It’s the Feast of St. Bridget of Sweden, 3rd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: “The Wedding Garment”, today’s news from the Church: “SSPX Pilgrims Left at the Gates of the Chiquinquirá Basilica”, a preview of the Sermon: “Your Best Self Is Your Holiest Self”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:
- “The Wedding Garment” — From the Assumption to Advent
- “SSPX Pilgrims Left at the Gates of the Chiquinquirá Basilica” (FSSPX.news)
- “Your Best Self Is Your Holiest Self” (SSPX Sermons)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Saint Bridget of Sweden was a wife, a mother of eight children, a widow, a mystic, and eventually a religious foundress. And somewhere along the way, she also found time to tell kings and popes what they were doing wrong.
She was born in 1303 into one of Sweden’s wealthiest noble families. As a young girl, Bridget developed a deep love for Christ’s Passion, and according to tradition, she began experiencing visions when she was still a child.
At thirteen, she married a nobleman named Ulf Gudmarsson.
And by all accounts, they had a happy marriage.
Together they raised eight children, including their daughter Catherine, who would also become a saint. Bridget managed their household, helped the poor, and eventually served at the Swedish royal court. She and Ulf even made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
After Ulf died, Bridget’s life took a very different direction.
She began receiving the extraordinary visions that would eventually fill several volumes known as her Revelations. These included detailed meditations on the Nativity and Passion of Christ, many of which influenced European religious art for centuries.
But Bridget wasn’t content simply to write down visions.
She acted on them.
At the time, the popes were living in Avignon, France, rather than Rome. Bridget became convinced that the papacy needed to return to the Eternal City, and she wasn’t particularly shy about saying so.
She sent messages to popes, kings, and bishops, sometimes warning them in remarkably direct language to reform their lives.
Imagine being a medieval king and receiving a letter from a Swedish widow explaining exactly how you were failing God.
Bridget eventually moved to Rome, where she spent years caring for the poor, visiting churches, and working to establish a new religious community.
That community became the Bridgettine Order, with its motherhouse at Vadstena in Sweden. One unusual feature was its double-monastery arrangement: monks and nuns lived separately but belonged to the same foundation, governed by an abbess.
There’s also a fascinating connection to Christmas.
The familiar image of the Christ Child lying on the ground, surrounded by brilliant light while Mary kneels in adoration, owes much of its popularity to a vision Bridget described during a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. Before that, Western artists often portrayed Mary reclining after childbirth. Bridget’s account helped change how generations imagined the Nativity.
She died in Rome in 1373 after returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Today, pilgrims can visit her rooms in Rome’s Piazza Farnese or travel to Vadstena, where her relics are honored and her religious community took root.
Bridget’s life is a reminder that holiness doesn’t belong to just one stage of life. She served God as a wife, mother, widow, pilgrim, and religious foundress.
And she apparently never lost the courage to speak her mind.
Saint Bridget of Sweden, courageous mother, mystic, and pilgrim of Christ, pray for us.
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The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
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The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.
Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.