Saint Bridget of Sweden

Bridget was born into Swedish nobility and married at a young age, raising eight children, including a daughter who would also be canonized a saint, while serving for a time at the royal court. After being widowed in her early forties, she experienced a series of profound mystical visions of Christ's Passion that she dictated over many years, and which became widely read throughout medieval Europe as the Revelations of Saint Bridget. Acting on these visions, Bridget founded a new religious order, the Bridgettines, dedicated to a balance of prayer and learning for both monks and nuns living in linked communities. In her later years, she moved to Rome, where she worked tirelessly, despite fierce opposition, to persuade the pope to return the papacy there from Avignon and to call for broader Church reform. She died in Rome shortly after completing a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was canonized less than twenty years later.