Saint Catherine of Sweden

Saint Catherine of Sweden was the daughter of Saint Bridget of Sweden. For more than twenty years she shared with her mother in Rome a life of prayer, pilgrimage, and service to those in need, and after her mother’s death she led the first community of Bridgettines at Vadstena. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her on March 24.

She was born about 1331 as one of the eight children of Bridget and Ulf Gudmarsson; the exact date of her birth is not known. As a child she was brought up by the nuns at Riseberga. Very young, she was given in marriage to the knight Eggard von Kyren. The Martyrology relates that she was married against her will and that, with her husband’s consent, she preserved her virginity. Her medieval Life adds that the spouses were bound by sincere affection.

After her husband’s death, Bridget left for Rome in 1349. Catherine joined her in the Holy Year 1350, and soon afterward word reached her that Eggard had died. She then stayed with her mother and from that time shared her austere life: prayer, visits to churches, and help for the poor. The young widow turned down one proposal of marriage after another. Legend tells that a hind saved her from importunate suitors, which is why this animal accompanies Catherine in paintings.

In 1372 she went with her mother and her brother Birger to the Holy Land. Soon after their return, on July 23, 1373, Bridget died in Rome. Fulfilling her wish, Catherine brought her mother’s body to Sweden and on July 4, 1374, reached Vadstena, where Bridget had founded the monastery of her order.

There she took charge of the community, which was beginning to live by the rule of the Order of the Most Holy Savior. The Roman Martyrology relates that she herself put on the habit of a nun at Vadstena, and tradition calls her the first abbess of that monastery. As early as 1375, however, she returned to Rome to work for her mother’s canonization and for the confirmation of the rule. She spent five years there. In 1378 Pope Urban VI approved the rule of the Bridgettines. When the Great Western Schism broke out, Catherine sided with Urban VI and gave testimony on the validity of his election.

In 1380 she returned to Vadstena. She soon fell ill and died there on March 24, 1381. She did not live to see her mother’s canonization: Pope Boniface IX declared Bridget a saint in 1391.

The process for Catherine’s canonization was opened in the fifteenth century but was never completed. Pope Innocent VIII gave permission for her veneration, and in 1489 her relics were solemnly translated at Vadstena. There was no formal canonization, yet the Church venerates her as a saint, and that is what the Roman Martyrology calls her. Benedict XVI, speaking of Saint Bridget, recalled that her daughter Karin, that is, Catherine, is venerated as a saint, and he saw in this an eloquent sign of the mother’s dedication to her children’s education.