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ST. CATHERINE OF SWEDEN
ST.
CATHERINE was the daughter St. Bridget of Sweden and, like her
mother, she married young. After the death of her own husband,
Ulf, Bridget went to live in Rome, and Catherine followed her,
with the consent of her husband. Her mother begged her to stay
with her, and Catherine reluctantly agreed. While in Rome,
Catherine's husband died. She stayed on with her mother,
accompanied her on several journeys, one to the Holy Land,
refusing every offer to remarry.
At the
death of Bridget, Catherine returned to Sweden with her mother's
body, which was buried at her great monastery of Vadstena. Bridget
founded her order there, but it had not been fully established and
approved. Catherine took on the mammoth task of forming the
community in the rule her mother had written and directing the
Order of the Holy Savior, or Bridgettines, as they were called.
After some years, she returned to Rome to work for her mother's
canonization.
She stayed
there five years and returned to Sweden before her mother was
canonized but obtained from Pope Urban VI the ratification of the
Bridgettine rule. While in Italy, she formed a close friendship
with St. Catherine of Siena and almost accompanied her on a trip
to the court of Joanna of Naples, a notoriously immoral queen.
Joanna had brought about the moral disgrace of Bridget's son,
Charles, and St. Catherine of Vadstena could not bring herself to
face the woman who had endangered her brother's soul. She returned
to Sweden at the outbreak of the Great Western Schism.
Sometime
after her return, Catherine's health began to fail, and she died
peacefully at Vadstena after a painful illness. She was never
formally canonized, but her name was added to the <Roman
Martyrology and her feast is observed in Sweden and in the Bridgettine Order. A chapel in the Piazza Farnese in Rome is
dedicated to her.
Thought for
the Day: Bridget was a saint and influenced her daughter, St.
Catherine of Vadstena, greatly in her own search for holiness.
Parents can have a profound effect upon their children, but
something is required of the children as well. Consider
Catherine's brother, Charles, who did not follow in his mother's
footsteps. Living with a saint does not necessarily make one holy. |
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