Sancta Birgitta: Revelaciones, Book III ed. by Ann-Mari Jönsson

Abstract

320book reviews of the "Third Rome" ideology, which sought to obtain recognition and respectability for their backward country as an heir and continuator of Eastern Roman political and religious authority. Based upon a doctoral dissertation presented to Columbia University in 1978, this work analyzes the first and last thirds of the Legend to substantiate their authorship, dating, and intended effect on the Muscovite Grand Prince and his court, in the process offering sound commentary on the ideological motivation of their authors. Dr. Labunka produces a well-reasoned examination that accepts some claims made by earlier researchers and establishes his own well-argued conclusions in other instances. In all, this study undoubtedly will remain the standard monograph that later scholarship will necessary address when reconsidering this period of early Russian history and culture. Nonspecialists might find this volume a convenient (albeit difficult and challenging) introduction to Russian medieval studies of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, for its author cites most of the sources that treat this era and acquaints the reader with the various historiographical challenges of this period. Occasional errors in printing and the lack of a general index, along with an overly ponderous style of academic writing, will trouble even the specialist well versed in this subject. Dr. Labunka hints of returning to study the White Cowl in an additional volume. His further thoughts on this curious phenomenon should be received warmly by his colleagues in Slavic studies. Joseph L.Wieczynski Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Emeritus Sancta Birgitta: Revelaciones, Book III. Edited by Ann-Marijönsson. [Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien.] Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell , 1998. Pp. 251. SEK 231 paperback.) St. Birgitta of Sweden (c. 1303-1373), like so many medieval women, has profited from the revivial of interest in the role of female visionaries and mystics in the later Middle Ages. Like Hildegard of Bingen two centuries before, Birgitta was an aristocrat who carved out a special role as a mouthpiece, or "channel" (canalis in the text of her showings), of divine warnings to recalcitrant sinners. Unlike Hildegard, however, the theological content of her revelations (about 600 survive) is mostly traditional. Like her younger contemporary, Catherine of Siena, she emerged as a politico-ecclesiastical force in the troubled second half of the fourteenth century in Italy. But Birgitta lacks Catherine's powerful mystical vision of the redemptive blood of Christ at work in the Church. Birgitta's message is that of a reformer interested in correcting the abuses rampant in the various offices and officers of a corrupt church under threat of divine judgment. The great project of a critical edition of all Birgitta's revelaciones, as well as her opera minora, was begun long before current feminist interest in Birgitta BOOK REVIEWS321 under the guidance of Swedish scholars, such as L. Hollman, who edited the Revelaciones extravagantes in 1956, and especially Birgir Bergh, who edited Books V-VII between 1967 and 1991, and who is thanked for his assistance in helping Book III to see the light of day by A.-M. Jónsson. Only Book II now remains to complete this superb critical edition. Book III is relatively short, consisting of thirty-four revelations, mostly given by the Blessed Virgin through the sponsa (i.e., Birgitta), but also sometimes conveyed by Christ (eight times), God the Father (once), or by various saints. In content, the book can be described as a speculum clericorum, since the revelations are all intended for various clerics , from popes, cardinals, and bishops, down to more lowly ecclesiastical offices of priests and monks. Both the Dominicans and the Benedictines come in for criticism (see chapters 17-18 and 20-22). The divine warnings that Birgitta conveys are usually harsh, but the call to repentance is tempered by an insistence on the constancy of God's mercy throughout history. In chapter 30, in one of the visionary's more striking similitudines, she says: "God is like a firstrate washerwoman (optima lotrix), who puts a dirty garment amidst the waves so that it can be made cleaner and brighter from the water's motion,while carefully guarding that the tossing of the waves doesn't drown the garment." In...