Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. ‌

St Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) is a Co-Patroness of the whole of Europe. Pope Benedict XVI said, “In declaring her Co-Patroness of Europe, Pope John Paul II hoped that St Bridget—who lived in the 14th century when Western Christianity had not yet been wounded by division—may intercede effectively with God to obtain the grace of full Christian unity so deeply longed for.”

Pope Benedict said, “We can distinguished two periods in this Saint’s life. The first was characterized by her happily married state.... The second period of Bridget’s life began when she was widowed.”

Regarding the first period, St. John Paul II wrote, “Without abandoning the comfortable condition of her social status, she and her husband Ulf enjoyed a married life in which conjugal love was joined to intense prayer, the study of Sacred Scripture, mortification and charitable works. Together they founded a small hospital, where they often attended the sick. Bridget was in the habit of serving the poor personally.”

Bridget had eight children and was most devoted to their education. Her second child was St. Catherine of Sweden (ca. 1331-1381). In 1341, Bridget and her husband made a long pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with other members of the family. After the pilgrimage, the couple agreed to live in continence. Ulfo entered a Cistercian monastery and died shortly afterwards.

Pope Benedict commented, “This first period of Bridget’s life helps us to appreciate what today we could describe as an authentic ‘conjugal spirituality’: together, Christian spouses can make a journey of holiness sustained by the grace of the sacrament of Marriage. It is often the woman, as happened in the life of St Bridget and Ulf, who with her religious sensitivity, delicacy and gentleness succeeds in persuading her husband to follow a path of faith.”

During the second period as a widow, the saint undertook a severe form of life and received many private revelations. Pope Benedict explained: “St Bridget’s Revelations have a very varied content and style. At times the revelations are presented in the form of dialogues between the divine Persons, the Virgin, the Saints and even demons; they are dialogues in which Bridget also takes part. At other times, instead, a specific vision is described; and in yet others what the Virgin Mary reveals to her concerning the life and mysteries of the Son.”

St. Bridget founded the monastery of Wadstena in Sweden. Leaving Sweden in 1349, Bridget settled in Rome to obtain papal approval for her new religious order. She went on pilgrimage to many shrines in Italy to venerate the relics of saints. Her last pilgrimage was made between 1371 and 1372 to the Holy Land. Bridget died in 1373 and was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was a mystic and visionary like St. Bridget. She was born in Germany in 1774 to a poor Catholic peasant family.

Anne Catherine entered an Augustinian convent in 1802 and became bedridden in 1813. She had visions since childhood. She also had the gift of knowing the diseases of the sick and prescribing the proper remedies. Anne Catherine prayed and suffered much for the souls of Purgatory whom she often saw.

Anne Catherine had visions concerning the life of Christ, Our Lady, and the saints. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Her visions go into details, often slight, which give them a vividness that strongly holds the reader's interest as one graphic scene follows another in rapid succession as if visible to the physical eye. Other mystics are more concerned with ideas, she with events; others stop to meditate aloud and to guide the reader's thoughts, she lets the facts speak for themselves with the simplicity, brevity, and security of a Gospel narrative.”

Both St. Bridget and Blessed Anne Catherine were intensely devoted to the Passion of Christ. The contents of their private revelations help the faithful to meditate on the Mysteries of Christ. Father Mark Higgins compiled the visions of these mystics according to the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and these meditations were published by Catholic Way Publishing in 2019 and 2021.

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God bless,

Father Anthony