It is difficult to know where to jump into telling the story of saint who lived a long and interesting life seven centuries ago. I’ve been studying St Birgitta of Sweden for the past decade and she feels, quite honestly, like a member of the family. My task now, is to begin to introduce her here. I don’t feel that I will ever be her biographer, and plenty has been written about her religiosity by other people who understand it better than I do. My interest is in her as an incredible, strong, and influential medieval woman who was a passionate pilgrim. I have written a short simplified biography of her life that you can read here – but for now, I want to dive in to sharing her life as I write about it in a different and more imaginative telling.

I am currently taking a class on historical fiction writing to help me wrestle with the question of how to fill in the blanks that history has overlooked, convincingly and in an enjoyable style. The first assignment was to write about my character’s life just before my story begins, and that seems like a good place for me to begin this introduction:

Birgitta Birgersdotter was born into a noble Swedish family in 1303, and was taught at a young age to manage the affairs of an extensive, busy, and extremely devout household. Married at only 13, she gave birth to eight children, and was deeply involved with their day-to-day lives, the management of the family estate with its farms and small businesses, her husband’s legal and political career, as well as the charities she founded to care for the poor, the sick, and the unwed mothers in the area. 

However, her life became far more complicated as King Magnus, her cousin, had called her to Stockholm to oversee the royal household and serve as a guide and tutor to his young wife, Blanche of Namur, who had recently arrived from Belgium. A direct summons from the king couldn’t be ignored, even when he is a close relative. This was a difficult assignment for Birgitta. She was a devoted mother, and not only did she have to leave her home, but she had to part from her children, some of whom were still quite young. Arrangements were quickly made for them to be sent away to different convents and monasteries to board and be educated.

Birgitta didn’t enjoy her new life. She carried out her duties extremely well, but didn’t approve of what was, to her mind, the corrupt nature of court life, but she was well-loved and the household ran smoothly because of her efficiency and thoroughness. She was extremely beautiful, which was seen as a valuable attribute, and is said to have been intelligent and constantly cheerful. Her high ideals, however, were not appreciated, nor were her stern moral and financial warnings about the extravagances of the royal family and its court. 

She served as Mistress of the Household for the royal family for almost five years, and was feeling more convinced than ever of the futility of her efforts to influence the King and Queen. Birgitta was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the luxuries and frivolity that she saw around her, when word reached her that her son, Gudmar, had died at his school in Stockholm. Never a strong child, his death was nevertheless a shock for his devoted parents. Weighed down by grief, Birgitta and her husband, Ulf, decided that the time had come to leave court life, but wanted to do so quietly and without drama. Buoyed by their faith, and supported by their reputation for being devout, the couple realised that embarking on a pilgrimage would give them the escape they desired.

And as centuries of pilgrims can attest, pilgrimage is a time-honoured way of grieving as busy people make a break from their daily lives in order to devote themselves to their faith, or lack thereof, and commit to a routine of simple living and constant walking to a place they deem holy. 

It was at this point that a noble mother became a pilgrim…. and my story begins.