Stand In The Place Where You Are - Bridget Of Sweden

1303–73

Bridget of Sweden kept reinventing herself, meeting each new challenge of her life with creativity and devotion. Her parents were well connected in Swedish society, and so the young Bridget got to meet famous scholars. She also reported seeing divine visions from the age of seven.

But all too soon she transitioned from precocious child to wife and mother. Marrying at age thirteen, she bore eight children who all lived past childhood, an unusual achievement in the fourteenth century. In her late thirties, she and her husband went on a religious pilgrimage, following The Way of St. James in northern Spain, but he took sick on the return trip and died soon afterward. The next stage of her life was benevolent widowhood.

Joining the Order of Saint Francis, she devoted herself to caring for the poor. Then she used her family connections to start a new religious order. Around 1350, with her daughter Catherine and a few others, she visited Rome to get the pope’s official endorsement of her new order. One problem: the pope wasn’t in Rome at the time. This was a lengthy period of political corruption in which the powerful French king had moved the papacy to Avignon.

Bridget didn’t mind waiting. A second purpose of her trip was to improve the moral tone of the age and to oppose the “French captivity” of the church. So she settled in Rome, caring for the poor and speaking about the need for reform. Occasionally she took more pilgrimages, to the Holy Land and elsewhere. In 1367, Pope Urban V, responding to pressure from Bridget and others, returned to Rome for a few years. While there, he did confirm the rule of Bridget’s order, which became known as the Bridgettines. Bridget died in 1373, and her daughter Catherine, who later became a saint herself, brought her body back to Sweden.

How have you dealt with life’s changes? Have you navigated your way through school, family life, career, and ministry, with maybe a few other stops along the way? Bridget reinvented herself several times, but she kept her focus. She knew that each change offered a new way to serve the Lord.

Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Galatians 6:9