Sancta Birgitta. Revelaciones, Book VIII: Liber celestis imperatoris ad reges (review)

Abstract

Any visitor to the Nordic countries, especially those interested in history and religion, will be surprised by the depth of attachment found in all these lands, Lutheran as they mostly are, to the very Catholic figure of St. Birgitta (c. 1303-1373). The Swedish visionary, reformer, and religious founder has a place in Nordic culture that testifies to the power of her personality over the centuries. Renewed study of the role of women in the Middle Ages, however, has begun tobroaden interest in one of the most fascinating of medieval seers. Birgitta was, indeed, an international figure who spent the last part of her life (1349-1373) outside Sweden, residing mostly in Rome, but also traveling to the Holy Land by way of Cyprus. Her carefully managed ascent to prophetic fame depended on her channeling messages from God to popes, bishops, emperors, kings, nobles, and contemporaries from almost every group in Christendom. (She even uses the term canalis to describe her prophetic activity.) Birgitta's life and revelations, and the fascinating story of her canonization, offer one of the most intriguing examples of a woman gaining extra-canonical power in the late medieval world.