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| Santa Brigida di Svezia, ora pro nobis |
Swedish noblewoman, born in 1303, she married Ulf Gudmarsson, Lord of Ulvåsa, at the age of fourteen. Mother of eight, including her second daughter St. Catherine of Vadstena, she served as a lady-in-waiting for Queen Blanche of Namur. Widowed in 1344, she became a Third Order Franciscan and devoted her life to prayer and charity.
Establishing the Order of the Most Holy Savior, Santa Brigida travelled to Rome in 1350, a Jubilee Year, to obtain the Pope’s approval for her religious community, which she received from Pope Urban V in 1370.
In 1365 Santa Brigida made her first visit to the Kingdom of Naples and befriended Queen Johanna I at the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle in the Basilica di San Tommaso in Ortona, Chieti. Miraculously healing the sick son of a noble pilgrim she entered the Neapolitan court and served for two years before making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and returning to the Papal States.
Santa Brigida died in Rome on July 23, 1373. Despite her harsh criticisms of Johanna I and the Kingdom, after her death the Queen played an important role in the early canonization efforts for Santa Brigida and established her cult in Naples. She was canonized on October 8, 1391.
The Chiesa di Santa Brigida was built in Naples in 1610 and is one of the few buildings to survive the construction of the Galleria Umberto in the historic Santa Brigida district in the late 1880s. An important religious site, the church once served as the seat of L'Ordine Militare del Santissimo Salvatore di Santa Brigida di Svezia, a chivalric religious order established to protect Christians from heathen raiders in Northern Europe.
In celebration, I’m posting a prayer to St. Birgitta, courtesy of the Order of St. Bridget. Pictured is my makeshift shrine erected in honor of the feast. Evviva Santa Brigida di Svezia!
Prayer to St. Birgitta
With hearts full of confidence, we turn to you, O Blessed Birgitta, in these times of darkness and unbelief, to invoke your powerful intercession on behalf of those who are separated from the true Church of Jesus Christ. Conscious of your deep knowledge of the cruel sufferings of our crucified Saviour, we beseech you to obtain the gift of Faith for all those who are outside the one fold, so that all the scattered sheep may return to the one true Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
St. Birgitta, fearless in the service of God, pray for us.
St. Birgitta, patient in suffering and humiliation, pray for us.
St. Birgitta, marvellous in thy love towards Jesus and Mary, pray for us. Pater, Ave, Gloria.