BBIDGET, SMNT (or, more properly, Birgit or Brigitte),a famous Roman Catholic saint, was b. in Sweden about the year 1302. Her father was a prince of the blood-royal of Sweden. When only sixteen, she married Ulf Gudmarson, prince of Nericia, a stripling of eighteen, by whom she had eight children, the youngest of whom, named Catherine, born in 1336, died in 1381, became par excellence the 'female saint of Sweden. Her hus band and she now solemnly vowed to spend the remainder of their lives in a state of continence, and, to obtain strength to carry out their severe resolution, made a pilgrim age to the shrine of St. Jago de Compostella in Spain. On their return, 171f died in 1344, and B. founded about the same time the monastery of Wadstena, in East Goth land. Sixty nuns and twenty-five monks were its first inmates. They received the rule of St. Augustine, to which St. B. herself added a few particulars. They constituted a new order, sometimes called the order of St. B., sometimes the order of fit. Salvator, or the Holy Savior, which flourished in Sweden until the reformation, when it was sup pressed, but it still possesses some establiShments in Italy, Portugal, and elsewhere. Subsequently; St. B. went to Rome, where she founded a hospice for pilgrims and Swed ish students, which was reorganized by Leo X. After having made a pilgrimage to Pal estine, she died at Rome on her return, 23d July, 1373. Her bones were carried to
Wadstena, and she herself was canonized in 1391 by pope Bouiface IX. Her festival is on the 8th of October. The Reeelationes St. Brigttke, written by her confessors, was keenly attacked by the celebrated Gerson, but obtained the approval of the council of Basel, and has passed through many editions. Besides the Revelationes, there have been attributed to this saint a sermon on the Virtcin, and five discourses on the passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by an introduction which was condemned by the congregation of the Index.
Not to be confounded with this Swedish saint is another St. Bridget, or St. Bride, as she is more commonly called, a native of Ireland, who flourished in the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th c., and was renowned for her beauty. To escape the temptations to which this dangerous gift exposed her, as well as the offers of marriage with which she was annoyed, she prayed God to make her ugly. Her prayer was granted; and she retired from the world, founded the monastery of Kil dare, and devoted herself to the education of young girls. Her day falls on the 1st of February. She was as one of the three great saints of Ireland, the others being St. Patrick and St. Columba. She was held in great reverence in Scotland, and was regarded by the Douglascs as their tutelary saint.