St. Bridget, Widow. Her natal day Not her birthday but the day she was "born again" into Heaven is July 23 and the feast of her translation The act of moving her relics to a more suitable sacred space is on October 7. – Roman Martyrology for October 8
St. Bridget of Sweden was a noblewoman who founded a monastic order for nuns and monks in 1346 after the death of her husband. The picture above, with the saint handing copies of her Brigittine Rule to nuns on the left and monks on the right, uses many symbols associated with her and her order. The monks' mantles are marked with a red cross with a white disk at the center representing the Eucharistic host. The nuns wear crowns made of three metal bands with five red stones representing the five wounds that Jesus suffered on the Cross. Bridget herself, however, almost always wears a white veil on her head rather than the Brigittine crown.
The central panel has many of the features seen in woodcuts of this saint. The writing desk is a common element, referring not only to the Rule but to her many visionary works and her correspondence with the leading figures of the age. Left of the desk, a walking staff supports a pilgrim's hat and scrip. These refer to Bridget's pilgrimages to Compostela, Jerusalem, and Rome. As seen in ![]() Some images of St. Bridget are like the first picture at right in portraying one of her customary acts of penitence, as described in her earliest vita: On Fridays she would pour burning drops from a wax candle onto her bare flesh, leaving wounds. If sometimes the wounds would heal before the next Friday, she would scratch them open with her fingernails.… This she did on account of the Passion of Jesus Christ.1According to Duchet-Suchaux (70) other attributes include a set of five little red flames and a flaming heart or a heart marked with a red cross. ![]() ST. BRIDGET AND NATIVITY IMAGES Bridget of Sweden had a strong influence on the iconography of the Nativity. In her Revelations she told of a vision she had in Bethlehem in which the Virgin Mary recounted the birth to her: The Revelations were famous throughout Europe and in very little time it became customary for images of the Nativity to show Mary and Joseph kneeling before a "naked and glowing" Christ Child in the stable, as in the second picture at right. Prepared in 2014 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University, revised 2015-10-16. |
SEEN ABOVE:
A woodcut from about 1480. See the description page for an unclipped copy and further details. OTHER IMAGES:![]() St. Bridget with the burning candle and red cross (See the description page) ![]() This painting is the earliest artistic representation of Bridget's vision of the Nativity. (See the description page.) MORE IMAGES
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