. Whence we think it less probable that Gregory, placed at the point of death, could have said that he had been deceived by St. Birgitta and had wrongly transferred the Pontifical see into Italy.

[254] she admonished more than once that he should return from Avignon to Rome, Gregory did not give certain credence to the revelation just mentioned, first sent to him: "But the Pope himself," Alphonsus goes on, "after he received it, did not easily believe it; but he questioned the aforesaid Lady about this through his envoy. To her, as she prayed, the Virgin Mary again appeared speaking, and gave a divine answer for the same Pope, and fixed for him a said" (or certain) "term for coming to Rome, adding that, if he did not do this, he would feel rigorously intolerable losses, both in himself and in the lands temporally subject to him. Which revelation she at once sent" (through the count of Nola) "to the same Pope Gregory, written by my hand and confirmed by her own hand and name." The fixed term of which Alphonsus speaks is expressed in the revelation itself of which Alphonsus here treats, book 4, chapter 140, namely the next month of March or April, of the year, as it appears, 1371. "But the lord himself" (the words again are Alphonsus's), "after he received it, still remained again at Avignon, idling with flesh and blood, that is, with his kinsfolk and carnal persons, because the carnal and animal man, according to the Apostle, does not perceive the things which are of God. And again he sent the Lord count of Nola" (through whom she had sent this revelation to the Pontiff) "to Naples to the aforesaid blessed lady Birgitta, to question her on the same matter, and the same Pope Gregory sent word through me that I should at once come to Avignon, that I might confer more fully with him upon that matter."

[255] St. Birgitta complied with the Pontiff's desire, and again gave herself to prayer: and that this was of the will of God, "As the said Lady, then," says Alphonsus, "was praying upon this at Naples, when we were returning from Jerusalem, Christ appeared and spoke to her terrible words for the same Pope Gregory, saying in effect that he should at once come to Rome with the intention of remaining there, with charity and humility, should cast evil counsellors from him, and take spiritual men as his counsellors, should rule piously the lands of the Church temporally subject to him, not extorting money, and should root out from the Roman curia certain vices, and reform it and all the states of the universal Church, etc. Which if he did not do, Christ threatened him with terrible judgment and the justice of His fury. Which revelation I carried to Avignon, confirmed by the proper name of the aforesaid lady St. Brigitta, enclosed in her closed letter, and presented it on the part of Christ and of the lady Brigitta herself to the same Pope Gregory at the bridge of Sorgues in great secrecy, etc." This revelation is extant in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 142. In chapter 143, finally, there follows another, and that the last, sent by St. Birgitta to the Pontiff in the year and month in which she died, of which Alphonsus: "After these things, while I was then there at Avignon with lord Pope Gregory, he then still sent again by letters to Rome to question the said holy lady Brigitta on the same matter most secretly. She, however, again obtained another divine answer from Christ, which answer she sent swiftly by ship to the same Pope and to me at Avignon; and at once Pope Gregory himself sent me to Italy, and ordered his coming to Rome in a sluggish and undue manner, not spiritually but carnally"; since indeed he did not at length come to Rome until the year 1377, in the month of January.

[256] That these revelations which she offered to the supreme Pontiffs as it truly was: were truly divine, not visions of her own head, the outcome of events proved, which could not be foreknown by human industry: and of things which, though they could not be foreknown in a human manner, were nevertheless foretold, there is scarcely any surer indication, in the outcome, of a future disclosed by God: from which, further, it comes about that Gregory's migration from France into Italy seems altogether to be believed to have been made by the divine will, nor is the author of the second Life of Gregory to be heard, writing thus of Gregory's departure into Italy according to the sense of those who wished to keep the Pontiff in France: "In the year of the aforesaid Nativity MCCCLXX six, on the day called Saturday, the 13th day of the month of September, the said lord Pope Gregory the eleventh withdrew from Avignon for the sake of going to Rome. And when in the palace he wished to mount his horse, the horse scarcely allowed him to mount; and when he was in the town beside the meat-market it altogether refused to carry him, and he had to dismount there and mount another horse. And because of this and many other dangers which afterwards happened at sea, it was thought and said by many that he was going to Rome against the will of God"; for how slight a cause this was thought and said, everyone sees. Baluze meanwhile, commenting on this passage concerning Gregory, column 1222, accosts Urban VI, because he had said that Gregory wished to withdraw from Rome to Avignon against the will of God and for that reason died in his own see, uncivilly and irreverently in these words: "But I here question thee, Urban. If Gregory XI died in his own see for this reason, because he wished to return to Avignon against the will of God, why did Urban V, who thou sayest was deprived of life because he had withdrawn from the City against the will of God, not die in his own see?" But Baluze here plays a trick on the reader: for he did not believe that Urban was God's counsellor, or could search out His ways, so as to ask this of him seriously. For I too question, to repay trifles with trifles, the author of the second Life of Gregory, whose patron Baluze acts in this place: why, if the first horse which Gregory mounted when going away into Italy did not bear Gregory sitting upon it, because he was departing from Avignon against the will of God, did the second bear him?

[257] on which matter she also wrote to the kings of France and England. It can be gathered from what has been said thus far with how great zeal St. Birgitta laboured, as far indeed as lay in her, for the good of the Church and the peace of Catholic princes. Wherefore Boniface IX wished to make honourable mention of her in his letters (which see in d'Achery, volume 6 of the Spicilegium, page 49), given in the year 1391 on the Kalends of March to all the faithful of Christ against Clement VII, the Antipope of Avignon. "Which bringing back" (of the Pontifical See to Rome), he says, "to proceed from that very disposition" (divine, as he had premised), "we have learned that that glory of Spain in his time, Peter, infante of Aragon, a man of royal stock, an aged religious and of approvable life, in person, and Brigida of Sweden, of pious memory, as she testifies in her book, through her confessor, the Prior of the church of Linköping, announced to John of France and Edward of England, then illustrious kings, in the time of Pope Clement VI, our predecessor, an admonition being subjoined on the part of the Most High, that each of the Christian kings should assist the same bringing back, otherwise prosperity would not be with him who did the contrary; as happy outcomes forthwith proved in the same kings, the despiser, the king of France, being captured in war, and the obedient one of England." Not only did she give diligent work that the Pontifical see should be brought back to Rome, and that peace should be entered into between the kings of England and France, as may be seen from the cited places of the revelations and others; but also, when in the year 1372 a war fatal to the Catholic commonwealth had arisen between Gregory XI and Bernabò of Milan, she persuaded the Pontiff to make peace rather than war with peril of souls, as is read in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 143. She wrote also to Charles, son of the king of Bohemia, crowned emperor of the Romans at Rome from the year 1355 under Innocent VI, that he should restore the virtues which had at that time collapsed in the empire, which she enumerates, and root out the vices opposed to them which were then especially flourishing; on which matter go, if you please, to book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 45. And it has seemed good to gather all these things into this §, although they were done in different years, because of the affinity of the argument; being now about to return to the other deeds of St. Birgitta which followed at no long interval of time her arrival in Italy, or the year 1346.

§ XVIII. She is visited at Rome by her daughter St. Catherine, and strives for the salvation of various persons.

In the year 1350 she is almost compelled, When, from what has been said, St. Birgitta came to Rome in the year 1346 together with her companions, concerning whom see § XVI above, she hired an honourable house, fitting for herself and for maintaining her household: it was situated in the XIIth district of the City, commonly called di Parione, near the church of St. Lawrence in Damaso. For so Peter of Alvastra, Extravagant Revelations, chapter 107: "When St. Birgitta was dwelling at Rome in the house of the Cardinalate beside the church of St. Lawrence in Damaso for four years, the Cardinal's vicar told her that within one month she should withdraw with her household and seek another house for herself." In the year 1350, therefore, the fifth of her Roman dwelling having already begun, she was ordered to give up that house, in which year I shall show below that St. Catherine came to Rome for the sake of visiting her mother: indeed, the things which follow seem in some fashion to indicate that St. Catherine had then recently come to Rome: "She" (Birgitta, says Peter of Alvastra), "hearing this, was saddened exceedingly, because she had with her a daughter beautiful, young and noble and desirable to the eyes of beholders." When St. Birgitta was in this fear, she had nowhere to flee but to Christ her spouse; who commanded her to go through Rome for a whole month to seek another house for herself: and now a whole month,

less two days, had passed, which she had spent in great but fruitless labour in seeking a house.

[259] Her little bundles therefore having been prepared, she was meditating going to the public hostels of pilgrims; to leave the house which she had hired, which, however, before she did it, turning again to the Spouse with most intense prayers, she merited to hear that she should be of good heart, that it would come to pass as soon as possible that she would receive happier things: nor was there delay: "Forthwith a certain messenger knocked at the door of the house, bearing letters of the lord of the house, in which he consoled her; writing to her that she should not withdraw from the house, but should establish herself and dwell in the same, settled, in all peace and quiet." The title of St. Lawrence in Damaso was held from the year 1342 to the year 1363 by Hugh Roger, brother of Pope Clement VI, surnamed Monstrius: he, therefore, the messenger of whom above having been sent to her, gave St. Birgitta the faculty of remaining securely in his Cardinal's house, which he had at Rome beside the Church of his title, or of St. Lawrence in Damaso; since he himself, absent from Rome, was living either at Avignon in his brother's curia or perhaps elsewhere in France. Felix Contelori, indeed, in the List of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church from the year 1294 to the year 1430, page 76, attributes to Hugh the title of saint Stephen in Damaso; but the title of St. Lawrence in Damaso is read in Baluze in the third Life of Clement VI, volume 1 of the Lives of the Popes of Avignon, page 286, and in volume 2, title 163, in a Charter of John, king of France, of the year 1351, as also at title 172 in a charter of the executors of the testament of the same Hugh of the year 1364.

[260] These things happened, I said above, in the same year and by St. Catherine, in which Catherine, St. Birgitta's daughter, came to Rome, or the year 1350. Surely this seems to follow from the words of Ulpho the monk in the Life of St. Catherine, number 9, volume 3 of March, page 507, speaking thus: "Almost five years, then, having elapsed after Blessed Birgitta had come from her homeland to Rome" (and she came there, from what has been said, in the year 1346), "lady Catherine began to burn with so great a desire to make pilgrimage to Rome that for sighs, etc.": but the same Ulpho makes difficulty at number 42, writing this: "When she" (St. Catherine) "had stayed at Rome twenty-five years with her mother, St. Birgitta, to be named with all reverence, etc." For if St. Catherine stayed at Rome 25 years with her mother, who died in the year 1373, Catherine would have been living at Rome as early as the year 1348; which does not cohere well enough with Ulpho's former words, so that it is necessary that Ulpho spoke in one or the other place either erroneously or at least less accurately. Baillet, in the Life of St. Catherine at the 24th day of March, says that she came to Rome in the year 1348 in the month of August, yet five years after St. Birgitta had come to the same place: but from the year 1346 to the year 1348, how can five years be counted? In the life of St. Birgitta, however, at the 8th day of October, he writes that St. Catherine was the companion of her mother going to Rome: and so Baillet fights with himself, unless he has invented a twofold Roman journey of St. Catherine. Much less can the assertion of Benzelius drawn from the Chronology of Scandinavia of Messenius be reconciled with the words of Ulpho the monk and with the year 1346, in which the author of her Abbreviated Life expressly affirms that St. Birgitta came to Rome; according to which, as Benzelius notes against Vastovius on page 71, St. Catherine went to Rome only in the year 1355.

[261] is visited in the same year by her daughter, Papebroch, in the cited volume of March, both in the Commentary prefixed to the Life of St. Catherine and in his Annotations to it, left the matter undecided: and surely Ulpho the monk makes the matter plainly doubtful, using words, as it appears, contrary to each other: they seem, however, possible to be brought back to agreement in some fashion, if Ulpho is said to have counted the XXV years, during which in the latter place he says Catherine clung to St. Birgitta as her companion, from the year 1350 to the year 1374, there being reckoned in that number both the year 1350, in which Catherine went away from Sweden to Rome, and the year 1374, in which she returned into Sweden together with her mother's remains, of which matter Ulpho's discourse is a little after the cited words: for in this way, if you suppose that St. Catherine departed from Sweden in the month, e.g., of April or May of the year 1350, and count the years from there to the month of July of the year 1374, in which within the Octave of SS. Peter and Paul she returned to Vadstena, you will reach the 25th year already begun. And this interpretation of Ulpho's words appears to me more probable than if you said that in the other place (see the preceding number) three years is to be read for five. Of the two years, therefore, in one or other of which St. Catherine came to Rome to visit her mother, namely 1348 and 1350, the latter pleases me more, which has this singular feature also, that it summoned to Rome an almost infinite multitude of men on account of the Jubilee of the fiftieth year then first celebrated, by the hope of gaining which Gorstagus Thunasson, commander of military affairs among the Swedes (Ulpho names him Marshal), and two other noble ladies from Sweden, enticed, perhaps set out together with St. Catherine. This opinion, however, which I have already said seems to me more likely to be true, I shall confirm from the circumstances of St. Catherine's approach to her mother, which I shall now describe from Ulpho, the other passage of Ulpho being emended, as far as may be permitted.

[262] as Ulpho writes. Ulpho writes that St. Catherine, in about the fifth year, as I have said, from her Mother's departure, having crossed the sea and travelled through Germany and part of Italy, came to Rome in the month of August: but that there she sought her Mother in vain, as being absent from there: that she happened, however, by good fortune, after eight days to fall in with Peter Olofsson, her mother's confessor, and on the next day together with him went to her Mother, who had then set out on a journey. "At that time, finally," says Ulpho the monk in the Life of St. Catherine, number 12, "her holy mother, worthy of God, Blessed Birgitta was staying for some while near Bologna in the monastery of Sarpa, for the correction of the abbot and community of that same place, by Christ's command, with her venerable spiritual father lord Peter Olofsson" (who meanwhile had returned to Rome) "and a few others of her household." And a little after, at number 13: "On the following day, then" (the ninth after her arrival in the City), "they went back together with lord Peter to the aforesaid monastery to see lady Birgitta. Received reverently by the abbot of that place on account of his devotion to lady Birgitta, by whose holy exhortations he had already been converted to a better life, they stayed there together for some days," until by St. Birgitta's counsel they all returned together thence to Rome. Such is the narrative of Ulpho, monk of Vadstena, of St. Catherine's approach to St. Birgitta her mother.

[263] But that some fault lies hidden here Papebroch noticed long ago in the Annotations to the Life of St. Catherine. in whom, for the monastery of Sarpa For what, pray, is that monastery of Sarpa near Bologna or in the territory of Bologna, of which name it is known that none either exists there now or existed formerly? In the Life of the same Saint published by Hörmann, chapter 5, it is called Parpense, as also in her Life printed at Louvain in the year 1485. Surius, at the 24th day of March, perhaps because he did not know a monastery of this kind, says only that St. Catherine found her Mother at Bologna, giving her efforts there to bring back a certain abbot and his brethren to a good course; in almost which manner Baillet too speaks: Papebroch's Annotation, however, on this passage of the Life of Catherine is this: "The name" (namely the monastery of Sarpa) "is unknown to all the Italian and Bolognese writers whom it has been possible to search through: I greatly fear, however, that it is corrupt, and although Parma is separated from the territory of Bologna by the district of the whole county of Modena, yet the distance of the places is not so great that a writer of that age" (the fifteenth century) "in Sweden could have attended to it" (I would rather say: could not have failed to attend to it), "and therefore I suspect that 'Parmensi' ought to be read in this place."

[264] What Papebroch feared, namely lest the name of the monastery for the various in which Catherine found her Mother be corrupt, I too greatly fear: and that Ulpho, a Swede of the fifteenth century, could have erred in assigning the situation of that monastery seems to me also most probable: but that for Sarpensi, or, if you will, Parpensi, Parmensi should be read, as Papebroch suspects, pleases me less, and I would rather substitute Farfensi, a monastery which is both situated in Italy and was in St. Birgitta's time not uncelebrated; so that, if Ulpho's words were not corrupted by the fault of those transcribing his work on the Life of St. Catherine, Ulpho himself also could easily have fallen into the error of one or two little letters. But not for this reason alone do I think that for the monastery of Sarpa or Parpa, or finally of Parma, that of Farfa should be read. For the abbot for whose amendment Ulpho writes that St. Birgitta went out from Rome at Christ's command seems to be the very same to whom St. Birgitta is written by Peter of Alvastra, Extravagant Revelations, chapter 105, to have shown the following revelation in God's name. The title of the chapter just cited runs thus: "Words of Christ which St. Birgitta reported to the abbot of Farfa, that he should correct himself." These, moreover, are described there thus: "Christ speaks: Thou, lord abbot, oughtest to be the mirror of religious, but thou art the head of harlots; this is plain in the sons for whom thou art defamed. Thou oughtest to be the example of the poor and the distributor to the needy, but thou showest thyself to be a great lord out of alms. This is plain, because thou didst inhabit castles more than the cloister. Thou oughtest to be the teacher and mother of thy brothers, and thou hast become a stepfather and stepmother. Thou sportest in delights and in pomp, while they, afflicted, murmur all the day. Therefore, unless thou correct thyself, I will depose thee from the castles, and thou shalt not have fellowship with the least brothers, nor shalt thou return to thy homeland, as thou believest, nor shalt thou enter My homeland." Peter of Alvastra adds: "And so all things came to pass."

[265] brought forward here, Likewise the abbot seems to be the same of whom, in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 97: "Christ commands His Bride to go from Rome to Castelnuovo of the abbey of Farfa, saying: Go, because a chamber has been prepared for thee. And when she had come there with lord Peter her confessor and her household, then with the greatest difficulty she obtained from the brothers of that monastery one mean hut to dwell in, they alleging that it was not their custom to dwell with women. Then Christ, appearing to her, said: This is the chamber of salvation, in which thou wilt be able to merit and learn sublime things. That as before thou didst dwell in high and beautiful houses, so now thou mayest be able to experience what sort My Saints

dwelling in caves suffered. Which commands of Christ she fulfilled and obeyed them." It does not seem doubtful that in both these chapters the same journey of St. Birgitta to the monastery of Farfa is treated, of the Order of St. Benedict, situated in the Sabine country and the duchy of Spoleto by the river Farfarus, and distant about forty thousand paces from the City, not far from which lies Castelnuovo, belonging to the same monastery. And if one cares to compare what is said in both chapters with the words of Ulpho, not a few circumstances occur from which it may be gathered that in both places, both by Peter of Alvastra and by Ulpho, the same monastery of Farfa is treated.

[266] reasons For first, that the same monastery is mentioned in both places is urged, as I have said, above all by the affinity of the names, and the error of one or two little letters could easily befall either Ulpho, a Swede and perhaps less skilled in Italian affairs, or those who copied Ulpho's work not cautiously enough. Then St. Birgitta, going to the monastery of which Ulpho speaks, had as companions Peter her Confessor and a few of her household, which Peter of Alvastra also relates of St. Birgitta going to the monastery of Farfa. Third, on the testimony of the same Peter, St. Birgitta, going to the monastery of Farfa, or Castelnuovo, was received at the beginning less humanely by the monks, so that she was then scarcely permitted by the monks to stay in a mean hut: but this very thing Ulpho seems to intimate in the following words: "Received" (namely St. Catherine and her companions) "reverently on account of his devotion to lady Birgitta, by whose holy exhortations he had already been converted to a better life"; so that Ulpho seems to intimate by these words that St. Birgitta, at first less known to the abbot, was also treated less humanely; but afterwards, her holiness having been perceived, was treated more humanely by the abbot.

[267] Fourth, Ulpho seems to signify that Peter the confessor, on the day after should be read, it seems, he had met St. Catherine in the church of St. Peter at Rome, not only began but also completed together with her the return to the monastery in which St. Birgitta was staying; so that that monastery of which Ulpho speaks seems to have been distant from the City not more than one day's journey: Ulpho's words are these: "On the following day, then, they went back together with lord Peter to the aforesaid monastery to see lady Birgitta," that is, returned, not began to return: and there follow immediately the words related a little before: "Received reverently, etc." But the monastery of Farfa, according to Baudrand, is distant from Rome only about 13 (in another edition 20) Italian miles; and so not even one day's journey: but on the contrary Bologna 192, and so as many as cannot be traversed in one day. It becomes probable, therefore, that that monastery was placed by Ulpho near Bologna by error; if indeed this error ought not to be ascribed to some unskilled interpolator of Ulpho. Finally, the author himself of the Chronicle of Farfa, inserted in volume 2, part 2 of the Writers on Italian affairs, and not extended beyond the twelfth century, entitled his work Chronicon Pharphense, from which word, the aspiration being omitted, it appears most probable that Parpense was written, as is read in Hörmann.

[268] And for these causes, considered in general and together, of Farfa. I am led to believe that in the cited passage of Ulpho the monastery of Farfa should be restored for that of Sarpa or of Parma. It remains, these things being laid down, that I should show, as I promised above, that the opinion which holds that St. Catherine came to Rome in the year 1350 rather than 1348 is confirmed from this. This, then, I accomplish briefly thus. When St. Catherine visited her Mother in the monastery of Farfa, from what has been said, some abbot presided over the monastery, by whom she was received honourably: this, however, could not have been the case in the year 1348; but it could in the year 1350. For thus I read in volume 2 of the Writers on Italian affairs, part 2, page 298, in the List of the abbots of Farfa at the year 1332: "John IV, the LXIVth abbot, presided VIII years, and, he having died, Arnold, a monk of Cluny, was appointed administrator of the abbey, who presided XV years. In whose time, namely in the year MCCCXLVIII, the monastery of Farfa miserably collapsed spiritually and temporally, as is read in a certain instrument of petition made by the monks of Farfa to John, abbot of Subiaco." There was therefore no abbot in the monastery of Farfa in the year 1348. But there was in the year 1350, at which year there follows in the same List or Catalogue: "MCCCL. Arnold, the LXVth abbot, made abbot from administrator, presided V years." Behold the abbot of whom Peter of Alvastra speaks in chapter 105, and whom he indicates to have been a foreigner to the people of Farfa in these words: "Nor shalt thou return to thy homeland, as thou believest."

[269] In the same year 1350, in which a countless multitude of men came to Rome for the sake of gaining the Jubilee, for a Swede she procures the absolution of sins which had been denied it happened that Peter, St. Birgitta's confessor, was deputed by the Pontiff's Vicar to hear the confessions of the Swedes, every power of absolving which the vicar could confer on him having been conferred. It came about, moreover, that in that multitude of men a certain Swede confessed his sins to Peter, but so grave and enormous that Peter would not impart absolution of them to the guilty man: but the guilty man, as is read in the Declaration to chapter 71 of book 6 of the Revelations, "went to lady Birgitta, complaining that that cleric would not help him by the benefit of absolution. Birgitta, pitying the man, prostrated herself in prayer, interceding for the aforesaid cleric and for that wicked sinner. And at the same moment she heard the voice of the Father from heaven saying: Tell the cleric on My part that he should diligently dispatch all who come to him of his tongue and nation, enjoining penance on them according to the grace conferred on him, and according to the dictate of his right reason, and according to what the penitent himself can bear, and let him absolve securely, until some such sinner shall come of whom I cause him to be forewarned, saying: Do not absolve this one. Let him, however, beware for himself concerning censures of the Church and manifest and notorious crimes, which ought to be judged publicly by the prelates of the Church."

[270] Peter Olofsson, in the year 1350 confessor of the Swedes at Rome These things Peter of Alvastra, whom we have said to be the author of the Declarations and Additions subjoined to the Revelations of St. Birgitta, writes not of himself, as Vastovius will have it in the Vitis Aquilonia, but of Peter Olofsson, St. Birgitta's confessor and master, and afterwards confessor general of Vadstena, as was said at number 229. The Vicar, however, of the Pontiff Clement VI, sitting at Avignon, who enjoined on Peter the office of hearing the confessions of the Swedes at Rome in the Jubilee year 1350, seems to be the same as he of whom these things are read in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 102: "When a certain bishop of Orvieto, being then vicar in the kindly City for lord Pope Clement, had some revelations divinely revealed to Blessed Birgitta, and did not attend much to them; then, as Blessed Birgitta was praying, Christ appeared to her, saying in these words: Hear, Birgitta, because it is My will that some future things of men be revealed to thee. Therefore know that this bishop will never have that which he temporally desires with all the strength and affections of his heart; nay, the things which he has gathered will be left by him, and he will die in a place not his own.

[271] appointed by the vicar of the Pope; nor less "And it will happen to him as to a dog, which, when a man wishes to deceive it, he first anoints an iron with fat meat, which the dog, wishing to devour it, is strangled by the iron. So the devil shows this bishop that the delights of the world are sweet in the heart, and that all the things which he has befit his state. Therefore he has proposed to leave nothing of his jewels for his soul, until, constrained by death, he shall leave all without fruit. Wait, therefore, and thou shalt see all these things which I have told thee. After a few days the bishop went to Avignon, where he ended his life and left his treasures unwillingly." Ughelli, in volume 1 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 1474, mentions Pontius Perrotus, bishop of Orvieto and the Pontiff's vicar in the City, who in the year 1349 opened the holy door of the jubilee, but where in the world, or in what year, he departed from life he does not set out. Matteo Villani, however, in volume 14 of the Writers on Italian affairs, book 1 of the History of his time, chapter 29, calls this Pontius Perrotus an honest man and of great authority, and adds that in the year 1349 Clement VI gave him the faculty of shortening the time during which pilgrims had to remain in the City, according to the Pontiff's prescription, in order to obtain the grace of the jubilee. It is very probable, therefore, that Peter, St. Birgitta's confessor, was appointed in the year 1350 by Pontius Perrotus to hear the confessions of the Swedes; and since, according to Ughelli, John succeeded Pontius in the bishopric in the year 1359, it becomes probable that Pontius died at Avignon about the same year, and so that his death was also revealed to St. Birgitta about the same year. Further, from those things which were said of St. Birgitta at number 269, it is permitted to gather with how great care and zeal she applied herself to the salvation of her neighbour, especially of her countrymen arriving at Rome. That she was no less solicitous, both by words and by example, for the progress in virtue and the salvation of her daughter Catherine is plain from the Life of Catherine, written by Ulpho the monk and reprinted with us in volume 3 of March from page 505, from which, since Birger her biographer is commonly silent about the things done by St. Birgitta at Rome at this time, I shall touch upon some things here on this matter. Ulpho indeed treats of that matter more fully, but I judge that the few things which I shall bring forward from him will suffice, so that the rest may be conjectured: thus, then, Ulpho in the Life of St. Catherine, number 21 and following: "The venerable lady herself, therefore, when she had been widowed of her husband, death intervening, and was staying at Rome with her mother St. Birgitta, began to live as in a monastery under the care of her Mother, whom she knew to be illumined by the spirit of God and adorned with the charisms of the divine virtues. As preceptor, moreover, she had master Peter, her Mother's confessor, to whose admonitions, teachings and salutary counsels she wholly and humbly conformed herself, as one truly obedient. Her Mother's life and morals, however, she always looked upon as a mirror without spot, desiring to direct her morals and acts after her example and to imitate her in the holy exercises of penance.

[272] "For from her she learned to observe silence at certain times, of the salvation knowing that the virtue of silence confers peace of heart and the cultivation of justice, and nourishes and guards peace among neighbours. For unless a man very diligently set a guard on his mouth, he will quickly dissipate the gratuitous goods which he has, and will rush into many evils. Reasonable and few words, however, she answered when questioned, but edifying ones treating of the will of God and His precepts. With all, especially the poor and pilgrims, she spoke familiarly and humbly, observing that saying of the Wise man: Let all thy discourse be of the precepts of the Most High. Whence, while she was staying at Rome, she sweetly cherished the poor and pilgrims, very many arriving from her homeland,

she refreshed not only with alms, but with sweet and familiar conversation: exhorting them to patience and the love of Christ: inculcating on them very often that they should have especially a continual remembrance of the most bitter Passion of Christ and the observance of the commandments of God. I make mention of one whom, then a poor pilgrim, she called many times into her chamber, reading over to him the Gospel and the Lives of the Saints and explaining the commandments of God, and invited him most earnestly to avoid the seven deadly sins. He indeed, returning with her to the homeland, a lay brother in the monastery of Vadstena, fighting the good warfare of Christ, was accustomed to recount to the brothers many praiseworthy things of her holiness." These things seem to have happened between the year 1350 and 1352: for in the year 1350 she was eighteen years old, as Ulpho writes at number 10: and after he wrote the things which have just been recited here of St. Catherine from numbers 21 and 22, he presently goes on to speak of her thus at the following number: "But when this praiseworthy lady Catherine was staying at Rome, her mother Birgitta living, although she was young, as for instance twenty years old, etc."

[273] Again hear Ulpho at numbers 34 and 35. of St. Catherine, "Her most holy mother, Blessed Birgitta, was also accustomed to take her, young and very tender, with her to the hospitals, where her Mother herself devoutly handled with her own hands, without shrinking, the sores and ulcers and wounds of the sick, conferring very many benefits and words of consolation upon them: showing her, while still young, an example of how she ought to do the like to the poor and sick for God's sake in every age to come. And if at any time some blamed the pious Mother of this venerable lady because she took her tender daughters with her to the houses of the poor and sick, fearing that they might in some way be infected by the stenches of the sick, she answered them kindly, saying that she took her daughters to the houses of the sick for this reason, that they might learn to serve God in the poor and sick. Whence it is quite credible of this venerable lady, St. Birgitta's daughter, that, as her age increased, compassion for the sick and for poor persons increased with her, she visiting them diligently, offering words of consolation, and relieving their wants with pious alms, devoutly imitating, as far as she could, the footsteps of her holy Mother in these things.

[274] and she is solicitous for her children absent in Sweden. "The words, moreover, of her mother St. Birgitta, which she had heard, and the works of piety which she had seen in her Mother, had so pierced her heart with piety that she was very compassionate with her whole heart toward the want of the poor, and condoling in speech with those in sorrow and succouring them in works, spending benefits generously. For when her Mother too slept upon the hard floor, out of pious filial compassion she rose secretly by night, putting her hood under her ribs and loins, tempering the hardness of the floor… Happy, therefore, the Mother who brought forth such a daughter for the world; nay, much happier, because by her holy examples and holiness of life she begot her spiritually for Christ, the God of all, and fitted her for His holy service." More could be added to these from the books of the Revelations, by which the singular care and zeal of St. Birgitta, while at Rome, toward her daughter Catherine could be illustrated; but I refrain from these, because it is easy for anyone to pass judgment on them from what has already been said. But neither did the pious and solicitous Mother omit to stir up her absent children in Sweden to the cultivation of virtue: the Instructions and Admonitions which St. Birgitta wrote out from Rome to her son Birger testify to this, which you have above at number 77 and following. But in what year St. Birgitta wrote these is indeed hidden from me: I have mentioned them here, however, because of the affinity which they have with the foregoing.

§ XIX. What manner of living St. Birgitta held at Rome: her journey to Assisi.

She learns the Latin language, What manner of life, and how austere, St. Birgitta held at Rome can be understood partly from what has already been said in the preceding §, partly Birger her biographer hands down: he has this at number 24: "Having gone forth, then, from her homeland, she merited to be relieved by frequent consolations: for it was commanded her to accustom herself to the schools of Grammar, where blessed Agnes was given her for solace and as mistress for obeying and instruction. And she made such progress in a short time that she knew how in part to understand and utter the language," namely Latin. That St. Agnes was given to Birgitta as mistress, whose counsels she should follow in what was to be done, is also related in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 63, in these words: "Stand, therefore, firm and obey Agnes in the counsels which she gives thee in spiritual vision": concerning the zeal to be applied by St. Birgitta to learning the Latin tongue, the Blessed Virgin admonishes her in book 6, chapter 105, where she indeed permits her to visit the holy places of Rome; but so that she should not on that account desert the study of Grammar. "Nevertheless," she says there, "Daughter, do not on account of these things leave thy schools in Grammar, nor the holy obedience of thy spiritual father." What preceptor of the Latin Tongue, finally, she used, Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, explains in the Letter to the kings prefixed to book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 3. "The other spiritual father," he says, "of this Lady was a certain Priest of Sweden, also a virgin, venerable and of most holy life, who ruled the whole household of the aforesaid Lady, and taught her with her daughter Grammar and chant by Christ's command," namely Peter, afterwards confessor of Vadstena: for Alphonsus had treated of Peter of Alvastra a little before.

[276] Not only at that time in which she was learning the precepts of the Latin tongue did the pious Widow diligently visit the Roman churches, and visiting the churches, as I intimated at the preceding number, but also throughout the whole time during which she stayed at Rome. "For she visited," says Birger at number 25, "with all devotion and assiduity the places of the Saints, with very great labour to herself: always observing this, that she did not willingly speak with anyone on the way, unless perhaps questioned, and then she answered the one speaking to her in very few words." Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, also praises her for diligence in frequenting the Roman churches, in the Letter praised a little before, saying: "And so, going on pilgrimage, she came to Rome, to stay there in a life of penance, and to visit humbly the thresholds of the Apostles and the relics of the other Saints"; as also Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization: "Moreover, living at Rome, caring not for the rigour of cold, not for the heats of summer, not for the hindrances of a muddy road, not for the harshness of rains or snows or hails, she visited on foot every day the stations ordained by the Church and various other holy churches, although she could have gone on horseback according to her means, yet striving beyond the strength of her emaciated body." Alphonsus adds that she did this with such modesty that not only did she speak to no one on the way, as I have just related from Birger, but also that she did not dare to raise her eyes unless leave had been obtained from her confessor, who then clung to her as companion; which serves to commend her very great obedience. "On account of which," he says, "she came to such humility and obedience and perfect mortification of her own will that, when she went about to the Indulgences and sanctuaries, always accompanied by the aforesaid priest" (Peter, afterwards confessor of Vadstena), "her spiritual father, she did not dare to raise the look of her eyes from the ground unless she had first asked and obtained special leave for this from the same her spiritual father."

[277] But the labour spent by St. Birgitta in visiting churches and honouring the relics of the Saints was not without the fruit with heavenly favours of divine consolations and visions. Various examples are inserted here and there in the books of the Revelations: here are some of them: In book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 2, she is said, when she was in the church of St. Mary Major on the feast of the Virgin's Purification, to have seen, rapt in spirit, the honours which on that day the Angelic spirits in heaven were showing the Blessed Virgin on account of the sword of sorrow foretold by Simeon: in book 6, chapter 104, she is said, when she had gone to the monastery of St. Paul outside the walls, and had there received as a gift some of the relics of St. Anne, to have heard from St. Anne appearing to her: "But my relics, which thou hast, shall be a solace to those who love them, until it shall please God to honour them more highly in the last resurrection." In the same book, chapter 108, St. Stephen is said to have appeared to her as she was praying at the tomb of St. Stephen (it is situated in the Church of St. Lawrence in the Ager Veranus beside the Via Tiburtina), and to have foretold the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Things of this kind and some others from the books of the Revelations, which took place in the Churches of St. Mary Major, St. Peter, etc., Burlamacchi relates in the Life of St. Birgitta, book 2, chapter 2. Of the Crucifix that spoke to St. Birgitta in the Church of St. Paul see Durante, On Visions, chapter 10. A certain count also was struck by God with blindness, who had resolved to carry off by force St. Catherine, who had gone out together with her Mother to gain the indulgences in the church of St. Lawrence outside the walls; but he obtained his sight again at the prayers of SS. Birgitta and Catherine, which he confessed before Urban V (he sat from the year 1362 to the year 1370). See Ulpho in the Life of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 509 and following, number 25 and the two following.

[278] is often honoured, St. Birgitta, however, had been forewarned by St. Catherine of the impending danger: but she, as being taught by God that the journey which she had resolved on would be safe, despising the danger, went on courageously. Not rarely they had reason to fear, when they went out in public, from the insults of insolent and impudent men, as Ulpho intimates in numbers 23 and 24 of the Life just cited: yet on that account they did not abstain from visiting the churches, being either admonished or encouraged to it by God, as happened in the case related toward the end of the preceding number, or by the Virgin Mother of God: for that this last also happened from time to time we learn from book 6, chapter 105, where the Mother of God is said to have addressed St. Birgitta thus: "Why art thou so troubled, Daughter? She answered: Because I do not visit these holy places which are in Rome. And the Mother: It is permitted thee, she said, to visit these places with humility and devout reverence, because in this Rome there are greater indulgences than men can believe, which the Saints of God have merited to obtain from my Son by their glorious blood and prayers." That this happened about the beginning of St. Birgitta's arrival at Rome, when she was toiling to learn thoroughly the precepts of the Latin tongue, the last words of the cited chapter show: "Nevertheless, Daughter, do not on account of these things leave thy schools in Grammar, nor the holy obedience of thy spiritual father."

[279] seen at times also Finally, with how great piety and ardour of mind fixed on God St. Birgitta was accustomed to visit sacred places of this kind may easily be gathered from the note of Nicholas Orsini, count of Nola, who enjoyed St. Birgitta's familiarity, to Alphonsus,

formerly bishop of Jaén, sent, in which he testifies the following on this matter, in Hörmann, page 814: "Since I intended to report things by better known marks, I describe what was to be brought forward in the last place. Do you not remember, father, that while we were together at Perugia and also at Todi you were narrating wonderful things of this kindly Lady, and especially of that which John of Pornacio, poor for the love of Christ, had related to you; which on a certain day, if I recall rightly, being adjured by you and by me, bound by reason of obedience, he declared: that, some years having then elapsed, while he was visiting the Lateran church, he met near the Colosseum the aforesaid Lady, and looking at her, when he looked well, most splendid rays were coming forth all around her head and body in the manner in which they proceed from the sun; looking at her more effectually and fixing his steps, not only did this vision continue, but he perceived her raised from the ground, being carried, not walking, but by whom he could not see. Looking after her also, rays likewise shone from the back of her head; and lest he should be in doubt about the vision, the Lord permitted him to see that same thing again. For when the Lady herself was on the road by which one goes from St. Mary Major to Holy Cross in Jerusalem, that same John met her, who saw her radiant, as above."

[280] That it happened often at other times too that St. Birgitta appeared raised in the air to be raised in the air. Boniface IX testifies, probably having regard also to the testimony of the count of Nola just recited, speaking thus of St. Birgitta in the Bull of Canonization: "This wonderful widow also, while she was giving herself to prayer and contemplation, was often seen by very many devout persons raised from the ground by about the measure of a man, with a splendid and radiant face." The same fact which the count of Nola related above in the first place Birger also seems to describe at number 28. For its substance is the same, and the place agrees, which for the count of Nola is the Colosseum, but for Birger between the Campo de' Fiori and the church of St. John (Lateran), between which the Colosseum lies. Similarly the Addition to chapter 55 of the Extravagant Revelations has it that St. Birgitta, while she was still in her homeland and in the monastery of Alvastra, was seen raised on high: "Likewise brother Gerrechinus once saw in the said monastery of Alvastra lady Birgitta raised in the air and a river coming forth from her mouth. And then, as he prayed, he heard in spirit one saying thus: This is the woman who, coming from the ends of the earth, will give wisdom to drink to countless nations."

[281] Birger, treating of St. Birgitta while she was staying at Rome, Her own sins and those of others after he has commended her at number 25 for modesty, for sparingness and caution in words, and also for frequent confession and penance even for lighter faults, then relates two singular prerogatives with which she was adorned by God; one, by which, if she perhaps sinned in word, a certain bitterness presently diffused through her mouth warned her of the fault: the other, by which, if perhaps another, conversing with her, offended God by words, she understood this also from a certain huge stench of the one so speaking. "When, however," he says, "she spoke anything that was an offence of God, she at once felt in her mouth the greatest bitterness, as of sulphur, knowing that she had offended God in this, and, bringing back that word to memory, she ran more quickly to the waters of salutary confession, as the hart, etc. Similarly, if anyone spoke to her any vicious or deceitful words which offended God, she at once felt in her nostrils a horrible stench of sulphur, which she could scarcely bear, having this as a sign that God was offended in the words of that person from whose mouth there proceeded the fire and sulphur of unclean speech to the nostrils of the Bride of God, in which the Spirit of the Lord dwelt."

[282] A deed of this kind Peter of Alvastra narrates in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 81, in the following words: she perceives by sense. "This great thing from the grace of the Holy Spirit the Bride of Christ had, that, as often as men full of an unclean and proud spirit came near her, she at once felt such a stench, and had in her mouth so bitter a taste, that she could scarcely bear it. Whence a certain man full of sins, when he had sat down with her, asked her, saying: What of the spirit which thou art said to have, is it from thee, or from someone else, or perhaps from a demon? But she, scarcely able to bear his stench, said: Thou hast a fetid inhabitant, and fetid are the things which proceed from thy mouth. Do penance, therefore, lest the vengeance of God come upon thee. He withdrew exceedingly angry; but when he had given himself to sleep, he heard the voices of countless demons saying: Let us drag this man to the places of swine, because he spurns the warnings of salvation; and he, returning to himself, corrected by the grace of God his criminal life. And afterwards a good odour, the stench having been removed, returned." Likewise in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 87, these things are read: "On a certain day, when the Bride had sat down with a certain bishop and other more noble persons, she then felt an abominable stench as of the putrefaction of fish-scales, and, the lords wondering that she alone felt the stench and not the others, at once there entered into the house a man who was excommunicated, but on account of his power did not care for the bond of excommunication, etc." But this perhaps happened while Birgitta was in Sweden: for at the end of the cited chapter there is added: "Therefore let the king labour that such men be punished, lest by sharing with them more be stained."

[283] How perfect Thence Birger goes on to St. Birgitta's obedience and voluntary poverty: "There was in her such obedience that in nothing would she be without a preceptor, whose salutary precepts she strove to obey in all things." On the same head Boniface IX praises her thus in the Bull of Canonization: "She observed a tenacious obedience toward prelates and her superiors and confessors, so much so that without at least her confessor's leave she would scarcely presume to raise her eyes." Alphonsus has things similar to these in the Letter to the kings, chapter 3, whose words I gave at number 277. Nor is St. Birgitta undeservedly extolled for obedience, the praise of which virtue is abundantly shown to be her due even by her very pilgrimage from her homeland to Rome, undertaken by the command of God, and by the whole part of her life which she spent at Rome, inasmuch as, living there, she most faithfully fulfilled whatever was commanded her by God, no distinction of persons being made, as can partly be gathered from what has already been said, partly may be seen here and there in the books of the Revelations: nor did she ever set foot out of Rome unless warned by God, as is read in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 8; nay, she was not even accustomed to go out to visit the Roman churches unless God had first been consulted, as can be gathered from Ulpho in the Life of St. Catherine, number 25, where he says of Catherine, the diligent imitator of her Mother, that she did not go out beyond the walls of the City to gain the Indulgences unless she had been forewarned by a divine oracle and assured by her through divine revelation. Finally, she who, already advanced in age, did not hesitate to make for Jerusalem from Rome by a journey surely arduous and long, that she might obey God. How great, moreover, was her obedience toward the preceptors of her soul, see, if you please, one or two particular examples in the book of the Extravagant Revelations, chapters 60 and 61.

[284] obedience Although, however, the things which are related in the said chapters seem to have happened not at Rome but in the monastery of Alvastra (so the manuscript Notices sent to our predecessors by Father van der Ketten from the German or Belgic Life of St. Birgitta have it), it was permitted to indicate them here, so that the reader may conjecture from them of what sort and how great was the obedience of St. Birgitta not only while at Rome but throughout her whole life. A notable example of obedience is what is read in the Notices just praised, and which I therefore transcribe here in the very words in which it is conceived in the Notices: it runs thus: "When now the holy lady Birgitta was dwelling before the monastery of Alvastra, in the second year she fell ill. And the doctors told her that she could not be healed without the use of baths; understanding which she is much saddened: for she had proposed to beware of such things and to abstain from them altogether, and so she refused the baths. Hearing which, master Matthias said these words to her: I command thee in virtue of holy obedience to obey the prescription of the physicians: for necessity compels it, that others still may obtain salvation through thee. Then she, answering, said: O dear father, if you had simply ordered this of me by one word, I would have done your will, and now I will carry it out the more diligently since you have commanded it of me in virtue of holy obedience: for I rejoice beyond measure that I have someone whom I may obey; because for obedience's sake I am ready to leave all things which are forbidden me, and to do what is commanded me, however arduous it might be for me, for His sake who obeyed His Father unto death."

[285] Of St. Birgitta's voluntary poverty Birger speaks thus in general: and of voluntary poverty "Voluntary poverty so pleased her that she handed over all things which she had in her possession into the hands of another to be dispensed. Of which, as often as she wished to have anything for herself or others, she most humbly asked that it be given her in the name of Jesus Christ, as if she had never possessed the things asked for. She preferred the advantage of the persons with her to her own, for, hiding her own need, she asked that necessaries be ministered to others, of which she herself had more need than the rest, that she might love her neighbour purely for God's sake." That St. Birgitta was accustomed to ask of others, as things belonging to others, what was necessary for her use, can also be deduced from chapter 65 of the Extravagant Revelations, where Christ, prescribing to her and her household a certain daily manner of living, is read among other things to have commanded: "Eat the loaves which are set before you. And if you need more than are set before you, ask in My name of the master. And let the same law be for drink as for bread." That at Rome she was from time to time pressed by want of money is gathered from chapter 46 of book 6 of the Revelations, where the blessed Virgin, when Birgitta asked, "Ought I to accept borrowed money on my credit for some certain time?" is read to have answered: "If thou art certain that thou wilt be able to pay at the fixed time, accept the loan; but if not, let it go. For it is better for thee to lack food for one day than to expose thy credit for an uncertainty." How slender, moreover, her household goods were is clear from these words of St. Birgitta premised a little before in the same place: "We have garments which we use night and day, and a few vessels for our table; the priest, however, has his books, and for Mass we have a chalice and ornaments."

[286] Thorir Andersson too, in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1405, mentions the poverty zealous, which

St. Birgitta was from time to time pressed by while she was at Rome; where he writes this of Peter the tailor, one of the first lay brothers of the monastery of Vadstena, who died there in that year: "He once came to Rome, St. Birgitta being still alive and staying there, with the purpose of making pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And because St. Birgitta was then in need of money, she asked him to grant her the money which he then had with him and to return to the homeland, that there he might take back the same money from St. Birgitta's friends. Which he forthwith did, and returned into Sweden, and, having there taken back the said money, accomplished the said pilgrimage to holy Jerusalem." See also what Ulpho the monk relates in the Life of St. Catherine of her and her Mother's not moderate poverty at number 37 and following; in the former of which he says that St. Catherine did not blush to wear, even in the company of noble Roman women, sleeves sewn together from various shreds, which, however, not without a prodigy appeared to her companions as very precious and shining with purple.

[287] examples being adduced, In the following number Ulpho relates that it happened that St. Catherine lay sick at Rome, and a certain Roman nobleman asked to speak with her. "Hearing this," says Ulpho, "their household blushed within themselves that so great a lord should see her lying in so poor a bed." She was lying, namely, upon a straw pallet, having one little cushion under her head, covered above with an old and mended mantle or little cloak: but again everything appeared altogether magnificently furnished, so that for wonder he said to the servants: "These ladies are reckoned poor among all, whence they frequently borrow money for buying necessaries: it would be better that they should sell for necessaries the purple of so great price and that noble furnishing which we have seen in their house, than that they should be pressed by want and penury of food and clothing." At number 39, finally, he says that St. Catherine was accustomed to wear a mean garment of ash colour, old and patched, such as Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization, to be given below, affirms St. Birgitta also used.

[288] is shown. The love of the same voluntary poverty, joined with great lowliness of mind, impelled St. Birgitta, despising the splendour of her family, to join herself indiscriminately to the poor themselves for receiving alms, and to spend her labour in repairing their torn garments, which the Pontiff just cited again testifies in these words: "She was of admirable and approved humility, so that sometimes, sitting unknown together with poor pilgrims at the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna in the City, of the Order of St. Clare, she received an alms and kissed it with thanksgiving. And frequently with her own hands and out of reverence for God she repaired the garments of the poor." So that surely St. Birgitta is deservedly praised here by Birger for zeal for voluntary poverty: she shone indeed with more virtues, as is plain from the volumes of her revelations, both at Rome and elsewhere; but it has seemed good to treat here a little more fully than he of those only which Birger her biographer briefly hands down, lest, if we had to treat of all altogether, we should be more lengthy than is right. To other things which she did at Rome I now proceed, following Birger.

[289] from Rome, invited by St. Francis, "Then," he says, "some years having passed" (from her arrival at Rome, as it appears), "the Bride of God was commanded to go to Sicily and Naples under these words: It is permitted thee, said the Son, to visit the holy places in Sicily" (or rather the kingdom of Naples, which then obeyed Joanna, also queen of Sicily), "because there are there the bodies of many who loved Me with their whole heart, among whom the chief is My Apostle Thomas; where, when thou hast arrived, I will show thee some secrets": so briefly Birger of the sacred journeys undertaken by St. Birgitta while she was staying at Rome, before she undertook the pilgrimage to Jerusalem: but indicating confusedly various and different journeys of hers, which therefore come here to be illustrated somewhat more fully from elsewhere. And first, so as not to repeat anything here of her journey to the abbey of Farfa, more probably undertaken in the year 1350 (as we saw above), she went at some time to Assisi, invited by St. Francis; after the year 1350 indeed, since, as will presently be seen, she went there with her daughter Catherine as companion; although I do not have at hand anything by which I might determine that year accurately. This Assisi journey of St. Birgitta is related in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 3, in this manner: "On the feast of St. Francis, in his church at Rome in Trastevere, St. Francis appeared to the same Bride of Christ, saying to her: Come into my chamber to eat and drink with me.

[290] "Hearing which, she at once prepared herself for the journey, to visit him at Assisi, making for Assisi where, when she had stayed for five days, proposing then to return to Rome, she entered the church to commend herself and her people to St. Francis. To whom he then appeared, saying: Welcome, for I invited thee into my chamber that thou mightest eat and drink with me. Know, however, that this house is not the chamber which I spoke of to thee, but my chamber is true obedience, which I always kept, so that I never endured to be without a preceptor": in the remaining words St. Francis explains there the food and drink to which he had invited St. Birgitta so that he interprets his food to have been the conversion of his neighbour from the vanity of the world to the service of God, and his drink the joy which he received from the conversion of his neighbour to God, to which he then likewise invites and encourages St. Birgitta to imitate as far as she could. Moreover, if credence is to be given to Peter of Alvastra, Extravagant Revelations, chapter 90, when St. Birgitta was in the church of the Franciscan Fathers, she suffered some doubt about the truth of the Indulgences (without doubt those of the Portiuncula), because she had heard from certain persons that they were nothing: but Christ took from her every scruple on that matter by these words: "To him" (St. Francis) "asking out of charity, I, who am truth itself, gave a sign" (how this happened, see volume 2 of October, page 885 and following), "namely that all who came to his place empty should be filled with My blessing and be loosed from their sins."

[291] This journey also Ulpho mentions in the Life of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 510, with her daughter Catherine number 28: "It happened, moreover, that St. Francis appeared in a vision to Blessed Birgitta, inviting her to see his chamber. And when she at once, as one devout to St. Francis, obeying, disposed herself to go to Assisi to the church of the same Saint which is called of the Portiuncula, it was commanded her by Christ that lady Catherine should follow her, because she desired with great desire to make pilgrimage there": from whose words it follows that St. Catherine was her Mother's companion on this journey, and that this happened after the year 1350, as I was saying above, unless perhaps it happened in the same year in which St. Catherine came to Rome, that is, in the year 1350. Ulpho, at the cited number and the following, relates certain circumstances of that journey, from which it is plain with what singular protection of God St. Birgitta and her daughter Catherine and the rest of the household were favoured on that journey. For when they had strayed from the road, and the day was already declining, they were scarcely received into a mean tavern, into which some while afterwards a band of robbers entered. These, having beheld St. Catherine's beauty, were preparing to bring a stain upon her chastity; for by words little honest they were already betraying what they had in mind.

[292] she escapes a band of robbers prodigiously. But when, about the middle of the night, the robbers were now on the point of carrying out what they had in mind, God was present to them as they turned to prayer, and suddenly a great crash of arms resounded, struck by which the robbers, ill conscious of themselves, gave themselves very swiftly to flight, nor did they dare to return there that night: but on the next day they beset in numbers the road which led to Assisi: Birgitta, however, and her companions, God protecting His own, passed through the midst of the robbers, seen by none of them though in clear light, and arrived at Assisi safe and unharmed, as Ulpho narrates more fully. That this journey, moreover, is plainly other than those of which there will presently be speech, the words of Ulpho with which he puts an end to his narrative teach: they are these: "And so they escaped their hands in the name of the Lord, completing the pilgrimage to the threshold of St. Francis, where, much refreshed by divine consolations, praising with great joy the great works of God, they returned to Rome."

§ XX. Likewise the journey to Naples.

On another journey Another journey of St. Birgitta, while she was staying at Rome, was by God's command one of greater distance and delay through the kingdom of Naples, which she undertook to visit the basilicas of the chief Saints in it and to honour their sacred remains, which Birger, cited in the words at number 290, mentions. Having heard these things, St. Birgitta, as Birger adds, somewhat terrified (as being one whose age was already advanced and broken, and who had little means for undertaking a journey of this kind), understood from Christ that neither wealth nor the necessary strength would be lacking to her. "And truly," says Birger, "so it was: for as long as she stayed at Naples, the lady queen of Sicily" (Joanna) "and other nobles of the kingdom honoured her very much with gifts and presents." As regards, however, what St. Birgitta did there, Birger says that she showed herself there an example of all virtues, that she attacked the sins of the city and of men of every kind as freely as fearlessly, that she publicly set forth the divine revelations made concerning the people of Naples, that she visited the relics of the Saints, and that at length, a rich fruit of souls having been gathered from that journey, she returned again to Rome. These things Birger in general of St. Birgitta's journey to Naples, which I now undertake to explain somewhat more plainly.

[294] St. Andrew at Amalfi, And first indeed some light is added to some of the things which we have heard from Birger from chapter 107 of book 6 of the Revelations, where certain statements of Birger, if you look at the substance, are also related: it runs thus: "The Son speaks to the Bride, saying: The eagle sees from on high who wishes to harm her young, and forestalls him by flight, defending them. So I foresee more salutary things for you; therefore I say, wait; and again I say, go; but because it is now time, go to the city of Amalfi to My Apostle Andrew. Whose body was My temple, adorned with every virtue. Therefore it has been made there a depository of the faithful and a help of sinners. For those who come there to him with a faithful mind are not only unburdened of their sins, but shall abound with eternal consolation. Nor is it a wonder: for he did not blush at My cross, but bore it cheerfully; and therefore I do not blush to hear and receive those for whom he prays, because his will is My will: but when you have been with him, return at once to Naples for My Nativity": from which words it seems possible to gather

that St. Birgitta first went to Naples, then to Amalfi to visit the relics of St. Andrew, and from there returned again to Naples. The remaining words of the cited chapter, by which Birger's statements about St. Birgitta's fear of undertaking the journey and the divine consolation then made to her are confirmed, are these: "The Bride answered: O Lord, our time is passing, and age and infirmity are drawing near, and temporal support is lessening. To whom the Lord: I, He said, am the maker, lord and reformer of nature. I am also the helper in necessities… I … will inspire the hearts of those who love Me to do good to those who desire Me, etc."

[295] Further, on that journey St. Birgitta went not only to Naples and Amalfi, St. Bartholomew at Benevento, but also to Benevento, Ortona, Monte Gargano, Manfredonia, Bari and Salerno. That she went to Benevento, indeed, where St. Bartholomew is venerated with particular honour, we learn from the Declaration subjoined to chapter 125 of book 4, where a certain bishop among her companions, obeying St. Birgitta's counsels, is said to have been freed from the disease of the stone when he was at Benevento together with St. Birgitta. "The first animal" (so sound the words of the Declaration), "that is, the first bishop, proud of his nobility, was converted by the words of the Holy Spirit; who, coming to Rome and following lady Birgitta as far as Naples, when they were at Benevento, suffered most grievously from the stone. To him, as he was sick, the Holy Spirit said through the lady: It was commanded to the King of Israel, when sick, that he should put a poultice upon his wound. So let this man do; let him take up true charity in his mind toward God, which is the best medicine, and at once he will feel health. Hearing which, he made a vow, and recovered in mind and flesh." It is added in the same place: "Of this bishop there is found in the IIIrd book" (of the Revelations) "chapter XII." He, moreover, is said to have been bishop of Växjö in Sweden, a bishop of which see, by name Thomas, occurs in the Vadstena Diary at the year 1405, where he is said to have been present at the building of the monastery of Vadstena "until lady Catherine and others came from Rome to Vadstena with the relics of blessed Birgitta, then dead," namely in the year 1374, so that most probably this Thomas is the same as that bishop of Växjö who, having followed St. Birgitta from Rome to Naples, was freed at Benevento from the disease of the stone by St. Birgitta's counsels.

[296] Ortona is a coastal city of Hither Abruzzo in the kingdom of Naples, St. Thomas and has a church dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle, whose relics it enjoys: the Roman Martyrology at the 3rd day of July has this of St. Thomas's relics: "At Edessa in Mesopotamia, the translation of St. Thomas the Apostle from India: whose relics were afterwards translated to Ortona," namely in the year 1258, on the 6th day of September, as Ughelli relates from an Ortona monument which he recites in volume 6 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 774 and following. That St. Birgitta also venerated these we learn from chapter 4 of book 7 of the Revelations, where Christ is said to have addressed her thus: "Therefore I wish thee to know for most certain that in this place is My most choice treasure, namely the relics of My Apostle St. Thomas, which in no place are so many as in this altar" (of the Blessed Virgin), "incorrupt and undivided." What, however, befell St. Birgitta at Ortona, receive from the Addition subjoined to the chapter just cited. "When lady Birgitta had gone to Ortona, it happened that she with her companions stood the whole night under the open sky [*] in cold and great rain. Then about dawn Christ said: For three reasons tribulation comes to men: either for greater humility, as King David was troubled; or for greater fear and caution, as Sara, the wife of Abraham, who was carried off by the king; or for the consolation of the man and his honour.

[297] at Ortona, "So too it has befallen you. For I prompted the minds of those who met you that you should not proceed further that day, but you would not believe; therefore you suffered what you had. Therefore you will now enter the city, and My servant Thomas will give you what you desire." Likewise of the same, but on another occasion, as will appear from what is to be said: "Christ appeared at Ortona, saying: I told thee before that St. Thomas My Apostle was My treasure. This is certainly true… Then also St. Thomas appeared, saying: I will give thee the treasure long desired by thee. And at the same moment, no one touching it, there came forth from the very chest of the relics of St. Thomas one little piece of one bone of blessed Thomas, which the Lady, receiving it with joy, reverently kept." Whatever may be the case with the apparitions related here, that a part of the relics of St. Thomas fell to St. Birgitta in this way Boniface IX also affirms in the Bull of Canonization, saying: "When, however, this notable Widow had come a second time from a long pilgrimage to Ortona, land of the diocese of Chieti, in which a great part of the relics of the most blessed Thomas the Apostle is preserved; for it had been revealed to her long before by a vision that at the second time of her coming to that land her devout desire would be fulfilled; and while, standing, she visited the relics with her accustomed devotion, the same Apostle, appearing to the devout Widow, said: 'There shall be given thee what has been long desired.' And presently, no one touching or otherwise impelling it, a certain little piece of one bone of the said Apostle leapt of its own accord from the chest of relics into the hands of the expectant Widow, which she, receiving it with joy and devotion, kept with the highest veneration." These things the Pontiff: but what was the long pilgrimage of St. Birgitta which he mentions, whether the Neapolitan, of which we now treat, or the Jerusalem one, of which later, is not clear to me.

[298] St. Michael on Monte Gargano, withdrawing from which There is situated also in the same kingdom Monte Gargano in Apulia, long since most celebrated for the cult of St. Michael and the other holy angels, as may be seen at length in volume 8 of September. St. Birgitta did not think it right for herself to pass by so celebrated a place without greeting it: having come there, not without sorrow she noticed that that place was held in less veneration than was fitting and than it had formerly been accustomed to be held, not only among foreigners but also among the natives: moved, therefore, by the calamity and blindness of the inhabitants, she poured out prayers for their sins and conversion to God: but she is said in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 131, to have received this answer from God: "They are accustomed to filth, and are not taught except by blows, and would that they may know themselves in discipline and come to their senses." When she had satisfied her piety here, she withdrew to Manfredonia, likewise a city of Apulia, not far removed from Monte Gargano, intending to pass from there to Bari: but when she came to Manfredonia from Monte Gargano, she performed a notable miracle on the bishop of Växjö, her companion, of whom above: it is described thus in book 3 of the Revelations, chapter 12: "When lady Birgitta had come down from Monte Gargano to the city of Manfredonia in the kingdom of Apulia, the same bishop, being in the Lady's company, by an accident on the Mountain fell from his horse so heavily that two ribs were broken. In the morning, when the Lady was about to set out for St. Nicholas of Bari, he called her to him, saying: O Lady, it is most grievous to me to remain here without your presence. And it is burdensome also to you to make delay on my account, especially because of these men who make incursions.

[299] "I ask you, he said, by the love of Jesus Christ, she performs a prodigy, that you pray to God for me and touch the side of my pain. For I hope through the touch of your hand that my pain will be mitigated; she, dissolved in tears for compassion, said: O my Lord, I am reckoned what I am not, for I am the greatest sinner in the sight of God. Nevertheless let us all pray to God, and He will answer your faith. Prayer, therefore, having been made, when she had risen, she touched the bishop's side, saying: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal thee. And at once the pain departed, and the bishop, rising, followed the Lady along the whole way until she returned to Rome." Thus far St. Birgitta's Neapolitan journey: but before we follow St. Birgitta going from Manfredonia to Bari, it will be well to observe here in passing a few things from which the time about which she undertook the Neapolitan journey may at least in some fashion be elicited and determined. From what has been said a little before we have that the bishop of Växjö, the Neapolitan journey being completed, returned to Rome together with St. Birgitta. Further, concerning the same bishop, these things are premised to the words just recited from the Declaration subjoined to book 3, chapter 12 of the Revelations: "This was the bishop of Växjö, who, when he was at Rome and was much distressed about his return, it was heard in spirit: Tell, He said, the bishop that his delay is more useful than haste; those too who have gone ahead from his company will follow after him. Therefore, when he has returned to the homeland, he will find My words true. And so all things came to pass. For, returning, he found the king captured and the whole kingdom disturbed, etc." So that bishop, the Neapolitan journey already completed together with St. Birgitta, went away from Rome into Sweden about the year 1365, in which King Magnus, as Loccenius and Torfaeus write, was captured in war by Albert, duke of Mecklenburg, and therefore the Neapolitan journey seems to have already been undertaken at about the same time.

[300] From Manfredonia she went to Bari, to venerate the relics of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas translated there of old: "At Bari also in Apulia," says the Roman Martyrology on that matter at the 9th day of May, "the translation of St. Nicholas, bishop, from the city of Myra in Lycia." Baronius adds, from Sigebert and from the History of the event by John the archdeacon to Ursus, bishop of Bari, that this happened in the year 1087: Ughelli, however, in volume 7 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, from column 608, exhibits a diploma of Urban II given at Bari in the year 1089 on the 9th day of October, which begins thus: "Since in our times the omnipotent God deigned to visit with the body of His blessed confessor Nicholas the church of Bari, which by God's authority thou rulest, most dear brother" (the Pontiff addresses Elias, archbishop of Bari), "which is called of Canosa" (namely because of the episcopal see translated from Canosa), "etc.": where also at column 607 Ughelli relates this brief history of the translation: "For the rest, the greatest glory of Ursus is that, while he was bishop, a part of the bones of the most holy bishop Nicholas of Myra was carried to Bari. The year of the Incarnate Word MLXXXVII was turning, Victor III being Pontiff, when sixty men, the greatest part of whom were of Bari, merchants, had put in at Myra, a city of Lycia, a little before captured by the Turks and almost utterly destroyed, and had found a few men, both of the faithful of Christ and of the clerics, guardians of the sacred things in the cathedral; against their will they carried off a part of the bones of Nicholas the Great of Myra, and brought them back to Bari, their homeland." Ughelli adds that these were afterwards placed in the church of St. Nicholas which was built, and flow with a perennial liquor, healthful to the sick.

[301] at Bari Further, when St. Birgitta came to Bari,

she held nothing more important than to go to the shrine of St. Nicholas and venerate him with her accustomed devotion and piety: whence it came about that she herself, in that place likewise as was her custom, was refreshed with heavenly consolation: for, as is read in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 103: "When the Bride was visiting the relics of St. Nicholas at Bari at his tomb, she began to think of that liquor of oil flowing from his body. And then, rapt outside herself in spirit, she saw a certain person, anointed with oil and smelling most fragrantly, who said to her: I am Nicholas the bishop, who appear to thee in such a form as I was disposed in soul while I lived. For all my members were so fitted and pliable for the service of God, as an anointed thing, which is pliable for the work of its possessor; and therefore the praise of exultation was always in my soul, and divine preaching in my mouth, and patience in my work, because of the virtues of humility and chastity which I especially loved. But now, because in the world the bones of many are dry of the divine moisture, they therefore give forth a sound of vanity and a grating from mutual collision, and are unfit for bearing the fruit of justice and abominable to God to behold. But know thou that, as the rose gives forth odour and the grape sweetness, so God gave to my body a singular blessing of flowing with oil, because He not only honours His elect in heaven, but also gladdens and exalts them on earth, that more may be edified and share in the grace given to them."

[302] she goes to venerate, not without hardships. How many troubles, moreover, this Neapolitan journey caused St. Birgitta and her companions can be gathered from those things which befell them at Bari. For by the continual labour of the pilgrimage, the lack of necessaries, and the constant habit of fasting, their strength had been so broken that not a few of them, when they came to Bari, began to be seized with bodily sickness: but the merciful God at that time (namely of Advent), appearing to St. Birgitta, who, placed in necessity and moved by the calamities of her people, had consulted Him, granted that they should use all things which were offered to them, even meats. So Peter of Alvastra, Extravagant Revelations, chapter 99, in these words: "When blessed Birgitta was going from Rome to the tomb of St. Andrew the Apostle in the kingdom of Sicily, because of various infirmities she could not pass except in the city of Bari. And since it was the time of the Lord's Advent, in which she was accustomed to fast, and in her company there were many sick, and on that road fish were not found, she asked God to have compassion on them, lest they should offend God, or scandalise their neighbour by eating, or the sick should fail by fasting. Then Christ, appearing, said: Fish are very cold, and the season is not very warm, the road difficult and stony, and you are sick. Therefore eat what is found, for I am above all vows. And the things which are for the honour of God and the moderate sustenance of the flesh will not be imputed as sin."

[303] Burlamacchi presently leads St. Birgitta, departing from Bari, to Salerno, a city of the Picentini, at Salerno she visits St. Matthew, and writes that she was honoured there by an apparition of St. Matthew, from the Addition to chapter 129 of book 4 of the Revelations: but at that place I find noted not Salerno but Malpha (I interpret Melfi or Melphia, a small city in Lucania, about midway between Bari and Salerno). The cited Addition has this: "This following revelation was made at Malpha, where St. Matthew rests." These words, "where St. Matthew rests," plainly designate not Melfi but Salerno, to which the relics of St. Matthew were long ago translated about the year 954, and honoured with very celebrated cult, as may be seen in volume 6 of September, page 210 and some following. For although the relics of St. Matthew were dispersed in various places, yet I have nowhere found that his body, or, if you prefer, the greater part of his relics, rested at Melfi in St. Birgitta's age, or became famous by the visitation of the faithful flocking there: so that I altogether judge that Burlamacchi rightly substituted Salerno for Malpha or Melphia. Further, whatever may be the case about the place where St. Matthew's apparition to Birgitta took place, the holy Evangelist is said in the cited Addition to have disclosed to Birgitta the plan of his life, the manner of the Gospel written by him, and with what glory he was enjoying himself in heaven, which whoever wishes can consult at the place cited.

[304] Hence finally, as I said at number 294, she withdrew to Amalfi to venerate St. Andrew the Apostle, and at length about the feast of Christ's Nativity returned to Naples: and Amalfi Amalfi, moreover, is a city of the Picentini, situated in the borders of ancient Lucania, or the Hither principality, by the Tyrrhenian sea, thirty miles distant from Naples, as Ughelli has it in volume 7 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 183. "The chief protector of the city," says the same Ughelli at column 187, "is saint Andrew the Apostle, a cathedral church of whose name, of most noble architecture, most beautiful, was dedicated by the people of Amalfi; adorned by Peter of Capua, cardinal priest and citizen of Amalfi, with the body of the same Apostle, which, while he was acting as legate of the Apostolic See there, was carried from Constantinople, from the church of St. Andrew of the Amalfitans, to Amalfi, and laid up with the highest honour" (in the year 1208, on the 7th day of May). "Those sacred bones lie in the lower crypt of the church and on an altar adorned most seemly and with royal cult by the Catholic kings Philip the second or third, who, aroused by devotion, adorned the place through their viceroys of the kingdom." Ughelli exhibits the history of the translation from the very original of the cathedral archive at column 206 and the three following. For the rest, I have nowhere found that anything besides happened to St. Birgitta while at Amalfi, except the Revelation of which at the cited number. Let us see, therefore, what at length she did at Naples, from which she returned to Rome.

[305] Burlamacchi in a whole chapter 20 of book 2 of the Life of St. Birgitta describes her deeds at Naples, returning to Naples, and first indeed writes that she took with her to Naples St. Catherine and Birger, her children, Peter Olofsson, her confessor, Magnus the Chaplain, Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, likewise another Swedish bishop, namely of Växjö, and some pious matrons. St. Catherine was always the faithful and perpetual companion of her Mother from the time she came to Rome; whence it becomes most probable that she both made the Neapolitan journey together with her and stayed at Naples: the same seems to be judged of Peter Olofsson and Magnus. As regards, moreover, the bishop of Växjö, from what has already been said there is no doubt that he accompanied St. Birgitta to Naples and returned with her to Rome. That Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, was St. Birgitta's companion to Naples, namely on the journey of which we now treat, is not equally certain to me. Burlamacchi indeed here cites Alphonsus himself asserting this of himself in Raynaldus at the year 1379, number 10. But there Alphonsus's discourse is by no means of the Neapolitan journey of St. Birgitta of which we now treat, but of the Jerusalem one, which took place later, and on whose return he was at Naples with St. Birgitta: for thus he speaks at number 10: "As the said Lady" (Birgitta), "then, was praying upon this at Naples, when we were returning from Jerusalem, etc." Similarly it appears doubtful to me whether Birger was a companion of this journey; who indeed is said in the Louvain Life of St. Birgitta to have come to Rome together with his brother Charles about the year 1365, and in her Abbreviated Life to have accompanied his Mother to Jerusalem; but nowhere, so far as I know, to have made the present Neapolitan journey together with her. That Birger likewise, together with his brother Charles and his Mother, met Pope Urban V at Rome about the year 1367 is gathered from the Chronicle of Abbess Margaret cited at number 70: but neither can it be inferred with certainty from this that he was a companion of the said journey, especially since Burlamacchi does not declare whence he drew it. But let us now hear this author explaining St. Birgitta's deeds at Naples.

[306] with the relics of St. Anne, As soon, he says, as St. Birgitta came to Naples, she filled the city with the fame of her holiness, and, the lodgings of noblemen offered to her in rivalry, she refused them out of lowliness of mind, and preferred to turn aside with her people to the public hospice; which indeed is foreign neither to St. Birgitta's morals nor to the esteem of the Neapolitans for St. Birgitta, by whom Birger writes she was honoured with various gifts, and is confirmed in some fashion by the tradition of the Neapolitans. For there is a report among them that St. Birgitta once lodged among them in the hospice of St. Mary de Advocata, contiguous to the church of St. John at the Sea, where an image of Christ Crucified, renowned for prodigies, before which St. Birgitta was accustomed to pour out prayers, is seen painted on the wall, as Carlo de Lellis in the Supplement to the Napoli Sacra, page 444, and Giuseppe de Magistris in the Additions to book 1 of the State of the church of Naples, page 414, affirm from tablets fixed there. Burlamacchi then relates that St. Birgitta, when she was visiting the churches according to her custom and had gone to the church of the Franciscan nuns of Holy Cross, one of them was moved inwardly in mind by God to give her some of the hairs of St. Mary, which Peter of Alvastra likewise narrates in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 94, in this manner: "When St. Birgitta was staying for some time in the city of Naples, a certain sister, Clare by name, in the monastery of the nuns at Holy Cross, sent for her and said to her: I have, she said, relics of the hairs of the Mother of God, given to me by the holy queen" (Sancia, wife of King Robert of Sicily), "which I will now give to thee, because it has been divinely inspired in me to commit them to thee. And this shall be a sign to thee that I speak true, that I shall soon die, and shall come to my Lord, whom my soul loves above all. These things having been said, she survived a few days, and, having received the Sacraments of the Church, sent forth her spirit. When, therefore, blessed Birgitta was doubting whether the hairs were of the hairs of the Virgin Mary, or not; then in prayer the same Mother of God appeared to her, saying: As it is true and believed that I was born of Anne and Joachim, so it is true that these hairs grew on my head." Wadding brought this deed into the Annals of the Minors at the year 1359: but since he says that no trace of that Clare exists elsewhere than in the place just adduced, nothing certain can be had from this for the year in which it happened.

[307] Hence Burlamacchi proceeds to the fruits of souls and is enriched with various which St. Birgitta gathered at Naples, whether by the examples of her virtues, or by salutary warnings, or by the free rebuking of sins, and which it is very credible were surely not small. There occur in the books of her Revelations some examples from which it is clear that some were converted to a better course by the work of St. Birgitta while staying there. There occur, I say, examples of this matter

some, but probably a few out of many which were not handed down by written records. These, following Burlamacchi, I mention briefly. In book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 5, there is mention of Elziarius, son of the countess of Ariano, who, being then still a youth and having commended himself to St. Birgitta's prayers, not only received from her salutary instructions and precepts, described more fully in the same place, by which he might order his life rightly, but also heard from her the secrets of his heart and certain things which would befall him in the course of time. Whence it came about that he turned himself to better things: for thus it is read in the Addition subjoined to the cited chapter: "When lady Birgitta was staying at Naples, there were revealed to her the most secret things of the heart of Elziarius, afterwards Cardinal, and certain wonderful things to come concerning him. Hearing which, he, astounded, was converted to better things." This Elziarius, or, as Ughelli calls him in volume 6 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, Eleazar de Sabran, was the son of William, count of Ariano, and of Francesca of Celano, the nephew of St. Elzear, inserted in the number of the Saints by Urban V in the year 1369, promoted to the See of Chieti in the Abruzzi in the year 1373, and in the year 1378 presented with the Roman purple by Urban VI, of which, although he was afterwards deprived by Clement VII, yet Oldoino, where he treats of the Pontificate of Urban VI, notes that he was a man of blameless life and upright morals by the testimony of all the writers of that age. To him perhaps St. Birgitta foretold the bishopric and the cardinal's dignity; and he seems, as long as he lived, to have held the memory of St. Birgitta in esteem and veneration, and gave abundant proof of it in deed when he diligently applied himself to her canonization after her death.

[308] With Elziarius Burlamacchi joins Gomez (Berthold at number 29 calls him Gomez of Spain, of the duchy of Spoleto), whom St. Birgitta persuaded to leave the court of Queen Joanna, with fruits of souls: and to change his life for the better according to certain precepts which she set before him. What these were, the Addition after chapter XI of book VII of the Revelations explains, where the Mother of God is said to have addressed St. Birgitta, as she poured out prayers for Gomez, thus: "Counsel him to do justice wherever he can. And if he knows that he has ill-gotten goods, let him not delay to restore them. Let him beware also of imposing unwonted burdens on his subjects. And let him be content with what he has, because they suffice him, if he dispenses them moderately and discreetly. Let him flee also like poison women besides his own wife, and let him not lead out an army against anyone, nor be present in person, unless he altogether knows that he has justice and the war is just. Let him strive moreover to frequent confession, and to receive the Body of Christ more frequently, and at certain times of the day to free himself to remember the passion of Christ and His wounds." But, contrary to what Burlamacchi writes, no mention is made here of leaving the court; although perhaps Gomez did this, since in Summonte, volume 2 of the History of Naples, at the end of book 3, I find the chief ministers of Queen Joanna enumerated by name, and no Gomez appears among them; and the pious and modest manner of living which he thereafter held likewise urges this, concerning which consult Berthold just praised, in the Life of St. Birgitta to be published below.

[309] sound counsels to the queen, To these Burlamacchi subjoins many things which St. Birgitta performed for the sake of Joanna, queen of Sicily; but he mixes with them many things which took place not on this Neapolitan journey, but on the one which she undertook later from Rome to Jerusalem, or on the return, and which therefore are to be put off by us to another place. In the place of the revelations just cited St. Birgitta is said to have persuaded Joanna not to advance a certain Antonio Carletto to higher offices, and to have foretold that, if she did so, it would not turn out prosperously: the words of Christ addressing St. Birgitta are described there of this kind: "Tell the queen that she should permit this man to stand in his order. If he ascends to greater things, it will be to the detriment of his soul, and neither he nor his friends will rejoice in his ascent": but Joanna does not seem to have obeyed Birgitta's counsel, since it is added: "So all things came to pass." That St. Birgitta, however, was in the greatest esteem with Queen Joanna will appear both from what is to be said below and from the Letter which she wrote to St. Catherine, St. Birgitta's daughter, after her death, and which Benzelius committed to print after Margaret's Chronicle from a manuscript codex of the public Library of Uppsala, conceived in these words: "Magnificent and venerable lady. After greeting we signify to you that by the grace of God we enjoy our accustomed prosperous health, always desiring to hear glad news of you. Moreover, since we can report something concerning the miracles of lady Birgida of holy memory, your mother, we recount it with the greatest pleasure. Hence also, when the notable youth William, marquess of Montferrat, our kinsman, was sick unto death, and the physicians were altogether in doubt of his life, we vowed him to your said Mother of holy memory, by whose intercessions Christ evidently, by His goodness, brought back the said youth to his former health, and he is sound as before. Which we testify as most true, and about XXX persons are ready to testify it."

[310] and gives health to a sick man; And this indeed was a benefit of St. Birgitta after she had been taken from among the living: receive now another from her Louvain life, related also by Surius at the 23rd day of July with the words slightly changed, which she performed while living and staying at Naples. "A certain boy of about ten years, by name Esau, nephew of the great Seneschal of the queen of Sicily, staying at Naples in the court of the aforesaid queen, was so consumed and dried up by a hectic infirmity that his life was altogether despaired of by the physicians. But his mother, by name Lapa, brought him to lady Birgitta, begging her suppliantly that she would touch the aforesaid boy, or at least imprint the sign of the cross on him. Who then forthwith touched the aforesaid boy, and at once he recovered." Summonte, in book 3 of the History of Naples, page 470 and the two following, among the chief nobles of Joanna I, queen of Sicily, mentions two Seneschals, or prefects of the royal household, Robert de Cabani, and his successor in that office from the year 1345, Niccolò Acciaioli, a Florentine, not rarely mentioned by Matteo Villani, a writer of that time; whose nephew St. Birgitta is said to have presented with soundness.

[311] And I believe this the more, the more probable it is made but foretells death to a sound man. by the fact that Palmieri, in volume 13 of the Writers on Italian affairs, column 1228 and following, who about the year 1453, as Muratori says, wrote the Life of Niccolò Acciaioli from records older than himself and from the report of Adoardo Acciaioli, handed down to posterity concerning St. Birgitta that she foretold Niccolò his death. Palmieri, moreover, has it thus: "Having enjoyed the fortune narrated before" (Niccolò) "foreknew his death by a certain message. Brigida, a most devout woman of Christ and in the kingdom of Sweden princess of Närke, and already then renowned for life and miracles, had come to Rome as a pilgrim. Having set out thence to Naples, she is received into hospitality by Jacoba, the sister of Niccolò Acciaioli, a woman reputed for continence of life: with whom, when she had stayed some days" (she did not, therefore, always flee the hospitality of the nobler sort), "she is said to have called her and foretold that her brother Niccolò would without doubt die very shortly. Fear forthwith struck the woman's mind, and, having gone together to Niccolò's house, they found him with the queen, in good health, as it appeared, transacting great affairs. Jacoba his sister, then consoled, thought that Brigida had prophesied falsely: Niccolò, falling ill the next day, overcome, as is believed, by an abscess, perished on the fourth day. He died, moreover, at Naples in the fifty-sixth year of his age, on the 6th day before the Ides of November, in the year of our Salvation one thousand three hundred and sixty-six." Opportunely Palmieri indicates Niccolò's last year, from which it is gathered that Birgitta undertook the Neapolitan journey about the year 1365. The chief things which concern this Neapolitan journey having now been dispatched, and the things omitted by Birger, her biographer, having been supplied from elsewhere, the series of events would now call us back to him, were there not some other deeds of St. Birgitta, likewise passed over in silence by Birger, remaining to be first recorded, concerning which it has therefore seemed good to treat in the following § before we return to him.

* sub dio

§ XXI. She has the Rule of St. Saviour and the erection of the monastery of Vadstena approved by Urban V: whether she likewise instituted a military Order.

Returned to Rome from Naples, St. Birgitta, returned to Rome from the Neapolitan journey, as far at least as it is permitted to attain by conjecture, directed her labours and cares to obtaining the approval of the Rule of St. Saviour from the supreme Pontiff: that she had it indeed already prepared at the time when she betook herself from Sweden to Rome, never to return there while she lived, we have seen above in §15. But since she was of notable devotion toward the Virgin Mother of God, she desired to transmit to posterity some monument of her to endure perpetually in the religious Order which she was meditating: God at length satisfied her desire, when she had already spent some years at Rome after her withdrawal from her homeland, dictating to her through the ministry of an angel a certain treatise on the Excellence of the Virgin, which they call the Angelic Discourse, and which Hörmann subjoined to the books of the Revelations from page 713, to be recited in divisions at Matins through the weekdays: the thing is read to have happened thus in the Prologue of the Angelic Discourse: "When Blessed Birgitta, princess of Närke of the kingdom of Sweden, was dwelling for many years at Rome in the house of the Cardinalate, which is contiguous to the Church of St. Lawrence in Damaso, then, she not knowing what lessons ought to be read in her monastery" (not yet founded), "which Christ had commanded to be established in Sweden, whose Rule He Himself had dictated to the honour of His Mother, forthwith, as Blessed Birgitta was praying and doubting about this, Christ appeared, saying to her: I will send thee My angel, who will reveal to thee the reading to be read at Matins by the nuns in thy monastery to the honour of the Virgin, My Mother, and he will dictate it to thee, and do thou write it as he shall say to thee.

[313] and after the dictated to her "Blessed Birgitta, therefore, having a chamber whose window looked toward the high altar, whence she could see the Body of Christ daily, prepared herself daily in the same chamber for writing, with tablet and paper and pen in her hands, after she had read her Hours and prayers, and so prepared she awaited the angel of the Lord. Who, coming, placed himself near her at her side, and stood upright most honourably, having his face always, with a reverent gesture, looking toward the altar where the body of Christ was laid up. And so standing, he dictated distinctly and in order, in the mother tongue of Blessed Birgitta, the said reading, that is, the lessons written below, to be read at the Matins of the sisters in the said monastery, which treat of the most excellent excellence from eternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And she wrote them daily most devoutly from the angel's mouth, and to her father

spiritual father" (Peter of Alvastra, who made them, as also the Rules, Latin) "she humbly showed daily those things which she had written that day. But it happened on some days that the angel did not come to dictate. And when on that day she was asked by her spiritual father about that day's writing, if she had written any, then she answered humbly, saying: Father, today I have written nothing, because I waited long for the angel of the Lord, who should dictate, that I might write, and he did not come. And in such manner this Angelic Discourse written below" (so called because dictated by an angel) "on the Excellence of the Virgin was dictated and written down from the mouth of the angel. And it was also divided by the angel into Lessons for Reading at the Matins of the sisters through the week, through the whole circle of the year, as follows below."

[314] the Angelic Discourse, So Peter of Alvastra, not only whose Prologue but also the Angelic Discourse itself I said at number 180 was formerly specially assailed. The substance of this matter, however, Alphonsus of Jaén confirms in the Prologue of the book of the Heavenly Emperor to the kings, chapter 4, in these words: "At times also she saw with the eyes of the body an angel, who by God's command dictated to her, gradually and seriously, a most beautiful and quite long discourse; and as he dictated, she wrote at the same instant; and so was written at intervals of time that most excellent Discourse on the Excellence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is divided into Lessons, which ought to be read through the week by the nuns at Matins in the said Religion of nuns of the Rule of the Saviour." So Alphonsus, most familiar with St. Birgitta while she was among the living: but, someone will ask, what credence is to be given to these things? Certainly not greater than to the testimony of the same Alphonsus and others when they say that the Rule of St. Saviour was dictated to St. Birgitta by Christ; notwithstanding which, the supreme Pontiffs and the prelates of Sweden, as we saw at number 216, when they treat of the Rule of St. Saviour dictated by Christ, are accustomed to use formulas of doubt, "as is piously believed," "as is said," etc.: and so neither do the things related here concerning the Angelic Discourse, or the one dictated by an angel, demand an altogether certain and undoubted credence. The same we believe is to be said also of the various prayers which they hold were likewise revealed to the Saint.

[315] All things, therefore, which pertained to the Rule and the institute of the Religion to be founded by her having been duly ordered, by Christ's command she received in command from Christ that she should apply all the effort she could to obtain its confirmation from the Pontiff: for thus it is read in the Rule of St. Saviour in Hörmann, chapter 30: "Go, and now I say" (so Christ there addresses Birgitta) "that this Rule, dictated from no man's sense, which thou hast heard in the spirit, ought to be confirmed by the Pope, as other Rules, which had earlier been composed from human sense, by the inspiration of the same spirit… Let the Pope moreover admit that in the place which was shown to thee as thou heardest the Rule a monastery be built, for there this Rule is first to be begun. Likewise also let him give the sisters licence to sing daily the Hours of My Mother, which have been completed by the same spirit as the Rule." And again in the following chapter: "Labour, therefore, and co-operate as far as thou canst, and I will complete it when it shall please Me." For the same matter she was also commanded, as is related in book 8 of the Revelations, chapter 51, to write to the emperor, namely Charles of Bohemia, the IVth of this name, among other things in these words: "Know also, thou who holdest the empire, that I, the maker of all, dictated one Rule of nuns to the honour of the most loving Virgin My Mother, and gave it to this Woman who writes to thee. Read it through, therefore, and strive with the supreme Pontiff that the said Rule, dictated by My own mouth, may be approved also among men by him who is My vicar in the world, which I, God, have approved before My heavenly host." St. Birgitta also gave another letter to the same emperor, by which she exhorts him to raise up the virtues then most of all lying prostrate, and to tear out the vices contrary to them; of which see number 257.

[316] Nor indeed was zeal and diligence lacking to Birgitta in carrying out the commands of Christ: concerning approving the Rule of her Order an example of which we reported above at number 70 and following from Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, where she is read to have gone to the Pontiff together with her sons Charles and Birger, that she might render his mind more ready to bring to completion certain affairs which she was meditating. What these affairs entrusted by God to St. Birgitta were, for whose happier success she summoned her sons Charles and Birger to Rome, Margaret indeed did not express: but if you consider the place and time of the event, it will become not unlike the truth that St. Birgitta did this with the purpose of gradually rendering the Pontiff's mind more ready to confirm the Rule and Order of St. Saviour. As regards, moreover, the place of the event, it seems, if Margaret's words are to be taken in the sense which they bear on their face, to have been Rome; for nowhere, so far as I know, is it read that she ever went in person from Rome to Avignon to speak with the Pontiff there: further, from the place of the event, if indeed it was Rome, the time also in which it took place will be elicited not without some probability: for since Urban V, as is read in his Life in Baluze, having left Avignon, came to Rome in the year 1367 to fix his see there, and about three years later, as we shall presently see, approved the Rule of St. Saviour by Pontifical authority at St. Birgitta's request, it becomes very probable that the approach of St. Birgitta and her sons Charles and Birger to the Pontiff took place not long after his arrival at Rome. If these things were so, it is necessary that Charles, St. Birgitta's son, visited his mother at Rome at least twice: and first in the year 1365 without Birger, as appears from the Life of St. Birgitta printed at Louvain and from Surius, § XXIV. For in that Life, no mention being made of Birger, it is read thus: "When Lord Charles, knight, son of Birgitta, had come to Rome from Sweden about the years of the Lord MCCCLXV, he entered the house where his Mother resided. When he entered into the upper room, his kind Mother came out of her chamber, and, seeing the aforesaid lord Charles ill disposed in body, touched his breast, uttering some words of supplication. These having been uttered, he suddenly vomited through his mouth a very great quantity of blood, so much so that he could in no way speak to his Mother, and he recovered." And again about the year 1367, according to Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, already cited.

[317] she treats with Urban V, Not long after the Pontifical see had been brought back to the City by Urban V in the year 1367, St. Birgitta, who, setting out from Sweden in the year 1345 or the following, had already then heard from Christ, as is read in chapter 8 of the Extravagant Revelations, that she would see the Pontiff and the emperor at Rome, treated with both at Rome both concerning the things which pertained to the amendment and state of the Church, and concerning those which pertained to the Rule of St. Saviour and the Order to be instituted by her: but since in the cited chapter of the Extravagantes St. Birgitta is said to have remained at Rome fifteen years until she should see the Pontiff and the emperor there, and as many are counted from the year 1346, in which she came from Sweden to Rome, to the year 1361, hence most probably he who published at Douai in the year 1677 the little book on the Institution of the simple monasteries of St. Saviour wrote thus on this matter in chapter 1: "In the year MDCCCLXI she" (Birgitta) "presented at Rome to Urban V and to Charles of Bohemia, the emperor, according to Christ's command, certain revelations for the reformation of the Church and the aforesaid Rule or Constitutions, to obtain their confirmation from the Pope, by means also of the emperor's favour: which, however, were not confirmed for the time." But a fault lies either in the words of chapter 8 of the Extravagant Revelations, or, which I rather think, these 15 years are to be counted from some other starting point than the year 1346, in which she came to Rome.

[318] but not before the year 1367, For if they are counted from the year 1346, in which Birgitta came to Rome, Urban would have come to Rome in the year 1361 or as near as may be: but Urban did not come there before the year 1367, nor was Charles there together with the Pontiff before the following year. I think, therefore, that those words: "And she remained" (Birgitta at Rome) "according to the divine command XV years, before the Pope came, namely Urban V, and the emperor Charles of Bohemia," are to be so taken that they signify that Birgitta awaited Urban at Rome 15 years, from the time at which she had foreknown that Urban would be pontiff until the time at which he approved the Order and Rule of St. Saviour, or to be counted from about the year 1355 to the year 1370. Certainly Birgitta herself seems to have counted those 15 years thus, according to the count of Nola in the Letter to Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén: thus he on that matter: "When the aforesaid holy Lady was going to Montefiascone" (in the year 1370), "where Urban V of holy memory was residing with his curia, to obtain the confirmation of a certain Rule of hers … she said" (to Urban) "that she would have favour, since for XV years she had awaited the Prelate himself in the City, at which time the Pope himself was abbot of a certain small monastery" (he was made abbot of St. Germanus of Auxerre in the year 1355, according to the Sainte-Marthes) "and his promotion to the Apostolic See was by no means hoped for." As, therefore, here in the XV years in which Birgitta is said to have awaited Urban V's arrival in the City there is reckoned the time during which Urban stayed at Rome from the year 1367 to the year 1370, so also it appears that it is to be reckoned in the 15 years mentioned in the place of the Revelations praised above, the same starting point of numbering being kept in both, however much the words, understood in their obvious sense, may seem to indicate otherwise.

[319] and in the year 1368 More correctly, therefore, Birger speaks on this matter thus at number 24: "But thou shalt stand at Rome" (for how many years he does not express) "until thou shalt see the supreme Pontiff and the emperor there, which also happened in the year of the Lord MCCCLXVII, and revelations concerning the reformation of the state of the Church were sent to both through her." More correctly likewise the Vadstena Chronicle at the same year: "Blessed Birgitta spoke at Rome both to the Pope and to the emperor." But the words both of Birger and of the Vadstena Chronicle seem to be so understood that St. Birgitta met Pope Urban V at Rome in the year 1367, but the emperor Charles IV in the following year, or that in both places the year 1368 is to be substituted for the year 1367: for in this later year Charles IV was first at Rome with Urban V: for thus the author of the second Life of Urban V in Baluze, column 408 and following, describes the meeting of both and Charles IV's stay at Rome.

[320] "On the ninth day of October" (of the year 1368), "about to return to the City, he" (Urban V) "withdrew from Montefiascone and entered Viterbo, with the emperor Charles of Bohemia, where the emperor, coming out of the city of Siena, came to the Pope on the 17th day of the said month, and on the following day, taking the road, went before the Pope to the City, received with joy and honour by the Romans. On Saturday, the twenty-first day of the said month, the lord Pope came to Rome, whom the same emperor, in the office of groom, led by the right hand from the Colline gate, which is near the castle of St. Angelo, to the basilica of St. Peter, going on foot and holding the bridle of the horse. Then, the lord Pope dismounting, the same emperor led him to the altar, and remained in the City, dwelling within the canonry, awaiting the arrival of the lady empress his wife, who came to Rome on the 29th day of the said month with a seemly company. And on the first day of November, the lord Pope celebrating at the altar of St. Peter, the lord cardinal of Ostia anointed her, and the same lord Pope placed the diadem on her, and, two cardinal bishops accompanying her, after the meal she went, crowned, to the Lateran amid the joy of the people who followed her. And the Lord emperor on the same day made knights. On the day of St. Clement" (the 23rd of November) "the lady empress withdrew from the City." Charles, however, had already gone away from Rome "quite soon," says the author of the first Life of Urban, "after the coronation of his wife Elizabeth"; so that St. Birgitta seems to have met the emperor at Rome between the 21st day of October and the 1st of November of the year 1368.

[321] But, whatever St. Birgitta then did, she did not obtain the confirmation or approval of her Order and Rule: although then indeed in vain: in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 137, a Revelation is read which she seems to have offered to the Pontiff between the years 1368 and 1370: it treats of approving the Rule of St. Saviour, and is conceived in these words: "The Son of God speaks to the Bride. He who has a ball of threads, in which there is the best gold, does not cease to spin until he finds the gold. Which being found, the possessor uses it to his honour and advantage. So this Pope Urban is gold ductile to good things, but he is hemmed in by the cares of the world. Therefore go and tell him on My part: Thy time is short; arise and attend how the souls committed to thee may be saved. I offered thee the Rule of the Religion, which ought to be founded and begun in the place of Vadstena in Sweden, which proceeded from My mouth. Now, however, I will that it be not only confirmed by thy authority, but also strengthened by thy blessing, who art My vicar on earth. I dictated it and endowed it with a spiritual dowry, namely by granting the Indulgences which are in the Church of St. Peter's Chains at Rome. Do thou, therefore, approve before men what has been sanctioned before My heavenly host. But if thou seekest a sign that I speak these things, this I have already shown thee, that when thou first heardest My words, thy soul was spiritually consoled at the coming of My messenger. But if thou seekest a further sign, it shall be given thee, but not as to Jonas the Prophet. But thou, My Bride, to whom I have done the said grace, if thou canst not have the letter and grace of the Pope and the seal upon the grant of the said Indulgence except money go before, My grace is sufficient for thee. For I will approve and confirm My word, and all the saints will be My witnesses. My Mother will be thy seal, My Father the confirmer, and My Spirit the consoler of those who come to thy monastery."

[322] but in the year 1370 At length in the year 1370 St. Birgitta went to Urban V, who was staying at Montefiascone, with happier success than before, and obtained from him the approval of her Rule and Institute, as the author of the second Life of Urban testifies in Baluze, column 412. "In the month of July," he says, "of the same year" (1370), "there was [at] the Apostolic See the lady Brigida of the kingdom of Sweden, asking that the Rule revealed to her by God be confirmed, according to which she wished nuns and brothers to live in a monastery founded by her in the said kingdom in the place of Ventena" (read Vadstena), "and she obtained that they should live according to the Rule of St. Augustine. This Lady had divine revelations from childhood, and was renowned in life and after death." Thorir Andersson agrees, writing thus at the year 1370 in the Vadstena Chronicle: "Blessed Birgitta received the confirmation of the regular Constitutions from Urban the fifth, which she presented to him." Consalvo Durante, bishop of Montefeltro, who in the Notes to chapter 49 of book 4 of the Revelations had written that the Rule of St. Saviour was approved by Urban V, afterwards, at the end of the Preface to the Rule of St. Saviour, correcting himself and others, says that Urban V indeed approved or confirmed the Religion or Order of St. Saviour, but that the Rule was confirmed by Urban VI, which he deduces from the Bull of Urban VI which he subjoins. But that the Rule of St. Saviour, or the Constitutions, were approved by Urban V, at least in a certain manner, is clear both from the Vadstena Chronicle just praised and from the Bull of Urban V, to be exhibited presently, in which he expressly mentions the Constitutions offered to him by St. Birgitta; so that that emendation, which is not found in the Cologne edition of St. Birgitta's Revelations of the year 1628, was not at all needed: granted that those Rules or Constitutions were afterwards revised and approved.

[323] Further, the Bull of Urban V, inserted at the beginning of the volume in the edition of St. Birgitta's revelations just cited, under the title "The foundation of the Order of St. Birgitta," she obtained her wish through Urban, runs thus: "Urban, bishop, servant of the servants of God. To our Venerable Brothers the archbishop of Uppsala, and the bishops of Strängnäs and Växjö, greeting and Apostolic blessing. To those things which regard the increase of divine worship, the zeal of sacred religion and the spiritual progress of the souls of the faithful we willingly bestow Apostolic favour, and we promote them with the benevolent diligence of help and of work. Indeed, the petition offered to us on the part of our beloved daughter in Christ, the noblewoman Birgitta, widow, relict of the late Ulpho of Ulfåsa, knight, of the diocese of Linköping, contained that she, with a pious and zealous affection, to exchange earthly things for heavenly and transitory for eternal by a happy commerce [], desires to bring to the end of completion or perfection one monastery, to the honour and under the title of the blessed Mary, Mother of God, the glorious Virgin, from the goods conferred on her by God, in the town of Vadstena of the aforesaid diocese, by the inspiration of divine grace, in hope of a licence to be obtained from the Apostolic See, already begun with a costly work indeed (for sixty nuns or sisters, their abbess being counted in this sixtyfold [] number, who are to render to the divine Majesty and the aforesaid Virgin under the regular habit a perpetual and devout service with sincere and pure minds and chaste bodies).

[324] "And she intends to found and build another, separate from that one, in the same town, for seventeen brothers (their Prior, which Bull exhibited here who should preside over them in spiritual things only, being counted in the said number), by whom the aforesaid abbess and nuns, who shall be for the time, may be refreshed with the food of hearing divine things, of salutary preaching and of instruction, and be helped in the cases or articles of their spiritual necessities: and for eight lay brothers having to serve the said brothers, with uses and separate dwellings: and also to assign a sufficient endowment for the fitting sustenance of the persons living for the time in the same monasteries and the bearing of the other burdens incumbent on them; and she intends that each of these monasteries, and the regular persons living for the time in either of them, be of the Order of St. Augustine, and that the persons themselves live according to the regular institutes of that Order. And that she, deprived of the company of a mortal spouse, dedicating herself wholly to the immortal and incorruptible Spouse, whom the Virgin Mother, incorrupt, conceived and bore, may offer Him the sacrifice of a more pleasing libation, she proposes to lead the regular life among the number of the said nuns" (which, however, did not in fact come to pass). "She desires also to assign the aforesaid regular institutes of the aforesaid Order, through certain Constitutions" (note this, for the things said at number 218), "to the regular persons of each of the said monasteries, to be observed by them for perpetual times (as shall be fitting to their states according to the distinctions of the sexes).

[325] "Wherefore it was humbly supplicated to us on the part of the said Birgitta approved both the Rule that we would deign out of Apostolic kindness to assent to her wishes in this regard. We, therefore, inclined to her supplications, commit and command by Apostolic writings to your Fraternity, in which we have full confidence in the Lord, that you, or two, or one of you, if the places in which, as is premised, the building of the said monastery of the nuns has already been begun, and also in which the said monastery of the Brothers is intended to be founded and built by the said Birgitta, seem to you apt and fitting and honest for these things, all the circumstances being attended to which ought to be attended to concerning these things (upon which we burden your consciences), and the said places belong to the person of the said Birgitta, or are acquired by her by just title, you, a sufficient endowment for the said sustenance of the persons and bearing of the aforesaid burdens having first been assigned at the discreet judgment of you, or of two, or of one of you, grant to the same Birgitta full and free licence and every kind of power of completing the monastery of the nuns, already, as is said, begun; but of founding and building the aforesaid monastery of the brothers, with churches, bell-towers, bells, cemeteries and other necessary workshops, so that each of the monasteries with its buildings be distinct from the other. But on this first occasion, do you, or two, or one of you, choose, institute and place in the places and at the places of the aforesaid brothers and sisters honest and otherwise suitable persons, and, for the instruction and information of the first nuns or sisters of this kind of the aforesaid monastery, choose, take and set over them an abbess suitable in knowledge, morals and age, and of exemplary life, from another Order of equal or stricter observance (since in the kingdom of Sweden, as is asserted, no monastery of sisters of the said Order of saint Augustine exists), expressly professed in her said other Order, who the entrance of the nuns or sisters of the aforesaid monastery, the regular institutes of the aforesaid Order, and the subsequent (N.B.) Constitutions of this kind, as aforesaid."

[326] as the erection of the monastery of Vadstena "To which abbess, indeed, to be taken on this first occasion, as is premised, we will that it be lawful, after the building and inhabiting of the said monastery of the nuns, to be able to pass to that monastery and its government from any other monastery whatever of equal or stricter observance, as is aforesaid, the licence of any superior whatever being by no means required. That monastery, after this first occasion, for the rest to remain in the disposition of the common law, according to the aforesaid regular institutes of the said Order (saving all the Constitutions written below). Granting to the brothers and nuns of the said monasteries, by the aforesaid authority, that all

the graces, privileges, liberties and immunities belonging to monasteries and regular persons of the aforesaid Order (saving the right of the diocesan) they may fully and freely enjoy and also possess; and that you procure by the same authority to assign the aforesaid institutions, as consonant with the aforesaid Order and institutes, or by no means repugnant to them or to any of them, as we have learned from the report of certain examiners deputed by us for these things, to the same monasteries and to the regular persons of each of them, both present and future, and to confirm them; restraining gainsayers by ecclesiastical censure, appeal being set aside. The content, moreover, of the said Constitutions is in effect such, namely, etc. Given at Montefiascone on the Nones of August, in the eighth year of our Pontificate," or in the year 1370, on the 5th day of August, when Urban began to return to Avignon, and St. Birgitta foretold to him his impending death; which I would wish to be observed here for this reason, that it may be plain that St. Birgitta could not be called away from fulfilling what she had received in command from God either by any dignity of persons, or by the hope of benefits to be received, or by the memory of those received. Further, the Rule of St. Saviour, approved by Urban V, was confirmed by Gregory XI in the year 1377, according to the Vadstena Diary, and by Urban VI in the year 1379, whose Bull is prefixed to the Revelations of St. Birgitta published at Cologne in the year 1628. Of the monastery of Vadstena, however, take this notice.

[327] Where the lake called Vättern by the natives divides East Gothland from West, situated in Sweden, there is seen Vadstena, a town of Sweden, formerly celebrated for its castle and for the monastery founded there by St. Birgitta and the Order of St. Saviour founded there. Olaus Magnus, in book 2, chapter 19, which is about the famous lakes of the Goths, writes thus of Lake Vättern: "There is moreover another lake called Vättern, having waters so clear and transparent, although conforming to a green colour, that a farthing can be seen lying at the bottom. Upon this lake is the notable monastery of the divine Brigitta, otherwise Brigida, and of her daughter St. Catherine, founded and endowed by the wealth and devotion of both." The monastery of Vadstena, however, which Olaus called notable, Urban V calls costly in the Bull recited a little before; and Messenius celebrated the same in these verses, though somewhat liberally:

Wonderful indeed the picture will show thee; but more wonderful The sight itself of the house will offer thee, friend reader. Equal glory of an eminent structure thou wilt not behold In the world: many a visitor will be witness. Whether one travel the climes which the Iberian beholds, Or the houses of Ausonia, or the ample roofs of the Var, So great a glory will be given to the Colossi of Vadstena, That this lofty house will yield to none in beauty.

[328] That this notable work was advanced to some extent from as early as the year 1370 which not earlier by the care of St. Birgitta, though absent, is sufficiently understood from the Bull of Urban V: nor is there doubt that St. Birgitta, while she was still in Sweden, meditated its construction and assigned part of her goods to it: but in what year did it first begin to be founded? Baillet, treating of St. Birgitta in the Lives of the Saints at the 8th day of October, writes thus on this matter: "While she still enjoyed her goods" (I render his French words into Latin), "and while her husband perhaps still survived, she had founded a monastery for nuns at Vadstena: she took care that they should enter it to the number of sixty, for whom she prescribed Constitutions which she judged had been dictated to her by the spirit of God. She proposed the same also to XXV monks living according to the Rule of saint Augustine. They were willingly admitted, and this was the origin of the monastic Order which was afterwards called of St. Saviour or of St. Birgitta, and approved by the Apostolic See together with its Constitutions." So, in Baillet's opinion, St. Birgitta had not only founded the convent of Vadstena while she was still in Sweden; but had also introduced into it 60 nuns and 25 monks before the Constitutions of her Order had received the approval of the Apostolic See: both of which are foreign to the truth. The latter is convicted of falsehood by the bull of Urban V, from which it is clear that St. Birgitta asked of Urban V, not that he would ratify the introduction of 60 nuns and 25 monks already made into the monastery of Vadstena, which was then begun only for nuns, not yet for monks, but that he would grant her the faculty for it, the work, hitherto only begun, having been brought to its end as far as was necessary.

[329] which about the year 1369 The former, however, namely that the monastery of Vadstena was founded as early as the time when St. Birgitta was still staying in her homeland, or before the year 1346, is likewise convicted of falsehood by the Vadstena Diary, from which it is gathered that the said monastery began to be founded only about the year 1369, which I show thus: the first to begin to build the monastery of Vadstena was John Petri, about five years before St. Birgitta's relics were carried from Rome into Sweden by St. Catherine: for thus it is read of him in the Vadstena Chronicle at the year 1405, in which he died: "This brother" (Jowan Petharson, or John Petri), "as I have said" (at the year 1401, in which his wife died), "first began to build the monastery in the castle of Vadstena, at that time desolate and existing without an inhabitant, according to the command of blessed Birgitta. For, as I heard from his mouth, when the same Jowan Petharson was at Rome with blessed Birgitta, while she was still living among men, Lady Birgitta said to him: My dear John, when thou hast returned to Sweden, go to the castle of Vadstena, and, the necessary houses having been built, remain there until I come to thee" (for it was fixed with St. Birgitta, as Urban says in the Bull recited above at number 324, to lead the monastic life there), "God leading: for there the monastery must be made. To whom he: My Lady, I am married and have sons, I cannot become a monk.

[330] began to be founded "And she: Take thy wife with thee to Vadstena, and I will receive thy little ones to myself and provide for them. And go to Lord Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, who will give thee letters drawn up concerning that place, and he will stand by thee in all things on my part. And the same Jowan Petharson, returning to Sweden, began to build Vadstena manfully and fervently for five years, there standing by him Thomas, bishop of Växjö, who also continually resided there with him, until Lady Catherine and others came with the relics of blessed Birgitta, then dead, from Rome to Vadstena." At the year 1401, moreover, this John Petri is said to have found at Vadstena, in the place where St. Birgitta's monastery was to be founded, nothing before him … not even one stalk of a structure besides the ruined walls of three stone houses. But according to the same Diary St. Birgitta's remains were deposited at Vadstena in the year 1374, in the month of July: from here, counting backward five whole years, you will arrive at the month of July of the year 1369; in which year, therefore, the monastery of Vadstena probably began to be founded: so that it is far from the truth that it was founded or inhabited by religious as early as the year 1345 or even earlier. Although, however, as has been said, St. Birgitta had it in mind to lead the monastic life at Vadstena, yet she never, while she lived, saw the monastery of Vadstena, as the remaining series of her life will show: she had, however, the whole design of it well perceived in her mind, Christ teaching her, as is read at length in chapters 28, 29, 31, 34, 38 of the Extravagant Revelations.

[331] Further, although the monastery of Vadstena most probably began to be founded, from what has been said, only in the year 1369, seems to have been, yet St. Birgitta had not yet departed from among the living, as far at least as appears, when it began to be inhabited, at least under some sort of appearance of a religious community, both by men and by women: for, scarcely one year having elapsed from her death, when in the year 1374 St. Catherine translated her Mother's relics to the monastery of Vadstena, some brothers and sisters were already then inhabiting it, who received St. Catherine with the signs of great joy, as Ulpho, often praised, says in her Life, volume 3 of March, page 513, in these words: "Arriving at length" (St. Catherine) "at the monastery of Vadstena on the fourth weekday within the Octave of Peter and Paul, she is received with great joy by the whole congregation of the sisters and brothers." Under some sort, I say, at least, of appearance of a religious community: for only in the year 1377, in which, according to the Vadstena Diary, Gregory XI confirmed the Bull of Urban V, did that same Pontiff commit to Henry, archbishop of Uppsala, and Nicholas of Linköping and Tord of Strängnäs, bishops, that they should in fact and duly institute the Order of St. Saviour in the monastery of Vadstena, which these accomplished in the year 1380, as is read in the Foundation of the same Order, prefixed to the books of St. Birgitta's Revelations published at Cologne in the year 1628, point 2. In the year 1384, however, the solemn introduction of the brothers and sisters into the same monastery first took place before the aforesaid bishops, Thorir noting thus at the said year in the Vadstena Diary: "Likewise on the day of St. Severinus, bishop, whose feast then fell on a Sunday, the community of the sisters was first introduced to keep the Constitutions of St. Birgitta at Vadstena, there being present the venerable fathers and lords, namely Henry, archbishop of Uppsala, and Tord, bishop of Strängnäs, with the institutor Lord Nicholas, bishop of Linköping … And on the following day, or the second weekday, the brothers were introduced into their court." Only in the year 1388, finally, did Ingegerd, St. Birgitta's granddaughter through her daughter Märta, or Martha, and her husband Knut Algotsson, begin, first of all, to discharge the office of abbess of Vadstena, as may be seen partly in the Vadstena Diary at the said year, partly in the Chronicle of Margaret, abbess of Vadstena.

[332] Although Birgitta, setting out from Sweden, had left an endowment for founding the monastery, with the help of Albert, Albert, king of Sweden, who had succeeded Magnus, cast out by the nobles of the kingdom, in the year 1363, nevertheless wished, whether because it did not seem sufficient, or that the monastery might be more abundantly provided for, to contribute his own share to it as well, a certain levy having been imposed on the inhabitants of the kingdom, to be paid yearly; as is clear from a diploma which Albert his father, duke of Mecklenburg, gave in his name in the year 1367, when the founding of the monastery of Vadstena was being treated, and which Benzelius exhibits, copied from the public Library of Uppsala, in these words: "Albert, by the grace of God duke of Mecklenburg and count of Schwerin, to the noble, honourable and discreet men, all and each, clerics and laymen inhabiting the diocese of Linköping, greeting and favour. Since our son, the lord king Albert, by deliberate counsel and with the unanimous consent both of the lords prelates and of his other counsellors and of the chief men of his kingdom, has made two edicts, one indeed general, namely through all the dioceses of the kingdom, and another particular, namely through the diocese of Linköping alone, from the voluntary acceptance of which edicts God may infallibly be turned to propitiation of this troubled kingdom, and His mother the blessed Virgin Mary, by the service of an offering of this kind,

being mitigated, may call down mercy and kindness from her son for the salvation of all who live in this kingdom.

[333] king of Sweden. "First, namely, that for each person of either sex, as is expressed in the royal letters, one penny worth half a Lübeck penny should be paid every year for perpetual future times for the establishment of one monastery at Vadstena, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary and the enlargement of divine worship: second, that the third part of the tithes of the poor should be brought in at due times through the whole diocese for the sustenance of the canons residing at the church of Linköping, which, more than the other cathedral churches of the kingdom, is weighed down and likewise afflicted in its goods and in the persons living in it, and be faithfully handed over to the canons and clerics residing at the said church of Linköping: although very many of you, as is said, at the suggestion of depraved men, and some from their own depravity, show themselves difficult, not to say rebellious, but very voluntary" (read: involuntary). "For that reason we exhort your community in the Lord and ask, counselling you more wholesomely, that for the payment of the aforesaid penny and the said tithes, as you have received the manner and form in the royal letters, your own necessities being considered, within the approaching feast of Easter and thereafter, you render yourselves with fidelity and good will obedient and effectual sons, lest perhaps by the high Lord of the heavens, and by His minister, your lord king, you be compelled by worthy chastisement to do that which you would otherwise rather have done with gratitude. Given at Stockholm in the year of the Lord MCCCLX seven, on the fifth weekday after INVOCAVIT Sunday." These things concerning the Order of St. Saviour, concerning the Rule, and concerning its first monastery of Vadstena founded by St. Birgitta.

[334] St. Birgitta does not seem to have instituted a military Order. But not a few also hold, as Hermant and Hélyot write in the Histories of the Orders, that a military Order was instituted by the same in Sweden, approved by Urban V. Indeed, in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 7, and book 8, chapter 32, and elsewhere, not a few things may be read concerning certain knights, and among other things the very formula by which they should devote themselves to the Church and to their neighbour. They will have it that this was instituted about the year 1366, and generously endowed; but that it ceased shortly after St. Birgitta's death: and that it was bound by almost the same laws as the Order of the knights of Malta, and carried before it in war a banner, one face of which had painted a blue eight-pointed cross, not unlike the Maltese, but from which hung a fiery tongue, as the symbol of its love toward God and neighbour: but the other three crowns on a blue field (which namely were the arms of the Swedish kingdom). But this Order does not seem ever to have existed, nor is mention made in the Revelations of St. Birgitta of any military Order instituted by her; but of any military Order in general, and the ceremonies which are mentioned in them are almost like those which were then commonly observed in other regions when some knight happened to be created, says Hélyot; whose opinion is surely not a little confirmed by the perpetual and common silence of St. Birgitta's biographers, and also of Boniface IX, who nevertheless did not omit to mention in the Bull of Canonization the Order of St. Saviour instituted by her.

* supply: volens

* computata

§ XXII. Having set out for Jerusalem by God's command, she puts in at Cyprus. What she did there.

Toward the end of life, by divine admonition I come now to St. Birgitta's last journey, but no less arduous than the former ones for one already advanced in age and exhausted in strength by the austerity of her life, which, however, with her accustomed alacrity in obeying the commands of her Spouse and greatness of mind, she undertook toward Jerusalem. "At length," says Birger her biographer, "the spaces of many years running on, the Only-begotten of God, commanding His beloved Bride to go to Jerusalem, deigned to address her thus: I am as an eagle, etc." And Boniface IX in the Bull of Canonization: "Then she went on to Jerusalem, and beheld with notable devotion and reverently each of the places in which our redeemer Jesus Christ was announced, born, brought up, baptised, conversed, worked wonders, was mocked, crucified and buried, and ascended to heaven." This pilgrimage was not unexpected to St. Birgitta; inasmuch as both the Blessed Virgin had foretold it to her, and Christ Himself had earlier proclaimed to her that she should prepare herself for it. The first is read in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 1, where the Mother of God is said to have addressed St. Birgitta thus: "Therefore I announce to thee that thou shalt go to the holy city of Jerusalem on pilgrimage, when it shall please my Son, and from there thou shalt go to Bethlehem, and there I will show thee in the very place the whole manner in which I gave birth." The second is read in chapter 6 of the same book, where these things are found: "When the Bride of Christ was residing continually at Rome, and on a certain day was standing in prayer in mental elevation, then Christ appeared to her, saying thus: Prepare yourselves now to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to visit My sepulchre and the other holy places which are there, and you shall withdraw from Rome when I shall tell you."

[336] The year and day on which this apparition of Christ to St. Birgitta took place going away to Jerusalem is taught by the title prefixed to the cited Chapter, namely the day of St. Urban, Pope and Martyr, or the 25th of May of the year 1371, when she had already spent some years in the City, returned from the Neapolitan pilgrimage. St. Stephen too is said in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 108, to have foretold the same journey to St. Birgitta at Rome in these words: "Thou shalt yet come to Jerusalem to the place of my passion." Further, St. Birgitta, who was accustomed never to move from a place unless commanded, from the time she had heard Christ's will in the year and on the day aforesaid, judged that she must wait at Rome until she should be admonished by Christ to undertake the journey, which happened in the year 1372, as will appear from what is to be said. Christ is then said to have addressed her thus, book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 9: "Go now and withdraw from Rome to Jerusalem." This voice, on the testimony of Birger, struck Birgitta somewhat, who thought herself unequal to so great a journey because of her advanced and infirm old age: but to the words just cited Christ subjoined: "Why dost thou plead thy age? I am the maker of nature; I can weaken and strengthen nature as it pleases Me; I will be with you, I will direct your way, I will lead you and lead you back to Rome, and I will procure necessaries for you more sufficiently than you ever had before." Almost so Birger too speaks at number 29, if you consider the substance and force of the words on both sides.

[337] with some companions, Encouraged by these things, St. Birgitta by no means delayed to take up the journey to Jerusalem: what companions she joined to herself Birger keeps silent: in Surius, §19, are reckoned St. Catherine, Peter the confessor, and Magnus, St. Birgitta's chaplain; to whom, from §24, must be added also Charles, St. Birgitta's son, whom we saw above came to Rome. Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, enumerates the companions of St. Birgitta going away to Jerusalem thus: "It must now be known that there followed St. Birgitta when she went away to the holy sepulchre three of her children, Lord Charles, Lord Birger, and our blessed mother Catherine, likewise two servants, and the blessed master Peter, and Peter, Prior of the monastery of Alvastra, so that there were eight companions in all; and God revealed to St. Birgitta that all, excepting one, would return." If Margaret does not number St. Birgitta among the eight companions mentioned here, there will be lacking here one of their number, namely Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, whom we heard above at number 305 testifying of himself that he accompanied St. Birgitta at least on the return from Jerusalem, and whom we shall see below to have been her companion in going also. Nicholas Orsini, count of Nola, further testifies to this also in the Letter given to Alphonsus himself, in Hörmann, page 813, where he says: "For when the same Lady had proposed to visit the sepulchre of the Lord, as she went on to Naples, with whom you also, Father, went, I, meeting her there at the same time, etc." As she went away from Rome, Latino Orsini, sprung from the nobler families of the City, escorted her a long way for honour's sake, as is written in the Surian Life of St. Birgitta, number 19, and in her Life printed at Louvain; from which it may be conjectured in how great honour and veneration she was at Rome.

[338] she goes to Naples, where her son That she went from Rome to Naples again, that she might sail from there to Jerusalem, is manifest from the words of the count of Nola just recited; with which Abbess Margaret also agrees. And when she arrived here, after her manner she did many things admirably: she had foreknown, as has already been related above from Margaret, that she and all her companions, excepting one, would return to Rome. This was Charles, Birgitta's own son, who, when he had come to Naples together with his Mother, fell ill, and died of it shortly after. I repeat the event from the Chronicle of Abbess Margaret: "When they had come to Naples, which is part of the Sicilian kingdom, and Queen Joanna, a very great friend of St. Birgitta, then a widow, was administering the realm, St. Birgitta taught her sons with what reverence they should venerate the queen when present, according to the custom of that land, namely with bent knees and the kissing of the feet. Charles, when, coming nearer to the queen, he had shown the due reverence, also kissed her lips. The queen was so moved by this boldness that she was wholly carried away into love of him, and, refusing him leave to depart, she affirmed that she would marry him. St. Birgitta flatly denied that this could be done, since her son's wife was still living at home: but the queen, tenacious of her purpose, insisted that she did not care for that, and that her will must be complied with. Then St. Birgitta implored the divine grace with her most devout prayers, by which it came about that Charles was seized with a deadly illness and died a few days later.

[339] "The queen followed his death with many tears, and paid the due funeral rites with no less pomp she loses her son Charles, than if he had been her husband, as master Peter, an eyewitness, related all these things. On the day which is sacred to Matthias the Apostle" (the 24th of February) "he fell ill in the city of Naples, and on the fifteenth day next following he died, and was buried there; thence on the feast day of the Lord's Ascension his soul flew away to heavenly glory, as the same holy master Peter asserted that it had been divinely revealed to St. Birgitta." This deed is perhaps not foreign to the morals of Joanna I, queen of Sicily, who, although she does not lack patrons who contend that she was immune from the stain of unchastity, is yet suspected by many at least of that vice. It does not seem, however, as Margaret says, that she was a widow in the year 1372, in which Charles, Birgitta's son, died at Naples: for that James of Aragon, king of Majorca in title only, her third husband, whom she had joined to herself in marriage in the year 1363, prolonged his life to the year 1374, is testified by the author of the first Life of Gregory XI in

Baluze, column 433. "In the same year," he says, "James, king of Majorca, having summoned to himself very many men-at-arms, entered the kingdom of Aragon for the sake of recovering the kingdom and lands which had been his father's and which he claimed belonged to him by hereditary right. But he could by no means prevail. Nay, he himself having departed life there without offspring, his fellow-soldiers were compelled to go back to their own homes quite empty and void." From this author of the Life of Gregory XI, moreover, John Samblancat in the brief History of the kings of Majorca, prefixed to volume 3 of June of our work, differs not at all or certainly little, writing that this James, affected with weariness of adverse affairs, yielded to fate at Soria in the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-five. Giannettasio, however, in volume 2 of the History of Naples, page 128 and following, ties James's death to the year 1368, and then says that Joanna was a widow for some years. However that may be, if Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, writes truly that she desired marriage with Charles, although she knew that his wife was still among the living, why might she not also have desired marriage with Charles while her husband James was still surviving among the living, indeed, but waging wars abroad? But let us turn our discourse elsewhere.

[340] With Margaret, as far as the death of Charles is concerned, whose soul she afterwards saw borne to heaven, the author of the abbreviated Life agrees, describing it thus: "He finally, going on pilgrimage with his holy Mother on the way and with the purpose toward the holy city of Jerusalem, ready to lay down his life for the recovery of the Holy Land, fell ill and died in the city of Naples on the 12th day of the Month of March." What, moreover, Margaret relates of his soul taken up to heaven on the feast day of the Lord's Ascension, not only does the same author also relate in these words: "And on the day of the Lord's Ascension next following he sought the heavenly mansions," but also the whole series of the event is set out at length in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 13. Worthy of note are the words of the Virgin Mother of God to St. Birgitta near the beginning of the chapter: "I stood near that same son of thine Charles a little before he sent forth his spirit, that he might not so have carnal love in his memory as to think or speak anything contrary to God on its account, nor wish to omit any things pleasing to God. Nor would he wish to accomplish those things which could be in any way contrary to the divine will, to the harm of his soul"; by which it is perhaps intimated that the Blessed Virgin obtained for Charles the grace that he should commit nothing unlawful in deed or mind, to which he might otherwise have been enticed by the words of Queen Joanna. Besides this, that a vision was offered to St. Birgitta in which she saw the soul of Charles borne into heaven about the feast of the Ascension is had from the title of the chapter just cited, where indeed that vision is said to have begun immediately from Charles's death, but to have continued until St. Birgitta entered the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Although, moreover, in the title of chapter 14, where St. Birgitta's first entry into the said church is treated, no day is expressed; yet in the title of the following chapter, or 15, mention is made of another vision offered to her in the same place on the Friday after the Lord's Ascension.

[341] and bore his death bravely: With how great fortitude of mind St. Birgitta bore Charles's death you will learn from her Life published at Louvain in the year 1485, which, as we have said, guided Surius, and which has this on that matter: "She herself, therefore, going out long after from Rome toward Jerusalem, foretold that she would lose [] one of her company most illustrious [] to her, which also came to pass. For when she had come to Naples, this son, lord Charles, an excellent knight, began to fall ill; of which illness he died. And although the Lady herself was present there when he sent forth his spirit, she did not move herself from the place, nor did she pour out complaining cries or tears. But with the greatest patience and reverence she rendered thanks to God. And although the Lady queen and many princes of the kingdom of Naples and the whole city, both lords and ladies, joined themselves to her with great lamentation, leading him to the tomb" (which, according to Ughelli, volume 6, column 133 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, he obtained in the cathedral church), "yet she never wept, but with thanksgiving commended his soul to God. At which both the queen and all the others wondered exceedingly because of the very great constancy of this venerable princess." Further, since from what has been said St. Birgitta, the journey to Jerusalem having already been begun, stayed at Naples in the months of February and March, and in the year 1371, in the month of May (see number 336), was admonished by Christ to prepare herself for this journey; it is necessary that she began to undertake this journey, and arrived at Naples, either as the year 1371 was verging to its end, or at the beginning of 1372: but that she completed the rest of the journey, namely from Naples to Jerusalem, in this latter year. Whence, when St. Birgitta is said to have gone to Jerusalem in the year 1371 according to Christ's command, this seems to be taken either of the time at which she received that command, or of that at which she began that journey. That she set sail from Naples for Jerusalem in the year 1372, however, will be proved below from Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, after we have reviewed some deeds of St. Birgitta at Naples on her way to Jerusalem.

[342] she gives salutary warnings to the queen In book 7 of the Revelations, after Christ's command by which St. Birgitta was bidden to go to Jerusalem has been related in chapter 9, there is placed in chapter XI the beginning of a certain revelation, which in the title of the chapter is said to have been shown her in the city of Naples: the last words, however, which are read there are these: "Hear what the queen had done to Me; I permitted her to be exalted to the kingdom, etc.": the rest of the series of the revelation is altogether suppressed: but from various circumstances, namely the quality of the queen, her familiarity with St. Birgitta, and the time and place of the revelation made, it appears very probable that the discourse there is of Joanna, queen of Sicily, and that Birgitta learned the state of her soul by that revelation, and so that Birgitta did not fail her office, but reproved the queen according to the quality of her offences, with the charity and reverence that was fitting, and suggested to her means suited to fleeing and amending them. Indeed the author of the Additions to St. Birgitta's revelations subjoins to the words just cited not a few counsels which St. Birgitta, by Christ's command, as he says, set forth to the queen of whom the discourse is there, namely, that she should wash away all the faults of her life by a pure confession, should diligently turn over those committed both in marriage and in the administration of the kingdom, should pay her debts, restore what had been ill-gotten, relieve the people of burdens, commit judgments to just and upright counsellors, and many other things of this kind, which pertained both to her private salvation and to the good and safety of the commonwealth, and for the most part such as it is most probable that St. Birgitta gave to Queen Joanna. With these, however, there are mixed from time to time some things which are fitted tacitly to breathe no light stain upon Joanna's name: of which whether Joanna was guilty or not I leave to the examination and judgment of others. To these, finally, the author of the praised Addition adds the things which I reported above at number 308 and following, after Burlamacchi, concerning Gomez and Carletto; but which are rather to be referred to the stay which she made at Naples in the year 1372 than to her earlier Neapolitan journey, since in this book 7 the order of events seems to be kept more accurately than elsewhere.

[343] Following the series of book 7 of the Revelations, in the chapter immediately following, or 12, mention occurs of Bernard, and to the archbishop of the place: archbishop of Naples, who commended himself to St. Birgitta's prayers, and disclosed to her the doubts of his mind, asking that she would be at hand for him with her counsels. St. Birgitta complied with the prelate's pious desire, and, when she prayed to the Lord for him, she merited to hear from Christ what warnings and counsels she should suggest to the prelate in His name: she warned him, moreover, that he should take care that no one be promoted to sacred orders, either by himself or by other bishops established under him, unless fit for that office in life and morals: then that he should confer frequently and at fixed times with those to whom the care of souls had been committed, both about their own salvation and about that of the flock committed to them, and amend the vices of his clergy as far as he could; that he himself should maintain his household modestly, should have few clerics who should be witnesses of his actions, but as many as he wished who should give themselves to the divine Offices, or profit others by teaching and instructing; that he should inquire diligently into the life and morals of his household, correct their sins in a fatherly way, and stir up each to the love of God: that he should beware of superfluities, and follow modesty and sparingness in all his affairs: finally, that he should correct and amend the sins of all, either through his people or, if need be, through himself, as far at least as lay in him; which may be seen set out more fully in the cited chapter. He had also asked St. Birgitta whether the souls of certain dead persons were detained in the expiatory fire, and in what manner she judged they were to be succoured: She answered: "That every day of one year you have two Masses celebrated for them, and feed two poor persons every day, and every week see to it that one florin in money be given out to the poor."

[344] This was Bernard, called of Rodez, the successor of another Bernard, namely Bosquet, she frees a woman foully vexed by a demon. in the see of Naples from the 2nd day of October of the year 1368, as Bartolomeo Chioccarelli writes, from the consistorial book of Pope Urban V, concerning the archbishops of Naples, page 235. This Bernard himself, moreover, willed to testify that he had been helped by St. Birgitta's salutary counsels, in a public instrument issued in the year 1376 on the 25th day of August (which see below among the Miracles of St. Birgitta published at Naples), three years after her death, in these words: "Who, living in our city of Naples, conferred some salutary counsels on us and on the people of Naples, and interceded with God for us very often, and at her prayers some evils ceased": more concerning Bernard and the others mentioned here by him will be given below, where St. Birgitta's return into Italy is treated. Boniface IX, in the Bull of Canonization (to be given below), testifies that by the help and counsel of St. Birgitta, while living at Naples, a certain woman of Nola, Pictiolella by name, was freed from an incubus demon: that this happened, however, when she was staying at Naples about to go to Jerusalem, is clear from the Note of the count of Nola (in Hörmann, page 813 and following), where, relating the same thing, he says that it happened at Naples "when … the same Lady had proposed to visit the sepulchre of the Lord." Another deed of St. Birgitta in this place, which occupies the fourth place among the Miracles worked by her at Naples, is a prediction by which she foretold to Mary, the wife of Alphonsus the Spaniard, while she was setting out together with her to Jerusalem, that she would never see her daughter, who, contrary to what Birgitta had counselled, had not wished to become a nun, joined in marriage; as the outcome proved a few days later, Mary's daughter having died. And these

indeed are the things which I have found done at Naples by St. Birgitta going away from Rome to Jerusalem: although I scarcely doubt that she then accomplished there more wonderful and distinguished things, which either were not handed down to posterity, or at any rate are hidden from me hitherto. I now, then, follow Birgitta sailing from Naples to Cyprus.

[345] from Naples to Cyprus The journey by land having therefore been exchanged for one by sea, increased at Naples by some companions, she sailed to Cyprus, an island of Asia in the Mediterranean sea, separated from Palestine by no very long space of waters: I have said, "increased by some companions": for it has just been said that Mary, the wife of Alphonsus the Spaniard, joined her as companion at Naples. Perhaps there joined her there also that anonymous person of whom mention is made below in the Miracles which St. Birgitta worked at Naples. Whence a prudent suspicion may also arise that many other pious and honourable persons of both sexes wished to accompany St. Birgitta from Naples to Jerusalem. As regards her voyage to Cyprus, Benzelius published a Diary of it, concerning which he writes this in his Annotations to Margaret's Chronicle: "The principal moments of the journey to Jerusalem, after she had boarded the ship at Naples in the year 1372, are indicated by an old Annotation of Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, one of her companions (which I judge was not said idly or without ground by the learned man), which we have wished published here on page 28 from the manuscript codex of the public library" (of Uppsala in Sweden) "no. 86 Q. to." It will therefore be worth while to transcribe here this brief and ancient record of the journey undertaken by St. Birgitta to Jerusalem, written by her companion Alphonsus, as Benzelius published it: it runs, then, thus.

[346] she sails "In the year of the Lord CIO CCCLXXII St. Birgitta of the kingdom of Sweden made this voyage to the holy sepulchre from Naples, as follows below. On Thursday, the XIth day of March, we put ourselves" (behold a companion of the journey) "on the ship, in the harbour in the city of Naples. On Passion Sunday, the XIVth day of March, the ship went out of the aforesaid harbour and began the voyage. On the sixth weekday, the XIXth day of the said month, we put in at Messina, and we stayed there until Good Friday. On the day of Good Friday, the XXVIth day of the same month, the ship withdrew from Messina toward Cyprus. On Tuesday, the last day but one of March, we put in at the island of Cephalonia with a great storm. On Thursday, the first day of April, the ship withdrew from there, at about the hour of Compline. On Sunday, which was the fourth day of April, we strayed from our course at sea and went wandering day and night. And on the following Monday we found ourselves wandering in the gulf of Turkey near a certain island of the Greeks, which is subject to the master of Rhodes of the military Order of St. John, which island indeed is called Lango. On Thursday, the VIIIth day of April, at the evening hour, we went out from there, and went on sailing, and on Monday put in at a certain city of Cyprus which is called Bafa. On the same day, at the hour of midnight, we had a good wind and went on the following day, namely Tuesday, and put in at the city of Famagusta."

[347] I said above that it was to be confirmed from Alphonsus (or at any rate, if anyone else wrote these things, from some companion of the same journey) in the year 1372, that St. Birgitta made the journey to Jerusalem in the year 1372, although in the Vadstena Diary the year 1371 is noted. Alphonsus, however, not only expressly expressed the year 1372, but the chronological characters brought forward by him also manifestly designate it: thus in that year Good Friday is said to have fallen on the 26th of March: from which it follows that Easter then fell on the 28th of March, which agrees with the year 1372: and of the other chronological notes expressed there, as will be plain to one who examines them, the case is the same. The rest of Alphonsus's narrative need not be illustrated further; unless perhaps someone desires a few things concerning the places mentioned here. Mecina, or rather Messina, at which St. Birgitta first put in, is a port of Sicily almost opposite Reggio, whence there is a frequent crossing of those passing over to the East. Cephalonia, to which she next came, is an island of the Ionian sea, having the Sicilian sea on the West, and on the East Clarentza, a town of the Morea. Lango, otherwise Cos, is an island of Asia Minor situated in that part of the archipelago where the sea is called the Myrtoan; in which is seen a little city of the same name as the island: that island was captured by the knights of Rhodes in the year 1314, as is read in their History published at Paris in the year 1629 by the care of Baudoin, page 61. Bafa is a place of Cyprus toward the Western part of that island, situated at the place, or not far from it, as they say, where ancient Paphos was. Where, finally, Cyprus looks to the East, Famagusta meets one on the shore of the sea, the chief city of the whole island after Nicosia, from which the crossing lies open through the Syrian sea into Syria and the Holy Land.

[348] Both the renown of St. Birgitta's family and the fame of her holiness were too well known where to the queen for her to be able to lie hidden in Cyprus, at which, from what has been said, she had arrived on the 13th or 14th day of April of the year 1372: and so, as at Naples by Queen Joanna, so here too she was often called into counsel by Queen Eleonora, or Leonora. But that Birgitta's deeds there may be more clearly perceived, it will be well to set out in a few words in what state the affairs of Cyprus then were. They had flourished under Peter Lusignan, king of Cyprus, the Ist of this name, as never before. But he having recently been taken from among the living by the supreme crime of his brothers John and James (as Foglietta at least writes in book 8 of the History of Genoa), through their machinations and the work of certain wicked men, the kingdom of Cyprus devolved upon his son Peter, or Peterkin, unequal by age to ruling. And so the administration of the kingdom fell to Eleonora, the widow of the slain Peter, who conducted all things at the discretion of John, paternal uncle of King Peter the younger, and of James, another paternal uncle of the same king. Eleonora, moreover, was the daughter, not of the duke of Milan, as Burlamacchi says in book 2 of the Italian Life of St. Birgitta, chapter 23, but of Peter of Aragon, who, having left the world, became renowned among the nurslings of the Order of St. Francis, as Wadding writes in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1358, number 3, from Oddo of Perugia in the Speculum, chapter 2, whose words he recites: "He" (Peter of Aragon, the Minorite) "left after him sons: Alphonsus, count of Denia and Ribagorza, marquess of Villena and constable of the kingdom of Castile and first duke of Gandía, who, King Martin having died without heirs, claimed by just title that the succession to the kingdom was due to him; John, count of the Mountains of Prades, baron of the state of Entença, seneschal and prefect of the royal household among the Catalans; James, first bishop of Tortosa, then of Valencia, at length Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; and Leonora, his only daughter, queen, betrothed to Peter of Lusignan, count of Tripoli in Syria, the first-born of Hugh, king of Cyprus, and his successor in the kingdom." Gregory XI too calls Eleonora the daughter of Peter of Aragon in a Letter given to him, which Wadding exhibits at the year 1373, number 7. The daughter of Bernabò Visconti of Milan was married to Peterkin, or Peter II, the son of the first, which gave Burlamacchi occasion of erring here. But let it suffice to have noted this in passing.

[349] in turbulent affairs, There was at that time in Cyprus a great multitude of Venetians and Genoese staying there for the sake of trade; the Cypriots were preparing to adorn Peterkin with the royal diadem in solemn manner, and had invited both the Venetians and the Genoese to that rite: hence an altercation arose between the two about the more honourable place, fatal first to the Genoese, but afterwards to the Cypriots: for when Peterkin, at the persuasion of his paternal uncles, had assigned the first place to the Venetians, the Genoese on the following day entered the palace armed, to claim by arms the place from which they had been excluded by the king: the king, thinking that this was being done for his destruction, ordered those Genoese to be thrown headlong from the highest top of the building, and the rest, scattered through the kingdom, to be sought out and put to death. Hence the Genoese, about the beginning of the year 1373, having entered Cyprus in hostile manner, brought devastation upon the fields of the Cypriots, gave the suburbs of Paphos and Nicosia to fire, and at length on the sixth day before the Ides of October (on that very day, says Uberto Foglietta in book 8 of the History of the Genoese, on which in the preceding year the slaughter of the Genoese had been made) took Famagusta, and moreover shortly after reduced the whole island into their power. This was the face of Cyprus in the year 1372 and the following. Let us now see what Birgitta did on her arrival there: for what she did there on her return we shall reserve to be told in its place.

[350] by which counsels, There was scarcely any kind of men here whom she did not strive to benefit: to begin with the more illustrious, Eleonora, queen of Cyprus, made so much of St. Birgitta's holiness that she not only sought her counsels on public affairs, but also seems to have disclosed to her the inmost things of her mind: Eleonora, deprived of her husband, not knowing whither at length to turn herself, whether she should return to her homeland or admit another partner of the kingdom and of the bed, consulted St. Birgitta as to what she ought to do: but she, having consulted God by prayers, dissuaded the queen from both. So it is gathered from book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 16, where Christ is said to have addressed her thus: "Counsel the queen that she should not return to her homeland, because it is not expedient, but should stay in the place where she has been placed, serving God with her whole heart. Second, that she should not marry by receiving a second husband, because it is more acceptable to God to weep for what has been committed, and to make up by penance the time uselessly spent." Birgitta, moreover, persuaded the same queen to strive for the concord of her people; to leave the vengeance of her husband's murder to God; to commit her son to be ruled by those counsellors from whom he might learn to fear God, to rule justly, and to have compassion on the wretched; to flee flattery, to cast away less seemly garments, and many other distinguished things, related more fully there, by which she might benefit herself and her people and please God.

[351] Consulted by the same queen concerning the coronation of her son Peterkin as king of Cyprus, by which admonitions which was being treated while Birgitta was staying in Cyprus, as we have seen above, she does not indeed seem to have disapproved it, but yet she set forth with great freedom of mind how great a burden was impending upon his shoulders from it, and how rarely it then happened that kings discharged their office well. "It is a great burden," she said, "to be king, and a great honour, but the greatest fruit. It befits a king, therefore, to be mature, prudent and just and laborious, and a lover of the advantage of his neighbours more than of his own will. Therefore of old kingdoms were well ruled, when such a one was elected king as both wished and knew and was able to rule justly. Now kingdoms are not kingdoms, but childish things and ravings and robberies, because, as the robber seeks out ways and times how he may lie in wait to obtain gains, lest he be noticed, so now kings seek out devices, how their generation may be raised up, how money may be put into the purse, how subjects may be wisely burdened; who also do justice more willingly that they may obtain temporal good: but they do not love justice that they may obtain the everlasting reward.

[352] Therefore the Wise Man wisely said: Woe to the kingdom whose king is a child, to benefit who, living delicately and having delicate flatterers, is not troubled at all about the advancement of the community. But because this child shall not bear the iniquity of his father, therefore, if he wishes to profit and to fulfil the dignity of the royal name, let him obey my words, which I foretold concerning Cyprus, and let him not imitate the manners of his predecessors, and let him lay aside the levities of a child, and take up the royal way, having such attendants as fear, and who do not love his gifts more than his soul and his honour. Who hate flatteries, and who do not fear to speak the truth and to follow it and to rebuke. Otherwise neither will the child rejoice in the people, nor the people in the one chosen. With what fruit St. Birgitta was heard, I do not know; but that the reign of Peter II was not very happy can be sufficiently perceived from what Foglietta writes of him: Peter did indeed recover Cyprus, which had been occupied by the Genoese in the year 1373, but on this condition, that he should pay to the Genoese 40,000 gold pieces by way of annual tribute for a fixed number of years; and that, moreover, Famagusta should continue to belong to the Genoese, which they afterwards held for nearly a hundred years, Peter on one occasion besieging it in vain together with the Venetians. Peter died about the year 1384 without children, and on his death James, the paternal uncle of Peter II, then a hostage at Genoa, succeeded, but likewise with the burden of a fixed pension to be paid every year to the Genoese people.

[353] No less freely did she admonish the king's paternal uncle concerning his crimes, and concerning the unhappy death which awaited him unless he amended himself; of which the following is read in book 7, chapter 16, cited above: Of the duke who was privy to the death of his brother. and the king's paternal uncle Christ speaks. This man boldly spreads abroad his pride, glories in his incontinence, and does not consider what he has done against his neighbour. Therefore, unless he humbles himself, I will do according to the common proverb: He who weeps afterwards weeps no more lightly than he who weeps before. For he will have no lighter death than his brother, nay a more bitter one, unless he amends himself quickly. St. Birgitta's prophecy was not vain: for, as Henri Giblet writes in the Italian work which he entitled on the affairs of the Lusignans, book 8, at the year 1375, John, of whom there is question here, perished miserably, pierced with many wounds by order of Queen Eleanor in revenge for the murder of her husband: for James, the other brother of the slain King Peter, whom the praised writer says was innocent of his brother's murder, was made king of Cyprus in the year 1384, and lost both life and kingdom by a natural death in the year 1398.

[354] to bring back to amendment In order to drive the king's paternal uncle more effectively to the amendment of his life, it also seemed good to Birgitta to approach his confessor on the matter; she therefore admonishes him both of his duty and of the unhappy state in which the other was living; and that he should accordingly enter upon an effective way of removing the evil. This labour of St. Birgitta came to nothing: that man partly praises the prince's manners or disposition; his offences, however, he partly excuses and extenuates, on the ground that it would be most difficult for him to abstain from them. St. Birgitta grieved at the shameful slackness of the confessor in discharging his office, and, having most probably also prayed to the Lord for him, she merited to hear from Christ what reward awaited such great slackness, so that, having heard it, he might, driven at least by a salutary fear, satisfy his office. And she is said, in the chapter so often cited, to have heard these things from Christ: What did that brother say to you? Was it not that the duke is good and cannot live better, excusing his incontinence? Such men are not confessors but deceivers, who go about like simple sheep: but more truly they are foxes and flatterers. Such are those friends who see and set before men advancements and dejections for the sake of a little temporal gain. Therefore, if that brother had sat in his convent, he would have sinned less, and would have obtained less punishment and a greater crown. But now he shall not escape the hand of the One who rebukes and afflicts.

[355] she attempted, together with the inhabitants of the kingdom, Finally, when she had seen with her own eyes the crimes rampant everywhere in Famagusta and the depraved manners of the citizens, she foretold, divinely instructed, the disaster hanging over the city, of which above. For thus it is read again in the chapter 16 so often cited: This city (Famagusta, as is read in the title) is a Gomorrah burning with the fire of lust and superfluity and ambition. Therefore its structures shall fall, and it shall be made desolate and diminished, and its inhabitants shall depart, and for grief and tribulation they shall groan and fail, and its confusion shall be named in many lands, because I am angry with them. And the disaster at Famagusta which she had learned divinely, she is said in the title of chapter 19 to have made public in the year 1372, on the 8th day of October, on her return from Jerusalem; which I wish to have noted here for this reason, that it may be evident that St. Birgitta both learned and publicly foretold this disaster before it was not only inflicted by the Genoese on the people of Famagusta, but even before the slaughter of the Genoese, which was the seed of the war and the disaster, had taken place. For that slaughter, as we saw above from Foglietta, took place in the year 1372, on the same day on which, in the following year, Famagusta was taken by the Genoese, namely the 10th day of October. Moreover, that in both places, chapter 16 as well as 19, the subject is the disaster inflicted on Famagusta by the Genoese in the year 1373, is declared by Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, in the preface to chapter 23 of book 8 of the Revelations, where he cites chapter 19 of book 7 with this sort of title: The second revelation made in Jerusalem. And Christ commands through the Bride the said king of Cyprus that they should immediately publish it to the whole kingdom without delay, so that they might amend themselves. And because they did not do so, therefore they were shortly afterwards terribly destroyed by the Genoese.

[356] For the rest, among the Cypriots she found more veneration than belief or fruit: although with no great fruit. that she was held in veneration is gathered both from her familiarity with Queen Eleanor, and from the very great freedom with which she rebuked the chief nobles of the kingdom, and also from the fact that, as is related in the title of chapter 17, Queen Eleanor wished the welfare of the king and the kingdom to be commended to the prayers of St. Birgitta as she was about to cross from Cyprus to Jerusalem. But that she reaped little fruit, and that her threats generally found no very great belief, the calamities of the Cypriot kingdom which followed soon after showed sufficiently. And this perhaps was the reason why she made no long stay there, but crossed into the Holy Land shortly after her arrival. For since, as I said before from Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, she arrived at Famagusta on the 13th or 14th day of April of the year 1372, and on the 8th of October of the same year, according to number 355, she had returned there from Jerusalem, after spending four and a half months in the Holy Land according to the ancient Fragment of the Pilgrimages in Hörmann, page 839, she could scarcely, indeed scarcely at all, have remained there until the 24th day of May: nay, not even until the sixth day of May, since according to the author of the abridged Life and chapter 13 of book 7 of the Revelations, St. Birgitta visited the sepulchre of the Lord at Jerusalem, perhaps on the second day after her arrival, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which in that year fell on the 6th of May. Hence you may refute Burlamacchi, who writes, in book 2, chapter 23 of her Life, that St. Birgitta went ashore in the Holy Land in the month of August, and indeed after the coronation of Peter II, king of Cyprus, as he would have it, which, however, had not yet been performed on the 8th day of October, when St. Birgitta had already returned to Cyprus.

perdituram* about to lose

charissimum* most dear

§ XXIII. She sails from Cyprus to Palestine, and from there returns to Cyprus and Naples.

Setting sail from Cyprus Accordingly, from what has just been said, St. Birgitta, having spent not even a whole month among the Cypriots, set sail from Cyprus, whether because of the scant fruit which she was gathering from that people, then depraved, or because of her great desire to visit the holy places of Palestine. As she was about to leave Cyprus, she had been advised to go to Jerusalem with changed clothing and blackened face, as she would thus more easily avoid the insolence and injuries of the Saracens: but she, relying on the promises of her Spouse, judged that there was sufficient protection for her in Him that, setting aside such counsel, she could expose herself and her people to the eyes of the infidels without danger of insult. For so she had received it in command from Christ, as is again related in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 16, in this manner: Christ speaks: What did he advise you? Was it not to disfigure your clothes and to blacken your faces? Am I, God, who command you, like him who does not know the future, or like a powerless man who fears all things? By no means. But I am wisdom itself, power itself, who both foreknow all things and can do all things. Therefore keep your accustomed manner in clothing and face, and leave my will to me. For I, who preserved Sarah from the hands of those who took her captive, will preserve you also on sea and land, and, as is expedient for you, I will provide for you. From Cyprus to Syria and Palestine is a distance of only 60 miles, as Baudrand testifies: and Jerusalem is not more than about 40 thousand paces from the shore of the Syrian sea, so that St. Birgitta could arrive there in a short time, and perhaps nothing worthy of record happened in this short interval of time which elapsed from her departure from Cyprus until her arrival at Jerusalem. Or if it did, it has nowhere, so far as I know, been committed to writing.

[358] she reached Joppa, Having left Cyprus, however, she directed her course towards Joppa: Joppa is a town and port of Palestine situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, a little less than 35 miles, says Baudrand, distant from Jerusalem; by a more recent name it is now called Jaffa; before she landed there she underwent the danger of shipwreck, and she beheld with unmoved mind and countenance both the threats of the sea stirred up by the tempest and her goods thrown into the sea; as Fr. van der Ketten, often praised, writes in these words in the specimen which he gave of the manuscript German Life of St. Birgitta: When they were already sailing by sea towards Jerusalem, at one time whirlwinds and storms arose, so that many were afraid and grieved. But she was always patient and of the same good spirit. As they came into the port of Japha or Joppa, the galley in which she was broke apart, and all who were in it were saddened and wept. But she, although she saw herself placed there in great fear for her life and her goods thrown into the sea, was patient without any disturbance of heart, and as she prayed God consoled her in a certain revelation, in which she was told not to fear: for in that shipwreck no one would lose his life. And these words she at once intimated to her daughter Catherine, and consoled her, that she should not be afraid.

[359] and then to Jerusalem, When she came to Jerusalem, since she was generally accustomed to do nothing without first consulting God, on whose nod she wholly depended, and since she was in doubt in what place above all she should choose lodging for herself, she consulted her Spouse on the matter, as was her custom. She could go to the monastery of Mount Sion, which the Minorite Fathers administered, intended for receiving pilgrims visiting the holy places. She could likewise go to the public hospice, where she could enjoy and be cherished by the same offices of Christian charity. The Mother of God, appearing to her, advised her to go to this latter: for thus it is read in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 17: The Mother speaks. In that place of Mount Sion there are two kinds of men. Some love God with their whole heart. Others wish to have God, but the world is sweeter to them than God; and therefore, lest the good be scandalized, and lest occasion be given to the lukewarm, and an example to those to come, it is therefore better to stay in the place appointed for pilgrims, or the public hospice: for my Son will provide for you in all things, as it pleases Him. To this, therefore, St. Birgitta went, and she was ordered to remain there with her companions for four months for this reason, as is gathered from the words just recited, that she could there be an example and edification to more people than on Mount Sion, where the part of the inhabitants who loved God with their whole heart did not so much need St. Birgitta's examples; while the part that was more lukewarm in the love of God would perhaps have been no sufficiently good example to her companions. Moreover, there is no doubt that St. Birgitta obeyed the Mother of God with a most willing mind, she who, as report has it, also at Naples preferred public houses of this kind for receiving pilgrims and the poor to the palaces of nobles, as we saw above; and who wished to end her life at Rome in a house of this kind, as we shall show below in its place.

[360] After St. Birgitta came to Jerusalem, she certainly made no long delay where, presently visiting the holy places, before visiting the holy places there with the highest devotion towards Christ. If from her tender years she had been of the most tender love towards the suffering Christ; if that love had likewise continually grown through the assiduous remembrance of His Passion over the course of so many years; if, finally, through almost the whole course of her life she had been accustomed to be favoured by God with singular favours, with what feeling of soul she beheld face to face the places which her most beloved Spouse pressed with His feet, purified with His preaching, watered with His sweat, and with what favours she was favoured by God there as she was now approaching the end of her life, it is most difficult either to grasp in thought or to explain. Some things, however, lest we pass over her last deeds so barrenly, it is pleasing to bring forward here, chiefly from book 7 of the Revelations. Perhaps on the day after her arrival at Jerusalem, on which the feast of the Ascension of the Lord was being celebrated, that is, the 6th of May, she had nothing more urgent than to visit the church of the Lord's sepulchre: what devotion and veneration this holy place inspired in her soul, gather from what has been said without my reminding you. But what fruit she gathered there both for herself and for others, and with what favour she was already then favoured by God, learn from chapter 14 of book 7 just cited. It runs thus: The Son spoke to the Bride: When you entered my temple, dedicated by my blood, you were cleansed from all your sins just as if you had then been lifted from the font of baptism. And on account of your labours and devotion, some souls of your kinsfolk who were in purgatory (among whose number was the soul of her son Charles, lately dead at Naples, from what has been said) have today been freed and have entered heaven into my glory. For all who come to this place with a perfect will to amend themselves according to their better conscience, and not wishing to relapse into their former sins, to these all their former sins are wholly forgiven, and the grace of advancing is increased to them.

[361] These things were indeed most welcome for St. Birgitta to hear: by various visions from Christ so that from this alone she could consider the labours expended on this holy journey to be abundantly repaid: but Christ's favour towards His Bride did not stop here: for on the following Friday, on which she again went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, as she prayed there in the chapel of Mount Calvary, He displayed to her for her contemplation the whole sequence of His Passion. I know indeed that certain circumstances of the Passion of Christ are recorded in chapter 15 which are neither placed beyond doubt nor acknowledged by all. Thus, as some hold, the Messiah was fastened to the cross before He was raised on high together with it: but Birgitta thought that Christ, having gone up by some steps to the cross already erected, was fastened to it, and that then, the steps having been removed, He hung from it. Again there are those who think that Christ was pierced through hands and feet with three nails only; but St. Birgitta enumerates four nails, two by which the hands, both right and left, were pierced; and likewise two by which the feet, of which the left was placed over the right. There are likewise those who believe that Christ's left side was opened with the lance; but Birgitta affirmed that this was done in the right. But if these and other things of the kind perhaps deviate from the truth, St. Birgitta may have judged thus about such circumstances of Christ's Passion not from divine revelation, but from preconceived ideas, which God was not bound to hinder while the vision was taking place. Besides, since revelations of this kind, from what was said in §13, do not produce certain faith concerning matters otherwise doubtful, it is not necessary for us to discuss in this place at greater length these controversies and others of the same kind which are scattered through the books of the Revelations. But whoever wishes to see these things treated at greater length, let him read Durante in his Annotations on the books of the Revelations, and the interpreters of the Sacred Pages.

[362] and favoured with divine favours, Furthermore, at the same time at which St. Birgitta saw the sequence of Christ's Passion, she also heard Christ complaining to her in friendly fashion about princes, about prelates of the Church, about every kind of men, because they lived too unmindful of His Passion: for thus it is read in the next chapter, that is, 16: Afterwards in the same hour Christ spoke to the same His Bride, Bl. Birgitta, saying: These things which you have now seen, and others which I endured, the princes of the world do not attend to, nor do they even consider the places in which I was born and suffered, because they are like a man who has a place set apart for beasts and untamed wild animals, into which, letting loose hunting dogs, he delights in watching the running of the dogs and the wild animals. So likewise the princes of the earth and the prelates of the churches and all the estates of the world look more eagerly and more gladly upon earthly delights than upon my death and passion and my wounds. Therefore I will yet send them my words through you; and unless they change their hearts and turn them to me, they shall be condemned with those who divided my garments and cast lots upon my vesture. But while St. Birgitta frequently enjoys such divine favours, she did not forget her neighbour, and above all those who had commended themselves to her prayers. And this, as we saw above, Eleanor, queen of Cyprus, had done, being anxious for the welfare of her son King Peter, still a youth, and of the whole Cypriot kingdom. Birgitta kept her promises, but she even performed more than these: for not only did she pour out prayers to God for the king and his kingdom, but she also besought Him that He would be pleased to show her what needed to be done in order that the king, together with the kingdom, might stand safe and unharmed.

[363] about future things God therefore suggested to St. Birgitta counsels, six in number, which the Cypriots should obey if they wished to be saved, and He commanded that she should write them to Cyprus to the king and to John, prince of Antioch and administrator of the kingdom, but in a private capacity. They are extant, as they were sent by St. Birgitta from Palestine, in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 18. I shall condense into a few words what may be seen set out more fully there. She urged King Peter and John, prince of Antioch, first of all that, being reconciled to God through the Sacrament of Penance and, having duly received the most holy Eucharist, united by the bond of mutual charity, they should seek in administering the kingdom the divine honour and the advantage of their people; that, out of reverence for the Passion and death of Christ, they should receive back into favour those guilty in any way of the slaying of Peter I; that they should deal with the clergy, both regular and secular, about restoring the ancient and holy manner of living; that they should also see to it that whoever belonged to the military order should, being cleansed of their sins by a true and sincere confession, be refreshed with the sacred banquet of the body of Christ, and that thereafter not only they themselves but also all the inhabitants of the kingdom should lead a life befitting their state and ecclesiastical discipline; finally, that they should take care that those on whom the care of souls is incumbent should strive to amend those liable to grave and public offences by effectively admonishing, rebuking and teaching them: and if this did not succeed, they should refer those obstinate in evil to the prelates of the higher order, by whom finally, aided where necessary by the help of the princes themselves, they should be compelled to their duty by ecclesiastical censures. These counsels would truly have profited the Cypriots, if only wretched men corrupted by vices had brought to their execution a mind as ready as the counsels were salutary; but the matter turned out far otherwise.

[364] A second time St. Birgitta sent a letter to Cyprus, she is instructed, in which she not only now proposed counsels, but also held over the Cypriots the gravest threats unless they repented, and not obscurely foretold the divine vengeance hanging over them, in these words of Christ in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 19: Therefore, people of Cyprus, I announce to you that if you will not correct and amend yourself, then I will so destroy your generation and progeny in the kingdom of Cyprus that I will spare neither poor nor rich; I will so destroy your generation that in a short time your memory shall so slip from the hearts of men as if you had never been born into this world. The event showed that St. Birgitta foretold true things: for not only in the very next year was Cyprus occupied by the arms of the Genoese, as we have said, but also in the year 1426, the king having been captured, it came into the power of the Sultan of Egypt, and finally, after various vicissitudes of fortune, about the year 1571 it was wrapped in the unhappy servitude of the Turks. Not of Cyprus only, but also of the whole empire of the Greeks or of the East, she no less manifestly foretold the destruction, unless they joined themselves to the Roman Catholic Pontiff and Church: receive again the words by which she did so, transcribed here from the same chapter: Let the Greeks also know that their empire and kingdoms or dominions shall never stand secure, nor in tranquil peace, but they shall always be subject to their enemies, from whom they shall always suffer the gravest losses and long-lasting miseries, until they with true humility and charity devoutly submit themselves to the Church and the Roman faith, conforming themselves wholly to the sacred constitutions and rites of the same church. And

indeed the matter turned out so: for, as the arms of the Turks gradually grew stronger and stronger, the empire of the Greeks began to rush to ruin, until the Catholic world saw it, upon the capture of Constantinople in the year 1453, utterly overthrown, and groaned. Moreover, St. Birgitta sent this revelation from Jerusalem to Cyprus, to King Peter II and to John, prince of Antioch and governor of the kingdom, so that they might publish it to the whole kingdom: but since the king was still young and not equal to conducting affairs by himself, while John, prince of Antioch, did not place full faith in it, this was by no means done. Wherefore St. Birgitta, having returned to Cyprus, on the 8th day of October at Famagusta, in the presence of the queen, the king, the prince of Antioch and the whole royal council, performed this herself, as is read in the title of the chapter cited.

[365] St. Birgitta, refreshed by these visions from Christ, is read to have been favoured also quite often with similar privileges by the Virgin Mother of God; as also concerning certain mysteries by the Blessed Virgin. which the Mother of God had foretold to her would happen, already from about the year 1358: for thus runs chapter 1 of book 7 of the Revelations: Therefore I announce to you (Mary to Birgitta) that you will go on pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem, when it shall please my Son, and from there you will go to Bethlehem, and there I will show you in the very place the whole manner in which I gave birth. St. Birgitta came to Bethlehem in the year 1372, in the fifteenth year from the revelation just transcribed, as the title of chapter 21 of the same book has it; and in the place and at the time already mentioned she saw fulfilled in reality what the Mother of God had promised her: how these things went, and moreover certain other things pertaining to the mysteries of human redemption, likewise shown to St. Birgitta in Bethlehem, you have explained at length in book 7, chapters 21, 22, 23, 24 and perhaps also 25. Finally, when she was already thinking of her return, in the month of September, on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she is reported in chapter 26 to have gone to the valley of Josaphat, and there, while she venerated the sepulchre of the Mother of God, to have heard from her, as she appeared to her: I, after my Son ascended into heaven, lived in the world for fifteen years, and as much time more as there is from the feast of the Ascension of the same my Son until my death. And then I lay dead in this sepulchre for fifteen days. Then I was assumed into heaven with infinite honour and joy. Durante notes here in his Annotations that perhaps one should read not fifteen days but some days, because so it has it in the Sermon on the excellence of the Virgin (otherwise called the Angelic Sermon), chapter 21. But however this may be, whether the Blessed Virgin died at Jerusalem and was buried in the valley of Josaphat; how long she lived on earth surviving her Son; on what day finally she was assumed bodily into heaven, is plainly doubtful; and Benedict XIV, On the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, chapter 122, makes mention of another vision, of St. Elisabeth of the diocese of Trebia (Trebiensis), who died in the year 1165, according to which the Blessed Virgin came back to life on the fortieth day after her death. See more in the Pontiff just praised. And so the vision related here too is apocryphal or doubtful.

[366] To Cyprus In the year 1372, when it had already advanced to the month of September, after she had satisfied her devotion towards God and His Mother in the holy places of the Holy Land, she began to think of her return to Italy, according to the preceding number; and since, according to number 364, she returned to Famagusta on the eighth day of October, it is probable that in that same month she actually began her return to Italy. Moreover, what she did at Famagusta on her return from the Holy Land has likewise already been told in the same place. Perhaps there may and should be referred here what Burlamacchi relates in book 2, chapter 23 of the Life of St. Birgitta: that St. Birgitta disclosed to Peter of Aragon, who had put to her certain doubts of his mind about the observance of poverty in the Order of St. Francis, a revelation shown to her on that matter. For there is no doubt that Burlamacchi here applies to Peter of Aragon what is read about a certain anonymous Franciscan in chapter 20 of book 7 of the Revelations, which Burlamacchi himself cites in the margin. Since, therefore, as is had in the title of the chapter cited, she had that revelation at Jerusalem, she does not seem to have communicated it to Peter of Aragon before she had returned from Jerusalem to Cyprus, if the thing really happened in the way Burlamacchi narrates: but I would not dare to hold this for certain, both because the name of Peter of Aragon is not expressed in the passage of the Revelations cited, and because I do not know on what witness or surety Burlamacchi said that this anonymous man was Peter of Aragon. But perhaps he conjectured it from the fact that in the year 1371 he was sent by Gregory XI to Cyprus to Queen Eleanor (his daughter, as he said), and was still staying there in the year 1373, as is clear from the instruments brought forward on this matter by Wadding in his Annals at the said years. If the matter stands so, Peter of Aragon certainly attributed rather more to St. Birgitta's revelations than did the nobles and ministers of the Cypriot kingdom. In place of Peter of Aragon, Surius has Antony of Aragon, as does the Louvain Life of St. Birgitta: but Berthold has Martin, who accompanied her from Cyprus into Palestine; and a Guardian of this name at Bethlehem occurs in Wadding in the Annals at the year 1375. The other things, if St. Birgitta did any others besides on her return from Jerusalem to Cyprus, are in obscurity: wherefore let us follow her as she sails from Cyprus to Naples, and see what she did there at the last.

[367] She returned to Naples towards the end of the year 1372, or certainly towards the beginning of the year 1373; and then returns to Naples, since we saw above that she returned to Cyprus on the 8th day of October of the year 1372, and, from what is about to be said, she was at Naples on the day of St. Polycarp, that is, the 26th of January of the following year. Having returned here, she had that twofold revelation concerning the return of Gregory XI to Rome, the one on the 26th day of January, the other in the month of February, as is read in the titles of chapters 191 and 192 of book 4 of the Revelations, and therefore in the year 1373: the latter of which she sent to Gregory XI at Avignon through Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, as we related from Alphonsus himself in §17, number 255, where I discoursed more on this matter. No less anxious was she then also for the amendment and salvation of the Neapolitan people: both Queen Joanna and Archbishop Bernard had asked her to pour out prayers to God for the salvation of the Neapolitans: and to her as she prayed Christ appeared, and set forth the vices especially rampant throughout the city, and the manner in which, if they wished to escape the divine vengeance, they ought to be amended. She reported the vision or revelation shown to her to Archbishop Bernard, who, having duly examined it, ordered it to be promulgated publicly to the people in the church.

[368] So it is read partly in the title of chapter 27 of book 8 of the Revelations, where the vices of the people, both public, which presents the aforesaid revelation entire; and partly Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, an eyewitness of the event, testifies to it, in chapter 6 of the Prologue which he wrote to the book of the heavenly Emperor to kings. And although, he says, also again at Naples, in the presence of the lord Archbishop Bernard and of three masters in Theology and of many other knights and skilled men, I being a witness, this grace (of revelations), nay a certain revelation, which the Lady herself then presented to them through one of the said masters, was, by the command of the lady queen and of the archbishop, published in the cathedral church before the whole people of the city, specially called together for this purpose, and solemnly preached; nevertheless, for greater abundance and so that silence may be imposed on biting detractors and calumniators, etc. The cause of the prayers asked of St. Birgitta seems to have been the plague of the groin which was then raging at Naples; as Chiocarelli, in the work which he entitled on the archbishops of Naples, relates from a contemporary author in these words, page 238: William Maramaldo, a Neapolitan nobleman, who lived in the age of King Robert and Queen Joanna, his granddaughter, has in his brief Chronicle of the kingdom of Naples, which is preserved in manuscript among us, that there came to Naples Brigitta the Swede, a very pious matron, returning from the holy sepulchre, and that at the chief (here read prayers) of the same queen and of others she besought the Lord that God would reveal some remedy for the pestilence of the deadly gland, which was then, in the year 1373, raging at Naples and had lasted for a year; and that it was revealed to the same Brigitta that, if the Neapolitans abstained from the prayers (here read chief) sins in which they were entangled, namely pride, avarice and lust, God would bestow His grace upon them, and the plague would be extinguished: but if not, the disease would increase so much that few would remain surviving; and so the outcome of the matter proved; for as they did not repent, it increased. Thus Maramaldo.

[369] as well as private Besides those just mentioned, certain other vices also flourished among the Neapolitans, apart from those which were not public, concerning the amendment of which God likewise willed them to be admonished through St. Birgitta, with the threat of vengeance if they persisted in these sins, yet with hope of pardon held out if they returned to amendment: but St. Birgitta did not carry this out anew before she had shown to Bernard, archbishop of Naples, what had been divinely shown to her on the matter. There had grown up among the Neapolitans so great a slackness in procuring the salvation of slaves of both sexes, whom they had acquired either by purchase or by some other way, that, intent solely on the profit of perishable things to be gained from them, they meanwhile put no zeal or effort into having them either converted to the faith of Christ, or, if they had perhaps given their name to Christ through Baptism, instructed with a suitable knowledge of the Christian law, or finally having them order their life and manners according to its rule; whence it came about that God was often offended by the gravest sins. Nay, it had come to such a pitch of inhumanity, lust and avarice, that they kept slaves of the weaker sex not in the manner of human beings but of cattle, and most shamefully abused them either for their own lust or for that of others, as may be seen more fully in book 7, chapter 28. There were also those who maintained sorcerers, diviners and enchantresses, who sought the future from them, who used their services in driving away diseases, and demanded very many other things of this kind from them: these St. Birgitta strove to bring back to sounder counsels, setting before their eyes on the one side the divine Justice prepared for vengeance; on the other, mercy, which would restrain vengeance if they repented, and would receive the guilty back into favour.

[370] she strives to correct. St. Antoninus confirms all these things in §3 of the Life of St. Birgitta, speaking thus: Remaining there (at Naples) for a long time, as a mirror without stain she showed herself an example of virtues to all, given over above all to prayer and contemplation. A revelation also having been made to her concerning the people of the aforesaid city, in the presence of the archbishop and other wise theologians, and also of prudent

laymen and very many clerics, enumerating the sins of the city and announcing its crimes, she rebuked them without any fear, after the manner of the Samaritan pouring wine and oil into the wounds of the injured man, applying salutary remedies just as she had been taught by the heavenly physician. But concerning the time at which these things were done, namely on her return from Jerusalem, as I have said, St. Antoninus might seem to disagree with me: for since he presently adds: At length she returned to the City. And after a little continues his narrative of St. Birgitta's deeds thus: After some years she was taught by the Spirit to visit the places of the Holy Land; he might seem to assert that all these things happened on the earlier Neapolitan journey, before Birgitta went to the Holy Land. But it was the holy man's purpose, so far as appears to me, to touch on St. Birgitta's deeds at Naples only briefly and summarily, without observing the order of time, although he was not unaware that she did different things there at different times. Let us set out the remaining things which she did further at Naples on her return from the journey to Jerusalem.

[371] That St. Birgitta then also made a rather long stay at Naples, Certain other deeds of St. Birgitta I understand from the note of the count of Nola, where he has thus: From hearsay I will relate another thing, which I also believe true, after the aforesaid Lady returned from the sepulchre of the Lord, and her spiritual Father together with her. And, as you know better, she stayed a long time [at] Naples. Hence it is permissible, not rashly, as I think, to gather that St. Birgitta, who was certainly not accustomed to spend idle days, did many and remarkable things then, even if perhaps they were not committed to writing. Burlamacchi relates certain things in book 2, chapter 25, besides those already mentioned. One indeed is that a certain Florentine merchant, but a resident of the city of Naples, having gone to the fair of Salerno, and having learned there from a friend's letter that his brother was at the point of death from illness, besought God that, if St. Birgitta, then still living, were of the sanctity which she was everywhere reported to be, his brother might recover by her prayers and merits; and that thus, although she was absent, he obtained his wish. Burlamacchi drew the matter from the Mandate of Bernard, archbishop of Naples; and so I have no doubt about the healing of that sick man: but, since it is only said there that the thing happened while St. Birgitta was still alive, I confess I do not know from what Burlamacchi concluded that it happened on St. Birgitta's return from Jerusalem rather than on her going, or on the earlier journey which she made through the cities of the kingdom of Naples.

[372] The other, which Burlamacchi relates in this place besides, having drawn it from the note of the count of Nola, or rather his Letter to Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, things done there at that time concerns namely a woman of Nola named Piscolella, delivered by St. Birgitta from an incubus demon, of which matter I made mention above when I treated of St. Birgitta's departure for the Holy Land. And indeed, that this miracle happened at the time I said, and not when St. Birgitta returned from Jerusalem to Naples, is made manifest from the count of Nola's words; since he affirms in express words that it happened When the same Lady had proposed to visit the sepulchre of the Lord. However, the same count of Nola narrates another thing, which was done by St. Birgitta on her return from the Holy Land to Naples. For he says that his son Robert, when he had learned that St. Birgitta had returned there from the Holy Land, went to her for the sake of greeting her, and when by chance in the course of conversation talk fell upon Urban the Sixth (but there is an error in the Pontiff's name in Hörmann, as I shall say presently), who was absent at Avignon, she foretold to Robert: Robert, be certain that you will see the Roman Pontiff himself in Rome.

[373] And he says that Robert, when afterwards he was escorting the Pontiff into the City, are narrated. said to him: Now I truly know that the lady Birgitta uttered the truth to me, and not only that I should see you in the City, but also that I am escorting you: but since the subject there is the Roman Pontiff who brought back the Pontifical See from Avignon to Rome, these words seem to be understood not of Urban VI but of Gregory XI, about whom Berthold expressly relates this, de Roma, number 113. This happened in the year 1377, since the count of Nola affirms that about five years elapsed from the time at which St. Birgitta had foretold it until the fulfilment of the prediction. Finally, how cautious, prudent and careful she was not to admit anything beyond the will of God, even in the most harmless matters, she showed by a remarkable instance when she had returned to Naples from the Holy Land: for although she was not amply provided for meeting the expenses necessary for the journey, she nevertheless would not accept a certain sum of money sent of their own accord to her while she was staying at Naples by a certain queen (most probably by Joanna of Sicily, or perhaps by Eleanor, queen of Cyprus), before she had learned that this did not displease God, whom she had consulted, as Peter of Alvastra records in the Extravagant Revelations, chapter 110. And this, I think, suffices to have been said about St. Birgitta's deeds at Naples as she was returning from the Holy Land to Rome: certainly I have not found more than these to bring forward.

§ XXIV. She returns sick to Rome, is forewarned of her impending death, which she piously meets there.

Sick to Rome At length in the year 1373, when it had advanced beyond the month of February, she departed from Naples to Rome, there to find the end of her laborious life. Already for some months, to so many and so great labours endured by land and sea there had been added weakness of the stomach and a malignant fever: But after she returned to Rome, says Birger, number 30, having been held for a whole year by a grave infirmity, which she nevertheless endured most patiently both at sea and on land amid labours and pains, she began from day to day to be weighed down by graver illnesses. These words in Birger, or similar ones perhaps found elsewhere, were not rightly interpreted by Baillet and some others, when they said that St. Birgitta, after her return from the journey to Jerusalem, was afflicted with illness in the City for a whole year: in which case it would be necessary that she departed from life in the year 1374, which, however, I shall show below is not so. But Birger himself, saying that St. Birgitta suffered weakness of the stomach and fever by land and sea, declared more than sufficiently that the year during which both ills lasted is to be reckoned not from her arrival at Rome, but somewhat earlier, and at least from the time when she was sailing from the Holy Land to Italy. This is true, that St. Birgitta's disease, from the time she came to Rome, gradually grew stronger and stronger, until at length in the month of July it brought her to her last extremity.

[375] she returns, Nay indeed, St. Birgitta began to struggle with that ill while she was still detained in the Holy Land visiting the holy places: the words of the Life of St. Birgitta printed at Louvain in the year 1485, as also of Surius, to whom this Life lighted the way, are manifest on this matter: they run thus: But before she undertook the journey from Jerusalem, she began to be weighed down with fever and infirmity of the stomach, which she endured most patiently at sea and on land amid her labours and pains for a whole year. When therefore she had returned to Rome, she began to be more gravely ill with these sicknesses, so much so that she died in this infirmity. Surius's words are almost the same: so that there is no reason for Baillet to detain us here any longer. But the force of the disease, though not moderately troublesome, was not such as to break St. Birgitta's unconquered and plainly manly spirit so that she failed either in her accustomed exercises of piety or even in the very offices of courtesy: not in her accustomed exercises of piety: for what I related in number 279 about her going round the holy places of Rome, and being raised aloft near the Colosseum, seems to have happened at this time. Nor even in the very offices of courtesy, as will appear from the following deed.

[376] When she was leaving Rome, Latino Orsini had escorted her a fairly long distance for the sake of honour and reverence, where, of others, as we saw above: on her return to Rome Birgitta wished to repay Latino the courtesy: she therefore went herself to Latino's house for the sake of greeting him: but, since this visit of St. Birgitta to Latino was not without a prodigy, it will be helpful to transcribe it here from her Louvain Life, with which Surius again agrees: Here are the words: When the Lady Birgitta was going from Rome towards Jerusalem, the lord Latino Orsini escorted her outside the City for a long distance because of the great devotion and affection which he bore towards her. Returning therefore from Jerusalem to Rome, Birgitta went with her confessor, Lord Peter, to the house of the aforesaid lord Latino. When therefore she had entered his house, she held her hand to her nose, saying nothing. When Latino asked her confessor what this meant, that she so held her hand to her nose, saying nothing to him, the confessor replied: She does not find you so well disposed in your mind as she left you. He, wondering, said: What have I done? It is true, however, that I have had a quarrel with certain of my vassals.

[377] Not unlike is the deed which follows next in the same place, the secrets and I refer it here so that it may be evident both in how great honour St. Birgitta was held among men of the first rank, and how frequently it was granted her, while she was alive, to search out and look into the secrets of hearts. It runs thus: When also the lady Birgitta herself, with her daughter the lady Katherine and lord Magnus her chaplain, was in the house of the Lord Giordano de Marino at Rome, in the presence of the wife of the Lord Giordano, whom Birgitta wished to visit, Birgitta herself perceived such a stench from her deeds that she could scarcely bear it. At which lord Magnus wondered much. He asked of lord Peter her confessor what this meant. He answered him: Know this for certain, that whenever any person who is in mortal sin stands before her, or speaks deceitful words or words that are offensive to God, she at once perceives a stench of sulphur. This same spirit of St. Birgitta, looking into the secrets of the hearts of those who associated with her, Geometius (or perhaps Gometius) experienced to his own good, concerning whom Fr. van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, sent to our predecessors these things from the German Life of St. Birgitta: When she had now returned from Jerusalem to Rome, her illness grew stronger day by day. Hearing this, the Lord of Spoleto, called Lord Geometus, who was devoted to her, sets out for Rome with his wife and his children, in order that they might venerate the holy woman and commend themselves to her prayers.

[378] He, when he was at Rome, one day invites her, with her daughter the lady Catherine and her son the Lord Birger and her confessor, to a banquet. she perceives, and takes care for the public good: And there the lord spoke secretly with her

about secret matters, for the sake of counsel, which he did not dare to disclose. Then she knew in the spirit and revealed to him the secret thoughts of his heart which he had. Whereupon the lord wondered, and she gave him counsel both in the matters which he had kept secret within himself and in the others which he had made known. From then on he had greater love and confidence towards her than before. So that not undeservedly did Boniface IX say in the Bull of her Canonization: By which holy works, continued without intermission, this noble Widow, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, merited to disclose to many their thoughts and inmost affections and most secret deeds. It would be permissible to collect many similar things, but here I am treating only of her last deeds. And whereas she was thus zealous in this manner for the advantage and salvation of private persons when now close to death, she wished no less to provide for the common good of the whole Church: wherefore in the year 1373, when it had advanced to the month of July, in which she died, she wrote her last revelation to Gregory XI, to be delivered to him through Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, then staying at Avignon; in which she seriously admonished the Pontiff to make peace with Bernabò, viscount of Milan, and to bring back the pontifical see into Italy, as may be seen in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 143. As for the deeds of the viscounts of Milan against the church under Gregory XI, and indeed in the year 1373, see volume 16 of the writers of Italian affairs, in the anonymous writer of the Annals of Milan brought down from the year 1230 to the year 1402, above all chapter 135, which is: On the War of the Lords Viscounts with the Roman Church and with the count of Savoy. And Gregory transferred the See to Rome in the year 1377, as we saw above, four years after St. Birgitta's death.

[379] to her, soon to die, Christ appears, Meanwhile, while she was, although afflicted in body, thus intent on the affairs of others, and approaching the end of her life, she was for a while deprived even of her accustomed divine consolations, so that her constancy in the love of her Spouse might be the more proved: but He did not suffer His Bride to remain long in this grief. But because the time of her dissolution was at hand, says Birger, number 31, some days before the day of her death our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to her before the altar which was in her chamber, and showing Himself with a gentle face He said: I had done to you as a bridegroom is wont to do, who hides himself from the bride so that he may be more ardently desired. So I did not visit you with consolations at that time, because it was the time of your probation. Therefore now, being proved, go forward and prepare yourself. For now is the time, and, as I had promised, you shall be clothed as a nun before my altar, and you shall be consecrated not only my bride, but also nun and mother in Vadstena. From these words of Birger you will gather that St. Birgitta, however much she aspired, while she lived as a widow, to take up the monastic life and habit in the monastery of Vadstena, nevertheless never either solemnly professed the monastic life or was clothed in the monastic habit. What I have just recited from Birger is also read in almost the same words in revelation 31 of book 7 and in her Louvain Life, in which, moreover, it is said in express words that St. Birgitta is usually painted clothed in the habit of the Birgittine nuns, not because she actually wore it, but because she had it in her vow, and in a certain spiritual manner was gifted with it by Christ as she died.

[380] not yet, however, a nun, Here are the words: From these words it is clear that Birgitta was not clothed as a nun in this life, nor clothed in the habit of that rule which she instituted. But at her passing from this world she was clothed with such a religious and imperceptible garment by Christ, her Spouse, as He promised her in the revelations made to her by Him. Hence it is that the image of Birgitta is commonly wont to be painted as a nun. And although she was not a nun in her life, she nevertheless asked to be adorned with such a garment as the nuns of her Order are now clothed with. Which she obtained after the end of her life in the kingdom of heaven. Whence it follows that she was not even buried in the habit of the Birgittine nuns, contrary to what Baillet says. But did St. Birgitta then profess the Third Order of St. Francis, and wish to be buried in its habit? For so says Hueber in the Franciscan Menology at the 23rd day of July: At Rome in Latium, in the year 1373, St. Birgitta, widow, is owed to the Third Order of St. Francis… Having returned to Rome she completed the course of her blessed life, and, as a true daughter of the Seraphic Father Francis, she wished and ordered that she be carried to and buried in the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna (which is a noble monastery of the Order of St. Clare). Nor otherwise Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum at the same day: Likewise at Rome the passing of St. Birgitta, widow, of the Third Order of Minors: adding in the Annotations that she founded an Order distinguished by her name, in which she also herself made profession; this last is convicted of falsity from what has already been said. It must be granted to these writers that St. Birgitta ordered her mortal remains to be committed to the earth in the church of the Clarissan nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna at Rome, and that this actually happened: but that she was of the Third Order of St. Francis neither follows from her burial among the Clarissas, nor have they handed it down on any ancient or suitable witness.

[381] Nor did the Virgin Mother of God wish that St. Birgitta, who throughout the whole course of her life had been most devoted to her name, as also the Blessed Virgin, should depart from this life without singular consolation and a testimony of her benevolence towards her. And so, as Peter of Alvastra narrates in chapter 67 of the Extravagant Revelations, A little before the death of blessed Birgitta the Virgin Mary appeared to her, saying: If a woman gives birth when she is sick, all her sons whom she bears are sickly. But you will bear sons strong and healthy and devoted to God, and you will be healed better than you ever were before, and you will not die, but you will come to the place prepared for you. For Saint Francis was sick for a long time, and yet then he bore fruit and did the will of God. But afterwards he was healed, and did, and does, greater things than when sick. But you may ask why your infirmity is so prolonged, and your nature and strength consumed? I answer you that my Son and I love you. Do you not remember that my Son said to you (see number 360) in Jerusalem that your sins were forgiven you when you entered the holy temple of His sepulchre, as if you had then been lifted from baptism? But He did not say to you that you should suffer nothing as long as you live in the world. Therefore it is the will of God that the charity of man should answer to the charity of God. And so that past negligences may be washed away through patience and infirmity. Remember also that I have told you many times that the words of my Son and mine can be understood spiritually and bodily, as I said in the city of Stralsund (it is a town of Pomerania on the shore of the Baltic Sea), that if before the completion of the divine words contained in the heavenly books (that is, of the revelations) which have been divinely given to you, you should be called from the world, then on account of your good will you will be reckoned a nun in Vadstena and will be a partaker of all things promised to you by God.

[382] The Blessed Virgin had said that St. Birgitta would not die: but at the same time she had warned that her words could be understood in two ways, spiritually and bodily. by whom, warned of her impending death And that what she had already said was to be understood of spiritual death, and that she would shortly die by bodily death, the Blessed Virgin, appearing again to St. Birgitta about the same time, as Peter narrates in the following chapter, namely on the sixth day before her death, that is, the 18th day of July of the year 1373, declared in these words: What do the physicians say, is it not that you will die? Truly, Daughter, they do not consider what it is to die. For he dies who is separated from God, who, hardened in sin, does not vomit forth the uncleanness of his sins through confession. He also is dead who does not believe in God, nor loves his creator. But he lives and does not die who always fears God, who purges his sins by frequent confession, who desires to come to his God. But because the God of natures speaks with you, who also disposes against nature and holds your life, therefore in medicines there is neither health nor life. So neither is it now necessary for you to rely on medicine, because a little time needs little food. Christ had also foretold that she would soon die: for, after the words cited in number 379, Birger presently adds these: Nevertheless know that you shall lay down your body here in Rome, until it comes to the place prepared for it. For it pleases God to spare you from labours and to accept your will for the deed. He also added the persons whom He wished to assist Birgitta as she died, and many other things, which, as is read at the end of book 7 of the revelations, were not committed to writing.

[383] she dies piously But after these things had been heard, Birger continues, the Lord added, saying: On the morning of the fifth day (the 23rd of July), having received the Sacraments, call together one by one all whom I have ordained above, and tell them what is to be done, and so amid their words and hands you will come to your monastery, that is, to my joy, and your body will be placed in Vadstena. Then, as the fifth day approached, at the very dawn He appeared to her again, consoling her. And Mass having been said and the Sacraments received, she gave up her spirit amid the hands of the aforesaid persons. Thus Birger: but Boniface IX, in the Bull of Canonization of St. Brigitta, in a certain manner tacitly confirming the above revelations, which I said she had a little before her death, recounts certain other circumstances of St. Birgitta's death left untouched by Birger: on which matter receive also the words of the praised Pontiff. It runs thus: On the fifth day before, she foretold that the end of her life (which, namely, she had learned by God's revealing it) was at hand. When the foretold term was now arriving, having called her household, she declared what ought to be done. And finally, having summoned her son Birger and her daughter Catherine, then surviving, and having admonished many that above all they should persevere in the fear of God and the love of neighbour and in holy works, having duly made her last Confession, having received the Viaticum and been anointed with extreme unction, her memory having remained whole up to the emission of her breath, while Mass was being celebrated before her, after adoring the body of Christ, with eyes raised to heaven, saying: "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," she gave back her well-deserving soul to the Creator who called it.

[384] in Panisperna, Concerning the place in which St. Birgitta departed from this life, not all agree: Wadding, in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1318, number 42, contends that she died in the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, which, situated on the Viminal hill, already then belonged to the Clarissan nuns. The church, he says, is very celebrated, both from the station appointed

on the Thursday after the first Sunday of Lent, and, as I said, from the name and martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and also from the dwelling, death and burial of St. Birgitta the Swede, whose sepulchre Stefania Savelli, a nun of the same house, beautifully adorned, building an elegant chapel over it. Then indeed Wadding adds: I do not know for what reason or on what foundation some say that she died in her own house, in which there is now built a church sacred to the Saint herself at the Farnese square, and declare that the chamber behind the church is the very one in which she ended her life. The same seemed true to Papebroch as to Wadding, in volume 3 of March, in the Annotations on chapter 5 of the Life of St. Catherine of Sweden, letter D, adding that there are still shown the chambers in which there is thought to have once been a hospice attached to the old monastery, and that the Saint herself breathed her last there, drawn by the odour of holy poverty to betake herself thither when dying. Thus they. But in the Annotations of the often-praised Fr. van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, I see that this is doubted chiefly for two reasons: the one of these is that in the German Life St. Birgitta is said to have died in her own house (afterwards converted into a church and a hospice or hostel of the Swedes) which a certain Roman Matron, named Francesca, had given her; the other is that in the Lives of St. Birgitta it is commonly read that the body of the dead St. Birgitta was carried to the monastery of St. Clare, or rather of the Clarissas, which seems to be an argument that she at least gave back her soul to her Maker elsewhere.

[385] But neither reason proves that St. Birgitta died in her house situated at the Farnese square, in the monastery of the Clarissas, for, in the first place, it does not appear to me sufficiently certain that that house was given as a gift to St. Birgitta while she was still alive by Francesca, a noble Roman matron. The instrument of the donation of that house was published by Hörmann after the revelations of St. Birgitta, page 858 and the two following. But it bears the year 1383, and by it Francesca, widow of Giacomo Papazzuri de Papazzuris, gave the said house as a gift not to St. Birgitta but to Catherine her daughter, or rather to the monastery of Vadstena (since Catherine had departed from life already in the year 1381). You will perhaps say that that instrument was only drawn up some years after the donation was made, when it was solemnly accepted, and that by it the donation of the house, once made to St. Birgitta, is confirmed: but, besides the fact that no mention of another donation is made there, these words inserted in the instrument raise a scruple: one great palace of the lady Francesca herself, and in which she herself now dwells and has hitherto dwelt; which indeed seem to imply that that house was possessed by Francesca up to the year 1383 and inhabited by her for some time before: whence I here hold the German Life of St. Birgitta suspect of an error which is presently to be refuted more solidly. Nor is the other reason more effective. For let the body of the dead St. Birgitta have been carried, as indeed it was, to the monastery or church of the Clarissas. Why could this not be understood of its translation from the neighbouring hospice to the very monastery, or, if you prefer, the church, of the Clarissas? However it may be, Boniface IX openly fights for the monastery of the Clarissas in the Bull to be exhibited below, in which he most explicitly reports St. Birgitta's dwelling, death and burial in the monastery of the Clarissas: meanwhile receive his words bearing on this. They run thus: In which (the Church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna) blessed Brigida, while she lived among men, devoutly remained for some days, and paid the debt of nature, and her body was buried.

[386] in the 71st year of her age, on the 23rd day, Our writer, who copied out Birger's work on her Life, marked the year of St. Birgitta's death as 1372; as also did Berthold, following him; but whether this happened through an error of the copyist, or through a perhaps different manner of computing the year which Birger used, or from any other cause whatever, and granted that St. Antoninus also marked the same year; nevertheless, that she died in the year 1373 is not only the common opinion of authors, but it is also concluded from the sequence of the journey to Jerusalem set out above: there are added the author of her abridged Life; Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena, adding that she died on a Saturday, the Dominical letter running being B, which agrees with the year 1373, and deliberately refuting those who said that she departed from life in the year 1372 already at the time when he was writing these things, that is, not later than the year 1406. The same is affirmed by the monks of Vadstena who in the year 1492 had the Life of St. Birgitta printed at Lübeck together with the Revelations, according to Benzelius in the Annotations on Vastovius's Vitis Aquilonia, column 67, as also the Life printed at Louvain in the year 1485. Still less do I delay over those who wrote that she died in the year 1374. As regards the year of her age in which she died, some say that she departed from this life in her 70th year, others in her 71st: but since Boniface IX says that she had passed her seventieth year, and it is not right to depart from him for a slight cause, she seems to have ended her life when her seventieth year of age was completed and her seventy-first, perhaps, not long begun. Concerning the day of her death there is no controversy; all acknowledge that it fell on the day sacred to St. Apollinaris, that is, the 23rd of July.

[387] but buried there on the 26th day of July with a great concourse of the people, The Widow, fleeing from honours, had ordered as she was about to die, fearing a concourse of the people, that she should be buried secretly and without pomp, by night, in the monastery of Panisperna, as is read in her German Life, which, however, comes far closer to the Netherlandish language. But it turned out far otherwise than she had wished. For immediately, says Boniface in the Bull of Canonization, a great report was made through the City of the passing of this venerable Widow; a numerous people ran together with the highest devotion and reverence to see the sacred body, unanimously glorifying and praising God, to the monastery of St. Lawrence mentioned above, where she had indicated (read: judged) that she was to be buried: For so Marianus of Florence, using the words of Boniface, has it in book 5, chapter 2 of the Chronicles of the Order of Minors, in Hörmann after the Prologue of Master Matthias. The funeral is carried in a far greater throng of the people, and because of the excessive multitude it could not conveniently be buried for two days, which, however, was buried with eminent praise of God. And so on the 24th and 25th days such a multitude of the Roman people continually ran to her funeral that she could not conveniently be buried during those two days: for on the 26th day of July her body, in a wooden coffer secured with seals and enclosed in a marble monument, is read to have been buried, at the end of her abridged Life; by the care, namely, as her German Life adds, of Birger and St. Catherine, her children, and of Peter her confessor. And Birger, Latino Orsini, and very many other conspicuous men of the Roman nobility are said in the same place to have sealed the wooden coffer with their seals.

[388] nor without prodigies. Meanwhile God repeatedly declared the sanctity of His Handmaid by frequent prodigies. In the same hour in which she died, according to Birger, she was seen to be carried into heaven by persons clothed in white garments, that is, by the ministry of angels. The funeral had not yet been committed to the earth when a certain woman, Agnes Contessa, ran into the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, put her girdle to the hand of St. Birgitta, and, having put it there, wound it round her neck, and was freed from a very thick swelling of the throat which she had borne from birth. Francesca Savelli, a nun of the said monastery, a familiar of St. Birgitta while she lived, perhaps a sister or kinswoman of Stefania Savelli, who, as Wadding recorded above, built an elegant chapel over St. Birgitta's sepulchre, having suffered with her stomach for two years and being mostly confined to bed, came, helped by the assistance of others, to St. Birgitta's bier, and, having stayed there the whole night, asked this one thing to be granted her through the merits and prayers of St. Birgitta, that she might recover so far as to be able at least to be present with the other nuns at the divine offices. And on the next morning she obtained not only what she asked, but entire health. These two miracles, wrought at St. Birgitta's bier, were so well attested that Boniface IX did not hesitate to insert them in the Bull of Canonization, as may be seen below, mentioning, namely, only a few out of the many which happened at Rome about these times: for in his Bull of the year 1391, granted to the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, to the words in which he said that St. Birgitta died and was buried among them, and which were related above in number 385, he immediately adds: And in which she afterwards shone with very many miracles: of which it is gathered from the Louvain Life of St. Birgitta that many happened before the beginning of September of the year 1373, when, as we shall presently see, the translation of her relics was begun; where these things are read: And in the year immediately following, after the flashing forth of many miracles and the sudden and exceedingly wonderful cleansing and drying of her bones, she was translated from the Roman City, with miracles shining forth on the way, to the aforesaid monastery of Vadstena…: by which words many miracles done at Rome before the translation of St. Birgitta's body to Sweden was begun are manifestly distinguished from those which afterwards happened on the way. Birger deserts us here; wherefore what will be said here and there in the next following § about the translation of St. Birgitta's body, we shall borrow from elsewhere, meanwhile warning the reader here that the remaining things pertaining to St. Birgitta were omitted by Birger, not because he was ignorant of them or held them suspect, but because they had already then been written at length elsewhere. But the remaining things of her Life, he says, together with the miracles and revelations which the Lord deigned to show her, which are here omitted for the sake of brevity, are written elsewhere.

§ XXV. Her bones are translated to Sweden: she is renowned there for many prodigies: St. Catherine her daughter applies herself to the canonization of her Mother, and obtains from Urban VI the confirmation of the Rule of St. Saviour.

Her bones from Rome Before she departed from life, St. Birgitta did indeed wish to be buried among the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna; but besides, as she herself had been warned by Christ, she gave command to St. Catherine and Birger that her body should be carried to the monastery of Vadstena, so that where she had desired, living, to serve God and to die, she might at least rest when dead. About five weeks had already elapsed since her death when St. Catherine and the other familiars of St. Birgitta began seriously to take counsel about translating her body to Sweden. Meanwhile, as is read in the German Life of St. Birgitta, Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, had come from Avignon to Rome, and they wished him to be consulted about the manner in which the translation was to be made. And since they thought that in so short a space of time the flesh of the body had not yet entirely decayed or been reduced to ashes, it seemed good to separate the flesh from the bones and, preserved with precious spices with which they might keep off the stench from it, to translate it to Sweden.

Magnus, therefore, the chaplain of the lately deceased St. Birgitta, is sent together with men skilled in the anatomical art and other suitable witnesses to the monastery of the Clarissas: the instruments are prepared, the sepulchre is unlocked: but behold, nothing of flesh appears anywhere in the sepulchre: nor do they find anything except the bones and the linen cloths, everywhere whole, shining, and breathing a sweet odour, not without the amazement of the onlookers. This done, say the Annotations from the German Life sent to our predecessors, they take up the sacred bones and enclose them in a coffin with precious spices. Then the lord Birger, her son, and the lady Catherine, her daughter, prepare themselves, with the confessors and their whole household, and go out from Rome to translate the noble bones to Sweden.

[390] by St. Catherine her daughter This prodigy is also mentioned, but only in brief words, by Birger, the biographer of St. Birgitta, by the author of her abridged Life, by the Life printed at Louvain, and from it by Surius. The circumstances which further accompanied this translation Ulpho, the biographer of St. Catherine, will give: for thus he has it in volume 3 of March, chapter 5 of the Life of St. Catherine, to be illustrated here with a few Annotations here and there: The debt of death having therefore been paid at Rome by her mother St. Birgitta, and the body having been committed to burial according to the disposition of her will in the monastery of Panisperna; this venerable lady Catherine, just as she had shown herself to her Mother while living a most faithful co-worker in the promotion of the affairs committed to her by Christ, so also to her when dead she shows herself an executrix in all things according to the disposition of Christ's will. For Christ had revealed to the Mother that she should lay down her body at Rome, and that afterwards it should be translated to Sweden; which she carries out carefully with the confessors of St. Birgitta, after a space of five weeks (and a half, according to the German Life) had passed. At the time written above, therefore, after her death and in the same year, the translation was begun, but not without remarkable prodigies concerning the separation of the flesh from the bones wonderfully effected, and also not without miracles done on the way, and was completed, and she was translated to the monastery of Vadstena, as is written more fully elsewhere.

[391] Papebroch was of opinion in this place that Ulpho, by those words, to Sweden as is written more fully elsewhere, pointed his finger at that Life of Birgitta which lighted the way for Surius: but neither Surius nor the Life of St. Birgitta that lighted his way, printed, namely, at Louvain in the year 1485, and two years before, as I find noted in our codex, also at Cologne, makes mention by name of Miracles done on the way: so that it seems to me that Ulpho here understood rather either the books of Attestations, or the miracles perhaps transcribed from them and to be published below. Moreover, if anyone desires some of the Miracles which happened here and there along the way while the relics of St. Birgitta were being translated to Sweden, they will be related below in the Appendix on the Miracles. Ulpho records one here, and it is of this kind: Then she (St. Catherine) went out of the city of Danzig, entering a ship with the sacred relics and her household, to sail to Sweden. And when she had sailed towards a port of Sweden not at all premeditated, with a star for guide, shining brighter than the sun at midday, they arrived and afterwards put in at the port of Söderköping in Östergötland, all their people safe.

[392] She arrived at Danzig, the journey, as it seems, having been made through Carniola, conveyed in the year 1374, Styria, Austria, Moravia, Poland, Prussia. And between Prussia and the borders of Pomerania, at the mouth of the Vistula, is Danzig, a celebrated trading town, says Papebroch in this place in the Annotations on the Life of St. Catherine, whom the places expressed in the Appendix just mentioned favour, as I shall show there in the Annotations. Further, the same writer describes St. Catherine's journey from Danzig to Vadstena there in this way: To those holding their course through the Baltic Sea between the islands of Öland and Gotland there occur several ports, above all Västervik; from there up for about 30 thousand paces a bay or channel, at the extremity of which is an inland port called Söderköping, by contrast with the city of Norrköping above the Motala. And from Söderköping to Linköping there remain 40 thousand paces, and as many from Linköping to Vadstena, by a direct journey from east to west, and that by land. To these things said by Papebroch I add from the same Appendix, to be given below, the month and day on which St. Catherine, together with the relics of her Mother, having sailed across the Baltic Sea, first put in at Söderköping and so into the kingdom of Sweden, namely on the day sacred to the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, that is, the 29th day of June of the year 1374. Let us hear, further, what happened to St. Birgitta's relics on the land journey from Söderköping to Vadstena, omitting other things which Ulpho inserts from time to time into his narrative.

[393] On learning, he says, of her long-desired arrival, there came to meet her (St. Catherine) from all parts of Östergötland an innumerable multitude of men and women, a great number of the people coming to meet them, nobles and commoners, clerics and religious, conducting her and the sacred relics of the blessed Mother Birgitta … with especial devotion and no small joy all the way to the monastery of Vadstena… Nor do I think it should be passed over with how great reverence and devotion the lady Catherine, coming to Linköping with the sacred relics, was received by the venerable prelate of Linköping, the Lord Nicholas of holy memory. For he went out to meet her with the clergy and religious in solemn procession, the people of the city following. The bells are rung, the organs resound, the voice of jubilation with song rings out among the clergy, the God of Gods in Sion is blessed, who glorifies His Saints on earth, and amid the hymns of the clergy the relics of St. Birgitta are placed, until they should be carried from there to Vadstena. Bishop Nicholas died in the year 1391, and he had once been the tutor of St. Birgitta's sons; at which time she foretold to him that he would be the first to introduce and bless the inmates of the monastery of Vadstena to be founded by her, as the Diary of Vadstena relates at the aforesaid year. Moreover, he died not without the reputation of sanctity, and his canonization was indeed dealt with at the council of Basel in the year 1417, as is clear from the suppliant Letter of the archbishops and bishops of Sweden, in Benzelius after the Chronicle of Vadstena, page 200 and following; but it lacked the desired effect, so that Vastovius, page 139, wrongly asserts that he was enrolled by that council in the Catalogue of Saints. Vastovius adds, says Papebroch in the place cited, that the same man wrote Lives of SS. Ansgar and Birgitta, which we have not yet seen. But that Life was perhaps nothing but a certain hymn composed in honour of St. Birgitta, whose beginning is assigned in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1391 as follows, Rosa rorans bonitatem, from what was said in number 9. But I return to Ulpho.

[394] at Vadstena on the 4th or 5th day of July Arriving at length, he says, at the monastery of Vadstena on the Wednesday within the Octave of Peter and Paul, she is received with great joy by the whole congregation of sisters and brothers; and from then on he is wholly occupied in recounting St. Catherine's deeds and praises. And so, since in the year 1374 the Dominical letter was A, according to Ulpho St. Birgitta's remains were received in the monastery of Vadstena on the 5th day of July; which is called the Day of the translation of St. Birgitta in the Bull of Boniface IX, by which in the year 1391 he granted an indulgence of seven years and as many quarantines to those visiting St. Birgitta's sepulchre at Vadstena on that day, and which Durante, having had it supplied to him by Wadding from the Vatican Register, prefixed to the books of the Revelations: whence the day assigned by Ulpho is not moderately confirmed. But that St. Birgitta's relics were translated to Vadstena on the Tuesday within the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul, that is, the 4th day of July, is written by Birger, St. Birgitta's biographer, by Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena, by the collectors of the Miracles wrought by St. Birgitta in the year 1374 and set down on paper in the same year, of whom below, and by the author of the abridged Life of St. Birgitta. Surius, in the Life of St. Catherine, attaches that translation to the Wednesday within the same Octave, but in the Life of St. Birgitta to the 12th day of July, which the author of the Louvain Life also does.

[395] they are laid down, Hilarion of St. Antony, in the Italian Life of St. Catherine, page 252, determines that St. Catherine arrived at Vadstena with St. Birgitta's relics on the third day of July, which he interprets as the fourth day of the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul: but here, as Papebroch rightly observes, he does not speak consistently; for since the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul falls on the 29th day of June, the fourth day of their Octave in ecclesiastical order was the second of July, not the third, as Hilarion says. But, leaving this aside, let us bring back to agreement, if it can be done, the remaining authors, of whom some, as we have seen, assigned the translation of St. Birgitta's relics made at Vadstena to the fourth day of July, others to the fifth, others finally to the twelfth. I, saving the judgment of those who think otherwise, think that the matter went thus: on the 4th day of July St. Catherine arrived from the Roman journey with the relics of her Mother at the monastery of Vadstena, and deposited St. Birgitta's relics in it; which day, namely of St. Catherine's arrival at the monastery of Vadstena, Birger, Thorir Andreae, the collectors of St. Birgitta's Miracles, and the author of the abridged Life wished to designate. On the following day, that is, the fifth of July, St. Birgitta's relics were carried from the monastery into the church with fitting pomp, and remained there for eight days to be viewed by the people running together to them in great numbers from every side; and finally on the 12th day of July that whole translation was concluded with a more solemn rite, St. Birgitta's relics being then at length deposited in a fitting place: of which days Ulpho and Boniface IX recorded the 5th, to which the feast of the translation was fixed; but the remaining writers the 12th day of July, who turned their mind and pen to the end and close of that solemnity.

[396] Further, not all of St. Birgitta's relics were carried off to Sweden, a part of them being left at Rome, and some of them certainly, although I find it not explained with sufficient agreement among the writers of the Order of Minors soon to be cited which these were, remained with the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna: for Boniface IX, in the Bull given to the said nuns in the year 1391 on the Nones of October, immediately adds to the words transcribed in number 385, treating of the church of St. Lawrence, in which … many of her (St. Birgitta's) relics are most devoutly venerated. Hence I do not know how what Arthur du Monstier writes in the Franciscan Martyrology in the Annotations at the 23rd day of July can be true, that, St. Birgitta's body having been translated to Sweden, nothing of it remained with the nuns of St. Lawrence except one of her shoulder-blades. One of St. Birgitta's shoulder-blades, which remained there after her relics had been carried off to Sweden, is also mentioned by Francesco Gonzaga, Minister General of the Order of Minors, in the Roman Province, Monastery 2, as also by Hueber in the Franciscan Menology at the 23rd day of July. But in the extracts from book 5, chapter 2 of the Chronicles of the Order of Minors written by Marianus of Florence, in Hörmann, only Half of St. Birgitta's bones is read to have been translated to Sweden: Wadding, however,

who no doubt saw and read the Chronicle of Marianus of Florence preserved in his keeping at Rome, says that, besides other relics of St. Birgitta, her left arm is preserved among the Clarissas of St. Lawrence and held in veneration by the faithful: thus he in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1318, number 43: The body of the most holy Woman having been translated to the monastery of the most holy Saviour of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, which she herself had built from her own means, there remained with these Clarissas the left arm, with other remains of the same, which the faithful venerate with worthy cult. Ottavio Panciroli agrees with Wadding in Church 48 of the 2nd region of the Roman City: but again a fragment of the codex from which the Pilgrimages of St. Birgitta were excerpted, in Hörmann, page 839, disagrees with both, in which her right arm is read to have been left to the Clarissas of St. Lawrence.

[397] For the rest, with very frequent miracles, not only along the way, and soon they shine with prodigies, while they were being carried to Sweden to the monastery of Vadstena, as has been said above, but above all in Sweden, from the time they were deposited at Vadstena, her fame spread far and wide: these were diligently set down on paper by order of Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, by Gudmar Fredriksson, John Giurderi and Batismund, priests of the monastery of Vadstena, beginning from those which happened in the same year in which St. Birgitta's bones were deposited at Vadstena, of Christ 1374; of which six, confirmed by due testimonies, may be seen below in the Appendix on the Miracles of St. Birgitta. But besides these the same priests also collected many others, though described less accurately at the beginning, which, reduced into a little book, they delivered to St. Catherine as she set out from Sweden for Rome in the following year. For so they themselves speak: We, Gudhmar Fredriksson, John Giurderi and Batismund, though unworthy, priests dwelling in the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping of the aforesaid kingdom of Sweden, have applied what diligence we could to writing down in this volume (for they wrote two), with the witnesses and the names both of the persons and of the places in which they dwelt, some miracles through which the powerful God glorifies His Handmaid. This is what they say about the Miracles of St. Birgitta reprinted as a whole.

[398] of which some, less accurately But as regards the six miracles, written more accurately, and likewise many others, described earlier less accurately at the beginning and reduced into the little book which they delivered to St. Catherine, they continue to speak of these thus: We also collected some things earlier into one other little book, which the reverend lady Catherine, daughter of the venerable lady Birgitta of holy memory, took with her (in the year, as we shall see, 1375) to the Apostolic See, sealed with the seals of the venerable fathers and lords who are named at the end of it; and of the miracles which are written in that little book, we have written six at the beginning of the present volume with the names of the persons, the witnesses, and the places in which they dwell. Now those six miracles were done not far from the monastery of Vadstena, and therefore we could easily find witnesses and names for them. But very many others were done in remote parts, and therefore we were not able to inquire after witnesses for these without difficulty. Nevertheless we know that both the former and the latter were done in truth, and we have seen the persons with whom they were done. Although at first through negligence we omitted to set witnesses or names to that one. Ingenuously, therefore, the Vadstena priests just praised confess their negligence in describing some of St. Birgitta's Miracles which they delivered to St. Catherine: but which these were, they do not declare. Let us see, however, whether it is possible to make it out.

[399] were set down on paper The miracles of St. Birgitta into which we are here inquiring were, from what has been said, mostly done in parts remote from the monastery of Vadstena, and gathered into a little book without the names of the witnesses and of the persons to whom they happened: moreover, one of their collectors was Gudmar Fredriksson, who, we know from the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1389, accompanied St. Birgitta's relics from Rome to Sweden. Add that, although this title is prefixed to part 6 of the Miracles of St. Birgitta, Of certain miracles wrought by her in the kingdom of Poland and of Sweden, no miracle which happened in Poland is recounted there. Finally, that the miracles not only of part 6 but also of part 5, nay of all the remaining parts (the first excepted) were taken from the same manuscript codex of the nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, which, if it is the autograph, was written already from the year 1378, as may be seen at the end of the Miracles of St. Birgitta. Now indeed, of the 51 miracles of St. Birgitta which are related from the same codex in part 5, most happened outside at least the diocese of Linköping, in which Vadstena lies: most likewise, nay all, lack witnesses and names of persons; as will be evident to one who consults them. And that their writer was one of those who accompanied St. Catherine as she carried her Mother's relics to Sweden (which therefore fits Gudmar Fredriksson at least exceedingly well) is clear right from the beginning of part 5, where the first three miracles begin in this way: When, proceeding from the city of Brno, we were lodging in a certain small town, etc.; When we turned aside to the monastery which is called Clairvaux, etc.; When we were still at sea between Germany and Sweden, etc. Finally, the monastery of Clairvaux is said there in express words to be of the kingdom of Poland: from which I seem to myself to be able not undeservedly to suspect that the miracles related in part 5 are the same as those which the praised Priests of Vadstena affirm were written less accurately and, together with six others of the year 1374, but written more accurately, were reduced into a little book and delivered to St. Catherine.

[400] And if this is so, all the said miracles must have happened before the Easter week of the year 1375: before Easter of the year 1375, for in this St. Catherine, by the will of King Albert, the bishops, the clergy and the nobles of the kingdom of Sweden, because of the multitude of Birgitta's miracles and the fame of her sanctity, returned to Rome, in order to have her mother duly entered in the Roll of the Saints. So Ulpho in chapter 6 of the Life of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 514. It came to pass therefore, he says, after the venerable lady Catherine had translated the holy relics of her holy Mother, Bl. Birgitta, from Rome to Sweden into the monastery of Vadstena, that they began to shine there with many miracles. And the fame of the sanctity of Bl. Birgitta having been spread everywhere into the world, many came to Vadstena from diverse parts… Fired by the glory of which miracles, the king and the prelates, and the nobles of the kingdom and the clergy, decreed with the unanimous consent of the whole congregation of the same monastery that the lady Catherine should go again to Rome for the business of the canonization of her mother St. Birgitta. In the following year, therefore, after the body of the holy mother Birgitta was laid up in the monastery of Vadstena, in Easter week (this had fallen in that year on the 22nd day of April), all the expenses for so arduous a business having been prepared, and when she was now to set out on the morrow, she said to her familiars, etc.: The Diary of Vadstena also notes in this year (1375) that St. Catherine Went out for the first time for the business of the canonization, but does not say to Rome. And indeed, as Papebroch rightly remarks, it may be asked why Ulpho wrote that St. Catherine was bound for Rome, since the Pontiff was then staying at Avignon, and the Pontifical see was not translated from there to Rome before the beginning of the year 1377? Papebroch answers that she perhaps made for Italy from Sweden by a slow journey, so as to procure for herself authentic testimonies of the miracles which had been wrought in various places while her mother's relics were lately being conveyed to Sweden, and that she made a long stay throughout Italy, whence the chief documents of her mother's sanctity were to be sought, and at length arrived at Rome about a year before the Pontiff Urban (nay, Gregory XI) arrived there.

[401] That these things were said by Papebroch with probability is suggested by the nature of the business, which plainly required documents of this kind, and by St. Catherine and Ulpho himself perhaps wished to imply that Catherine arrived in the City rather late, writing a little after in this way: At length, under God's guidance and with her affairs safe, she came again to Rome. Yet it might also be said not absurdly that she arrived at Rome sooner than Papebroch thinks, and there collected the instruments necessary for her Mother's canonization, and from there, when the matter required, sometimes made excursions into other parts of Italy, as Ulpho writes in the following chapter that she once went from Rome to Naples, and from there again to Rome, Having dispatched the business … and the writing down of the miracles of her holy Mother Birgitta, after Gregory had come to Rome. Finally it might be added that Catherine knew beforehand from her mother that Gregory would come to Rome, and therefore wished to await his arrival at Rome. For what St. Birgitta had foretold about Gregory XI to Robert, son of Nicholas, count of Nola, as I said in number 373, it is quite credible that she also foretold to her dearest daughter. However it may be, when Gregory began to reside at Rome, she resolved to apply herself diligently to her mother's canonization: Where, says Ulpho, the business of the canonization having been proposed, by the miracles of St. Birgitta, and by the humble and devout petitions of the king of Sweden and of the lords and prelates of the kingdom (with which she had been furnished on leaving Sweden), all the courtiers of the Pope, cardinals as well as others, who had always been devoted to St. Birgitta while she was alive and as her supporters had especially cherished her, were alike inclined to promote this holy business.

[402] first to Gregory XI in the year 1377 Supported by these aids, in the year 1377 she offered the Life, Miracles and Revelations of her Mother to Gregory XI, so that, these having been duly examined, he might enrol her in the Roll of the Saints: in which matter she had as companions and helpers Peter, Prior of Alvastra, and Peter Olafsson. He committed the whole matter to be accurately examined to some Cardinals and learned men (whom you have enumerated in § XI, number 163, where I treated of the examinations of St. Birgitta's revelations, from the Prologue of Juan de Torquemada); of these John of Spain, says John just praised, Made before Pope Gregory himself in a general consistory, in the presence of the college of cardinals and the whole clergy of the Roman court, the first proposition on the canonization of Bl. Birgitta. Up to this point the business had indeed flowed according to St. Catherine's wish: but its favourable course was stopped by the death of Gregory XI, which fell on the 27th day of March of the year 1378. Gregory was succeeded in the same year by Bartholomew, archbishop of Bari, called Urban VI, whose favour she had striven to win and secure before he was elected supreme Pontiff, namely on the advice of Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, who had perhaps foreseen that the pontifical dignity would devolve upon him, as Papebroch relates more fully in the Annotations on chapter 7 of the Life of St. Catherine, letter b, from Alphonsus himself in Odorico Rinaldi at the year 1379, number 10.

[403] and then offered to Urban VI in the year 1379: But after Urban VI had ascended the Pontifical chair, the same web had to be woven again from the beginning: the same things, therefore, were again in the year 1379, which had been offered to Gregory XI and, by his order, examined

St. Catherine offered to Urban VI the documents, together with Peter, Prior of Alvastra, Brother Andrew (or Andreas Olafsson) and Magnus Petersson, general confessor of the monastery of Vadstena: new examiners (whom again I recounted in number 164 from Juan de Torquemada) having been appointed by Urban, the whole matter was again called back to the balance. The judgments of the examiners favoured St. Birgitta's canonization no less under Urban than they had favoured it before under Gregory XI; and of the examiners indeed, as Juan de Torquemada, from whom almost every one of these things has been excerpted, again writes, the bishop of Orvieto (Nicolò de' Merciari) Made the second proposition on the canonization of the lady Bl. Birgitta, Pope Urban being present in public consistory. But again the desired end of the matter was hindered by the foul schism of the Church which had then recently arisen, some adhering to Urban VI, others to Robert, brother of the count of Geneva, who had been elected supreme Pontiff in Urban's place by some cardinals (whom they called Clement VII). Nor was there hope that peace would shortly be restored to the Church. Therefore the venerable lady Catherine, having thus spent five years at Rome (or in the Roman parts) for the aforesaid business at great and heavy expense, since, because of the dangerous schism which threatened, she had no hope that the due end of so arduous a business could be attained as was fitting, using the sounder counsel of the prelates, deposited at Rome the Life and Miracles of her holy mother Birgitta written down, with their attestations under very many public authentic instruments and the seals of cardinals, prelates, lords and ladies in diverse parts of the City and the world, all of them affording true faith: committing that holy business for the future to the divine disposition and providence.

[404] But although she could not bring her Mother's canonization to the point she had hoped, [but although St. Catherine did not obtain the hoped-for canonization of her Mother,] she nevertheless brought ample fruits by that journey to the Birgittine Order, having obtained, as indeed is read in the Diary of Vadstena, a twofold confirmation of the Birgittine Rule, already, as we have seen, approved by Urban V; the one from Gregory XI, about which the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1377: The lady Katherine received from Gregory XI a confirmation of the Bull of Urban the fifth; the other from Urban VI, about which the same Diary at the year 1379: In the same year, on the third day of December, she received from Urban VI a confirmation of the Rule of the Saviour by way of a Constitution. This, from the Cologne edition of the year 1628 of the Revelations of St. Birgitta, runs thus: Urban VI, bishop, servant of the servants of God. For a perpetual memorial of the matter. To those things which are providently ordained and established for the increase of divine worship and the propagation of religion we willingly give our assent: and, so that they may remain unimpaired and be observed more firmly, when this is humbly requested of us, we add the strength of apostolic protection. A petition lately presented to us on behalf of our beloved daughter in Christ, the noble woman Catherine, daughter of the late Ulf, lord of the place of Ulfåsa, of the diocese of Linköping, set forth that formerly the late Birgitta, the mother of the said Catherine (who, while she lived, led a praiseworthy life in the spirit of humility), founded and caused to be built, and sufficiently endowed, from the goods bestowed on her by God, with the licence of Pope Urban V of happy memory, our predecessor, the monastery of St. Mary of Vadstena, of the Order of St. Augustine, of the said diocese, under the title of the holy Saviour.

[405] And that the same Birgitta, while she lived, made and ordained certain constitutions concerning the manner of living and of keeping regular observance in the same monastery from divine revelation (as is believed), she nevertheless obtained and that afterwards, the said Birgitta having died, humble supplication having been made on behalf of the said Catherine to Pope Gregory XI of pious memory, our predecessor, that he would deign of special grace to approve the said constitutions and to confirm the foundation, construction and endowment of this kind, the same predecessor committed to certain prelates residing at the Apostolic See that they should examine the aforesaid constitutions, and inform themselves fully about the foundation, construction and endowment of this kind, and report to the same predecessor what they should find through such information; and subsequently, before further proceeding was made in the business of such approbation or confirmation, the said Gregory our predecessor having been withdrawn from this light (as it pleased the Lord), and we, by the favour of the divine clemency, having been assumed to the summit of the supreme Apostolate, humble supplication was made on behalf of the said Catherine that we would deign, of the special grace of God, to confirm by Apostolic authority the aforesaid foundation, construction and endowment, and to approve such constitutions.

[406] of the Rule of St. Saviour We therefore committed by the oracle of the living voice to our beloved son Elzéar, cardinal priest of the title of St. Balbina, that he should inform himself about such foundation, construction and endowment, and diligently examine the said constitutions, and, if he found the said monastery canonically founded, constructed and sufficiently endowed, and the said constitutions to be just and reasonable, he should by our authority ratify and approve such foundation, construction and endowment, and declare the aforesaid constitutions to be just and reasonable. And the same cardinal, having received due information on the premises, and having held counsel on this with some other cardinals of the holy Roman Church and other prelates and masters in Sacred Theology and doctors of decrees, ratified and approved such foundation, construction and endowment, and declared the aforesaid constitutions to be just and reasonable, and that nothing was contained in them which conflicts with canonical institutes, as is more fully contained in certain letters patent drawn up thereupon, secured with the seal of the said cardinal, containing the aforesaid constitutions word for word (the tenor of which letters we have caused to be inserted word for word in the present letters).

[407] the Confirmation Wherefore humble supplication was made to us on behalf of the said Catherine that we would deign of Apostolic benignity to confirm by Apostolic authority, and from certain knowledge and of special grace, such approbation and ratification and declaration of the same cardinal Elzéar. We therefore, inclined to such supplication, holding as ratified and acceptable the aforesaid approbation, ratification and declaration made by the same cardinal, as is set forth above, and all and singular the things contained in the said letters, confirm them by Apostolic authority and from certain knowledge, and fortify them with the patronage of the present writing. And the tenor of the said letters is as follows: Elzéar, by the divine mercy cardinal priest of the title of St. Balbina, to the abbess for the time being, and to all and singular the sisters and brothers and other servants of the monastery of St. Mary of Vadstena, under the Rule of St. Augustine and the title of St. Saviour, of the diocese of Linköping, everlasting salvation in the Lord. Since forgetful antiquity, etc. And the tenor of the said constitutions is as follows: These are the constitutions which the lady Birgitta of holy memory, of the kingdom of Sweden, established and ordained, etc. Given at Rome in Trastevere at St. Cecilia, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine, on the third of December, in the first year of the pontificate of our most holy lord Urban VI.

[408] Let it therefore be lawful to no man to infringe this page of our confirmation or to contravene it with rash daring. by Urban VI But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Mary in Trastevere, on the 3rd day before the Nones of December, in the first year of our pontificate. I observe a few things here: the first is that the year 1379, already advanced to December, does not agree with the first year of Urban VI: for since Urban was crowned Pontiff on the 18th day of April of the common year 1378, the Rule of St. Saviour was confirmed by him not in the 1st year of his pontificate but in the second. The second is that it is manifestly proved from Urban's diploma, number 405, that St. Catherine did indeed seek from Gregory XI the confirmation of the Birgittine constitutions; but that, while Gregory lived, there was no proceeding beyond their examination. Hence Thorir Andreae, writing in the Diary of Vadstena that the confirmation of the Birgittine constitutions was actually obtained from Gregory XI by St. Catherine, seems to be understood of an oracle of the living voice by which he confirmed them. The third is that St. Birgitta's constitutions were indeed confirmed by Urban VI, but perhaps not without some change, on which matter see §15.

§ XXVI. Boniface IX enrols St. Birgitta in the number of the Saints.

Interrupted Catherine, having returned to Sweden, did not long prolong her life: for in the year 1381, on the day before the Annunciation, that is, the 24th of March, as Thorir Andreae writes in the Diary of Vadstena, she departed from this life, having left Rome in the preceding year, as Ulpho writes, and having arrived back at Vadstena in the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul. In the same year in which Catherine died, on the 28th day of April, Urban VI gave letters to Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, in which he gave hope that, although the Church was agitated by various commotions on account of the schism, nevertheless, while he was pontiff, the canonization of St. Birgitta could be brought to the desired outcome. Urban's letters, transcribed by Benzelius from the autograph and appended to the Diary of Vadstena, page 191 and following, run thus: To the venerable brother Nicholas, bishop of Linköping. Urban, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his brother Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, greeting and Apostolic blessing. In the sight of the divine Majesty and of this most sacred See, over which, though unworthy, we preside by the sole disposition of God, your faith grows day by day, and the zeal of devotion which you bear towards the sacrosanct Church and the Catholic faith is as … established upon the foundation of unshaken constancy. Do so, venerable brother, and persist in the steadfastness of faith, and guard yourself from the deadly suggestions and deceitful blandishments of schismatics (Sweden did not acknowledge Clement) and heretics; nay rather, out of reverence for God and the said faith and for us, pursue them and their followers as public and most abandoned enemies of Christendom, about * also the capture and detention of the same, as men condemned by us by just judgment. If any perhaps dare to wander through those parts, strive to apply diligent care and careful diligence, so as to obtain thereby, besides the rewards of retribution and the praises of human commendation, our blessing and that of the said See and our grace more abundantly. Thus far the Pontiff concerning the supporters of Clement, and Wyclif, the English heretic of that time, and his followers, as it seems: but presently he adds these things about the canonization of St. Birgitta: For the rest, concerning the matter of the canonization of Brigida of Sweden of reverend memory and of others, about which your fraternity has written to us, we shall be favourable, so far as the nature of the business will allow. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the 3rd day before the Kalends of May, in the fourth year of our Pontificate, of Christ 1381. There follows a little below: Gundisalvus.

[410] the business of the canonization What further was done in the business of St. Birgitta's canonization from the year 1381 until the year 1389 I have found nowhere: that it was little promoted in the meantime is suggested by the various journeys undertaken by Urban from time to time through Italy from the year 1383 until the year 1388. But in the year 1389

I learn that Urban, having now returned to Rome and obtained more leisure, seriously turned his mind to carrying out St. Birgitta's canonization, from a certain description of St. Birgitta's canonization, by Lorenzo Romano, an eyewitness, translated into the Netherlandish language by I know not whom, and sent to our predecessors by the often-praised Michael van der Ketten, Prior of Kalkar, of which I understand from letters on the matter sent from Rome that a Latin copy is also preserved at Rome among the Birgittine Fathers. From it, therefore, I take the following. In the year in which Urban, having issued encyclical letters throughout the world, proclaimed that the year 1390 would be a Jubilee (and he issued the encyclical letters announcing the next jubilee in the year 1389, in the month of April, as Gobelinus testifies in the Cosmodromium, age 6, page 268), in the same year he also admonished the monastery of Vadstena by letters that Magnus Petersson, confessor of the said monastery, should come to Rome speedily, since he had resolved at last to carry out and complete St. Birgitta's canonization. Magnus obeyed the Pontiff's letters; and, at the exhortations and counsels of Queen Margaret, who had recently obtained the kingdom of Sweden, of Nicholas, bishop of Linköping, and of the nobles of the kingdom, he again undertook the Roman journey about the 29th day of September of the year 1390, sacred to St. Michael. Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena, agreeing with Lorenzo, writes thus at the year just mentioned: Likewise on the eve of St. Michael the brothers Magnus Petersson, confessor, the brothers Dom John Svensson (he died on the journey), Dom Andreas Olafsson, set out on their journey towards Rome for the canonization of St. Birgitta.

[411] is resumed, Magnus came to Rome (as Lorenzo Romano continues) when the Jubilee year was now almost expiring, about the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, where he found Boniface IX (Urban had died in the year 1389 on the 15th day of November) occupying the chair of Peter. Being kindly received by Boniface, he produced and offered to the Pontiff the letters of Queen Margaret, of the Swedish councillors and of the monastery of Vadstena, and the other documents which pertained to Birgitta's canonization. Boniface committed their examination to the cardinals Philip of France, Adam of England and of Bari, and to other learned and erudite men. In the year 1391, about the feast of St. Lawrence, when the cardinals had done what had been commanded, all together, attended by a great number of Roman nobles, especially of those who had once enjoyed St. Birgitta's familiarity, approached the Pontiff as suppliants, and implored him to bring St. Birgitta's canonization to its end. The Pontiff answered that he had this in mind, provided it could be done duly. Then Magnus offered before the cardinals a twofold volume, of which the one contained the revelations of St. Birgitta, the other, called the Book of Attestations, contained her lineage, life, and the miracles both of her living and dead. The cardinals desired to have a copy of the Book of Attestations; wherefore he had sixteen copies of it written as quickly as possible, to be given to as many cardinals, and presented them.

[412] Then the Pontiff ordered the cardinals of France, of England and of Bari and Boniface IX completes it in the year 1391, a bull having been issued; to draw up letters secured with their seals, and to expose them publicly to be viewed and read, affixed for eight days to the doors of some of the more celebrated churches in the City: and they announced that the Pontiff had decreed to enrol St. Birgitta in the roll of the Saints; and that, if this was less approved by anyone for just causes, he should freely propose them after the eight days. On the appointed day very many cardinals, bishops, prelates and Roman nobles assembled in the house of the cardinal of France; but no one appeared who opposed himself to St. Birgitta's canonization, except only two, of whom one was ordered with disgrace to leave the cardinal's house, the other slipped away secretly from there. The matter having been brought to the Pontiff, he resolved at length to put the last hand to the business, and actually applied it on the 7th day of October of the year 1391, a Bull of this kind having been issued.

[413] Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God. As God once, says Boniface in it, for the salvation of men sent His Son, To the venerable brothers, the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and to the beloved sons, the elect, and the chapters of patriarchal, metropolitan and cathedral churches established anywhere, greeting and Apostolic blessing. From the origin of the world, after the fall of the first parent, when on that account the whole human race was held liable to eternal death, the all-powerful and merciful God, looking forth from on high, so as not to destroy wholly man whom He had created, but to make him a partaker of His divinity, having first sent before as messengers of the coming of His Son in the flesh, under figurative enigmas and divine revelations, the Prophets inspired by the breathing of the Holy Spirit, sent forth from His own bosom, when the fullness of time came, the same His only Son, begotten before the ages, into the womb of the chosen Virgin mother, who by the inscrutable overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, the Angel announcing it, conceived; who, born of the same Virgin and advancing in time, began to do and to teach, and to show to all how for those reborn in the font of holy baptism the way lay open from eternal death to life; and, having gathered together His disciples, so that no faithful one might shudder at the troubles or wearinesses of this transitory and fleeting life, or the pains of a bitter temporal death, for the gaining of eternal life, He offered Himself as an immaculate victim to God the Father, His due course being completed, on the altar of the cross by a bloody death, and by the shedding of His precious blood founded, consecrated and eternally established the Church militant.

[414] the Apostles, And at length, when about to pass from the world to the Father, having conferred the keys on Peter, the prince of the Apostles, the heavenly key-bearer, in his own person and that of his successors, the supreme Pontiffs, namely having delivered to him the power of binding and loosing, He committed to him the supreme pontificate, the special care of His flock, and the universal government, promising nevertheless that He would never forsake the same Church. For whose abundant advantage He bestowed on His faithful divisions of graces through the Holy Spirit. For according to the Apostle, to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for profit. To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit; to another faith in the same spirit; to another the grace of healings in one spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. And this Church militant the Father of lights raised up in the same Holy Spirit, a wonderful structure beautiful with the wondrous variety of precious stones, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone, whom He chose before the foundation of the world to be made conformable to the image of the same His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, in whom He graced them, giving them the better gifts, who by their example might show the more excellent way.

[415] martyrs, doctors and confessors, Hence therefore the holy Apostles went forth through the whole world, rousing to life and salvation the human race, which was held under the yoke of sin, and preaching the word of God with most firm constancy, so that "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." The splendid martyrs also, clothed with the breastplate of faith, and girded with the belt of unshaken steadfastness, washed their robes in the blood of the innocent Lamb, and, imitating Christ Jesus with a white-robed army, added themselves as living stones to the structure of the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, of the Church triumphant, bearing palms in their hands with glorious victory, leaving to the Church militant a venerable example and an eternal and worthy memory. There came forth also the most luminous Doctors, who, opposing themselves to pseudo-Christians and false prophets striving to introduce superstitious and various opinions into the true Catholic faith and to subvert the faith itself, having confuted the errors of such men, by wondrous eloquence and solid and right sentences, the Holy Spirit working, illuminated the faith itself and the Church militant, fortified by whom the same Church advances "as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array." There follow also the clear confessors, adorned with gems and shining with virtues, who, to the Lord demanding an account of the talents entrusted, since they have exercised themselves in the assiduous and vigilant trading of holy works, as faithful and good servants bring the fruit multiplied from their labours, and lay up the gift in the treasure-chest.

[416] He sent anchorites and virgins into the world; The anchorites also, and the keenest followers of solitude, fleeing the vain spectacles of the flattering and captious but poisonous world, that they might arrive secure at the fatherland, sought hiding-places, and, concealed in caves, mortifying their own flesh with little and rough food and a light drink of gushing water, and repressing the goads of Satan, clad in a rough mantle or shaggy covering, mostly with bare feet, refreshing their weary limbs in sleep on the squalid ground or on a bed of straw, giving themselves to holy contemplation and the praise of the supernal Majesty, being at length called out of this valley of tears and heap of miseries into the presence of God, they enjoy unfading delights. There are present also shining virgins, with clean body and sincere heart, bearing with them a holy, willing mind and oil in their vessels: they go out to meet the coming bridegroom, and are espoused to Him who is beautiful above the sons of men. And devout and fitting widows, and other persons of both sexes, always intent on pious and holy works, present themselves before the tribunal of God with full sheaves, and with the holy Angels sing glory to God in the highest, and on earth pray for peace to men of good will. All these things indeed that same spirit, of whom above, works by a ministry manifoldly wonderful: and, according to the holy promise, Christ Jesus has, after His wonderful ascension, visited, cherished, defended, strengthened, helped and increased this His vineyard, the Church militant, with such husbandmen and husbandwomen up to the present day, and by His grace will so do in the future in successive times.

[417] But in the latest days, that something good might come even from the North, so at length also St. Birgitta, that heavenly husbandman, visiting the same vineyard after His custom, brought into being for the cultivation of this vineyard a valiant woman from afar and from the farthest coasts, bearing her price with her, namely the blessed widow Birgitta, whom the common people call Brigida, deservedly to be associated, or more truly associated, with the sacred company described above. Of whom, since we give our present attention to this, in order that we may run through as far as the summit her origin, life, manners and merits, and also the miracles which the blessed God deigned to show to the world in reward for her sanctity, so that the present age may not remain ignorant of so celebrated a woman, and deaf posterity may not be able to accuse or allege an ungrateful report, we have excerpted very few out of many, and those not to be passed over in silence, and we wish them to be intimated to your charity by the series of these letters.

[418] This glorious woman indeed drew her origin from her father Birger whose lineage, virginal state, and her mother Sigrid, a married couple, descending from the most noble royal stock of the Catholic kings of Sweden, and illustrious no less for orthodox faith and constancy of mind and virtues than for nobility. Which mother indeed, while she was carrying her in her womb, having suffered shipwreck in a certain bay of the sea, when the storm had swallowed up many of both sexes in the same shipwreck, came safe to the shore, and on the following night in a vision a person stood by her, shining in wonderful garments, and, so that the coming of so venerable a widow should not be without a forerunner, said: "You have been saved on account of the good

which you have in your womb. Therefore nourish it with the love of God, because it has been given to you by God." And when the girl Birgitta had recently been brought forth from her mother's womb into the world, the parish priest in a neighbouring church, a man of approved life and mature age, while he was giving himself to prayer by night, saw a bright cloud, and in the middle of the cloud a virgin seated, holding a book in her hand and saying to him: "There is born to Birger a certain daughter, whose voice shall be heard wonderful throughout the world." The girl, therefore, having been born, seemed as if tongueless until the end of her third year; but soon, contrary to the natural course, not stammering after the manner of infants eager to say what they have heard, but complete and formed words did she speak about the things heard and seen. And advancing in years, she passed her childhood with wonderful devotion, namely in prayers and fastings, and otherwise never idle from good works.

[419] and her conjugal state At length, although she desired with her whole longing to serve the Lord in the virginal state, yet, compelled by her parents, she is espoused in matrimony to the late Ulto of Ulfåsa, a most noble prince of Närke, and indeed a most Christian youth. And when they were to come together, although they were fit for conjugal embraces, the husband being namely in his eighteenth and the Bride in her thirteenth year, nevertheless by common will, imitating the younger Tobias and Sarah the daughter of Raguel, they abstained from intercourse for a whole year and more, humbly beseeching God that, if it were expedient for them to be joined, they might not sin in their union, and that God might grant them such offspring as would be for His service. Afterwards they came together in fear and trembling, giving themselves not to lust but to posterity, while meanwhile the devout woman passed over neither fasts nor prayers nor other pious and accustomed works. And since she was always especially devoted to the blessed Virgin, and, as time went on, was almost endangered in childbirth, and the midwives and the women standing by despaired of her life, a certain commanding but unknown woman, clothed in white silken garments, was seen to enter the chamber and to stand by the bed, and to handle each of the limbs of the one lying there. Presently, when this woman had vanished, the same woman in childbed remained delivered, without pain, by a whole birth.

[420] it sets out in a few words: And when the said spouses were still young and in their freshness, the husband, persuaded by the holy admonitions of his happy wife ("for the heart of the man, not lacking spoils, trusting in her, rendered her good and not evil all the days of his life"), and the woman herself, imposed it on each other of their own accord, and preserved perpetual continence. And nonetheless the devout spouses, ever more fervent in the fear of God and the love of neighbour, visited as pilgrims by common vow the threshold of the blessed Apostle James at Compostela. And having returned home, when they had deliberated to enter different monasteries according to the difference of sex, that they might give themselves more freely to devotion, the said prince rested in the Lord in such deliberation. But the holy Widow, who from the beginning of her early age had been dedicated to God, that she might give herself unweariedly to fasts and prayers, the marriage being dissolved and she being made her own mistress, "like the merchant's ship bringing her bread from afar," forewarned by the Holy Spirit, "going out from her land and her kindred," proceeded to the kindly City, and then to Jerusalem, and beheld with remarkable and reverent devotion each of the places in which our Redeemer Jesus Christ was announced, born, brought up, baptized, lived, worked wonders, was mocked, crucified and buried, and ascended into heaven. Having returned also to the City, since previously, whether in her own country and the surrounding parts, or in Germany, or in the Gauls, or in Spain, or in Italy, or in other parts on this side of the sea or beyond the sea, wherever the bodies of the Saints, men and women, or memorable relics rested, very few had been passed over without a personal visit by the said holy Widow, she spent the rest of her life in the same City.

[421] But after her husband's death, out of reverence for the holy Trinity, she wore next to her bare flesh a certain cord of hemp with many knots, tightly bound, but more at length, when she had now become a widow, her and likewise round each leg below the knees a cord likewise knotted, even in time of infirmity; nor did she use linen cloths, except on the head; rough garments next to the flesh, but outwardly not according to the condition of her person, but very humble and mean. And not only did she observe those vigils or fasts which holy mother Church orders, but she added many others besides, so that, even beyond the Church's command, she fasted four times a week; and likewise four times a week, while her husband had not yet ended his life, and after his death continually until a few years before her happy passing, clothed in her usual garments, upon a carpet without straw, mattress or the like, placed on the ground or pavement, she refreshed with slight and short sleep her body wearied by prayers, abstinences and divine labour. On every Friday, in memory of the most sacred passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, content with bread and water only, she did not omit the fast, while she passed many other days also with similar abstinence out of reverence for various Saints; and whether she abstained by fasting or otherwise sat at table, since she was most sober, she rose from table not sated but refreshed; on the same Fridays also she melted glowing and burning drops from lighted wax candles upon her bare flesh, so that burnt scars remained continually; and she kept Gentian, a most bitter herb, or its root, in her mouth.

[422] Moreover, while living at Rome, caring neither for the rigour of cold, nor the heats of summer, rigour of life, humility, the offices of piety nor the hindrances of a muddy way, nor the harshness of rains, or of snows or hail, she visited on foot on any day the stations ordered by the Church and various other holy Churches, although she could have gone on horseback according to her means, yet striving beyond the strength of her emaciated body. For she used so many long genuflections that her knees grew stiff into the hardness, so to speak, of camels. She was of wonderful and proven humility, so that sometimes, sitting unknown together with poor pilgrims at the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna in the City, of the order of St. Clare, she received alms and kissed them with thanksgiving; and frequently with her own hands, and out of reverence for God, she mended the garments of the poor. She kept tenacious obedience to prelates and her superiors and confessors, so much so that without at least her confessor's licence she would scarcely presume to raise her eyes. And whereas, while her husband survived, she had confessed every Friday, after his passing she strove to repeat a true confession at least once a day with great contrition, deploring light things as bitterly as others the gravest, and passing over nothing of her words, manners, thoughts and acts undiscussed.

[423] She was assiduously and attentively present at the preachings of the Word of God which approved men made. the offices towards God and men Also on every Sunday and solemn day she received with devotion and tears the venerable Sacrament of Christ's body. Considering "the paths of her house, lest she should eat her bread idle, she opened her hands to the needy, and stretched out her palms to the poor"; for she unweariedly exercised the offices of inexhaustible charity towards needy, sick and abject persons out of reverence for God. For even while her husband was still alive, she was accustomed every day to feed twelve poor persons in her own house, serving them and ministering necessaries; and on Thursdays, mindful of the Lord's supper, she washed their feet with her own hands. Also from her own means she restored in the parts of her origin many desolate hospices, and as a pious, kind, merciful and sedulous ministrant she visited with the greatest piety the poor and sick living there. She handled, washed, bound up and tended their ulcers without horror or disgust. In the place of Vadstena also, of the diocese of Linköping, she caused to be canonically built from her own means a venerable monastery for sixty nuns living under enclosure and twenty-five brothers of the Order of St. Augustine, called of the holy Saviour, which nuns as well as brothers are bound to observe certain constitutions issued by the blessed Widow herself and afterwards approved by the Apostolic See, a sufficient endowment being nonetheless assigned.

[424] and her other virtues, Wonderful patience flourished in her, so that she bore most patiently the infirmities of her own body, the injuries inflicted, the death of her husband and of her son Charles, and the remaining adversities, without murmur, without complaint, always in all things blessing the Lord with submissive humility. Ever more constant in faith; more excellent in hope, more ardent in true charity; she loved justice and equity supremely. The goads of the flesh and various allurements, depravity and arrogance, pomp and vain glory she despised with magnanimous care. Of her singular continence and modesty enough has been recited above. But who could be found more prudent than she, since, discerning all things with the best discretion from her earliest age up to the last hour, so far as human frailty allowed, she did not "call good evil, nor evil good; nor did she put light for darkness, nor darkness for light itself."

[425] in which she flourished up to her death, it proclaims. By which holy works, continued without intermission, this noble Widow, through the grace of the holy spirit, merited to disclose to many their thoughts and inmost affections and most secret deeds, and to see and hear various visions and revelations, and with prophetic spirit to foretell many things, some of which were fulfilled in effect, as these and other things are most fully described in the volume of her Revelations. On the fifth day before, she announced that the end of her life was at hand. And when she had passed her seventieth year, the foretold term now arriving, having called her household, she declared what ought to be done; and finally, having summoned her son Birger and her daughter Catherine, then surviving, and having admonished them about many things, that above all they should persevere in the fear of God and the love of neighbour and in holy works, having duly made her last confession, having received the viaticum and been anointed with extreme unction, her memory having remained whole up to the emission of her breath, while Mass was being celebrated before her, after adoring the body of Christ, with eyes raised to heaven, saying "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," she gave back her well-deserving soul to the Creator who called it. Immediately a great report is made through the City of the passing of this venerable Widow; a numerous people runs together with the highest devotion and reverence to see the sacred body, unanimously glorifying and praising God, to the monastery of St. Lawrence mentioned above, where she had indicated that she was to be buried; the funeral is carried in a far greater throng of the people, and because of the excessive multitude it could not conveniently be buried for two days, which, however, was buried with eminent praise of God.

[426] Now while this celebrated Widow was living at Naples, Then some prodigies, a certain woman of Nola, named Pictiolella, who suffered the violent lying-with of an evil spirit transforming himself into human shape, which neither the vigils nor the watches of strong men had been able to resist, having approached the holy Widow, and having consulted her about such a matter and

about a suitable remedy, presently the surpassing Widow, foreseeing the woman's secrets, asked the woman whether she was carrying on her anything compounded by magic art, or anything of the kind. When she had answered that she was not, the eminent Widow added: "Search in your hair or your tresses, and you will find the contrary." The woman, confounded, and remembering that she had in her hair a certain charm with characters and an incantation of its own, of her own accord confessed her error. And the remarkable Widow enjoined and persuaded her to confess devoutly, and truly repent and communicate, and also to fast, which she also did; and by the merits and prayers of the said Widow she never suffered a like lying-with.

[427] And when this notable Widow, on a long pilgrimage, had come a second time to Ortona, a town of the diocese of Chieti, which, either while she was living, in which a great part of the relics of the most blessed Apostle Thomas is preserved; for it had long before been revealed to her through a vision that at the second time of her coming to that town her devout desire would be fulfilled: and while, standing, she visited the relics with her accustomed devotion, the same Apostle, appearing to the devout Widow, said, "The long-desired thing shall be given to you;" and presently, with no one touching or otherwise pushing it, a certain small fragment of one bone of the said Apostle leapt of its own accord from the reliquary into the hands of the expectant Widow, which she, receiving it with joy and devotion, kept with the greatest veneration. This admirable Widow also, while she was giving herself to prayer and contemplation, was often seen by very many devout persons raised from the earth by the measure of a man, or about that, with a splendid and radiant face.

[428] The funeral had not yet been committed to burial, when a certain woman, Agnes de Contessa by name, or after her death, dwelling in the City, who from birth had a very thick and deformed throat, ran with others to the venerable funeral, and when she had devoutly caused the hands of the holy Birgitta lying there to be touched with her own girdle, she wound the same girdle with like devotion round her neck, and a little after the throat lost its swelling, and was brought back to due conformity by a divine miracle. And Francesca Savelli, a nun of the said monastery of St. Lawrence, who, having suffered for two years weakness and an adverse condition of the stomach, had almost always lain sick in bed, and had been a familiar of the honourable Widow, while the body, still unburied, was kept within the cloister, rose from her bed with grave labour, suffering so long an infirmity, and, being helped, came to the bier, and lay beside it the whole night, nor did she cease to beseech God with devotion and instance that, by the merits and prayers of the Widow whose body was present, she might be relieved of so troublesome and so long-lasting an illness at least so far that she could be present at the divine offices with the other nuns, and go through the cloister, when it was expedient, helped by no one; and when morning came she found that she had obtained a more effective remedy for the health of her own body than she had prayed for.

[429] happened, it enumerates: But in order that the blessed God might show to the world the great merits of this beloved Widow, it happened that Elsebysnara, a woman of the said diocese of Linköping, when she had given birth to a dead infant, was filled with the greatest grief, and, at length coming to herself, besought God with humble prayer that by the merits of the Widow so greatly to be celebrated the infant might receive life; and having made a vow that, if it came to life, she would visit the sepulchre of the holy Widow with the infant and a wax image, immediately the infant began to grow warm and to stir, and fully received life. And the woman, full of devotion and joy, fulfilled the vow she had made. But why do we dwell on more, since God almighty, by the merits of this kindly Widow, has opened ears to the deaf, loosed the office of the tongue to the dumb, given firmness to the trembling paralytics, uprightness to the bent, the free benefit of walking to the contracted and the infirm, sight to the blind, deliverance to women endangered in childbirth, health to diseases otherwise incurable, and has brought the shipwrecked and those struggling in violent waters to the haven of safety? And if we wished to recount one by one the wonders which the blessed God has worked, beyond and above the powers of nature, by the merits of the often-mentioned Widow, both while she survived and after her happy dissolution, and does not cease to work, a very long prolixity in such a recital would detain us, who are involved in various other matters. The faithful, however, who are eager to know such deeds thoroughly, may carefully seek out the book in which they are faithfully noted. And the vows paid at the aforesaid monastery in Vadstena, to which the venerable body of this blessed Widow was translated, and the images and statues placed there, bear great testimony to the truth.

[430] for what reasons she And since through the operation of the Holy Spirit this ever-watchful Widow, placed by her excellent merits in the glory of God the Father, almost illuminates the Church militant, and we taste and see that her merchandise was and is good, and therefore in the night of her supervening temporal death the lamp of her virtues and merits ought not to be extinguished, for it is placed not under a bushel but upon a candlestick, and brings an inextinguishable light through the whole house of the Lord; but rather let the sons of holy mother Church arise and proclaim her most blessed, and give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates of mother Church; we, who by the enjoined office of the pastoral ministry are debtors to the wise and to the unwise, having been more certainly informed of the truth of the premises through suitable witnesses and other legitimate proofs, by means of the things which were done on these matters both under Gregory XI and Urban VI of happy memory, Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, and by our own mandate, and having found them true, and having been often and with instance requested on behalf of our dearest daughter in Christ, Margaret, illustrious Queen of Sweden, and of the prelates and nobles of her kingdom, and also of our beloved sons, the officials of the people of the kindly City, and of our beloved daughters in Christ the abbesses and convents of the aforesaid monasteries of St. Lawrence and of Vadstena, in the name of the Lord, that now at length, blessing, we may bless His most celebrated Widow, and that our sanctification may flourish upon her, to the honour of God almighty, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the exaltation of the orthodox faith, and the increase of the Christian religion, and also for the calming of the schism and the union of the faith and the Church, by the authority of God almighty Himself, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of the blessed Apostles Peter, mentioned above, and Paul, and by our own, on the counsel of our brethren and with the assent of all the prelates residing in the Roman curia, we decree, declare, define and pronounce that blessed Birgitta of good memory, otherwise Brigida, often named above, is a Saint, and ought to be venerated as a Saint by the universal Church and enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints, and we now enrol her at present.

[431] Establishing that every year, on the day in the Catalogue of the Saints on which the present life brought her forth into perpetual eternities after the world had been conquered and triumphed over, namely on the tenth day before the Kalends of August, her feast and Office be devoutly and solemnly celebrated by the universal Church as for a Saint neither virgin nor martyr: And so that the multitude of Christ's faithful may flow more ardently and abundantly to her venerable sepulchre, and the festivity of the same Saint may be more celebratedly observed, and her name more frequently recalled, by the aforesaid authority, to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall devoutly visit her sepulchre of this kind at the same monastery in Vadstena on her feast, and also on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, namely the day on which this venerable body was translated to the same monastery, and on the days occurring under the present arrangement, we mercifully relax annually, namely on each one of those same days on which they shall have visited the said sepulchre, as is set forth above, seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined on them.

[432] Wherefore we admonish, require and attentively exhort your whole body, she solemnly enrols. enjoining you nonetheless strictly in virtue of holy obedience and for the increase of eternal rewards, that, solemnly publishing these our present letters to your clergies and peoples by our authority, you celebrate the feast of this venerable Saint with due solemnity and cause it also to be celebrated, humbly beseeching with all the affections of the heart God almighty, from whom are holy desires, right counsels and just works, that, prevailed upon by the prayers and merits of the same Saint, He may give to His servants that peace which the world cannot give, so that both our hearts, devoted to His commandments, and, the fear of enemies being removed, our times may be tranquil under His protection, and that He may grant to us that, after the ministry of our stewardship has been completed, we may merit, together with the flock entrusted to us, to arrive at everlasting joys. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the Nones of October, in the second year of our Pontificate. Thus Boniface in Hörmann, with some faults removed, which I have emended from Fontanini's codex of Canonizations.

Perhaps cura* care?

§ XXVII. The rite of the canonization performed, from Amelius, an eyewitness: the indulgences granted on the same occasion: confirmation of the canonization of St. Birgitta and of the Rule of St. Saviour by Martin V.

From an eyewitness. From what we have so far said was done in the business of St. Birgitta's canonization, it is clear that it was often called back to the anvil, and that the Pontiffs proceeded in it only with the greatest caution: but equal to the caution was the solemnity of the canonization, which, besides Lorenzo Romano and Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1391, Pierre Amiel described, in Mabillon, volume 2 of the Museum Italicum, page 535; whence it seemed good to transcribe it here, both because it was written by an author who took it in with his own eyes and also had a part in it, and because almost the same rites are customarily observed even today in such matters. Thus, then, Pierre Amiel: There follows the canonization of St. Brigida. In the year of the Lord 1391, and on Saturday, the 7th of the month of October, in the second year of the pontificate of the lord Boniface IX, the canonization of blessed Brigida was performed in the great chapel of the sacred palace at Rome near St. Peter's, in which such a manner was observed. First, on Friday the patriarch of Grado, confessor and referendary of the said lord, by command of His Holiness summoned a general consistory, and likewise the canonization of St. Brigida, so that all should come to that solemnity. Likewise he also commanded that the bells of all the churches should be rung at the hour of Compline and on the next day at the hour of Terce. Likewise the chapel was decked all round with cloths and strewn (spread) with foliage of verta (green and fragrant foliage); the Master of the leaf-store did it. Likewise all round through the whole chapel there were torches or brands, each of eleven pounds of wax: there were 86 in all. The manner of the said candles and the order of the brands I have found.

[434] with what rite Boniface IX Likewise on Saturday in the morning the lord Pope heard a high Mass of the Holy Spirit in his chamber. Likewise after the high Mass he came to the great chapel, accompanied by all the cardinals and the Roman nobles, with the red consistorial cope and the consistorial mitre of pearls; and, having made some reverence before the altar,

he went up to another chair prepared far from the altar: and there he received all the cardinals and prelates to reverence with woollen capes in the accustomed manner. This reverence finished, he went to another chair prepared with a footstool before the middle of the altar, leaning against the altar, with his face turned to the people: and the two senior deacons sat before his feet on footstools, the other cardinals also sitting in their places with woollen capes: and silence having been made and the lights lit, the Pope, sitting with the mitre on his head, made his discourse and sermon on this theme: "I will bless her Widow, and my sanctification shall flourish upon her." The sermon completed, and admonition having been made that all should pray God not to permit him to err; protestation also having been made that he did not intend to act against the sacrosanct Roman Church, rising from his seat, the mitre having been laid aside, he began, singing, "Veni, creator Spiritus," and remained kneeling without the mitre up to the third verse, and remained standing there all the time until the singers had sung the said hymn. This finished, without a versicle he said "Dominus vobiscum" and the prayer "Deus, qui corda fidelium," which he finished "Per Christum Dominum nostrum." But, having resumed the mitre, sitting there, he pronounced that blessed Brigida was a saint, and to be enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints, as is in the book of Papal Secrets of the lord Pope Clement VI; which having been pronounced, with his own mouth he granted an Indulgence on that day and on the following day to those visiting the church of St. Peter and of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, and to those who were present at this divine Office that Indulgence of the Jubilee, and many others on earth.

[435] After this the procurators of the said Saint asked for public instruments concerning this: enrolled and the Pope also, by his power already mentioned … and then all the cardinals and prelates received white vestments, the bishops copes, the priests chasubles, the deacons tunicles and dalmatics, and again came to the reverence of the Pope. After this, the red cope having been laid aside, he received precious gloves and the pontifical ring, and a precious white cope with the solemn mitre: and, the mitre having been laid aside, he began, singing, "Te Deum laudamus," and then there were given two great torches of white wax, each of eight pounds of wax, and to each cardinal and patriarch others not white of 7 pounds of wax, and to all the prelates of two pounds, and to the other clerics and singers, auditors and nobles and others of one pound of wax: and then the procession was begun, and all held their small torches lit in their hands, each in his order: and the two patriarchs went with the cardinals, likewise the lord Pope beneath the canopy, but the knights carried the Pope's lit torches outside the canopy, and so we went through the whole chapel up to the other chapel, and returned in procession to the great chapel, and the lord supreme Pontiff went up to the chair before the middle of the altar, where he had made his sermon before: and, standing, the deacon on the right said, singing, "Ora pro nobis beata Brigida, Alleluia;" and the Pope said "Dominus vobiscum" and another Prayer of blessed Brigida; and, "Benedicamus Domino" having been sung by the singers, the deacon on the left said "Confiteor" and the Pope gave the blessing in the accustomed manner. And the prior of the cardinal Bishops pronounced the Indulgences, and so each one went home with his candle; and all the other candles from the altar and the torches from the chapel the chamberlain caused to be received for the Pope … by six cardinals, who should all be sacristans (sacriftæ). The first was the lord of Alençon, Philip: the second of England, the lord Adam: the other of Rieti. On that day the Pope could not say the high Mass of the Saint, because of infirmity, as he ought: but on the morrow he celebrated, where he kept this order.

[436] On Sunday therefore, the 8th of October, early in the morning, St. Birgitta after a low Mass, the lord Pope, vested with the cope and the consistorial mitre with pearls, went down to the church of St. Peter with all the cardinals, the two patriarchs, namely of Constantinople * and with the prelates and the whole clergy: and at the door of the church all the canons of St. Peter came to meet him with the cross, copes, pavilion and bell in procession, singing "Te Deum laudamus"; they led him to the High altar, and, having made some prayer before the altar, he withdrew to the chair where the Roman prelates have been accustomed to vest themselves, and, as he sat, the cardinals and all the prelates came to the reverence, and he willed that Terce should be sung. The Mass was of St. Brigida with a commemoration of the Sunday. Then for the first time I began by command to sit among the cardinal bishops. The Mass proceeded in its order. Likewise after the Gospel the deacon on the left said "Confiteor" and "Credo in unum Deum" having been said, and after the Offertory, the Pope sat upon a low chair with a footstool before the Pope's iron gates, where the Gospel had been read, his face turned to the seat in which he had been vested. Then the Lords commissaries, the three cardinals for the canonization of this Saint, came out of the sacristy of St. Peter's with their offerings. First the lord of France with two great lit torches, covered with gold, offered, kissing the foot and the hand: second the lord of England with two loaves covered with towels and with the arms and escutcheons of St. Brigida and of the three Cardinal commissaries; and he kissed the foot and the hand of the Pope: third the lord of Bari with two great basins of wine and malmsey, which at Rome are called gilded cups, and with the arms and escutcheons of the Lady and of the aforesaid Cardinals; and he kissed the foot and the hand of the Pope.

[437] into the number of the Saints, Last came the five procurators of this Saint with the advocate, and each offered one great candle of one pound of white wax, a little worked with roses and flowers, green, white and red. Likewise one small basket, all painted in green colour, in which there were two white doves and two turtle-doves. Likewise note that the canons in the procession ought to have had large candles of wax in their hands from these executors: and because they did not have them, the Pope was disturbed. Likewise there were at this Mass upon the iron gates and upon the stone columns near the aforesaid gates about 80 lit torches, and 7 at the elevation of the Body of Christ. Each might be of four pounds of wax. Neither the Pope, nor the cardinals, nor anyone had a candle at this Mass, nor was there a sermon. Likewise note that, the Mass completed, the lord Pontiff, vested as he had been at the Mass, and all the cardinals and prelates, vested in sacred vestments as they had been at the Mass, with mitres went to the windows near the bell-tower in the place of the walk, where the Roman Prelates have been accustomed to give the Indulgence to the people: and there the Pope gave of the true Indulgence on that day, as in the Jubilee, out of reverence for Brigida, both at St. Peter's and at St. Lawrence in Panisperna, where the said St. Brigida was buried: and whoever should have visited the said two churches of St. Peter and of St. Lawrence 7 times during the whole present month would have the Indulgence of the Jubilee.

[438] is set forth. Likewise note that the canons wished to have the lit wax of the church of St. Peter: but the chamberlain received it all, so that neither the Pope, nor they themselves, nor the acolytes, nor the singers had any. Likewise note that each singer had three ducats from the executors. Likewise the said executors sent to the Pope a small gold pint-pot of the value of [ ] ducats, and a calf, 24 capons, 24 pullets, 24 pigeons, two barrels of wine. Likewise note that there were Vespers preceding, nor following [sic]. Likewise note that on that day, although the Mass was of St. Brigida, the whole day we kept the office of the Sunday, nor did we make a Commemoration of the Saint herself at Vespers or at Matins. Likewise note that all the Cardinals, vested in sacred vestments, accompanied the Pope up to his chamber. On that day no cardinal ate with the Pope, but only the prelates of the household and the singers. Likewise note that the whole chapel ought to be decked with cloths inside and outside. Likewise on the altar there ought to be six candles, each of one pound and a half: likewise upon the chancel of the chapel six torches, each of 8 pounds of wax. Likewise outside the gate, or chapel, let there be placed perforated pieces of wood in the wall all round for holding torches, as far as the chapel extends: and on each piece of wood there will be six torches, each of four pounds of wax. Likewise at the end of the chapel opposite the altar the same. Likewise of other small candles of an ounce or a half, or for a pound, let there be placed 20 holders along the wall, and let them be distributed to laymen and clerics.

[439] Thus Pierre Amiel on the canonization of St. Birgitta: The Indulgences then granted Thorir Andreae relates the same things more briefly in the Diary of Vadstena: Lorenzo Romano also records some things about it omitted by Pierre Amiel, but they are not of such moment that they must necessarily be recorded; nor do I delay over some minutiae in which he perhaps disagrees with Pierre Amiel. St. Birgitta's canonization was, from what has been said, carried out in the chapel of the sacred palace near St. Peter's. Most canonizations of Saints, when the Pontiffs were residing at Rome, were customarily performed in the Vatican church; but Boniface IX did not celebrate this one there because of illness, which, however, did not hinder him from speaking about St. Birgitta in a sermon. The same ill health of the Pontiff caused him not to celebrate the solemn Mass on that day according to custom: on the following day, however, he wished both to go to the Vatican basilica and to perform the sacred rites there with solemn ritual, so that nothing might seem lacking to the splendour of the solemnity. The custom of granting indulgences on the days on which the canonizations of Saints were performed, begun by Honorius III in the thirteenth century, gradually became more ample, as Papebroch shows by the examples of Honorius, Gregory IX, Innocent IV, Clement IV, Callixtus III and Sixtus IV in Dissertation XX on the Beginnings and Progress of Solemn Canonizations, in the Propylaeum of May, page 173 and following; and finally, he says, Hadrian VI, in the Canonization of St. Benno, in the year 1523, gave a plenary Indulgence to those present at its solemnity. But that this was done far earlier, at least on some occasion, is clear from the indulgence of the Jubilee, without doubt plenary, granted here by Boniface IX at the canonization of St. Birgitta. As for the offering of turtle-doves and pigeons, Benedict XIII abolished it, and did not wish it To be made, says Giusto Fontanini in the Notes on the Canonization of St. Birgitta, in the solemn canonization of eight Saints which he held in the Vatican Basilica at the end of the past year 1726 and the beginning of this year 1727. Clement XII, however, admitted it again, as

Benedict XIV writes, On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, book 1, chapter 36, number 35.

[440] For the rest, Boniface wished the day on which he enrolled Birgitta in the roll of the Saints for the 23rd day of July, and the 7th of October; to be distinguished also by indulgences, to endure perpetually, of seven years and as many quarantines, which he granted to those duly visiting the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna on the 23rd day of July, on which St. Birgitta died; likewise on the 7th day of October, on which she was enrolled in the number of the Saints, or on any one of the eight days immediately following the said days of July and October. The Bull given on the matter and extracted by Wadding from the Vatican Register runs thus: Boniface, etc.: To all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, greeting, etc. The splendour of the paternal glory, etc. Desiring therefore that the church of the monastery of nuns of St. Lawrence in Panisperna in the City, of the Order of St. Clare, in which Bl. Birgitta, while she lived among men, devoutly remained for some days, and paid the debt of nature, and her body was buried, and in which she afterwards shone with very many miracles, and many of her relics are most devoutly venerated by the faithful of Christ, may be frequented with fitting honours, and that the faithful themselves may flow together to it for the sake of devotion the more devoutly, the greater the advantage and salvation of souls they hope to obtain from this; trusting in the mercy of Almighty God and the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall visit the said church on the festivity of Bl. Birgitta, namely the 10th day before the Kalends of August, and on the day of the canonization of her made by us on the present day, and during the eight days immediately following such festivity and day of canonization, we mercifully relax annually, for each of the days of the festivity and the canonization and of the aforesaid eight days on which they shall have devoutly visited the said church, annually, as is set forth above, seven years and seven quarantines of the penances enjoined on them. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the Nones of October, in the second year.

[441] [likewise for the 28th of May, on account of the translation of the relics from Rome to Sweden,] Nay, he wished the same grace to be extended also to the 28th day of May by the following letters, transcribed from the same Register by Wadding, as Durante relates: Boniface, etc. (almost as above) to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall devoutly visit both the said church on the festivity of St. Birgitta herself, namely the 10th day before the Kalends of August, and on the day of the Canonization of the same made by us on the present day, we grant annually that indulgence, namely seven years and as many quarantines on each of the days of the aforesaid * festivities and canonization, which we have today thought fit to grant to those visiting the sepulchre of the same St. Birgitta at the monastery of nuns in Vadstena, of the Order of St. Augustine, in the diocese of Linköping, to which the body itself was translated from the said church of the monastery of St. Lawrence, on the said festivity and on the day of the translation itself, namely the 5th day before the Kalends of June. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the Nones of October, in the second year. I said almost as above: for in this bull not even a word is made of St. Birgitta's dwelling with the Clarissan nuns in the monastery of St. Lawrence, or of the death which she underwent among them, but solely of her burial, which she certainly obtained there. See what was said on this matter in number 384 and following. For the rest, from the tenor of the later Bull it appears, without my saying so, that the Indulgences of seven years and as many quarantines granted by it to the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna were by the same Bull extended also to the monastery of Vadstena in Sweden for the day of the festivity of St. Birgitta, that is, the 23rd of July; likewise for the day of her Translation, that is, the 28th of May; which Boniface IX repeats above in the Bull of Canonization (see number 431).

[442] which nevertheless does not seem to have happened on that day. But trouble is made by the words of Boniface, by which he says that the translation of St. Birgitta from the City to the monastery of Vadstena (for I know no other of which Boniface can be speaking here) was performed on the 28th of May. And also on the 5th day before the Kalends of June, he says in the Bull of Canonization, namely the day on which this venerable body was translated to the same monastery. That the feast of the Translation of St. Birgitta was celebrated in the monastery of Vadstena on that day may indeed be gathered from the Diary of the same monastery at the years 1404, 1413, 1492, and it is marked on that day in the Martyrologies or Calendars cited by us at the 28th day of May among the Passed Over: but that it was performed on that very day cannot be reconciled either with Ulpho, the nearly contemporary biographer of St. Catherine, or with Birger, the contemporary biographer of St. Birgitta, or with the author of the Abridged Life of St. Birgitta, or with Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena, or finally with those on whom was imposed the burden of collecting the miracles of St. Birgitta wrought in Sweden before she was enrolled among the Saints, and of reducing them into a little book: since all these testify that it happened on the fourth or fifth day of July, and among those last cited was Gudhmar Fredriksson, one of the number of those who transported St. Birgitta's body or relics from Rome to Sweden, who, besides the fourth day of July, to which he fixes the placing of St. Birgitta's body in the monastery of Vadstena, also expresses the day on which it first arrived in Sweden, namely the 29th day of June, sacred to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. I am therefore compelled, by such manifold and clear testimonies of writers who disagree with the words of the Bull just related, to believe either that the day of the translation was erroneously suggested to the Pontiff; or that, since it had seemed good to him (perhaps so as not to diminish the celebrity of the Octave of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul) that the memory of St. Birgitta's translation should be kept on the 28th day of May, this was interpreted by the one to whom the care of drawing up the Bull of Canonization was entrusted as though the said translation had happened on that day; or finally that a copy of Boniface's Bull faulty in this respect fell to Cherubini, Fontanini and Durante.

[443] For the rest, God seems to have approved the canonization of St. Birgitta performed by Boniface, Some prodigies also done at that time, not a few miracles having been wrought at the very time at which she was enrolled in the number of the Saints, about which Thorir Andreae in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1391: Likewise at the time of the canonization many miracles were done, of which I set down a few at present, because more are written elsewhere: but these have not come into our hands: receive therefore two, which I relate in Thorir's words in place of those many. On the very day of the Canonization a certain woman was given light, who had lost one eye for 20 years and the other for 7. Likewise a certain cardinal, being in the midst of the enemies of God and of holy mother Church in the night-time, because he did not dare to pass by day, lost his way, and all who were with him in his company were separated one from another, and because of the fear which they had from dread of the enemies, no one dared to call another. At length they invoked the help of St. Birgitta, making a special vow to her. Presently a certain very great torch appeared among them, which approached them until they were on the right way, and when all came together and recognized one another, and also knew where they should pass, the torch appeared no further. And these things indeed Thorir rightly ascribed to St. Birgitta's merits: but what he presently adds about the count of Armagnac, what part St. Birgitta had in it, I do not sufficiently perceive.

[444] For he has it thus: Likewise at the time when the Lord Pope had firmly resolved to canonize Bl. Birgitta, the count of Armagnac was defeated and died in that very war, among which the slaughter of the count of Armagnac ought not to be numbered who on the part of the antipope (Clement VII, with whom the French stood) entered Italy with a great army so subtly in his cunning that no one could know of it before he had already occupied a great part of the land. But those by whom he was defeated were no more than five hundred armed men. Many other things happened then, which I omit here for the sake of brevity. If credit is to be given to Poggio, who was secretary to Boniface IX, in book 3 of the Florentine History, the count of Armagnac, summoned by the Florentines from Narbonese Gaul into Italy with twelve thousand horse and foot, having crossed the Alps, advanced as far as Alessandria of the Statielli; and while he rashly attacked that city with his foot-soldiers, without waiting for the forces of the Florentines, he was surrounded on every side by Dal Verme, the general of Galeazzo, viscount of Milan, who burst out of it unexpectedly upon the French with a great number of horse, and after a battle of three hours was overcome and captured, in the year 1391, on the 25th day of July, as Corio writes, and, having been led into the city, he shortly died. Ripamonti, in the second part of the History of Milan, book 10, says that a thousand Milanese defeated ten thousand French in this battle. He adds that the count of Armagnac, in the opinion of some, was secretly sent into Italy by Charles VI, king of the Gauls, both to subject Milan to himself, over which he was then already hanging, and to make everything hostile to Boniface IX: and Thorir seems to have had regard to this, implying in the words just cited that Pope Boniface IX, because at that time he had resolved to insert St. Birgitta in the roll of the Saints (which he had already done), was freed from that danger as if by a prodigy. But, however these things may have been, Thorir seems here to have indulged in conjectures rather more than was fitting.

[445] John XXIII confirmed the canonization of St. Birgitta, Although, as is clear from what has been said, the business of St. Birgitta's canonization had been proceeded with most cautiously, yet, because the whole Catholic world did not adhere to Boniface IX, who had put the last hand to it, as the true Pontiff, the peoples above all of Sweden and of the neighbouring kingdoms wished that, so that the sanctity of St. Birgitta might be more abundantly established to all, her canonization should be confirmed again at the Council of Constance, and then finally by Martin V, the true and undoubted Pontiff. In the year 1414, therefore, the envoys of Sweden, Denmark and Norway at the Council of Constance urged that the canonization of St. Birgitta made by Boniface IX should be confirmed anew: and John XXIII performed this with a very solemn rite, although there were not lacking those (among whom was Gerson, who, when the confirmation of St. Birgitta's canonization was being dealt with, wrote the treatise On the Proving of spirits) to whom so frequent a canonization of Saints was not approved. In the year of the Lord 1415, on the day (but on the day before, according to Trithemius in the Chronicle of Sponheim) of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the instance of the envoys of the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Pope John canonized St. Brigitta, and blessed the candles. There were present four patriarchs, 29 cardinals (Pagi observes, in the Breviary of the deeds of the Roman Pontiffs, page 387, that in the Acts of the Council more than twenty are never recorded together), 47 archbishops, 160 bishops, and a multitude of secular princes, counts, barons and nobles, says Nauclerus, in the 48th Generation from the birth of Christ.

[446] And at length also in the year 1419 Martin V, when the long schism of the Church had now been extinguished and there was no doubt about the true Pontiff, and again in the year 1419 on his return from the Council of Constance, confirmed the canonization of St. Birgitta by issuing this Bull: Martin, bishop, servant of the servants of God. For a perpetual memorial of the matter. To the desires of excellent princes, especially those devoted to God and to the Roman Church, we willingly assent, and we follow them up with suitable favours, especially when they are known to tend to the consolidation of the orthodox faith, the calming of the consciences of the faithful of Christ, and otherwise to the increase of the Christian religion. Formerly indeed the late Boniface, called the ninth in his obedience, to which those parts then belonged, having been more certainly informed concerning the origin, life and manners, and the other manifold pious, holy and virtuous works, and also the miracles then especially expressed, which the blessed God, in reward for the sanctity of the blessed widow Birgitta, whom the common people called, as they call her, Brigida, had deigned to work, beyond and above the powers of nature, and to show to the world, both while she survived and after her happy dissolution, and had not ceased to work, through the things which were done on these matters both under Pope Gregory XI of happy memory, our predecessor, and the late Urban VI, so named in the same obedience, who had immediately preceded the said Boniface, and by his own mandate, through suitable witnesses and other legitimate proofs.

[447] And having been often and with instance requested on behalf of Margaret of revered memory, Martin V, queen of Sweden, and of the prelates and nobles of her kingdom, and also of the beloved sons, the people and officials of the kindly City, and of very many other faithful of Christ, to the honour of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And for the exaltation of the orthodox faith and the increase of the Christian religion. And also for the calming of the detestable schism then flourishing, and for the union of the faith and the Church, by the authority of God Himself, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by his own, on the counsel and with the assent of his brethren and of all the prelates residing in his curia, he decreed, declared, defined or pronounced that the aforesaid Birgitta is a saint and ought to be venerated as a saint by the universal Church and enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints, and he enrolled her, establishing that every year, on the day on which the present life brought her forth into perpetual eternities after the world had been conquered and triumphed over, namely on the 10th day before the Kalends of August, her feast and Office should be devoutly and solemnly celebrated by the universal Church as for a Saint neither virgin nor martyr. And so that the multitude of Christ's faithful might flow together more ardently and abundantly to her venerable sepulchre, and the festivity of the same Saint might be more celebratedly observed, and her name more celebratedly recalled, by the aforesaid authority he mercifully relaxed, to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, should devoutly visit her sepulchre of this kind at the monastery in Vadstena of the Order of St. Augustine, called of St. Saviour, in the diocese of Linköping, founded by the said Birgitta, on her feast, and also on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, namely the day on which the venerable body of the said Birgitta was translated to the same monastery, and on the days then occurring, as is set forth above, seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined on them, as is more fully contained in the letters of the said Boniface drawn up thereupon, whose tenor we have caused to be inserted word for word in the present letters.

[448] at the request of Eric, Wherefore on behalf of our dearest son in Christ Eric, illustrious king of Sweden, asserting that he bears a singular affection of devotion towards this, humble supplication was made to us that, since the aforesaid detestable schism has now by God's clemency been calmed, and the said St. Birgitta is venerated and worshipped, and devotion is had towards her, in the aforesaid kingdom from which she drew her origin, and in other neighbouring kingdoms and parts, and especially and more commonly than in other parts, to the praise of the divine name, we would deign of Apostolic benignity, for the greater increase of the said Christian religion and the purer calming of good minds and consciences, to ratify and approve by Apostolic authority the aforesaid decree, declaration, definition or pronouncement, and also the enrolment and relaxation, and the other things contained in the said letters, and to strengthen them with Apostolic protection, and to supply the defects, if any perchance have intervened in them.

[449] king of Sweden, We therefore, having diligently considered the affections of the king's illustrious devotion and sincerity, by which he is known to shine towards God and us and the Roman Church, inclined to the supplications in this matter, holding as ratified and acceptable such decree, declaration, definition or pronouncement, and also the enrolment and relaxation, and the other things contained in the said letters, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters and from certain knowledge, approve and also confirm them, and fortify them with the patronage of the present writing, supplying all defects, if any perchance have intervened in the same. And the tenor of the said letters is placed before, and is as follows: Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, etc. Let it therefore be lawful to no man whatever to infringe this page of our approbation, confirmation, fortification and supply, or to contravene it with rash daring. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Florence on the Kalends of July, in the second year of our Pontificate. Martin V was elected and consecrated at the Council of Constance in the year 1417, in the month of November: this Bull, therefore, was given in the year 1419. King Eric, at whose prayers Martin V confirmed the canonization of St. Birgitta, was a kinsman of Margaret, queen of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, adopted by her care in the year 1396 into the partnership of the three kingdoms, which, Margaret having died in the year 1412, he held alone until the year 1439, in which he withdrew into Pomerania and spent the rest of the course of his life as a private man.

[450] of the monastery of Vadstena He was beneficent towards the monastery of Vadstena, and already from the year 1413 he had promised to promote the affairs of that monastery to the best of his powers: at which year it is read thus of him in the Diary of Vadstena: On the eve of St. Eric king Eric came to Vadstena for the first time after he had obtained the full government of these three kingdoms, and he came with great devotion: for he came on foot from Skänninge all the way there, and showed great familiarity both to the sisters and to the brothers, and promised that he would complete the building of the church of Vadstena. Moreover he also promised that he would build anew one monastery in Lolland of the Order of St. Birgitta, of which, however, the lady queen Margaret had made the first foundation before her death; and on this account he asked of the Lord confessor and the brothers that he might enter the monastery of the brothers, to take example and pattern of how that monastery in Lolland should be built. Being admitted with difficulty, he entered alone with the Lord Peter, archbishop of Lund, and so, having inspected some places there, he went out with great consolation, promising that he would love that place as much as he could and promote it; as he actually showed by the letters given to Pope Martin V, by which, as we have seen, he sought and obtained the confirmation of the canonization of St. Birgitta made by Boniface IX. And his wife Philippa, daughter of Henry IV, king of England, having become a nun while her husband survived, died her last day in the monastery of Vadstena and was buried in the year 1430, a distinguished patroness of the Birgittine Order.

[451] The marriage of Eric, king of Sweden, with Philippa, daughter of the king of England, well deserving also in other respects: seems to have provided the occasion for propagating the Birgittine institute into England; and from this it further came about that the constitutions of that Order were confirmed by the same Martin V, the undoubted Pontiff: For, as is read in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1406, this marriage having been celebrated, there came to Vadstena the Lord Henry Rawinzwart, a noble knight of England, who, having called the convent together, asserted that he wished to found in England one monastery of the Rule of St. Saviour, and gave the brothers his letters (Benzelius exhibits them on page 194 and the two following) concerning such a place and its endowment, asking that two brothers be sent to England for the construction of such a monastery, which the brothers also granted with inmost exultation. And in the year 1414 Henry V, king of England, Philippa's brother, says Thomas Walsingham, began to found three monasteries of religious near his estate which is commonly called Sheen (in the county of Surrey), one of the Order of the Carthusian monks. Another of the monks who are called Celestines… The third of the Brigittines, who profess the Rule of St. Augustine, which with other added ceremonies is called by them the Rule of the Saviour, namely he founded the monastery of Syon in the county of Middlesex near Brentford on the left bank of the Thames, and set over it as first abbess Matilda Newton, as may be seen in volume 2 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, column 360 and following, in the charter of foundation of the same monastery.

[452] Urban V had indeed approved St. Birgitta's constitutions, and Henry V, king of England, of the Birgittine Rule as also Urban VI: of whom the former was not a doubtful Pontiff: but because, as appears, the Birgittine constitutions approved by Urban V had not hitherto been solemnly confirmed by an undoubted and universally acknowledged Pontiff, Henry asked of Martin V that he should strengthen with his authority also the Birgittine Constitutions in the manner in which Urban VI had approved them. Martin V did so by the following diploma in the year 1419. Martin V, bishop, servant of the servants of God. For a perpetual memorial of the matter. To the desires of excellent princes, especially those devoted to God and the Roman Church, we willingly assent, and, when it is asked of us, we follow them up with suitable favours (especially when they are known to tend to the increase of the Orthodox faith and the propagation of sacred religion). Indeed, since our dearest son in Christ Henry, illustrious king of England, as he asserts, bears a singular affection of devotion towards the Order of St. Augustine, called of the holy Saviour, instituted and founded under the Rule and according to the constitutions or institutes of St. Birgitta, otherwise named Brigida: and has already begun one, and intends and proposes, God being propitious to him, to found and endow several other monasteries and places of the same Order, under the aforesaid Rule and according to the constitutions or institutes.

[453] And since also the aforesaid Rule or constitutions or institutes, obtained confirmation from the same Pontiff. and also the foundation, construction and endowment of the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, which, the first and principal, was founded, built and endowed by the aforesaid Birgitta or Brigida under the Rule and according to the constitutions or institutes of this kind, were then approved and confirmed by the authority of the late Urban VI, so named in his obedience, to which those parts then belonged, as is more fully contained in the letters of the said Urban drawn up thereupon. Humble supplication was made to us on behalf of the same king that we would deign to approve and confirm anew the aforesaid Rule, constitutions and institutes, and also the letters of the said Urban, and all and singular the things contained in them, for the king's conscience's

greater peace, by Apostolic authority, and of Apostolic benignity to supply the defects, if any perchance have intervened in them. We therefore, greatly commending in the Lord this pious and laudable purpose of the king, inclined to such supplications, by the aforesaid Apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters and from certain knowledge, confirm the aforesaid Rule, constitutions or institutes, and all and singular the other things contained in the aforesaid letters, whose tenor we have caused to be inserted word for word in the present letters, and fortify them with the patronage of the present writing, supplying all defects, if any perchance have intervened in the same. For the letters of Urban see above from number 404; after reciting which Martin V continues thus. Let it therefore be lawful to no man whatever to infringe this page of our confirmation, communication *, and supply, or to contravene it with rash daring. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, etc. Given at Florence on the 7th day before the Ides of April, in the second year of our Pontificate.

* something is missing

perhaps prædictis* aforesaid?

perhaps communitionis* fortification?

§ XXVIII. On the sacred cult and relics of St. Birgitta.

The cult of St. Birgitta, by Boniface IX and by the bishops of Sweden After St. Birgitta had been enrolled by Boniface IX with solemn rite in the number of the Saints in the year 1391, her memory was celebrated every year in the monastery of Vadstena with a threefold feast: namely the feast of her Translation on the 28th day of May, her feast of Birth into heaven on the 23rd day of July, the feast of her Canonization, with an Octave, on the 7th day of October. Mention of the first is made in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1404, of the second at 1416, of the third at the year 1396 and elsewhere here and there. She had at Vadstena already from the year 1392 an altar consecrated to her name, which Boniface IX adorned with indulgences, of which I read thus in the Foundation of the Order of St. Birgitta, prefixed to her revelations printed at Cologne in the year 1628, point 5: Boniface IX, Supreme Pontiff, relaxed two years and as many quarantines of enjoined penances to those visiting the altar of St. Birgitta in the often-mentioned monastery of Vadstena on the very day of the dedication of such altar. Under date at Rome at St. Peter's, on the 8th day before the Kalends of April, in the third year of his Pontificate. In the following year the relics of St. Birgitta were exalted in the same monastery with altogether remarkable pomp, as Thorir Andreae testifies at the year 1393, describing the solemnity thus: Likewise on Trinity Sunday, which fell on the morrow of Petronilla the virgin and on the Kalends of June, there was ordained at Vadstena the venerable father and lord, the lord Knut Bosson, bishop of Linköping, by the reverend fathers and lords Henry, archbishop of Uppsala, Beno of Västerås, and Hemming of Växjö. And on the same day, by the same bishops, the lord Torsten, bishop of Skara, being also present, the solemnity of the exaltation and showing of the relics of the whole body (except, however, no small part of it, which remained in Italy) of St. Birgitta, our glorious mother, was performed and celebrated, which is called by the common people Skrinlegning.

[455] There were present also canons, provosts and other clerics, promoted by the prelates; knights, men-at-arms, ladies, nobles, old men, virgins and young men, and as great a multitude of diverse states, clerics and laymen, from all parts, above all of these three kingdoms (Sweden, Denmark and Norway), as was ever seen together in these parts, nor was a greater and more solemn procession seen by these inhabitants than was made then; and then four bishops carried the shrine of St. Birgitta with the relics into the church and placed it upon the high altar in the choir of the brothers, blessing and glorifying God in His Saint, to whom be praise and honour for ages. Amen. In the third year after, of Christ 1396, the prelates of Sweden held a provincial council at Arboga, and decreed that the 7th day of October, sacred to St. Birgitta, should be solemn throughout all Sweden. Of the said council Thorir Andreae again speaks thus at the year just mentioned: On the Sunday on which Laetare is sung, it was decreed in the provincial council by the prelates, namely Henry, archbishop of Uppsala, and Knut of Linköping, and Torsten of Skara, and Tord of Strängnäs, and Nicholas of Västerås, and Hemming, bishop of Växjö, that the feast of Bl. Birgitta be solemnly kept on the seventh day of October, and be a feast of the land, that is, of the whole kingdom. Benzelius published the statutes of the council at the end of the Diary of Vadstena, page 188 and following; from which it is clear moreover that St. Birgitta had already then been adopted as the particular patroness of the kingdom of Sweden: the words of the council bearing on this run thus: Likewise let the feast of St. Birgitta, our patroness, be solemnly celebrated on the seventh day of the month of October.

[456] There exists in our possession a Swedish votive Missal for priests, both secular the ancient Mass of the 7th of October and religious, of any diocese and Order, printed at the beginning of typography, but without place and year of impression, in which the feast of St. Birgitta is noted as solemn on the 7th day of October, and her proper Mass is read thus: Introit: Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, etc. Prayer: O God, who didst deign to enlighten Thy Church through blessed Birgitta by sacred counsels and doctrines, mercifully grant that what Thou hast mercifully revealed for the purging of our excesses we may carry out with devout minds. Through, etc. Epistle: Optavi et datus est mihi sensus, etc. Gradual: Propter veritatem et mansuetudinem, etc. Sequence: As the world's evening declines, Birgitta rises like a star twinkling in the ether, vessel of grace, and rose of purity. Standing strong in the covenant of love, she ascends to receive Christ fittingly in the hostelry of the heart, with sweet desire. Seeking nothing sweet, nothing lovable to the flesh, to the world or to vainglory, her humble heart rests in the bosom of Christ; she crushed the enemy's head strongly, while, growing continually in good, she burns to enjoy Christ the spouse happily. The Spouse frequently instructs the spouse, He institutes a new norm of life, that so He may be delighted in the spouse, as is fitting. Enjoying a grateful love she hastens, she desires to bear the Spouse's yoke; willing and eager, she professes what she had resolved. Her conversation in heaven, pleasing by a wondrous ray of virtues, is refreshed by converse with God's Saints. At length, the course of life completed, she is transferred from the shipwreck of the world, and is crowned in the highest fellowship of heaven. Be propitious to us, Birgitta; wondrous prodigies shine forth from you, and the joyful people confess the great works of God. O Mary, sweet protection, grant through Birgitta's patronage that the desired prize in heaven may be given to us. Amen.

[457] customarily said in her honour; the days of her feast Gospel: Nemo accendit lucernam, etc. Offertory: Diffusa est gratia, etc. Secret: We offer Thee, O Lord, sacrifices of praise, humbly beseeching that, by the intervening suffrage of blessed Birgitta, Thou wouldst both, being appeased, receive them and grant that they may profit us unto salvation. Through our Lord. Communion: Diffusa est gratia, etc. Postcommunion: We beseech Thee, almighty God, that the heavenly Sacraments which we have received may, blessed Birgitta interceding, purify our guilt and work in us the effect of right living. Through our Lord. This Mass was perhaps read in Sweden from the time when St. Birgitta was either enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints, or from the time when her feast was ordered at the council of Arboga to be celebrated with solemn rite throughout the whole of Sweden, in the year, as we have already said, 1396: I therefore judged it worthy to make mention of here on account of its antiquity. I return to the favours with which the Pontiffs followed up the feast days of St. Birgitta. The same (namely Boniface IX) permitted all and singular persons of this (the Birgittine) Order, of both sexes, living within and outside the monastery, to choose annually on the feast of the Canonization of St. Birgitta, and once in the article of death, any confessor from among the fathers and brothers of the same Order, who might, by Apostolic authority, impart to them, contrite in heart and having confessed, full remission of all sins, in sincerity of faith, in the unity of the Holy Roman Church and in obedience and devotion to the Holy Apostolic See existing then and in the future. So again it is read in the Foundation of the Order cited above. The beginning of the Apostolic letters is: Etsi ex debito, etc. They were given on the 4th day before the Nones of June at Rome at St. Peter's in the twelfth year of Boniface IX, of Christ 1401.

[458] favoured with new favours, as also the chapel dedicated to her Innocent VII, by letters given at Rome at St. Peter's on the 4th day before the Ides of March in the first year of his Pontificate, of Christ 1405, whose beginning is: Licet is, de cujus munere venit, etc., granted every year, on the chief festivities of the Lord and of blessed Mary, and others, among which is numbered the birthday of St. Birgitta, that is, the 23rd day of July, and through their Octaves, five years and as many quarantines of indulgences to those visiting the church of the monastery of Vadstena. From the letters of Alexander V given in the first year of his Pontificate, of Christ 1409, it is understood that St. Birgitta had in that year at Vadstena a chapel dedicated to her name and enriched with indulgences by that Pontiff: these run thus: Alexander V, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful of Christ, etc.: Desiring therefore that the chapel of St. Birgitta, situated beside the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, may be frequented with fitting honours and also preserved, etc.: to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall devoutly visit the same chapel annually on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the same St. Birgitta, and shall there stretch forth helping hands, namely on each of the days of such festivities, we mercifully relax three years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined on them, etc. Given at Pisa on the 14th day before the Kalends of September, in the first year of our Pontificate. In the same year Alexander V had received the Pontifical crown at the council of Pisa on the Nones of July. Furthermore, the chapel of which Alexander speaks seems also to have been renowned for prodigies of St. Birgitta.

[459] For I think it the same as that of which Thorir speaks at the year 1406, the chapel at Vadstena. where he writes that a certain bishop, Robert by name, sent by the Pontiff (Innocent VII) from Rome to Scotland and turning aside into Sweden, was rescued from shipwreck by the merits of St. Birgitta. He (Robert) narrated to the monks of Vadstena, says Thorir Andreae, who could hear these things from the narrator's mouth, a certain miracle which God had done with him through the merits of St. Birgitta. For when he was at sea on the day of St. Clement, between Prussia and Sweden, so great a tempest arose at sea that all despaired of life, and the sailors often thought of throwing the merchandise into the sea; but he, forbidding it, said: Let us commend ourselves, brothers, to the help of St. Birgitta, and make her a vow that we will visit her threshold as soon as we come to the port of the Swedes. And when all had vowed and promised this, he, neither waking nor sleeping, but as if rapt in spirit, saw that he was in a certain chapel, where a certain priest celebrated Mass at the high altar, and to the right of the altar he saw one person clothed in widow's habit, with a black mantle and a grey tunic and a white veil on her head, and behind her stood brothers and sisters praying. And he, having taken a burning candle, came to the altar, going up

by some steps, and fixed the candle on the horn of the altar, and so withdrew; and at once, coming back to himself, he saw that whole tempest calmed, and he glorified God and His glorious Bride, who deigned to work such things through her. At length, coming to Vadstena and entering the chapel, he found it in the same form as he had seen it at sea, and, thus made more certain of the vision, he knew that he had been delivered on account of the merits of St. Birgitta. Concerning the indulgences which Boniface IX granted for Sweden on the feast days of St. Birgitta, consult his Bulls transcribed in the preceding §. These things, however, suffice, as I think, to make it evident with how great solicitude the Pontiffs took care to promote the cult of St. Birgitta in Sweden.

[460] But since mention has now been made of Pontifical indulgences, Birgitta is also said to have received certain indulgences from Christ, this place reminds me that I should now treat of the indulgences of St. Peter in Chains which Christ is said to have granted to Birgitta. Almost in the same way in which Christ is reported to have granted plenary indulgences to St. Francis for the church of the Portiuncula, some would have it that He also granted to St. Birgitta for the church of Vadstena the same indulgences which had been granted to the church of St. Peter in Chains while St. Birgitta was living. Something similar is implied in chapter 24 of the Extravagant Revelations, where Christ is introduced speaking thus of Vadstena: And just as in this place there had been a place of punishments and a burden of the land, so now there shall be gathered to this place those who will ask mercy and indulgence for the living and the dead and will appease me for the state of the kingdom. But the matter is explained much more clearly in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 137, whose title is: A revelation touching Pope Urban (V) which the Bride of Christ had at Rome concerning the confirmation of the Rule of the Saviour, and concerning the Indulgences of St. Peter in Chains granted by Christ to the monastery of the blessed Virgin in Vadstena. In the course of the chapter Christ addresses now the Pontiff, now Birgitta: the Pontiff thus: I dictated it (the Rule of the Saviour) and endowed it with a spiritual endowment, namely by granting the indulgences which are in the church of St. Peter in Chains at Rome. Do you therefore approve before men what has been sanctioned before my heavenly host. And Birgitta thus: But you, my Bride, if you cannot have the letter and grace of the Pope and his seal concerning the grant of the said indulgence unless money goes before, my grace suffices for you. For I will approve and confirm my word, and all the Saints will be my witnesses. My Mother will be your seal. My Father the confirmer, and my spirit the consoler of those coming to your monastery.

[461] but this does not seem I would not indeed deny that St. Birgitta had it in command from Christ to offer her Constitutions to Urban V for approval; but that she was likewise commanded to take care that the indulgence of the church of St. Peter, which she had obtained from Christ, should moreover be approved by the Pontiff, namely in the manner in which the matter is here related to have been done, is, to declare openly and plainly what I think, a thing which I cannot but hold suspect. For who would easily bring himself to believe that Christ said to Birgitta that the indulgences which He had granted her would be ratified and valid even if the Pontiff, to whom she was ordered to go for that reason, had been unwilling to fortify them with his authority, as seems to be implied in the words recited in the preceding number? I know indeed what they say of St. Francis, namely that, when he had not yet received the Pontifical letters about the Portiuncula indulgence, he said to Pope Honorius III: If it is the work of God (he was speaking of the Portiuncula indulgence), He Himself must manifest His work. Of such a thing I want no other instrument, but let the Blessed Virgin Mary be the charter, let Christ be the notary, let the angels be the witnesses: But he had said beforehand: Your word alone suffices me; in which way St. Francis could answer after he had obtained from Honorius what he asked by the oracle of the living voice. Nor does Urban V seem ever to have either granted or confirmed those indulgences to St. Birgitta. In the letters indeed by which he confirmed St. Birgitta's Rules (see number 326), he gave the Birgittines only those indulgences which had already previously been granted to the Order of St. Augustine, whose Rules they profess; nor did he make any mention of the indulgences of the church of St. Peter in Chains at Rome being communicated to the church of Vadstena. Did he do so by other letters? I do not think so: for otherwise the Foundation of the Order, prefixed to the Cologne edition of the revelations of St. Birgitta, would have mentioned them at least by a word, which it does not do.

[462] firm enough; Moreover, why did Gregory XI, Urban V's successor, in the letters by which he granted indulgences to those visiting the church of Vadstena on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, not only not imply that they had been divinely given to St. Birgitta or approved by Urban, but even restrict them, as we shall soon see, to three years and as many quarantines, whereas at Rome in the Church of St. Peter they were far richer and more ample? Why did Urban VI, in the letters by which he granted without restriction to those visiting the church of Vadstena on the said day all the indulgences which the faithful could earn on the same day at Rome in the church of St. Peter in Chains, make no mention of a divine grant by which St. Birgitta had already obtained them before; but on the contrary recorded the multitude of men customarily flowing together to the monastery of Vadstena on that day for the sake of devotion, and the frequency of miracles on that day, by which he was moved to extend the said indulgences? Having weighed these things in my mind, I began to suspect (whether deservedly or undeservedly, let the prudent reader judge) that chapter 137 of book 4 of the Revelations of St. Birgitta is at least not genuine in every part, and has been interpolated or augmented by someone, whoever he may have been, who wished to imitate the history of the Portiuncula Indulgence granted to St. Francis. But so that what I have already said may be more fully confirmed, and so that it may be established what may deservedly be believed concerning the indulgences of St. Peter in Chains granted to the church of Vadstena, let us look at more approved monuments on this matter.

[463] That Gregory XI, the next successor of Urban V, as is drawn from the bulls of Gregory XI granted indulgences of three years and as many quarantines to those visiting the church of Vadstena, founded by St. Birgitta, on the feast day of St. Peter in Chains, that is, the 1st day of August, as I said in the preceding number, is testified by his letters on the matter, which I transcribe here from the already often-praised Foundation of the Order of St. Birgitta: they run thus: Gregory XI, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Dum præcelsa meritorum insignia. Desiring therefore that the church of the monastery of St. Mary in Vadstena, of the Order of St. Augustine, of the diocese of Linköping, which the late Birgitta, princess of Närke, founded anew canonically and caused to be built, may be frequented by the faithful of Christ with fitting honours, and that the faithful of Christ may flow together to the same church for the sake of devotion the more fervently (this place would indeed have been most apt for making mention of the indulgence granted by Christ, if it had come from Him) the more abundantly they see themselves filled there by this gift of heavenly grace, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall devoutly visit the aforesaid church on the feast of blessed Peter in Chains, we relax annually three years and three quarantines of enjoined penances, etc. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the Kalends of February, in the first year of our Pontificate; of Christ 1371, in which St. Birgitta was still staying at Rome. When therefore the Pontiff says the late princess of Närke, this is not to be taken as if it were said of St. Birgitta as already then dead, but of the monastery of Vadstena already then founded by her; or else Gregory must be said to have given those letters later (after the year 1373 had advanced to the 23rd of July, on which she died) than in the 1st year of his Pontificate. For the rest, the opening of Gregory's letters is, as is evident, not expressed here entire: but if the words of the Pontifical letters which are suppressed in the cited Foundation of the Order of St. Birgitta should perhaps make mention of an indulgence granted by Christ to St. Birgitta for the church of Vadstena on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, which, however, I do not think, I desire to be taught what they are, and I will gladly embrace Gregory's testimony for it.

[464] I proceed to the Bull of Urban VI, by which I have likewise said that this Pontiff granted to the church of the monastery of Vadstena all the indulgences and from the bulls of Urban VI which the faithful could at that time earn at Rome in the church of the same name on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, more liberally than Gregory XI, his predecessor, had done, yet with no mention introduced of an indulgence granted by Christ to St. Birgitta, but in order to increase the devotion of the people flocking there on the said day. It runs thus: Urban VI, bishop, servant of the servants of God. For a perpetual memorial of the matter, etc. Desiring therefore that the church of the monastery in the castle of Vadstena, in the diocese of Linköping, which is said to have been founded anew and copiously endowed from their goods by our beloved daughter in Christ, the noble woman Catherine, daughter of the late Ulf of Ulfåsa, knight, of the said diocese, and the late Birgitta her mother, to the honour and under the title of the same Blessed Mary, and in which indeed the body of the said Birgitta also rests, and in which almighty God, especially on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, on which a numerous multitude of the faithful of the kingdom of Sweden and of other nations flows together annually on pilgrimage to the church itself for the sake of devotion, as is asserted, shows many signs and works miracles, may be frequented with fitting honours: and that the faithful of Christ may flow together to the church itself for the sake of devotion the more willingly, the more, etc. Trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all who, being truly penitent and having confessed, shall devoutly visit the aforesaid church on the said feast, we mercifully grant annually by Apostolic authority through the present letters all and singular the indulgences and remissions of sins and relaxations of enjoined penances which any Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, have granted to those visiting annually the church of St. Peter in Chains in the City on the same feast, whether such indulgences, remissions and relaxations (which we wish to be held as expressed in the present letters) were granted in perpetuity or for a fixed time, in the manner, form and for the time in which they stand granted by the same Pontiffs. Let it therefore be lawful to no man to infringe this page of our grant, etc. Given at Tivoli on the 3rd day before the Kalends of August, in the 1st year of our Pontificate, of Christ 1378.

[465] is drawn: You see that Urban VI granted the said indulgences solely on account of the multitude both of the men visiting the church on the feast of St. Peter, and of the miracles customarily done there on that day, which, since

the Pontiff does not explain, receive an authentic declaration of the same of the year 1380: In the name of the Lord, Amen. This venerable church (of St. Peter in Chains at Rome) was built from the beginning by the emperor Octavian, and was consecrated on the first day of August by the most holy father and lord Pelagius, and on the aforesaid day, to whoever should devoutly come to the aforesaid church, confessing and truly penitent and having confessed, he set and granted remission of all sins and absolution (these words mean plenary indulgences); and on every day there are in the said church five hundred years of indulgence. But in Lent and on Sundays and festivities they are doubled; and also from the first day of August and through the whole Octave the aforesaid Pope Pelagius set and granted, to whoever should devoutly come to the aforesaid church, remission of the half of all sins. And to these Tablets and the most ancient Legend of the said venerable church concerning indulgences of this kind, thus copied as is set forth above, the said Chapter and canons of the said church asserted and affirmed, in the presence of me the notary and of the witnesses undersigned, that full faith would be and ought to be given by the Christian people, as to true and truthful things; and that the canons and Chapter themselves used them as true and truthful and most ancient in the said church, asserting that the Christian people from almost every part of the world run together to the said indulgence on the aforesaid feast of St. Peter in Chains, and persist in such devotion. And this is also public and notorious in the said City and in the neighbouring parts.

[466] Concerning which the same Lord Magnus (probably Petersson, but the indulgences of St. Peter in Chains at Rome were by the Pontiffs who laboured diligently for St. Birgitta's canonization) asked of me, the public notary undersigned, that a public instrument be made for him, sealed with the seal of the said Chapter. These things were done at Rome in the aforesaid church of St. Peter in Chains in the year of the Lord 1380, in the 3rd Indiction, on the twenty-second day of the month of March, in the second year of the Pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and our lord, the lord Urban the sixth, by divine providence Pope, there being present the venerable and discreet men, the Lords Nicholas de Calientis Bacto, John de Aperinis, John Petri Vitonis, etc., canons of the aforesaid church. And I, Hector Vrowin de Hussen, cleric of the diocese of Utrecht, public notary by Apostolic authority, was present, together with the named witnesses, at the premises thus done and granted by the said lords the Chapter and canons, and at all and singular the other things, while, as is set forth above, they were thus being done and performed, etc., and I saw and heard them so done and took them down in note, etc. There will perhaps be someone who will say that in the age of Pelagius, that is, in the sixth century, plenary indulgences were not yet customarily granted: but granted that these indulgences were not really so ancient: later Pontiffs could supply any defect of them, whether of right or of fact, and at least they were far more abundant than the indulgence granted to the church of Vadstena by Gregory XI. At Rome, as follows from the words of the instrument, the feast of St. Peter in Chains was celebrated with an Octave, and that it was likewise so celebrated at Vadstena is gathered from the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1405, where mention of it is made. Some difficulty was raised against these indulgences at the council of Basel, concerning which these things are read in the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1433: On the day of St. Hippolytus there came from the council of Basel a certain strict citation, by which the confessor and the abbess were cited to the council itself with documents concerning the revelations of Bl. Birgitta and concerning the indulgences of the feast of St. Peter in Chains.

[467] What was the outcome of this citation the praised Diary does not declare: extended to the monastery of Vadstena, as also those of the Portiuncula. but I judge that the said indulgences came through safe, just as St. Birgitta's revelations did, for this reason, that James, archbishop of Uppsala, says that he saw the autograph letters of Urban VI concerning them, in the letters by which, in the year 1490 on the 29th day of March, he confirmed most of the indulgences of the Birgittine Order by order and in the name of Innocent VIII: Benzelius exhibits these from page 205: and James mentions the aforesaid indulgences by name in these words: And afterwards (there having been produced before me) other letters of Apostolic indulgences after the pattern of the church of St. Peter in Chains in the City, granted to the aforesaid Order, sealed with the true bull of Urban VI of divine memory, etc. The liberality of the Pontiffs towards the church of Vadstena did not stop here: for, besides the indulgences recorded in §27 which Boniface IX granted to it, there were also conferred upon it plenary indulgences, such as Honorius granted to the church of the Portiuncula, from the first vespers of the Kalends of the month of August until the Vespers of the following day; which I read in the Diary of Vadstena were first promulgated at Vadstena in the year 1408 and celebrated with a numerous concourse of the faithful: On the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (says the one who succeeded Thorir Andreae in writing the Diary of Vadstena), which fell on the very Sunday of mid-Lent, there were for the first time pronounced and celebrated in our monastery of Vadstena indulgences, namely remission of all sins, as they are read to have been given at Assisi to Bl. Francis. And there came at that time a copious gathering of peoples. Praise and honour and glory to God almighty, and to His most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, and to Bl. Birgitta for ages of ages. Amen. Boniface IX had granted the same indulgences for the same day to the church of St. Saviour of the Birgittine monastery founded in the suburb of Gdańsk or Danzig, already from the year 1398, as is plain from his letters related in point V of the often-cited Foundation of the Order of St. Birgitta: but when, or by what Pontiff, they were first likewise imparted to the monastery of Vadstena, I have found nowhere. For the rest, that the church of Vadstena, heaped with these and other graces, and the continual prodigies which its foundress Birgitta worked in it, increased her cult and celebrity to the highest degree, there is no need for me to remind anyone.

[468] The cult of St. Birgitta increased at Vadstena: Moreover, the ascetics of the monastery of Vadstena applied themselves not sluggishly to increasing St. Birgitta's cult. For about the year 1403, as the illustrious Baron Sparwenfeld, to be praised below, writes to our predecessors, they had a magnificent shrine of silver-gilt made at Stockholm, in which St. Birgitta's remains might be laid up: concerning which, as I think, the following words of the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1412 are to be understood: On the eve of St. Peter in Chains, that is, on the day of St. Helena, which then fell on a Sunday, the shrine of St. Birgitta came to the monastery of Vadstena, carried from Stockholm, where it was made by the lord Thore Bengtsson, knight, who had been in charge of that work. But his brother, the lord Sten Bengtsson, knight, began that work; but soon after its beginning he was taken from this life. And what he himself could not complete, his aforesaid brother the lord Thure brought to the end. In which shrine indeed there were four hundred and 29 marks of pure (silver), less one ounce. And in the year 1430 they wished their monastery, hitherto sacred to St. Mary, to be dedicated likewise to St. Birgitta. Hear again the Diary of Vadstena at the aforesaid year: On the morrow of Sigfrid, namely on the Thursday after Septuagesima Sunday, in the presence of the king and the nobles of the kingdom, and also of the bishop of Linköping, brother John Haquini (he had been a monk of Vadstena), archbishop of Uppsala (consecrated in the year 1422), dedicated the monastery of Vadstena in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Birgitta, without the consecration of the altar. And in how great honour she was held there even among men of the highest condition, it is permissible to conjecture even from the fact that the kings and queens of Sweden often came there to venerate her relics, as in the year 1403 Margaret, queen of Sweden; in the year 1415 Philippa, the wife of King Eric, who also wished to be buried there in the choir of St. Anne built by herself: in the years 1442 and 1446 Christopher, king of Sweden, and in the year 1448 Charles, who also brought there in the year 1455 his daughter Birgitta to be consecrated a Birgittine nun, as may be seen here and there in the Diary of the place.

[469] Of the three festivities of St. Birgitta mentioned above, some Martyrologies mark more, the feasts of the same, by the martyrologists others fewer. The Lübeck-Cologne edition of Usuard of the year 1490, Greven and Molanus mention St. Birgitta only at the 7th day of October, on which she was enrolled among the Saints: our manuscript Florarium, made as the fifteenth century was growing old, fixes her Translation to the 28th day of May; her birthday to the 23rd of July; but passes over the day of the canonization. On the contrary Galesini passes over the said day of the translation: and assigns the days of her birth and of her canonization, the latter to the 7th of October, the former to the 23rd of July. Ferrari mentions Birgitta at the 28th day of May, on which he believed her body was translated, and at the 7th day of October, on which she was enrolled among the Saints. But the German Martyrology of the year 1573, and the Martyrology commonly called Canisius's, note each of the three festivities mentioned, at the days likewise mentioned. Various editions of the Roman Martyrology which are in our possession, older than the year 1631, mention St. Birgitta only at the 23rd day of July: but the one which came out in that year (previously revised by Urban VIII in the year 1630) from the Plantin press at Antwerp has, at the 8th day of October only, thus: Of St. Birgitta, widow, who after many pilgrimages to holy places, inspired by the divine spirit, rested at Rome on the tenth day before the Kalends of August: but on the day before this day her body was translated; as the Roman Martyrology has it even today.

[470] But the Roman Martyrology older than these, and issued in the year 1584 by order of Gregory XIII, mentioned, announces St. Birgitta at the 23rd day of July thus: At Rome, of St. Brigitta, widow, who after many pilgrimages to holy places, inspired by the divine spirit, departed from life there, renowned for sanctity, whose body was afterwards translated to Sweden. It seems, therefore, that the feast of St. Birgitta was transposed in the Roman Martyrology under Urban VIII from the 23rd day of July to the 8th day of October. But what seems likewise to have begun to be added under the same Urban, namely that on the 7th day of October the remains of St. Birgitta were carried to Sweden, appears foreign to the truth, since we have seen above that St. Catherine, having set out from Rome, deposited her mother's remains at Vadstena in the month of July of the following year, on the 4th or 5th day: so that the day of the translation seems here to be wrongly confused with the day of the canonization, which, as is clear from Boniface's very bull on the matter transcribed in §26, was the 7th of October. For the rest, since in the Roman Martyrologies edited by Belinus and Mauroli in the years 1521 and 1536 no mention of St. Birgitta occurs, there is ground on which one may suspect that she was first inscribed in the Roman Martyrology under Gregory XIII, unless perhaps Roman Martyrologies older than this Pontiff teach otherwise.

[471] The feast of St. Birgitta was customarily celebrated at Rome

formerly with the semidouble rite, [to one of which the double rite has now been decreed throughout the universal Church, at the request of princes] which is prescribed at the 8th day of October in the Roman Missals of the years 1629, 1634 and 1660; as also in the Roman Directories of the years 1685, 1695 and some following ones which are in our possession: but in the present Roman Missal it is marked to be celebrated with the double rite, from the time when Innocent XIII granted that this be done, whose decree of the year 1724 on the matter is extant: Letters having lately been presented to Pope Innocent XIII of holy memory from his Imperial Majesty Charles VI, elected emperor of the Romans, and from the empress Elisabeth, and also from the most serene king of Poland, from several Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinals of the H. R. C., and from very many Archbishops, Bishops and Princes, in which it was no less piously than earnestly besought that he would deign to extend henceforth to the Universal Church under the double rite the Office of St. Birgitta, which is recited in the universal Church under the semidouble rite, and in several kingdoms under the double rite; and these having been remitted to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and very recently reported in it by the most eminent and most reverend Lord Cardinal Tolomei, the same Sacred Congregation, at the instance of Fr. James Scheckh, Prior General of the Order of St. Birgitta in Bavaria, and the Most Reverend Prospero Lambertini, Archbishop of Theodosia, Promoter of the Faith, having also been heard, judged that every year on the 8th of October the aforesaid Office may be recited under the double rite, and the Mass respectively celebrated, by all, Secular as well as Regular, of both sexes, who are bound to the Canonical hours. If it shall seem good to our most holy Lord. The 26th of August 1724.

And report having been made by me, the secretary, to our most holy Lord of the aforesaid, His Holiness kindly assented: The 2nd of September of the same year 1724.

F. Card. Paolucci, Prefect.

Place ✠ of the seal.

Nicola Maria Tedeschi, Archbishop of Apamea, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

[472] and of various prelates: a new Office Fr. James Scheckh, mentioned in Innocent's diploma, Prior and general confessor of the Order of St. Saviour or of St. Birgitta, in his booklet on the Church and monastery of St. Alto in Upper Bavaria, published in the year 1730, page 58, recounts certain of the princely men who wrote letters for raising the rite of the Office of St. Birgitta throughout the universal Church; namely the Grand duke of Tuscany; the bishops of Eichstätt, Speyer, Passau, Freising, Münster and Constance; the archbishops of Salzburg, Prague, Vienna and Florence. Further, when Innocent says that the Office of St. Birgitta was also recited with the double rite in several kingdoms, take this as said of the Northern kingdoms and above all of the kingdom of Sweden. In the year 1616 the sacred Congregation of rites granted, at the prayers of King Sigismund, to whom the kingdoms of Poland and Sweden then belonged, that the new Office of St. Birgitta with octaves, as it had formerly been customarily recited in Sweden, should be recited also in Poland both by the Swedes and by the Poles.

[473] in her honour, through the Octave It came out from the Plantin press in the year 1651 among the other proper Offices of the Patrons of the Swedish kingdom, at the 8th day of October. It has the same Lessons of the second Nocturn as the Roman Breviary now presents at the same day. Proper to it are, first of all, the Hymn at Vespers, of this kind:

The golden hour arises, Light shines without a cloud; The heavenly realms rejoice, The world applauding exults.

For the glory of the realm of Sweden, Birgitta, of illustrious stock, Now sees with clear face The splendour of the true light.

From a fruitful vineyard A slender shoot came forth, In her maiden age Like to fair Rebecca.

She gathers ears of virtues, A Ruth behind the reapers' backs, With whose grains she refreshes herself Within the land of the living.

A lover of innocence, Keeping a chaste fast, She gave her heart to wisdom, Setting aside vain joy.

Jesus, our redemption, Grant us in the heavenly realms, By the merit of this patroness, To enjoy the joys of the Saints. Amen.

[474] The Antiphon at the Magnificat at first Vespers runs thus: by Swedes and Poles Birgitta, handmaid of Christ, faithful in office, you a happy widow Anna, giving yourself to the service of the temple, a Rachel fervent in love, pleasing Jacob in fellowship, gentle health to the sick, consolation to the devout, shining path of the just, refreshment of the sorrowful, through your merits may our devotion be pleasing; you who unlock hidden things, offer us to the ray of light. The Prayer is the same as that in the Roman Breviary. The Lesson of the third Nocturn is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11: At that time Jesus answered and said: I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones, and the rest: There follows part of the homily of St. Hilary the bishop on the same Gospel. The Responsory of the seventh Lesson is such: O Mosaic face, gleaming with the rays of the sun, magnificent in sanctity, renowned for great prodigies, enjoying in peaceful rest the dedication feast of the Spouse. Verse: O wondrous woman, gladden your servants with continual protection. In peaceful rest. Responsory of the eighth Lesson: O most pure Channel, through which from the hinge of heaven flows, like dew, the fiery word with holy stream, inflaming the minds of men with interior light. Verse: Pray, Birgitta, the Lord, that after life's end He may place us in the host of heaven. Inflaming the minds. Glory be to the Father. Inflaming the minds.

She adorns the joys of heaven, She furnishes the cause of gladness, Birgitta, the gleaming rose, Peace and glory of Östergötland.

Blessed, poor in spirit, Stretching out her palms to the poor man, With glad look of countenance She held out her hand to the needy.

Her marriage being dissolved, After her husband dies to the world, With the kiss of a devoted heart She embraces Christ her spouse.

The Spouse arouses His beloved, Calling: Come to Lebanon: The friend arises, she hastens, Seeking the royal bridal chamber.

She seeks the mountains of spices, She, flowing with delights, Full of the gifts of graces, Keeps her life from vices.

Antiphon at the Benedictus: O Bride endowed with a crown, presented by the Virgin, visit the devout people, rule your progeny, illuminate the shadow of death, take away the darkness of night, direct our feet into the beauty of peace. At second Vespers, the Antiphon at the Magnificat: Hail, sweet music, soothing the ears of princes: you the trumpet of Gideon, terrifying the camps of the enemies: you the sweet timbrel-player, moving the hearts of the faithful: turn, illustrious mother, our mourning into joy.

[476] Of her relics Of the sacred cult which the Church not undeservedly shows to Birgitta's sanctity, I think enough has now been said: it is pleasing, therefore, before I put an end to this Commentary, to present here to the reader also a few things about her relics, which I have found recorded here and there. That a part of St. Birgitta's relics remained in the monastery of Panisperna at Rome, where she was first entombed; and that the other was transported from Rome to Sweden in the year 1374 and deposited in the monastery of Vadstena, has been said above. Here they were always held in honour as long as the Catholic and ancestral religion flourished in Sweden: from here they were likewise dispersed through various regions of the Catholic world. Certain particulars on these matters the illustrious Baron Sparwenfeldt wrote to our predecessors in the year 1714, of which these are roughly the chief heads, drawn, as he writes, from the Swedish archives and the manuscript books of Vadstena. St. Birgitta's bones, first committed to the earth at Vadstena in the year 1374, letters having first been given to Pope Urban by King Albert, the bishops and the senators of the kingdom of Sweden from the city of Örebro in the year 1379, on the 18th day of January, were taken up from their former place by King Albert in the year 1381 and enclosed in a shrine for the sake of honour, as is witnessed, he says, by the letters of Queen Margaret to Pope Urban, and of the abbess and convent of Vadstena to Pope Boniface, which the paper Register exhibits on page 53.

[477] The Diary of Vadstena, or Thorir Andreae, at the year 1381 records only the death of St. Catherine, from the monastery of Vadstena daughter of Birgitta, nor does it make mention elsewhere of the relics of St. Birgitta brought into a shrine for the sake of honour by the work of King Albert, except at the year 1393, when Birger, son of St. Birgitta, had already ceased to be alive, whom Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, wrote had been present at the bringing of his mother's relics into the shrine: her words, in number 76 of this commentary, I thought were to be interpreted of the first reception of St. Birgitta's relics into the monastery of Vadstena, made in the year 1374, being then ignorant of what had been done concerning the Saint's relics by Albert in the year 1381: you will therefore correct the error committed, from Sparwenfeldt, and substitute rather the year 1381 for the year 1374, in which it is clear from the Diary of Vadstena that Birger was still alive, at the year 1391, which was Birger's last: but now let us hear Sparwenfeldt further. He says that the relics of St. Birgitta, already before this enrolled in the number of the Saints, were carried round at Vadstena with altogether remarkable pomp in the year 1393 on the 28th day of May, on which matter it was also treated above, number 454 and following. And ten years after, a magnificent shrine of silver-gilt was wrought to contain St. Birgitta's relics, concerning which see what was said in number 468: and this, as Sparwenfeldt adds, John, king of Sweden, ordered to be taken away in the year 1575, so that money might be coined from it, necessity so requiring, but six years afterwards ordered another altogether similar to be made.

[478] their dispersal into various places, And from the time that the Birgittine Order began to be propagated, various portions of St. Birgitta's relics also migrated in every direction from the monastery of Vadstena, the inmates of the new monasteries vying with one another so as not to be without every sacred pledge of their foundress: he writes that there obtained something of Birgitta's relics the monastery of the Valley of grace in Finland, founded in the year 1441; that of Houfoga (perhaps Hufwuto near Aslog, of which the Diary of Vadstena at the year 1448); that of Munkaliv in Norway; those of Mariboe and Maribo in Denmark, and others in England, Flanders, Bavaria, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, and the monastery of Paradise in Tuscany. At Linköping in Sweden there was preserved an arm-bone and a joint of a finger in the cathedral church. From the same there obtained some Rudolf, duke of Saxony and Lüneburg, count and elector Palatine, who ordered a chapel sacred to St. Birgitta to be founded in the territory of Brandenburg, in which he placed the relics of St. Birgitta which he had obtained by letters written in the year 1402; the people of Nuremberg in the year 1407, Henry, bishop of Brandenburg, Henry likewise, king of England, etc.: whose autograph letters Sparwenfeldt affirms are preserved in the Swedish archives. To these the same adds the nuns of Gdańsk, James (Palladini), archbishop of Florence, the Benedictines of Mainz, etc.

[479] In the time of King Sigismund, the monastery of Vadstena having been devastated under the prince Charles IX, and various and the monks having been expelled in the year 1595, Magnus Abraham, called archbishop of Uppsala, took away all the relics of Vadstena, all of which were buried confusedly and secretly in the cemetery of Vadstena, so that the Catholics might never find them. Sigismund, before the battle which he engaged in with Charles IX near Linköping in the year 1598, had sent men to Vadstena to search for the relics buried in the ground, but in vain. And in the year 1599 Charles IX, having now been made king of Sweden, an inquiry to be made into the relics of SS. Birgitta, Catherine and Ingrid in

the cemetery of Vadstena, and, when they had been found, he ordered them to be hidden in the castle of Vadstena, secretly from all, so that no one might dig them out. But not only in that castle, but also elsewhere at that time, as appears, relics of St. Birgitta must have been buried: for, as Sparwenfeldt continues to narrate in the same letters, a husbandman working the soil near Linköping in the year 1678, either with plough or mattock, uncovered in a certain field of a burgomaster of Linköping certain treasures wrought of silver: some of them a silversmith melted down; but some were preserved entire.

[480] And among these which were preserved entire there were two silver arms, overlaid with gold, a most beautiful reliquary (intended for keeping the most holy Body of the Lord), the fate in Sweden: a chalice, a paten, and a small statue of St. Catherine of silver-gilt; all of which he says Charles XI acquired for a price in the year 168[ ]… and that they are preserved in the castle and royal palace: and of the two silver arms one contained a bone of St. Eskil, the other an arm-bone of St. Birgitta, as their inscriptions indicated: this latter, equalling the natural size, contained the smaller leg-bone and an arm-bone of St. Birgitta, to be seen through pure and thick crystal: and the inscription, so far as Sparwenfeldt could read it because of the difficulty of the characters, ran roughly thus: Mistica Birgittæ tua perfer arista tristes; Birgittæ lacertus nos ducat et iste; pro nobis ora Birgitta patrona de insuper vita: from which words it is indeed exceedingly difficult to draw out a sense which is even a little tolerable. Finally he adds that there is enclosed in the same silver arm a joint of a finger besides the relics already mentioned. And these things about the relics of St. Birgitta in Sweden the illustrious baron de Sparwenfeldt did not grudge to teach us, be it said not without a testimony of a grateful mind: whether all these relics of St. Birgitta are still preserved in Sweden today, I am not in a position to say.

[481] the head in France, Furthermore, there is no mention in Sparwenfeldt of the head of St. Birgitta: that her head, or certainly some bones of the same, are preserved and honoured with sacred cult in the church of the village of Courson, situated in Burgundy and six leagues distant from Auxerre, we were taught by Fr. Gabriel Brotier, known to the literary world for his Tacitus, lately published, illustrated with notes and continued, and an eyewitness of what he wrote to us on this matter. The relics of St. Birgitta, he says, are placed in the aforesaid parish church at the Gospel horn, and enclosed in a case fenced with iron bars. And beneath, on black marble, but drawn up in French words, an inscription of this kind is read: In this case is laid up the head of St. Birgitta (in French St. Brigitte), widow, of the blood of the Swedish kings, carried into France on the twelfth day of August of the year 1653 through the agency of the lord de la Thuillerie, knight and count of Courson, ambassador extraordinary of the king to the queen of Sweden (Christina), and given to him as a gift by the aforesaid queen, according to the records of the bishopric of Auxerre. This inscription, as it was drawn up in French words, Gabriel Brotier himself, whom I named above, copied out, and at the same time informed us that the lordship of the castle and village of Courson is no longer in the family of the lord de la Thuillerie.

[482] and other relics preserved elsewhere, Lancellotti, in book 2 of the Olivetan History, writes that in the monastery of Quarto near Genoa there is preserved a small bronze vessel containing a parchment wrapping, on which these words are inscribed in ancient script: Finger of St. Brigida, had from bishop Alfonso, the founder of this monastery and a familiar of the holy Widow. Masini, in his Bologna surveyed, at the 8th day of October, mentions relics preserved in St. Stephen's, but does not set forth what they are. Gelenius, On the Greatness of Cologne, book 3, Syntagma 75, page 587, ascribes some relics of St. Birgitta to the sacred Treasury of the conventual Virgins of the third Rule of St. Francis. Raissius writes, on page 199, that the cloak of St. Birgitta is preserved at Bruges in the cathedral church of St. Donatian, and one bone at Rutilia, page 456. From the Miracles of St. Birgitta done at Naples and to be published below, it is established that Antonio de Carlecto, once a familiar of the holy Widow, had a portion of her relics not long after her death: Beyerlinck, in the Theatre of human life, at the word Relics, numbers relics of St. Birgitta among the sacred treasures of the church of St. Mary of Wisdom at Naples.

LIFE OF ST. BIRGITTA,

By Birger, archbishop of Uppsala.

Birgitta, widow, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1335

By Birger.

PROLOGUE.

The author praises St. Birgitta in general according to her threefold state. Behold, I have described her to you in three ways ^c. In three ways the sun burning the mountains and breathing out fiery rays is the kindly mother Church, which, like the morning rising, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun, by the power of Him whose eyes are far brighter than the sun, beautifies and adorns the mountains round about her, namely the sons of her pious adoption raised above the height of the earth to the sweetness of the heavenly fatherland, with three orders or states, namely of virgins, of the continent and of the married, as with a threefold cord, which is hard to break. By which the hearts and bodies of the faithful, burnt by the fire of the Holy Spirit, are baked in the furnace of chastity and continence. These are the three orders of polished stones with which the peaceful Solomon, Christ Jesus, most beautifully adorned His sanctuary on the earth, which He founded for ever. These are the three flocks which in the Church militant, beside the well of living waters, are sweetly watered with the waters of saving wisdom as in a great deep. These are the three shoots on the one vine, which is Christ, growing little by little into buds of twofold charity. These are the most precious gems with which the royal diadem of the true David is adorned. These are the three things which, according to the sentence of Solomon, go well. While holy Virgins and holy Widows, and also those who love chaste marriage, spurning the concupiscences of the flesh, advance step by step from virtue to virtue, until finally they see the kingdom of God. For not only Virgins and the continent, but also the Married, pleasing God by holy faith and good works, merit to arrive at eternal beatitude. And among the other members of holy mother Church was the venerable lady blessed Birgitta, chosen spouse and most dear daughter of Jesus Christ, who also mingled the other three sacred measures alike. Through this threefold state, lest she should lose the fruit of that dominical seed, thirtyfold, namely sixtyfold and hundredfold, due to these three states, nobly representing it in herself. On account of which mother Church fittingly describes her as to be commended in three ways. For this is she who in her entrance was delightful with virginal excellence, who in her progress was venerable with conjugal modesty, and in her progress persevered immovably in widowly continence. She is described as gracious in the state of beginners, fruitful in the state of those advancing, and glorious in the state of those persevering. This is the woman described by the Saviour in the Gospel, who hid the leaven she had received in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened; since, wholly kindled towards God with most ardent desire, she kept hidden in the three dominical precepts the love which, hidden in our mind, must so long ferment and grow until it changes the whole mind into its own perfection, loving most fervently the Lord her God with her whole heart, with her whole soul and with her whole mind. This is she who, after the third day of the present age, crossing the Jordan to possess the land with those who are called, that they may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, entered rejoicing through three gates, which are faith, hope and charity, into the inner court of the heavenly Jerusalem. Of her life, therefore, full of the odours of virtues, according to the order set down above, and also of the trustworthy miracles which the heavenly Spouse deigned to work as evidence of His Bride's sanctity, we have taken care to write some things in a simple style, and would that it be not unwelcome to readers, to the honour and glory of the Saviour ^d.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The virginal state of St. Birgitta.

St. Birgitta, from ancestors Blessed Birgitta ^a, a native of the Kingdom of Sweden ^b, drew her illustrious origin not only, according to the revelation divinely made to her, from the progeny of the holy Kings there ^c, who by their holy merits merited that the Lord should magnify His mercy with her, but also from noble and devout forebears and parents ^d. For all her kindred and generation, like Tobias's, remained in good life and holy conversation, so that they were acceptable both to God and to men and to all who dwell on the earth. For the grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather of her father, after the example of Abraham and the other ancient fathers who were pilgrims away from God in this world, although they were rich in virtue, having zeal for beauty, living peaceably in the Lord in their houses, yet, bringing back to memory the Sacraments of the Lord's Passion, happily carried through, not without great labours, their pilgrimage as far as the holy city of Jerusalem and the other places which Christ Jesus made wonderful by His bodily presence. Whose going in and coming out the Lord mercifully guarded.

[2] Clinging to their footsteps, her father most devoutly visited many places of the Saints, namely of blessed James ^e, conspicuous for piety and royal blood, and others on this side of the southern sea ^f. He was ready to go further to the Holy Land, had not the counsel of the Apostolic See stood in the way for reasonable causes. He was also accustomed every Friday humbly to confess his sins. Very often uttering these words: So I wish to prepare myself on Friday for God, that whatever He may give me on the other days, I may be ready to bear with equanimity. Remembering that saying of the Wise Man: Do not boast, putting off penance to the morrow, not knowing what the coming day may bring forth for you. Which in like manner his son ^g faithfully kept all the days of his life, secretly beating his body after confession with the sharpest scourges, so that, being ready under the scourge, Christ scourged in

his body he might glorify, and might continually crucify his flesh with its vices and concupiscences.

The mother of this glorious Lady likewise was noble and devout. Whose father ^h, since he was born of royal seed, loving the beauty of the house of God, founded many Churches and monasteries ⁱ, and established and gave to them, in accordance with his magnificence, most ample revenues by way of endowment.

[3] Now when one day his wife ^k, concealing the devotion of her mind and going about according to her nobility and the custom of nobles, not without prodigies so that all her glory was from within in golden fringes, that she might please God alone, was despised by a certain nun as being proud: immediately on the following night, when the said nun had fallen asleep, there appeared to her a person ^l wonderful of countenance, saying: Why have you disparaged my handmaid, saying that she is proud, which nevertheless is not true? For from her I will cause one daughter to come forth, with whom I will establish my covenant, granting her such grace that all nations will not suffice to wonder. O inscrutable Wisdom of God, who mercifully regarded the humility of His handmaid, and willed to fulfil both in her and in her Daughter what He had once promised to His faithful through the Prophet: I will make, He said, with you an everlasting covenant, the faithful mercies of David ^m. Let no one of the faithful therefore wonder if the root of the just advanced to such glory as to bring forth so great a Saint in times to come. Who raised herself like an apple-tree on the summit of the mountain to the citadel of sanctity. For the going forth of the Bride of God was prepared divinely like the dawn.

[4] For while she was still carried in her mother's womb, it happened that the mother suffered shipwreck in a certain bay of the sea ⁿ, born, and when many of both sexes had been drowned, the duke of the kingdom ^o, seeing her placed in danger, brought her alive to the shore by every means he could: but in a wonderful manner, that very night, a person in shining garments stood by the mother, saying: You have been saved on account of the good which you have in your womb; nourish it with the love of God, because it has been specially given to you by God. Happy mother, who, by the gift of a most noble offspring, like blessed Paul, is delivered from the depth of the sea. And when the girl was born, a certain parish priest [p] of a neighbouring Church, of approved life and advanced age [q], saw among his prayers by night a bright cloud, and in the cloud a virgin sitting, holding a book in her hand. To him as he wondered a certain voice, answering him, said: There is born to Birger a daughter, whose voice will be heard throughout the world: for it was to come about that through her, as through Moses, the Lord should speak to His people in a cloud. And her voice, as the voice of many waters and of great thunder, will be heard to the ends of the earth. And when she advanced in age and grace, for almost three years she was silent as if tongueless, and did not open her mouth to speak: but at the end of the three years [*] she obtained the use of speech so fully that she no longer spoke after the manner of infants, but, contrary to the nature of so young an age, sounded forth most perfectly. O wonderful dispensation of the divine wisdom! which opens the mouth of the dumb, and makes the tongues of infants eloquent, that out of the mouth of infants and sucklings it may perfect praise for itself.

[5] having become seven years old, she is crowned in a vision: Meanwhile her pious mother, full of all virtuous works and alms like another Tabitha, fell gravely ill. Which she foreknew and foretold some days before her death. And so, when she was now about to go forth from the body, and was turning over in her mind that hope which is long deferred afflicts the soul, she thus manfully addressed her husband and others grieving at her passing: Why do you grieve? It suffices to have lived until now; but one must rejoice that I have now been called to a more powerful Lord. And so, bidding farewell to all, she rested in the Lord [r]. Her mother therefore being dead, the lovable Virgin of God was handed over by her father to be brought up by her maternal aunt [s], a lady of great prudence and devout. And when she had already reached her seventh year, so that from joyful beginnings a more joyful outcome of the matter might be expected, she saw opposite her bed an altar, and a lady sitting upon it in shining garments, and holding in her hand a crown, who said: Birgitta, come: and she, hearing this, rose from the bed, running to the altar. To whom the lady said: Do you wish to have this crown? And as she assented, she placed the crown on her head, so that she felt as it were the circle of the crown covering her head; but on her returning to bed that vision disappeared, which nevertheless she could never forget; nor is it a wonder; for it was a sign that she would become an altar of holocaust, on which the fire of divine charity would always burn. And that her Spouse Christ was keeping for her in the heavens an unfading and undefiled crown.

[6] but at ten years old she is wonderfully moved towards the suffering Christ, After this, about the tenth year of her age, like a most pure lily, containing the whiteness of all honesty, and rising from the root of mortality to heavenly beauty, she guarded purity of heart and body as a hidden treasure, like in this to Sarah, daughter of Rachael, who said: Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never desired a man, and have kept my soul pure from all concupiscence; never have I mingled with those who play, nor have I made myself a partaker with those who walk in levity. There abounded in her the form of every virtue, sobriety with modesty, simplicity with bashfulness, humility with obedience, beauty in conscience, cheerfulness in patience, and unwearied charity. On account of these, therefore, and the like, the Bride of God, like a golden earring and a shining pearl, gracious in the eyes of all, was loved by all. But since it was necessary that the great eagle, flying up to the heights, should set her nest in lofty places; therefore the virgin devoted to Christ, when one day in church she heard preaching on the Passion of Christ, devoutly writing it on the tablets of her heart, immediately on the following night saw Christ as though crucified in that same hour, and saying: Thus have I been wounded. And she, thinking that this had been done recently, answered the Lord in spirit: O Lord, who has done this to Thee? Christ answered: Those who despise me and neglect my charity. Then she, coming back to herself, was so affected from that day towards the Passion of Christ that she rarely brought back to memory the mysteries of the Passion without tears. For it was sweet to her to think of the wounds of her Spouse, so that sometimes, in weeping, her kindled mind was pierced with compunction, and, lifted up amid tears, she was fed on the food of Angels, namely true wisdom, the more eagerly, the more sweetly.

[7] When, moreover, the twelfth year of her age had come, one day, when blessed Birgitta, an admirable vessel and work of the most high, and two years later she is visited by the Blessed Virgin, was intent with girls of her own age on embroidery work [t], and was much distressed in mind that she could not do her work as she wished, she raised the eyes of her mind more attentively to Him who is holy in all His works; and behold, her maternal aunt entered the house in which she was sitting, by the ordering of Him whose works are great and sought out according to all His wills; she saw a certain unknown virgin sitting opposite her and doing the work with her. And when that virgin had disappeared at her entrance, she asked who that girl was who had sat with her in doing the work. The most dear Bride answers that she had seen no one. But because the aunt found the work done so finely that it was given to those who saw it to understand that it was not the work of so tender an age, but had been wonderfully done by the Lord in the eyes of all; therefore her aunt faithfully kept the aforesaid work among her relics.

[8] Considering after this, the illustrious Girl, that if prayer is pure and chaste, intent on prayer by night, she is divinely defended from blows, penetrating the heavens it will not return empty: one night, the other girls being asleep, that she might serve the Lord more secretly in silence and hope, and afflict her body in cold and nakedness, leaping naked from her bed she adored with tears the crucifix before the bed. Which the aunt, having secretly entered the virgins' bedroom, wondering beyond measure and believing it to be levity of the Virgin, ordered a rod to be brought [*], by fear of which the young girl should correct her way; and when the aunt had begun to stretch it over the Virgin's back, it was broken into such tiny pieces that she, vehemently amazed, said: What have you done, Birgitta? Have some women taught you deceitful prayers? The virgin answered with tears, saying: No, my Lady, but I rose from bed to praise Him who is always wont to help me. To whom the aunt: Who, she said, is He? The virgin said: The Crucified, whom I lately saw. And from that day the aunt began to love her more closely and venerate her more fervently, understanding that she had learned such things not from man nor according to man, but from heaven, from Christ, who teaches man knowledge.

[9] Not long after, when the noble Virgin was once playing with the girls, and she is vainly terrified by the devil. the devil, who always hastens to extinguish good beginnings and the rudiments of virtues at their very birth, knowing that, once they are founded, he cannot overthrow them, appears to the Virgin as though having a hundred hands and feet, and most deformed in all things, terrifying her; and she, terrified, ran to her bed, humbly commending herself to the crucifix. Where the devil, appearing to her again, said: I can do nothing unless the Crucified permits. O faithful Lord in all His words, who did not suffer her to be tempted above that which she was able; but made with the temptation also a way out, that she might be able to bear it at so tender an age. Hearing which after some years, the aunt commanded her to cover the things seen with silence, and to place her hope in the Lord her God, loving Christ above all things; knowing that our life in this pilgrimage cannot be without temptation, so that no one comes to know himself unless tempted, nor can he be crowned unless he has conquered, nor conquer unless he has striven, nor strive unless he has had the temptations of the enemy.

ANNOTATIONS.

many have wrongly called, confusing her, as it appears, with her mother. See what has been said on this matter in numbers 37 and 38 of the preliminary Commentary.

p. Elsewhere this is read to have been Hemming, afterwards made bishop of Åbo: whether there were several bishops of Åbo of this name I have investigated in vain: but I think Vastovius is mistaken when he writes that this Hemming, bishop of Åbo, died about the year 1367, at 70 years of age. See the next following letter.

q. When Birgitta was born, that is, at the beginning of the 14th century, Hemming, of whom Vastovius speaks, could only have been about 15 years of age, as was said in number 54 of the preliminary Commentary: these words of Birger therefore cannot fit him.

r. In the year 1310, as Johan Peringskiöld judges in his manuscript Genealogy of St. Birgitta.

s. Margaret, abbess of Vadstena, names her Ingrid: elsewhere it is read: Catherine, the other maternal aunt of St. Birgitta, as was said in number 60 of the preliminary Commentary.

t. Plumarium work is so called which is woven and variegated after the manner of feathers, says Du Cange in the Glossary, in French Ouvrage à ramage; and he cites this passage of the Chronicle of Farfa in Muratori, Writers of Italian Affairs, volume 2, part 2, column 469: In Silvaplana, where there was of old a congregation of handmaids, who worked ornaments of the church with plumarium work; which perhaps St. Birgitta was then doing.

triennii* of the three years

afferri* to be brought

CHAPTER II.

The conjugal state of St. Birgitta.

Joined to a husband Her father, perceiving thereafter that a Virgin so remarkable and elegant in manners, like another Esther, could raise her family higher, and, like a small fountain growing into a very great river, overflow into many waters, espoused her to a certain man ^a, a young noble, prudent and rich ^b. Who, not like those who undertake marriage in such a way as to shut God out from themselves and from their mind, but in the fear of God, which is wont to expel evil, contracted matrimony between themselves, and kept it, once contracted, most honourably. For there was in their marriage purity of intention, inseparability of affection, and holiness of conversation, chastening their souls in mutual charity. And she, having God before her eyes, wished so to choose a good life as not to neglect a good reputation either. She took the greatest care that no one should speak ill of her, or that she should give occasion to others to disparage her in life or manners. Levities, places and persons by which she might be marked, she fled like poison. Considering that the vices of each person are more readily attended to than the virtues. Nor is it acknowledged what good anyone has done; but, if he has done any evil, it is searched out. She had with her virtuous handmaids and well-mannered companions, who could bear testimony to her good conversation. Attending to this, that nothing more clothes minds with honour and recalls to reason those inclined to evil than the conversation of good men.

[11] She was intent with her maidservants on work for divine worship and the advantage of her neighbours, to pious works, purity of conscience, solitude, lest she should eat her bread idle. Confessions also, which stop up the mouth of hell and open the gates of paradise, she continually frequented. Choosing as her confessor a certain master ^c, most skilled in the salvation of souls and devout, whom she obeyed most eagerly in all things; knowing that the words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fixed on high, which are given through the counsel of masters. Whence the confessor himself also was wont to say familiarly to his friends: This is a sign in the lady Birgitta of some future grace, that she bewails light sins as others do the gravest, and leaves nothing in her words or manners undiscussed. And so as not to occupy her mind only about domestic business, but to be able also to meditate continually on the law of the Lord, she entered, with Judith, a secret chamber, where, the movements of the waves being calmed, being led as into a haven of delight, she was wont so to water the couch of her conscience with tears that, in her husband's absence, she prudently watched almost whole nights in prayers, not without tearful sobs; nor would she spare her body genuflections and secret disciplines, so as to bring her body into the servitude of discipline.

[12] [to prayer, to fasts, to the comfort of the poor and to Sacred Scripture she devotes herself.] Hence, when once, labouring in groans, she prayed earnestly to the Lord that some suitable manner of praying might be infused into her, by which she might daily show diligent service to God and the blessed Virgin, the blessed Virgin, as a faithful advocate, bringing forward the shield of her prayer before her blessed Son, delivered her Handmaid's desire over to speedy effect. For one day, blessed Birgitta's mind having been wonderfully raised to heavenly things, there was infused into her a most beautiful prayer on the passion of Christ, and also on the life and praise of the most blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother, which she took care so to commit to her heart by memory that afterwards she read it every day: in sign of which the blessed Virgin not long after appeared to her, saying: I have merited that prayer for you; therefore you shall read it and shall merit to be visited more fully with the consolation of my Son ^d. To fasts, which raise up the mind, subject the flesh to the spirit, and scatter and drive back the clouds of concupiscence, she applied herself earnestly as often as she could. Abstaining secretly from more delicate foods and drinks, so as not to be noticed by her husband or by others. She also gave most generous alms, having a house appointed for the poor, whom she very often served by washing their feet and clothing them. Knowing that prayer with fasting and alms is better than to heap up treasures of gold. She gladly heard the sermons of approved men, and continually re-read the deeds of the Saints and the Bible, which she had caused to be written for her in her mother tongue ^e; attending to this, that as wax receives its impression from the seal, so the mortality of this life from example.

[13] The Blessed Virgin is present with her as she labours in childbirth; When at one time the venerable Lady was in danger in childbirth ^f, so that her life was despaired of, and she, from the inmost affection of her heart, had fixed the anchor of her hope more confidently in the breasts of consolation of the blessed Virgin, immediately in the night, the women watching and seeing it, a certain person clothed in white silk was seen suddenly to come in to her, who, standing before the bed, handled with her hands each of the limbs of the body of the one lying there. All therefore who were present wondering, and the person herself who had appeared disappearing, she brought forth her offspring without any difficulty. Nor let it be turned into doubt for anyone that the aforesaid person was the Virgin Mary, as she herself afterwards declared to the same blessed woman, saying: When, she said, you had difficulty in childbirth, I, Mary, came in to you: therefore you are ungrateful if you do not love me; labour therefore that your sons may also be mine. O wonderful humility of the Virgin, who despises no one, and forsakes none in their necessities! Happy woman, who merited to have the queen of heaven as midwife; but happier the sons whom, by the mother's merit, the Mother of God willed to choose as sons of adoption!

[14] Her sons also ^g and daughters ^h she brought up with great solicitude and the highest diligence, she cares for the salvation of her children and husband; whom, like an eagle provoking her young to fly and hovering over them, she exposed with the talons of correction and of sound doctrine to the rays of the sun of justice, appointing for them masters ⁱ who might instruct them in faith and manners. Following in this the counsel of the wise man. If you have sons, he says, instruct them, and bend them, bowing them to good from their childhood; and * you have daughters, guard their body, and do not show your cheerful face before them ^k. And rising early, like Job, she offered for each of them holocausts of devout prayer, not without wailing and weeping. Whence blessed John the Baptist, appearing to her, said: Because you have wept that your son ^l offended me by not fasting on my vigil, and you would rather he served me than be a king, therefore I will help him, and will arm him with my arms. And the Bride lovable to God, wishing not only to love her children by skilfully bringing them up ^m, but also to extend her love fervently to her husband, so that, as they were two in one flesh, so they might also be one in Christ through the glue of charity, like the turtle-dove, which always sings the same and always loves the same, invited her husband, vigorous in warlike affairs and most skilled in the counsel of kings, more skilfully to the fear and veneration of God. Whence so noble and vigorous a man, led by the sounder counsel of so great a wife, by learning to read the Hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary and by applying himself to various works of piety, strove to serve God and the blessed Virgin in holy fear, taking care to fulfil effectively whatever was of law and justice, whatever of manners and of honourable life. And so that proverb of the Wise Man seems to be verified of them: A valiant woman delights her husband, and will fill the years of his life with peace ⁿ.

[15] And so that they might rid themselves more freely of the vanities of the world, she goes abroad out of piety; and bind their hearts more strictly to the divine service, like Abraham of old, they went forth from their land and kindred and their own house ^o, visiting the threshold of the glorious Apostle James at Compostela [p] with great labours and expense. Having therefore travelled through the places of many Saints [q], when they were already on the return, the man devoted to God began to be gravely ill at Arras [r] [s]: and as the infirmity grew stronger, the Bride of God, placed in great anxiety, merited to be consoled by St. Denis thus. I, he said, am Denis [t], who came from Rome to these parts

to preach the Word of God [u]. Now therefore, because you have loved me with special devotion, I therefore foretell to you that God wills to become known to the world through you. And you have been delivered to my keeping; therefore I will help you. And this shall be a sign to you, that your husband will not die of this infirmity. Whence she could deservedly say with the Prophet: According to the multitude of the sorrows in my heart, Thy consolations have gladdened my soul.

[16] Nor is it a wonder: for after some days, in the same place, while her husband was still alive, she resolved to enter a monastery, namely at Arras, she saw certain wonderful things, namely how she would go over to Rome, and to the holy city of Jerusalem, and how she would depart from this world. All of which God almighty mercifully fulfilled. And after a long illness, the husband recovering, under the guidance of the Lord, who has disposed all things sweetly, both returned safe to their fatherland. Whence there is fulfilled in them what the Wise Man says: The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband, and shall fatten his bones [x]. Considering the example that no price is worthy of a continent soul, they vowed mutual continence to each other [y], resolving to enter monasteries to serve the living God all the days of their life. Whence, having set in order their affairs and goods, the husband, a man of great devotion and honourable conversation, in order that he might persevere more firmly in his holy purpose, stayed for some years [aa] in the monastery of Alvastra [z]. Whence at length in a good old age he passed happily out of this world [bb].

[17] then also refreshed from time to time by heavenly visions. And she, beloved of God and men, diligently attending to this, that, just as naturally he who is at the bottom of a well about midday sees a star, where he who stands on the surface of the earth in the light sees no star, so spiritually he who is placed in the depth of the virtues near Christ, who is the mediator of God and men, beholds heavenly things more clearly than he who fixes his mind on the ardour of the wantonness of this world, cast herself into the deepest pit of humility and innocence, so that she might contemplate more finely the height of heavenly sweetness. Whence, in the third year before her husband's death, the most humble Virgin Mary appeared [cc] to her, saying: I am the Queen of the wretched. I wish to show you what my Son was like in His humanity, and what He was like when He suffered on the cross. And this shall be a sign to you, that you will come to the places in which I lived bodily, and there you will see my Son with your spiritual eyes. O wonderful condescension, when the Mother of God speaks familiarly with the handmaid of her Son, that of His fullness all may receive! Also in the fourth year before her husband's death [dd] a certain Saint in the Kingdom of Sweden, Botvid by name [ee], appeared to the Bride of God as it were in a certain ecstasy of mind, uttering these words: I with other Saints have merited for you the grace of God, namely to hear and see spiritual things and to feel the spirit of God, and the spirit of God will inflame your soul. Nor is it a wonder, because every heart which the grace of the Holy Spirit touches becomes both tranquil with the gentleness of meekness and kindled with zeal for justice.

ANNOTATIONS.

a. Ulf, son of Gudmar.

p. See what was said in the Annotations on chapter 1, letter e.

q. Hence gather that the pious spouses, whether in going or returning, visited here and there the churches also of other Saints, at least of the more remarkable, and followed up with due honour the earthly relics of the heavenly ones there.

r. It is a city of Belgium, episcopal under the metropolis of Reims, on the river Scarpe in Artois, of which it is also the capital.

s. See number 127 of the preliminary Commentary.

t. First, as is believed, bishop of Paris, and martyr, who will be treated more fully in our Work at the following day, which he holds as sacred to himself.

u. Usuard agrees with these things in the Martyrology at the 9th day of October: At Paris, he says, the birthday of the holy martyrs Denis the bishop, Rusticus the priest and Eleutherius the deacon; which blessed bishop, directed by the Roman Pontiff into the Gauls for the sake of preaching, came to the aforesaid city, where for some years ardently pursuing the work committed to him, at length, executed by the sword together with his companions by the prefect Fescenninus, he completed his martyrdom.

x. Ecclesiasticus chapter 26, verse 16.

y. Or rather they renewed the pact of continence already entered into before, and decreed thenceforth to live separately and to enter a monastery.

z. Of the Cistercian Order, founded by King Sverker in the year 1150, as Benzelius writes in the Notice of the monasteries which formerly flourished in Sweden and Götaland.

aa. Long enough, therefore, that he could make profession in that Order after even completing the novitiate otherwise customary. See what was said in number 141 of the preliminary Commentary.

bb. In the year 1344, on the 12th day of February, about the fiftieth year of his age; since he was joined in matrimony to St. Birgitta, who died in the 71st year of her age, of Christ 1373, in the 18th year of his age, and his wife in her 13th or 14th.

cc. About the year 1340. Something similar is read to have been revealed to St. Birgitta at the beginning of book 7 of the Revelations, in Hörmann, page 577; but later.

dd. And so in the year 1339 or the following.

ee. The Acts of St. Botvid, martyr in Sweden, have been illustrated in our Work at the 28th day of July, volume 6 of the same month, from page 635.

supply: si* [if]

CHAPTER III.

The widowhood and death of St. Birgitta.

Her husband dead, living for God alone, And when her husband was dead ^a, after the holy and modest Woman had composed her mind together, she never joined herself bodily to another. For she was, like another Judith, so joined to the virtue of chastity that she knew no man all the days of her life, from the time her husband died; but always dwelling solitary and persevering in groans in the purpose of holy widowhood, as under the clearest crystal, lest she should be stained by the dust of vainglory or broken by the touch of human praise, she guarded the remainder of her life most purely. For she was dutiful towards her neighbour, affectionate towards God, and according to the precept of the Apostle as one truly a widow: who, being desolate, hoped in the Lord, continuing in supplications and prayers night and day.

[19] she hears the Lord speaking from a cloud, But since Christ often visits the hearts of the perfect, and manifests to them the sweetness of His kindness, so that through them He may afterwards come and descend to the weaker. Some days having passed after her husband's death ^b, when the Bride of God, in whose desire and love she ever panted, was anxious about her state, rapt in spirit she saw a bright cloud, and heard a voice from the cloud, as once the children of Israel heard the Lord speaking from the cloud on mount Sinai, and saying to her: I am your God, who wish to speak with you; and she, terrified and thinking it an illusion, heard again: Do not fear, He said, because I am the Creator of all, not a deceiver; I do not speak for your sake alone, but for the salvation of others. Hear what I say, and go to Master Matthias ^c, who has experienced the discernment of the two spirits ^d, and tell him on my behalf, for I tell you, that you shall be my Bride and my channel, and you shall hear and see spiritual things; and my spirit shall remain with you until death. O wonderful happiness of the Bride, who merited to be made equal to the Prophet Isaiah, to whom it was said: My spirit, which is in you, and the words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth ^e.

[20] and having given up her goods, Now the Bride of God had this special thing, that in the twenty-eight years from the time she began to have the spirit of God ^f, she never set out or stayed except according to the infusion of the spirit made to her divinely. Whence at the beginning of the revelations made to her, she was immediately commanded to obey a certain master in Theology ^g, and to stay in the monastery ^h, which she strove to fulfil with all subjection and obedience. For the greater the charity with which she burned towards Him whom she desired in mind, the more timidly she subjected herself to Him, and the more she feared lest the Spouse should find anything in her on account of which He might remove her from His embraces. Desiring from then on, the Bride of Christ, to rest from all the disturbances of the world, and to sleep in the bosom of her Spouse, earthly desires being lulled; immediately after her husband's death she distributed all

her goods among her children and the poor, changing her habit and life, and she would have done greater things, had it not stood in the way that she was commanded to go on pilgrimage to Rome and other holy places.

[21] And when she was despised by the nobles, who judged her life to be madness, nor moved by the jibes of men, because of the sudden change and the meanness of her habit, she answered: Neither for your sake do I begin, nor for your sake do I leave off. For I had resolved in my heart to bear words: pray that I may be able to persevere. Knowing that, just as the proclamation of one who praises does not heal a bad conscience, so the reproach of one who reviles does not wound a good one. And because she considered that every perfect soul does not easily lose that in which it has long exercised itself; therefore, not content with the penance which she did secretly while her husband was alive, after his death for thirty years ⁱ she did not use linen garments, except in the veils of her head; but, clothed in a rough hair-shirt, she curbed the flesh, which lusts against the spirit. Before her bed she had one coverlet ^k placed and a small cushion ^l under her head, and so she was accustomed to sleep there, having over her a simple garment or a mantle. And when she was asked how she could rest there in the most intense colds which press in those parts, she answered, saying: I feel within me so great a warmth from divine grace that that cold which is outside does not much press me to a softer bed; being without doubt kindled by that fire of spiritual warmth of which the most eminent of the Prophets speaks. My heart, he says, grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out ^m.

[22] She was also accustomed to make so many genuflections, inclinations and prostrations ⁿ by day and night she treats herself very harshly. that it was a wonder that so tender a person could sustain the weights of such great labours. For she knew that, when the carnal life is corrected, and those who advance come as far as the pursuit of abstinence and prayer, the flesh is now as it were burned on the altar, so that it now gives forth a sweet savour of sacrifice in the sight of almighty God, whence before its guilt displeased. She was moreover accustomed on Fridays to pour flaming drops from a burning wax candle on her bare flesh, so that wounds remained from them. And if at any time these were healed somewhat of themselves before another Friday, then at once, digging in her nails, she so ploughed them up that her body should not be without the suffering of wounds. And this she did on account of the passion of Jesus Christ, having also knotted bands about her body, which she separated from herself neither by day nor by night; attending to this, that our affection is never perfectly kindled to the desire of eternal things unless the care of the flesh, even in things lawful and necessary, is frequently and strongly repelled. Every Friday she was accustomed, on account of the passion of Christ and the bitterness of the drink of gall offered Him before His death, to hold in her mouth a certain most bitter herb, which is called Gentian ^o. Observing this same on other days, when she had uttered some word without consideration. And because, the beauty of worldly gladness being spurned, her heart was ardently inebriated with the bitterness of Christ's death, she could well say with that noble widow Naomi: Do not call me, she said, beautiful; but bitter, for the Almighty has filled me exceedingly with bitterness [p].

[23] When once blessed Birgitta had been sent by the command of the spirit to the lord King Magnus [q] of Sweden, and was returning to the monastery, God consoles her at the death of her son, she found her son, whom she had left long ill, now at the point of death, and weeping much at so long an infirmity of his, she considered that this had happened for the sins of the parents. Then the devil, appearing, said to her: What is it to you, Woman, that you weaken your sight with so many waters and labour in vain? Can your waters ascend into heaven? Then in the same hour Christ, appearing in the form of His humanity, said: The infirmity of this boy is not from the stars, nor on account of his sins, but on account of the condition of nature, and for his greater crown. Therefore, if up to now he has been called BENEDICT, he shall now be called the son of waters and of prayers, and I will make an end of his need. After these things, on the fifth day, a most sweet song was heard, as of birds, between the boy's bed and the wall, and behold, then the boy's soul went forth, and the spirit said: Behold what tears do; now the son of waters passes to rest: therefore the tears of the good, which proceed from divine charity, are hateful to the devil. O humble tear, thine is the power, thine is the kingdom, thou imposest silence on the accusers of thy friends, thou torturest the devil more than the pain of hell, thou conquerest the unconquerable, thou bindest the almighty, thou inclinest the Son of the Virgin to mercy.

[24] by whose command But since it is a great beginning of virtue that the exercised mind should learn little by little first to exchange visible and transitory things, so that afterwards it may be able to abandon them in effect; almost two years having passed after the Bride of God came to the monastery [r], Christ commanded [s] her to undertake the labour of pilgrimage, saying familiarly thus: Go to Rome; there the streets are paved with gold and reddened with the blood of the Saints; where, on account of the indulgences which the holy Pontiffs have merited by their prayers, there is a short way to heaven. And you shall stay in Rome until you see there the supreme Pontiff and the emperor [t]; which also came to pass in the year of the Lord 1367, and revelations concerning the reformation of the state of the Church were sent through her to both. Having heard this, the Bride of God, as one truly obedient, does not put off the command, but at once prepares her ears for hearing, her tongue for speech, her feet for the journey, her hands for work, and so gathers herself wholly within, so as to carry out the command of the one commanding. Having gone forth, therefore, from her fatherland, she merited to be relieved by frequent consolations: for it was commanded her to accustom herself to the grammar schools, where blessed Agnes was given her as a solace and mistress for obeying and instructing. And she made such progress in a short time that she knew in part how to understand and to utter speech. For the peaceful Solomon, Christ, taught her, as another queen of Sheba, wisdom, which is drawn from hidden places.

[25] she goes off to Rome, Coming at length to Rome [u], like the ant, having no guide, nor master, nor prince, but God alone, she prepared for herself food in summer, and gathered in the harvest of the present life what she would taste in times to come in everlasting gladness. For she visited with all devotion and assiduity the places of the Saints, with labour great enough for her; always observing this, that she did not willingly speak with anyone on the way, unless perhaps when asked, and then she answered the one speaking to her in very few words. And if at any time she uttered some word without consideration, she was careful to commit it to tenacious memory until she should confess it and submit herself to salutary penance: she so restrained her eyes, lest death should climb in through the windows, that she very rarely looked upon the faces of men; and if it happened that she suddenly looked at the face of anyone, so light a fault did not depart from her memory until satisfaction had been made for it through penance. And when she spoke anything that was an offence to God, she at once felt in her mouth a very great bitterness, as of sulphur, knowing that she had offended God in this; and, bringing back that word to memory, she ran the more swiftly, like a hart, to the waters of salutary confession, attending to this, that without confession the just man is judged ungrateful and the sinner is reckoned dead. Similarly, if anyone spoke to her any vicious or deceitful words which offended God, she at once perceived in her nostrils a horrible stench of sulphur, which she could scarcely endure. Holding this as a sign that God was offended in the words of that person, from whose mouth proceeded the fire and sulphur of unclean speech to the nostrils of the Bride of God, in which the spirit of the Lord dwelt.

[26] Such obedience was in her that in no place did she wish to be without a master, and then also into the kingdom of Naples, whose salutary precepts she strove to obey in all things [x]. For obedience alone is the virtue which implants the other virtues in the mind, and, once implanted, faithfully cherishes and guards them. Voluntary poverty pleased her so much that she handed over all that she had in her possession to the hands of another to be dispensed. Of which, as often as she wished to have anything for herself or for others, she most humbly asked that it be given her in the name of Jesus Christ, as if she had never possessed the things so asked. She properly preferred the advantage of the persons living with her, for, concealing her own need, she asked that necessaries be ministered to others, of which she herself had more need than the rest, so that she might love her neighbour purely for God's sake. Then, some years having rolled by, the Bride of God was commanded to go to Sicily [y] and Naples in these words: It is permitted to you, said the Son, to visit the holy places in Sicily, because there are there the bodies of many who loved me with their whole heart, among whom the chief is Thomas my apostle [z]; where, when you have arrived, I will show you some secrets. And when she was troubled lest perhaps bodily necessaries should fail on the way, the Son answered: He who possesses a meadow does not spare it for his labouring horse. So I, the Lord of all, will provide for my friends where their providence fails, and I stir up the souls of others to do good to them. And truly it was so; for as long as she made her stay at Naples, the lady Queen of Sicily [aa] and other nobles of the kingdom greatly honoured her with presents and gifts. All of which the clemency of Him deigned to work who wonderfully provided for faithful Abraham the victim of the holocaust, and commanded the ravens and the widow woman to feed Elijah, refreshing him with flesh and bread.

[27] Having therefore visited the places of the Saints in the kingdom of Sicily [bb] according to the Lord's command, where she attempted to amend public sins, making a long stay at Naples, she showed herself to all as a mirror without spot, eminent in virtues, and, like a thorn pricking, detesting the sins of men, she fearlessly led the impious by words and examples to the way of truth. Whence, recounting the revelation made to her concerning the people of the same city, in the presence of the archbishop [cc] and wise Theologians and other prudent men, clerics as well as laymen, she rebuked the sins of the city without any fear. And after the example of the Samaritan pouring in wine with oil into the wounds of the wounded man, as she had learned from the heavenly physician in a holy revelation made to her, she gave them salutary counsels, by which the very wounds of sins might be healed. These things done, the remarkable Bride of God, like the dove sent out of the ark for Noah and bringing back to him in the evening in her mouth an olive branch with green leaves, and like the honey-bearing bee, having gathered the flowers, returning honourably to its hive, returning with joy to the city of Rome, did not cease from the praises of God.

[28] and returned to Rome, she was seen to be borne aloft with radiant face. But loving charity, outdoing all in showing honour, fervent in faith, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, instant in prayers, sharing her goods generously with pilgrims, giving herself to contemplation, visiting the thresholds of the Saints with the poor widow

she offered more than the former into the treasury of the heavenly Spouse. And since she was mindful of the Lord with her whole heart, the Lord conferred on her such grace that He manifested to the eyes of the devout the splendour and beauty which He had increased in her. Whence a certain very noble and trustworthy man [dd] testified before the Lord abbot of Perugia, the chief legate of our lord the supreme Pontiff in those parts, there being present the magnificent lords, namely the duke of Spoleto, the count of Nola, the bishop of Spoleto, and many other venerable men, clerics as well as laymen, that, while he was at Rome for the sake of pilgrimage, he had met blessed Birgitta between St. John's and the Campo de' Fiori, and had seen her raised so high aloft that her feet were seen above the heads of those accompanying her, and her face so resplendent that it was as if rays of sunlight ascended from her into heaven. It was indeed fitting that the Bride of God, like another prophet Ezekiel, should be lifted up by the spirit between earth and heaven, and that there should be fulfilled in her what was said of Jerusalem by Tobias; With shining light, he says, shalt thou shine, and all the ends of the earth shall worship thee.

[29] At length, ordered by Christ to go to Jerusalem, At length, the spaces of many years running on, the Only-begotten of God deigned to address His beloved Bride thus, commanding her to go to Jerusalem [ee]. I am like an eagle, which, foreseeing in the air those who wish to harm its young, forestalls them by its flight so that they may not harm: so I foresee the times and the ways and the difficulties of the ways and the dispositions of friends. Therefore I say to you five, stand and wait; now go and hasten. Since therefore it is now the time, go now to the places previously shown, where the vessel was clean and not clean, where the lamb was shorn and not shorn, where the lion roared and did not roar, where the serpent was seen and was not seen, where the eagle flew to the place from which it never departed. And when she complained of infirmity and age, it was answered her: Who is the maker of nature? Is it not I? Go, I will increase your strength. I will provide for the way, I will lead you and bring you back to this place. O how sweet, Lord, is Thy Spirit, who didst will to show Thy sweetness in Thy Bride, and who didst once promise the patriarch Jacob as he set out into Mesopotamia, saying: I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest, and I will bring thee back into this land, nor will I leave thee until I have fulfilled all that I have said. O blessed Woman, who fulfilled her desire from these things, seeing, when she was at Jerusalem, concerning the state of kingdoms, concerning the nativity and passion of Christ, and also the calling of the gentiles; hearing also her Spouse revealing wonders to her. My words, said the Lord, must be heard and announced; afterwards will come works and signs; therefore know that many are not yet born who will receive my words sweetly.

[30] where she returned to Rome, Moreover, as it has been said in my Gospel, Blessed are they who hear the words of God, so I now say, Blessed are they who now hear my words and accomplish them in deed. Nevertheless know that after your death more will receive my words and will follow them with sweetness. For they are not like a flower that is to fall, but like fruit remaining for ever. O fruit blessed above all things, Christ Jesus, who willed to speak familiarly to His Bride, as once He said to His disciples: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away [ff]. O how great a multitude of Thy sweetness hast Thou hidden, Lord, for Thy Bride, who, most devoutly visiting all the places in which Thou didst mercifully suffer for sinners, and, like a dove nesting in the clefts of the rock, merited sweetly to taste the sweetness of Thy most holy wounds, the more fervently, the more she was illuminated within by divine visitations. And after she returned to Rome [gg], having been held for a whole year by a grave infirmity, which she nevertheless endured most patiently both at sea and on land amid labours and pains, she began from day to day to be weighed down by graver illnesses.

[31] the death which Christ had foretold to her But because the time of her dissolution was at hand, some days before the day of her death our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to her before the altar which was in her chamber, and showing Himself with a gentle face He said: I had done to you as a bridegroom is wont to do, who hides himself from the Bride so that he may be more ardently desired; so I did not visit you with consolations at that time, because it was the time of your probation; therefore now, being proved, go forward and prepare yourself, because now is the time that, as I had promised, you should be clothed as a nun before my altar and be consecrated [hh], and henceforth you shall be reckoned not only my Bride, but also nun and mother in Vadstena [ii]. Nevertheless know that you shall lay down your body here in Rome [kk], until it comes to the place prepared for it [ll], because it pleases God to spare you from labours and to accept your will for the deed. These things, therefore, and many others having been said, she made mention and disposition of certain persons living with her, whom she said she had seen standing before God before her death. And after these things had been heard the Lord added, saying: On the morning of the fifth day, having received the Sacraments, call together one by one all whom I have ordained above, and tell them what is to be done, and so amid their words and hands you will come to your monastery, into my joy, and your body will be placed in Vadstena.

[32] Then, as the fifth day approached, at the very dawn He appeared to her again, consoling her. she died, And Mass having been said and the Sacraments received, she gave up her spirit amid the hands of the aforesaid persons. O unspeakable clemency of the uncreated Wisdom, which anticipates those who desire it, so as to show itself first to them gladly. O singular glory of the Bride! whom the Spouse, espousing her to Himself in mercy and faith, consoles with sweetest words. Happy Bride, in whom the proving of faith works patience, and who, being proved, is called and allured to the crown. Happy she who, endowed with manifold privilege, is consecrated not by human mouth, but by the Pontiff of the good things to come. Happy she whose death is revealed, not through a Prophet, as to Hezekiah, or another intermediate person, but through the truth, which is Christ. Happy she who in a good old age, like another Sarah, within the most glorious place of her pilgrimage, like Deborah at the root of Bethel, according to what had been foretold to her, is honourably buried. Happy she who after labours and various tribulations rests rich in the beauty of peace and in repose. Happy she who disposed her testament to her chosen ones, and after the sadness of this world happily entered into the joy of the Lord her God. Happy she who, refreshed by spiritual food, in the strength of that food, like Elijah, was worthy to ascend to the mountain of God, Horeb, into the heavenly rose-garden; where she rejoices without end with the Spouse among the heavenly cohorts. Happy she whose passing was shown by glorious signs. For a certain person of venerable life saw a bed prepared and borne aloft by persons clothed in white garments. To whom, as he wondered, it was answered: The person whom you see in the bed, this is the Bride of God despised in the world, who now passes from death into eternal life. And in the same hour she was loosed from the flesh.

[33] she died in the year 1372, on the 23rd day of Ju… It was plainly fitting that in the Bride, who sought on the little bed of conscience the Spouse whom she ardently loved, that prophecy of Ezekiel should be fulfilled. Thou didst sit, he says, upon a most beautiful bed, and a table was adorned before thee. And that, the Spouse having been tasted in His sweetness, the Bride may not hunger nor thirst for ever. But the remaining things of her life, together with the miracles and revelations which the Lord deigned to show her, which are here omitted for the sake of brevity, are written elsewhere. And she died in the year 1372, on the 10th day before the Kalends of the month of August, namely on the very day of blessed Apollinaris, martyr [mm]. And in the year immediately following, after the flashing forth of many miracles and the sudden and exceedingly wonderful cleansing of her bones, she was translated from the Roman City, not without the shining forth of great miracles which were done on the way, to the aforesaid monastery of Vadstena on the fourth day of the month of July, namely on the Tuesday within the octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul [nn], with an immense multitude of peoples and with joy, like the sun, which rises and sets and returns to its place. Where our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ages of ages, declares her venerable and makes her wonderful by marvellous signs and various miracles. Amen [oo].

ANNOTATIONS.

k. That is, a Coverlet.

l. That is, a Cushion.

m. Psalm 38, verse 4.

Gentius, king of the Illyrians, discovered gentian, which grows everywhere, but is most excellent in Illyricum, with the leaf of the ash: but of the size of lettuce, with a tender stalk of the thickness of a thumb, hollow and empty, leafy at intervals, sometimes three cubits high, with a pliant, blackish root without smell; it is most abundant in the watery mountains below the Alps.

p. So roughly the book of Ruth, chapter 1, verse 20.

q. Surnamed Smek, that is, softened by blandishments. He was made king of Sweden in the year 1319. He had as wife Blanche, daughter of the count of Namur, whose court mistress Birgitta, a kinswoman of the king, was at one time, and to whom she often suggested salutary admonitions, although with no great fruit. See the preliminary Commentary, §8 and number 45. Deprived of his kingdom in the year 1363, after a long imprisonment he at length perished in Norway, drowned in the waves, in the year 1374.

r. The monastery of Alvastra, of which above in the Annotations on chapter 2 at letter z.

s. In the year, as it appears, 1345.

t. Urban V came from Avignon to Rome, to fix the See there, in the year 1367, on the 16th day of October: the emperor Charles IV, setting out from Viterbo, came to Rome in 1368, on the 21st day of the month of October, together with Urban. See also the next following letter.

u. In the 42nd year of her age, as is read in Revelation 8 of the Extravagants, and in the abridged Life, of Christ 1346: but St. Birgitta seems then to have entered at least the 43rd year of her age: for the old writers are generally accustomed to count only the completed years of St. Birgitta: whence also, I think, it came about that the author of the abridged Life, and others, wrote that she died in the 70th year of her age; which, however, as Boniface testifies in the Bull of canonization, she had passed. In the place of the Revelations just cited it is read: The Bride of Christ therefore came to Rome in the 42nd year of her age and remained there, according to the divine command, for 15 years before the Pope came, namely Urban V, and the emperor Charles the Bohemian; to whom she offered revelations for the reformation of the Church, and the Rule. But from the year 1346 up to the year 1367 or 1368 there are 21 or 22 years. Either an error lies hidden in these words, or those years seem to be reckoned from about the year 1355 up to the year 1370, in which, having gone out from Rome to Pope Urban V, who was staying at Montefiascone, she foretold to him that death would shortly follow if he returned to France, and offered her Rule for approval, on account of what was said in number 318 of the preliminary Commentary.

x. That she was also of such observance and veneration towards her confessors that without their licence she scarcely dared to raise her eyes, Boniface IX testifies in the Bull of Canonization. She obeyed them in all virtues so humbly, as a true humble monk is wont to obey his prelate, says Alphonsus in the Prologue to the Book of the Heavenly Emperor, etc.: chapter 3. She wished even the very Revelations which she had to be subjected with fitting reverence to the judgment of learned and pious men, as Juan de Torquemada says in the Prologue, chapter 1.

y. St. Birgitta does not seem to have gone to the island of Sicily, or Sicily properly so called: but here by the name of Sicily is meant the kingdom of Naples, which, as also Sicily, was subject at that time to the same queen, namely Joanna.

z. Especially venerated at Ortona in the kingdom of Naples, where his relics also are preserved. See many other places in the same kingdom, celebrated for the relics of the Saints, which St. Birgitta then visited, and her deeds on that journey, treated more fully in §20 of the preliminary Commentary, at the end of which also we have shown that this journey took place in the year 1365, or that St. Birgitta was certainly staying at Naples then.

aa. Joanna, concerning whom see what was said in the preliminary Commentary, number 71 and the 3 following.

bb. That is, in the kingdom of Naples. See letter z a little above.

cc. Peter, archbishop of Naples, having been translated in the year 1365 to the see of Embrun in Dauphiné, writes Chiocarelli on the Archbishops of Naples, there was substituted Bernard de Bosquet, a Frenchman, canon of Bordeaux, and he held that see until the year 1368. In the time of this Bernard, or perhaps partly of his predecessor, St. Birgitta visited Monte Gargano, Bari, Ortona, Amalfi and Salerno, which Chiocarelli refers to his successor, the other Bernard; but St. Birgitta is read in Hörmann, page 839, to have visited the same places on a second occasion.

dd. He is called John de Pornacio by Nicholas Orsini, whom Birger mentions a little after, in his letters to Alphonsus, bishop of Jaén, about certain miracles of St. Birgitta, to be published below.

ee. She was first warned by Christ to prepare herself for the journey to Jerusalem in the year 1371, on the day of St. Urban, Pope and martyr, that is, the 25th day of May, from the title prefixed to chapter 6 of book 7 of the Revelations. In the following year, on the 14th day of March, she went out from the port of Naples, from the Fragment of the journey to Jerusalem described by Alphonsus. She arrived at Jerusalem before the Friday after the Ascension of the Lord, that is, before the 22nd day of May, from the title prefixed to chapter 15 of book 7 of the Revelations. She remained there 4 and a half months. See Hörmann, page 839.

ff. Mark chapter 13, verse 31.

gg. Birgitta was still staying at Jerusalem on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, that is, the 8th day of September (of the year 1372), but was already then preparing her return from there, from the title prefixed to chapter 26 of book 7 of the Revelations. On the 8th day of October she was at Famagusta in Cyprus, from the title prefixed to chapter 19 of the book of the Revelations just cited. Setting out from there, she came to Naples, as Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, writes in Rinaldi at the year 1379, number 10; and from here in the year 1373 (as Chiocarelli, on the archbishops of Naples, page 238, relates from the manuscript Chronicle of the kingdom of Naples of Maramaldo, a Neapolitan nobleman who lived in the time of King Robert and of Queen Joanna, his granddaughter) she at length arrived sick at Rome in the same year.

hh. Birgitta indeed had it in her wishes to become a nun and to be clothed in the monastic garment: in fact, however, she was never a nun, and used a garment modest indeed and mean, but not monastic: hence, however, it came about that she began to be shown in pictures clothed in the monastic garment. Hear what is read on this matter in her Life published at Louvain in the year 1485: On the morning of the fifth day (so Christ is there introduced addressing Birgitta) call together one by one those whom I have intimated to you, laying upon them what is to be done, and so you will come to your monastery, that is, my joy, and your body will be placed in Vadstena. After which there follow there these things: From these words it is clear that Birgitta was not clothed as a nun in this life, nor clothed in the habit of that Rule which she instituted: but at her passing from this world she was clothed with such a religious and imperceptible garment by Christ, her Spouse, as He promised her in her Revelations. Hence it is that the image of Birgitta is commonly wont to be painted as a nun. And although she was not a nun in life, she nevertheless asked to be adorned with such a garment as the nuns of her Order are now clothed with, which after the end of her life, according to God's promise, she obtained (in a certain spiritual manner) in the kingdom of heaven.

ii. Vadstena is a town of Östergötland, a province in Sweden, on the lake called Vättern, in the diocese of Linköping, in which the first monastery of the Birgittine Order was built by the means and cares of St. Birgitta, but while she was absent; of which see more in the preliminary Commentary, numbers 327 and following.

kk. Among the nuns in Panisperna.

ll. In the year 1374 her body was translated to Sweden by St. Catherine her daughter, and placed at Vadstena on the fourth day of July according to Thorir in the Diary of Vadstena: but on the following day according to Ulpho, the biographer of St. Catherine, volume 3 of March, page 53.

mm. Concerning the day on which she died all agree, but not concerning the year. That she died in the year 1373 Thorir Andreae writes deliberately in the Diary of Vadstena; with whom the author of the abridged Life agrees. The same follows from what is read concerning the time of the journey to Jerusalem undertaken by St. Birgitta, whether in the books of the Revelations or in the Fragment of the same journey described by Alphonsus. Add to these Maramaldo the Neapolitan, of whom a little before at letter gg. All (who treat of that translation) write that St. Birgitta's body was deposited at Vadstena in the year 1374, its translation having been begun, as Ulpho, just praised, writes, in the same year in which she died. Nay, from Birger's own words, who attributes to St. Birgitta 30 years of life after her husband's death (see number 21 and the Annotations on this place at letter i), it is concluded that she was still alive in the year 1373: whence I altogether judge that she died in this year, from whatever source it arose that Birger's reckoning falls short by one year of the reckoning of the others just cited, not only here but also in number 24, where he says that Birgitta addressed the Pontiff and the emperor at Rome in the year 1367; whereas Charles came to Rome not in this year but in 1368, as I have noted above on that place. Consult besides the preliminary Commentary, numbers 57 and 386.

nn. See what is said here at letter ll.

oo. There follow immediately in our copy these words: Here ends the Legend of blessed Birgitta, our mother, by nation of Sweden, compiled by the reverend lord father Birger, archbishop of Uppsala. And this Life of St. Birgitta which we have published was copied for us from a codex written about the middle of the 15th century. See what was said in the preliminary Commentary, number 16.

ANOTHER LIFE

From a copy of the monastery of St. Alto in Bavaria,

By Berthold, monk of the Order of St. Saviour.

Birgitta, widow, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1349

By Berthold.

PROLOGUE.

The reason for the work undertaken While I was curiously reading through here and there in the Acts or Process of Canonization of the holy mother Birgitta, and finding therein many things worthy of memory, I took it ill, I confess, that such and so many things concerning the honour of God and the exaltation of His Handmaid, and also, when known, not moderately promoting the salvation of souls, were held there in a certain manner lost. I also thought it unworthy that of the most holy Lady, whom indeed ^b, on account of the inspiration of many secrets and the singular adornment of virtues, Christ had decreed to call His Bride, with whom nevertheless He established the covenant of His grace, so that all generations should call her blessed from this, the Legend of her life should have been composed so briefly: in respect, however, of the copious material, there is no doubt that it is most brief. But also the lord

Pope Boniface IX, in his letters ^c which he wrote concerning the canonization of this saint, touched on her life, though elegantly, yet very briefly, as those writings require.

[2] and the division. Wherefore we in a certain manner long to weave anew a new Legend of her; but by no means do we dare, because, unskilled in speech and knowledge, I at length decided, having received counsel from my superior, to search out diligently whatever things seemed to be lacking even in the aforesaid Legend, and to gather them into one, distinguished by subject-matters; which I have also done: for I have divided them into three books ^d, with the chapters of each book nonetheless distinguished: of which the first is entitled of the virtues acquired; the second of the graces received; and the third of the miracles shown and approved after her death; and since, as I have said, knowledge and eloquence are not at hand, with which I could either support the writings or adorn the utterances which I narrate, I thought that the sayings and writings of others ^e, as being better digested, should be inserted into this little Work. But if anyone should blame me for having perhaps set down more than was necessary, and for my volume having therefore grown too much, let him know that I had to cut down many things while I strove in some way to do justice to a copious material. Accordingly, whatever is frivolous, whatever is inept, if anything less well said is found in it, let it be ascribed with indulgence to my littleness; nor let this work and this labour be imputed to presumption, even if this work should please, but rather, if it is true and if it is permitted to say so, let it be assigned to my devotion, however great * it be, towards the most holy Mother. But it is to be known that sometimes, though rarely, on account of the fullness of the matter, some of the things which are narrated in the aforementioned Legend are repeated here. Whence it seems that this is to be written after that.

ANNOTATIONS.

perhaps qualicunque* of whatever kind?

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

On her profound humility and immense love towards God.

St. Birgitta, the more humble before men Of the humility, therefore, of this eminent Bride of the heavenly King, as of the true and stable foundation of her spiritual edifice, we must speak first, so that we too, in disclosing the virtues themselves, may keep the order which she herself observed in perfecting them, when she rightly attained through humility to the summit of charity and the height of the virtues. For from it all good things proceed; just as, on the contrary, all evils are said to have their origin from pride. For it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin ^a. Blessed Birgitta therefore was of especial humility, bearing it inwardly in her mind, intimating it with her mouth, and showing it in action. For although she was a most noble princess ^b, as being born of royal stock ^c, she was nevertheless so humble and so lowly that she did not blush to wash the feet of the poor, to visit hospices, to seek out the sick, to handle languishing limbs; to wash, tend and bind up ulcers. Moreover, she very often mended the garments of her maidservants and menservants and of other persons; and, what is very wonderful, when she sometimes visited the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna ^d at Rome, at the time when loaves and alms were distributed to the poor, she placed herself among the other poor pilgrim women asking for the dole ^e, sitting unknown with great humility, and kissing with thanksgiving the dole she had received ^f. When rebuked, nevertheless, justly or unjustly, by her confessor and spiritual father ^g, or by any other member of the household, she at once bent her knees and asked pardon. Nay rather, if it had happened that she had in any way given any offence to anyone, or had certainly presumed to have given it, likewise with bent knee she asked with great humility to be released.

[4] and the more humble before God, Once, twice and sometimes three times a day she made confession out of exceeding humility: and on all Sundays and great festivities of the Saints, as one sick and in need of medicine, she most devoutly received the most holy Body of Christ, the saving antidote of souls. Likewise, although she was endowed with so great a gift of graces that human credulity can scarcely admit it, she nevertheless reckoned herself a most vile sinner, and most unworthy of all things. Indeed, when she had been commanded by Christ to have the Rule of holy religion, which He Himself dictated to her by revealing it with His most holy mouth ^h, presented to the supreme Pontiff to be confirmed by him ⁱ, she answered the One commanding: O my most worthy Lord Jesus Christ, I, an unworthy person, am among Thy faithful servants as the smallest ant among strong camels, which carry great burdens for the advantage and honour of their Lord; and how will the Pope be able to believe that Thou, God and lord of all, deignest to do such things with such an ant? But also in the second book of the divine Revelations, chapter 18, when her Spouse had reminded her of this grace of seeing, hearing and perceiving spiritually, she said: O my Lord, and son of the Virgin! why hast Thou deigned to lodge so vile a Widow, who am poor in all good works; and small in the understanding of conscience, and consumed in every sin through length of time.

[5] the more renowned for heavenly graces, Likewise in the sixth book, chapter 52. O King, she said, of all grace, and infuser of all wisdom; and bestower of all virtues: why dost Thou receive me, who have consumed my body in sins, for such a work of Thine? For I am like a foolish ass, and defective in virtues. Be not angry either, most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, because I have thus questioned Thee; for nothing is to be wondered at concerning Thee, since Thou canst do whatever Thou wilt. But concerning me altogether; since I have offended Thee in many things, and amended little. And not only was she not proud of such great graces, as the Lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, but then a hermit ^k, and also the devout scribe of the Holy Revelations, asserts in his Letter to kings ^l: nay, she feared the more that a graver judgment remained for her on account of this. For he says: She indeed would have preferred to remain hidden and to conceal this treasure of divine Revelations for the guarding of humility: but Christ by the command of His words bound her many times to write and to speak His divine words fearlessly to the supreme Pontiffs, emperors and kings, and to other peoples, so that from these divine words, namely of the present Book and of the heavenly Book to Kings, sinful men might turn themselves to God, and the good and just might advance to better things: as appears clearly in the seventh book, chapter 27, and in the sixth, chapter 5, with many similar places, and in this present Book of the heavenly Emperor to kings in many Chapters. Thus he.

[6] she spurns the devil's praises, but gladly hears a monk's reproaches, The Bride of Christ was once tempted by the devil about vainglory, for he suggested to her that she was noble by birth and much beloved of God; she, suspended in ecstasy of mind in her prayer, answered Satan tempting her: O accursed devil, you fell on account of your pride, but why should I be proud, since the flesh of a queen is no better than that of a handmaid, but all is vile and earth? Why should I not humble myself, since I could not have even the least good thought from myself, unless the Lord should send it to me? Then Christ, appearing to her, said: Humility is the ladder by which the heart ascends from earth to God. At the time when the Woman was staying in the monastery of Alvastra ^m, brother Paul, a monk of the same, once disparaged her, saying that she did not have a sound brain, but was fanciful. And when the most humble Handmaid of God had heard such words from those reporting them, she answered: Blessed be that brother, who knows me and my vices well: for he speaks the truth, that I am not of sound head, because I have not indeed felt soundly up to now, when I loved the world more than my God; but now, and henceforth, since I desire to love nothing as I love God, and wish to please none but God, I hope to have a good and sound brain, with which I may please the Lord and displease the world; but ask that brother to pray for me.

[7] When master Matthias also, canon of Linköping ⁿ, nothing to her own, who was the confessor of the Handmaid of God in Sweden, was preaching, and touched on certain things concerning her virtues and the graces freely given her by God, as imitable as they were commendable, when the sermon was finished, the friend of humility went up to him and said: I pray you, Father, by the name of Jesus Christ, that you insert nothing about me in your sermons henceforth: for what am I? Nothing but an ant in the sight of God. And if some great lord sends his lowly courier to a friend, who is to be praised but the lord? And she said this for this reason, that if she was meanwhile imbued with heavenly sacraments for the common advantage of all, not she herself on that account, but God alone should be proclaimed and praised. To whom he said: Do not wonder, Daughter, because exemplary men and women also are to be extolled, so that the rest may be edified. And the Saint said: My ship is still on the waves, therefore I need prayer. For we see the beginning of a thing, but the end is to be praised.

[8] Among other things the count of Nola ^o, put on oath concerning Birgitta, relates this, but accustomed to refer all things to the praise of God, that, when at one time he was conferring familiarly with her about the revelations made to her from heaven, having an example of humility of this kind, she related with great fear and a certain bashfulness: Let not the divine words, she said, be reckoned of less effect of love on account of my vileness, because I am like an abject courier, who, when he carries the letters of an illustrious prince containing great

business, yet in nothing taints or corrupts his lord's letters, nor is their content changed by him: He knows, who knows all things; and who also told me to say that I add nothing of my own to His words, nor take anything away. Likewise brother Angelus of Spain, priest and hermit of Montecorvo [p], asked her: Why do you prophesy thus? To whom she said: I am like a courier carrying his Lord's letters, and therefore it is to be ascribed not to my merits but to God's benefits that I say or reveal things of this kind; and when he wished to show her reverence, as was fitting, as one truly humble she said, resisting: Not the courier, but the lord sending him is to be praised. Wherefore receive and praise God almighty. Moreover the lord Alphonsus, of whom above [q], relates of her that, if at any time she was devoutly asked by anyone for any necessity whatever, she almost always broke out into these words: I indeed am a sinner and unworthy to pray for you, but do you pray God that He may give me grace, and I will gladly think about it, and God perhaps, who dwells on high and regards the humble things in heaven and on earth, condescending to your humility, * will hear, not attending to my demerits.

[9] to flee the applause of the people, she wished to be buried by night. At length, when the end of this toilsome life drew near, in order humbly to avoid the applause of men and the concourse of the people, she ordered her little body to be buried by night in St. Lawrence in Panisperna. But because the glory of the world follows like a shadow one who flees it, the devotion and throng of the people preventing the body from being committed to the earth, it lay unburied for two days. Nor is it a wonder if she drove away vainglory with all her effort, since in the Prologue to the Rule she had heard Christ her Spouse admonishing her about humility and the virtues, and saying: You, who must bear the branches, must be strong and steady for carrying, ready and watchful for receiving, lest the devil deceive you; therefore stand firmly, and love me with your whole heart: flee all pride and take up all humility. Keep your mouth and all your members for my honour: obey as I had commanded you: examine every hour your conscience, how far you exceed, and how you will rise up to me at once if you fall: care not for the honours of the world, nor for its friends, because, when you have me, all things will grow sweet to you, and when you love me perfectly, all things besides me which are of the world will become bitter to you like poison.

[10] With the highest love towards Christ, Truly this most devout Woman loved her Lord and most illustrious Spouse Jesus Christ with her whole heart, and with her whole soul, and with all her strength, and with all her mind, more than all things, and more than herself; and, out of the greatness of her love impatient of offence to God, when she perceived that the same Spouse was disparaged by anyone in word or deed, she could scarcely be quieted; and because, kindled by the fire of divine love, she burned with desire, she perfectly delivered herself wholly to His service, reserving * of herself to herself: and she did not wish to be separated for an hour from the same her Spouse, having Him in her mouth through devout prayer, in her mind through continual meditation, and in her heart through sincere love. Indeed she spoke of Him more sweetly, meditated on Him more pleasantly, and enjoyed Him more joyfully, embracing Him from the heart in the secret of the mind. For since she burned unhesitatingly with the fire of the love of God, love merited every vision; vision, fruition: for she, like a flame tending upward, often driven into ecstasy of mind, beheld in turn that Spouse with most longing gazes; while in His light she saw light, by whom indeed she was continually and sweetly fed with the food of the divine utterances.

[11] which by more than one Whence in chapter 77 of the fourth book she says: O Lord my God! O how sweet are the words of Thy mouth! It truly seems to me, as often as I hear the words of Thy spirit, as if my soul swallows them into itself with a certain feeling of ineffable sweetness, like a most pleasant food, which falls into the heart of my body with great joy and ineffable consolation. Yet this seems wonderful: that while I hear Thy words, I am then made both, namely sated and hungry: sated for this reason, because then nothing else pleases me but they. Hungry for this reason, because my appetite for them is always increased. Refreshed therefore by the honey-flowing, nay, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, colloquies of Christ her Spouse: as one who could say with the Psalmist: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me, for He will speak peace unto His people, and so through His Saints, etc. At length, being set on her own course, her heart uttered a good word, a saving word, to profit all thereafter unto eternal peace and salvation.

[12] She preached the Gospel of Christ to every creature, that he who believes and holds it shall be saved. instance she shows, Plainly, what she feels more broadly, she herself will indicate more evidently; in her and through her the fire of divine love and the flame of eternal charity will appear kindled. Let us therefore ask her; she speaks of herself, namely when she had received the command concerning the confirmation of the Rule, as was said above, among other things she answered the One commanding: By Thy grace I have the will to do Thy will as long as I live: Thou being witness, Thou knowest that if it were possible that greater joy and greater consolation should come to Thee from this, that I should endure as to my body all infirmities, scandals, pains, poverty and all tribulations, and moreover in my very soul eternal punishments: I would rather embrace these adversities than eternal felicity for both, as to * body and soul, to the end that Thy consolation might be greater. O Lord God! who didst create me and redeem me with precious blood, if Thou seest that I have any defect in these three, faith, hope and charity, for Thy great mercy deign to supply it. Thou art in the inmost blood of my heart: although I am an unworthy person for the visitation and consolation of Thy blessed Spirit, yet I commit myself wholly to the protection of Thy great power, that Thou mayest do with me in whatever way it shall please Thee.

[13] Likewise in the 13th chapter of the seventh book, extolling the manifold goodness of God, she says: she was borne by love, O eternal and incomprehensible truth, Thou Thyself God and Lord Jesus Christ; Thou pourest all good thoughts into hearts, and prayers and tears. Thou hidest Thy glorious gifts, conferring for them eternally glorious rewards. Be therefore to Thee honour and service and thanksgiving for all things which Thou hast created. O most sweet Lord my God, Thou art most dear to me and truly dearer than my body and my soul. In the fifth book also, chapter 64, to her Spouse appearing to her after a temptation: O, she said, Lord Jesus Christ, I give Thee thanks for all things and especially for three: first, that Thou clothest my soul, namely by pouring in penitence and contrition, by which every sin, however grave, is washed away. Secondly Thou feedest my soul by pouring in Thy charity and the memory of Thy passion, in which the soul delights as in the best food. Thirdly Thou consolest all who call upon Thee in tribulation; therefore, Lord, have mercy on me, and help my faith; for although I am worthy to be delivered up to diabolical illusions, I believe nevertheless that without Thy permission he can do nothing, nor is Thy permission without consolation. But also in the sixth book, chapter 17, the devil, asked by the Mother of God why he did not receive her into his power, answered: I cannot, he said, do this, because I cannot separate and divide the twofold blood mingled in one vessel, because the blood of God's charity is mingled with the blood of the charity of her heart. For he did not lie who said: He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him [r]. For love transfers the lover into the beloved.

[14] as even the demon himself confesses, But so that the zeal of the one towards the other, namely of the Spouse towards the Bride and conversely, may be made known, I will relate what is written in chapter 34 of the first book: for while the Lord was conversing with His Bride, the Lord said to the devil, who then appeared: You were created by me, and you have seen all justice in me; answer me whether this new Bride is lawfully mine, and with approved justice: for I permit you to see her heart and to understand it, so that you may know what to answer me. Does she love anything as she loves me, or would she wish to receive anything in exchange for me? The demon answered Him: She loves nothing as she loves Thee, and, rather than be without Thee, she would suffer every punishment, if Thou gavest her the virtue of patience: I see as it were a certain burning bond descending from Thee into her, which so binds her heart that she thinks of or loves nothing else as she does Thee. And again in the eleventh chapter of the same book Christ says: Love me with your whole heart, because I have loved you.

[15] so much that nothing The husband of the Bride of Christ, when he was at the point of death, pressed upon his wife the ring which he wore on his finger, asking her that she should keep the memory of his soul the more devoutly and solicitously, the more she kept the memorial by her; but when a few days had passed from that on which her husband [s] had closed his last [t], the Lover of God cast the ring away from her. When certain men said to her that it was no great proof of love to have cast away from her such a token of the charity of so great a husband, she answered: When I committed my husband to the ground, I resolved that all carnal love should be buried with him, so that, although I loved him as my heart, I would not, nevertheless, redeem his life against the will of God with a single penny. But when I had my ring on my hand, it was a burden to me, when, in looking at it, I remembered former loves. Wherefore, so that my mind may ascend into the love of God alone, I wish to be without ring and husband, and I commit myself to God.

[16] that was human, And after the noble widow had discharged the testament of her partner, she prepared herself with immense fervour of spirit to go to Rome (according to what she had been commanded from above), glad according to her wish, hastening for joy [u]; and, leaving behind her fatherland, children [x] and kinsfolk, to deliver herself wholly there into the service of God. But meanwhile her mind began for a little while to waver out of compassion for her children, because she was leaving them desolate and bereft of maternal consolation. She feared moreover that after her departure they would loosen the reins more boldly to offend God, because they were young, rich, powerful and noble. While, therefore, such disputes were turning in her mind, she saw in a vision a pot set upon the fire, and a boy

blowing on it from above so that the pot might boil, to whom she said: Why do you try so hard, blowing, to set the pot on fire? So that, he said, the love of your children may be more and more kindled and inflamed in you. And she said: Who are you? I, he said, am a trader: and understanding that so immoderate a love towards her children was flourishing in her heart, she corrected herself unwaveringly in that hour, so that she now preferred nothing except the divine love; nothing henceforth pleased her except what she knew would be pleasing to her Creator. O how many tears she poured out daily from then on, how many alms she gave, lest those whom she had begotten should offend the Creator of all! For now the natural love in her had been extinguished, and wholly converted into spiritual love.

[17] Finally the Prior of Alvastra [y], her confessor, testifies she seemed to love. that she possessed such charity towards God, as he confessed was evident to him from her confessions, that it was very wonderful: whence he remembered that on one occasion he had inquired rather curiously of her ardour of charity and inner devotion; and he heard that she experienced in prayer such fervour and devotion that she would have abstained from food and drink for days and nights, had she not feared to incur bodily failure, and also to come under the proverb: He who does what no one does, all wonder at.

ANNOTATIONS.

e. That is, Alms.

p. That priest and hermit is not known to me from elsewhere.

q. See above, letter k.

r. Paul, 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 17.

s. Ulf, son of Gudmar, lawman of Närke, who died in the year 1344, of whom you will find more in the first 6 numbers of § X in the preliminary Commentary.

t. On the twelfth of February of the year just mentioned.

u. She came to Rome in the year 1346.

x. Of her children and descendants I have treated more fully in §§5 and 6 of the preliminary Commentary.

y. See what was said of him in numbers 28 and 29 of the preliminary Commentary.

condescendens* condescending

supply nihil* nothing

quoad* as to

CHAPTER II.

On her heartfelt devotion to the Virgin Mary: on her zeal for the divine honour and her concern for the salvation of souls.

To the Virgin Mother of God also With how great devotion she was moved towards Mary, the Mother of God, who could suffice to recount worthily, since, carrying her in her inmost heart, she showed her humble service, and transformed herself wholly into her love? For in her, as in a most safe harbour, she had fixed the anchor of all her hope; not wishing to be separated from her living or dead. Indeed, in recalling her, her spirit revived, her heart exulted in joy, her mind in jubilation, her whole soul was gladdened with heavenly desires. Moved by her divine banquets she was fed; finally she preferred her honour to herself, and she loved her from the marrow. And lest I seem to speak what I assert at random and as it were by opinion, I turn to her herself of whom I am treating: I bring forward openly her vehemently fiery speech; by which both our words will be quickened, and her heart will be seen, clearer than light, to be aflame with love of the Virgin.

[19] she was wonderfully Indeed in the first chapter of the seventh book it is said that, when blessed Birgitta, the Bride of Christ, was at Rome, and was on one occasion giving herself to prayer, etc. to the end; which promise the blessed Virgin fulfilled after 16 years; namely when, as blessed Birgitta was setting out for the Holy Land ^a, when she had come to Bethlehem, she showed her the Nativity of Christ in its sequence. Likewise elsewhere the Bride of Christ says: Blessed be thou, Mary, Mother of God, and blessed be the same thy son Jesus Christ above every joy which He had given me, for this, that thou art His mother; He Himself the same knows that Mary the Daughter of Joachim is dearer to me than the children of Ulf and Birgitta. And I would rather that Birgitta, the daughter of Birger, had never been born, than that Mary the Daughter of Joachim had not been begotten; and I would more lightly choose that Birgitta should be in hell than that Mary the Daughter of Joachim should not be the Mother of God in heaven; to whom the blessed Virgin answered: Daughter, know for certain that that Mary the Daughter of Joachim will be more useful to you than you, Birgitta the daughter of Birger, are. And the same Daughter of Joachim, who is the Mother of God, wishes to be as a Mother to the children of Ulf and Birgitta. The affection of her pious love is evident further from this, namely, that blessed Birgitta, being present in person on mount Calvary and beholding the sequence of Christ's passion, was likewise wounded by compassion for the most worthy Mother, pierced through with the sword of most acute sorrow; writing the order of which passion in the 15th chapter of the seventh book, after many things she says thus: And when I, filled with sorrow, looked at their cruelty, I saw then His most sorrowful Mother lying on the ground, and as it were trembling and half-dead ^b, whom John and her other sisters were consoling; who were then standing not far from the cross on its right side. A new sorrow, therefore, of compassion for that most holy Mother so pierced me that a certain sharp sword of unbearable bitterness passed through my heart.

[20] Further, if out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; words of wonderful devotion betray the force of inmost love: devoted: for in the third book, chapter 29, greeting her devoutly and beautifully, Blessed be thou, she says, O Mary, Mother of God, temple of Solomon. The Mother answered: Blessed be God, who to your heart, etc. Likewise in the fourth book, chapter 18. O sweet Mary, says the Bride, blessed be thou with eternal blessing, etc. Finally in the same book, chapter 19, she says thus: O sweet Mary, new beauty, etc. How intimately she also loved her is luminously evident in those two beautiful and lengthy prayers ^c which are customarily written at the end, in the one of which the most blessed Virgin is beautifully and devoutly praised concerning her conception and infancy, and all the virtuous acts and labours and the great sorrows of her whole life, and also concerning her most holy death and assumption; and in the other all the members of her body, and also her virtuous bodily acts, are singly described and extolled with fitting praises.

[21] For since the Mother of modesty loved that heavenly Spouse with inexhaustible charity, out of zeal for the salvation of her neighbour she strove to promote His honour in whatever ways she could; and since she knew that the same Spouse had shed His blood for the redemption of souls, she therefore thirsted most ardently for the salvation of souls; for which reason, with most devout prayers and unspeakable groans, exceedingly anxious for the salvation of her neighbours, she continually besought the Redeemer of all, and by sending letters she intimated to all, according to the same * the words which the mouth of the Lord had spoken to her: for writing to the supreme Pontiffs ^d, emperors, kings ^e and queens ^f, bishops and other prelates of the church, princes also and judges of the earth, and also to religious and secular persons ^g of whatever dignity, state, condition or age they might be; to kingdoms also or communities, she now intimately threatened the wrath of God, now warned, now rebuked, besought or reproved in all patience and doctrine, so that there is no one who may hide himself from her heat, performing in this the office of the Psalmist, who says: I have declared Thy justice in the great Church; behold, I will not restrain my lips; Thou knowest. I have not hidden Thy justice in my heart; I have declared Thy truth and Thy salvation ^h. She did not spare labour nor expense, because true love does not plead difficulty; on the contrary, she did not fear detractions, derisions; nay, she did not dread death itself, hateful to all the living, so long as she might accomplish God's good pleasure and free the souls of her neighbours from the torments of Gehenna to the best of her strength.

[22] For she had heard the voice of her Spouse saying: When men shall hate you, even men of the highest authority and shall persecute you, and shall say all evil against you, lying, for my sake, rejoice in that day and exult, for behold, your reward is plentiful in heaven ⁱ. And again: Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul ^k; whence at Montefiascone ^l she presented in person to the lord Pope Urban V ^m a certain revelation made to her by the Mother of God, in which, under threat of death and the strictness of the future judgment, the aforesaid Pontiff is forbidden to depart from Rome or Italy and go back to Avignon, fearing nothing in intimating such things to so great a Lord. Moreover, to his successor Gregory XI it was commanded by some divine oracles sent to him that, returning within a certain time expressed in them to Rome or Italy with his curia, he should remain there with all humility and pastoral charity until death, and immediately after his arrival should cultivate and begin to reform the Bride of Christ, namely holy Church, and all ecclesiastical states, and also bring them back as far as possible to the pristine state of all comeliness and perfect virtue and of the sanctity of the ancient Fathers to be recalled; also by plucking vices out of the curia, correcting manners and changing counsellors: otherwise he would receive the sentence of divine punishment raging irresistibly, not yet in the soul, but in the body and in temporal goods. Of which revelations ⁿ the Lord Latino Orsini related one, the lord Nicholas, count of Nola, another, and the Lord Alphonsus the third, very terrible: for, on the ground of her Creator, she feared no one, regarded no one's face, and finally preferred none of the living to the Author of life.

[23] of her office Whence, when one day she had withdrawn beside the altar in the church of St. Mary of Alvastra ^o, and, given over to mental contemplation, was attending to Christ the King as He questioned her concerning a certain revelation for correcting knights [p], her confessor came up, declaring that the king, Magnus by name, who was then reigning, had come to her; but when she gave him no answer, he touched her with his hand, and when even so she did not respond to him as he roused her, he perceived that she was then giving herself to divine colloquies: when at length the contemplation was finished, being asked both by the confessor and by the king why she had been silent when called, she said: I heard well the voice of the one questioning, but the speech of the One then conversing with me was powerful and to be feared. In the same kingdom of Sweden also, when her husband had now died, she went to the king at Christ's command, and, after she had forewarned him together with the magnates of the kingdom by a salutary admonition from the revelations granted her, she threatened that the rod of the Lord's fury would be stretched out over them unless they should do worthy penance thereafter for certain crimes in them.

[24] fearlessly, In which matter very many of them, gnawing at her with biting tooth, since otherwise, terrified by fear, and indeed held back by the magnates, her great kinsmen, they in no way dared to rise against her, assailed her with abuse and curses. But she, bearing all curses, detractions and derisions with deaf ear, besought God for those persecuting and slandering her, imitating her Spouse, who did and said thus. And now very many of those who before disparaged her, who see that all those tribulations and the terrible judgments of God which she had foretold have come to pass to the point, recalling her humble patience, seek her with wonderful devotion at her sepulchre; and they kiss the places in which they know her feet stood, as if that prophecy were to be verified of her: They shall come to thee who disparaged thee, etc. And they say: Woe, woe, to us who refused to trust the preachings of the holy Woman: woe, who held the judgments of God of little account: woe to us again and again, who with proud heart despised the warnings of the pious Mother, wherefore we have deservedly received from that time all the evils which we suffer; and we truly believe that the virtue of that kindly body, brought back to these parts, has brought peace to us with it, since we had for a long time been oppressed by innumerable afflictions; but all good things came to us together with her, and unchanging honour through her hands, and we have rejoiced in all things, because her most worthy merits went before us.

[25] In the Kingdom of Cyprus also, before the king then living and his mother, the lady queen Eleanor, and divinely instructed the prince of Antioch, namely the lord Jachetus, the king's paternal uncle, standing by with many other nobles of the kingdom and royal counsellors, she published a certain revelation seen on their behalf, in which all the aforesaid, with the whole people, were admonished about the amendment of certain crimes contained in it: otherwise the most mighty Lord would most speedily and most certainly gird His sword against them. Which revelation indeed is contained in the seventh book, chapter 18 [q]. Moreover in the city of Naples she secretly imparted to the queen words of great threat and terror made to her by Christ, certain secrets containing threats; but also certain other words of God concerning the people of the same city, having taken with her the lord Bernard, archbishop of Naples, brother Nicholas Mesquim of the Order of Preachers, master of Sacred Theology, who was afterwards a cardinal [r], brother Francis Defulano of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, and he a master in Theology, with certain more noble knights of the city called together, the magnanimous, fearless and zealous Handmaid of God steadfastly published in person before them: and these two Revelations are had in book 7, chapter 28. From all which things and the like, although she might probably have wavered at the prospect of being seized, bound, tortured, slaughtered, yet, like an Apostle of Christ and Prophetess of God, she carried out God's command with confidence and fortitude, and spoke unshaken, when she stood before kings and governors, fitting words not premeditated, but given her in that hour according to the Gospel.

[26] For she was once ordered in spirit to go to the king of Sweden, and to admonish him with his fellow-tribesmen, she admonished: and when she pleaded that she did not know what she should utter in speech, she heard: When you come, He said, to them, open your mouth, and I will fill it; accordingly, arriving at the king, when she had not thought how or what she should speak, divine words were then infused into her, not only those which pertained to the king, but also very many which concerned future things. Also by divine command she said, as if supplicating, to a certain abbot [s] of great authority: You, lord Abbot, ought to be the mirror of Religious, but you are the head of harlots; this is evident in the sons for whom you are defamed. You would be bound to be the example of the poor and the distributor to the needy, but you show that you are a great lord out of alms: this is evident, because you dwell in a castle rather than in a cloister. You ought to be the teacher and mother of your brothers, but you have become stepfather and stepmother: you sport in delights and pomp, while they, afflicted, murmur all day; therefore, unless you correct yourself, I will put you down from the castles, and you shall have no fellowship with the least of the brothers, nor will you return, as you believe, to your fatherland.

[27] When the king of Sweden was being pressed to pay a certain quantity of money, she called the king of Sweden away from exacting taxes, offering her sons, You will not be free from the wrath of God if you do this, said the illustrious Mother to him; but rather take the two sons whom I have, and put them as hostages until you can pay, and do not offend your God. Then on that same day Christ spoke to her, saying: On account of the charity of one man a kingdom also has been saved; so on account of the invention and burdens of one man some kingdoms have been lost, as I tell you as an example of a certain king: for that king trusted more in money, exacted from the people and from those passing through, under fraud and pretence of justice, than in me; therefore he lost his life, and left his kingdom in tribulation, and his wicked inventions were brought by other successors into custom and as it were into law; but if the king trusts in me his God, and the community of the kingdom is asked for help in charity, then I am powerful to save, and to bring back more quickly to peace on account of charity. Therefore the king, if he desires to prosper, let him keep his promise with me, and truth with the community of the kingdom, and let him keep his promise with me, and let him beware especially not to introduce there new inventions and tributes and subtleties. But in difficulties let him follow the counsel of those who fear God, not of the covetous; because it is better to bear some adversities of the world than knowingly to sin against me and his own soul.

[28] harlots to an honest life, Now it is to be known that some were scandalized in the humble Handmaid of Christ, but some were greatly edified, and, having heard her, did many things: for she was with Paul a good odour of Christ; to some the odour of death unto death, to others the odour of life unto life, as is said in 2 Corinthians 11. For she also drew very many harlots, whether at Rome or elsewhere, by her holy persuasions out of their dishonourable place of the brothel; and, out of regard for chastity, lest the sinners should return to their vomit, making them live with her for some time in her own lodging, she instructed them how they should do penance and walk rightly in the way of the spirit. But if she saw any less suited to spiritual pursuit, giving them in marriage she furnished them with a sufficient dowry, so that they might live laudably in the married state, and not fall through scantiness of livelihood in proportion to the fitness of their state.

[29] a noble man to a pious kind of life, The Lord Gomez of Spain, of the duchy of Spoleto [t], through the mediation of the lord Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén, humbly besought blessed Birgitta that she would deign to pray for him: for he was eager to know in what state he could please God more. And so to the holy Handmaid, as she sought out God's good pleasure in this through prayer, she who was zealous for the salvation of all, a revelation was made, by which he was fully informed concerning the state and form of living according to his quality. When the man had joyfully received this revelation at Perugia [u], as he testified in the presence of the aforesaid lord Alphonsus, his heart being suddenly pierced with the fear of God, he was thenceforth changed into another man, so much so that it could truly be said of him: This change is of the right hand of the Most High: for from then on he was clothed on Fridays in black cloth , on Saturdays in white, and on other days in grey colour. Moreover he did secret penances, vigils and prayers, and he mortified his flesh also with no slight abstinences; and also, washing personally the feet of the poor twice every week, he nonetheless bestowed on them ample benefactions of alms. He had also spiritual fathers, namely brother Coribius of Spain, of the Order of Minors, and Andrew of Lucca, a hermit on the Mount of Spoleto; but his Mistress, by whose help he had received his rule of life from on high, and as an omen of whose devotion he continually wore at his neck a small cross granted him by her, he never mentioned except by the name of Mother.

[30] men to a holier The Prior Provincial of the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, of the Order of Preachers, an upholder of the word of the Bride of Christ, attracted by the fame spread everywhere, came hastily from the place where he then was as far as the kingdom of Sweden, where the holy Woman was living: for he greatly desired to know by her aid how he should direct himself and those subject to him in the way of the spirit. By whom he was so imbued with heavenly tradition that, having cast off his former ambitious and very costly habit, he assumed the covering of mean and abject cloth, and he accomplished this very thing in the flock committed to him: and he also salutarily effected very many other things tending to amendment.

[31] The Spirit of God worked something similar through His pipe, she brought religious, namely St. Birgitta, in brother Martin of Aragon [x], of the Order of Minors, who, being secretary of the queen of Cyprus, and when the kindly Widow had come to Jerusalem with much labour and hardship, humbly besought that God be prayed to for him, that He might show him the way and manner by which he could please Him better, and that she herself might disclose to him His good, well-pleasing and perfect will. To blessed Birgitta, therefore, as she prayed about this, Christ appeared, and, a very beautiful revelation having been shown to her (which is set out in chapter 21 of the 7th book), He disclosed how the most devout servant of Christ, Francis, clothed in sackcloth, forged in the spirit of religion his Rule, and how he had his first brothers as imitators of his most holy conversation, and how the devil meanwhile cast down the Order, and how finally punishment or glory is promised to the professors of that Order. When the aforenamed brother had received this revelation from the hand of the holy Widow, and finally, at Famagusta [y] (where he possessed laid up books and silver vessels and moneys and jewels with his other ornaments)

had arrived, he scattered all and gave to the poor; himself poor, he imitated the little poor man Francis in the observance of the holy Rule, being made an example to the other brothers.

[32] A certain lay-brother of the monastery of Alvastra, of holy life, was ill for three years. and to others Inquire in the Additions after chapter 30 of book 6. The Handmaid of God once came to a certain bishop of approved life and devotion, namely the lord Hemming, bishop of Åbo [z], etc. Seek it there. Likewise, when on one occasion she sat with the same bishop at a banquet, and made use of the delicate foods set before her in honour of God, she was judged by the bishop: why, having the gift of so great a spirit, did she not abstain from delicate foods? Then she, knowing nothing of such thoughts, heard however in spirit something to this effect: Say to the bishop: I, who filled the shepherd with my spirit, was it on account of his fasts? I am He who made married men prophets, who did not merit this. I commanded the prophet to take an adulteress to wife; did he not obey? I spoke to Job as well in his prosperity as when he sat on the dunghill, and therefore I am wonderful; I do without preceding merits all things that please me.

[33] The bishop therefore, hearing these things and recognizing himself, men of diverse kinds troubled in mind, asked that prayer be made for him. Then, appearing a third time, the Mother of God said: Say to the bishop: Since he is wont to begin all his preachings with my praise, and because by his judgment he judged you at table, and also because that judgment was of charity and not of envy, therefore charity merits to be consoled; tell him, therefore, that I wish to be a mother to him, and to present his soul to God, and I will now explain to him that he is the seventh animal of the animals previously shown to you, and that he will carry the words of God before kings and Pontiffs; as is also written in chapter 97 of book 6. A certain great lord, who had not confessed for a long time, etc., to the end. In the sixth book also, chapter 78, it is said that, when the Handmaid of God was lodging and passing the night near the city of Lödöse [aa] in a certain house, where the devil spoke openly and gave answers, etc., to the end.

[34] she greatly profited. And so very many, on account of the endowment of sanctity and graces granted her by Christ her Spouse, flocking to her from every side under the guidance of her fame, asked that prayer be made for them, or, if they were perhaps turning over some doubt in their mind, that it be unravelled from heaven through her. Humbly assenting to whom some days, and, if they were spiritual persons, sometimes on the same day, having first raised her hands to heaven and having first poured forth humble prayers, which penetrate heaven, she gave divine answers to those who inquired of her: for, to say nothing of others, the lord Urban V approached her through his confessor, and asked that she would beseech God about some doubts of his conscience; and if she should receive any heavenly oracle on that account, she should make it known as quickly as possible. In like manner Gregory XI [bb], turning over in his mind certain secret doubts, sent to her, and, at least by asking, commanded her to ask the Lord, the knower of secrets, about and concerning such doubts, intimating to him nonetheless what she had heard in spirit; which she also did. Moreover the lady Joanna, queen of Sicily, and the lord Bernard, prelate of Naples, consulted her separately on certain articles, for which she obtained divine revelations, which are written in the seventh book [cc]. But also Eleanor, queen of Cyprus, when the Handmaid of God had arrived there, besought her as a suppliant that she would intercede for her and her son and the whole kingdom with the King of kings: and while she did so, she received divine precepts, which are contained in the seventh book of the Revelations [dd]; and certainly the heavenly books are found abundantly sprinkled with revelations of this kind made to her at the request of very many. Lastly, the lord Alphonsus, often mentioned, asserts that very many times, when he was troubled in conscience with a perplexed mind, he merited to have it declared to him from heaven through her.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. For correcting knights, says Berthold: from which indeed it follows that St. Birgitta was solicitous for the amendment and salvation of the military Orders existing in her age: but by no means that a military Order, as some say, was ever instituted by her either in Sweden or anywhere else among the nations. See what was said in number 334 of the preliminary Commentary.

q. See §§22 and 23 of the preliminary Commentary.

r. In the year 1378 under Urban VI.

s. This seems to have been the abbot of Farfa, as was said in the preliminary Commentary, number 264 and the 3 following.

t. Spoleto is a city of the ecclesiastical dominion in Umbria on the river Tessino.

u. Perugia is likewise a city of the Pontifical dominion in the same Umbria.

x. Afterwards Guardian of Bethlehem, according to Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1375, number 4.

y. A city of the island of Cyprus on the eastern coast, whose calamities St. Birgitta foretold.

z. Åbo was formerly a city of Sweden under the archbishop of Uppsala: concerning Hemming, bishop of that place, see what was said in number 53 and following of the preliminary Commentary.

aa. A port in Västergötland, a province of Sweden.

bb. Concerning these Revelations offered to the Pontiffs by St. Birgitta, see §17 of the preliminary Commentary.

cc. Concerning the deeds of St. Birgitta at Naples see §§20 and 23 of the preliminary Commentary.

dd. Concerning those things which she did in Cyprus, see §§22 and following.

supply: mandatum* command

corde* heart

panno* cloth

CHAPTER III.

On her works of piety and her patience in adversities.

Of the poor The Bride of Christ indeed glowed with divine charity, by which she not only anxiously procured for her neighbour that he might live blessedly, but also zealously expended on him the subject works of this present toilsome life by exercising them towards him, and, embracing her sons with the arms of tender charity, she sweetly cherished them in the bosom of compassion and inner affection. Considering the paths of her house, lest she should eat her bread idle, she opened her hands to the needy, and stretched out her palms to the poor. For, to use the words of Boniface ^a, she unweariedly exercised the offices of inexhaustible charity towards needy, sick and wretched persons for the love of the Creator. For while her husband was still surviving, she was accustomed every day to feed twelve poor persons in her own house, serving them and ministering necessaries. And on Thursday, mindful of the Lord's supper, she washed their feet; also from her own means she restored several hospices in the parts of her origin, and especially one in her estate of Ulfåsa ^b, and as a pious, kind, merciful and sedulous ministrant she ministered almost every day to the poor and sick living in them, and, handling their ulcers without horror and disgust, she washed, bound and tended them.

[36] the greatest care But also, taking her daughters ^c with her, like an eagle provoking her young to fly and hovering over them, she taught them by word and example to do the same thing. And when certain people reproved her because it was fitting that girls so many and so great, beautiful in face, illustrious in lineage, tender in age, should come there where they could easily be defiled by the sicknesses and the stench of the sick, she, fervent with the love of charity, said prudently and constantly: Why are you troublesome to me, why are you jealous for my daughters, that my daughters should learn from me in their youth how they may devoutly serve God and the poor? For he who serves God cannot be contaminated by the sicknesses of those whom he faithfully serves for God's sake. Moreover she clothed many poor people every year. She also relieved very many persons, religious as well as secular, in various parts of the kingdom more copiously with her alms. Finally, raising up very many virgins, she joined some to husbands, and others to her God in spiritual marriage, endowing the latter and the former nonetheless sufficiently, and, to speak briefly, she showed herself as a mother to all the afflicted, poor and captives, orphans and wards.

[37] she had, Then coming to Rome ^d, although she was a pilgrim, and, on account of the very great distance from her own parts, exposed also to wants, having indeed with her a copious household, she bestowed ample alms on the poor, and would long ago have bestowed more ample ones had she not been restrained by the judgment of her spiritual father; and in order that she might give herself more freely to God, and, poor herself, imitate her Spouse, she committed her treasury to her master, a man indeed prudent, mature and very spiritual ^e, to whom, having left the government of her whole house, like one of the handmaids, or any other poor woman of her , for herself or for others to be succoured and nourished, as if the things were not hers but his, she humbly asked with fear and trembling for the necessaries of life. And if what she asked was refused, she received the refusal with all mildness. Sometimes, indeed, wearing old shoes, she procured new ones for the others. At Rome, indeed, while staying there, as has been said, a certain girl poor in means, but comely in beauty and therefore near to the perdition either of soul or body, honourably in marriage

she gave her, and dowered her sufficiently.

[38] When, again, on one occasion she was near Lödöse ^f in the kingdom of Sweden, not without the danger even of her own want; one of her household, needy and poor, who was arranging to make the wedding of his betrothed daughter, but, pressed by much want, was not able, running up asked that something be brought to him: and she, having summoned the steward of her house, asked how much money he had at hand. And the quantity of coins having been counted, Give, she said, to this poor man a third part, so that his daughter, being consoled, may pray for us. And entering the city, she found a crowd at the door of the inn, on whom, merciful as she was, she took pity and ordered the dole to be given to them: but her bailiff, answering, said that the money which he had would by no means suffice for paying at the inn unless he received some borrowed from another, adding: How do you pour out your money so lavishly? It is indeed of great perfection to give one's own to the needy, and for oneself to receive a loan from others or to beg. To whom she said: Let us give while we have, because the Giver is kind and generous to us when we are in need; for I have been kept for these poor, because they have no other solace, and I in my necessities leave myself to the will of God.

[39] While they were hearing Mass in the church, a voice falling from above, but neither in turn was God's care she heard: My daughter is like her who hastens so fervently to the Spouse calling her, who forgets father and mother and all that she has, until she finds whom she seeks; what then will the Spouse do? He will certainly send servants, and will cause all things that are the Bride's to come after her. So on account of your charity we provide for you and yours; for as charity ineffably brought me into the Virgin's womb, so the charity of man has brought God into his soul. Therefore let us prepare garments before the Child comes, let us set in order before the inhabitant comes, let us sow the fruit, that we may rejoice in the harvest. Hence it is that the Zealot for God and her neighbour very often incurred want, and, suffering penury with her attendants, needed to be relieved by the help of others. Indeed, when she was going back to Rome from that happy journey to Jerusalem ^g, Queen Joanna, out of compassion, sent her a certain quantity of money in the city of Naples by way of aid. And as she was doubting, out of a scruple of conscience, whether she ought to accept such a gift, Christ, appearing to her, said: O foolish one! Is enmity to be returned for friendship, or evil to be returned for good, or is snow to be put into a cold vessel so that it may grow colder? Therefore I say that, although the queen gave you what she offered from a cold heart, nevertheless it is to be received by you with charity and reverence, and you must pray for her, that she may be able to arrive at the divine warmth: for it is written, let the abundance of others supply the defects of the poor, and no good works will be in forgetfulness before God.

[40] lacking to her. Likewise, when once on pilgrimage, her own money having been spent, she was anxious through want for her household, he rather who, from love by giving his own to others, will be in need, to her as she prayed He said: Although the world is mine, and I can give all things to all, yet what is offered from the charity of the heart is more acceptable to me, and I also more willingly demand those things which are properly mine. Now, because you spend your goods cheerfully for my honour, you ought therefore in the time of your necessity to receive of mine. Do this therefore: say to the archbishop ^h of this city thus: As all the churches are mine, so all the alms are mine: give to me, therefore, in my friends, of those things which are mine, because, although it is acceptable to me to raise the walls of churches, yet it is equally acceptable to me in this matter to help my needy friends, who have spent their goods for love of me. Remember, therefore, that I sent Elijah to the poor widow, whom I had previously fed by ravens: not because at that time others were not richer than the widow, or because I could not sustain without the widow, without nourishment, the prophet who had held out unfed for 40 days; but I did this because I wished to make a trial of the charity of the widow, which I, God, searching hearts and reins, knew well, but that it might be made manifest to others. You therefore, who are Father and lord of the Widow, do good to widows from my goods; for although I can do all things without you, and you nothing without me, yet I wish again to contemplate your charity in them.

[41] With wonderful patience It is written in the Gospel that the seed which fell on good ground, having sprung up, produced a hundredfold fruit; and in what manner this happened is declared in the same place, when it is said: And they bring forth fruit in patience. The seed is the Word of God (made in manifold ways to this wonderfully chosen Prophetess), which, falling by grace into this our earth, sent down roots through humility, grew and spread itself through charity, and finally gave its fruit in patience, because indeed in patience she will possess her soul. For, living quiet and peaceable without complaint, she was patient towards all; and although she bore unshaken the defects of those who served her, as is wont to happen, yet, correcting excesses in due manner and time with discretion and modesty, she by no means allowed her God to be notably offended by any of them. With how great fortitude of mind she received all evils, continually praising God, the aforesaid Pope Boniface makes known in his Letters, when he says: Wonderful patience flourished in her, so that she bore most patiently the infirmities of her own body, the injuries inflicted, the death of her husband and of her son Charles ⁱ, and all adversities, without murmur, without complaint, always in all things blessing God with most submissive humility. But lest the Pastor of the Church should seem lightly or in vain to have extolled with the praise of patience the Bride of Him who is the good and true Pastor, and who laid down His life for His sheep, it is pleasing to declare all that he said by the most manifest examples of impassibility *.

[42] calumnies Further, to begin with the bearing of injuries: when Magnus, king of Sweden ^k, who from his youth was devout and lived laudably among men, as he had taken in the report of her reputation, calling her to him several times, gladly relied on her counsels in those things which were of God. Wherefore very many satraps of the kingdom envied her, and, crying out that she was a sorceress and a seducer of the court , threatened her. And her children, hearing these things, wished to rise up against those profane detractors, except that she, with bent knee, besought them, saying: Do nothing, I beg you, my sons, against them; for I call God to witness that I suffer to be handled by any abuse and derision of evil-speakers whatever, than to be adorned with the diadem of king or queen as long as I live: let them be; they are blind, and leaders of the blind.

[43] In the city of Stockholm ^l in the kingdom of Sweden, a certain knight of the nobles, called a count, and injuries when he had seen that king Magnus would be converted to a better life by her holy admonitions, and that he was not received by him as yesterday and the day before, kindled with exceeding fury, when blessed Birgitta was passing along a certain street, a narrow one indeed, poured water upon her from a window; but she, bearing the injury most patiently, mindful of that Master who said that one must pray for those persecuting and calumniating, broke out into these words: It is worthy and just that I should bear such things; nevertheless may God spare him, and not repay him in the world to come. And to her as she prayed on that same day Christ said: Because that knight who did you injury by pouring water on you thirsts for blood, desires land, speaks boldly against me: therefore let him beware lest he die in blood. When the brother of blessed Birgitta ^m had reported this to him, I pay no attention, he said, to dreams. God is merciful and damns no one. But a little time having passed, with blood flowing from his nostrils, he ended his life in his own blood according to the word of the Lord.

[44] In the city of Arboga ⁿ of the aforesaid kingdom, another certain knight, very powerful and remarkably influential with the king, not rarely since he did not dare to abuse the noble Widow in person, put another in his place, who might fulfil the offence of his mouth with the speech of his own lips: and so, as she sat at table with certain magnates, that profane man, coming in and pretending to be drunk, said: O Lady, you dream too much, you watch too much; it would be good for you to drink more and to sleep more. God never left religious persons, and speaks with the proud: that is, it is vain to give faith to your words. Roused by such words, those who were present sought to take vengeance on the insolent man. Then she, imitating holy David when he was cursed by Shimei, said: Let him be; for God has sent him; I indeed, since in my whole life I have sought my own praise and have blasphemed my God, why should I not now hear my justice ^o? For he has spoken the truth. By these and such words, not to be lightly esteemed, she pacified her zealous partisans, and rescued her despiser from avenging hands; and the man, pricked at heart by these words, uncovered before all the hidden truth.

[45] Likewise in the same kingdom another man, valiant enough, inflicted on her; deprived of the royal office which he was executing, which pressed too heavily on the community, when he had disparaged the Handmaid of almighty God not a little, because she had given the king such counsel that, travelling through the lands and cities of his kingdom, he should procure justice, saying that the kingdom had been afflicted through lack of justice; and as he did not presume to attempt anything evil against her other than to defame her by detraction; one day, when she was attending the king, together with many other nobles and magnates, in a certain castle, this man, pretending to be as it were pressed by those standing round, thrust against her so violently that, had she not been held up by the hands of others, she would perhaps have fallen to the ground. And the king, seeing this, and recognizing the malice of the deed in the man, began to rebuke him sharply. Then the Woman worthy of imitation, mindful of goodness, kneeling before the king, obtained pardon for the one who had injured her, and excused the sacrilegious man as best she could; which knight indeed, going down angry from the castle, died after thirty days, openly confessing that he had sinned against the lady Birgitta.

[46] of her sons Charles And with what equanimity, nay even cheerfulness, she bore the death of her children, what follows will show. For while she was going to the holy Sepulchre, the lord Charles, her elder son and the more beloved to her, rested in peace in the city of Naples [p]. When he was dying, while the clerics were reading the commendation of the soul, she, standing close by, neither rose from her place, nor shed tears, nor made any gestures of grief, as is the custom. Rather, with hands raised to heaven, she blessed God from her heart, giving Him thanks and conforming herself wholly to His will. Finally, although Queen Joanna, with many of the most noble of the kingdom

and also the nobles, with almost the whole city, grieving and weeping, accompanied her, following the funeral to the church of the Holy Cross of the nuns [q], she, persevering then with dry eyes, murmured to herself, all being amazed, such words as these: Go, go, my son, pilgrim blessed by God and by me your mother; go, I say, to Him who called you, and redeemed you with His precious blood. And, as the lord Elzéar, cardinal priest of St. Sabina [r], asserted in his testimony, who had learned this very thing which I add from the report of his illustrious lady, the lady Francesca, countess of Anguana [s]; when his mother herself saw blessed Birgitta at her son's funeral as it were suspended in ecstasy of mind, she asked: Whether she grieved much for her dead son? To whom she said: If I knew most certainly that my son was to rule the whole world, I would not indeed wish him to return again to the calamity of this miserable life.

[47] and of Ingeborg the death, Ingeborg, a nun [t], daughter of the most holy Mother, was one day announced dead; then she, exceedingly cheered and filled with much joy, said: O my Lord Jesus Christ! O my love! blessed be Thou, because Thou hast called her before she was entangled in the snares of this toilsome world; and, rising at once, she entered the oratory, where, dissolved in tears, she continued in groans and sighs: she was heard also by those who were outside: and they said: Behold, she bewails her daughter. To whom Christ, appearing, said: Woman, why do you weep? For though I know all things, yet I would learn it as you speak. She answered: O Lord, I do not weep because my daughter is dead; nay, I rejoice; for if she had lived longer, she would have had to render a greater account before Thee: but the cause of my mourning springs from this, that I did not instruct her according to Thy commandments, and that I gave her examples of pride, and corrected her too remissly when she offended. To whom Christ said: Every Mother who weeps because her daughter offends God, and has instructed her according to her better conscience, she is truly a mother; a mother, I say, of true charity and of tears; and her daughter is a daughter of God on account of the mother. But that mother who rejoices that her daughter knows how to conduct herself according to the world, not caring about her manners, provided she be exalted and honoured by the world, she is not a true mother, but a stepmother. Therefore, on account of your charity and good will, your daughter will pass by a short way to the crown of glory.

[48] And what shall I say of the straits of her own body, since she gladly gloried with the Apostle in her infirmities, illnesses, that the power of Christ might dwell in her? For power is made perfect in infirmity. Besides this also, while she was still living in the holy city of Jerusalem [u], she began to be ill with a great sickness of fevers and of the stomach, from which she also died at Rome after a year [x]: in which sickness indeed, whether sailing or landing on the shore, she bore herself so patiently that no querulous word was ever heard from her. Nay rather, she always and everywhere praised with thanksgiving the Redeemer of all and her most illustrious Spouse, because He had made her a partaker of His sufferings. And if at any time, while still tossing on the sea, food and any necessaries seemed to be lacking, when the others grieved and reported it to her, she answered: Be not saddened at all, because I have received so great and so many good things from God that, if all the members of my body were crushed, it would not even be a matter for grieving: but neither are the sufferings of this time worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us. For she had not received with deaf ear what she had heard a certain Saint relate, who, in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 16, spoke thus to the Bride, saying: If for every hour in which I lived in the world I had endured one death for God, if I had always come to life again, I could never by this fully give thanks to God for His charity, because His praise never departs from my mouth, joy never goes out of my soul, glory and honour are never withheld from my sight, exultation is never absent from my hearing.

[49] Finally she bore the other adversities most patiently: the loss of her goods, for when she was still staying in the monastery of St. Mary of Alvastra [y], there met her one day someone who said: Lady, you have lately incurred a great loss; for the goods which you possessed in the estate of Fundia [z] have been burned, and you have lost much of grain and utensils. Then she, feeling herself not burdened but unburdened, answered without any sadness: Blessed be God, who justly repays me; for I have abused the gifts of God, nor have I hitherto rendered due thanks to the Giver for them, nor have I fervently prayed for the souls of those who formerly possessed those goods; therefore be all honour and glory to Him who has freed me from this. And being asked by brother Peter her master [aa] how she felt inwardly in her mind, she answered without hesitation: It is a pain now to think about these worldly things; for with my whole heart I think and desire to be poor, and if I could please God, I would wish even to beg for His love: for the day will come when I shall leave all things even against my will: therefore it is of great merit to abandon those things which it still delights one to have.

[50] It happened that on her pilgrimage overseas she suffered shipwreck in a certain port nearest to Jerusalem; and the danger of shipwreck she bore with patient and grateful mind towards God. for the galley in which she was broke apart and was filled with water: wherefore the lord Alphonsus [bb] had her brought out of the hold of the galley and hastily received into a small poop, so that she might not perish. And when all of both sexes who had been in the same galley made pitiable weeping and wailing, she, persevering wholly sweet and peaceful, arrived safe at the shore without any disturbance of mind at her goods sunk and lost in the sea. Nor was any of those who were with her in the galley drowned, by her merits and prayers, the holy spirit revealing this to her. For He had said to her: Do not fear, because no one from this galley will die in this shipwreck. Which word she at once made known, consoling her, to her daughter, namely the Lady Catherine: for the lord Alphonsus says that, being freed from destruction, cheered not a little, raising her hands to heaven, she gave thanks to God from her inmost marrow; and being asked by him why she did so, or what kind of thought was then turning in her mind, she answered: How much, O son, am I bound to thank God, who has made me worthy to suffer some evil for His love! Therefore I now give Him thanks that He permitted this tribulation to happen to us.

ANNOTATIONS.

h. Bernard.

p. In the year 1372, as was said here at letter i.

q. Of St. Francis, whose monastery indeed (for the church already existed before) was begun to be founded in the year 1338 by Sancia, queen of Sicily, but in the year 1443 was converted to the use of the Minorites, who were maintained from the royal treasury: But now, says Wadding at the year 1338, number 22, a numerous multitude of brothers of the stricter observance inhabits it, who acquire their food daily by door-to-door begging.

r. Surnamed de Sabran, son of William, brother and heir of St. Elzéar (who has been treated in our Work at the 27th day of September), count of Ariano in Apulia, led by St. Birgitta to a holier life, as may be seen in book 7 of the Revelations, chapter 5. He was enrolled in the body of Cardinals by Urban VI in the year 1378: the same, by order of Urban VI, examined and approved the Constitutions of St. Birgitta, as is clear from Urban's Bull: His, quæ pro divini cultus augmento, etc., given in the year 1379, on the third day of December: but in this he is called Cardinal priest of St. Balbina, not of St. Sabina, as also by Ughelli, volume 6 of Italia sacra, where he treats of the bishops of Chieti, column 746, by Contelori and by Oldoini.

s. She is called Francesca de Celano by Ughelli, just praised.

t. In the monastery of Riseberga of the Cistercian Order in Närke: see §6 of the preliminary Commentary, where the other daughters of St. Birgitta, Märta, Cecilia and St. Catherine, are also treated.

u. See what is said at letter g here.

x. In the year 1373, on the 23rd day of July. See above the Annotations on chapter 3 of the Life of St. Birgitta written by Birger, archbishop of Uppsala, letter mm.

y. Between the year 1344 and 1346.

z. This estate is not known to me from elsewhere.

aa. Peter, confessor of Vadstena, of whom above.

bb. First bishop of Jaén, afterwards a hermit.

sive* [or]

obsoleta* worn out

* that is, of the highest patience

aulæ* of the court

supply: magis* rather

est* is/was

supply: eam videat* she may see her

CHAPTER IV.

On her obedience towards her spiritual Fathers, her manner of living spiritually, and her sacred pilgrimages.

Of her directors She deferred so humbly to her spiritual fathers ^a, served them so dutifully, obeyed them so promptly, and so perfectly renounced her own will, that credulity scarcely admits it; so that not only did she not presume to go out of the house without licence, or * to do anything else however small; nay, what is very wonderful, visiting the sanctuaries of Rome, she did not presume even to raise her eyes from the ground, or to look at anyone. For when to the stations of Rome and the other

devotions she went, she walked with her head bowed, lest, if the senses of the body were occupied with exterior things, the mind should be restrained from its inner watch. For the divine visions and revelations which she had, her thoughts, inspirations and temptations she reported to her spiritual fathers: holding that, rejecting that, and always looking also to that which they commanded, forbade and counselled. She had two spiritual fathers, elders, mature, virgins and experienced, who followed her until her death, of whom one was a monk and most religious Cistercian Prior; the other a certain secular priest of Sweden, venerable and of most holy life, called the lord Peter ^b, who governed the whole house of blessed Birgitta, taught her with her daughter Grammar and chant, at Christ's command, and instructed both of them in the way of virtues, virtuously bringing them up with fatherly corrections. Moreover, silence, prayers and the principal arrangements of times, and vigils, and all other things she observed and did with the counsel and licence of her fathers; obeying nonetheless their commands, however arduous and contrary to her own will, immediately and willingly and always.

[52] Whence, when she was still residing in the parts of her origin, she incurred in the monastery of Alvastra so grave an infirmity at the command and nod, that the physicians asserted that she could in no way be cured unless she used the aid of baths; which, when she heard it, she took ill, both because she had already resolved to abstain from such things, and because, her husband having been taken away, she judged it unfitting for herself to be relaxed in delights. But master Matthias ^c, then her confessor and father, hearing this, said: In virtue of holy obedience I command you that whatever shall be advised you by the physicians you do without hesitation, so that both you may rejoice in the health of your body, and through you others may obtain the salvation of souls. To whom she said: O my Father! if you had simply said to me, do it; I would certainly have done it; how much more, since you have commanded with such authority: for in my soul I rejoice exceedingly that I have obedience to you for obedience without remorse of conscience; for I am ready to accept all things however difficult, and moreover to undergo death.

[53] praised by Christ also for this, And on the second day after this, as she prayed, Christ appeared to her and said: Know that those who seemed spiritual in the old law were called Pharisees, who had three things: they washed themselves continually so as to seem clean; they fasted and prayed in the open, so as to be called holy; they taught and commanded many things which they themselves did not at all do: but it profited them little with God, because their intention was corrupt and their soul unclean. Therefore, just as the washing of the flesh without cleanness of conscience did not profit the soul, so neither does the washing of the flesh harm a clean soul, provided it is done out of compassion and without delight. Therefore it pleased me more that you obeyed your master against your will than if you had followed your own will against his precept. For many of my elect there were who did not have carnal medicines, and pleased me: but others, according to the disposition of times and places and diverse infirmities, applied medicines to themselves, nor did they on that account displease me; therefore that obedience which has nothing of its own will pleases me more than a great sacrifice.

[54] she wholly depended Likewise, when out of love of sobriety and zeal for penance, and also in contemplation of that most bitter drink of the suffering Christ, she refused to drink outside the hour; it happened on one occasion that she endured such thirst that she could scarcely form words: when this was known, the aforesaid master ordered her to take drink; and although it seemed to her not a little difficult to go against her former custom, yet, obeying the fatherly command without delay, she heard in spirit: Why do you fear to change your life? Do I need your goods, or will you enter heaven by your merits? Obey therefore your master; for he has experienced the conflict of the two spirits, namely of truth and of illusion. For even if you ate and drank ten times a day on account of obedience, it will not be imputed to you.

[55] from love of obedience. The Prior of Alvastra relates that, when one day he was reading before her the book which is entitled "The Mirror of virgins," in which a pilgrim monk disputes with the virgin Theodora about all the virtues, before his eyes blessed Birgitta was rapt in spirit, and, turning to him, said: I have now heard in spirit a voice saying to me: that virginity merits a crown, widowhood draws near to God, marriage does not exclude from heaven, and obedience brings all into glory. Mary also prefers the virtue of obedience in book 4 of the Revelations, chapter 26, under the example of two men, saying to Birgitta: Behold, if you see two men, one is under obedience, the other in free power: if the one who is free fasts, he will have a single reward: but if he who is under obedience eats meat on that day according to the institutes of his Rule, and on account of obedience, yet would more willingly fast if obedience did not stand in the way, he will have a double reward, one for obedience, the other for the putting off of his desire and the non-fulfilment of his will.

[56] So that the Disciple of Christ might render, according to the Gospel word, the things that are Caesar's to Caesar and the things that are God's to God, Both in Sweden, as Solomon likewise says: All things have their time under the sun ^d. For thus in orderly fashion, serving her Creator * I have known. For after she had bidden farewell to the parts of her origin, her husband having been taken from their midst, she left all temporal things, and utterly renounced from herself all the pomp of the world in the monastery of St. Mary of Alvastra (where she had buried her partner ^e); serving God in a humble garment, she washed away her sins every day through true contrition of heart and humble confession of mouth; and if perhaps she had said some harsh or idle word against anyone of the household, she at once amended it by confessing it, not once only, but several times; she rose at night to pray, and at cockcrow wholly, and until Prime had been sung, she remained in the church. And when on account of the intensity of the cold she went to the warming-room, she recited part of the Psalter as long as she stayed there. Then, going back to the church, she remained until dinner praying and hearing the canonical hours. And after dinner, resuming prayer, she applied herself diligently and devoutly to the work of her hands for divine worship: nor did she exercise any other work than one that was also pious. At the vigils she went back to the church, to return home late, where, having taken supper, if it was to be taken, and having dispatched business, she read Compline, speaking a word to no one until morning.

[57] And after she came to Rome ^f, read through how she lived in this manner. In the morning, indeed, after vigils and nightly prayers, before she went out of the house, with a contrite and humbled heart (which God does not despise) she made Confession most devoutly; and, going out of the house at dawn, she visited the sanctuaries: about the ninth hour, because it was likewise necessary to yield to bodily necessity, she would return * home; having returned, therefore, she sat down at table, observing that rule which she had set for herself: for she had made a certain holy ordinance under which she should live and should keep at table; which, always having before her eyes, she had placed before her, in case it should happen that she transgressed it in any way in food, drink or speech. And three times on each occasion she recalled her Redeemer's passion at table: namely at the beginning, before she took food, in the middle and at the end. Which indeed, although her confessors knew it more secretly, they clearly perceived by the giving of certain exterior signs, such as hands clasped, breathing, eyes raised to heaven, lifting the palms upward, and the like. But sometimes meanwhile her mind was so raised in the contemplation of heavenly things that, although she was bodily present there, yet, rapt from the senses of the body, she noticed nothing at all of the things which were then being done there, until she came back to herself.

[58] Moreover she carefully observed silence while she took food, and was more intent on the reading fattening the soul than on the food refreshing the body. she kept a fixed and stable manner of life, For the rest, rising from table, she entered her chamber or chapel to pray for some space of time: and then until Vespers she exercised herself bodily in some pious work: and afterwards she went to St. Peter's or to some station: returning from which, if it was not a fast day, she first said Compline and discharged her other prayers, and then at length took supper. But if she was keeping a fast, after collation had been made with her confessors and her daughter ^g, she sang her prayers and praises to God: these finished, withdrawing into her chamber with her daughter, she observed silence with all custody until the next day. On the following day also, before dinner, continuing silence for four hours, she gave herself to prayers; after dinner nonetheless, with the exception only of one hour, which, condescending to her household, she had assigned to speaking consoling and honourable words, she passed the whole day in silence.

[59] and sometimes various The Bride of Christ, glowing with devotion, had made so many and such distant pilgrimages that it may well deservedly turn those who hear of them to wonder. For with her husband while he was still alive, whom she delighted not a little with holy admonitions and examples; with some others also, clerics and laymen familiar to her, she devoutly visited for the sake of devotion the church of St. James in Galicia ^{h i}, and went to Cologne to see the sacred relics of the three Magi ^k, and also visited Aachen, where relics of the Blessed Virgin Mary ^l are laid up. Moreover the body of St. Mary Magdalene, which is venerably preserved at Saint-Maximin ^m. Likewise the relics of St. Martha, which are laid up at Tarascon ⁿ. Likewise the bodies of the Apostles Thomas and Andrew, which the faithful people venerate with worthy honour within the limits of the kingdom of Sicily ^o. The church also of St. Nicholas of Bari [p], and of St. Michael on Monte Gargano [q]. Moreover she by no means thought she should pass by unvisited the bodies of the eminent Doctors Ambrose and Augustine [r]. But also the threshold of blessed Francis, although she could have had many horses to ride, she approached with no small labour, relying on her own steps, going from Rome all the way to Assisi [s], showing humble service to God and His Saints. On this see book 7, chapter 3.

[60] sacred pilgrimages Out of the great devotion also with which she was moved towards St. Olaf the king [t], while she was still in Sweden, she walked on foot to the kingdom of Norway for 30 days' journeys, although even then she certainly had many horses which she could have mounted, in order to adore his most holy body. And dwelling at Rome, as long as she stayed there, however intense the heats and colds, and though there were rains and muddy ways, she unweariedly sought out the stations and sanctuaries on foot: by which she was sometimes so troubled that she seemed almost to faint; whence, if at any time, being in any way hindered from frequenting the devout places, she could not satisfy her devotion, not without great

anguish of mind she bore it. Hence it is that in the 6th book the Mother of God spoke to her, saying: Why are you so troubled, daughter? She answered: Because, Lady, I do not visit those places which are in Rome. And the Mother said: It is permitted to you to visit those places reverently with humility and devotion: because in this Rome there are greater indulgences than men can believe, which the saints of God have merited to obtain from my Son by their glorious blood and prayers. Nevertheless, Daughter, do not on this account leave your schools in Grammar, nor the holy obedience of your spiritual father.

[61] At length, when she was old, and, through many previous hardships and excessive labours, deprived of bodily strength, she went to Jerusalem by Christ's command; undertook panting indeed to visit those holy places in which the same her most sweet Spouse Christ willed to be born, to live and to suffer and to die; and she took with her her sons, vigorous knights, the lord Charles, who *, as I said above, died on the way there [u], and the lord Birger [x], with the Lady Catherine and her confessors, and also with many others accompanying her. And how pleasing it is to God and profitable to men to visit the holy places and to exalt with honours the relics of the saints is sufficiently evident from this, that at Jerusalem Christ spoke to the arriving Bride, saying: When you entered my temple, dedicated by my blood, you were so cleansed from all your sins as if you had then been lifted from the font of Baptism; and on account of your labours and devotion some souls of your kinsfolk have today been freed, and have entered heaven into my glory. For all who come to this place with a perfect will to amend themselves according to their better conscience, not having the will to relapse into their own sins; to these all past sins are forgiven, and the grace of perfecting is increased to them.

[62] Likewise in the 4th chapter of book 7 He speaks, saying: I wish to tell you of another treasure, [from the singular veneration and love with which she was borne towards the Saints] which is not yet in heaven, but is with you on earth: this treasure is the relics and bodies of my friends the Saints, whether they are decayed or fresh, and whether they have been turned into ashes and dust or not, they are most certainly my treasure. But you may ask: since the Scripture says: Where your treasure is, there is your heart; how then is my heart with this treasure and with the relics of the Saints? I answer you: It is my highest delight to repay with eternal rewards, according to the will and faith and labours of those visiting them, all who visit the places of my Saints and honour the relics, namely of those who have been glorified by miracles and canonized by the supreme Pontiffs; therefore my heart is with my treasure. On the contrary, it displeases God not a little when this treasure most dear to Him is less attended to and honoured by us. Which is evident from this: for when on the day of the Purification of the Virgin Mary the devout Woman was in the church of Skara [y], she then drew in a most sweet and unaccustomed odour: wondering, therefore, and being in ecstasy of mind, she beheld the Virgin Mother of God of all comeliness, with a man of wonderful beauty adorned with pontifical ornaments, namely the lord Brynolf, formerly bishop of Skara. To whom the Virgin said: Know, Daughter, that this bishop honoured me in his life, and confirmed the honour in deed; how acceptable his life was to God the odour which you have perceived shows. And now his soul is in the sight of God, yet his body lies here in the earth without honour, and so this pearl beloved by me is placed among swine.

[63] Likewise, when she was still mistress of the lady Blanche [z], and their relics queen of Sweden, she obtained a most beautiful little ivory casket, in which many relics of the Saints were enclosed, among which was mingled something of the precious body of St. Louis [aa], which the queen had carried with her from France: and so by chance it happened that the casket was placed by the servants in a less fitting place, and forgotten. Then blessed Birgitta saw in spirit a splendid light coming forth from the aforesaid vessel, and, wondering, heard a voice saying thus: Behold! The treasure of God, which is honoured in heaven, is despised on earth; therefore let us migrate to other places: which she hearing, and repenting, had it fittingly placed on the altar. When she was at Orchona * in the kingdom of Naples for the sake of pilgrimage, St. Thomas the Apostle, whose relics are there, appeared to her, saying: Return here again, and I will fulfil your desire. When, therefore, she returned there a second time, again the blessed Apostle came and said: I will give you what you have long desired; and without delay, no one touching or otherwise pushing it, a small fragment of a bone of the Apostle of Christ leapt from the reliquary into the hands of the holy Woman, which she, receiving joyfully, also took care to preserve reverently. For there were present then the lord Thomas, bishop of Växjö [bb], with many others, who are witnesses of this miracle.

[64] and love she was borne. There was in the city of Naples, in the monastery of nuns which is called of the Holy Cross, a certain sister, Clara by name, of holy life, as was said, who had obtained some of the hairs of the Virgin Mary, as she said, from Queen Sancia [cc] on this condition, that she should impart the most holy relics to no person except one through whom she knew most certainly they would be honoured. When therefore Bl. Mary * came to the same city, the aforenamed handmaid of Christ caused her to be called to her, and, delivering to her the precious treasure, said: For God's sake I ask you to hold it commended, and to venerate it as is fitting, because I have been taught to assign it to you. Guard therefore and preserve diligently the deposit which I commend to you today, and this shall be a sign to you that I speak these things: that I shall soon die, and come to that my Lord whom my soul has loved and loves above all things. Surviving a few days after this, one day, while she was still in health, she asked that the Sacraments of the Church be ministered to her, fortified with which she entered upon the way of all flesh. And when blessed Birgitta was anxious about the truth of the matter, she who knew the truth appeared to her and said: Just as it is believed, and is true, that I was born of Joachim and Anne, so it is true that these hairs grew on my head. Thus Mary; and so indeed the reason of a certain spiritual affinity required that the pledge of the Mother should be committed to the Bride of the Son.

ANNOTATIONS.

g. St. Catherine.

p. See number 300 and following.

q. In Apulia. See number 298 of the preliminary Commentary.

r. The body of St. Ambrose rests at Milan in the basilica of his name; the chief relics of St. Augustine at Pavia in Insubria. See what was said in our Work at the 28th day of August.

s. St. Francis has been treated at length in our Work at the 4th day of October. Of this pilgrimage of St. Birgitta it was treated in numbers 289 and the three following of the preliminary Commentary. Assisi is a city of Umbria.

t. Especially venerated at Nidaros (commonly Drontheim) in Norway: the 29th day of July is sacred to him, at which he has been brought into our Work. See number 123 of the preliminary Commentary.

u. In the year 1372 at Naples.

x. Her other son.

y. Skara is situated in Västergötland, a province of Sweden.

z. Daughter of John I, count of Namur, married to Magnus, King of Sweden; whose court mistress St. Birgitta at one time was. See more in §8 of the preliminary Commentary.

aa. King of the Gauls, whose deeds you have illustrated at length among us at the 25th day of August.

bb. Växjö is a city of Småland in Sweden.

cc. See the Annotations on chapter 3, letter q.

supply: non* [not]

perhaps: famulatam esse cognovi* I have known her to have served?

perhaps revertebatur* she returned?

qui* [who]

Ortona*

read Birgitta*

CHAPTER V.

On her modesty and chastity, her fasts and penances.

She cultivated chastity perpetually; Although Bl. Birgitta had been bound by marriage, yet it is proved that she was always most chaste and most modest, and loved continence more than carnal union. For, as she was accustomed to relate to her daughter Catherine, before she married she desired to serve God as much as possible in holy virginity all * of her life, and would rather, as she said, have undergone death than matrimony: but when she was being betrothed to a husband, although an elegant one, not willingly but resisting, she nevertheless at length consented to her parents. Having been betrothed, therefore, to the magnificent man, the lord Ulf of Ulfåsa, Prince ^a of Närke, putting off the embrace for about two years they prayed continually that, if they were to come together, they might beget such offspring as would never offend God, but would serve Him unweariedly; and, the marriage having been consummated, every time they were to return to the same thing, sending prayer before, they asked the more earnestly that it might not happen to them to sin, but that they might produce from themselves good fruit pleasing to God: and in Lent, avoiding union, the husband lay in the bed, but she upon a carpet laid upon a bench ^b. The Lord Alphonsus bears her testimony that she was so well-mannered and honourable in her bearing that it could well be conjectured that the virtue of chastity was inborn in her: for she did not even raise the gaze of her eyes from the ground, but with great modesty and gravity, her one and only husband having died, she wished to no other henceforth

be joined, but, embracing and loving her Creator with chaste and faithful love, and devoting herself wholly to Him, she merited to receive the same her God and Lord and the son of the Virgin, Jesus Christ, as her spouse.

[66] wherefore she was received by Christ Hence it is that in the first book of the Revelations, chapter 38, the Father speaks to the Son, saying: Behold, son, I assign this new Bride to Thee, etc. Hence also in the second chapter of the same book the Spouse says to the Bride: I have chosen you and taken you to me as Bride, to show you my secrets, because it so pleases me. You also have become mine by a certain right, since at the death of your husband you assigned your will into my hands; since also, when he was dead, you thought and asked how you could be poor for me, and wished to leave all things for me: and therefore you have become mine by right, and it behoved me to provide for you for so great a charity; therefore I take you to me as Bride and for my own delight, such as befits God to have with a chaste soul. Thus there. Hence moreover it befits her, as an accepted Bride, to be adorned and prepared for the nuptials: since in the place noted above He immediately speaks to the same, saying: It pertains therefore to the Bride to be ready, when the Spouse wishes to make the nuptials, so that she may be fittingly adorned and clean.

[67] as Bride, You are well cleansed then, if your thought is always about your sins, how I cleansed you in Baptism from the sin of Adam, how often I bore with and sustained you when you had fallen into sins: the Bride also ought to have the signs of her Spouse on her breast, that is, to attend to the benefits and works which I have done for you, namely, how nobly I created you, giving you body and soul; how nobly I enriched you, giving health and temporal things; how sweetly I brought you back to grace, when I died for you and restored to you the lost inheritance, if you will have it. The Bride ought also to do the will of the Spouse, which is my will, but that she should wish to love me above all, and to wish nothing else but me. Hence it is also that the heavenly Spouse delivers the same His Bride to His provident and faithful servant to be guarded and nourished. For the angel speaks to Christ in chapter 16 of book 6: Praise be to Thee, my Lord, from all Thy host for all love; Thou didst assign to my keeping this Bride standing here. Behold, I reassign her to Thee again, etc. Hence also He promises that spiritual sons are to be begotten of her, when in the first book, chapter 20, He says to the same, among other things: For you shall be fruitful with spiritual seed, to profit many, etc.

[68] Again, the Virgin Mother of God, a little before the death of the Bride herself, spoke to her, saying: and by the Mother of God If a sick woman gives birth, all the sons whom she bears are sickly: but you will bear sons healthy and strong and devoted to God, and therefore you will be healed better than you ever were before, and you will not die; but you will live, and you will come to the place promised and prepared for you. For St. Francis was ill for a long time, and yet then he bore fruit, and did the will of God; but afterwards he was healed, and does greater things than when sick. But you may ask why your infirmity is so prolonged, and your nature and strength consumed? I answer you that my Son told you in Jerusalem that your sins had been forgiven you when you entered the temple of His holy sepulchre, as if you had then been lifted from Baptism; but He did not tell you that you should suffer nothing as long as you live in this life. Therefore it is the will of God that the charity of man should answer to the charity of God, and that what has been neglected should be washed away through penance. Remember moreover that I have often told you that the words of my Son and mine can be understood spiritually and bodily, as I told you in Stralsund ^c: that if before the completion of these words you should be called from the world, you will nevertheless, on account of your good will, be reckoned a nun, and you will also be a partaker of all things promised to you. Thus Mary, chapter 67 of the Extravagant Revelations.

[69] This word is perhaps said for this reason, because, as daughter-in-law as is contained at the end of her brief Legend, it had been promised to her by her Spouse that she was to be clothed and consecrated as a nun before the altar of the Spouse Himself. Likewise, six days before her happy passing, she who is mentioned above spoke, saying: What do the physicians say? Is it not that you will die? Truly, daughter, they do not consider what it is to die: for he dies who is separated from God, who is hardened in sin, who does not vomit forth the uncleannesses of his sins through confession; he also is dead who does not believe God, nor loves his Creator; but he lives and does not die who always fears God, who purges his sins by confessing, who desires with all his effort to come to his God. But because the God of natures speaks with you, who also disposes against nature and holds your life, therefore in medicines there is neither health nor life; but neither is it necessary to rely on medicines, because a little time needs little food. Finally the kindly Mother of Christ thought the Bride of her Son should be called her daughter-in-law, as you have in book 6, chapter 88, saying: Just as my Son has given you the name of His new Bride, so I now call you the Daughter-in-law of my Son; for as a father and mother, growing old and resting, lay the burden on the daughter-in-law and tell her the things which are to be done in the house; so God and I, grown old and cold in the hearts of men through their charity, wish to make known our will to our friends in the world through you.

[70] Accordingly, the Bride, languishing with love of so great and so lovely a Spouse, though most chaste, and held familiarly by both. propped up with the flowers of virtues and compassed about with the apples of her virtuous acts, made Him fly to her with the nod of her eyes; and rushing into His embraces, and asking to be kissed with the kiss of His mouth, gladdened with ineffable delights with Him, she could truly say: Delights in Thy right hand even to the end. With what delight indeed the mother of modesty and nursling of chastity very frequently enjoyed her most excellent and most chaste heavenly Spouse, beautiful in form above the sons of men, you will be able to find in chapter 32 of the first book; where Christ asks her, saying: Tell me a third time, whether the delight of the flesh which you had before pleases you, or the delight of the Spirit which you have now? And she answered: It is a shame in my heart to think of that former delight of the flesh, and it is now to me as poison, and the more bitter now, the more fervently I loved it before. For I would rather die than ever return to it, and there is no comparison of this spiritual delight to that. The Bride of Christ was once tempted by unclean thoughts, and the Virgin Mary, appearing to her, said: The devil is like an unclean spy, seeking to accuse and hinder the good; therefore strive and pray whenever you are tempted, because good desire and effort will be imputed to you for prayer; and if you cannot cast out from your mind the filthy things that come, those efforts will be reckoned to you for a crown, so long as you do not consent to those filthy thoughts and they are against your will.

[71] A very hard The Handmaid of God continually mortified her flesh in many ways and compelled it to serve the spirit, chastising her body with the Apostle and bringing it into servitude, lest, while she preached to others or instructed others, she herself should become reprobate. In which matter, applying herself to vigils, fasts and disciplines, and other penances and afflictions of the flesh, she presented her body to God a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, her reasonable service nonetheless; as Pope Boniface IX, explaining it in very brief words in his letters, says: After her husband's death, out of reverence for the Holy Trinity, she wore next to her bare flesh a certain cord of hemp ^d with many knots, tightly bound. And likewise round each leg below the knees she wore a cord likewise knotted, even in time of infirmity: nor did she use linen cloths, except on the head. She wore rough garments next to the flesh, but outwardly not according to the condition of her person, but very humble and mean ones; and not only did she observe those vigils or fasts which holy mother Church orders, but she added many others besides, so that even beyond the Church's command she fasted four times a week; and likewise, while her husband had not yet ended his life, and after his death continually until a few years before her happy passing, clothed in her usual garments, upon a carpet, without straw, mattress or the like, placed on the ground or pavement, she refreshed with slight and short sleep her body wearied by prayers and abstinences and divine labour.

[72] manner of life she used On every Friday, also, the most blessed Bride of Christ, in memory of the most sacred passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, content with bread and water only, did not omit the fast. While she also passed many other days with similar abstinence out of reverence for various Saints; and whether she abstained by fasting or otherwise sat at table, since she was most sober, she rose from table not sated but refreshed. On the same Fridays also she melted glowing and burning drops from lighted wax candles upon her bare flesh, so that burnt scars remained continually; and she kept gentian ^e, a most bitter herb, or its root, in her mouth. Moreover, while living at Rome, caring neither for the rigour of cold, nor the heats of summer, nor the hindrances of a muddy way, nor the harshness of rains, or of snows or hail, she visited on foot the stations ordered at the several churches and various other holy churches, although she could have gone on horseback according to her means, yet striving beyond the strength of her emaciated body. Every day she used so many and such long genuflections that her knees grew stiff into the hardness, so to speak, of camels. Thus far Boniface ^f.

[73] But so that what has been said of fasting and abstinence may be discussed more fully, kind of life, it is to be known that throughout the whole round of the year (as has also been said before) she fasted on Fridays on bread and water. Likewise she kept with equal fast the vigils of the glorious Virgin Mother of God, of the Most Holy Trinity, of Corpus Christi, of the Holy Angels, the Octave of all the holy Apostles, of St. John the Baptist, of John before the Latin Gate, of Lawrence, Vincent, Clement, Denis, Sebastian, Olaf king of Norway, of the holy confessors Nicholas, Benedict, Francis, Sigfrid, of the holy Virgins Catherine, Agnes, Margaret, Cecilia and Agatha, and also of Magdalene. When sitting at table with her husband also, the more sumptuous dishes being cautiously set aside, she used

coarser ones ^g; and, what is still more, and a proclamation of great virtue and continence, fearing at times to be reproved by the same her partner, who scorned the fast of bread and water, sitting indeed with him at table, having with her a silver vessel closed above with a cover, in which she secretly kept pure water, she pretended to eat the same things as he; but in reality she was then refreshed only with bread and water.

[74] For she fled boasting above all, and avoided singularity as far as she could, so that her fervour in this matter humbly making herself equal to the manners of each; whence, if at any time it happened that she sat with magnates, she put a small morsel of each dish to her mouth, pretending to eat of all, while she abstained from almost all. She was so fervent in spirit that she did not fear cold, nor heat, nor any troubles or inconveniences of the body, so as to fail to carry out the vigour of soul she had conceived. Wherefore she was sometimes reproved and admonished by her confessors and spiritual men, nay, even by heaven, about excessive penances and excessive labours. Whence in book 6, chapter 91, it is written that, when the Bride herself was so weakened in head and body by fasts and vigils and other things that she became less capable of the divine words, Christ said to her: Go and give the body moderate necessaries; because it so pleases me that the flesh should have moderate necessaries and the soul not be hindered from spiritual things on account of its defect.

[75] And in book 4 Agnes speaks to Birgitta, saying: had more than once to be restrained. Daughter, stand firm and do not go back, because the biting serpent lies before your heels: nor yet go forward more than is due, because the point of a sharp lance stands before you, by which, if you go forward more than is right, you will be wounded. As also is written in book 6, chapter 17, in the Addition, the Bride of Christ was at another time tempted so gravely with gluttony, etc. Likewise, when similarly, while her husband was living, she had had her bed made by a certain carpenter more solemnly and more elaborately than usual in her house on the estate of Ulfåsa; then she was struck on the head as if by a hand so violently that she could scarcely move for pain. Led to another part, she heard as if from the wall a voice saying to her thus: I did not stand, but hung on the cross; nor did my head have a place to recline, and you seek for yourself such elaborateness and rest. Having heard these things, therefore, bitterly bewailing the fault committed, she was at once healed, and afterwards, when she could, she slept rather on straw and a bearskin than in a bed, etc. Note diligently and do likewise.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. That is, a Bench.

c. A town of Pomerania.

supply: diebus* days

BOOK II

On the graces received and the divine charisms.

PROEM:

God adorned Birgitta with various graces, to be described in this book. The blessed God, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, has been wont to show His Saints, chosen from eternity, as eminent, adorning them notably with many miracles in this world, so that, as their merits seemed to Him alone who discerns all things, by signs betraying them He might make known to men also what kind of persons they were; so that, of those whose excellence of signs they wondered at, they might follow the faith, imitate the purpose and attain to the virtue of works: whence God would not only appear wonderful in His Saints, but would also become praiseworthy. Hence it is that, Christ had decreed to call Bl. Birgitta His Bride on account of her excessive love and the singular prerogative of her virtues, He willed to exalt her with very many privileges of charisms, so that from the manifest proclamations of her gifts the marks of her hidden virtues also should be conjectured, and that she who before was known by virtue of mind to God alone should by the grace of God Himself, the bestower, become manifest to men also. And indeed, because she was wonderfully adorned with the privilege of heavenly visions and revelations, by which the secrets of very many were often disclosed, divine Providence brought it about that her lofty praises also should be revealed by visions and revelations. For, to say nothing of the others which appeared either before or after her most worthy birth, and which are recorded in the Legend recounted, I turn only to those which happened afterwards, which, because they are the presages of all her gifts, are treated in the first place in this second book, which is entitled of the graces received.

supply: cum* since

perhaps et quæ ante* and she who before?

CHAPTER I.

On the Visions and Revelations which very many pious persons had concerning her, and on her grace of healings.

There was, then, a certain lay-brother, To various persons it was revealed how great Gerbin ^a by name, in the kingdom of Sweden, in the monastery of Alvastra of the Cistercian Order ^b, who in forty years never went out of his monastery: but, giving himself to prayers days and nights, he merited this grace, that he saw the nine choirs of Angels in prayer almost daily, and at the elevation of the body of Christ often beheld Christ in the form of a little boy: this brother, when blessed Birgitta had come to the monastery ^c and was residing there, said, adjuring in his heart: Why does this Lady sit here in the monastery of monks, introducing a new custom against our Rule? Then, rapt in a certain ecstasy of mind, he heard a voice clearly saying to him: Do not wonder: this is a friend of God, and she has come for this, that under this mountain she may gather flowers, from which many even beyond the sea and as far as the ends of the world may receive medicine. Again the same brother saw her raised from the earth, and as it were a river coming forth from her mouth, and then he heard in spirit: This is the Woman who, coming from the ends of the earth, will pour out wisdom to the nations; and this shall be a sign to you, that she will tell you from the mouth of God the end of your life, and you will exult in her words and her coming, and your desire will be fulfilled the more quickly, so that you may not see the evils which the Lord is to pronounce over this house.

[78] The Prior of the aforesaid monastery ^d, confessor of Bl. Birgitta, asserted that he had heard from her in confession St. Birgitta would be, what he had nevertheless also received from the lord Thomas, bishop of Växjö ^e, and from the lord Sigismund, bishop of Strängnäs ^f, namely that there had been a nun of holy life in that same diocese of Strängnäs, in the monastery of the Holy Mount, also of the Cistercian Order, in the kingdom of Sweden ^g, Catherine by name, who had obtained this grace from God, that the Virgin Mary, appearing to her, among many things which she spoke to her, said this also: I will show you, she said, that I am the Mother of God, and I will present you to my Son: and so this lady, when she was speaking familiarly with Bl. Birgitta, said to her: Attend, O lady Birgitta, for I do not set this forth for your boasting nor for my praise, but having regard only to the honour of God; for I heard in my prayer a voice saying to me thus: Know that it will yet be said: Happy Birgitta, who, though now she is despised on earth, will be honoured in heaven, and those who are to be born will proclaim her name. Therefore be constant, because without doubt, as I have heard, so it will be accomplished.

[79] In the first month in which Bl. Birgitta came ^h to the monastery of St. Mary of Alvastra, it was revealed: there appeared to her in prayer a certain dead Lady, very well known to her, saying: There will be given to you the understanding of spiritual things: therefore humble yourself in all things; and that you may know more certainly that I say these things, I will give you a threefold sign: First, that for the obstinacy of my conscience I have been grievously purged. Second, that my husband, who now is not my husband, is seeking to be joined to another against God, which will turn to tribulation both for himself and for his posterity. Third is that you will cross the sea and will die in a glorious place, namely at Rome ⁱ. The same appeared to her a second time, saying: I wish to show you my state, because it so pleases God that, as we loved each other living in the flesh, so we may now love in the spirit. I, speaking by a similitude, am placed as it were in thick glass, able indeed to hear, but not yet to come to what I desire. So I can understand and desire and hope for those eternal and most desired joys, but I have not yet arrived at them fully, until at God's will the glass becomes thinner and finer; and this is because two things weighed upon me in the world, namely the ease of the way *, and that I was less content with the things which I had, always aspiring to have more. Wherefore induce those who were my friends to have chalices made, in which that most precious blood of our Redeemer, shed for the redemption and salvation of all, may be sanctified, and to offer them to God for me. Secondly, that for a year memory be made of me by those who are friends of God; for by such suffrages, without doubt, I shall the more quickly be rescued from this punishment. Again, seeing the aforesaid Lady in a vision, she heard from her: What I desired I now have: for the former torments have been delivered to oblivion, and love is now perfect. But do you be obedient, because you are to come into the company of the great.

[80] standing upon a column as it were, Likewise a certain Lady of the kingdom of Sweden, of the city of Scocolyn ^k, when she was on pilgrimage near St. James in Galicia, saw in a certain church a Crucifix painted on the wall, and, gazing on it diligently with devotion and compassion, she heard a voice saying to her: Wherever you see this image, there you will remain, and there you will die: returning therefore to her fatherland, she remained at home for some time; then, taking the road towards Rome, when she had entered the city of Montefiascone ^l, she saw in the house of a certain lady an image like that which she had previously seen in Spain, which spoke to her thus: Here you will enter and will remain: and I will incline the mind of the lady of this house to give you a dwelling in it. Being received there, therefore, she remained in reclusion, and, persevering in many tears, fasts and prayers, she led an exemplary and miraculous life; at length, as she herself related to Bl. Birgitta and to the lord Peter, her confessor, she once saw in sleep a column, upon which stood a Lady of middle stature, whom many crowds standing round looked at and wondered at: and from her mouth there came forth as it were dew, and white and red roses, by whose odour men were gladdened. And waking on the following night she heard a voice saying to her: She whom you have seen is the lady Birgitta, at Rome

dwelling, your lady, who will bring wine from distant parts mingled with roses and will give it to thirsty pilgrims.

[81] to another as adorned with 7 crowns, Raechmund, a Prior of the Order of Preachers, believing with difficulty in this grace of divine Revelations, saw while sleeping fire descending from heaven upon blessed Birgitta: wondering therefore, and waking from sleep and thinking it an illusion, he fell asleep again, and then saw that that fire, coming forth from the mouth of the aforesaid Lady, much inflamed those standing round; and he also heard a voice resounding: Who will be able to prevent this fire from going forth? For I, the divine Power itself, will send it forth to the East and the West, to the North and the South. And after this the aforesaid Prior became * a confirmer and defender of the grace granted to the Handmaid of Christ, and a confirmer of her holy words, and devoted to her. Sveningo, a monk, who was afterwards made abbot of Varnhem of the Cistercian Order ^m, while accompanying the Pilgrim chosen by God to St. James, fell gravely ill on the way; and, being rapt out of himself for an hour, he saw the Bride of the eternal King as it were crowned with seven crowns, and he saw the sun wholly blackened: and, wondering, he heard from a certain most beautiful person standing by him words of this kind: Behold, what I say is wonderful: this great sun, who is the prince of this kingdom of Sweden, who had shone like the sun, will be darkened, and will be most despised, and a reproach of men. But this woman Birgitta will have the spirit of the sevenfold grace of God, which the seven crowns which you have seen signify; and this shall be a sign to you, that you will be healed of this infirmity, and will return to your own, and will be raised to a higher degree. Who, afterwards returning, was made abbot, advancing from virtue to virtue, and grew strong in much devotion.

[82] There was a certain brother John de Pormaton ⁿ, as the opinion of many testified, sometimes as if in the air truly spiritual and very devout: he testified under oath that, while he was returning in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, near the Colosseum ^o, he saw the handmaid of Christ, accompanied by very many, going to the said church in the air, raised as it were two cubits, and, like a ship upon water, ploughing the air with firm step: the man, terrified, fearing lest perhaps he was deceived in his sight, with his eyes fixed attentively on her for some space, beheld her with amazement as she fairly flew along. Likewise a second time, while the solemnities of Masses were being celebrated at the high altar of the aforenamed church, the Epistle having been sung, he saw her, as before, raised from the earth, * walking on high. Again a third time the same man beheld her from afar hastening from the church of the Holy Cross [p], and then her face radiant as the sun; at which, moved with no small wonder, lest the keenness of his eyes should perhaps go astray in this vision, he waited for her, gazing at her more diligently, but always beheld her face shining so much that, for the greatness of the brightness, he could not look at her. And when the most holy Woman, to be wondered at by all, had passed on a little, brother John, turning and bending back his gaze to her, confessed that he had seen as it were rays of sunlight proceeding behind her back and ascending towards heaven.

[83] Finally brother Angelus of Spain, priest and hermit of Montecervo, testifies she was seen raised up, and appeared to one absent. that, when he was at Rome in one chamber with brother Andrew of Lucca, blessed Birgitta, who was in the same house, caused him to be called through a certain nephew of hers: then he, with the licence of brother Andrew, went to her, and while he was descending by the stair *, it had seemed to him that the happy Widow was of a higher stature than usual: but he did not know whether she was suspended in the air or not. It seemed to him also that as it were a certain splendour shone forth from her face, by which he could not at all recognize her, until she had finished her speech with him: and then the brightness vanished, and the Bride of Christ appeared in the accustomed stature of her body. While the Handmaid of God was still living, the lord bishop of Åbo [q] was discharging a divine legation in France and England: and when he saw the kings of the aforesaid kingdoms less well disposed to receiving the words of God which touch the war of the same kingdoms, and which are contained in some chapters of book 4 of the Revelations, being troubled in heart, he was meanwhile consumed with no small grief of mind; to whom, as he slept, Bl. Birgitta appeared, saying: Why are you troubled? You will return to your fatherland prosperously, and bearing fruit of souls. But know that the plague of those to whom you have been sent will not yet be finished, because their hearts are hardened against God, and they will yet be troubled until they are humbled.

[84] While she was still alive, Just as Christ, living bodily in the world, when He had most ardently procured the salvation of souls by words of doctrine, at times betook Himself mystically to healing bodies, so that by what He visibly wrought outwardly He might prove Himself inwardly the physician of souls: so it befell the Bride of Christ: for when Christ, with great charity, had put forth through her to a world already declining hostile words, so to speak, salutarily healing the sicknesses of souls; He nevertheless willed to restore to their pristine health through the same woman bodies infected with various languors, so that, while from a miracle done and wrought in the body the right hand of the Most High was evident in her, it might be believed by all that it was He who spoke through her for healing the souls of the faithful. And so the lady Catherine, wife of the late lord Nicholas, knight, confessed on oath that her little son, Charles by name, being then of tender age, had suffered violently and continuously for two years from epilepsy; on account of which she, exceedingly anxious and sad, humbly besought by writing Bl. Birgitta, then living at Rome, that she would deign to pray the Lord for her son. To whom she answered by writing that she ought no longer to be troubled or saddened about her son's infirmity, knowing for certain that it would harm him no further, and so it was done: for in the very hour in which the letter was being written at Rome, as was found out in truth, the boy was being healed in his fatherland.

[85] a twofold epilepsy, And at Rome, going round the sanctuaries, she found on one occasion a poor woman named Dyoretur, of the kingdom of Norway, lying alone half-dead before the doors of the Church of St. Praxedes [r]; seeing her, and pitying her calamity, she tried to carry her personally to the hospice of St. Anthony, which was not far off; but, not prevailing alone, she accepted to be helped by the lord Magnus, her chaplain, and so both together carried her to the hospice. And afterwards, having her come to her house, and having learned that she suffered from the aforesaid disease, she prayed to the Lord, and, having given her from her own a Pater noster as a small gift for protection, she was at once freed from that sickness; so much so that it never again attacked her as long as she lived.

[86] hectic fever, In the city of Naples a boy named Esau, son of the lord Manets of Piedmont, nephew of the Lord Nicholas Acciaiuoli [s] of Florence [t], formerly grand seneschal of the queen [u] of Sicily, being about ten years old, very ill from a hectic sickness, consumed and dried up in body so much that he was altogether despaired of by the physicians, was presented to St. Birgitta by the lady Lapa, the boy's mother: for the mother besought the Bride of Christ earnestly for her son, that by her merits and intercessions she would succour the sick boy: whose body she handling in this manner, at length signed the sign of the Holy Cross upon his belly; by which the sick boy, at once recovering, was restored to perfect health.

[87] Likewise at Rome a boy of seven years, Genalus by name, a flux of the belly, son of the illustrious man the lord Latino Orsini, who with his wife the lady Soritia was joined with singular devotion and familiarity to the venerable Widow, had incurred a flux of the belly with most acute continuous fevers, which he suffered for very many days, and, abandoned by the physicians, was thought by no means likely to escape. And the boy's mother, hearing this, her bowels were moved over her son, and, sending in haste, she besought the Handmaid of Christ with great devotion: for she said within herself: If she will only come and touch my son, he will be safe. What more? The holy Woman comes to the house, enters the chamber, puts all out, and at once sets herself to prayer: finally, going to the boy lying on his little bed, she placed the fringe of her mantle over him, and, joining her face closely to the boy's face, she lay upon him for a short while: and rising, she said to the little child: Sleep, son, sleep; and, having called the mother, whom she had first ordered to go out with all the rest, she said: The boy does not die, but sleeps; and went away. And the boy, roused from sleep after a little, having asked for and received the clothes with which he was accustomed to be dressed, rose healthy from his little bed, and soon, going out of the house, was playing with his companions of the same age.

[88] The lord Robert, formerly canon of St. John Major at Naples, of mind but afterwards a Cistercian monk, having become demented through indiscreet abstinence, as was thought, was at length perfectly cured by the prayers of the holy Woman; concerning whom Christ spoke through a Revelation of St. Birgitta, saying: A man had been hired to cultivate a field or a vineyard, in which he had to sweat for not a few days: but he, by greed of money, wishing to gain the whole in one day, fell ill through excessive labour: whereby that field or vineyard was for the greater part left uncultivated; because he could labour no further, and so he lost his wage, and the work remained unfinished. Such was this Robert, for whom you pray, who will also be freed from this infirmity.

[89] Here seems to be the place to continue what is established to have been done in the city of Florence concerning a certain raving notary: delirium, for he had come to such madness that he was bound with iron chains, lest in his fury he should happen to attack anyone. And when he had at times lucid intervals, he grieved most bitterly, and, despairing of human help, sent his letters to the Bride of Christ, living at Rome, in which he begged her to intercede for him with God. After this he saw in sleep the most glorious John, whom he loved with especial love, with a certain venerable woman standing by him and saying: This Woman is from distant parts, who intercedes for you at Rome: give thanks therefore to God, because you will soon be healed; who, writing back, related the order of what had happened to his Intercessor, giving her thanks.

[90] Moreover, as she was visiting the holy places in the kingdom of Sicily, broken ribs, when she had descended from Monte Gargano [x] to the city of Manfredonia [y], master Thomas, bishop of Växjö [z], companion of her pilgrimages, by an accident fell so gravely from his horse that two of his ribs were broken; who, having summoned to him in the morning the Bride of Christ, who was about to set out for St. Nicholas of Bari [aa], said: O Lady! it is most grievous for me to remain here without your presence, most pleasing to me, and I think it no less grievous for you to stay here on our account: I ask you therefore by the lover

your Jesus Christ, that, having poured forth pious prayers to Him for me, you would handle my side with your most holy hand in His name. Then the pious Mother, tears welling up out of compassion, said: O Lord, I am reckoned to be what I am not, worthy; for I am a sinner and unworthy before God; nevertheless let us all together pray God that He may satisfy your faith. Praying therefore and rising, she touched the bishop's side, saying: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal you. She had scarcely finished the words when the swelling vanished, the pain departed, and he rose healthy, gladly continuing the journey begun.

[91] of the side, In Italy, in the castle of Sermoneta [bb], which belongs to the count of Fondi [cc], Catherine of Flanders, a maidservant of the Bride of Christ, was so oppressed with grave fevers and a stitch of the left side that little hope was had of her life: the lady Catherine, therefore, daughter of Bl. Birgitta, seeing that it was not lawful to go away thus, leaving the sick woman behind, and that to wait there for her would be very unfavourable on account of many and great expenses and some inconveniences, besought her Mother to pray the Lord for the maidservant's health; and when this was also commanded by the lord Peter, her confessor, at once, at her father's command, prostrated on the ground in the form of a Cross, her mouth applied to the ground, she prayed for a while: and rising, she called the maidservant by name, who at once leapt up healthy and, all wondering, rode with the rest.

[92] and pains of the head, When the lord Latino Orsini, whom I mentioned a little above, was on one occasion burning with great fevers, Bl. Birgitta, coming to visit him, said to him in a friendly way, whispering in his ear: Take comfort; because God does not will that you should die now. When at a certain time the noble widow was going to Resgotia [dd], the lord Magnus, the chaplain who accompanied her, when he had come near Lödöse [ee], began to be so gravely ill in the head that he could in no way ride; and when morning came, since the holy Mother had decided to continue the journey begun, because she was anxious about delay on account of the lack of victuals and the place being less safe; the priest, hearing this, caused her to be called to him, and said: Do not, I pray, Lady, leave me desolate here among the beasts: I ask therefore, place your hand upon my head, and I hope that I shall be healed by your prayers. Her confessor therefore assenting, she touched the head of the confessor *, saying: O my most kind Jesus, heal him; at which word the sick man rose, and, having become stronger than he had ever been before, mounted his horse.

[93] also in Peter of Alvastra, At that time also when the Bride of Christ was still residing in the monastery of Alvastra [ff], at the very beginning, Christ appeared to her, saying: Say on my behalf to brother Peter the subprior that I am like a Lord whose Sons were held captive in hard stocks, who sent his envoys that his sons might be freed and might beware lest they fall into the hands of their enemies, whom they thought friends: so I, God, have many sons among Christians who are held captive by the most grievous snares of the devil; therefore out of charity I send them my words, which I speak through a woman. Hear her, therefore, you, brother Peter, and write in the Latin tongue all the words which she shall say to you on my behalf, and I will give you for every letter, not gold or silver, but a treasure which will not grow old. Having heard these things, brother Peter took a truce for deliberation: at length, out of humility, he was disposed to reject the burden, partly judging himself unworthy of so great a work, and partly wavering somewhat about an illusion of the devil. While, therefore, he was turning these things over with himself, he was divinely struck one evening in the church, and at once fell as if dead: for, the action of all his spiritual and bodily powers being taken away, he had only his understanding sound. The monks, therefore, finding him thus prostrate on the ground, carrying him to his cell, laid him down upon his bed, where he lay half-alive for a great space of the night.

[94] At length, by divine dispensation, such a thought came into his mind: who was the writer of her revelations, she healed. Perhaps, he said, I suffer this because I feared to obey the divine command; and he said: O Lord God! If this is the cause, spare me, for behold I am ready to obey Thee. Consent having thus been made in his heart, he was healed without any delay, and, going to the lady Birgitta, he offered himself ready for all things: who also merited to be made the writer of the sacred revelations and the venerable confessor of Bl. Birgitta (as was said at the beginning of this book). Likewise Christ speaks to her about the same: I struck him, because he would not obey, and afterwards I healed him; because I am that physician who healed Tobias and the king of Israel: Say therefore to him: Set to, and turn over and over the work of the writings of my words, and write, because I will give master Matthias, a master in my law, the things which you shall write from the mouth of this Woman, whereby the mighty shall be humbled and the wise shall be struck dumb: know most certainly that I wish to do such a work through my words; nor believe that these words which this Woman has spoken to you proceed from the evil spirit; because what I say I will prove by works. Again, when this same man suffered a vehement pain of the head from his boyhood, the Handmaid of God praying for him, he received complete health. For she, praying, heard: Go, tell brother Peter that he has been freed from the pain of the head. Let him therefore write boldly the books of my words revealed to you, because he will have helpers.

ANNOTATIONS.

c. About the year 1345.

p. That church is placed 13th in order among the churches of the second Region in Panciroli, in the Work on the hidden Treasures of the city of Rome, which I think is probably to be understood here.

q. Åbo is a city situated in Finland. And who by name was the bishop, the envoy of St. Birgitta to the kings of France and England, is hidden from me.

r. At the head of the Suburra by the Esquiline hill.

s. The same whose death St. Birgitta foretold when she was staying at Naples in the year 1366, as was said in number 311 of the preliminary Commentary.

t. In Tuscany.

u. Joanna, who raised him to this office, as Summonte also writes in book 3 of the History of Naples, page 471, after the death of Robert de Cabani, who died in the year 1345.

x. Read Gargano: it is situated in Apulia.

y. Read: Manfredonia, a town of Apulia.

z. In Sweden.

aa. Bari is an archiepiscopal city in Apulia.

bb. Of the Roman Campagna.

cc. Fondi, an episcopal city of Latium.

dd. I suspect one should read was going into Västergötland, in which is Lödöse, mentioned a little after. I have found no place in Sweden which is called Resgotia.

ee. See letter dd here.

ff. About the year 1345.

supply: personæ* of persons

perhaps vitæ* of life?

* superfluous

perhaps sublatam* raised?

perhaps scalam* stair

capellani* of the chaplain

CHAPTER II.

On those oppressed by the Demon freed through her; on the odour of sulphur which she perceived in an offence against God, and on the gift of the revelations made to her.

A woman from an incubus demon The humble Bride of Christ had received no small power against the proud demons: for with this gift her Spouse had enriched His Bride, that, the power having been given her of treading upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy, nothing at all should harm those for whom she had resolved to pray. Whence in the city of Nola in the province of Campania there was a woman named Pretiolella ^a, advanced in age, but by no means beautiful, who was long troubled by an incubus demon: for when she gave herself to sleep and sleep came upon her, a strong and great man rushed upon her almost every night, and, overpowering her by force, had intercourse with her in act; so that all the signs which would remain in this vile matter after the deed appeared; and that spirit was always, according to the woman's judgment, tangible: but she could not at all recognize him, since he was always accustomed to extinguish the light before the intercourse. The woman began to suspect some of her neighbours, who, by truthful attestations and manifold excuses, fortified even by oath, throwing back * the calumny, the woman began to bolt the doors more strongly, and to call neighbouring matrons to stay with her by night, and prevent the violence, and recognize the perpetrator; and while they likewise watched, when sleep overpowered them, he came as before, and in the act she could not call those sleeping; further, thinking that the female sex was not fit for her defence, she called into the house her son-in-law, a high-spirited young man, and he lay down with her daughter together.

[96] And the man, struggling hard against sleep, compelled the women to keep strongly awake: in wretched manner so that he passed the whole night sleepless; but the wicked spirit, to show himself stronger than all, entered the house with a din, extinguished the light, and induced terror and drowsiness in all, and, they being thus laid prostrate on the ground, he oppressed the wretched woman in his usual manner. From this the woman began to perceive that it was the business of an unclean spirit; and, turning to God, she confessed several times and received the Sacrament of the Lord's body; nor yet did the malignant spirit cease from troubling her. Thereupon the woman, at the suggestion of certain persons, turned to the magic arts, carrying characters, and doing all that lying soothsayers suggested to her: and she also wound in the locks of her hair a certain charm with characters, shown to her by the priest Raymond; and so that the unhappy woman might cleave to these sorceries and consequently incur eternal damnation, the crafty serpent began from then on to trouble her more rarely; but nevertheless by no means desisted from all troubling; wherefore the woman, made anxious, went with tears and sobbing to the magnificent man the lord Nicholas, count of Nola, her lord, and kindly disposed to her with honourable familiarity, unfolding to him in order the case of her misery, hoping perhaps through

him a remedy of salvation could be conferred on her.

[97] He, wondering at the obscenity of so great a foulness, thought it should be conferred upon with the lord Alphonsus the hermit, troubled, who happened then to be at Nola: on whose sound counsel he sent the woman to Naples (where Bl. Birgitta was then living), to receive counsel and help likewise from her. And the Handmaid of God, hearing what had been done, asked the woman whether she kept on her anything pertaining to the magic art; she answered that she had nothing such; then she, full of the Holy Spirit, said: It is not as you say; but you hold in your hair what it is not lawful for Christians to have. The woman, stupefied, at once confessed the truth, casting away the charm by which she had been bewitched. Finally she ordered her to make her confessions again with true contrition of heart, to receive the Eucharist with fervent devotion on the following day, and meanwhile to practise fasting and prayer, by which every kind of demons is cast out. She doing these things, and the Handmaid of God praying for her, the devil was wholly put to flight and ceased from troubling her.

[98] Likewise, as is written in the 6th book, chapter 80, and others either from the demon, a certain woman was troubled by a demon, whose belly swelled so that she seemed as if about to give birth suddenly, etc.: See there. In the diocese of Skara ^b, near the castle of Prius, a certain woman presented to St. Birgitta, as is contained in chapter 81 of the aforesaid book, a son of three years, who could in no way be quieted except when cold water was sprinkled on him, etc.: See there. A certain demoniac in Östergötland ^c, of whose name the Prior of Alvastra, who recites this miracle, did not remember, in the presence of the lord Thomas, bishop of Växjö, and of master Matthias, professor of Sacred Theology, canon of Linköping, and of very many others, when this same Prior recited over him the words of Christ revealed to Bl. Birgitta and contained in the 34th chapter of the 6th book, was at once purged. In the same manner two possessed persons in the kingdom of Sweden were cleansed, the aforementioned priests seeing and wondering. The devil once seized a courier of Bl. Birgitta, who, pretending one day to have letters, came in to her, and, his sword drawn, wished to kill her: he, making terrible gestures for some days, was at length released, his Lady praying for him. When Bl. Birgitta was once lodging in the province of Uppland ^d, a certain poor little woman possessed by a demon was presented; when, first making a prayer over her, and then fortifying her face with the life-giving sign, the demon fled *.

[99] or from his The Prior relates, as he had received in confession from brother Nicholas, his monk, that the same Nicholas, Satan tempting him, had suffered for many years such hunger that on the night of the Lord's Nativity he could not hold out until the first Mass: he, with tears poured forth, begged the Handmaid of God to pray for him: and when she had made a special prayer for him, the brother, falling asleep at the hour in which the third Mass was being celebrated, saw a woman touching his lips and tongue, who said to him: Behold, you are healthy, rise: who, waking, never henceforth suffered such trouble. Indeed the Prior and he himself noted the hour, and truly found it to be that in which they learned that the Mother of modesty had made supplication for him. Likewise the Prior remembers having received from a certain maidservant of the lady Birgitta, who on account of affinity had been publicly separated from her husband by the bishop, on account of which the woman herself was exceedingly embittered and could not be quieted; it happened that Bl. Birgitta had the dialogue of the Gospels read before her: Then the woman, prostrating herself at the feet of the noble Widow, besought her to have mercy on her, disclosing her temptation to her: further, she, touched inwardly with compassion of heart, kneeling before God, begged all who were present to pray for her. And as they rose from prayer, while the reader meanwhile was reading in the Dialogue, the woman, as if dozing, saw, while Bl. Birgitta was bending her knees, as it were an Ethiopian coming forth from the middle of her breasts with a detestable stench; which stench she also breathed in on waking.

[100] temptations A certain religious, tempted for twelve years concerning the most holy Sacrament of the body of Christ, could not recall even the most excellent name of Mary without a filthy thought of blasphemy; whence he had long abstained from the Angelic salutation: he came therefore weeping to the Bride of Christ, and asked her to pray God for him; who was so freed that afterwards he rarely either heard or uttered the name of the most holy Mary without great gladness, and the body of Christ became so sweet to him that he could not be quiet on that day on which he did not celebrate Mass. This same man had long had the desire to visit the holy places in Jerusalem, but on account of obedience and profession he was not permitted; who, when he was at the point of death, was rapt, and saw all those places in spirit, just as those who saw them bodily, and when he had recounted the disposition of those places to those who had previously visited them, he was taken away exulting in the Lord.

[101] A certain harlot, converted to God through Bl. Birgitta, was following her master, she freed. who was at times so tempted by the malignant spirit that, dragging her from her bed repeatedly, he also visibly pressed her eyes. The woman, impatient at this, and fearing that death too might befall her from it, was thinking of returning to the vomit of sin, saying: It is better for me to live in time than to incur a violent death: but Bl. Birgitta, knowing these things through the Holy Spirit, in the presence of her confessor and of some others, said against the devil who was punishing her: Depart, O accursed devil, for you have crushed that woman enough. Then the woman, as if struck dumb, fixed her gaze on the ground for some space of time, and afterwards, raising herself, said to the Bride: Blessed are you, Lady, for truly I saw the devil going out in a most vile form; and from that hour, freed from the demon, she suffered neither filthy thoughts from then on nor was she broken by impatience.

[102] We have learned by experience that one infected with some stench does not easily perceive another who stinks: An offence against God committed she not rarely but if anyone is clean, he detects a bad odour in another very quickly; so it befell Bl. Birgitta, who, since she was perfectly clean from every stain of vices, so far as it is permitted to say, if at any time she had heard some deceitful or criminal words, or if anyone who was in mortal sin had stood before her, at once breathed in so great a stench of sulphur that she could scarcely bear it: whence, when she was at Famagusta ^e, brother Simon of the Order of Preachers, confessor of the prince of Antioch, the paternal uncle of the king of Cyprus, and a great theologian and astrologer, knowing many things and not knowing himself, came to the Handmaid of God, and, holding a fox's cunning under a sheep's appearance, speaking with her shrewdly about the grace of these divine revelations, searched out the truth: and when both were conversing together, the holy Mother was filled as it were with so great a stench of sulphur that all who were present could well notice that she was not a little wearied, from her bearing. Whence also, as he bade her farewell, she at once applied her hand to her nostrils, avoiding the vehemence of the stench.

[103] In like manner it befell her at Rome, when she had gone to the wife of the lord Giordano de Marino for the sake of a visit; she knew, whether in others or in herself, by smell for she breathed in so great a stench in her bearing and manners that she was not a little tormented in enduring it; for which reason the lord Magnus ^f and the lady Catherine, wondering what was in her, asked the lord Peter, her confessor; and being enlightened by him about the truth, they were silent. In chapter 87 of book 6 of the Revelations we read that one day, when the Bride of Christ had sat with a certain bishop and other nobles, she then perceived, etc.: See there. Moreover, if at any time she herself had uttered a word hateful to God from anyone, suddenly feeling no small bitterness in her throat and tongue, she perceived more certainly that she had offended God, and, recalling that word, delay being removed, she amended it by confessing with immense grief and outpouring of tears. For, returning from the parts of the East, she stayed for some days with the queen of Sicily ^g in the city of Aversa ^h: where Antonio de Carbeto, a money-changer, a citizen of Naples, known to the queen and very familiar, panting for honours and riches, asked her how she might suggest to the queen that she should kindly consent to him concerning a certain office of the customs-house ⁱ, then vacant.

[104] or by taste. The Bride of Christ assented improvidently, with no deliberation held, no prayer sent before, and no consultation of her spiritual father made; but at once she felt a most bitter taste of sulphur in her mouth and throat; at which, amazed, she began to pray, as one who, trembling lest she had offended God, though she did not know in what, began to waver. To whom Christ, having appeared, commanded the opposite of what she had promised Antonio, namely that she should persuade the queen not to provide Antonio with that office: and that she should also tell Antonio himself not to seek the benefice of that office: otherwise, if it fell out according to his wish, it would be to the no small detriment of his soul and of his temporal goods. Finally Bl. Birgitta withdrew from the place, and Antonio, having obtained what he coveted after about six years, when the account of the administration of the office had been received a little after by the queen's commissary, was found a debtor in a great quantity of money, from which, all that he had in his power being sold off, he was made like a beggar and a vagabond.

[105] She was renowned also Among the other charisms of the Holy Spirit granted to the Bride of Christ by her Spouse for ornament and comeliness, she was enriched with the most excellent spiritual gift of seeing and hearing: for the heavenly King deigned to reveal to His faithful Handmaid so many and so great heavenly secrets and hidden mysteries, hidden from the wise of the world, that the rashness of human faith can scarcely admit it, since, now God the Father in His own person, now through His Only-begotten, now through the most worthy Mother of the Only-begotten, and sometimes through Angels or Saints, appearing or speaking to her, they ministered to her infinite revelations, so to speak; from which revelations indeed the 7 heavenly books, and the eighth, which is called to the Kings, the Angelic Sermon, with many Extravagant Revelations excepted, have been compiled.

[106] for the gift of Revelations, In which Revelations also the sacred Scriptures are sometimes expounded, questions are solved, doubts are unravelled, hidden things are made manifest, and many future things are foretold; and, as was touched on in the first book, both supreme Pontiffs, with the other prelates of the church, and religious and clerics, and also kings with princes and magnates, knights, virgins and widows with married persons, singly or specially, with counties and kingdoms, are taught and informed, rebuked and besought, and are also salutarily terrified about imminent dangers and the judgments of God, so that almost no dignity, or grade, or state, whether ecclesiastical or secular,

there is no one, man or woman, who does not receive a special revelation or revelations befitting him; since even heretics, Jews also, and pagans are not exempt from this gift. But also souls existing in purgatory, and those paying the most bitter pains of hell, obtain the benefits of suffrages through the same revelations.

[107] some of which For who would not wonder? Who would not venerate the Lord in His Saints, who alone knows great wonders? Who, I say, would not extol with the highest praises this Mediatrix between God and men and bearer of the divine law, and would not sound forth worthy praises from the heart, humbly confessing himself her debtor for the increase of salvation, and affectionately embracing this great mercy shown through her to a world growing old? For, to say it with the peace of all (who do not envy, but rejoice together with, the sanctity of another, nay, the goodness of God), it has not been heard from the beginning of the world that God so opened the eyes and ears of anyone else as of His most humble Handmaid; for she was singularly endowed by her Spouse with this prerogative; to whom in the second book of the Revelations, chapter 18, it is said thus by Him: I have done three wonderful things with you, etc.: See there. Likewise in the sixth book, chapter 52, it is said: I, said Christ, do as a King, etc.: See there. And if you wonder at what I say, why so great a grace was granted to this woman, hear what Christ answered her, as she wondered, in chapter 15 of book 2. You wonder, said Christ to the Bride, why I speak such things and grant you so great things, etc.: See there. And if you mutter why He did not choose a person of a humbler or holier state for so great a work, Christ answers you in the same book 2, chapter 16, where He says: Many wonder why I speak with you, and not with others, etc.: See there.

[108] But if you hesitate whether they were had from the good Spirit or from the evil, are praised from the books of the revelations. Christ teaches you, who, rebuking the hesitating Bride in the first book, chapter 4, says thus: Why have you feared concerning my words, etc. See there. Likewise in book 4, chapter 14, Christ says to the Bride: Why do you fear and are anxious because the devil, etc. See there. Moreover the holy Mother, writing to the vicar of the lord Pope living at Rome, as you will be able to find in 77 * of book 4, began thus: To your honourable Paternity, etc.: Finally you will find the same words in very many other revelations also, if you please, whereby you may distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood. Finally, if this moves you, that these divine oracles are not received so quickly, nor so faithfully, by all; or certainly because many things said prophetically in them are deferred for a long time; although in my judgment it is established that many have already been fulfilled; listen to what He Himself who governs and knows all things says in this matter. For in the first book, chapter 52, the Virgin of virgins addresses her Son, saying: Blessed be Thou, my Son, and my God, etc. And again the flower of flowers, the Virgin Mary, in the second book, chapter 19, near the end, speaks to her Son, saying: Blessed be Thou, my Son, who art, and who wast. Likewise neither is that to be passed over which is written in book 6, chapter 100: For the Bride feared, as is said there, lest perhaps the words divinely revealed to her should be weakened and calumniated by all, etc. See there. You will find many other revelations also pertaining to this matter.

ANNOTATIONS.

g. Joanna.

perhaps Refellentibus* refuting?

fugavit* put to flight

* otherwise: 78

CHAPTER III.

On the spirit of Prophecy.

She foretold many things; If I wished to comprise in this chapter all the things which our great Prophetess saw, said and wrote by the prophetic spirit, I should both exceed the due manner of writing and without doubt prepare weariness for the reader and no small labour for myself, since she disclosed so many hidden things of the past and present, now prophesying of the future, sometimes also uncovering the caverns of hearts, of which God is the searcher. Which, if they were gathered into one, would of themselves make one not small volume; for, to say nothing of the other things which pertain to kings, kingdoms, cities and places, and private persons; she also foretold many things concerning the very state of the Church militant, namely concerning the schism which arose a little before the death of the Saint herself under Urban V ^a, and concerning the complete reformation of holy Church; as will appear to readers in many chapters of the heavenly books. Whence Pope Boniface, when he had related very many merits of her life in his Letters, added: By which holy works, continued without intermission, this noble widow, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, merited to disclose to many their thoughts and inmost affections and most secret deeds, and to see and hear various visions and revelations, and with prophetic spirit to foretell many things, some of which were fulfilled in effect, as these and other things are most fully described in the volume of her Revelations.

[110] namely concerning the state of the City, But since from the beginning of this Work my intention was to collect the fragments, lest they perish, having set down first very few prophecies out of those which are contained in the 7 books, I pass hastening * to those which I have found in the Attestations. In the fourth book, therefore, chapter 5, the Apostle Peter, intimating to Bl. Birgitta certain things about the past state of the City and foreshowing some about its future, foretelling also the coming to the same City of the supreme Pontiff, who at that time was residing at Avignon, a city of the Gauls, and had stayed there with his curia for very many years, said: Moreover I tell you that this city of Rome was a city of champions, its streets paved with gold and silver, but now its sapphire stones have been turned into mud. Its inhabitants are very few, whose right eye has been plucked out, the right hand cut off, and toads and vipers dwell with them, before whose poison the gentle animals dare not appear; nor do my fishes dare to raise their head; therefore fishes will yet be gathered into it, and if not so many as of old, yet they will be equally sweet and bold; so much so that from their sporting together the toads will come down, and frogs and serpents will be changed into lambs, and lions will be like doves at their windows. Likewise He adds: I tell you further that in those days it will be heard: Long live the vicar of Peter, and you will see him with your eyes; for I will dig the mountain of delights, etc.: those sitting on it will come down: and because they would not come down willingly, they will come compelled, against the hope of all, because God wills to be exalted with mercy and truth, etc. Thus there. ^b

[111] And so it was done: for the lord Pope Urban V, coming from Avignon to Rome with his curia ^c, began to reside in it, of Urban V, and before he had yet entered the city, that revelation was made to the Bride of Christ as she was giving herself to prayer in St. Mary Major, which begins: It seemed to one person as if she were in a great choir, etc.: Seek it in book 4, chapter 49. Finally, fifteen years before this Pontiff came to Rome ^d, she had been made certain of his coming, and had foretold it, as had become known to the Lord Cardinal of St. Peter ^e, who was then a canon of the church of St. Peter at Rome, and to very many other persons. Moreover, while the Handmaid of God was still staying in the monastery of Alvastra in Sweden, Christ had commanded her, saying: Go to Rome, where the streets are paved with gold and reddened with the blood of the Saints, where there is a short and briefer way to heaven on account of the indulgences which the supreme Pontiffs and the other Saints of God have merited by their glorious blood and prayers: and you shall stay there until you see there the Pope and the Emperor ^f, to whom also you shall announce my words.

[112] For which reason she was derided by many, who asserted that it was by no means probable of the Emperor Charles the Bohemian, that the Pastor of the church and the emperor should at that time come together to Rome: but the lady Catherine, daughter of the most holy Mother, testifies that she was present, when her mother, at that time when the Emperor Charles was at Rome, reverently presented herself to the supreme Pontiff Urban V in the Apostolic palace, and humbly recounted all the aforesaid things: and there were then present the aforesaid Cardinal of St. Peter, bishop of Avignon ^g, and the lord Rinaldo Orsini ^h, attesting that many years before she had foretold the coming of both, namely of the Pope and the emperor, together. For which reason they were moved towards her with milder devotion and reverence; but when, at the persuasion of the ancient serpent, the aforesaid Pontiff had proposed to return to Avignon, another revelation was then made about him, which the devout Handmaid of Christ presented to him at Montefiascone ⁱ, which revelation indeed, in that part in which it is prophetic, must be recited here. For at the end of that Revelation the Mother of God speaks thus: Now I wish to speak something about this Pope, who is named Urban, for the sake of my peace, etc.: See further.

[113] And when Urban V had died ^k, Gregory, his successor, was commanded by four very threatening revelations and of Gregory XI's coming to it, to hasten to the City with his curia. But the fourth, because she had not received a command about sending it, the Bride kept back; which, as being prophetic, because she foreknew that the same pontiff would come to the City in every way, I thought should be written here. For, as Bl. Birgitta was praying for the aforesaid Pontiff on the feast of St. Polycarp in the city of Naples, when she was going back from the holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ, Jesus Himself, having appeared, said: Attend, Daughter, to the words which I speak: for know that this Pope Gregory is like a paralytic, etc. See it. Hence it is that, staying in the same city of Naples, she once said to Robert, the eldest son of the count of Nola, who often came to her: Robert, know and hold firmly that the lord Pope Gregory, who again lives at Avignon, will come to Rome, and your eye will behold him. And about five years having passed, the Pope came, and, while he was riding from the monastery of St. Paul ^l (not unmindful of the words of St. Birgitta) to enter the City, the lord Robert to him

appointed to ride at his right, not unmindful of the words of St. Birgitta, turning to the Prelate, said: Now I truly know that that holy woman Birgitta told me a true prophecy; for not only, O most blessed Father, do I see you in the City according to her word, but I am even personally escorting your holiness back ^m.

[114] of the schism that followed, Let us see, then, I observe, how clearly she foreshowed the schism which arose in the Church in the time of this man's successor ⁿ: for she writes to the vicar of the lord Pope, as is contained in chapter 78 of the fourth book, in these words: To your venerable Paternity, I, a certain Widow, etc. See there. Likewise elsewhere ^o the Spouse says to the Bride: Know, He says, that such thunders and lightnings will come into my Church, many who now live seeing it, that many will wish for death, and death will flee from them. Likewise the messenger of the Pope, after some things set before, added: It is also most useful to have and to ask for patience, because in the days of many who now live the sun will be halved, the stars confounded, wisdom made foolish, the humble on earth will groan, the bold will prevail; and he adds: This it belongs to the wise to understand and interpret, who know how to make rough things smooth and to foresee the future [p].

[115] of the peace and increase of the Church: Concerning the betterment of the state of the Church and also the calling of the pagans to the faith there are many and fairly lengthy revelations; but for the sake of brevity only two very short ones are written here. For the holy Woman says in book 6, chapter 74: I saw at Rome, from the palace of the Pope near St. Peter's as far as the castle of St. Angelo, and from the castle as far as the house of the Holy Spirit, and as far as the church of St. Peter, as it were one plain, and a very strong wall encircled that plain, and there were various dwellings around that wall; then I heard a voice saying: That Pope who loves his Bride with that love with which I and my friends have loved her will possess this place with his assessors, so that he may call his counsellors more freely and quietly. Likewise in the same book, chapter 83: Know, says Christ, that there will yet be such devotion in the pagans that the Christians will be as it were their servants, and the Scriptures will be fulfilled, that a people not understanding will glorify me, and the deserts will be built up, and all will sing: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and honour to all His Saints, etc.

[116] to the Cypriots, unless they corrected their sins, The noble man the lord Charles Marosello, a citizen of Genoa, related before witnesses and confirmed by oath that, when in the year 1371 [q] he was at Famagusta in the island of Cyprus, Bl. Birgitta, going with her companions to the holy places of Jerusalem, passed through there, and arrived at Nicosia [r], he following, where the Bride of Christ, the queen with the prince who was then ruling, with the other barons who were there, having been called together, having set forth the cause of her coming, namely how, going to the Holy Sepulchre, she had landed there, admonished all on God's behalf to abstain from certain abominable and horrible sins which had long flourished in that kingdom and still flourished: adding that, unless they made worthy amends, the divine vengeance would rage as quickly as possible over them and the kingdom; and she said that, if they wished, she would pray God with humble prayers for them and for their correction. Having heard these things, some of those standing by triumphed, deriding the humble Handmaid of Christ: but some, who had a sounder sense, reverently begged her to pray for them.

[117] And in the same year, in the month of August, as it seemed to him, the impending the Handmaid of Christ, returning from the Holy Sepulchre [s], had the queen and all the princes and barons of the kingdom called together again, and narrated to them, he himself being present as a witness, how on mount Calvary, when she was at the Sepulchre of the Lord, praying for the kingdom of Cyprus, Christ said: Why, Daughter, do you pray so much for those inhabitants of the kingdom? Know that you labour in vain; for they will indeed promise amendment, but will not make it. Wherefore tell them on my behalf that, unless they correct their most wicked ways, I will take vengeance for their crimes as quickly as possible; and among their other excesses she also reproached them with the slaying of the most serene prince the lord Peter, formerly king of Cyprus, whom they had slain [t]. Still some of those who had assembled, raging, laughed, especially brother Simon of the Order of Preachers; who mocked * her, crying out that she was mad, asserting that it was no small folly to give credence to such things. This is that brother Simon, confessor of the prince, the paternal uncle of the king, in whose presence the holy Woman perceived so great a stench.

[118] Then, in the year as above, on the tenth day of the month of October, vengeance of God, while the venerable Lady was still staying there, at the coronation of the aforesaid king a grave dissension arose between the Cypriots and the Genoese, so much so that no small multitude of the Genoese was slaughtered [u]. And some were mortally wounded; among whom the lord Peter Marosillo, brother of the witness himself, struck with four blows of a dagger *, almost breathed out his spirit. To him, despairing of his recovery as the physicians despaired, the holy Mother, in the spirit of prophecy, sent the lord Alphonsus, saying: Do not doubt, Peter, for you will by no means die of these wounds, but the grace of Christ will be with you: who, being healed, gave her infinite thanks; who, recovering little by little, was restored to perfect health. Moreover the Bride of Christ sent the lord Alphonsus to the queen and the magnates of the kingdom, saying to them on God's behalf: Now already the divine vengeances are beginning, and the most sharp sword of God is already beginning to be drawn against you, for which reason this sedition has taken place. For, as the witness himself declared that he had seen, a little time having passed, the Genoese, besieging Famagusta with a strong hand and outstretched arm, conquered it, and captured the king and very many others.

[119] And of the kingdom some were taken captive, others wounded, which from Christ some also died by the slaughter of the sword: and also, what is wicked to say, very many of them, for the nourishment of life, even delivered their own wives to the hirers of harlots. Moreover this witness saw some nobles and powerful men of the kingdom afterwards begging alms at Genoa; to whom he himself also stretched out a helping hand. Finally he saw the lord prince, crowned king, cast into prison, and slaughtered with the sword [x] by one of the Genoese in the chamber, and in the place where the blood of the aforementioned late lord King Peter still appeared fresh; and he confessed that he had seen many other things concerning the same matter; by which the prophecy of our Prophetess was without doubt verified. And so you will find the Prophecy concerning the kingdom of Cyprus, with the counsels and rebukes and threats made to them, in many chapters in books 6 and 7 of the Revelations. Concerning Famagusta Christ speaks: This city is a Gomorrah burning with the fire of lust and superfluity and ambition; therefore its structures shall fall, and it shall be made desolate and diminished, and its inhabitants shall depart, and for grief and tribulation they shall groan and fail, and its confusion shall be named in many lands, because I am angry with them.

[120] she had learned; And concerning the duke who was privy to the death of his brother [y], Christ speaks: This man boldly spreads abroad his pride, and glories in his incontinence, nor does he consider what he has done against his neighbour: therefore, unless he humbles himself, I will do according to the common proverb: He who weeps afterwards weeps no more lightly than he who weeps before: for he will have no lighter death than his brother; nay a more bitter one, unless he amends himself quickly. Again, concerning the duke's confessor Christ says to the Bride: What did that brother say to you? Was it not that the duke is good and cannot live better, excusing his incontinence? Such men are not confessors but deceivers; because they go about as simple men, but more truly they are foxes and flatterers. Such are those friends who see and set before men advancements and detentions for the sake of a little temporal gain. Therefore, if that brother had stayed in his convent, he would have obtained the least punishment and a greater crown; but now he shall not escape the hand of the One who rebukes and afflicts.

[121] as also often the death of private persons, Maria, wife of Alfonso the Spaniard, living at Naples, while she was hastening to the holy places of Jerusalem with the holy Woman, asked her counsel about a certain daughter of hers. To whom she said that she should offer her in the monastery of the Holy Cross or of St. Clare at Naples. Returning home, therefore, she set forth to her husband and daughter what she had again received from the holy Widow: but as they resisted and contradicted, the same woman at length carried back their dissent to Bl. Birgitta. Then the saint, full of God, said: You will never see your daughter married; and so it was done. For after a few days she was snatched away from the allurements of this world. Likewise, when she had prepared at Rome to visit the said holy places, she foretold to her confessors, as if from the mouth of God, that, one only excepted, who was most dear to her, a brother, all should return safe; as was done: for the lord Charles, her son [z], and more beloved to her, as was said in the first book of this, chapter 6 , died at Naples on the way from Rome [aa]. To the Bride of Christ going out and praying, it was once revealed that master Matthias of the kingdom of Sweden, formerly her confessor, being loosed from the flesh in his own country on that very day, had departed to Christ [bb]: for she had heard a voice saying thus: O happy are you, master Matthias, for the crown which * has been fashioned for you in heaven: come therefore to wisdom, which will never be ended; and the truth of this matter was proved by the fact that the Prior of Alvastra, who had been present at his death, noted the day and hour of his death. Likewise also the lord Peter [cc], being at Rome with her, committed the day of the revelation to writing. And so, when the Prior [dd] came from Sweden and related his death, a comparison having been made between them, they found that both had designated the same day.

[122] The death also of the husband [ee] of her daughter, the lady Catherine, and other things she foretold: who was a kinsman of the king of Sweden, was revealed to her at Rome: for on the holy day of Good Friday, calling her daughter, who was then living with her at Rome, she said: Know, daughter, that your husband in the parts * has been taken from this miserable life. Choose therefore for yourself one of two things, either to be joined again by matrimony to a mortal man, or to be spiritually united to Christ through the purpose of holy widowhood. For it had been commanded her in spirit that she should test her, because she was young, very beautiful, rich, noble and powerful in her kingdom: the option therefore being given her, she preferred to serve God in holy chastity together with her mother, rather than to be defiled by the allurements of the flesh. While, therefore, both together at Rome, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,

remained, going to St. Peter's in front of the castle of St. Angelo, they often made the passage together. One day, therefore, very many Roman young men, coming down from the castle, followed them, contemplating the wonderful loveliness of the face of that lady, namely Catherine, and belching out youthful words, as is the custom of insolent young men: then the daughter said: What, Mother, shall we do? For they are pursuing me: and I would not wish in any way to suffer any shame. To whom she said: Do not doubt, daughter, for you will suffer no trouble; and, having poured forth prayers to God, she heard words of this kind: From afar will come those who will be masters of this castle, and of those who are now in it none will dwell in it; which also happened: for the Bretons afterwards possessed it, and thereafter it was laid waste by the Romans [ff].

[123] A certain son of Belial, having stolen a certain little Jewish boy, not rarely also, carried him, sick, to the sanctuaries of Rome for the sake of gain; when the Handmaid had found these begging beside the Lateran church, being aware of that deed, as one taught by the Holy Spirit, she shuddered at the crime, and, sharply rebuking that man, said: How do you keep this Jew? This is without doubt a Jew, and you have taken him away by stealth. Then he, overcome with amazement and fear, began to take to flight: but, being held back by those who had run together to the spectacle, he confessed the truth, all hearing it. A certain priest, bewitched by an enchantress with incontinence of the flesh, asked the lady Birgitta to pray for him; and she, rapt in spirit, heard: Do you wonder, daughter, why the devil has dominion in a man? The inconstancy of the will of men does this. Book 6, chapter 3, in the Additions. Likewise in the same 6th book, chapter 76, Christ says: Know that the inhabitant of this labours with a twofold vice, etc. In the same place.

[124] One morning the lord Haakon, the younger brother of the king of the Swedes [gg], which were altogether hidden. a duke much given to the world, met the Bride of Christ outside the castle of Baghoven, and said: Will there be rain or fair weather? Will your sons be kings, and we be deprived? To whom she said: If you do not correct your life better, neither will your mother rejoice in you, nor * will your memory be long: therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may be propitious to your sins, for they are many: he, made milder by the words of the lady Birgitta, living not long, died without offspring, as he had heard. When, by divine command, the holy Woman, after the example of Abraham, leaving her own land, had decided to come to Rome, a certain noble lady, Embergis by name, wife of the lord Nicholas de Anes, was arranging to follow her: to whom her husband, although he seemed to give assent, nevertheless dissuaded her as much as he could: when therefore she had come to the journey, she asked Bl. Birgitta to pray the Lord that He would change her husband's mind to better things: and the Spouse said to her as she prayed: Go securely, and be not moved from the journey and the holy purpose, etc.

[125] and she At the time when the Apostolic See was in France, the lord Pons, bishop of Orvieto, was vicar for Pope Clement in the kindly City; he had certain revelations of Bl. Birgitta, but on account of the lukewarmness of his heart, etc. In the monastery of Alvastra Christ spoke to His Bride concerning a certain virgin, Helen by name, who was arranging to vow her virginity to the Lord, saying thus: Attend and know that this virgin, etc.: See in the Additions. And although it has been said above that she, illuminated from on high, surveyed the hidden things of hearts and the lurking-places of darkness, it remains that, some examples being brought forward, it be made evident that this is true. Whence it is to be known that the lord Francis, formerly bishop of Fermo [hh], but now, having laid it down, a hermit, having touched the most holy Gospels, said that, when Bl. Birgitta was ill in the city of Naples, he went to her about certain secrets of his soul, to consult her spiritually; and to him, wondering and much amazed, she disclosed his most secret thoughts, which he had never before revealed to anyone.

[126] the secrets of minds Likewise, after the devout Woman, having returned from the parts beyond the sea, had sought the kindly City again, the lord Gomez of Spain, of whom mention is made * in the first book of this, hearing this, came from the duchy to Rome, bringing with him his wife and sons for this purpose, that they might gain knowledge of the holy Woman and commend themselves to her prayers. At Rome, therefore, the magnificent man, living with his household in the palace at St. Peter's, earnestly besought Bl. Birgitta one day, with her children, with her confessor and her whole household, to take food in charity with him and his. And when they had assented and were hastening to him, the aforesaid man, having secret thoughts and perplexities in his mind, addressed the Bride of Christ more secretly, to receive counsel: but, since he had several doubts of conscience, he kept back some, disclosing a few: but the holy Woman, aware of secrets, uncovered the hidden things, and by divine revelations gave answers and suitable counsel to all. Seeing which, the man devoted to God was moved thenceforth towards her with more fervent devotion.

[127] uncovered. Moreover, the lord Charles, son of St. Birgitta, came one day to his Mother in the parts of his origin, whom she, rebuking him with a bitter pretence, said: Go, and quickly confess that mortal sin which you have committed; the young man denied it at first, but, his Mother again and again confirming her speech and saying: I know, I am certain, that you have perpetrated a mortal offence; at length he once confessed. Finally in the City the lady Margaret, wife of Paolo Barta, of the region of Arenula, when her husband had been killed by certain persons, and a great and execrable quarrel had been stirred up between the kinsmen and relations of the slain and of the slayers, fearing lest the sons whom she had surviving from her slaughtered husband should incur some danger from the same quarrel, and that, as she had been bereft of her husband, she should be deprived of the solace of her children; and when she could find no way of concord, she went groaning to the Handmaid of God, and, before she opened the thought of her heart, she heard, greatly wondering, the cause of her coming anticipated by her, since neither by herself nor by anyone else had she spoken a word to her about this matter; and she said to her: Go: for tomorrow before the hour of Terce you will have solid peace with your enemies; and so it was done: for, as the morrow dawned, the kinsmen of both parties, coming together before the eyes of Margaret, established mutual peace among themselves.

ANNOTATIONS.

o. Book 6, chapter 110.

p. Book 3, chapter 10, in the Addition.

q. Nay rather in the year 1372.

r. It was formerly an archiepiscopal city in the island of Cyprus, in which is situated also Famagusta, mentioned a little before by Berthold.

s. She came to Famagusta in the middle of the month of April; and she was at Jerusalem in the month of May, from numbers 346 and 356 of the preliminary Commentary: but according to the Fragment of the pilgrimages of St. Birgitta in Hörmann she remained there four and a half months, and so up to the month of September; unless three and a half months are to be substituted for 4 and a half months. But in book 7 of the Revelations, in the title of chapter 26, it is read that she was still at Jerusalem on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that is, the 8th day of September.

t. In the year 1368.

u. See what was said in number 349 of the preliminary Commentary.

x. John, brother of the slain King Peter, killed by order of Queen Eleanor in the year 1375, seems to be indicated here: but he did not bear the crown of the Cypriot kingdom.

y. The same of whom next above.

z. See letter i in the Annotations on chapter 3 of book 1.

aa. Nay, at Jerusalem.

bb. In the year 1350, as Vastovius writes in the Vitis Aquilonia.

cc. Afterwards confessor of Vadstena.

dd. Peter of Alvastra.

ee. He is called Egard by Ulpho, the biographer of St. Catherine: but, says Benzelius in the Annotations on Vastovius's Vitis Aquilonia, page 71, he is called Gerhard a Kern by Messenius.

ff. These things happened in the times of Gregory XI and Urban VI: While these things are being done in Italy, says Leonardo Aretino in book 8 of the Florentine Histories, Gregory, the Roman Pontiff, having heard of the defection of Bologna, in order to repair the collapsing state of the Church, sent into Italy six thousand horse and four thousand foot of the Bretons, most ferocious peoples, enrolled through France, and with them a legate a latere, whom they called him of Geneva; namely in the year 1375, as is read in the first Life of Gregory in Baluze, column 434 and following: but in the time of Urban VI, Sylvestre Budes with two thousand Bretons occupied the Castle of St. Angelo for Clement VII (him of Geneva just mentioned), as Lobineau writes in book 12 of the History of Lesser Brittany at the year 1379, page 427; and Dietrich of Nieheim writes, in book 1 on the Schism, chapter 20, that the Romans afterwards recovered it after a siege of almost a year and, although not entirely, destroyed it, adding that it was restored by Boniface IX.

gg. Son, as it appears, of Eric, son of Magnus and Blanche, the sovereigns of Sweden: for although Eric has no place in the Series of the kings of Sweden; yet the nobles of the kingdom, fearing lest his father Magnus should ruin the kingdom, adopted him into partnership of the rule, as Loccenius narrates at the year 1360. But also Magnus himself already

from the year 1344 had destined Haakon, or Haquin, his youngest son, as king of Norway, and Eric, the elder, as king of Sweden after his death, a diploma having been given at Bohus, which Torfaeus exhibits; and therefore I think Berthold called Haquin the brother of the king (namely the designated king) of the Swedes.

hh. Whether that episcopal see is rightly expressed here I much doubt: nor is any Francis known to me who from bishop of Fermo became a hermit.

festino* I hasten

deridebat* derided

sica* dagger

* superfluous

* But here, in the third, number 46

quæ* which

add: Sueciæ* of Sweden

* superfluous

* above, number 29.

BOOK III.

On the miracles shown and proved after her death.

PROEM.

[The author undertakes to recount certain miracles of St. Birgitta, wrought after her death.] As is recounted in the short Legend of her Life, in the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-two, on the morrow of St. Mary Magdalene, our most holy Mother died at Rome ^a; and * she possessed with her the best part in heaven, whose footsteps she had followed on earth through the quiet of contemplation: but her body, on account of the press of the Roman people flowing to it for devotion, could not be buried for two days: and about her death she ordered her people that after her death, the body being raised, her bones should be carried back to her fatherland. After a month, therefore, the body was raised from the earth in a coffer, and, lest it should stink, the greater part of the nuns fled into the garden, stopping their nostrils. But those who were of her household, judging her words by no means vain but true, the coffer being confidently opened, found her body, beyond the common nature and the expectation of all, wonderfully purged, so that only the bones remained without any stench; and, what is more wonderful, a certain black mass, gathered into a ball, fragrant like frankincense or myrrh, appeared in place of the viscera or intestines. And in the translation itself ^b, and after it, the Spouse deigned to work at the City of Rome and in other parts of the world, and especially in the kingdom of Sweden, for the display of the merits of His specially beloved Bride, so many miracles that a tongue scarcely suffices to tell or a pen to write them. And of the many, a few have been collected in this third little book. Whence the first chapter is woven concerning the dead raised, as concerning the more excellent miracle ^c.

ANNOTATIONS.

ut* [as]

CHAPTER I.

On the dead raised, the blind, the deaf and the dumb healed.

From the danger of death at least At the church of Horby ^a in the diocese of Uppsala, a certain dezlavus ^b, a lying tyrant, seized a certain man named Peter, imputing to him that his servant had wounded a certain peasant, for which reason he said that he was banished ^c; and he answered that his servant should answer for himself, and that nothing ought to be imputed to him. And the tyrant, having seized him, when he had taxed ^d him at six hundred marks, at last demanded three lescas ^e of iron: but two curates who were there advised him to redeem his danger as best he could: for which reason he offered the tyrant one vessel of iron: but the tyrant, thinking that he had been despised in this, ordered him to be put to tortures: and the man, terrified, vowed a vow to God and Bl. Birgitta that, if he were freed by her merits, he would visit every year for ten years the place of Vadstena, where her holy body rests, and would offer half a talent of wax ^f as a gift. The vow having thus been made, since he escaped no torments, he was at length hanged on the gallows with a strong rope ^g: for that profane man feared, as also happened, that if he escaped he would bring a complaint against him.

[130] From midday, therefore, until sunset he hung suspended on the gibbet, she frees a hanged man, and then one of those hateful to God, seeing his boots and also fairly good ornaments of his body, would have wished to take them for himself; but a boy of 13 years standing by cried out, saying: See what you do, for I see there a woman in white having her hair down to her breast, and sustaining that man; and the man said: Would that that holy Woman, whose relics were lately translated to this land, and whose cook also I was for three years, would help this man to safety: out of reverence for her, therefore, I will cut the rope, and leave the clothes and ornaments of his body; which he also did, and allowed him to lie there. Lying therefore until night wholly lifeless and without breath, at length after a long time he breathed, and opened his eyes, and recovered all his breath little by little. But he still had both hands strongly bound before his breast. Finally, his strength having been recovered somehow, he drew himself into the grain ^h, fearing lest the most cruel beasts, perhaps returning, should kill him. And when he strove to break the cord with his teeth, as soon as he applied it to his mouth, it was broken in pieces like a thread. Rising therefore from there, he came that very night to the place where he had first been seized, and to the priests; and, complaints having been brought before the king, the tyrant with his henchmen was banished from the kingdom for this matter ⁱ.

[131] and various In the parish of Fialanebro, in the diocese of Västerås ^k, a certain infant of six weeks, ill for 12 days, was at length judged dead by all for the space of one hour: whose parents, asking with tears the protection of Bl. Birgitta, it at once revived; and its parents, who had vowed for it, went to Vadstena with offerings. A certain peasant, an inhabitant of Dyngestina, had been reproved many times by his wife's parents because he held her in hatred; for he had sometimes afflicted her sharply with blows. One night, therefore, when she had gone to sleep with him in health, she was overtaken by sudden death lying beside him. And when morning came, the husband, finding his wife dead beside him, with sobs of tears welling up, besought God and Bl. Birgitta suppliantly in a secret place that he, being innocent of his wife's death, might escape her kinsmen unharmed. And the kinsmen and neighbours, running together to the spectacle of so great a sadness, and thinking him the author, placed the corpse on the bier, grieving most bitterly.

[132] in places of Sweden And while the husband lay prostrate in prayer for his wife's life, and that he might be free of evil repute, the woman, restored to life, addressed her sister with living voice in these words: My sister, for what have you come here? And looking round at those standing about, she asked the cause of their coming, who said that they had come having learned of her death; then she said: Praise and glory be to God Almighty and to the most holy Birgitta, by whose prayers I have merited to be restored for a time to my former life. And her husband, hearing that his wife was alive again, came to her at a swift run, and, bending his knee, earnestly besought her to declare, all hearing, whether he had been the cause of her death; she answered: No, but this was done according to the will of God, that the immense charity of Christ, with which He deigned to embrace His Bride Birgitta, might be revealed in me, by whose intercessions I must also be separated * from this shortly: and, having called a priest to her, having made her confession, having received the Eucharist and extreme unction, as a true Christian she commended her spirit into the hands of the Lord, her husband being preserved immune from every reproach of evil repute.

[133] various persons A certain man in the parish of Folbera, in the diocese of Västerås, his wife rising in the morning to do necessary work, was resting in bed with two little sons; which sons, emitting a horrible howl, suddenly died: whose limbs became so livid and swollen with bruising as if they had been affected by blows. Seeing whom, the wretched father with a flood of tears carried them into the heated room, grieving exceedingly at their fate, and fearing beyond measure lest he himself should be thought by some to be as it were the slayer. But the mother of the infants, having full trust in the holy Woman, because she had often drawn in the fame of the miracles wrought through her, came, and said for one of them: O Reverend Lady, if you restore this one to me alive, I will carry him to your place at Vadstena with offerings; whose spirit at once began to enter little by little into the body, just as it is wont to withdraw little by little from the dying. Then the mother, exceedingly gladdened, breaking out into thanksgiving, said: Now I am going to the parish church, and I will have a Mass sung in honour of His Handmaid: then, three or four hours having passed, the woman conceiving a more powerful faith in her mind, said: O glorious Lady! I know that you are powerful with the Most High; restore this one also who lies lifeless; who at once was raised in that order in which the former also was: therefore at Shrovetide this woman, accompanied by many neighbours testifying these things with her, came to Vadstena and showed the said little infants before a populous multitude.

[134] A certain woman in Skänninge ^l gave birth to an infant from death itself placed at its last breath, which also without delay died; whence the mother, touched with most grievous sorrows, especially because it had departed not reborn in the wave of holy baptism, began with all those standing round her to entreat the glorious Widow with tears that her offspring might be restored to her for so long as it might be lifted from the font of Baptism. Which done, not without the wonder and congratulation of all, the infant was restored to life: and some weeks having rolled by, the mother, going to Vadstena with the little infant alive and well, gave infinite thanks to God and Bl. Birgitta, offering a silver image of the infant for the benefit granted her. A certain boy, having died, lay rigid and cold for three hours and more; and when all were now weeping, the mother vowed a vow to St. Birgitta that, if the boy revived, she would not only visit her threshold, but would also serve her perpetually otherwise with her heart. Which vow having been made, and a short space intervening, the boy rose to life, whom the mother, bringing him to Vadstena, showed by the testimony of very many trustworthy persons that it had so happened. A like grace is reported of another boy, who, remaining lifeless for a longer space of time, about the burning of one wax taper, the Handmaid of Christ being invoked with a vow, rose from the dead.

[135] Margaret of the town of Eckne, in the diocese of Västerås, gave birth to a dead infant, she recalls to life, and wholly blackened, whose tongue stretched out beyond its lips, all who were present thinking that there was as it were a black coal in its mouth: which also was thought rather a phantom than a human being: as soon as she vowed a vow to Vadstena, the infant both revived and recovered in all its limbs a seemly colour and form. The wife of Inghenald, of the town of Nybile, in the diocese of Strängnäs ^m, gave birth with immense labour and pain to a lifeless little infant, for whose quickening the parents, when it had lain dead for a whole and natural day, made to the eminent Bride of Christ

a vow; into which at once a living spirit entered from the fountain of life. A girl of two years, Margaret by name, daughter of Lawrence Massa of the town of Petharphyetum in the diocese of Strängnäs ⁿ, bedclothes having been carelessly placed over her, was suddenly suffocated and died: and the mother, returning at the third hour, found her daughter dead, rigid in her limbs and unbendable; for the restoration of her daughter, therefore, she invoked the venerable lady Birgitta, not ceasing from prayer until she received her daughter alive again before sunset, whom, carried to Vadstena, she showed to many there.

[136] which she does also at Rome, Again, a girl of three years, Catherine by name, daughter of Nicholas of the town of Gnotosum in the diocese of Strängnäs, falling by chance into a pond, was suffocated, and for nine whole hours, sought by very many, was not found at all. As soon as the Mother heard this, she rose at once, and running to the pond, on bended knees, vowed that she would set out on pilgrimage to Vadstena with her daughter, if she could recover her alive by the merits of St. Birgitta. Which done, she saw the corpse lying upon the waters in the place where it had been searched for a long time before with seines and many other instruments: and, it being brought to the shore, the water which had flowed in during the drowning flowing out, and the mother persisting earnestly in entreaties, the girl recovered the use of the life she had lost. In the City of Rome a certain lady near St. Mary above Minerva, when she had borne several sons dead in time past, gave birth on this occasion also to a dead little infant; to her her mother said: Make a vow, daughter, to Bl. Birgitta, by whose merits God will perhaps raise him. And she said: How, mother, can what you say come about, since he is dead? The holy Woman therefore having been invoked, presently the little boy opened his eyes and sucked his mother's breasts. Likewise in the town called Skänninge ^o in the diocese of Linköping a certain woman named Elisabeth, giving birth to a dead daughter, vowed herself to St. Birgitta for the restoration of her daughter, and at once she who had died returned to life. And the woman, discharging her promises, presented her daughter, alive again, with a silver image at Vadstena.

[137] the blind Two blind men, of whom one had been blind from birth and the other for eight years, received the use of sight at Vadstena on the feast * of St. Peter in Chains, because namely a populous multitude of men ran together there on account of the Indulgences, those who were present seeing it and being much amazed. Likewise a certain man and a woman, likewise blind, were given light in the same place at the same time. In the town of Rickhem [p] in the kingdom of Norway, over the eyes of a girl of 12 years, daughter of Ysa, a widow, a red and very thick film grew, by which she was nonetheless wholly blinded for a whole year; but when she could be helped by no arts of physicians, the mother vowed that she, together with her daughter, would visit the place of St. Birgitta's relics at Vadstena. Wonderful indeed to tell; for, the film at once vanishing like wax before the face of the fire, clear sight was restored to the girl. Peter, a very old and poor man of the town of Mos in the diocese of Schrenensis [q], grievously weakened in one hand and blind for three years, promised that he would visit the relics of the kindly Widow for the recovery of his health, taking the journey as he could; and when he had arrived, by the merits of her whom he had invoked, the divine grace assisting him, he received entire health of both members.

[138] not a few, Margaret, daughter of Lawrence, a woman twenty years of age, of the diocese of Västerås, deprived of bodily light for two years, taking the road to Vadstena for its recovery, was anticipated by the mercy of God, and recovered clear sight on the very journey. Crispina, a widow of the town of Estrarirbi in the diocese of Linköping [r], stricken in the left eye for ten years and in the right for three, received the benefit of both lights on the feast of St. Peter in Chains in the aforesaid monastery, many seeing it. By an adverse misfortune the parish curate of the diocese of Åbo [s], Olaf by name, having been blinded, remained blind for about three years; who, promising that he would go to her monastery three times for the restoration of his sight and also for the veneration of the venerable Saint, at once obtained clear sight, and, discharging his vow for the first time on the feast of Peter in Chains, testified what had been done before the lord John, bishop of Åbo, which bishop indeed published so great a miracle to his clergy in synod.

[139] At the time when the relics of the Bride of Christ were being carried from the City to Vadstena, the dumb, a deaf woman, it happened that, when on a certain night the copious multitude which followed the relics was resting under tents in a certain great meadow, a certain dumb boy, nine years of age, was placed on account of the rain under the bier of the relics, where, as trustworthy persons attest, he merited to receive the use of speech, which he had not asked for. Nicholas the baker, dumb from birth and in his 40th year, having learned the fame of these miracles, set out for Vadstena for the sake of obtaining speech; who, his tongue having been loosed on the way, heard according to his vow, returned home with joy. A woman deaf for some years vowed a vow, for honouring the Saint and for recovering the soundness of her senses, that she must set out for the place of Vadstena; which done, the deafness being wiped away, she received what she had asked, and afterwards fulfilled her vow.

[140] Crispina, a widow of the town of Harnolieuga in the diocese of Lund [t] in the kingdom of Denmark, had a son of 7 years, and she heals the lame. Olaf by name, lame and dumb from birth, whom the mother, with another daughter, Helen, carried on their shoulders for 10 days' journeys to Vadstena, and they put in there on the vigil of Pentecost. Where the boy on the same day walked fully, and leapt in the sight of all. The lord Magnus, who was of the household of Bl. Birgitta [u], a man certainly trustworthy, testified that, when he was personally present in the monastery of Vadstena, he saw a certain youth of fifteen years from Västergötland [x], of the city of Echarensis, who had been dumb from birth, presented before the relics of blessed Birgitta, who presently, having obtained speech, made confession of his sins to the lord Katilmund.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. I have sought this town in vain.

q. Perhaps of Skänninge, or of Strängnäs?

r. In Östergötland.

s. In Finland.

t. Lund is a city of Scania, which in the time of Magnus, king of Sweden, had passed into the dominion of the Danes.

u. From Israel, the brother of St. Birgitta, Peter was born; from Peter, Magnus, of whom there is question here. See number 5 of the preliminary Commentary.

x. A province of Sweden.

supply: vita* life

supply: festo* feast

CHAPTER II.

On the paralytics healed, those freed from the falling sickness, and those healed of various other infirmities.

She does the same The lord Nicholas, curate of the parish church of Schwanchala in the diocese of Linköping, loosened by paralysis, came in Lent, as he could, to Vadstena for the recovery of his health: who in a few days so recovered that on the holy day of Easter and on very many other days he celebrated Masses, and thereafter governed his church in health. A certain man also, contracted in feet and hands, known to almost all, was healed in the same place. A certain noble, Reginald by name, was made paralytic, so that he had the use of no member of his right side, and had lost the benefit of speaking: on account of which his wife and the curate priest, since he himself could not personally, vowed for him that he would visit the threshold of Bl. Birgitta, to offer one mark of wax for every joint lacking the use of its natural office, if it should happen that he was restored to his former health: the vow having thus been made, in a wonderful way he felt without delay that he was gradually being healed, and within a few days, going on foot to Vadstena, he joyfully discharged his vow.

[142] paralytics In the kingdom of Norway, in the city and diocese of Trondheim ^b, there was a certain Margaret, paralytic and dumb, and inconsolably deprived of the strength of her whole body, lying continually on a pallet like a useless trunk: to her, sleeping, a certain lady of venerable habit appeared, saying: I am Birgitta of Vadstena, and now I will heal you of your incurable infirmity; and you, being healed, shall make return, coming to my place, and shall make public the benefit granted to you in secret: and, having said this, she anointed the diseased limbs as it were with a certain ointment: the woman, waking, felt that she possessed the soundness of all her members, speech and all the strength of her body being fully restored to her. She, coming to Vadstena, recounted everything before many; some of whose members, especially in the right side, almost lacking flesh, displayed clearly enough the plague which had consumed them. Again in the same kingdom a certain poor little woman of the diocese of Oslo ^c lay paralytic for five years, so much that she had neither breath nor possessed full strength in any member of her body: her acquaintances therefore vowing her to the Handmaid of God, she recovered perfectly on the spot, and she gladly went to the monastery of Vadstena by a rough and very long way.

[143] A certain man of Västerås ^d had been epileptic for 9 years, and epileptics. and suffered from that disease almost three times every day: and so, his father vowing for him to the relics of St. Birgitta, he was healed without delay. Likewise in the same diocese a certain woman having a daughter of 14 years, who from the fifth year of her birth laboured so gravely with the epileptic disease that, falling to the ground thirteen times and foaming, she was miserably afflicted every natural day, vowed that she would visit the relics of St. Birgitta together with her daughter, if by her merits she would free her from so great a misery. And she also, all delay being wholly removed, merited to be restored to the desired health. A little boy, Lawrence by name, son of the lord of Colonna in the City, a most illustrious man indeed, laboured with the aforesaid disease: when a fit had once befallen him, and, making terrible gestures, he was all twisted like some energumen, the lady Laetitia, the boy's grandmother, to a certain daughter-in-law of hers who had something of the tunic of the Bride of Christ, as quickly as

possible went, and, cutting off a small piece from it, had the forehead of the sick boy touched with it; at the touch of which the boy, at once quieted from the disease, was wholly healed, and persevered free from then on. Likewise, when Mary, a little infant girl, daughter of Stephana, the nurse of Oddo, the little son of the aforesaid Lord Agapito, was in like manner violently twisted, the lady Catherine, wife of the lord Agapito, had the sick girl touched in like manner and with like devotion with a small piece of the aforesaid cloth, who, at once and wholly freed from such sickness, seemed to all a matter for wonder.

[144] As Pope Boniface relates, while the funeral of Bl. Birgitta was still held above ground and unburied Likewise very many in the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna at Rome, a certain woman, Agnes de Concisa ^e, who from birth had a deformed and very thick throat, ran with others to the venerable funeral, and, when she had devoutly caused the hands of the holy Birgitta lying there to be touched with her own girdle, she wound the same girdle with like devotion round her neck, and a little after the throat lost its swelling, and was brought back to due conformity by a divine miracle: and Francesca Savelli, a nun of the said monastery of St. Lawrence ^f, who, having suffered for two years weakness and an adverse condition of the stomach, almost always lying in bed, had been a familiar of the honourable Widow, while the body, still unburied, was kept within the cloister, rose from her bed with grave labour, suffering so long an infirmity, and, being helped, came to the bier and lay beside it the whole night: nor, while she lay there, did she cease to beseech God with devotion and instance that, by the merits and prayers of the Widow whose body was present, she might be relieved of so troublesome and so long-lasting an illness at least so far that she could be present at the divine offices with the other nuns. And when morning came, she received entire health, as she wished.

[145] of diverse kinds In the city of Naples Palmerio, a money-changer ^g, sick unto death, had a wife who had a singular devotion to the holy Widow (whom she had been accustomed to visit while she was alive). She, seeing her husband labouring with a deadly disease, promised Bl. Birgitta that, if the sick man should escape by her suffrages, she would have Masses said, wax candles offered and lamps also lit in St. Mary of Carmel, where her painted image was venerated. The vow therefore having been made, the man, who was labouring as if at the point of death, saw in a vision Bl. Birgitta lying prostrate over him: by which vision indeed, greatly comforted, he said: I am healthy, because blessed Birgitta has healed me; and he was at once found healthy. The lord Magnus, priest, asserts that he was present when a certain boy of about four years, James by name, nephew of the lady Delphina, at Rome, was suffering especially a flux of the belly with continuous fever: and because very many little ones were then perishing from such an influence, it was greatly feared regarding that boy's death. Whence both the aforesaid lady Delphina and the children wept incessantly: finally the lady Delphina vowed that, if the boy escaped by the merits of the lady Birgitta, she would have him clothed with a mantle marked with the sign of the cross, as the lay brothers in her religion are clothed, and would have something of her relics tied to the boy's neck. These things thus done, the boy suddenly recovered, and perfectly recovered his former health.

[146] diseases, A certain boy, nephew of the lady Angela, wife of Lello Petri, of the City, of the region of Colonna, having a very bad ulcer about the loins, was placed in danger of death, and the physicians, terrified by it, applied no remedy: then the said lady, having taken a particle of the garments of St. Birgitta, which she had always devoutly kept, bound it in silk upon the boy's ulcer, invoking her holy merits the more devoutly. When morning came, the boy was found so healthy that not even a trace of the infirmity he had suffered appeared. Similarly a niece of the aforesaid Angela suffered a certain gland with vehement fever, which the physicians said must be cut; but the mother of the sick one , remembering the miracle written above, approaching the Handmaid of Christ in mind and commending herself and her daughter to her with her whole soul, placed and bound the aforesaid little cloth, asked from the lady Angela, upon the gland through the night: and on the morrow the physicians, coming to cut, found the girl wholly freed, and the fever with the plague completely put to flight.

[147] by the merits of St. Birgitta Moreover, when another nephew of the often-mentioned lady Angela, son of Francesco Bario de' Capocci, a Roman citizen, about three years old, was suffering a horrible abscess with acute fevers on the shoulder-blade, and the physicians had applied very many medicines and had profited nothing, but had decided on the coming day to use the iron of incision, the lady Angela, full of faith, laid that particle of cloth upon the plaster with great devotion, asking that that swelling be so far deadened by her suffrages that the tender boy should by no means taste the bitterness of the cutting; and that, if this were done, she would have her memory painted, and that miracle publicly proclaimed to her praise: on the following day, therefore, when the surgeons * to cut the disease, they found that it had vanished from the place, and had made its way to the hinder parts with much putrefaction; and the boy, rising from bed safe and glad, sought the boys at play.

[148] Likewise at Rome near St. Eustace the lady Francesca, by the merits wife of Pietro Paolo Vellivi, having in her right hand the disease which is called Noli me tangere, suffered a swelling showing the size of a nut on the outer part of the hand; she, having sought physicians, received a refusal, because the plague was incurable: in which matter, betaking herself to Bl. Birgitta, she prayed for deliverance, and, having confessed to a priest, she bound upon it a particle of the garments of her whom she had invoked, and made a vow; and on the next day, the sickness vanishing, she found herself safe and wholly and entirely sound. Jacobella de Colanidio of the City, of the parish of St. Eustace, gave birth to a son, who within seven days fell so ill that he did not once suck his mother's breasts, lying as if dead, cold and contracted, so that all hope of his life had perished. But his grandmother, having learned the fame of St. Birgitta, said to her daughter: Let us pray, and let us make a pilgrimage to her sepulchre; to whom she said: How is it possible, O dearest mother, that she will restore him to us, since he is to be reckoned more dead than alive? Finally the grandmother, knowing that all things are possible to him who believes, vowed that she would carry him with a wax taper to her sepulchre, if she should cause her to rejoice in his recovery by her merits. Nor was there delay: the boy in a manner revived, and, his eyes opened, seeking his mother's breasts, he was freed from the jaws of death, and lives, and is called Andrew. These things were written from the mouth of the mother.

[149] In the castle of Sant'Angelo ^h, in the diocese of Tivoli, a certain woman, Elpena, from the sick deprived of all her other members, the eyes only excepted, suffered incessantly intolerable pains both in her head and in her breasts and also in all her limbs, and was as it were near to death. And hearing the fame of the miracles of her whom God had made so wonderful, commending herself to her inwardly, she made a vow to her sepulchre, and began to doze a little. Then a certain lady of venerable aspect, at whose fringes a wax image hung, appearing to her, said: What do you wish, woman? She answered: Who are you, Lady? And she said: I am Birgitta of Sweden; and she said: O my reverend and holy Lady, you see what infirmity and pains I suffer: I beseech you therefore to heal me: and if you do so, I will visit the place of your burial at Rome, I will carry a wax image, lights and an offering; and she said: Certainly, daughter, you have asked in good time, because as in all your other members so you would suffer in your eyes also: for unless * you had implored divine help through my mediation; and she said: I wish therefore to heal you; and, having made the sign of the cross, touching her head with her finger, the woman at once woke free from so great a sickness.

[150] Likewise in the same diocese, in the castle of Ciciliano ⁱ, Petruccio Necia was ill unto death, driven away, nor was there hope of his life. Hearing this, Lucia, wife of Bartolomeo of Giovanni Antonio of the Castle of Sant'Angelo, went to the sick man, in order to recover, if she could, before he died, a certain quantity of wheat owed to her, and, seeing him at the point of death, she took a little of the garment of St. Birgitta which she had, touching the languishing limbs of the sick man with it: a wonderful thing! In body, no space of time intervening, the sick man leapt from the bed, and sat down at the fire, because it was cold. Thus the said Lucia recounted with her own mouth before three witnesses. The lady Cilena, wife of the most illustrious man the lord Giovanni Colonna of the City, confirmed on oath concerning herself that, when she suffered such an infirmity in her throat that she had been abandoned by the physicians, who said that she would by no means escape from such a plague, not even by the hands of God: for she could not open her mouth to eat; she turned to Bl. Birgitta with what instance and devotion she could, stipulating this with her, that, if she were snatched by her prayer from so great a danger of death, she would present to her at the place of burial a crown of pearls worked with her own hands, and would also have a Mass celebrated, which she would devoutly hear on bent and bare knee. The vow therefore having been made, she fell asleep for a while, and it seemed to her that as it were a certain human hand was drawing the skin of her throat; and, waking with some pain, much matter flowing, she found the abscess broken, and escaped the danger of death.

[151] she saw, of Italy. At St. Mary Rotunda, Cocculus, son of Giovanni Cymini, a Roman citizen, laboured with such sickness that the physicians wholly despaired of his life, since, being at the point of death, he had passed five days without speech, no confession having been made nor communion received: his aunt, namely the lady Francesca Papazzuri, seeing this, carrying with her a little of the linen which had belonged to the Bride of Christ, went to the sick man, and, having made a vow to the sepulchre, handled the half-dead man on face and body with the same little cloth, and, calling him by name, she heard him answer the third time: she also had him say the angelic salutation, all hearing him. Then, since he did not yet possess full speech, she besought brother Angelo of the Order of the Humiliati to bring the Legend of St. Birgitta and to touch the sick man with it. When this was done, he both perfectly recovered the spirit of his mind and could speak readily, and, having made confession, received the most holy Eucharist, being fully restored to all health on the next day.

ANNOTATIONS.

read filia* daughter

read infirmæ* of the sick girl

supply: venissent* had come,

* superfluous

CHAPTER III.

On those troubled by the devil, those endangered in childbirth, and those suffering shipwreck.

Her patronage A boy of seven years was tormented nine times every day by an unspeakable spirit: who, a vow having been made by his mother, and he having been carried by her to Vadstena with offerings, was freed from the savage torturer, not without the wonder of all. Christina, wife of Lawrence, bell-ringer of the church of Kiill in the diocese of Strängnäs ^a, possessed by a demon and deprived of the health of her whole body, and having in part lost the light of the rational spirit, lay afflicted on a pallet for 16 continuous years, namely. She also heard horrible words from the same demon, who said to her among other words: Now I wish to draw your heart out of your body, and I will condemn you to a most shameful death. Afterwards there appeared to her a certain beautiful Person in a vision, giving her counsel that she should visit on pilgrimage the monastery of St. Birgitta in Vadstena, so that she might be purged of the unclean spirit: and, waking, she found that she possessed a sounder understanding than before: then, learning that many pilgrims were about to visit the place of Vadstena for the feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she also prepared herself to visit the same place, and, if she could not go, as indeed she was then not properly able, at least to hasten there creeping on hands and feet. After, therefore, she had taken the road, she was at once freed from the demon, and before she came to Vadstena she was fully restored to her former health both in reason and in body.

[153] A certain Olaf, a farmer of the diocese of Västerås ^b, afflicted with a most grievous languor about Shrovetide, for three continuous days saw 12 most foul demons in a habit cut short to the buttocks, the troubled with beaked shoes after the most shameful custom of some moderns, dancing beside him and saying: If you will consent to us, we will enrich you with riches; but if you will not, we will condemn you to a most shameful death, and will lead you with us to hell. To whom he answered: I will consent to my God, and to that reverend Handmaid or lady Birgitta, to whom I had made a vow of pilgrimage, in whom I hope with entire confidence that she will by divine power rescue me from the terrors of your threats. For I will honour her all the days of my life in which I shall be able; and those three days being ended, that horrible vision of demons disappeared, and he at once, his former health being received, humbly fulfilled his vow. A certain woman, Catherine by name, of the diocese of Strängnäs, returning at the hour of Compline at Shrovetide from a banquet at which she had led dances less honourably with others, was seized by the devil in the street before she came into the house, and was so cruelly beaten that from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head she was livid in all her members: having lost sense, speech, sight, hearing and the health of her whole body, she passed that night in the greatest misery: and about dawn two honourable priests were called to her, who with other friends of hers made a vow of pilgrimage to Vadstena out of reverence for St. Birgitta and for the healing of the miserably afflicted woman: to whom in the same hour breath and strength of body were restored, not without the wonder of those standing by.

[154] or the possessed In the same diocese there was a young girl whom the devil attacked on the second day of Easter, and for a whole month troubled her most cruelly two or three times every day, so that her belly seemed to raise itself: her lord, pitying her pain, made a vow for her to the glorious lady Birgitta; which done, the devil at once departed from her, and did her no further harm. Another also, Peter by name, of the diocese of Linköping, was attacked by the devil, by whom he was most cruelly troubled for six years: he, coming to Vadstena on the Tuesday preceding Peter in Chains, is seized more grievously than usual by the demon dwelling in him, and troubled more bitterly; for, prostrated on the ground outside the chapel, and lying on his back with his eyes raised to heaven, he saw nothing, he stretched out his hands and feet in the form of a cross, clinging firmly with them to the earth: his stomach sometimes swelled so much that it seemed to raise itself above the breast up to the chin, as if something great and bodily were running in his bowels.

[155] from the demon, But sometimes it sank in so much as if he had no bowels: the breast was moved with palpitation, as if it were beaten by wind, so that he did not stiffen in the bones; many times the whole body was raised in the middle only, so that there was sometimes a full ell between the ground and his back, his head then and feet clinging firmly to the earth, and so he often stood firmly bent like a robber upon the wheel of the gibbet; for he was afflicted with misery of this kind in the sight of many on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday another demon appeared to him in the form of a great dog, and, touching the breast of the demoniac with his foot, said with a human voice: Go out from here, dearest comrade, otherwise you will shortly suffer the greatest scandal. Which said, the demon went out through the mouth of the demoniac like a great and horrible serpent, and after a little, become like a goat, hurled itself with great violence into the deep pond adjoining the monastery. And at that time the aforesaid Lord Archbishop of Uppsala was present at Vadstena.

[156] as also those endangered in childbirth experience: In the castle of Polimary in the diocese of Bale ^c a certain woman, pressed by most grievous pains because, overtaken by labour, she could not give birth, persisted in cries and wailings: to whom the lord Francis, formerly bishop of Fermo, but then a hermit, mentioned above, running up, asked the cause of so great a pain; and, having learned that she was in danger in childbirth, he had some of the hair of St. Birgitta placed under her, and in that instant, having brought forth the abortive child which she was carrying, she was freed from the danger of death. When the relics of St. Birgitta were being carried to Sweden, the bearers turned aside to hear Mass at the monastery which is called Clairvaux of the kingdom of Poland ^d; a certain woman in those places had long been suffering in giving birth, but at once, as soon as the most holy body entered her house, she brought forth her offspring with much ease. Likewise a certain woman was in danger in childbirth for 9 days; who vowed many things and devoted herself to many Saints, but, when she profited nothing at all, at length certain women who were present vowing for her that she with all her house would visit the house of St. Birgitta, presently, at the hour, she gave birth with such ease as she never before could, although she had already given birth to eight little infants.

[157] Certain persons crossing by ship to the fair of St. Botvid ^e in the upper part of Sweden, others a most grievous tempest having arisen, became exceedingly anxious, because from the impulses of the storms the ship creaked and was being filled with water; who, expecting as it were nothing else than drowning, devoutly implored the help of Bl. Birgitta, and presently, as if by a certain hand, the ship, lifted by the storm, was cast upon land; who, at length learning that one boy was missing, on bended knees again humbly cried to the Mother of mercy, and at once the storm, rising, drove the boy alive and unhurt to land; all these, coming to Vadstena and praising the glory of Christ, who deigned to work so many and so great wonders through His Handmaid, related these things with joy to the brothers.

[158] Certain persons of Linköping, having completed a pilgrimage to Aachen according to a vow, being at sea, through the waves were returning home: and as the ship in which they were struggled, the fire of a thunderbolt was at once kindled on the top of the mast: who, despairing of escaping the danger of death, on their knees asked with a flood of tears the help of God and of His Handmaid, all crying with living voice and saying that they would visit her relics at Vadstena if they obtained the speedy effect of their petitions. This done, the fire of the thunderbolt being as it were cast by someone's hand into the sea, freed from so great a danger, when they had put in at the desired port, they went swiftly to Vadstena, giving praise and glory to God and Bl. Birgitta.

[159] The Abbot of the monastery of Julita ^f directed letters to Vadstena in these words: those sailing To the reverend man the lord Peter, Prior of Alvastra, being at Vadstena, greeting in the Lord. I began to hide what I find is not to be hidden, namely that that great and glorious lady Birgitta, when she is invoked in the dangers of waters, is present as a helper with miracles, etc.: For on the lake of Mälaren, near the passage of Olghsund, I went aboard a ship to cross to Strängnäs, and, the sail being spread under that most vehement blast which was about the feast of Bl. Martin, the ship was damaged on a certain rock; and the rudder being broken and the ship holed, we wished to lower the sail, but could not, the blast itself breaking the tackle of the sail, and so the ship, running most swiftly, struck upon another stone and was holed more strongly. At length, not being able to draw in the sail, in so great a danger we vowed that the Mass Salve sancta Parens, etc., should be said in honour of the glorious Birgitta, and we at once received such relief that not the least drop of water was perceived to enter the ship; whereas the boys, before the ship was holed, had many times baled out water at the distance of one league; because the ship was porous on account of age.

[160] And the holes were so wide that it was not in our power to bring help to the ship: of shipwreck; the holes themselves, therefore, having been miraculously exempted from the invasion of the water, even the pores, which before had received water, deferring to so great a deed, were quiet: yet the water, dashing against the holes, gave an unaccustomed sound, a wonderful power resisting: in the operation * of so great a resistance such an action shows itself to be of lesser power. We were indeed far from land during this event, as much as half a league, but the ship, afterwards brought to land with oars and made fast in the harbour, soon began to take in water: after its repair the boys laboured in baling water out of the ship near the city of Strängnäs, and finally they continued the way towards the city of Stockholm ^g, where the same ship was wholly destroyed, our servants and goods, however, being unhurt. And these things were done not by the merit of the one invoking, but by the dignity of her who was invoked. What then shall we render to so great a helper? For we know for certain that the glorious Birgitta herself truly is good in deed and in name, bestowing glorious aid on those who invoke her. Let the adversaries be silent; farewell in Christ: written on the morrow of Vincent the Martyr.

[161] or going over the ice Ten men with a small boy were sitting to fish upon the ice on the great lake adjoining the monastery of Vadstena, which is of such a nature that, when the time of the breaking up of the ice approaches, it begins to boil with a most vehement noise and to be moved from the depth, and to break with great violence, making small cracks, which are

in the ice, making them very wide in a short space of time, although the ice has had more than one ell in thickness: and then, the force of the winds helping from above, the whole ice is divided into large fragments, and then many who are upon that ice are often drowned. But although this may seem , yet the whole surrounding region attests it. Six, therefore, of the said men, hearing the commotion from the depth, and knowing beforehand the nature of the lake, hastened with most swift running to the shore, leaving the fish which they had caught and their other things. But the other four with their boy, wishing to take their things with them, stayed until they saw an opening made between themselves and their companions so wide that it was possible for them to come after them.

[162] from danger of drowning Whence, troubled even unto death by the horrible collision and commotion of the ice, since they expected nothing but sudden drowning, they raised their eyes towards Vadstena, humbly invoking for themselves the glorious lady Birgitta: which done, in a wonderful way the part of the ice on which they were standing, most dangerously, in the twinkling of an eye, against the violence of the winds joined itself to that part which lay next to the shore, on which their companions were standing without danger, allowing them to come to a place of safety. And when they were already standing in safety, the ice was separated with as much ease as it had been joined: but the said boy, hastening after them, but not able to leap across with as much ease as they, leapt into the water when the ice was separating; seeing which, the aforesaid 10 men, unable to help him in anything, besought Bl. Birgitta on bended knees for his deliverance: which done, presently, as if a certain person's hand had been put under him, he was lifted out of the water. All those, therefore, for whom the said miracle was done, coming about the Annunciation of the Lord to the monastery of Vadstena, and weeping for joy, made known to many the help wonderfully and mercifully afforded them.

[163] are rescued. Thorberch, a woman of the village and parish of Kyarlunda in the diocese of Oslo in the kingdom of Norway ^h, about the Annunciation of the Lord was going with her husband over very fragile and porous ice, which, suddenly giving way, both were carried into the depth: but when they had begun to sink, the woman cried: O St. Birgitta, save me: who was at once lifted as if by a hand upon the ice, which was so thin that it afterwards often broke under her feet, although she did not sink. And when she had reached the * , the whole ice broke up from a great wind then coming on. She, coming to Vadstena on the third day after Pentecost, steadfastly and gratefully confessed the grace granted to her.

ANNOTATIONS.

otherwise comparatione* comparison

supply: mirum* wonderful

read impossibile* impossible

supply: terram* land

CHAPTER IV.

On the wonders occurring about the translation of the relics, and on those blaspheming and disparaging her.

She restores senses suddenly lost, When the lord Birger and the lady Catherine, children of St. Birgitta, with the confessors and the whole household, were returning home, bearing with them the relics of their most happy Mother, and when they had come into the March of Ancona, and were lodging there one evening in a certain city, one of the maidservants of the lady Catherine, Mary by name, suddenly fell to the ground as if dead, her speech lost and the other senses of her body estranged, for, lying on her back like a corpse, she kept her eyes turned askew. Seeing this, the lady Catherine, not a little amazed at so sudden and fearful a misfortune, had her Mother's confessors called, that they might counsel what needed to be done. But the confessors summoned had no aid which they could bring forward. When morning came, therefore, she, using sound counsel, took some of the hair and bones of her Mother, and, going to the sick woman, who, as appeared, was in the same state, touched her with them: first indeed touching the eyes, and at once they returned to their due state. Then, the mouth, nostrils and face having been touched, the woman at once rose healthy, and rode, and, arriving at Vadstena, was made a nun there.

[165] After this, coming into Germany to the city which is called Brno, as they translate her relics to Sweden, by land they heard that in the castle of Skaclivum ^a there were many robbers, plundering travellers, which robbers indeed, knowing beforehand of their coming, prepared themselves to seize them; and when these approached the castle, they saw them descending, placing * themselves on both sides of the road which they had to keep, with crossbows ready for shooting, and arms brandished for wounding: seeing this, the peaceful and unarmed pilgrims were greatly afraid, and, commending themselves to God and the holy Mother, asked to be rescued from so great a danger by her merits. A miracle wonderful certainly and astounding: for, approaching the robbers and passing, the robbers being blinded, they went through the midst of them. And in the evening, merchants arriving at the inn to which these had come related how they had fallen in with those robbers, and had learned from their relating how they were waiting for certain rich pilgrims, and that, as the pilgrims passed through, they were blinded, hearing indeed the noise of feet, yet seeing no one. Then that very night, to one of that company, appearing as it were a shining sun, she said: Did you see those many armed men today seeking you? He said: I saw, lady. And she said: I blinded them, so that they might not harm you nor hinder your way, as they purposed.

[166] and by sea in a wonderful manner protects them, Then, as the aforesaid translators were making their way in a ship between Germany and Sweden with the same relics, and were in doubt at what port ^b they should put in on account of the dangers of wars then pressing upon those parts, it happened a little after midday that a most brilliant star appeared in the sky, which an innocent and sick boy of eight years saw first and before all. But when all meanwhile were clearly beholding it, they wondered that, while the sun was shining splendidly, they could see a star in the sky, which, going before them as far as a certain port not at all premeditated, disappeared. Then on the following night it was said in a vision to one of those who were carrying the relics: The star which you saw yesterday going before the ship and showing you the port signifies Birgitta, whose fame will proceed little by little like a star, until like the sun it illuminates the whole world.

[167] she frees one captured by enemies, heals a sick woman, And the beginning of her signs in the land of Sweden was this: it happened in the year of the Lord 1373 ^c, on the Tuesday of Pentecost, that a certain noble, Haakon by name, was captured by enemies; most tightly bound, he was led to the sea to be carried to the land of Germany, where they might more securely extort from him a great sum of money: standing therefore on the shore, he heard that the relics of Bl. Birgitta, which were being translated, were halting for the sake of rest not far from that place; he invoked her to his help, that he might not be carried away from his fatherland; and at once armed men came up from a certain castle, forbidding that he be carried away from his fatherland, but that they should at once impose on him a certain sum of money, if justice dictated that it be paid: which also was done. Yet those who helped him were in no way related to him, but had hitherto favoured the side of his enemies; he, released free, while he was returning home, met the translators of the relics, and followed them until those bones were placed at Vadstena on the 4th day before the Nones of July, narrating the grace done to him. And afterwards he was restored to liberty by the king and the princes, so that he paid nothing to his captors. A certain most noble Lady was oppressed by such languor that, lying in her place *, as often as she wished to turn herself, she raised herself by ropes on a beam or by some other aid of this kind; she, hearing that the relics of the Bride of Christ had arrived as they were being carried, trying to go on foot, however ill she was, rose to go, and went with such ease that she neither felt her accustomed infirmity nor needed anyone to help her. Who afterwards, eagerly visiting the same relics at Vadstena, gave immense thanks to God and His Handmaid.

[168] It happened also that a certain woman, affected with a perverse love for someone, when she had communicated on the holy day of Easter, she reconciles to God a sacrilegious woman, taking the most holy Eucharist from her mouth, tied it in a fillet, so that she might give it mixed in drink to him whom she had wickedly desired to drink, thinking that in such a way he was to be allured to unlawful embraces: but when she had profited nothing, she communicated again, wrapping the Body of Christ, as before, in a small cloth, and when she wished again to apply it to the drink, it suddenly disappeared, no remnants appearing. For which reason the unhappy woman could neither see the Body of Christ nor say one Pater noster in church from then on for 10 years, although outside the church she could pray in some way: and when she had persisted too long in such wickedness, daring to confess her crime to no one, at length, learning that our Mother's relics had come home, having made a vow of pilgrimage to them, at once, as soon as she touched the pall placed beneath the relics, dissolved in tears, rising, she confessed all the evil: and the confession having been made, she could both see the Lord's body and remain in church to pray without weariness, praising and blessing God.

[169] A certain man also had never confessed for 40 years, and an old sinner, who, having heard the fame of blessed Birgitta, went to confession, and said that he had sinned in nothing: to whom the brother said: Neither do I absolve you. A second time he returned, but, as before, he was ashamed to confess: then, wishing to rise and withdraw, he saw the devil in a most foul form, fleeing from the sight of whom he fell to the ground as if dead, saying nothing, but silent for about half an hour: afterwards he saw a most beautiful Lady in gilded garments saying: O man, you are badly sick: and he said: Truly it is so; to whom she said: Go to the relics of St. Birgitta, there is medicine there: for I who speak to you am the Mother of mercy. He, rising, confessed all his sins which he had committed from his youth, and gave thanks to God.

[170] A certain woman near Alvastra ^d, poor in substance she heals an arm badly affected. but rich in a pure life, suffered continually for 10 years a most grievous pain in her left arm; who invoked the lady Birgitta, and one night saw her in the habit in which she had often seen her when she was living at Alvastra, who said to her: You ask me for health, ask

rather God, who can do all things, and I will ask with you, and I am certain that He will hear us. Which said, she at once felt herself free from all pain. A little after, when the said woman was praying one night for the peace of the kingdom, blessed Birgitta appeared to her again in the habit mentioned above, saying: On account of the sins of the people, long unpunished, God had stretched out His rod over the kingdom; but behold, now mercy is open to all who humble themselves: but because they are still few, a grave affliction of the wrath of God is sent upon the hardened.

[171] When first they had come to the kingdom of Sweden with the most holy body, Divinely not rarely a certain noble, openly blaspheming the lady Birgitta, was seized with such fury that he saw a multitude of demons; and, entering a certain church, he shut himself in there, and beat his body with rods and staves; and he miserably wounded his own head with stones. His friends, perceiving this, cautiously entered through the windows of the church, and dragged him importunately to his lodging: and he, biting their fingers with his teeth, cried out: You cursed robbers, you have spoken as evilly as I also of the lady Birgitta, and you are as worthy of the company of demons as I. At length, coming back to his senses, he vowed that he would visit her relics at Vadstena. And when he thought of going first towards Aachen, because he had vowed this first, he is seized, and troubled more gravely than usual by the demons: and when he had breathed a little, he purposed to go to Vadstena; who, taking the road, at first could scarcely go to the destined place, but, having gone out from the city of Söderköping, he was gradually strengthened, so that he came barefoot to the place and made the journey with such ease as if he had not been sick.

[172] were punished, A certain woman, reckoning frivolous the things which were said of the Bride of Christ, and vomiting forth some unseemly things from her mouth, lost her senses: her husband therefore, returning home and seeing his wife senseless, the cause being at length learned, vowed with his wife to visit the threshold of blessed Birgitta at Vadstena; and, a short space having intervened, she being restored to her senses, both together fulfilled the vow. Likewise a certain man blaspheming the same was so suddenly chastised by God that his leg was at once broken; which is said to have happened likewise to a nun blaspheming her. A certain other also dared to blaspheme the words which the Spirit of God spoke through His pipe, who was at once seized with such sickness that he could move neither to the right nor to the left: moreover he was affected with such itching and weariness that he wished to lay his own hands upon himself to destroy himself. To him a Person in a reverend habit, appearing in sleep, said: Stretch out your tongue and you will be healed; for I am she whom you cursed; and the man, putting out his tongue, received a certain anointing, who, waking, was also freed from the temptation.

[173] who did not fear Pyno, a noble of a castle situated beside the city of Carabo in the diocese of Strängnäs, deriding the honourable Woman, was in that very act deprived of one eye, who, after half a year repenting of the blasphemy, and making a vow of pilgrimage to her, and fulfilling it, rejoiced that he had received the light of the lost eye. In the city of Örebro ^e James the goldsmith, cursing the Bride of Christ, was loosened by paralysis, which * , being atrociously afflicted for three days and nights, he vowed that he would visit her relics at Vadstena; who presently, having received the use and firm steadiness of his members, fulfilled what he had vowed. The curate of the church of Vynghlium in the diocese of Strängnäs, called Nicholas, refusing to believe that the grace of the Holy Spirit had rested upon the humble and meek and God-fearing Woman, was busy to blacken her fame with abuse: and while he did so he was so struck with pain in his right arm that, sharply afflicted for three days, he could neither eat nor sleep, nor find any remedy of rest. Finally, understanding that he had been wholly chastised on account of the injury done to the venerable Widow, he repented, vowing with inmost heart that he would by no means henceforth disparage her, but honour her with worthy reverence in whatever things he could: this vow having been made, he felt his former health restored to him, with thanksgiving.

[174] to disparage her, A certain woman, Gertrude, presuming to deride her, was struck with so vehement a pain of the head and swelling of the body that for three days and nights she could neither see nor speak: she, afterwards doing the aforesaid penance and making a vow of pilgrimage, was healed. A certain nun, Margitrita by name, of the cloister of Riseberga in the diocese of Strängnäs ^f, presumed to blaspheme and deride the holy Woman, who on the spot, struck by divine judgment, lost her senses and speech: and when she had passed five days in such misery, some persons stipulated for her that she would reverently visit her * whom she had mocked with reviling. And on the following day, recovering the lost health, and observing what others had covenanted for her, she humbly acknowledged the grace done to her. Brother Benedict of the Order of Preachers, deriding the venerable Lady, was made mad for three days; he, a vow of pilgrimage having been made for him to her whom he had disparaged, recovered his former health.

[175] Likewise brother John of the Order of Minors, and certain men for that reason attacking with less seemly words the grace freely given by God to Bl. Birgitta, at once fell down with the epileptic disease, and, having lost sight, hearing, speech, motion and all rational sense, lay for three days and nights like a useless trunk: pitying whose misery, the lord Arwid, priest, with two discreet matrons, made a vow of pilgrimage for him to Vadstena; who, rising healthy in the same hour, confessed that he gladly wished to fulfil what they had promised for him. Likewise, while she herself was still living among men, she was many times troubled and disparaged on account of the same grace of heavenly revelations made to her, as is clear from the sixth book of the same Revelations, chapter 90, where it is said that, when master Matthias, of whom above, was speaking with a certain religious of great authority and familiarity about this grace of heavenly visions divinely given to the Bride, that religious answered: It is not credible, nor does it agree with Scripture, that God has withdrawn from the continent and from those who renounce the world, and should show His secrets to grand women. And when the Master alleged many things on this, he did not consent: but when the Bride had heard these things, and seeing the master troubled, she set herself to prayer, and then, rapt in spirit, she heard Christ speaking thus: This infirmity * of many is dangerous; therefore it is not to be given to them, lest they become more gravely sick. But I am the medicine of the sick and the truth of those who err. But this talkative religious does not desire medicine, because the dung of the knowledge of vanity is in his heart, and therefore I will give him a blow with my hand, and it will be heard by all that I am God, not talkative, but effective and to be feared. This same religious, after this tribulation, was humbled, and, having been made paralytic, died.

[176] Likewise in chapter 92 of the book written above it is said that, rebuked by Christ. in the presence of the Bride, a certain monk carried the book of the Life of the spirits * before the counsellors and the king of Sweden, reading in it that many of the holy Fathers had been deluded through excessive abstinence and indiscretion, and therefore he said that he feared lest perhaps the Bride should likewise be deluded. And when after this she was standing in prayer, she heard Christ saying to her: What did that monk say? That many of the saints were deluded: truly that sack of words said as he wished, but not as he ought: for none of my friends were deluded who loved me wisely; but those who, proud of their abstinence and justice, preferred themselves to others and were unwilling to obey the humble, these were deluded; and because this monk has pleaded the book of the Saints against me, whose imitator he is not, therefore I will plead the book of my justice against him; and he who is praised in his wisdom will come before my wisdom, and then he will see in his conscience that true wisdom is not in lofty words, but in a pure conscience and true humility.

[177] The author's Epilogue, Let, therefore, the rashness of those who doubt give way; let the hope of those who despair draw near, and let the tongue of the detractors withdraw; let no one's eye be evil, because the Lord is good. Is it not lawful for Him to do what He wills, who does injury to no one? For because the great God willed it, therefore He filled her with the spirit of understanding, and she sent forth like showers the utterances of her wisdom. Many shall praise her wisdom, and her memory shall not be blotted out for ever. Come now, kindly Mother, norm of life, channel of the Holy Spirit, beloved Bride of Christ, whom the Lord chose and preferred, and made to dwell in His tabernacle; come, I say, Bride of Christ, come and receive the crown which your Spouse has prepared for you for ever: for whose love you poured out your heart like water, and entered with the angels into Paradise: for whose love, I say, you despised the kingdom of the world and all its adornment: whom you saw, whom you loved, in whom you believed, whom you loved with your whole heart: say you also with the most blessed Virgin Mary, whose humble attendant you are: God has regarded the humility of His Handmaid: for behold, from this all generations shall call me blessed, because He who is mighty has done great things to me, and holy is His name. Henceforth let no one be troublesome to me, for I now carry in my heart and on my head the lofty praises and the most exalted insignia of the love of my Spouse Jesus Christ, the eternal king. Why then, O you detractors, are you troublesome to this Woman, says Christ: for she has wrought a good work upon me.

[178] and who this man was is declared. Let the reader devout in Christ, and also zealous for the blessed Virgin and for the lady Birgitta, know that the original compiler of the little Work written above was brother Berthold of Rome, general confessor of the monastery of the same our Mother Birgitta of Paradise near Florence; and it was copied out in a monastery of the same Order in the year 1402 ^g, on the second day of the month of December. Let us pray for the scribe, the R. F. Bartholomew Laucieus, of the Order of St. Birgitta, priest professed in the monastery of Sion at Cologne.

ANNOTATIONS.

supply: se* himself

perhaps lecto* [bed]?

qua* by which

illam* [her]

supply: quod de antidoto infirmantur* that they grow sick from the antidote:

read Patrum* of the Fathers

APPENDIX ON THE MIRACLES OF ST. BIRGITTA.

Birgitta, widow, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1357, 1341, 1342, 1343, 1344, 1345

PART I.

By an Anonymous Author.

Eight miracles wrought in Sweden.

By an Anonymous author.

To those imploring her help Two men, unjustly taken captive at Västerås ^a as pirates, were cruelly held for a month in chains and bonds. Who, when they had vowed that they would visit the relics and monastery of St. Birgitta at Vadstena if she would deign to help them, at once, at the touch of the bare hand, without any other external instrument, the bonds of all of them fell from them entirely. And since, for fear of the guards watching the prison, they did not dare to attempt to go out through the door, digging out the earth with their hands like ashes, drawing the iron bonds with them under the prison, in the midst of the guards, God protecting them, they climbed out more securely into the street, carrying the vow they had made into effect. Certain men of Gotland ^b, suffering shipwreck about the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, were carried, their ship shattered, onto a certain rock in the sea, where, suffering hunger and cold for one week, they cast lots which of them should be killed so as to become food for the others. And the one taken by lot besought with tears the aid of St. Birgitta, binding himself to visit her monastery at Vadstena; and presently they miraculously found a great piece of flesh on the shore, which being devoured, and a calm having arisen, they came with a small boat through the long trackless ways of the sea to the haunts of men. And he whom the lot had shown as one to be killed, being taken captive on the way to fulfil his vow, and hard afflicted with iron and stocks, again invoked the help of St. Birgitta, and presently, all the bonds falling from him of their own accord, he began to continue the journey he had begun: and when on the way numerous wolves struck him with terror, on his brandishing the chain with which he had been bound, they fled one by one.

[2] Ten men, sailing by night on the sea about the feast of All Saints, struck upon a certain promontory, she succours in various ways: where, the laden ship making for the bottom, they themselves, creeping up the promontory as quickly as possible, lay there for nine continuous days, growing cold, without food and drink. At length, vowing that they would visit the relics of St. Birgitta at Vadstena, on the ninth day they were brought to safety by certain islanders. Four men of Holland ^c, about to sail towards Germany about the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, were held by pirates. And four wicked men from the pirates' ship having been sent in to them, they began to molest them tyrannically; but those villagers began to repel force with force, and, prevailing by the grace of God, cast all those four pirates from them into the sea. Seeing which, the other pirates hastened to come to them: the villagers, therefore, because they were distant from them by no more than the space of eight ells, or about that, destitute of human resource, made a vow of pilgrimage to the relics of St. Birgitta at Vadstena, that they might escape. A wonderful thing! Suddenly the pirates' ship, immovable, stuck to the waves as if fixed, until they were torn away from their sight by a prosperous voyage. In the kingdom of Sweden, in the diocese of Strängnäs ^d, in the parish of Malma, a boy of nine years with his sister of six and a half years was driving oxen to the woodland pastures at the command of their parents. Where, the girl straying because of the thickness of the woods, the boy returned alone. The parents, therefore, seeking their lost daughter for six days, first with their neighbours, then with the whole parish, at length with the people of three surrounding parishes, laboured in vain: afterwards for three days they searched a certain * river, in case perhaps they might recover her drowned, since she had not been found on land, but with empty labour. Finally, vowing that they would visit the relics of St. Birgitta at Vadstena with offerings for the recovery of their lost daughter, on the ninth day of her loss, at sunrise, they received her unharmed before their doors.

[3] but those speaking ill of her In the city of Leipzig ^e a certain master painter, Henry by name, was wont to say many things among the doctors about the sanctity of Bl. Birgitta and her books of heavenly revelations, out of the love with which he was moved towards her. Then once one of the doctors said to him with indignation: Unless you cease to speak of this new heresy and the books of that old woman, I will deliver you to the fire to be burned; which also he purposed to do, and had him cited to appear before the masters on the morning of the following day. The said painter, therefore, sought out a certain cleric devoted to blessed Birgitta, Walter by name, for sounder counsel in this matter: for he feared for his life. He, comforting him, persuaded him to persist in devotion towards God and St. Birgitta, doubting nothing of their suffrage. And the priest himself, with another master, John Tortus, a man of the same devotion towards St. Birgitta, would gladly pray the Lord for him; which also was done. And when morning came, he appeared before the college with trembling mind, enduring a hard examination, so that, convicted, he might be punished as a heretic. But by the prayers of St. Birgitta, for whom he was striving, that simple layman without letters, imbued with the holy spirit, set forth the great works of God so effectively that his adversaries could not resist the spirit which spoke in him. Whence, not long after, God, the lord of vengeances, repaid vengeance to the chief stirrer-up of this disturbance. For, going to his bed in health, he was struck in the night with the falling sickness and died, and his corpse at once rotted with such stench and horror that no one dared to approach it, and at the touch of hands the flesh came away in pieces from the bones. At length privy-cleaners, hired for a price, carried his wretched body to the grave, affirming that, if they had known beforehand the abundance of so great a stench in him, they would by no means have handled him, even if the price had been doubled to them.

[4] feel the vengeance of God. Some time after the aforesaid, a certain doctor of the Order of Friars Minor, about to go towards Stolp ^f to his friends, acquired the aforenamed lord Walter as a companion; who, when he was speaking magnificently on the way of St. Birgitta and her divine revelations, that doctor, not enduring sound doctrine, said: Cease to speak of that old woman and her frivolous superstitions and new heresy. And when they had entered Stolp, after the use of a bath, and having celebrated a merry banquet with his friends, going to bed and standing on a high step, cast down by a divine stroke, he at once expired. A certain man of great learning of the Order of Preachers was so inflamed against the revelations of St. Birgitta that he said openly that they should be burned , calling the persons of her religion lollards ^g and beguines ^h: to whom another certain secular master offered the books of the Heavenly Revelations of St. Birgitta, that by reading them he might be changed for the better. But as he spurned the salutary counsel, he added: I fear that the Lord Jesus will avenge Himself and His Saint upon you with divine vengeance, because you so obstinately attack this Saint. And with this they parted, and at once the hand of the Lord raged against him, and so great a leprosy infected his body more and more that none of the brothers of his convent dared to eat, drink or converse with him, or render him any service, until he passed the way of all flesh; God be propitious to him. How dangerous it is to disparage St. Birgitta, or with rash daring to go against the revelations made to her from heaven, is evident from what has been said above, and from chapters 90 and 92 of the sixth book of the Revelations, how the divine justice manfully repays those who act proudly; from which may God, three and one, protect us. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. See letter a here.

quemdam* a certain

supply: est* [was]

ipsas comburendas* that they (the revelations) should be burned

PART II.

Some miracles collected by James Orlando by order of Bernard, archbishop of Naples.

By James de Orlando.

Bernard, archbishop of Naples In the name of the Lord. Amen. In the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1376, our most serene lady, the lady Joanna ^a, by the grace of God queen of Jerusalem and Sicily, of the duchy of Apulia, of the principality of Capua, countess of Provence and Forcalquier and of Piedmont, reigning; in the third year of her reigns, on the fourth ^b of February, amen ^c, on the 20th day of the month of October, in the 15th Indiction, at Naples. We, James de Orlando of Naples, public notary by royal authority throughout the provinces of Terra di Lavoro and of the county of Molise and of the Principato Citra, and the witnesses undersigned, specially called and asked for this, declare by the present public writing, make known and testify that Charles de Frisono of Naples, coming into our presence, showed and presented to us certain letters of the most reverend father in Christ the lord archbishop of Naples by the grace of God, written on a sheet of paper, sealed with his great archiepiscopal seal, lacking all fault and suspicion, which we saw, read and diligently inspected, and they contained in all things what follows.

[6] various miracles of St. Birgitta done at Naples Bernard, by the grace of God archbishop of Naples, to his beloved son judge Charles of Naples, greeting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since we ought by no means to conceal, but rather to make known, the good things which God by His grace bestows on us, otherwise we could deservedly be reproved for ingratitude. Wherefore our Master Jesus Christ says of the ten lepers healed that only one foreigner had returned to Him to give thanks; but the nine, where are they? And in the Psalm: Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what great things He has done for my soul. And the angel Raphael said to Tobias: It is honourable to reveal and confess the works of God. And since in these last times of this evil age the Lord has conferred on us, though unworthy, a lamp, and has placed it upon a candlestick, namely blessed Birgitta of Sweden, sprung from a royal race, whom He illuminated with innocence and many virtues, and to whom He revealed many secrets; who, living in our city of Naples, conferred some salutary counsels on us and on the Neapolitan people,

and often besought God for us, and at her prayers some evils ceased. And after her death, as in her life, our Lord did many miracles in our city at her prayers, which ought not to be delivered to silence, but rather divulged and published to the praise of God. Therefore to you, who were devoted to the same Lady in her life, we commit by the tenor of the present letters that you diligently write all and singular the miracles which the said Lady, both in life and after death, procured to be done by our Lord Jesus Christ in our city, in such manner and so that the mere truth which you can find may be described, so that all and singular, seeing her wonderful works, may betake themselves to praise, and may have recourse more devoutly in their necessities to blessed Birgitta. Given at Naples in our archiepiscopal palace on the 25th day of August, in the 14th Indiction. Bernard, by the grace of God archbishop of Naples, who subscribe with my own hand and have caused it to be sealed with the Pontifical seal.

[7] he ordered to be collected, by which she, to those By the force and authority of which letters the aforesaid Charles required us and attentively asked, imploring our office on this, that we should go together with him through the city of Naples to the persons written below, to hear from them by the oracle of the living voice the miracles which God has wrought in them by the merits of blessed Birgitta. And we, devoutly obeying such request, especially since the business was wonderful and pious, and since we cannot deny our office, which is public, to anyone, on the days written below in the month of October and November went personally together with him through the said city of Naples to the persons written below, whom we found personally, who had been asked before us whether God had deigned to work any miracles by the merits of blessed Birgitta for them or for anyone else; who answered by the oracle of the living voice, as is contained in detail below, namely: on the said 20th day of the said month of October, the lady Catherine, wife of the lord Paolo de Morinis of Genoa ^d, dwelling at Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by her oath, that a certain grandson of hers, son of a certain daughter of hers, was gravely ill, from which illness indeed death rather than life was expected. And she, hearing the fame of blessed Birgitta spread everywhere, made a vow to her that, if she would deign by the merit of her sanctity to obtain the grace of health for the same her grandson, she would at once come to the church of St. Mary of Carmel, where her image was painted, and would have a Mass said, and would offer candles there. Which boy was found in the morning healthy without any personal danger, and the said lady Catherine paid the vow which she promised.

[8] Then a certain other boy of 2 years, son of a certain kinsman of hers, labouring with various kinds of diseases, whom she kept in her house and loved as a son, likewise fell gravely ill, from which illness the said Catherine feared his death; and, having confidence in God and in blessed Birgitta, she vowed a vow to her for his health to go to the said church and to have a Mass said there as above. Which boy was suddenly found healthy, and she paid the vow as she promised. Thecla, wife of Oddo Favi of Pisa ^e, dwelling at Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by her oath, that lately a certain son of hers by the said Oddo had been gravely ill, from which illness she feared death rather than life; and she, hearing the fame of the said blessed Birgitta spread everywhere, vowed a vow to her that, if she would deign by her sanctity to obtain the grace of health for the same her son, she would at once come to the said church of St. Mary of Carmel, where her image was painted, and would have a Mass said there, and would offer candles there. Which boy was at once found healthy without any personal danger, and the said Thecla paid the vow which she promised. Eliana de Cibo, sister of the lord Villano Cibo of Genoa, dwelling at Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by her oath, that Luchino her brother, coming by sea with a certain vessel from Damascus ^f, fell ill, and when he had landed at Naples the illness itself grew worse upon him: and so the sister, fearing the death of her said brother, told the same her brother that he ought to vow himself to the said Bl. Birgitta, because the fame of her sanctity was spread everywhere. He, hoping to obtain health by the merits of Bl. Birgitta, vowed a vow to her that he would have her figure painted where it should seem best to him for the fame of the said Lady. And after he had vowed the vow, he suddenly said to the same his sister: I feel well, and I have received help by the merits of Bl. Birgitta; who, suddenly made healthy, carried the image of Bl. Birgitta to the city of Genoa, to have it painted there.

[9] Maria, wife of Alfonso the Spaniard, dwelling at Naples, said, as with toothache, and confirmed by her oath, that, while the said lady Birgitta was living, when she was going with her to visit the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ ^g, she asked her counsel for a certain daughter of hers, what she ought to do about her; who told her several times that she ought to make her a nun in the church of the Holy Cross, or in the monastery of St. Clare of Naples. She, returning to Naples, told her aforesaid husband that they ought to make their aforesaid daughter a nun. He refusing, and the said daughter also being unwilling, the said Maria reported to the said Bl. Birgitta the words and the intention of the said husband and daughter. Who answered her: You will never see your said daughter married; which also came to pass. For after a few days she was snatched away from the allurements of this world. She asserted moreover that after the death of the said Bl. Birgitta her said husband Alfonso was gravely ill, and she, grieving at the infirmity of her aforesaid husband, vowed to the same Bl. Birgitta, for the health of her said husband, to have her image painted in the church of St. Eligius of Naples; who was suddenly found healthy, and the said Maria fulfilled the vow promised. Luchina, wife of Adoardo de Mari of Genoa, dwelling in the said city of Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by oath, that lately, suffering an intolerable pain of the teeth, by reason of which she could not sleep or eat properly, and hearing the fame of the sanctity of the said Bl. Birgitta, having devotion to her, she vowed a vow to her that, if she would deign on account of her sanctity to obtain health and cessation of the pain of the said teeth, she would at once go to the said church of St. Mary of Carmel, where she would have a Mass said out of reverence and honour for her; and she said that at once, the said vow having been made, the aforesaid pain ceased, and she was found healthy, and paid the vow which she promised.

[10] fever, The lady Heliana, being asked again, said, and confirmed by her oath, that lately Ruggiero Samignano of Genoa, being in her house, fell gravely ill with fever, who, at the petition and persuasion of the said Heliana, vowed a vow to the same Bl. Birgitta, and was at once freed from the said infirmity. Palmerio, a cloth merchant, being asked, said, and confirmed by his oath, that, when he was sick with a grave infirmity from which death rather than life was expected, his wife, fearing his death, having the greatest devotion to the said Bl. Birgitta, because at the time when the same Bl. Birgitta was living in the world she frequented her assiduously, and after her falling asleep had greater devotion to her, vowed a vow to her concerning Masses to be said, wax candles to be made, and lamps to be lit in St. Mary of Carmel, where the image of the said Bl. Birgitta was painted, that, if she should obtain the grace of health for her husband, she would pay her the vow: and suddenly her said husband, who was labouring as it were at the point of death, saw in a vision the said Bl. Birgitta laying herself stretched out upon his body; by which vision exceedingly comforted, he was awakened as if he had slept, and said: I am healthy, because Bl. Birgitta has healed me; and so it was for certain, that he was at once found healthy, and his said wife paid the vow which she promised.

[11] a gland Lorenzo of Florence ^h, dwelling at Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by his oath, that, the said blessed Birgitta being dead, he had great devotion to her, because, having gone for certain business committed to him to the fair of the city of Salerno ⁱ, and making a stay there, he received a letter from Angelo de Lacemniis de Benis, a merchant staying at Naples, containing among other things that his brother was gravely ill with that infirmity which is called the Gland, from which death rather than life was expected, and that if he desired to see him alive before he died, he should come to Naples at once, for he was so delirious. Who said within himself: Alas, where shall I go? He will perhaps die before I go. For the infirmity was unto death: yet, trusting in the goodness of God and the merits of blessed Birgitta, who was still living, he made supplication to the divine goodness, and asked mentally the said blessed Birgitta with devotion and tears that she would deign to succour and obtain health for his aforesaid brother; and suddenly the said brother, who from the time he had fallen ill had not yet slept, and was delirious, saw that night this vision, that, being in a certain place where water ran in no small quantity, he saw blessed Birgitta staying on the right side of the said water, who said to him: Come here, and cross over to me from the other side of the water where you are staying. He answered: Lady, I cannot, because I am sick, and the gland which I have in my leg ^k hinders me; and she said: Come here by all means. He seemed to himself to go there, and crossed from the other side of the said water to the Lady herself. Who, waking as if from sleep, said that he was healthy, because the Lady herself had healed him. And all who were awaiting his end, believing that he had spoken from anger, as if terrified, finding him healthy, thereafter rendered praises to God and Bl. Birgitta. Which Lorenzo asserted were done in the month of September, in the 13th Indiction, on the 22nd of the same month ^l.

[12] Marino de Alessandro of Naples, goldsmith, being asked, said, blindness, and pain of the feet, and confirmed by his oath, that he had his * gravely ill with the infirmity which is called the Gland, or groin-sickness, who was despaired of by the physicians; and then he had his son gravely ill with a certain other infirmity, from which he expected death rather than life. Who, trusting in the Lord and in the merits of blessed Birgitta, because, while she lived in the world, he had laboured much for her in what he could, made supplication to her,

that she would deign to obtain the grace of health for them, namely the son and the * ; and she, hearing the prayers of the suppliant, obtained the grace of health for both. Candolo, a merchant staying at Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by his oath, that he suddenly had an extraordinary pain in a toe, and, having devotion and faith towards blessed Birgitta, he vowed a vow to her that, if she would deign to obtain the grace from the Lord that that pain should cease, he would at once have her painted in a certain church of St. Gregory Major of Naples; who at once felt himself healed. Tommasino, spice-merchant of Nice ^m, dwelling at Naples, being asked, said that he knew that a certain devotee of blessed Birgitta once went to visit the sepulchre of the Lord with Bl. Birgitta, and when he was going a second time to visit the aforesaid holy place, and was on the journey, he suddenly lost the light of his eyes for three days; who, full of sadness, suddenly vowed a vow to the same blessed Birgitta, saying: My Lady, in you is all my hope; I beseech you to restore to me the light of my eyes; and suddenly he received the grace and recovered the light of his eyes.

[13] John of Provence, a familiar of the lord chancellor of the kingdom of Sicily, and of body being asked, said, and confirmed by his oath, that, being in the city of Naples, he was ill for some days, and, having devotion to blessed Birgitta, he vowed a vow to her for the recovery of his health, saying: that I will go to St. Mary of Carmel, where your image is painted, and there I will have a Mass said out of reverence and honour for you: who said that he was suddenly found healthy, and paid the vow which he promised. The lady Ceccha Bochaplanula of Naples, being asked, said, and confirmed by her oath, that a certain sister of hers, gravely ill, came to such weakness of body that her sudden death was feared; and she, together with her mother, asked and besought blessed Birgitta that she would deign to obtain recovery for her said sister, so that she might be able to receive the Body of the Lord, lest she should thus die without the Sacrament of the Eucharist: which prayers having been made with devotion, she at once recovered, and received the sacred Body of the Lord. Marco Clavicterio of Naples, of the Piazza della Salaria of the same city, being asked, said, and confirmed by his oath, that lately a certain Lellena de Lando, his wife, was visited by the Lord with a long and grave bodily infirmity for the space of two years and more; being thus sick, she went to the house of her mother, took away by stealth from the same her husband some movable goods, and carried them to the house of her said mother. Concerning which things taken away the said Marco, her husband, was in great grief, not knowing how to find a way of recovering the said goods: suddenly his said wife, being as it were at the last, lost her speech, for which reason grief was added to the grief of her said husband. And he, not knowing what to do, the divine grace inspiring him, had recourse to a singular refuge: hearing the fame of the said Bl. Birgitta, which was spreading everywhere, he at once vowed to the same Bl. Birgitta, and said: I beseech you, Lady, that you deign to do me and my wife the grace that, before she dies, she may have speech and good knowledge, and that she may come to my house with the things which she has taken from me, that I will come naked, cudgelling or beating myself, as far as the church of St. Mary of Carmel, where your image is painted; and he promised and vowed other things.

[14] weakness, she succours, And while his said wife was thus, with speech lost, in the house of her aforesaid mother, her husband went to see her, having great grief for the lost things taken from him. And while he was in the aforesaid house, he began to say some words; at once, wonderfully, his said wife, who had lost her speech, spoke, calling him and saying: Marco, husband and my lord. And he comforted her, and said that he had vowed her to Bl. Birgitta. Who answered: That Lady has comforted me, for a woman was with me, and I believe that it was she who held her hand on my stomach and other parts of my body, and comforted me not a little. And at once she said to her husband: I wish to come to your house; and so she urged her mother, wishing to go to the house of her said husband; which also was done. And her said husband had her helped, and she took the things which she had taken from her said husband from his house, and carried them into his house, and restored them to him; who thereafter, comforted, recovered, and her said husband solemnly fulfilled the vow promised to Bl. Birgitta. And finally, after some days, the woman herself relapsed, and assellationes ⁿ came upon her, from which, burdened by infirmity, she died and departed from this world.

[15] On the eighth day of the month of November, in the said 15th Indiction, the lady Lancilla Moronul ^o of Naples, mutual sister of the lord Andrillo Moronul of Naples, knight, being asked, said, and confirmed by her oath, that, when formerly there had arisen a quarrel or deadly feud between that knight with his kindred on the one side and some other nobles of the city of Naples, who are called de Constantio [p], on the other, from which some on both sides were slain; and the aforesaid lord Andrillo, having no regard for God, the devil instigating, had determined in his mind to sell all his immovable goods for this purpose, that he might be able to be sated with the blood of his said rivals, and that the royal court in future should not have, nor be able in any event to take or have, anything of his goods; and, as she asserted and as was the public report, the supreme Pontiff Pope Urban [q] of holy memory, our lady Queen Joanna and the lord king of Hungary [r] interposed themselves for making peace between them, and could do nothing therefore. Whence the lord Andrillo himself with his followers, by command of the lady Queen, was imprisoned for making that peace; yet nothing good was put into execution on that account. At length, the divine grace working, God Himself willing to be praised and glorified in His Saints, especially in the aforesaid Bl. Birgitta, the knight himself was suddenly weighed down with a grave and dangerous infirmity, namely that which is called the Gland, having not one but several in his body, from which, as she said, he was despaired of by all the physicians.

[16] And he, inspired by the Lord, wished to provide for the salvation of his soul; between noble families he began and completed his last testament, as she said. And suddenly, behold, there came to him a certain religious, saying to him that by all means, if he desired to be saved, he should make peace with his enemies. And he promised to do it: but because he had heard the fame of the said Bl. Birgitta, he desired to have something of her relics for his health. Knowing which, a certain man named Antonio de Carlecto [s], who was most familiar with blessed Birgitta while she lived in the world, brought him a small cross which had belonged to the said Bl. Birgitta, with certain other relics of her body; who devoutly and with desire received them, touching himself with them in certain parts of his body, and commending himself to the same Lady, and asking help from her. And behold, suddenly a storm and strong bodily anguish seized him, and he cried out, all of his house hearing, saying: I am damned in hell, I am damned; he repeated this many times. Whence many were terrified, and awaited his end, as it seemed to them; who was neither sleeping nor waking. Behold, there came someone to him, and, as he believed, it was a demon, saying: You are damned, because you did not make your testament voluntarily, but under compulsion. And suddenly, as he said, there appeared a certain woman, who was, as he said and believed, the said Bl. Birgitta, saying to him: Do not doubt, for I will help you; from which he received comfort. Behold, again that tempter was present, who said to him: You are damned, because you spared your enemies saying it with the mouth and not with the heart. And the Lady herself afforded him help, saying: Do not doubt, and do not despair; say, and confess with mouth and heart: I have spared them: which was so done, as appeared subsequently from the peace that followed.

[17] she extinguished hatreds, That tempter, seeing himself thus conquered and confounded, appeared there no more. And he again cried out, saying: I am not damned; I am not damned; repeating it many times; and he said: The Lady Birgitta is holy; which word he repeated many times. Then, coming back to himself, he called all his kinsmen and friends, narrating to them all the things which he had seen and heard, and, believing that he would die, he said: I will spare, for the remission of my sins; I wish that there be peace between us and those de Constantio, firm and valid, in mouth, heart and deed, and that you all go to them and make firm peace with them. Who at once went, and those de Constantio, knowing this, on the other hand at once came to meet them, who unanimously confirmed peace and concord. And coming unanimously to the said Andrillo with weeping and great joy, confirming * that peace, our Lord Jesus Christ working, by the merits, as is believed, of the said blessed Birgitta, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages, Amen. Then the knight himself, receiving bodily health, had the image of the said Bl. Birgitta painted in the church of St. Mary of Carmel of Naples, by whose merits, as is believed, all these things were done.

[18] and a nursing mother with her son On the same day the aforenamed Charles related, and confirmed by his oath, that he had heard from master Lisolo, crossbowman of Naples, procurator of the monastery of St. Clare of Naples, that lately Philippella Lanzlenga of Naples, his wife, while she was nursing her little son, suddenly on the vigil of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ a most grave fever began to trouble her for the space of a month and a half, who always nursed her said son, because the boy himself would in no way suck the breasts of another woman. And so the said master Lisolo feared the death both of his wife and of his son, because, the mother failing, the son also must die, who, as has been said, would in no way suck other breasts. But the divine grace inspiring him, hearing the fame and sanctity of the said Bl. Birgitta, he vowed a vow to her on bended knees, that she would deign to obtain the grace that his said wife might be able from the said infirmity by which she was held

be freed, and that his said son might likewise not perish from such infirmity, promising to have made a female statue of wax standing with a son in her arms, and to place it before the figure of the said blessed Birgitta which was painted in the said church of St. Mary of Carmel; which also was done.

[19] she snatched the mother from death. For within four days after the said vow his said wife was wholly freed from the said infirmity by which she was held, and the fever left her, and she recovered well, and the said Lisolo solemnly fulfilled the vow made by him. Which persons narrating and saying before us the aforesaid miracles, as is contained in detail above, the aforesaid Charles, wishing that full faith be given to the premises, asked and required us, attentively imploring our office on this, that we should make a public instrument of the premises for the certainty of all, of whom, or of whomsoever, it might concern to know the premises, or who should wish to know them, so that, if and when there should be need, full faith might be had therefrom. And we, devoutly obeying such request, especially since we cannot deny our office, which is public, to anyone, at the asking and request of the said Charles the present public instrument of the premises has been made by the hand of me the notary aforesaid, signed with my accustomed sign, confirmed under the seals of all, of me the judge above, and of our witnesses undersigned. Which I, the aforesaid Matthew, as above, public notary, wrote, because I was present, having been asked, at all the premises, and signed it with my sign, and I erased and emended above, where is read "Bernardus" and where is read "miraculo" and where is read "subscriptis diebus mensis Octobris, et Novembris." Likewise where is read "suo sacramento firmavit," where is read "applicuisse," and where is read "beatam." Likewise where is read "dominusque vir ejus" and where is read "dictæ XV Indict. domina Linnella Moronul." Likewise where is read "nec posse" and where is read "sibi visum fuit," and also where is read "eodem die," not by fault, because I erred carnally in writing; nor did I erase likewise, and I emended anew above, where is read "Suetia," that the sister staying in thee is. In a certain place where is read "de crinule" and where is read "non abrasi," which not by fault, but I erred in writing; which is to be held and to be valid as authentic and legitimate and most firm.

I, James de Orlando of Naples, judge as above, have subscribed to the contents.

I, Rinaldo Crucialma of Naples, witness, have subscribed.

I, abbot Pietro Curzulo of Naples, elect, witness, have subscribed.

I, Giannello Macerdono of Naples, witness, have subscribed.

I, Giovanni Speciario of Naples, witness, have subscribed.

ANNOTATIONS.

f. In Syria.

g. In the year 1372.

h. In Etruria.

k. That is, in the Leg.

l. In the year 1375.

p. Concerning the Constantii (in Italian Costanzi) see Borrelli, just cited, page 180.

q. The 5th of this name.

r. Louis, king of Hungary, entered the kingdom of Naples in the year 1342 to take vengeance for the death inflicted on Andrew, Joanna's husband and his brother.

s. Mention of him is made in Berthold's Life of St. Birgitta, number 103.

perhaps Avum* grandfather?

perhaps firmarunt* they confirmed?

eam* [her]

quo* by which

PART III.

By an anonymous author.

Some miracles done at Nola and at Rome.

By an anonymous author

Some miracles of St. Birgitta Agnes de Concessa, living at Rome near Monte Giordano ^a, having from birth a very thick throat, went to the funeral of Bl. Birgitta before she was buried, and with her girdle had the hands of Bl. Birgitta touched, and tied it to her neck, and the swelling went down, and she was healed. The lady Silena, wife of the late Chancellor of the City, who was called de Monte Nigro, having an ulcer in the womb , so that she could not open her mouth to eat, nor could the physicians cure her, having made a vow to Bl. Birgitta, was healed, and offered a crown of pearls ^b at her sepulchre at the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna. The lady Joanna, wife of Petruccio Jacovelli de Turrinata, in the region of Regola near the house of Cardinal Orsini, who , falling from a stair, was deprived of an arm, as it were disjointed from its proper joint, and was healed in sleep through a vision by Bl. Birgitta; who at once carried an arm of wax to be hung over her sepulchre before her image. The lady Paola, formerly wife of the lord Giovanni of St. Eustace, was sick in the head and despaired of life by the physicians; she vowed herself to Bl. Birgitta; on the third day she was healed; she went to her sepulchre. Likewise the aforesaid lady Paola was oppressed by a certain noble in her goods, and made a vow to the lady Birgitta, who appeared in sleep to her stepson Silo, and she was freed from that oppression, and she had a like grace often when she was oppressed by others. The lady Silena, mother of the aforesaid lady Paola, was sick with fever and stitch, that is, pain of the side, who, abandoned by the physicians and judged as dead by master Francesco della Fara and by other physicians, and * the prayers of her aforesaid daughter, who had vowed to Bl. Birgitta, was freed through the same from the danger of death, although she was already as it were dead.

[21] miracles. The lady Francesca, wife of Pietro Paolo Velleni, near St. Eustace, suffered in her right hand the infirmity which is called Noli me tangere, and had on her hand a swelling of the size of one nut ^c: who sought physicians, who despaired of her health, and said that she was incurable, nor would they cure her: on account of which the said lady, having recourse to Bl. Birgitta, confessed, and prayed to her, and tied a small piece of the lady Birgitta's garment over her hand, and made a vow, and on the next day found herself healed. Sister Francesca Savelli, nun in the monastery of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, where the lady Birgitta was buried, was so gravely sick in the stomach that for two years she lay ailing in bed in the infirmary, nor did she almost ever rise from bed except when she prepared herself to eat; and she had great devotion and friendship with the aforesaid lady Birgitta when she was living. Whence it happened that at the time of the death of the same blessed Birgitta, when, on account of the multitude and concourse of the people, her funeral was brought inside the said monastery within the precinct of the nuns' cloister until the following day, on which she was to be buried, then the said sister Francesca passed that whole night most devoutly, as a faithful friend, beside the blessed funeral of her aforesaid Friend, sitting on the marble pavement in prayers and sobs of devotion, not wishing to ask of her aforesaid friend Bl. Birgitta that she should obtain from God total health for her; but that she should obtain for her such health and strength of body that she could go to the church for the divine office, and sometimes here and there through the monastery. By whose prayers and devout faith she felt no injury even from sitting on the marble for a whole night, and received the aforesaid grace from Bl. Birgitta most fully. All these things were written from the mouth of the sister herself.

[22] In the region of Colonna, in the parish of St. Mary in Carrerio, which at Rome the lady Angela of Lello Petri Stephani had her nephew, a boy, son of Cecco Lelli, with a very bad wound between the loins, and he was in the greatest danger of death, and, physicians having been sought, no remedy was applied. Who received a small cloth of the garments of Bl. Birgitta, and bound it over the wound: and when morning came, she found the boy healthy, nor did she find a scar. Cecchollo of Giovanni Cimini, in the parish of St. Mary Rotunda, was gravely sick in such a way that he was despaired of life by the physicians, and he remained three days without speech, being at the point of death, and had received neither confession nor communion. And his aunt, the lady Francesca Papazzuri, hearing these things, took a small piece of the linen which had been the lady Birgitta's, and went to the sick man, and, having made a vow to the sepulchre of the lady Birgitta, touched the said half-dead man with the little cloth on face and body, and, calling him, he at once answered three times, and she made him say the Ave Maria before those standing by. Afterwards, since the said sick man did not yet have full speech and understanding, the aforesaid lady asked brother Anselm to bring the Legend of the life of the lady Birgitta, that he might touch the sick man with it. Which being touched, the sick man recovered full speech and understanding, and at once received confession and communion, and was healed, and lives.

[23] In the region of Colonna a certain boy, named Antonio, were wrought, son of Burio Capocci de' Capocci of the City, a sudden pain coming upon him in the shoulder-blade, began to be gravely ill and feverish, so much that, lying in his little bed, he could not move by himself, but was moved and managed by the ministry of another; which pain was followed by a swelling in the shoulder-blade. Which thus growing and reddening, it seemed by the judgment of the physicians according to the outward appearance that a very deep abscess had been generated there, which was brought under the care of the physicians with anointings and plasters to such a point that it was determined by the physicians that it ought to be cut with the iron on the morrow. And when his grandmother, the matron the lady Angela, wife of Lello Petri Stephani of the City, understood this, all her bowels being moved with compassion over the future pain and imminent danger of her said grandson, human remedy being despaired of, she turned with her whole heart and affection of mind to Bl. Birgitta and to Bl. Anthony, and especially to Bl. Birgitta, from whose garments, at her death, out of her very great devotion to her, she had procured to have a little, through the ministry of her maidservant, partly by stealth, partly by force

of her garments, which she kept with the greatest devotion. And this lady Angela, seeing that so great a danger hung over herself and her said grandson, humbly vowed herself to the said Saints, and above all to blessed Birgitta, that she would deign by her merits and prayer to obtain the health and deliverance of her said grandson from the aforesaid abscess, so that he should not feel an incision made with the iron; and that she herself would have to have the figure of the same Bl. Birgitta painted, and have this miracle preached to her praise. And, this vow having been made, she took that little piece of the garments of Bl. Birgitta which she had, and placed it upon the swelling of that abscess, and allowed it to stay there through the whole night.

[24] are narrated. And on the morrow, when the physicians came to cut the abscess itself, as they had decided before, it was found that nothing at all of the aforesaid abscess appeared there, but that the abscess itself with all pain had completely gone, so much so that the boy himself, the physicians and all then standing by wondering, rose from his bed and asked his parents that he wished to go to play with the boys of his own age, as he was wont: seeing which, the physicians and the others who then stood by deemed that this had been done by a divine miracle on account of the merits of the said Bl. Birgitta, in devotion to whom all began from then onward to be more fervently animated and kindled. After these things a daughter of the aforesaid lady Angela's grandson *, when she suffered a gland and was strongly feverish, and it had come to the point that it was deliberated by the physicians that the gland itself should be cut with the iron, her mother therefore, out of compassion for her daughter, remembered the aforesaid miracle, and, recurring in mind to blessed Birgitta, commended her. The lady Catherine ^d, wife of the late lord Charles, knight ^e, deposed on oath that her son, Charles by name ^f, when he was of tender age, suffered vehemently and continuously for two years from the falling sickness; on which the mother herself, very anxious and sad, wrote to the lady Birgitta, then staying at Rome, and humbly besought her that she would pray God for her little one. At length the same lady Birgitta wrote back to her that she ought no longer to be saddened or troubled over that infirmity, because it would not harm him any further. And the said Catherine asserted by her oath that this was from God, that in the very hour in which the letter had been written at Rome, in the same hour the boy in Sweden was wholly freed from that infirmity and made healthy, and still perseveres in his health. Witness of this miracle, etc. Seek it in that great charter sealed with the seals of the bishops, which came from Sweden ^h to Anagni ^g.

ANNOTATIONS.

perhaps gutture* throat?

* superfluous

perhaps ad* [to]?

* superfluous

PART IV.

Some miracles from the letter of Nicholas Orsini, count of Nola, to Alphonsus, formerly bishop of Jaén.

By Nicholas Orsini.

A woman of Nola, Reverend Father, on the day and in the church of blessed John before the Latin Gate, when God permitted both of us to go there , and to have a conversation about the lady Birgitta of holy memory, your paternity asked of me whether, from the familiar acquaintance which we had had with the same Lady, I remembered having perceived any miracle, since the supreme Prelate wishes to have trustworthy testimony concerning the life and deeds of the same Lady, and whether God showed any prodigy through her, so that, if he should find it, as the report of very many testifies, he may enrol her in the Catalogue of holy women; and presently, bringing myself back to recollection, there returned to my memory three things concerning the same Lady very wonderful and, to speak more truly, prophetic and astounding. Of which one, if I confess the truth, you, father, who are the questioner, are a witness. For when the same Lady had proposed to visit the sepulchre of the Lord, as she went to Naples, with whom you also, father, went, I, when I met her there at the same time and saw you, it pleased your humility to go with me to Nola ^a, and to visit the churches of the Saints and the tombs of Felix ^b, bishop and martyr, and of the prelate Paulinus, confessor ^c. And while we were speaking together of lawful things in the house, there came to my memory a certain terrible thing which an unclean spirit was then practising in that same my city of Nola, which I will bring back to your paternity's memory and will narrate in order.

[26] A certain widow woman, Pizcolella by name, formerly the wife of an epizobus serving my court, by a demon of good repute, of advanced age, by no means beautiful, an unclean spirit troubled in this manner almost every night: when she was overcome by sleep, suddenly a certain strong and great man rushed upon her, and, overpowering her, had intercourse with her in the manly act. And so all the signs which remain in this vile matter after the deed appeared. And that spirit was tangible according to the judgment of the woman, but she could not at all recognize him, since he always extinguished the light before intercourse. The woman began greatly to suspect some of her neighbours; she spoke, she interposed friends, that he should cease from his molestation and from the unlawful act: of which she believed; each excused himself by truthful attestations and many excuses fortified by oath. The woman began to bolt the doors more strongly, to call neighbouring matrons to stand by her by night, and to prevent the violence, and to recognize * the perpetrator. And while they likewise watched, when sleep overpowered them, it happened as before. For she, believing that the female sex was not fit for her defence, called into the house her son-in-law, a fit young man, and he lay down together with her daughter. The man resisted sleep strongly, and compelled the women also to watch, so that they passed the night in a manner wholly sleepless. And so that the wicked spirit might show himself stronger than all, he entered the house with a din, extinguished the light, induced terror in all and also drowsiness, and, they being laid prostrate on the ground, he had intercourse as usual.

[27] foully troubled, The woman began to recognize that it was the business of an unclean spirit; she turned to God, confessed many times, received also the Body of Christ; nor for this did Satan cease to trouble her; and because women easily believe what they desire, at the suggestion of some she turned to incantations, and suffered the more; she carried characters, and did other things which soothsayers deceitfully suggested to her, and among others a certain priest named Raymond of Castel di Lauro in the diocese of Nola, who was said to be expert in that forbidden art, and gave her a certain charm figured with characters, which he tied tightly among the locks of the woman's hair. And so that she might be made credulous, and consequently damned, the spirit began to trouble her more rarely, but it by no means came about as the woman wished. And since that woman had long been joined to me in honourable familiarity, believing me to be wiser than I am, she disclosed with tears and sobbing the case of her misery, detesting it. I was terrified and amazed; not able to show what counsel, what help, I conferred with your paternity, which was then present at Nola, about the novelty of the crime and the misery of the woman.

[28] you free, On this, if you remember, there was a lengthy talk: at length I had the woman at once summoned to my lodging, where you were: she related as I said before. You counselled, and very well, that she should go to Naples and ask the suffrages of the aforementioned lady Birgitta. And then, when the father had returned to her, the aforesaid woman with tears disclosed her case to the holy Lady, as she afterwards related to me. First the holy Lady herself asked her whether she had on her anything compounded by magic art? She denied it altogether. The Lady, who by divine grace knew many things, answered: It is by no means so: but you have among your hair what it is not lawful for a Christian to carry. The woman, stupefied, confessed that she had uttered a lie. She cast away the charm. She commanded her to confess and to repent truly, and on the following morning to receive the Body of Christ. The holy Lady enjoined a fast, prayed to God. Mass having been heard and communion received, that woman was not troubled at all thereafter; for which she gave thanks to God, and returned to Nola with joy, she who had gone to Naples with grief. If anything more was done in the presence of the often-mentioned Lady which the woman perhaps did not know how to relate, your paternity must know it, and can add it, as shall seem good, your conscience being witness.

[29] she foretells the return of the Pontiff to the City, I narrate another thing, of which I myself am a witness: when the aforementioned holy Lady was going to Montefiascone ^d, where Pope Urban V of holy memory was residing with his curia, to obtain the confirmation of a certain Rule ^e of hers, or form of living in a certain monastery in the parts of Sweden then begun by the Lady herself ^f, and had sent me as spokesman to the Pope to obtain an audience; which obtained, we went together to the Prelate, and she humbly made supplication, adding concerning what she said that she would have grace, since for fifteen years she had awaited the Prelate himself in the City, at which time the Pope himself was abbot of a certain small monastery ^g, and his promotion to the Apostolic See was by no means hoped for. This indeed was a great prophecy, because she said it after the fact: for from her mouth no lie proceeded in the sight of the Vicar of Christ, and she would not have committed the sin of so great boasting. From hearsay I will relate another thing, which I also believe true: after the aforesaid Lady returned from the Sepulchre of the Lord, and her spiritual father together with her, and, as you know better, stayed a long time at Naples, Robert, my firstborn, began to visit the Lady herself familiarly, and, having a conversation with her about our lord Pope Urban VI ^h, then present, who was living at Avignon, she herself * had to say to him: Robert, be certain that you will see the Roman Pontiff himself in Rome; he, being credulous, not being unmindful of the words, about five years passed, and, as you know, the Pope came to the City ⁱ, and while he was riding to the monastery of St. Paul ^k, to enter Rome ^l, the said Robert, being the first appointed to visit the Pope, remembering the words of the aforesaid Lady and turning to the Prelate, said: Now I truly know that the lady Birgitta uttered the truth to me, and not only that

I should see you in the City, but also that I am escorting you. Thus did the said Robert utter this to the supreme Prelate.

[30] Since I intended to relate it to better-known persons, what had to be brought forward and she appears raised aloft. I describe in the last place. Do you not remember, father, that, when we were together at Perugia ^m and also at Todi ⁿ, you were narrating wonderful things of this kindly Lady, and especially that which John de Pornacio, poor for the love of Christ, had related to you, which one day, if I remember well, being adjured by you and by me, bound by reason of obedience, he uttered: that, some years then having passed, while he was visiting the Lateran church near the Colosseum ^o, he met the aforementioned Lady, and, gazing at her, most splendid rays went forth all round her head and body, in the manner in which they proceed from the sun, when he looked well; looking at her more effectively, and fixing his steps, not only did this vision continue, but he perceived that she was carried raised from the earth, not walking, but by what he could not see. Looking also after her, rays likewise shone from behind her head; and, lest he should be doubtful of the vision, the Lord permitted him to see that same thing again. For, when the Lady herself was on the way by which one goes from St. Mary Major to the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, the same John met her, who saw her radiant as above.

The things written above, which I, Nicholas Orsini, uttered with my mouth, I have subscribed with my own hand for faith.

ANNOTATIONS.

f. Of Vadstena.

h. Nay, Gregory XI.

utrique* to both

pergere* to go

perhaps cognoscerent* they might recognize?

ipsa* she herself

PART V.

By the monks of Vadstena.

Certain other miracles done in Sweden.

By the Monks of Vadstena.

Those translating her relics to Sweden, against robbers When, proceeding from the city of Brno ^a, we were lodging in a certain small town, some persons, spying on us under the appearance of pilgrims, informed those who had been in the castle of Ekarslahof ^b, some of whom, practising robberies after their custom, went out very early in the morning with the best horses, with crossbows ready. And when they were on the summit of a mountain, and we in the descent, they passed near us about a stone's throw, and passing us went to the nearest town, so that they might see us better before we came to safer places. And when on the following day armed men had come following their carts, they asked of them where those rich pilgrims were, passing with many horses and sacks laden with gold? They answered: They have passed, they said, and are already in safety. Who, wondering and confounded, returned to the castle. Then that very night it was revealed to someone by the said blessed Birgitta, who said: Did you see those many armed horsemen today? And he said: I saw, Lady. To whom she answered: I, she said, by the power of God blinded them, so that they might not harm you nor hinder your way, as they purposed.

[32] and protects from the dangers of war, When we turned aside to the monastery which is called Clairvaux ^c of the kingdom of Poland for the sake of hearing Masses, a woman who had long laboured in childbirth, as soon as the relics of blessed Birgitta entered the woman's house, gave birth and was freed from all danger. When we were still at sea between Germany and Sweden, in doubt, on account of the dangers of wars pressing from every side upon the same kingdom of Sweden, at what port we should put in ^d, then a little after midday there appeared in the sky a star as it were most brilliant, which first a certain boy of eight years, innocent and sick, saw, and afterwards all in the ship, all wondering and saying that they had never seen a star shining at an hour of the day, with the sun clear, which went before the ship as far as a port not foreknown *, and so disappeared. Then on the following night it was said to one of ours: The star which you saw yesterday going before the ship and showing you the port is the beloved bride of Christ, Birgitta, whose fame, like a star, will little by little go before, until like the sun it illuminates the whole world. A certain man laboured very severely with an infirmity of the side for almost 20 years, who had also seen blessed Birgitta with bodily sight at Rome. He, having heard that she was now dead, asked her to succour his anguish by her prayers. Which done, the man was suddenly cured, and acknowledged and published before many the grace done to him.

[33] A certain man was frequently troubled by the devil in the nights, a sacrilegious woman, so that he was many times dragged from his bed; he invoked blessed Birgitta to his help, promising to say the Pater noster ten times every day in her honour, who was saved by her merits from the troubling with which he had long been painfully afflicted. A certain woman, when she had communicated on Easter day, took the Body of Christ from her mouth, and tied it in her fillet, so that she might give it * to a certain man whom she wickedly desired, so as, thinking thus, to allure him to unlawful embraces; and, when she profited nothing, she received the Body of Christ a second time, and, as before, put it back in her fillet, so that she might apply it to the abominable work; which at once disappeared, so that indeed no remnants of it remained. After this that woman for ten years never saw the Body of the Lord in church, nor could she ever, when she was in church, say one Pater noster. But outside the church she could say it in some way. Who thus remained in her sin for a long time, daring to confess her crime to no one. She, when she had heard that the relics of blessed Birgitta had come into the parts of Sweden, humbly asked that she would deign to have mercy on her, and, the vow of pilgrimage to the said relics being completed, as soon as she touched the pall placed beneath those relics she was dissolved in tears, and rising confessed all her evil. And the confession having been made, she could both see the Body of Christ and remain in church without weariness to pray.

[34] A certain man in 40 years never confessed, and she brings an old sinner to penance; those deprived of their senses, who, having heard the fame of the lady Birgitta, coming to confession before a religious, said that he had sinned in nothing. To whom the brother said: Neither do I absolve you. He therefore came a second time, and said that he had done nothing evil. Then, wishing to rise, he saw the devil in a most foul figure, fleeing from the sight of whom he fell to the ground as if dead, saying nothing, but silent for about half an hour. Afterwards he saw a most beautiful Lady, clothed in gilded garments, saying to him: O man, you are badly sick. And he said: Truly it is so. To whom the Lady said: Go to the relics of my Birgitta, there is medicine there. For I who speak to you am the Mother of mercy. The man therefore, rising, confessed all his sins which he had wrought from his youth, giving thanks to God and commending himself to the prayers of the lady Birgitta. A certain woman, reckoning vain and frivolous the things which were said of the lady Birgitta, and vomiting forth some unseemly things from her mouth, lost her senses. Her husband therefore, returning home and hearing that she was out of her senses, vowed himself with his wife to visit the relics of the lady Birgitta; and a short interval having intervened, the woman was cured, and both fulfilled their vow with great devotion. One night, when the very great multitude which followed the relics was resting in tents in a certain great meadow, a certain dumb boy of nine years was placed on account of the rain under the bier of the relics, where he received the use of speaking, trustworthy persons testifying.

[35] A certain man, very worldly, saw in spirit blessed Birgitta [those deprived of sight, of the use of hands and feet and tongue, and the gravely] saying to him: Follow me: I will show you the way: who, waking, was pricked at heart. Two blind men, of whom one from birth, the other having been blind for eight years, were healed, all who were present seeing it, in the monastery of Vadstena on the feast of St. Peter in Chains. A certain man, contracted in hands and feet and known to many, was healed there on the same day. The son of a certain man of the city of Västerås ^e was for nine days such that he could not suck his mother's breasts, who, when he was already near to death, the mother going out for sadness, those who were within vowed a vow to the lady Birgitta. Which done, the boy at once recovered, and, sucking his mother's breasts, was carried to Vadstena for 7 days' journeys. A certain man of the city of Västerås had been epileptic for nine years, and had suffered almost three times every day. His father vowed a vow for him to the said relics, and he was healed. A certain blind man and one woman also were given light at Vadstena at that time. A certain dumb man also at that time recovered the office of speaking, which he had long lost. A certain secular and noble man was pierced with a lance by his enemies, so that the iron of the lance and a great part of the wood entered through his breast, and, going out through the vertebrae of the back, drew out with it a great piece of the lung; he, when he was now being pursued by his enemies, thought within himself: If what I hear of blessed Birgitta is true, I promise that I will visit her threshold, correct my life, and wear humble garments; and at once, mounting his horse, he escaped, and within fourteen weeks, against the hope of all, he was wonderfully healed, and went on foot from Västergötland all the way to Vadstena, and visited her relics.

[36] she heals the wounded, averts shipwreck, those tossed There was another noble, wounded, who could in no way be cured by a physician for a long time: for, when he seemed cured, the wounds opened again and putrefied. He vowed a vow to the said relics, and within a few days he was fully and perfectly healed. Certain persons crossing by ship to the fair of St. Botvid ^f in the upper part of Sweden, a most grievous tempest coming on, were tossed, so that the ship creaked exceedingly from the impulses of the storms and was being filled with water. Who, expecting as it were nothing else than drowning, devoutly implored the help of the lady Birgitta,

and presently the ship was lifted as if by a certain hand, and cast by a certain storm upon land; who, at length learning that one boy had perished *, on bended knees humbly cried out to the same lady Birgitta, and at once a storm cast the boy up healthy and unhurt. And those who were in the ship hastened to come to the monastery of Vadstena, praising the glory of Christ, who deigned to work so many and such great miracles through the same lady, relating such things to us with joy. A certain man in the parish of Uretum ^g, blaspheming the lady Birgitta, was so and so suddenly chastised that his legs were at once broken. It happened in the same way also to a certain nun blaspheming her.

[37] [blasphemies against her are punished; she cures a dropsical man, a dumb woman, one possessed by a demon, and a sick woman:] A certain dropsical man from the upper parts of Sweden, whose feet and hands swelled so much that he seemed a second Job, vowed a vow that he would fast on the vigil of the lady Birgitta, if he knew the day of her death, and he was cured with such ease that all wondered. A certain man, blaspheming the words of God which the spirit of God spoke to the lady Birgitta, was suddenly seized with such infirmity that he could move neither to the right nor to the left, and was affected with such weariness that he even wished to lay his own hand upon himself to extinguish his life. To whom a person appearing in reverend habit said: Stretch out your tongue and you will be healed. For I am she whom you blasphemed; and the man, stretching out his tongue, received a certain anointing, who, waking, was healed, and freed both from that infirmity and from the temptation. A certain dumb woman, coming to the said relics, received the use of speaking and returned home with joy. A woman seized by a demon and intolerably troubled, and uttering foolish words, was cured, a multitude of people being present. A certain most noble Lady was bound by such infirmity that, as often as she wished to turn herself, she raised herself by ropes on a beam or by some other help; who, hearing that the relics had arrived, and trying to go on foot, however ill she was, rose to go, and went with such happiness that she neither felt her accustomed infirmity nor required help; who afterwards eagerly visited the same relics at Vadstena.

[38] A certain man in the parish of Sala in the diocese of Västerås, [a criminal from hanging, a horse from a flux of blood from the nostrils, a poor man from a contracted leg, a half-dead woman,] twice hanged, made a vow to the lady Birgitta, and at the second hanging was freed by her merits. From the nostrils of a horse of a certain familiar, Enakenborth, blood flowed continually for several days, so that there was no hope of its life; whose possessor vowed in honour of blessed Birgitta the form of a horse's head in wax; which done, the flux of blood at once ceased, and the horse was perfectly cured, and the possessor fulfilled the vow. A certain poor man in Västergötland ^h, when he was cutting up carts, incautiously split his knee with an axe, and, although the wound had been closed by the physicians, the leg nevertheless remained miserably contracted: who, hearing the fame of the lady Birgitta, vowed that he would visit her relics with an offering of money which he had, and did not perform this. He vowed again an offering of wax, nor did he perform this. He vowed that he would labour for eight days at Vadstena in her honour, if he were healed by her merits; and at once, without any pain, on the following night he stretched out his leg, and found himself perfectly healed, and, coming to Vadstena, devoutly fulfilled his vow. The wife of Alan Johnsson, Benedicta by name, so sick that, all her members being already dead, she palpitated with vital spirits in her breast alone, vowed, as she could, that she would visit the lady Birgitta with her offering, if God by her merits would grant her life. Which done, she at once felt the vital spirits gradually returning to each member, just as she had previously felt them gradually depart from her members.

[39] A certain woman in Sala, in the diocese of Västerås, having a daughter of fourteen years, [and she frees an epileptic girl from the disease, gives back life to a boy, and saves the shipwrecked:] who from the fourth year of her birth laboured so gravely with the epileptic disease that, falling to the ground thirteen times and foaming, she was miserably afflicted every day, vowed for her daughter that she would visit the lady Birgitta on pilgrimage together with her, if she were healed by her merits; and at once, without delay, her daughter was healed, and both mother and daughter, coming to Vadstena, most devoutly performed their vow. In the parish of Fialansbro in the diocese of Västerås a certain infant of seven weeks, ill for twelve days, was at length judged by all to be dead for the space of one hour, whose parents with tears implored the help of the lady Birgitta for the dead infant; and at once the infant revived, and the parents came with their offerings to Vadstena, as they had vowed. When, already in autumn, many ships were in danger near Malotranda, the lady Birgitta appeared to a certain man in one of those ships, saying to him: Do you wish to escape the danger of death? And he said: O Lady, most gladly. Then she said: Promise that you will visit my threshold at Vadstena. And he said: I promise. Which done, all from that ship came safe to land, although the ship was broken into the tiniest pieces, and all from the other ships were drowned. But because this ungrateful man had put off performing what he had vowed, the Lady again appeared to him, saying: Wretch, you do not consider the most grievous temptation which you suffer. For in the five preceding years he could never name this name Mary. And the lady Birgitta said to him: From this temptation you will never be freed until you visit my threshold at Vadstena. Which he at once performing with great devotion was also freed from the temptation, naming and praising the blessed name of Mary clearly and freely.

[40] [she takes away a long-lasting pain of the arm, extinguishes the burning of a ship,] A certain woman near Alvastra ⁱ, a monastery of the Cistercian Order, poor in substance, but rich in a pure life, suffered continually for ten and a half years a most grievous pain in her right arm; who, invoking the lady Birgitta, saw her in the habit and bearing in which she had previously seen her many times in the said monastery of Alvastra, while she was making a stay there while still living, who said to her: You ask me for the recovery of health. Ask rather God, who can do this and all things. Gladly will I help you by asking with you, and I am certain that God will hear us. And, this said, the woman was freed from all pain. And a little after, when the said woman one night was devoutly beseeching the Lord for the peace and reformation of the state of the kingdom of Sweden, the lady Birgitta appeared to her again in the habit and bearing as above, saying to her: On account of many grave sins unpunished in this kingdom God will stretch out His rod over the kingdom: and behold, mercy is open to all who humble themselves, who are few. There still remains for the hardened a grave affliction of the wrath of God. Certain persons of the city of Linköping ^k, having completed their pilgrimage to Aachen ^l according to a vow, being at sea, had hope of returning home. The fire of a thunderbolt at once kindled the ship in which they were, struggling amid the storms, on the top of the mast. Who, despairing of escaping the danger of death, on bended knees implored the help of God and of Bl. Birgitta with sighs of tears, all in the ship vowing with one voice that they would visit her relics at Vadstena, if they obtained the speedy effect of their petitions. This done, the fire of the thunderbolt was cast into the sea as if by someone's hand. They, freed from so great a danger, when they had put in at the desired port, went over to Vadstena for the sake of devotion, rendering praise and glory to the lady Birgitta as one well deserving.

[41] two dead persons, A certain woman labouring in childbirth suffered such distress that the infant died in its mother's womb, for whom a vow had been made that, health being restored to her, she would at once go to Vadstena: and the vow having been made, the woman, coming to herself, gave birth, and the infant revived. A certain Restitutus, dwelling in the parish of Singuntun in the diocese of Västerås ^m, who was often reproved by his wife's parents (for they said that she was held by him in hatred and suspicion; it was true that he continually afflicted her with blows), one night, when she had gone to sleep with him in health, she expired by sudden death lying beside him. And when morning came, he, finding his wife dead, besought God and the lady Birgitta suppliantly in a secret place with great sobs of tears, that he, innocent of her death, might escape from his wife's parents without harm. And her parents and neighbours, running to the spectacle of so great a sadness and believing that he was the author of her death, placed the corpse on the bier, most bitterly lamenting her death. And while the husband lay prostrate in his prayers for her life, and that he might be made free of evil suspicion, she, restored to life, raising herself a little, addressed her sister with living voice thus: My sister, for what have you come here? And looking round, she asked of the very many friends of hers standing round the cause of their coming. And they asserted that they had come having learned of her death. But she, with eyes raised to heaven, is said to have answered thus: Praise and glory be to almighty God and to the glorious lady Birgitta, by whose prayers I have merited to be restored for a time to my former life. And her husband, hearing her alive, went to her with swift step, on bended knees humbly beseeching her that she would openly declare, her parents hearing, whether he had been the cause of her death.

[42] But she denied it, saying: No, but this was done according to the will of God, she recalls to life; a boy labouring with pustules, a woman with incontinence, that the immense charity of Christ might be shown, with which He deigned to embrace His bride Birgitta, by whose intercessions I must shortly be separated from this valley of misery; and at once she asked that a priest be called to her for God's sake. Who coming, and confession having been made, and the Eucharist and extreme Unction having been received, as a true Christian she commended her spirit into the hands of the Lord, her husband being freed from the reproach of evil suspicion; and very many, hearing the present miracle, praised God for His great grace, and promised with great devotion that they would visit the threshold of the lady Birgitta. A certain boy suffering the infirmity of pustules seemed already to be drawing his last breath, for whom his mother and parents vowed to visit the place of Vadstena with offerings, and at once the boy, recovering, was healed. A certain Lady, labouring with the vice of incontinence, one night, rapt in spirit, saw the devil in a horrible figure, saying: Do you believe that a man on earth forgives sins? You have certainly been given to me, and I will go down with you into hell. And to that Lady, troubled beyond measure, there appeared a person of wonderful beauty, saying: Say to the devil: The Mercy of God to all

is open; therefore with the help of God I will sin no more; therefore you have nothing with me. Which said, the devil, crying out, said: Woe to me, for indeed I lose my right, and now my envy and my misery begin to be increased. The lady therefore, waking, saw in vision a person wonderfully shining as before, who said: I am Birgitta, who came from Rome. Take comfort and be steadfast. For I, because it so pleases God, will help you in your future temptations.

[43] A certain noble, fleeing his enemies, was pierced through in the breast, so that one gravely injured, a possessed boy, one fallen into the water, his life was despaired of, because no little blood came out of the wound. Some days having passed, he vowed a vow to Vadstena, and at once blood began to flow from the wound, and in a few days he was healed without medicine. A certain boy of seven years was seized by a demon nine times every day, whom his mother vowed to Vadstena with offerings, and, coming, he was cured, not without the wonder of all. A certain man in the upper parts of Sweden, weary of life, tried many times to strangle himself, whose wife vowed him to Vadstena with an offering. On the same day, therefore, on which he was trying to go to fulfil his vow, he struck himself on the leg with an axe, from which infirmity he lay sick for some weeks; and when the woman had already risen to water her flock, he fell on the ice into an opening which had been opened for watering the flock, and lay there in the water for about four hours, until his wife and son and several others drew him out of the water; who, carried to the house, had received nothing at all of the water into his body, nor was he sick, except that he suffered cold from the ice and the winter: for he said that a certain Lady had placed her mantle over him, saying: I will help you until you come to my place, Vadstena. That man, therefore, fulfilled what he promised.

[44] likewise some dead persons A certain man in the parish of Felkare in the diocese of Västerås, his wife rising in the morning to do necessary work, was resting in bed with two little sons, who, suddenly emitting a horrible howl, died; whose limbs became so livid and swollen with bruising as if they had been hurt by staves: seeing which, the father, with tears and sobs, carried them into the heated room ⁿ, and, exceedingly distressed at their death, and also fearful beyond measure he should be suspected by some as their slayer: but the mother of the boys, having full confidence in the lady Birgitta, because she had often heard the fame of her miracles, vowed for one of them, saying: O reverend Lady, if you restore this one to me alive, I will carry him to your place, Vadstena, with offerings; whose spirit at once began gradually to enter the body, as it is wont gradually to withdraw on the day of approaching death. Whence the mother, gladdened, said: Praise to almighty God and to you, O lady Birgitta. Now I will go to the parish church, and have a Mass sung in honour of God. Afterwards , about three or four hours having passed, the woman, conceiving greater confidence, said: O glorious Lady, I know that you are powerful with the Most High, and can give back to me alive this one also, still lying dead, as you have given back the other. Who at once was quickened in the same manner as the former. This woman, with many of her neighbours standing round, came to Vadstena at Shrovetide, showing there the said boys before a populous multitude.

[45] experience her help: she heals a badly injured leg and a pain of the head: A certain woman of the city of Ekmgia in the diocese of Linköping gave birth to an infant placed at its last breath, which also at once died. Whence the aforesaid woman, afflicted with excessive sorrow, especially because the infant had departed without baptism, began with all standing round her to beseech the lady Birgitta tearfully that her offspring might be restored to life for so long as it might be baptized. Which done, not without the wonder and congratulation of all standing round, the infant revived and was baptized. This woman, some weeks having passed, coming to Vadstena and carrying with her the said infant alive and well, praised almighty God and Bl. Birgitta for the grace done to her, offering a silver likeness of the infant. A certain woman, having broken her leg, suffered a most vehement pain for half a year: she invoked the lady Birgitta to her help, and at once, on the following night, the leg being healed whole, she was freed from all pain; and, when morning came, rising healthy, she made, by weaving, a small cloth prepared from threads of flax which she had with her, and, walking readily on her feet, came to Vadstena, and, devoutly offering the same cloth, publicly acknowledged her healing with great thanksgiving. A certain citizen of the city of Stockholm, having a worm in his ear, suffered a most grievous pain of the head for one month: he, hearing at length how many in their miseries were supported by the lady Birgitta, vowed to see on pilgrimage her bones placed at Vadstena, and at once, the worm being shaken out, he felt some little relief, and, coming to the said place, Vadstena, he confessed before the confessor that he was then wholly cured, magnificently praising God in His Handmaid.

[46] A certain man riding over the ice, when he unexpectedly approached near a neighbouring river, she saves one about to drown, fell, the ice breaking, into the water with his horse; and while the wave and the current of the river were dragging it vehemently, and he could not grasp the ice, it came into his mind to vow himself to the threshold of the lady Birgitta and to correct his life; and, wonderful to tell, at once the horse drew itself to the edge of the ice, and he so easily climbed up with the horse, against the hope of all, as if the hands of men had lifted him. Coming therefore unhurt to land, when he had taken the road to the house of the lady Birgitta, that very night a certain Lady in reverend habit appeared to him, saying: You think of coming to my house; it will profit your soul nothing unless you loose by pure confession the leather with which your tongue has been bound round. Who, pricked at heart by these words, came, and with tears confessed the whole life of his youth. For he had perpetrated a certain horrible sin, which he had resolved in his heart to open to no one before he knew that he was to die. Yet he frequently confessed other sins, concluding his confession in this manner: I ask absolution, he said, for all things which I have said, and also for those which I have not said. And when he had disclosed this sin, long concealed, he felt himself wonderfully relieved: for before he was as it were constrained by a most grievous burden.

[47] A certain man was seized with madness, so that he had wholly lost his senses; [she brings a madman to his senses, assists a woman labouring in childbirth, and again gives life to the dead.] and when he was afflicted day and night in the town outside the church of Linköping, and could scarcely be held by many, saying that a certain most foul man stood before him, warning him to follow him, he also spoke many foolish things. His servant therefore vowed that, if his lord should obtain his senses, he would not only visit the house of the lady Birgitta, but would serve her perpetually with his lord. Moreover, as far as he could, he wished to induce him to her love and honour. And on the following night he recovered well, saying: I had passed through many places, I had seen many most foul persons, but among others I saw the lady Birgitta, with two accompanying her, speaking: Do, she said, what your servant has promised for you, and it will profit you above all treasures. Who, fulfilling the vow, was cleansed not only in his senses but also in his soul, renouncing all impieties and vain customs. A woman of Mor in the diocese of Linköping, when she was in danger in childbirth for nine days, who vowed many and many things, but profited nothing at all. At length many women standing round vowed that she with all her house would visit the house of blessed Birgitta, and presently, at the hour, she gave birth with such happiness, she who had previously given birth to eight little infants, as she had never before given birth with so much ease and lightness and safety. A certain boy, dead, lay rigid and cold for more than three hours. And when all were now weeping, the mother vowed a vow to the lady Birgitta that, if the boy revived, she would not only visit her threshold, but would also serve her perpetually. And at once, a short interval having passed, the boy rose alive. Which done, the mother came with the boy to Vadstena, and they showed by the testimony of many trustworthy persons that it had so happened. Likewise a similar grace is narrated of another boy, who, lying dead for a longer space of time, about the burning of one great candle, a vow having been made to the lady Birgitta, rose alive.

ANNOTATIONS.

n. A heated room.

præcognitum* foreknown

perhaps libandum* to be offered?

perdidisse* to have lost

ne* lest

postea* afterwards

monentem* warning

* superfluous

PART VI.

By the monks of Vadstena.

CHAPTER I.

Some miracles wrought in the year 1374.

Having set forth first Blessed therefore be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and of all consolation, who, wonderful in His servants, even now when the world is growing old; and faith, approved by good works, the world tending almost to its setting, loving His own unto the end, deigned to show His charity, and who deigned to work, through the merits, pleasing to Him, of the venerable Brigitta of Sweden, these miracles written above, and many others which, lest they should affect readers with weariness, are not all written in this book. And [for] this they are written, that you may believe how this was a true handmaid of God, whom He had dignified, and daily dignifies, with signs of this kind so justly to be wondered at, and shows to every nation which is under heaven as worthy to be venerated; who from the first years of her youth subjected herself to the most light yoke of His service: so that with her husband she devoutly visited Rome and Compostela ^a, and many

other places in which the relics of the Saints rest; and returning to her fatherland she brought the same man to the perfection of continence, so that for many years they lived together without the exacting and rendering of the conjugal debt; while still bound in matrimony, she displayed a widow's sobriety in food and clothing, and the devotion of her heart and her great instance in prayers foreshowed in her the perfection of future resignation and grace.

[49] And when she was now loosed from the law of her husband, distributing her goods to her heirs and the poor, of the revelations and freeing herself from the delights of the world and the ties of her fatherland and the comforts of her kinsfolk, and, at Christ's command, taking the road to Rome ^b, following Him poor, herself poor, she kept for herself nothing but the simplest food and clothing, contemptible in view of the nobility of her race ^c. On account of which she also, who had cast away all the consolation of the world, was divinely illuminated with wonderful consolations, graces and revelations, as is most clearly contained in the books of the Revelations shown to her from heaven. In all of which, seeking not her own glory but God's, she would indeed have preferred to remain hidden for the guarding of humility, except in so far as she looked to the salvation of her neighbours; and therefore she was commanded to make manifest the Spirit's, or rather Christ's, appearances to her moreover to her confessor ^d, still living in the body, and to all these, bearing true testimony (for we know and truly believe that his testimony is true); obeying whom humbly in spiritual matters, she revealed all things divinely shown to her, not without tears of devotion. In which Revelations, I say, is shown the incomprehensible and inconceivable charitable condescension of the mercy of Christ, God and man.

[50] And hence all, on account of the prayers and merits of the Mother of mercy, the Virgin Mary, of St. Birgitta and of His Saints, are most gently called together from the heat of sins and to asking for mercy. Whence the Lord, to whom it is proper always to have mercy and to spare, in these Revelations indicates the omnipotence of His divinity in the sublimity of the greatest compassion, so that all may be inexcusable, the divine judgment working, who shall have despised mercy shown so gently and so sweetly: is he not inexcusably worthy to be made subject to the justice of the divine judgment, who despises the admonition offered him in such sweet words and works as the sequence of this apparition contains , and spurns compassion? Wherefore let all prepare their minds, and spread out the bosoms of their wills, so that the good measure of mercy, namely made up beyond merit, conceived beyond hope, overflowing beyond desire and every thought, may be poured in through the mediatrix mother of God and man from her Son, the fountain of all mercy: nor let any suspicion of a deceitful spirit creep into the minds of those reading these things; for it is not to be believed that the malignant spirit truly deceives the just, or converts sinners to better things, or can pour into cold hearts the charity which he does not have, or in anything promote the glory of God, whom he envies.

[51] For just as it is impossible that the spirit of truth should speak a lie, made, or turn anyone away from justice, or breathe pride or envy into the hearts subject to him, or bring on contempt of almighty God; and to the spirit of falsehood the opposite of these evils are, on account of the malignity and wickedness ingrown in him, altogether forbidden; and if perhaps anyone should contend that this, or any of these goods, are possible for the malignant spirit to do; it follows that he contends that the opposite of these are possible for the malignant spirit and for the sound one, and there comes a lying ^e error, that evils are attributed to God and goods to the devil, and the devil is believed to be the prince of the just and the upright; but God is blasphemed as being the builder and investigator * of the impious. But if anyone could not or would not believe the Revelations which have been mercifully shown by Jesus Christ and His most loving mother the Virgin Mary, let him believe the works themselves. For the works themselves bear testimony by whose spirit she spoke while living in the body, she who, loosed from the flesh, is made illustrious by succouring daily with so many miracles. For it would be incredible, nay impossible, that God, the knower of secrets, should so wonderfully dignify her when dead, if she had presumed to feign by her own invention, against Him who knows all things, such great things as are contained in the Revelations.

[52] and with the praise of her miracles, And these miracles, which are contained in this little volume, in which not the Latinity, rudeness, bareness or simplicity is to be attended to, but the most loving charity, the immense goodness and the most sweet benignity of Him who works wonderfully on account of His Beloved; are not only known to the venerable fathers and lords, namely the lord Birger, archbishop of Uppsala ^f, the lord Thomas, bishop of Växjö [g], the lord Nicholas, bishop of Skara, the lord Matthias, bishop of Västerås [h], the lords canons of the Chapter of Linköping, the renowned barons the lord Amiglislom, count of Urknoënsis, Bo Jonsson, captain of Silandia, the lords Benedict and Charles, counsellors and knights of the illustrious king of Sweden, who, for firmer evidence, approved the same as true and trustworthy by the appending of their seals; but also to almost the whole community of the Swedes of the aforesaid kingdom, * for the recovery of the health both of soul and body flock daily in crowds to the said place of Vadstena, where the bones of the same Lady rest, desiring to see the great signs which are done through her. To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory with imperial power through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[53] to this by letters Blessed be God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and of all consolation, who, for the edification and consolation of His own, in the first times did by His servants the Prophets great and inscrutable and wonderful things without number, and great salvation in the midst of the earth, while He was known only in Judaea. But when the time of mercy for the gentiles entered, the Most High gave men knowledge to be honoured in His wonders, in these curing, He soothed pains throughout the regions of the world round about, when the sound of the preaching of the Apostles went forth into all the earth, stretching out His hands then in abundance for healings and signs and prodigies to be done in the name of His holy son Jesus; which things Sweden, a Northern region, perceiving when heard, of its own accord took up the sweet yoke of the Lord, and, the thorns of perfidy and the thistles of idolatry having been plucked up, that, as a fruitful vineyard, it might bring forth fruits of justice. And this vineyard, translated, by the grace of God, the light shining before, from the dark prisons of the idolatrous Egyptians, and planted by His right hand with firm roots of faith, and also watered with diligent showers of heavenly doctrines by Catholic doctors ⁱ, although at times, yet rarely, is known to have been illuminated with signs of miracles unto more abundant perfect virtue.

[54] Whence in it some desired with devout affections to be warmed by such things, and to be kindled more fervently to divine love, lest that North wind, from which every evil is opened upon the inhabitants of the earth, to be set down should be able to burn some of its weak branches with the frost of perfidy, or to root out its roots. To whose desires the Lord of hosts, who judges with tranquillity and disposes all things with great reverence, kindly hastening in His ineffable wisdom, reaching us who dwell in these farthest ends of the earth, namely in the aforesaid kingdom of Sweden, found a woman of great price, namely the venerable lady Birgitta of holy memory, very strong in the arms of virtues against vices, as is declared more fully in that book of her Life, and, revealing heavenly secrets to her, she is very often named * His Bride and His daughter, as is more aptly taught in the Books of the Revelations shown from heaven to her while she lived in the body. And lest the infirmity of the human condition should be rendered too slow to believe that Christ, residing in heaven, deigned to speak to a woman living in this mortality, the magnificent glory of the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ does not cease to make His Bride illustrious with prodigies of miracles in all the magnificent kingdoms round about, as will be said below, thus piously satisfying the eyes of those who desire to see wonders done; and also evidently showing that He loved her intimately, and gladdened her while living in the body with frequent and charitable consoling speeches and also with admirable revelations, at the invocation of whose name, dead in the flesh, He deigns daily to show such innumerable great signs.

[55] If all of which were published, the diligence of one writer, however swift, would not avail to collect and write them down. The monks of Vadstena Therefore, in order that the praiseworthy name of the divine magnificence may be exalted the more fervently by devout children, and that every age may recognize with how great glory God dignifies in His Saints His aforesaid handmaid the Lady Birgitta from the first time when her bones were translated from the Roman City ^k, by the command of the venerable father in Christ the lord Nicholas, by the divine mercy bishop of Linköping, through his letter patent confirmed with his seal, we, Gudmar Fredriksson ^l, John Giurderi and Batismund, though unworthy, priests dwelling in the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping of the aforesaid kingdom of Sweden, have applied what diligence we could to writing in this volume, with the witnesses and the names of the persons and of the places in which they dwelt, some miracles through which the powerful God glorifies His Handmaid: but by no means all, but very many astounding things are related to us. We also collected earlier some miracles into one other little book, which the reverend lady Catherine, daughter of the venerable lady Birgitta of holy memory, took with her to the Apostolic See, sealed with the seals of the venerable fathers and lords who are named at the end of it; and of the miracles which are written in the little book, we have written six at the beginning of the volume with the names of the persons, witnesses and places in which they dwell. And those six miracles were done not far from the monastery of Vadstena, and therefore we could easily find witnesses and names for them.

[56] gird themselves. But very many others ^m were done in remote parts, and therefore we were not able to inquire after witnesses for these without difficulty; nor in these six were we necessarily compelled, on account of the adding of the names of witnesses and places, to omit some words: nevertheless we know that both the former and the latter were done in truth, and we have seen the persons with whom they were done; although at first through negligence we omitted to set witnesses or names to that . We truly believe also that many miracles were done through her which are never related to us, which is evident through the many who make pilgrimage here and hang up wax in various forms, who come and go thus, who say nothing at all to us. It is to be known moreover that there are many in these parts who have no surnames: such persons, therefore, we name from the towns in which they dwell. Likewise it is to be noted that some come who do not remember precisely to tell us the day on which their infirmity began or ended. We therefore set down the day and year on which they come to us, judging this from very many, that, as soon as the suffering is ended, they take the road, some of whom attempt this while very weak, and, arriving at the place itself, Vadstena, rejoice that they through

the merits of the venerable lady Birgitta have foretasted on the journey the antidote of perfect cure. This, therefore, is the beginning of the signs done through her in these parts.

[57] By her help one captured by enemies is freed, It happened in the year 1374, on the Tuesday of Pentecost, that a certain noble, Fadheresse by name, of the town of Sodhrbii, of the parish of Jeroptompta in the diocese of Linköping ⁿ, is captured by his enemies, and, most tightly bound, is brought from his house more than 30 miles to the sea-shore. A ship having therefore been prepared, by which he should be carried further to Germany, so that there they might more freely extort from him by punishments as great a sum of silver as they wished; that man, therefore, standing on the shore, beset on every side with sorrows, heard that those who were translating the relics of the lady Birgitta from Rome were halting for the sake of rest not far from the place where he stood. He therefore invoked her with deep sighs to his help, that he might at least be able to return to his fatherland. And at once armed men from the neighbouring castle of Brimum, more and stronger than his captors, came, and forbade that he be brought into another region, but that a certain sum of money be imposed on him there to be paid for his captivity, if justice so dictated; which also was done, and he was released free to his fatherland. Yet those who helped him were in no way related to him, but had come thus far on account of his enemies. And he, while he was returning home, came to those who had translated the bones of the lady Birgitta, and followed them until they had placed them in her monastery of Vadstena, where they were placed on the fourth day before the Nones of July [o] of the aforesaid year, narrating the grace done. Afterwards he was given free by the kings and nobles, so that he did not afterwards pay an obol to his captors. Witnesses are the noble men Haakon Tampe of the town of Ludhigistadl, parish of Sydstad, diocese of Linköping.

[58] driven by furies A certain noble, likewise Hanus by name, in the city of Sadhr. in the diocese of Linköping, openly blaspheming Birgitta, worthy of praise, where we first came to the kingdom of Sweden, on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul of the aforesaid year [p], was seized with such fury that not only did he see a multitude of demons, but, running to a certain tree and stripping himself of his clothes, and bending his knees before the tree, he scourged himself most vehemently; and he who was wont before to say: What have I to do with that Old Woman and her relics? even if I had a horse worth 40 marks, I would care nothing at all about her; after he had scourged himself, he found a wretched mare, and, sitting upon her, rode to the church of St. Lawrence of Söderköping [q], and there, leaving the mare, he entered the church, and, closing the door upon himself alone, miserably wounded his whole body and head with rods and staves. Perceiving which, his friends came and knocked at the door, that he might open to them. And as he refused, they nevertheless entered through some windows of the church. Seeing which, he defended himself with the staves with which he had before struck himself, as against savage enemies; whom they, catching him by cunning counsels, dragged importunately to his lodging.

[59] And he, out of his madness, biting their fingers with his teeth, he is restored to tranquillity of mind, reproaching them and crying: You cursed robbers and tyrants have spoken as evilly of that blessed lady Birgitta as I also; you are as worthy of malediction and of the company of demons as I. Who, uncovering his and their wickedness, at length returned to his senses and vowed a vow to visit the holy relics. And when it came into his mind to go first to the threshold of Aachen [r], because he had vowed this first and had not fulfilled it, he is at once seized again, and troubled more gravely than usual by a multitude of demons; and when he had breathed a little, having taken counsel with a certain discreet man, he promised that he would visit the monastery of Vadstena. Who, taking the road, at first, as if weighed down by a certain mass, could scarcely go; but, having gone out of the city in the greatest humility, in a most poor habit, barefoot, he came to the destined place by two long days' journeys, and made his journey with such ease as if he had not been sick, giving thanks to God, and humbly offered his offering. Witnesses are the honourable men the lord Lawrence, curate of the aforesaid church of St. Lawrence, and his brother the lord Tostus, vice-curate of the church of the Holy Trinity in the aforesaid city.

[60] A certain noble, Regualdus, Inolisson by name, of the town of Idhmg, sudden paralysis, of the parish of Naselta in the diocese of Strängnäs [s], was made paralytic, so that he had the use of no member of his right side, and had lost the office of speaking, seeing and hearing. Seeing which, his wife and the curate priest there, the lord John, and grieving much for him, vowed for him, since he himself could not, that he would visit the relics of the lady Birgitta at Vadstena, to offer one mark of wax for every joint lacking the use of its natural office. Which done, in a wonderful way he gradually felt himself healed; who about the Nativity of the blessed Virgin came to Vadstena, humbly fulfilling his vow. Witnesses are the aforesaid John, father Styrbert, abbot of the monastery of Vileta of the same diocese, and Lawrence of the town of Thiorby of the same parish.

[61] The honourable father Stibern, abbot of the monastery of Julita in the diocese of Strängnäs [t], and shipwreck directed letters to Vadstena in these words: To the reverend man the lord Peter, Prior of Alvastra [u], being at Vadstena, greeting in the Lord. I began to hide what I find is not to be hidden, namely that that glorious Lady, the great lady Birgitta, when she has been invoked, will be a helper in the dangers of waters. For on the lake of Mälaren [x], near the passage of Ologasund, I went aboard a ship to cross towards Strängnäs [y], and, the sail being spread under that vehement blast which was about the feast of Bl. Martin, the ship was damaged on a certain rock; and the rudder being broken and the ship holed, we wished to lower the sail, but could not, the blast tightening the tackle of the sail; and so the ship, running most swiftly, was holed more strongly. At length, wishing to draw in the sail, in so great a danger we vowed that the Mass Salve, sancta Parens, should be said in honour of the glorious Birgitta, and we at once received such relief that not the least drop of water was perceived to enter the ship. But the boys and servants, before the ship was holed, had many times baled out water at the distance of one league, because the ship was porous on account of age; but the holes were so wide that it was not in our hand to bring help.

[62] is averted, They, therefore, being wonderfully exempted from the invasion of the water, even the pores, which before had received water, deferring to so great a deed, were quiet. Yet the water, playing upon the holes, gave an unaccustomed sound, a wonderful power resisting; for in comparison with so great a resistance it showed itself in such an action to be of lesser power and strength. We were indeed far from land during this event, by a long half league, and the ship, afterwards brought to land with oars and made fast in the harbour, soon began to take in water. After its repair the servants busied themselves in baling water out of the ship, as before the breaking: and when I went down from the ship at Strängnäs, the servants also continued the way towards the city of Stockholm [z], where the same ship was wholly destroyed, our servants and goods, however, being unhurt. These things, therefore, were done not by the merit of the one invoking, but by the dignity of the name invoked. And what then shall we render to so great a helper? We know for certain that she truly was good in deed and in name, bestowing aid on the accused who invoke her. Let the adversaries be silent. Farewell in Christ always. Written on the morrow of Bl. Vincent, glorious in merits. Witnesses are the lord Soal, monk and priest of the monastery of Rinna in the land of Gothland [aa], Berocampa Laurentii Benedicti, John Petersson, in danger with us in the ship. These four miracles have been placed in the first book, and two of them, namely of the lord Nicholas of Suuenthals and of the fishermen, follow.

[63] an eye is restored, and another paralytic is healed. Likewise about the feast of St. Nicholas the bishop, a certain noble, primo by name, of a castle situated beside the city of Örebro [bb] in the diocese of Strängnäs, deriding the Handmaid of God, was suddenly deprived of one eye. Who, after half a year repenting of the blasphemy, and making and fulfilling a vow of pilgrimage to her, rejoiced that he had recovered the lost brightness of his former eye. Witnesses are Hermann Scuira and Villabargh with the other castellans of the same castle. At the same time James the goldsmith, a citizen of the said city of Örebro, also blaspheming the Handmaid of God, was loosened by paralysis, by which he was miserably afflicted for three days and three nights; he vowed to visit on pilgrimage her whom he had derided, who presently, having received the use and firm steadiness of his members, fulfilled what he had vowed. Witnesses are his fellow citizens and friends Haakon and John.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. In the year 1346.

o. The 4th day of July.

p. That is, of the year 1374.

q. That is, as I think, of Söderköping; and concerning the Swedish port of Söderköping see the Annotations on chapter 3, book 3 of the life of St. Birgitta, letter K.

r. See the Annotations on part 5 of the Miracles of St. Birgitta, letter k.

s. See the same place.

t. See the Annotations on chapter 3, book 3 of the life of St. Birgitta written by Berthold, letter f.

u. A monastery of the Cistercian Order on the lake Vättern.

x. In Eastern Gothia.

y. Strängnäs.

z. Now the seat of the kings of Sweden.

aa. It is a part of Eastern Sweden.

bb. Situated in Närke.

* superfluous

supply: videt* sees, or something similar

perhaps opposita* the opposites?

perhaps opposita* the opposites?

perhaps instigator* instigator?

supply: qui* [who]

nominat* He names

perhaps nec non* and also?

perhaps illis* to those?

CHAPTER II.

Miracles done in the year 1375.

A madman, a dumb man, a languishing man, Likewise in the following year, namely the year of the Lord 1375, Benedict, a monk of the Order of Preachers, of his cloister in the city of Strängnäs ^a, staying at the church of Ekiolistadh of the same diocese, deriding the praiseworthy Lady, was made wholly mad for three days and nights about the Epiphany of the Lord; who, having made a vow of pilgrimage to visit her whom he had derided, obtained the former liveliness of his senses. Witnesses are the honourable men the lord curate of the church of Ekiolistadh, and the lord Honichinus, curate of the church of Ekheby of the same diocese. Likewise about the Epiphany of the Lord Nicholas the baker, about forty years old, of the town of Uthebgrh of the parish of Hunnita in the valleys, in the diocese of Västerås ^b, dumb from birth, having heard the fame of the miracles by which almighty God makes His Handmaid wonderful, began to visit the place of Vadstena on pilgrimage for the sake of obtaining the use of speech; the bond of his tongue being loosed on the journey, endowed with the perfect office of speaking, he returned home with joy, his pilgrimage faithfully completed. Witnesses are Nicholas and Lawrence, farmers in the aforesaid town. Peter the tailor of Kausbethorp, of the parish of Kustha in the diocese of Strängnäs, labouring for nine weeks with a most grievous languor, having lost his senses and speech for the last nine days, could eat nothing at all. At length, coming back to his senses, he made a vow of pilgrimage to the monastery of Vadstena, which, full health being at once received, he humbly fulfilled about the Octave of the Epiphany. Witnesses are Holinger of the town of Gutamu, John of the town of Frolimbda of the same parish.

[65] an epileptic, a woman labouring in childbirth, and a paralytic are healed, Likewise about the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, John, a monk of the Order of Minors, of the cloister situated in the city of Arboga ^c in the diocese of Västerås, blaspheming with less seemly words the grace done to our reverend Lady, suddenly fell with the epileptic * disease, and, having lost sight, hearing, speech, motion and all rational sense, lay for three days and nights like a useless trunk; pitying whose misery, the Lord Arvid, curate of the aforesaid church, and the discreet matrons of the same city, Catherine and Margaret, made a vow of pilgrimage for him to the Handmaid of God; who, rising healthy in the same hour, confessed that he gladly wished to fulfil what they had vowed for him. The aforesaid are witnesses. Ryatilborg, wife of Gymar, of the town of Unidhalbagh, of the parish of Hunnita in the diocese of Västerås, laboured most dangerously for three days and nights, so that the women who were with her wholly despaired of her life. The curate of the church, Arnard, coming afterwards to hear her confession, counselled her to make a vow of pilgrimage to the Handmaid of God. Which done, she gave birth to an infant unharmed, about the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, faithfully fulfilling the vow. Witnesses are the aforesaid lord Arnard, Catherine and Ignefrid, her neighbours. The lord Nicholas, curate of the church of Suuashal in the diocese of Linköping, loosened by paralysis, devoutly besought the lady Birgitta for his healing, and in the time of Lent, as he could, came to Vadstena to recover health, where in a few days he so recovered that on the holy day of Easter, we and many others seeing it, he celebrated Masses in the monastery, and, that is, on the 9th day before the Kalends of August of the present year ^d, he rules his church in health. Witnesses are the honourable men Tiko, curate of the church of Vadhrstadha, and the lord Andrew, parish curate of the church of Arrestadha, and the lord Tyrgill of the house of the Holy Spirit of Skänninge.

[66] from danger of drowning Ten men with a small boy were sitting to fish upon the ice on the great lake adjoining the monastery of Vadstena, where such is the nature that, when the time of the breaking up of the ice approaches, it begins to boil with a most vehement noise and to be moved from the depth, and with great violence first to break small cracks which are in the ice, making them very wide in a short space, although the ice has had more than an ell in thickness. And then, the force of the winds helping from above, the whole ice is divided into large fragments, and then many who are upon it are often drowned. And although this may seem wonderful to believe, yet the whole surrounding region attests it. Six of the said ten men, hearing the commotion from the depth, and not ignorant of the nature of the lake, hastened with most swift running to the shore, leaving all the fish which they had caught and their other things. But the other four, namely Symdomquisebargh of the parish of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, Kar and Emiregus in Vastesthadu of the parish of Orabargh of the same diocese, and Dalpho in the town, and a parishioner of the same diocese, with the boy, wishing to take their things with them, held on a little, and, when they were already preparing to depart, they saw an opening made between themselves and their companions so wide that it was impossible for them to come after them; whence, troubled even unto death by the horrible collision and commotion of the ice, since they expected nothing but sudden drowning, they raised their eyes towards Vadstena, humbly invoking the lady Birgitta to their help.

[67] Which done, in a wonderful way the part of the ice on which they were standing most dangerously, in the twinkling of an eye, several are rescued, against the violence of the winds joined itself to that part which lay next to the shore, on which their companions were standing without danger, allowing them to come to a safe place. And when they were already standing in safety, the ice was separated with as much ease as it had been joined. But the said boy, hastening after them, but not able to leap with such speed as they, when the ice was separating leapt into the water. Seeing which, these ten men, and unable to help him in anything, implored the lady Birgitta on bended knees for his deliverance; who presently, a certain person's hand being put under him, was lifted out of the water. All those with whom the miracle was done, coming about the Annunciation of the Lord to Vadstena and weeping for joy, made known to many the help wonderfully and mercifully afforded them. Witnesses are Sueno Arnabagh, Haakon Kuntz of the town of Subii, of the parish of Ortaton in the diocese of Linköping.

[68] The lord Nicholas, curate of the church of Unighby in the diocese of Strängnäs, pain of the arm is taken away, a madman is restored to his mind, unwilling to believe, blasphemed the honourable lady Birgitta with abuse. Doing which, he was struck with a most grievous pain in his right arm, so that for three days he was so intolerably afflicted that he could neither eat, nor sleep, nor find any remedy of rest. At length, understanding that he had been chastised on account of the ingratitude shown towards the Handmaid of God, he repented, vowing with inmost heart not to disparage her henceforth, but to honour her with worthy reverence in whatever things he could. Which done, he felt his former health restored to him. Witnesses are the honourable lords Henechinus, curate of the church of Ekby, and Orland, curate of the church of Arabarg of the same diocese. In the same diocese and parish Agbord of the town of Giamsge was senseless for nine days, for whom his wife and friends firmly made a vow of pilgrimage to Vadstena. Who at once, rational sense being restored to him, about the Annunciation of the Lord fulfilled with devout alacrity the vow made for him, adding that he would fast on the Vigil of the Handmaid of God, when it should be established, and would have one Mass said every year out of reverence for her. Witnesses are his Arnard, Ignemarius and Karald of the town of Ulda of the same parish.

[69] Margaret of the town of Olkne, of the parish of Biornas Kogh in the diocese of Västerås, gave birth to a dead infant, wholly blackened, the dead are restored to life, and a woman held in prison is freed; all believing that it held a black coal on its tongue, which also was thought rather a phantom than a human being. She vowed a vow to Vadstena, and the infant revived, and recovered a seemly colour and form in all its members. Witnesses are Ingrid and Helen, midwives and her neighbours. Agnes of the town of Vualsoni of the same diocese and parish felt a living infant in her womb, which afterwards she perceived to be dead for six weeks; and, wonderful to tell, trustworthy women, Margaret and Lucia, who were frequently with her, testifying, she became a palm's breadth more slender or thinner than she had been before, while the infant was felt alive. A vow therefore having been made to the threshold of Bl. Birgitta, the woman gave birth to a living infant, carrying it to Vadstena fourteen weeks after its birth. Witnesses are the aforesaid women, her neighbours. A certain baker-woman, Ramburgis by name, of the city of Västerås, is caught guilty of theft and bound in prison, so that afterwards, delivered to the judge, she might be condemned to death. She invoked the lady Birgitta for her deliverance, vowing that she would labour at Vadstena for a year; and after a little, being loosed, coming to Vadstena a little after Pentecost, she diligently fulfils her vow. Witnesses are John with the others who daily eat the bread baked by her.

[70] a woman paralytic and at the same time dumb A certain woman, Margaret by name, of the city and diocese of Trondheim ^e in the kingdom of Norway, paralytic, dumb, inconsolably deprived of the strength of her whole body, like a useless trunk, lay daily on a pallet. To her, sleeping, a certain Lady in reverend habit appeared, saying: I am Birgitta of Vadstena, and now I will cure you of your infirmity, and you, being healed, shall come to my place to confess publicly the grace done to you. This said, she touched the suffering limbs as with an ointment of medicine. And the woman, waking, found herself healed in all her members, speech and all strength of body being fully restored. She, coming to Vadstena, recounted these things before the priests who were there and many others, and her members, especially in the right side almost lacking flesh, show clearly enough the skin which had been laid aside; yet she flourished vigorously in strength of body for walking and labouring. Witnesses are the noble men the lord Peter Porse, knight, of Notaby, parish of Lohmand in the diocese of Linköping, and John Petersson of Vestraby, parish of Vardahanas of the same diocese.

[71] one affected with grave pain and a deaf woman are healed, Folquin of the town of Mordanhuegh, of the parish of Hinnita in the diocese of Västerås, afflicted with a most grievous pain for three days, took the road to Vadstena, as he could, against the capacity of his strength and the counsel of his friends, where he rejoiced that he had recovered his former health. Witnesses are the lord Arnolf, curate of the aforesaid church, and Peter of the town of Oppeby of the same parish. Ingeborg, wife of Olmger of the town of Gotaubi, of the parish of Panchaby in the diocese of Strängnäs, wholly deaf for three years, having made a vow to Vadstena out of reverence for the lady Birgitta and for the recovery of hearing, the deafness being wiped away by the vow of pilgrimage, received her hearing, performing her vow on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. Witnesses are John of the town of Menghmniston and Sueno Surabonen. of the town of Solberghm. of the same parish.

[72] a woman possessed by a demon, Christina, wife of Lawrence, bell-ringer of the church of Kyl in the diocese of Strängnäs, possessed by a demon and deprived of the health of her whole body, and having in part lost the government of her rational sense, for 15

continuous years lay afflicted on a pallet, frequently hearing horrible and abominable words from the demon dwelling in her, who said among other things: Now I will draw your heart out of your body, and condemn you to a most shameful death. To her in sleep there appeared a certain person in venerable habit, counselling her that, for cleansing from the unclean spirit and the restoration of sense and bodily vigour, she should visit on pilgrimage the monastery of the venerable lady Birgitta. She, waking, felt herself endowed with a livelier reason than usual, and, having learned that many were then prepared to go on pilgrimage there, because the feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin was then close at hand, she, creeping on hands and feet, since she could not otherwise, took the road with the others. Who, presently freed from the devil, before she had arrived at the place itself, rejoiced inwardly in the benefit of entire health both of sense and body. Hearing these things, we could scarcely believe that a woman so long weakened and cruelly troubled should so quickly be strengthened and cleansed. We therefore adjured the Lord Gregory, curate of the aforesaid church, coming to Vadstena, that he should tell us the full truth of this matter, who constantly asserted on oath of faith that it had been so done. He therefore is a witness of this miracle, with Peter and Sturborn, his parishioners, of the town of Hamarby.

[73] To Christina, wife of Gingolph of the town of Staffatra, of the parish of Vist in the diocese of Linköping ^f, there arose an ulcer under the groin, and a woman labouring with a foul ulcer are cured, and it grew most vehemently, swelling for eight weeks; which ended, the ulcer began to become soft in the middle part and to burst, from which part there fell to the ground a small piece of flesh, like a very large black mouse. And so the ulcer made an opening for seven weeks, so that whatever she ate or drank in these seven weeks flowed out through the opening of the ulcer. For she frequently ate onion among other things, which came out of the wound such as she had swallowed it. And when it was no longer possible to apply a remedy of the medical art, that woman, failing in strength for pain, having made her confession and received the Sacraments of the Church, being at her last breath, invoked with inmost heart for the restoration of health the lady Birgitta, healer of the incurable, vowing that she would visit her place. Scarcely had the vow gone forth from the lips of her heart when the opening of the ulcer began to close up and to be healed; and she, gratefully rising from her pallet, prepared herself to perform what she had vowed, and, coming to Vadstena on the Epiphany of the Lord [g], standing beside the ambo, she affirmed these things firmly on oath and with many witnesses, and he also who on that day was making the sermon to the people. Some, however, contradicted her words, saying that it was impossible that what should be sent down by the privy should be sent out through such a part of the body, unless the bowels had been burst: and if they had been burst, it would again be proved impossible that the woman should have lived so long with them burst; saving that whatever God wills to do to a creature is possible to the creator. That we might therefore know the truth of this matter, we heard the lord Charles, curate of the aforesaid church, Vist, who asserted on true faith that the thing had been so done, and that he had ministered to her, placed in infirmity, the Sacraments of the Church, and had proved by most evident signs the truth of all the aforesaid. A witness of this matter, with trustworthy men, is the lord Ehorin Chorali, parish priest in the cathedral church of the diocese of Linköping, to whom this same woman confessed, and her husband, the aforesaid Gingulph, Fridhstan and Tyrgill of the aforesaid town of Staffatra.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. See the same place.

epileptico* epileptic

CHAPTER III.

Certain miracles done in the year 1376.

[Likewise by her help an infant is restored to life, another is rescued from danger of death,] The wife of Ingevald of the town of Inbile, of the parish of Kareclinge in the diocese of Strängnäs, about the Octave of the Epiphany of the Lord, with the greatest labour and pain, brought forth a dead infant; for whose quickening the parents, after it had been dead for a whole natural day, made a vow to the Handmaid of God, into which at once a living spirit entered from the fountain of life. Witnesses are Ragvald and Nicholas of the aforesaid town. Boëthius, the two-year-old son of Peter, a tenant farmer, of the parish of Clastadha near Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, on the fourth day after the Conversion of St. Paul swallowed a large piece of an iron point, which was so firmly fixed in his throat that it could be moved neither up nor down; which, however, his mother, Margaret by name, could touch with her longer finger, but could not draw out; and, seeing that the infant was about to die very soon, she carried him in a basket, his eyes already rolled round, about to breathe his last, and for him she humbly invoked the lady Birgitta: and as she prayed, the iron disappeared, and the infant began to suck his mother's breasts with a glad face. Witnesses are Olaf and John, tenants in the aforesaid town.

[75] a woman possessed by a demon, There was in the town of Bro, in the parish of Husaby in the diocese of Linköping, a certain rich peasant, Copper by name, having a daughter named Christina, who from the first years of her infancy suffered great attacks from the devil in sleep; and, wishing to tell this to her parents, she could not open her mouth. Yet, perceiving this from some signs, they called a certain enchantress, who practised her arts upon her, and she fared worse, because afterwards she saw him in the most foul forms of various animals terrifying her, namely of horses, wolves, dogs, serpents and the like. Then, some time having passed, a certain enchanter made incantations over her, and tied some things round her neck, and she fared worse. For then he appeared as a most foul boy of 12 years, and beat her without mercy, because he was full of envy. And when they wished to practise more sorceries upon her, she began to cry out strongly, saying that she was punished the more grievously, the more they did. Moreover, when she had come to marriageable years, she was lawfully given to a husband about the feast of St. Martin. And on the third day after this the devil came to her, vehemently angry, and struck her so powerfully that she fell to the ground, and joined together both her knees, which so inseparably cohered as if they were fixed together with an iron nail, no one being able to separate them from each other; and lying like a useless trunk, not able to move either hand, or foot, or any other member, nor even the tongue for speaking readily, yet she spoke low, someone understanding with difficulty what she said. She perceived no odour except the worst.

[76] Afterwards, about the feast of St. Catherine, deprived of the sight of her eyes, and miserably so that she saw nothing at all except the devil, and about him one eye, and everything that was with him she saw in that eye; he troubled her so sharply, shook her and dashed her against the walls where she lay or sat, dragged her by the hair, and tore her limb by limb, that all who saw her wondered how even for one hour a living person could suffer such pains: O senseless obstinate hardness of sinners! That you may come to your senses from evils, understand with how great malice he will punish the soul in which the servants of crimes fully prevail through enormity, * he afflicts with such fury the body in whose soul he possesses no dominion. Then in the following year, the year of the Lord 1376, after the Octave of the Epiphany, her husband with his friends prepared himself to transport her, and when they took the road, the devil ran with them in the habit of the modern ovalia, and, falling on a certain slippery ice, began to weep: seeing which, she told those following her to weep. But they began to laugh. And he, rising, seized one by the feet and dashed him against the ice: and the other he struck on the teeth with the instrument with which he drove the beasts, so that blood flowed out; and to them grieving he said: For a time you laughed, now I also laugh. And wherever she was carried, whether in church or elsewhere, the devil always followed her, afflicting her. And when she was carried into the cathedral church of Linköping, he left her outside the cemetery, and attacked her at once as she returned from the church, handling her wickedly. When she had now come to Vadstena, she lay in the vehicle in which she had been carried there, many of the inhabitants of the place and others flowing together to see; and in the sight of all standing by the devil seized her by the feet, raising her aloft, and made her fall horribly into the vehicle.

[77] After this, as her husband with another strong man was carrying her into another small chapel, troubled, she became heavier than usual. And after they had placed her in a certain place in the chapel, the devil seized her by the feet, wishing to drag her out, gnashing horribly, so that her heart almost burst for fear, seeing him. And her husband drew her to himself, holding her by the head, but could not hold her back. And on the following day, which was Saturday, all who knew how to sing having been gathered in that place, after None and Compline we sang ^a, to expel the malignant spirit from her, the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus, etc.:" singing three times that verse: "Hostem repellas longius," "Ave maris stella" at matins, and the Antiphon for the relics. And so it was sung on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: meanwhile he troubled her, and dashed her against the wall near which she stood so horribly that the whole chapel almost moved and trembled, so that very many seeing this were roused to weeping; and women touching her testified that they felt something bodily moving in her bowels, as if she were near to giving birth. Whence also the devil, who spoke with her, said to her: I do not do much to you, but he who dwells in you is much more troublesome to you, afflicting you more grievously.

[78] And one day the head of the lady Birgitta [b] was placed upon her head, and there was tied upon her breast a small silver cross which the lady Birgitta had placed in the sepulchre of the Lord in Jerusalem, once and she kissed the hand of the same old priest. Which done, the devil came to her all raging, saying: Now they are doing much with you; they have placed a club, which is the worst for me, upon your head; or why do you kiss the hand of that old man, stinking most foully? and, stretching out his hand, he said: Kiss my hand; and as she refused, he began, as with flattering words, as to a friend, to ask her to cast from her that straw which she bore on her breast, saying that, for the vehemence of the most foul stench * it rendered to him, he could not stay. Meanwhile he also asked her with flattering words that

she would go back with him from the chapel, saying that, for intolerable anxiety, he could not hear that vehement shouting which resounded there. And on Thursday, when we entered to sing, he ceased from troubling her, and, withdrawing outside the chapel, cried out: Woe, woe, for now I can do you no evil. And although he had let her go, she nevertheless lay like a person loosened by the worst paralysis. And on the following day, which was the day of the Conversion of St. Paul, while "Te Deum laudamus" was being sung at Matins, speech was restored to her. And she praised God; while the images were being incensed, she perceived the natural odour of the incense, and while the Body of Christ was being elevated at the first Mass, she received her sight, clearly seeing the host in the priest's hand. When she said this to those standing round, the chapel was filled with the shouting of those praising Jesus Christ with loud voice; and still she could not raise herself from the place where she lay. And when the Mass was ended, the lord Peter, formerly confessor [c] of the venerable lady Birgitta, came up to her, and at once she rose and stood upright on her feet. Which done, all who knew how to sing having been called together, we sang "Te Deum laudamus" and the sequence "Gaude, Virgo, Mater Christi," and the Antiphon for the relics, with the Collect "Sancta Maria mater, etc." And, these finished, she began to walk, offering her offering at the altar; and afterwards she went freely wherever she wished; and, having spent ten days there after this, she returned home rejoicing; and on the third day after she entered her house, she was seized again by the demon as before, and deprived of the health of her whole body; yet troubled more lightly, as she herself confessed, than before.

[79] and is again freed by the same, Then on the Sunday of mid-Lent, carried to the aforesaid place, on the eve of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin she recovered sight and the due and vigorous offices of all her members, the demon departing from her, and spitting in her face, and saying, while she was near being carried into the chapel: Now you have become most vile, and I will withdraw from you, and will choose a fairer one. O Lord Jesus, knower of secrets, Thou knowest the cause why this woman was stricken a second time, and we have seen that she thanked Thee less than she ought for the grace received. Was she not therefore delivered again to the malignant spirit to be afflicted on account of ingratitude, and does she not bear the type of those sluggishly ungrateful for the benefits of Thy kindness received? Witnesses of this miracle are the reverend fathers and lords, namely Lawrence, canon of the diocese of Linköping, the lord Sohaur Esgeri, prebendary there, brother Olaf, Prior of the cloister of the Friars Preachers in the city of Västerås, who on the aforesaid day, namely the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, saw her walking readily and entirely restored to her former health, and the lord Bero, parish curate of the said church of Hersina in the diocese of Linköping, who saw her faring ill and as * , if they wish today, that is, on the day of St. Lawrence, to look upon her, well healed.

[80] Catherine, wife of John, bell-ringer of the church of Bro in the diocese of Västerås, suffered a most vehement pain of the eyes for a long time, pain of the eyes and illusions of demons are put to flight, for whose healing her husband, making vows to various Saints and profiting nothing, at length made a vow to the Handmaid of God: and she presently, the pain vanishing, received clear sight; for which the vow was fulfilled on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Witnesses are the lord John, curate of the aforesaid church, Nicholas Thidericus of the town of Biergha [d] of the same parish. Olaf, a farmer of the town of Gritta, of the parish of Biornastgoh in the diocese of Västerås, afflicted with a most grievous pain about Shrovetide for three continuous days, heard twelve most foul demons, in a habit cut short to the buttocks, with beaked shoes and hoods sharpened at the top after the most shameful custom of some * moderns, dancing beside him and saying: If you will consent to us, we will enrich you with riches; but if you will not, we will condemn you to a most shameful death with us, and will lead you down to hell. To whom he always answered: I will consent to my God and to that reverend handmaid of His, the Lady Birgitta, to whom I had made a vow of pilgrimage, in whom I hope with entire confidence that she will rescue me by the power of God from the terrors of your threats: for I will honour her all the days of my life in which I shall be able. And these three days being ended, the horrible vision of demons disappeared, and he at once, his former health being received, humbly performed his vow. Witnesses are the honourable men the lord Charles, curate of the aforesaid church, and the lord John, his brother, then staying with him, who saw him sick, and heard him, healed, asserting these things.

[81] A certain townswoman, Catherine by name, in the city and parish of Örebro [e] in the diocese of Strängnäs, lost senses are restored, returning at the hour of Compline at Shrovetide from a banquet at which her people had led her to courtly dances not too honourable, was seized by the devil in the street before she came to her house, and was so cruelly beaten that from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head she was as it were livid in all her members; having lost sense, speech, sight, hearing and the health of her whole body, she passed that night in the greatest misery: and about dawn two honourable priests then staying in the said city of Örebro were called to her, namely the lord Erland, curate of the parish church of Asaborgh, and the lord Gregory, parish curate of the church of Kyl, who with other friends of hers had made a vow of pilgrimage to Vadstena out of reverence for the Handmaid of God and for the preservation of the afflicted woman: to whom in the same hour sense and strength of body were restored, not without the wonder of those standing round. Witnesses are the aforesaid priests, and James the baker of Örebro.

[82] It happened on the Lord's Supper, in the town of Orabro, of the parish of Hardhberga in the diocese of Linköping, the drowning of infants is prevented, that the son of Catherine, a widow, Tyrgill by name, and her daughter Helen, by an incautious accident fell from a certain small bridge into an impetuous torrent, in which torrent there are many mills belonging to the said town, and the hour was about the sixth: and the woman, seeing herself bereft of her children, the consoling hope of her widowhood perished, invoked the lady Birgitta with sorrowful sobs, that that venerable Widow, who long before her husband's death, with his consent, had vowed to keep chastity, had lived laudably, and is truly believed now to be inseparably joined to the heavenly Spouse, would deign to succour a desolate and wretched widow, vowing that she would set out on pilgrimage to Vadstena with her little ones, if she could receive them alive from the whirlpools of the waters. Then, wiping the tears from her eyes, she saw them carried further by the most impetuous current through the places of three mills, and the boy held by the foot on the steep face of a certain great stone, and the girl clinging to another obstacle, yet so that the flood of the running water flowed over them, although they could be seen; and because, on account of the strong impetuosity of the torrent, it was not possible for a boat to reach them, she called together a great crowd of neighbours, who prepared many instruments by which they could succour them; and reaching them about the hour of evening, they found them alive, unhurt and safe, as if they had rested in a flowery place, except that on every side they were soaked by the current of the river. This woman, performing her vow on the Sunday "Quasi modo geniti" [f], publicly confessed these things with thanksgivings. Witnesses are the honourable men the lord Tydemann, vice-curate of the church of St. Lawrence in the city of Linköping, and Tyrgill, vice-consul and citizen of the same city.

[83] from the hands of a robber Two women, namely Catherine, wife of Godhsen, and Benedicta, a widow, of the parish and city which is called Aaos [g] in the diocese of Lund in the kingdom of Denmark, having performed their vow at Vadstena, were returning home on the Lord's Supper; who, while they were going through a great forest not far from the church of Ubrichstada in the diocese of Linköping, were overtaken by a certain robber of great cruelty and strength, who drove them with his lance from sunrise to sunset through narrow, rough and most dense thickets for more than two leagues to a certain deep pit, placed far enough from the converse of men, wishing to hurl them into it, and, when they had been suddenly suffocated in the water, to deprive them of the money and things which they had, considering that otherwise one might perhaps flee while he struck the other with the lance. And when he was approaching the pit, the robber said to them: Go in quickly and drown yourselves, otherwise I will run you through with the lance. And they, seeing themselves placed at the gates of death, vowed that they would hastily return to the relics of the Lady Birgitta, if by her merit they could escape alive the cruelty of the robber. Scarcely had the vow gone forth from their lips when two other women from a neighbouring town came near them, wandering in the wilderness; seeing whom, the robber, and fearing that there were more in their company, snatched from those whom he had first pursued one small bag in which were their moneys and other things, and, letting them go, entered the hiding-places of the forests. And the native women, the cause of the coming of the foreign women being learned, said that they had so wandered by divine providence, and had been sent to their help; because they did not think that any man had in many years approached that most dense wilderness, impassable * except to beasts.

[84] two women are rescued, After this the foreign women, led by the counsel of the native women, came to the prefect of the province, Ignemund Sterrlynth, living at Stensiit not far from the forest in which the robber stayed, narrating to him what had happened to them, and they asked him to search for that robber with an armed band, so that, he being captured, they might recover their things which he had taken from them. To whom the prefect answered: I know well that that robber has lain hidden in that forest, and has despoiled many for six years, and, often sought by many armed men, he could not be captured, because the devil whom he serves so pre-catches and guards him that the whole province assembled to capture him could not apprehend him; and although he is now sought, I know nevertheless that he will not be found, unless that venerable Lady, whose pilgrims he dared to despoil, deliver him to us. For, trusting in her, I will send my servants to those places in which he is said to lie hidden. Who, sent, found him in the first hiding-place in which they began to search, and two, rushing upon him, could not hold him, until a third, coming up secretly, cut off one of his feet; and so, being captured, he restored to the aforesaid women their things. And afterwards he was hanged on the gibbet, as he wickedly deserved. And those women afterwards, on the first Sunday after Easter, returned to Vadstena and with thanksgivings narrated these things. Witnesses are the venerable men the lord and brother Sueno of the monastery of Nydala [h], then staying at the aforesaid church of Bricstadh, who directed a letter to Vadstena testifying these things, and the aforesaid Ignemund, whose servants condemned that robber to hanging.

[85] The head and neck of Margaret of the town of

Tyngasta, of the parish of Athanaas in the diocese of Strängnäs, swelled so much from a most vehement pain a woman labouring with pain of the head, one deprived of her senses, that her eyes and nostrils could not be seen; to whom, a vow having been made by her friends * to the Handmaid of God, sudden health was restored about the feast of SS. Philip and James. Witnesses are Thomas Ignemund and Henry of the aforesaid town, who were present with her while the infirmity lasted. A certain nun, Margaret by name, of the cloister of Bisabergh ⁱ in the diocese of Strängnäs, staying outside the castle at the church of Viby of the same diocese, dared to deride the venerable Lady Birgitta with blasphemy; who, at once struck by the vengeance of God, lost her senses and speech. And when she had miserably spent five days in such misery, the lord Nicholas, curate of the aforesaid church of Viby, and Fr. Benedict Nicolai of the Castle of Strängnäs, made a vow of pilgrimage to Vadstena for her, and on the following day, namely the Wednesday before Palm Sunday, she fully recovered; on the Sunday before the Ascension of the Lord devoutly performing in person the vow made, and humbly acknowledging the grace done to her. Witnesses are those who made the vow for her, and the lord John, curate of the church of Ledhoborgh in the diocese of Straren. [k], and Thorin Johnsson of Covolodhun., of the parish of Urmarbyt, who, being then at Vadstena, heard her confessing the grace done to her.

[86] Gertrude, housekeeper of Nicholas, curate of the church of Romba in the diocese of Strängnäs, presuming to deride the venerable Lady Birgitta, was suddenly struck with so vehement a swelling and pain of the head [another likewise labouring with pain of the head, and one gravely beaten, are cured;] that for three days and nights she could neither see nor speak. These ended, she repented of the blasphemy committed, and, a vow of pilgrimage having been made, which she fulfilled on the Ascension of the Lord, she was wholly healed. Witnesses are trustworthy men, namely the aforesaid lord Nicholas, and brother Benedict of the Order of Preachers of the cloister of Strängnäs. Harcald, servant of the noble man Henechin Molteka of Ulfåsa, of the parish of Ekby in the diocese of Linköping, was so gravely beaten with cudgels by his adversaries that he fell to the ground and lay for three days as if dead, moving neither hand nor foot: then, coming back to his senses, and feeling a most grievous pain in all his members, he invoked the holy Birgitta for relief and the recovery of health, vowing that he would visit her place on pilgrimage, and in the same hour, rising healthy, about the Ascension of the Lord he fulfilled his vow with thanksgivings. Witnesses are the lord Lawrence, vice-curate in Rabyn in the diocese of Linköping, and Folquin, Official of the noble man Gerard Suakenborgh of Eneby, of the parish of Naas of the same diocese, who heard him firmly affirming this on oath.

[87] a dumb girl speaks, a blind girl sees, Helen, daughter of Eva, of the name of a peasant *, of the town of Sokmadal, of the parish of Vedherstadb in the diocese of Linköping, laboured for ten weeks with a most grievous pain, and for the last nine days was made wholly dumb, and could eat or drink nothing; whence her father, despairing of her life, made a vow for her to the Lady Birgitta, and at once she began to recover; and, full health having been received, on the Ascension of the Lord he fulfilled what the father had vowed for his daughter. Witnesses are the lord Ciko, curate of the aforesaid church, and John, a peasant in the aforesaid town. It happened in the town of Nikhem, in the parish of Vorghsla, in the diocese of Dryganes in the kingdom of Norway, that over the eyes of Thoruna, daughter of Ysa, a widow, there grew a red and very thick film, by which she was wholly blinded for a whole year, which could be removed by no arts of physicians. Seeing which, the mother vowed that she would go with her daughter to the Handmaid of God, and presently, that film vanishing like wax before the face of the fire, clear sight is restored to the girl. This woman with her daughter narrated these things to us on the Ascension of the Lord. Witnesses are Thorlalior and Samundir, peasants in the aforesaid town of Sokmadal.

[88] a captive A certain noble, Gotherin, Gaste by name, of the city, parish and diocese of Oslo [l] in the kingdom of Norway, about Palm Sunday, by order of his lord King Haakon, is captured, and is shut up with one servant of his in a dark prison in Akershus, and most tightly fettered with wooden stocks and iron chains. He, when he had been afflicted with such misery for many days, at length invoked the Lady Birgitta for his deliverance. After this, some days having rolled by, a file was secretly brought to him by a certain friend of his on the day of St. John the Baptist. Who began, as much as he could, to break the wood and the iron, and the servant, first loosed, to break the wall with the bones from which they had eaten the flesh. And behold the greatest of miracles: the most firm wall, which did not give way to the greatest throws and blows of engines, was broken with fragile cooked bones. Now on the third day after he had received the file, at sunrise, the bonds and so much space in the wall were broken that they withdrew free from the castle. Seeing which, someone announced it in the castle, and, rising with lances and crossbows, 40 men went out after them; seeing whom, the servant escaped by running swiftly.

[89] escapes from prison, But the aforesaid noble, because he had been most tightly bound, could not run; but placed himself beside a certain stone not farther from the castle than a stone's throw, having confidence in the Lady Birgitta, whom he had previously invoked. And his enemies, when they first went out of the castle, clearly saw him sitting beside the stone; but, approaching him, they could not see him, seeing clearly all other things around them, thus running about in a circle from sunrise to midday, as he himself affirmed on oath, many trustworthy men hearing. They came so near to him that more than ten times they could have touched him with the hand, and, standing beside him, they said to one another: Here we saw him sitting, but not going away from here; perhaps then the earth opened its mouth and swallowed him. And when the hour of dinner had now passed, with vain labour they returned into the castle. And he, as he could, took to flight, the pain which he had received from the bonds being then somewhat mitigated. He, coming to Vadstena on the Ascension of the Lord, confessed these things. Witnesses are the noble men Ornio and Guthorn, who with others were searching for him, and the honourable lords Lawrence, prebendary of the diocese of Linköping, and Thron, staying there at Vadstena at this time.

[90] A certain labourer named Throcto, of the town of Sundista, one wounded in the foot, one burnt by flames, are healed, of the parish of Usby in the diocese of Uppsala, incautiously cut off his foot-part , so that it hung by the skin, who, afflicted for many days with grave pain, because the foot-part could not be suitably joined by the art of medicine, nor could he bear that it be wholly cut off, at length made a vow to the Handmaid of God, and at once, coming to Vadstena on the Ascension of the Lord, confessed, and rejoiced that he had received health of the whole foot. Witnesses are John and James, farmers in the aforesaid town. The little son of John in Sorby, of the parish of Ninkathorp in the diocese of Västerås, by an incautious accident fell into the fire, who was so horribly burnt in face and breast, hands and arms, that he seemed to present no longer a human appearance, but that of coals. Whence those present , exceedingly afflicted with sorrow, because the boy had not completed seven years, and they also, besides the other inconveniences which they suffered, were very soon to be bound on account of the death of the son, who was believed about to die in that same hour; the father with inmost heart made a vow for the life and healing of his son, that he would visit the Handmaid of God on pilgrimage. And in a few days he recovered full health, as his father confessed on the Ascension of the Lord. Witnesses are the Lord Lawrence, vice-curate of the aforesaid church, and Haakon in Sandista of the same parish.

[91] The lord Gregory, curate of the church of Kyl in the diocese of Strängnäs, a woman possessed by a demon, a blind girl, having for work in his household a young girl, Ingrid by name, whom the devil attacked on the second day of Easter, and for a whole month troubled most cruelly two or three times every day, so that her belly seemed to raise itself above the breast up to her face; her lord, pitying her pain, made a vow for her, and at once the devil departed from her, doing her no further harm; and the same Lord Gregory related these things to us in good faith within the Octave of the Ascension of the Lord. Witnesses are Peter and Stirbern in Amarybi of the same parish. Cecilia, the four-year-old daughter of Martin Ockicta in the town of Mam, of the parish of Niobirbyo in the diocese of Linköping, worn for a long time by grave pain and languor, was at length deprived of the sight of her eyes for five weeks. For the recovery of health she was led towards Vadstena by her mother, Catherine by name; who on the journey, before she arrived at the place itself, rejoiced that she had received entire health of the eyes and the whole body. Witnesses are the lord Peter, curate of the church of Aa, and the Lord Andrew, vicar of the church of Unimarby in the diocese of Linköping, who, being at Vadstena within the Octave of the Ascension, saw together with us the girl, sound in body and crowned with the clear light of her eyes.

[92] one dumb and at the same time lame: there is saved Christina, a widow of the town and parish of Arnobonga in the diocese of Lund in the kingdom of Denmark, had a son of seven years, Olaf by name, lame and dumb from birth; whom the mother, with another woman, Helen by name, carried on their shoulders for two long days' journeys to Vadstena, coming there on the vigil of Pentecost, where the boy on the same day was endowed with full strength for walking and speaking. Witnesses are the noble men John Broderhrsem of the city of Subdhu in the diocese of Capen., Hannus Volt, Hennechin Grevensmolla, citizens of Skänninge, who heard what had been done from the boy's mother, and saw him with their eyes walking readily. Holinstan, the ten-year-old son of Peter Fut of the town of Bruta, of the parish of Ringarium in the diocese of Linköping, in the islands of the sea, stood with many others upon fragile ice to fish for fish, and suddenly a vehement wind came, breaking up the ice all around; seeing which, those who were older hastened to the shore, but the boy, not knowing how to take precautions for himself, remained until the ice was broken into pieces.

[93] a boy near to drowning. Whence the boy, terrified, began to cry incessantly with a loud voice: O St. Birgitta, help me. And the wind blowing unceasingly, the ice was broken into such tiny parts that the boy was seen by his father and nine other men standing on the shore not upon ice, but standing upon water alone. And so he stood for four or five hours, and, the blast always pressing, was carried far enough from the shore, his father and the others seeing and not being able to give help, because they had no boats. But the boy did not cease to invoke the lady Birgitta, by whose merits without doubt the divine providence, which has care of all things, had provided that Acanerid of the town of Bro, and Marbum of Vaginar of the aforesaid

parish, sailing on their business, came near him, and, observing that the little piece of ice on which he had stood was almost all dissolved into water, took him into their boat. These therefore are witnesses of this matter, with Banka of the town of Grevianas of the same parish, who, seeing this, stood on the shore, and the boy's father, who on the day of Pentecost narrated these things to us in order.

ANNOTATIONS.

e. In Närke.

perhaps exspirare* to expire?

perhaps coloni* tenants?

* superfluous

perhaps quem* whom?

supply: omnes possunt* all can or something similar.

perhaps aulonum or tibicinum* of flute-players?

perhaps ad tibiæ sonos institutas* arranged to the sounds of the flute?

sunt* were

perviam* passable

pro* [for]

read: et Joannis, rustici,* and of John, a peasant,

that is, digitum* [toe]

parentes* parents

CHAPTER IV.

Other miracles likewise done in the year 1376.

Finally to a languishing girl, a paralytic woman, Margaret, the eight-year-old daughter of Hilchyvast of the town of Ranstadha, of the parish of Eniby in the diocese of Linköping ^a, lay dumb for nine days from a most grievous languor, eating nothing: but the father, making a vow for his daughter to the Handmaid of God, she recovered full health in a few days, and he confessed it to us on the day of Pentecost. Witnesses are Hithuniast Rugennius and Thomas, farmers in the aforesaid town. Peter, a very old poor man of the town of Moo in the parish of Sildanzdh in the diocese of Striparen. [b], painfully weakened in one hand and blind for three years, vowed for the recovery of his health that he would visit the relics of the lady Birgitta on pilgrimage, taking the road as he could. Who, when he was approaching the place of Vadstena, recovered entire health by divine grace on account of the merits of the Handmaid of God. Witnesses are Coko Diathakii of the city of Ludhrcopen. in the diocese of Linköping, and John of the town and parish of Motala, who on the second day of Pentecost heard him with many others publishing the grace done to him. Gumild, a poor woman of the town of Salbierga, of the parish of Rimalmida in the diocese of Oslo [c] in the kingdom of Norway, lay paralytic for five years, so that she had neither sense nor full strength in any member of her body. Her acquaintances therefore made a vow for her to the Handmaid of God, and she presently recovered so perfectly that she was able to go to the monastery of Vadstena by a rough and very long way, arriving there on the Tuesday of Pentecost, and she testified these things to us on oath with another woman, Thoron by name, of the same town. Witnesses are honourable men, namely the lord Haakon, choral of the cathedral church of Linköping, the lord Charles, parish curate of a church of the same diocese, who, being then at Vadstena, saw this woman with their own eyes.

[95] Chorborgh of the village and parish of Byarlnuda in the diocese of Oslo [d] in the kingdom of Norway, a woman about to drown, about the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin was going with her husband over very fragile and porous ice, which suddenly breaking, both together were carried into the depth. And when they had begun to sink, the woman cried: O holy Birgitta, save me; and at once she was lifted as if by a certain hand upon the ice, which was so fragile that it often broke afterwards under her feet; yet she was not sunk: but when she came to the bank, almost the whole ice, a great wind also coming on, was broken up and dissolved into its elemental form. She, coming to Vadstena on the third day after Pentecost, had no witnesses with her from her land, because no mortal saw how it was done with her; and that she gratefully and constantly confessed the grace so done to her, the witnesses are honourable men, the lord Tyrgill of the house of the Holy Spirit of Skänninge in the diocese of Linköping, the lord Olaf, curate of the church of Hedha of the same diocese, who with many others heard her truthfully saying these things.

[96] Sigrid, the four-year-old daughter of the bell-ringer of the church of Hersema in the diocese of Linköping, about the Nativity of the Lord was so painfully loosened by paralysis likewise to another paralytic girl, a blind woman, that the hand and foot of her right side were to the touch as it were cloth, nor were bones seen to be in them. And when she had lain thus for six weeks, a vow was made for her to the Handmaid of God. Which done, she at once recovered her former health; which her parents showed us on Trinity Sunday, vigorous in all her members according to her age. Witnesses are honourable men, the lord Nicholas, curate of the church of Suanshal in the diocese of Linköping, who saw her healthy at Vadstena on the aforesaid day, the lord John, vice-curate of the aforesaid church of Hersema, and Peter Honason there, who saw her weak and afterwards healed. Margaret, the twenty-year-old daughter of Lawrence Frenda of the town and parish of Nordibiergh in the diocese of Västerås, blind for two years, went off on pilgrimage to the monastery of Vadstena for the recovery of sight, who on the journey was endowed with clear sight, as she confessed to us on the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi with the following witnesses, namely Simon Huring and her aforesaid father, and the noble widow Hena of the aforesaid town and parish.

[97] to those captured by enemies, Nicholas Skuame, Peter Ruth and Andrew Gale of the town of Langaue, of the parish of St. Olaf in the city of Vitarefa, in which the cathedral church is situated, where the knights of Christ have dominion bordering on the pagans [e], went out on the sea, on whose shore they dwell, to catch fish. Who by a contrary wind were compelled to approach the castle which is called Cabbris in the land of the pagans. Seeing and seizing whom, twelve of the pagans dragged them to the shore, and, having despoiled them of all their things, except one single tunic which they left to each, they bound their hands behind their back and a huge stone to the neck of each, wishing to hurl them into the sea. And while these things were being done, they, whom the anguish of imminent death terrified, did not cease to invoke the lady Birgitta to their help: and the more fervently they invoked her, the more vehemently they were beaten and the more tightly bound by the pagans, who said: There is no one who will snatch you alive from our hands. These things having been done, they placed those three in their own boat and drew them out with them far from the shore into the open sea, where there was thought to be a depth of ten ells, and threw out first Andrew Gale, who presently, with the stone bound to his neck, went down to the bottom like a stone; arriving at which, the rope having been broken by the power of God, which was so strong that it would well have held ten men hanging from a stake, the stone remaining, he was lifted up in the twinkling of an eye upon the waters, and, his hands still bound behind his back, lay upon the water as upon firm ground.

[98] and from danger of death Seeing which, the pagans, raging with new cruelty, began to wish to strike and kill him with cudgels, and however much they strove to strike him, they always struck only the water; but the blows could not reach him. Perceiving again that they were wasting themselves in foolish labour, they began to fear and to say to one another: Behold, she whom they invoke helps them. Let us therefore let them go, lest vengeance involve us also, because she is powerful, who deprives the waters of their force and makes our hands numb, to render us a worthy retaliation. These things said, they loosed those two whom they had not yet thrown out, and drew to themselves with flattering words him who lay upon the water, and, loosing him, they allowed them, placed in their own boat, to depart free. And these things were done on the Vigil of Easter about the hour of evening; and yet those who had been released were not without danger, because, the sea standing quiet all around, they could not escape. Whence they feared even unto death lest they should be captured by other pagans.

[99] These things said, miracle is added to miracle: for, exposed, as has been said, the sea standing quiet on every side, so that it was not moved even by the lightest rain, at that time there came as it were an impetuous torrent under their boat, by which, drawing the boat strongly without oars and sail, they came by nightfall to their friends across as great a space of sea as we call ten leagues on land. These men came to Vadstena on the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, firmly asserting these things on oath and with words of constant faith, and showing scars on their bodies from the blows received from the pagans. A fourth from their town, who is called John Lafrenzsmo, followed them, testifying these things with them on true faith, which many heard, of whom we set down as witnesses noble and trustworthy various * Simon Siga of the town of Ovistborgh of the parish of Vadstena, and Alvard Barga of Ulfåsa, of the parish of Ekby, and the lord Thyrgill of the house of the Holy Spirit of Skänninge in the diocese of Linköping, and Thorin Vassa of Vadstena.

[100] John, a farmer of the town of Veskeruik, of the parish of Heboherand. in the diocese of Uppsala [f], to one gravely stabbed, in the time of Shrovetide was so dangerously stabbed through the middle in the inward parts with a dagger that the point was thought to penetrate and burst all his bowels; who at once fell, lying as if dead for a whole week, so that no one who saw him could know for certain whether he was alive or dead, except so far as could be judged from this, that he did not rot and stink like a lifeless corpse; who, a vow having been made by his friends to the Handmaid of God, rising began to recover from day to day, and, coming to Vadstena by a very long way within the Octave of Corpus Christi, narrated these things with thanksgivings, ready to show the scars of the stabbing to those wishing to see them, how the dagger entered through one part of the body and went out through the other. Two from the aforesaid parish of Eboherard followed him, who seemed to be trustworthy, namely Igneral of the town of Indk, Riquid of Rono, confessing these things with him on the oath of true faith.

[101] Chindolph of the town of Nosarith, of the parish of Quilla in the diocese of Oslo [g] to one injured in the groin, and to his blind daughter, in the kingdom of Norway, falling incautiously from his horse, struck his genitals so gravely that they were broken into small pieces, the skin, however, remaining whole: whence, beset with intolerable pain, no physician being able to bring him a remedy, he lay continually on a pallet for a whole year, not able to move himself from it except with the aid of another, and when

he had already begun to rot and so horribly to stink that no one could live with him; he vowed that he would visit on pilgrimage the monastery of Vadstena out of reverence for the Handmaid of God, the lady Birgitta, if he were healed by her merits: at once, receiving no other remedy, he took the road as he could, and, coming to us within the Octave of Corpus Christi, rejoiced that he had received entire health, wishing to show himself to us to the eye, how he had been torn and corrupted. His daughter followed him, Ubergh by name, whom he asserted had been blind for ten weeks, and, a vow of pilgrimage having been made, had been given light. He had no witnesses with him from his land, except his daughter, and they said that the noble men Gutdhorm, lawman of the town of Thrual, and Nicholas of the town of Slasdstadhum of the same diocese and parish, were aware of this deed.

[102] to a madwoman, to one troubled with pain of the bowels, to a blind man, The daughter of Gosthan, Katilburg by name, ten years old, of the town of Kalvasatr, of the parish of Varringe in the diocese of Schiaren. [h], on the Vigil of Easter became wholly demented, tearing herself and what was about her painfully, and suffered many evil and unseemly things. For whom her parents had made a vow on the fifth day of Easter; and that she presently, the vow having been made, recovered full sense, they confessed to us on oath of faith, coming to Vadstena with her on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Two from the aforesaid parish followed them, namely Algot of the town of Lathakorp, Lawrence in Hynaas, firmly asserting these things with them. Christina, wife of Michael of the town of Lappali, of the parish of Pantarsharadh in the diocese of Alioen. ⁱ, in the farthest borders of the Christians towards that region [k], suffered most sharp gnawings of the bowels for three years: and so, frequently falling to the ground, she thought in that same moment that she was about to die. She, making vows to various Saints for the relief of her pain and profiting nothing, at length humbly invoked the lady Birgitta, vowing that she would visit the place of Vadstena every year, if she were healed by her merits. Who, after a few days, full remedy having been received, coming to us within the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul, narrated with thanksgivings that the thing had so happened. Her husband followed her, and another, Silvester by name, of the aforesaid town, constantly testifying these things with her; which Silvester testified that he had been blind for three years, and, a vow of pilgrimage having been made to the Handmaid of God, had been given light; which the aforesaid Michael and his aforesaid wife Christina constantly testify with him.

[103] to the owner of a dead horse, The horse of Peter Sesson of the town of Apullaby, of Hagabroga in the diocese of Linköping, while he was on a journey in the kingdom of Norway, about ten days' journeys far from his house, began to limp so much that it could scarcely touch the ground with its fourth foot. And when it was thus being dragged along unwilling, it fell dead about the hour of evening; to which the owner returning about sunset, and moving its limbs, rigid and cold in it, and withdrawing from it, gave a certain man power to flay it and to have its hide. And returning in the morning at the first hour, he found it not yet flayed. This man, dwelling near Vadstena, had often heard narrated the wonders done through the honourable lady Birgitta: placing therefore his whole confidence in her, he said: O reverend Lady, give me back my horse alive, and when I return home, I will offer a likeness of a horse in wax. And saying these things, for grief, because he had no other horse with him, he threw himself down to sleep beside it. And behold a further miracle: for the horse, which before had limped very badly, now limped not at all. This man, returning to his house on the Sunday after Trinity with the aforesaid horse quite sound, and afterwards at Vadstena, confessed it on true faith, and faithfully paid his vow. Witnesses are the trustworthy men Nicholas Sauskalasse, Petrossomhanus Fandike, citizens of the city and parish of Skänninge in the diocese of Linköping, with more than a hundred others who were with him on the journey.

[104] A certain man of the more noble of Sualnorgne, Fulquin Melisson by name, of Sualnatholm, to those labouring with the falling sickness and with danger of shipwreck, of the parish of Haergh in the diocese of Linköping, about the Finding of the holy Cross, making for Germany by ship, one day, going down from the ship with many others, entered a certain island, where after a little he began to run about with the others; and while he was doing this in the liveliest manner he could, he began to look at the sky as if mad, and, suddenly falling to the ground as with the falling sickness, like an epileptic or one seized by a demon, to vomit forth horrible foam, which he had never before been found to do; whence the others stood terrified and stupefied. Among whom was a certain kinsman and beloved companion, Ingebald Jorson by name, who made a vow for him to the Handmaid of God, the venerable lady Birgitta, in this manner: that both would go barefoot to Vadstena from that part of the land of the Swedes which they could first reach, returning when the business for which they were then making had been completed, if he should now rise healthy, she interceding, and should not henceforth fall into such disease. Which done, he rose, afflicted gravely enough, going up into the ship with the others. Which being taken out, or far from the shore, a most grievous tempest arises, and the ship, the rudder being broken and lost, was dangerously tossed. Whence these two aforesaid made a vow again, and so, unhurt, they sailed as great a space of sea as we call 34 leagues on land; afterwards, returning home, they put in at the city of Kalmar [l] in the kingdom of Sweden, which is distant from Vadstena about thirty long leagues, and from that city, walking barefoot by an exceedingly mountainous and rough way, they arrived at the aforesaid place with many of their servants, and confessing what the venerable Lady had done with them. Witnesses are the noble men Peter Parse, knight, of Cesta, of the parish of Banison in the diocese of Linköping, John Petarson of the town of Vlabolstadh, of the parish of Skarbind of the same diocese, who saw them walking barefoot at Vadstena.

[105] Helen, the seven-year-old daughter of Lawrence Thorisson of the town of Karlaby [m], to a girl wandering in the woods, of the parish of Patranschedh in the diocese of Åbo, on the Monday after Pentecost entered the most dense wilderness surrounding her father's town, in which, without food, running hither and thither, she wandered for ten days with most ferocious beasts, namely bears, wolves and serpents of various kinds, and with such as dwell there in very great abundance, living among them and lying down at night; whom her father, seeking long with a great crowd of neighbours and finding no one, ceased, wearied by such vain and useless labour. After this, some days having passed, he made a vow of pilgrimage with his aforesaid daughter, if he could find her alive; and on the following day, which was the Wednesday of the following week, the tender girl found a nuncium running about in the wilderness, separated from the herd, and, following this, on the tenth day from that on which she went away, she returned to her father's house; and being asked how she could live so long without food, she answered that in these days, before she approached the town, she had not felt hunger. O reverend Lady, true refuge of those in danger, now I have found in truth that you have true bowels of mercy, because, foreknowing that you would be invoked, even before you were invoked, you defended the tender girl, lest she be devoured by beasts or fail from hunger. This man with his daughter and a great crowd of neighbours, coming on the 18th day before the Kalends of August, confessed these things to us on oath of true faith. Which was testified, namely, by Veroslukar of the town of Lamarshabr, and Firmieparter of the town of Asinundaby, Veroleon of the town of Lapallax of the same diocese and parish.

[106] to one wounded in the brain, Likewise on the night preceding the day on which the bones of the venerable lady Birgitta were first placed at Vadstena, Peter of the town of Vylothorp., of the parish of Haghabyhegha in the diocese of Linköping, is so powerfully struck on the head by an adversary that almost the whole shell of his head was broken into pieces. He, by reason of the vehemence of the pain, thinking that he would die at once, invoked the venerable lady Birgitta for the preservation of his life, and presently, receiving some little breathing space, he tried to rely on the medical art, but because through it the broken bones could not be joined together. There are known * three bones of such size ✠ with smaller ones, and many others in the manner of peas, which were not counted, which they extracted from his head. Which done, the skin began to draw together and to cover the brain, and the man to recover from day to day, who on the present day rules, corrects and manages his household with full vigour of sense and body. Witnesses are Magnus of the town of Skestadha, and Nicholas Liomson of the town of Eslebey of the same parish. This man long concealed the grace done to him, which nevertheless he published to us on the day of St. Margaret with the witnesses written above.

[107] to a girl dead in the water, to a blind woman Asta, a widow of the town and parish of Osmala in the diocese of Oslo, about the feast of All Saints went over a bridge, under which there was a fairly impetuous torrent, carrying on her shoulders her tender daughter, Extrid by name; and, the mother stumbling, the daughter slipped incautiously into the torrent, and by its most rapid current was carried under the wheel of a mill standing nearby: seeing which, the sorrowful mother began to weep and to say: O venerable lady Birgitta, give me back my daughter alive, and I will carry her with thanksgivings to your monastery. Then, running hither and thither about the bank, she at length saw her held head-down between two stones in the water, so that her feet were sometimes raised above the waters and sometimes submerged. And so she was held for about three hours, until there came a certain strong man, who, moved by the tears of the desolate widow, drew the girl, almost all the members of her body broken, wholly dead, with difficulty and the greatest danger out of the stream of the torrent. But the wretched mother did not cease from prayer until her daughter rose alive, and received entire health of her members. This woman with her daughter, on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, confessed these things with words of constant faith in the hearing of venerable and trustworthy men, namely the lord Lawrence, canon of Linköping, and the lord Peter Persa, knight, of the town of Vocaby, of the parish of Lemaridh of the same diocese, and Thorri Bassa of the town of Venabodh, of the parish of Urnaby of the aforesaid diocese, and of many others. Christina, a widow of the town of Ostrarirby, of the parish of Risby in the diocese of Linköping, blind in the left eye for ten years and in the right eye for three years, received her sight at Vadstena on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, honourable men seeing it, namely the lord Lawrence, canon of Linköping, and the lord Tyrgill of the house of the Holy Spirit of Skänninge of the same diocese.

[108] and to a captive In the year of the Lord 1374 this following miracle was done, and he to whom it happened appeared in his own person before the bishop of Linköping [n] and certain of his canons of the cathedral church, saying that Sactaus Heyndank, a tyrant, seized, staying at the church

of Horby in the diocese of Uppsala, and imputed to him that his servant had wounded a certain peasant, and on this account he said that he was outlawed. And he answered that his servant ought to answer for his deed and that nothing ought to be imputed to him. The tyrant at once seized him, and wished to tax [o] him at six hundred marks, then demanded three lescas [p] of iron. At length two curates who were present advised the same Peter to redeem his danger as he could. And for this reason he offered him one vessel of iron, on account of which offering the same tyrant, thinking himself despised, at once had him put to tortures and to questioning. Because of which he, led by fear, vowed to God and to the lady Birgitta that, if he could be saved by her prayers, he would visit the place of Vadstena in honour of blessed Birgitta once every year within ten years, and offer half a talent; and one of the tyrant's familiars induced him to make that vow.

[109] Which done, they applied and bound his legs with strong stocks, and to a hanged man which at once were broken, as many as they applied. Then they bound his head with a bridle, so much that blood flowed down from his nostrils and mouth; yet they could extort no money from him. Then they took him and hanged him on the gallows with a strong rope, because they feared that justice would proceed against them if anyone should come upon it and complain, as also was afterwards done by the king of Sweden. And there he hung from midday until sunset; and then one of them, seeing his good boots and the ornaments of his body, wished to take them for himself: and a certain boy who stood by cried out, saying: Do not take anything, because I see there a woman clothed in white garments with hair down to her breast, who sustains the man: at which the same man who wished to take them said: Would that that holy Lady, whose relics have lately been translated to this land, and whose cook also I was for three years, would help this man to safety: at least out of reverence for her I will cut the rope of the hanging, and leave him his clothes and the ornaments of his body. And, this said, he cut the rope and left the man to lie there. Who lay there until night wholly lifeless and without sense. At length, after a long time, he breathed, and opened his eyes, and recovered his senses in some measure, so that he could understand what had been done and what had happened to him. But he had both hands strongly bound before his breast with a cord made of leather.

[110] And so, his strength having been somewhat resumed, he drew himself, she shows herself beneficent. as he could, into the grain which stood near, fearing that they would return and kill him. And he strove with his teeth, if he could, to break the cord, and at once, when he applied it to his teeth, the cord was broken like a small thread. And he rose from there and came again to his own place. And the priests, that very night, where he had first been captured; this deed they afterwards publicly set forth before the king and the counsellors of the kingdom of Sweden, and they ask that justice be done them upon the same tyrant and his accomplices, so that all were outlawed beyond the kingdom. And the same Seclaus publicly confessed this deed before the king and the counsellors of the kingdom in all things, as is written above. And we examined this in our presence by the examination of the hanged man himself, and two nobles of the kingdom confirmed it on oath, namely the aforesaid Fikko de Bosen, knight, captain of the castle of Kalmar, and the lord Charles de Toptum, knight, lawman of the Swedes, both counsellors of the kingdom. And beyond this the same lord Fikko confessed under oath that he had heard from four men and upright knights, who swore that they had seen and examined the words of the aforesaid boy, saying and swearing before them that he truly saw a woman in white garments standing by and sustaining the hanged man. And when he saw this, the boy was fourteen years of age. The hanged man was called Peter Nicolai, a citizen of Stockholm. The witnesses are written in the great sealed letter which lately came from Sweden. Here end the miracles of blessed Birgitta of Sweden, finished and written in the year 1378, in the Octave of St. Martin, by the hands of Nicholas Misner, otherwise called Vyogeler, cleric of the diocese of Brandenburg, being at that time at Rome, etc.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. Read: of Oslo.

g. Read: of Oslo.

p. See the same place, letter e.

viros* [men]

perhaps read medici* the physicians