Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Rating:
Summary: More helpful for history than religious inspiration
Review: Birgitta of Sweden, also sometimes referred to as St. Brigid of Sweden, was a Christian mystic who lived during 1303-1373. I was interested in learning more about her, because my Grandmother found Brigitta's 15 Prayers of St.Brigid, which meditate on the Passion (and which can be found in the Pieta Prayer book, published by MLOR Corporationa) particularly edifying.

Birgitta is also known for her endeavors to reform the Church during the time when the Pope often preferred the fun of Paris to the duty of Rome. She is an unusual type for a medieval mystic, because unlike many mystics, she lived a large part of her life in the world and raised a family. After the death of her husband, she supposedly received visions from Jesus and his mother, and later founded a religous order. She was related to the Swedish royal family and offered advice to many members of nobility and the Church hierarchy. I was disappointed that the book did not discuss the bacground of her life more. There is a lengthy introduction, but most of it seemed to be concerned with semantics. I found it ironic that the dryest part of the book, was the most modern information provided.

Apparently her writings, which were conducted to explain her visions, were compiled into seven or eight books (there were two approaches in their compilation). The translation by Marguerite Harris only includes Book 5 and Book 7. I did not realize that this book presented and incomplete collection until I received it. Hwoever, I have not seen a complete collection of her work elsewhere in English. The two books vary greatly in their style and approach.

Book 5 is a written in a dialogue format. As Brigitta travels on horseback, she begins to pray and in her prayer she sees a vsision. The vision is of a figure asking questions, and the person receiving answers from God. The figure repsresnts a monk, but his order is not named. Each chapter in Book 5 is a series of straight questions, followed by straight anwsers. The questions are mostly philosophical in nature, although some teach basic seeds for Christian theology like the questions that pertain to "why should I not do what my body wants," "why do good people suffer." Some of the questions are more speculative and less likely to be a concern of modern theology, "like why did Jesus wait nine months to be born."

The second book, Book 7, is a series of different visions that Birgitta had over a longer period of time. Book 7 encompasses her journey form Sweden to Rome and to the Holy Land and back to Rome.

Many of her visions in it concern responses to people who sought her advice; members of nobility, Franciscans who were having trouble with members of their order, and religious leaders. Some one familiar with the members of European nobility might enjoy this aspect of the book because of the details it gives about personal problems that real leaders of the time were having. Unlike other mystics, and even herself in Book 5, in Book 7 she names the names of the women who were having affairs and indulging in witchcraft, and gives specific titles of the church personnel and nobility who sought her advice and tells the reader what issues were addressed.

Some of the visions relate to scenes from the life of Jesus, which she had when visiting places associated with his life in the Holy Land, which make Book 7 a useful tool for Lenten and Advent meditation. There is an thorough description of his passion, and accounts of his birth and early life; the visits by the magi and the shepherds.

Birgitta is often credited for the images of the cucifixion and resurrected figures of Jesus with wounds, which circualted in Europe, and in which the nails were not in the center of the hand, but closer to the wrist, as historians now believe people were crucified.

The advice that Brigitta receives from God, to give to other people, indicates a God who is merciful and who places great emphasis on the needs for actions to be guided by charity, particularly when they are the actions of a ruler. The book has much condemnatioan for folloish and slefish rulers. These type of messages are always reassuring to read. However, I did not find her writing as inspirataional as some of her near contemporaries such as Gertrude of Helfta, or (my favorite) Catherine of Siena.

Much of Birgitta's advice to the individuals was specific to address personal needs. Other advice was very general, so as to offer little in the way of spiritual direction. Nor was it as easy to read as Catherine of Siena and Theresa of Avila's writing. Four prayers from Birgitta were included in the appendix (two based on meditations honoring the life of Jesus; the other two with the same approach to Mary), but the popular 15 Prayers were not included.

The book is rich in teaching about the issues and behaviors of the times, and may entertain those interested in Church history spefically or medieval histroy in general. There were period-related prejudices to weed through in her writing (most notably her attitude towards the Jews; it didn't seem to dawn on her that Jesus was Jewish, and her disdain for the Eastern Church) which the translator notes with footnotes, that the attitudes were indicative of her times. One of Birgitta's historians claimed that her writing influenced Catherine of Siena, but that seems unlikely, as Catherine was only a few years younger than her, and Birgitta's writings were not widely circualted during Catherine's times. Also, Birgitta's work seems to be far less thorough than anything Catherine wrote, but perhaps the more beneficial and timeless advice of Birgitta was included in the books that Harris' translation ommitted.