Saint Bride and Her Book

Translated from Middle English, with introduction, notes and interpretative essay. Birgitta of Sweden (also Brigida, Bride, Bridget) lived from 1303 to 1373. Coming from a privileged, educated family, she maintained her devout life through marriage and eight children and long years of widowhood. Her shrine is at Vadstena, but she never led a settled, conventual life, travelling as a pilgrim throughout Europe and to Jerusalem. She dealt as an equal with popes and emperors, and was acknowledged by almost all as God's ambassador. The Book of St Bride is a series of revelations, and this text, written in England in the fifteenth century, extracts the scribes' favourite episodesfrom the lengthy Latin Revelations.