BRIGITTINES, brij'it-tinz, or ORDER OF OUR SAVIOUR. An order founded in 1346. as a branch of the Augustinians, by Saint Bridget, or Brigit ta, of Sweden. It took in both men and women. The first monastery, which was also the mother house of the order, was on the founder's estate at Vadstena, on the eastern bank of Lake Vet tern, southwest of Stockholm. At the other houses of the order the monks and nuns in habited contiguous buildings, but never saw each other, and each sex governed its own affairs. Their occupations were largely literary, and they prepared Swedish translations of reli gious N•o•ks, mostly of evangelical tendency. The order spread through Scandinavia and Fin land: also into Holland. Germany, Italy, and Spain. Henry V. (1413-22) introduced it into England, and founded House, near Brent wood, uiihim west of London. ITenry VIII. suppressed it, with other religious orders. Nary reestablished it, but Elizabeth again suppressed it. The nuns then went to Portugal, and openod
their house in Lisbon. In 1861 some of their successors came back and opened a house in Spetisbury, Dorsetshire. Later on it was moved to its present site, Chudleigh, near Exeter. In Sweden the order had so firm a hold that the mother house was not suppressed till 1595, when most of the houses outside had ceased to exist. The order was revived in Belgium as Brothers of the Revised Brigittine Order, and in Spain as Nuns of the Order of Saint Bridget, and there it has now half a dozen convents. Only four convents of the original order now are found— one in Bavaria, at Altomfinster, two in Holland, and the one mentioned in England. For the 16s tory of the order in Sweden, consult: Scriptures Rerun Sveciearum .Eri I. (Stockholm, 1871); also History of the English Brigittine Nuns (Plymouth, 1886). The Basel reformer (Ecolampadins was a Brigittine monk.