My deep dive into the 14th century life and pilgrimages of St Birgtta continues. My writing is going well and I’m often so deep into my research that I struggle to pull back into the discomfort of modern times, so I don’t post here as often as I intend. I received a gift this week of a pendant with an image of St Birgitta on one side and a Latin verse on the back, decorated with roses, a portable connection to that aspect of Birgitta that I find most appealing – her own devotion to Mary and the love people felt for her, then and now.

Birgitta married young (age 13 – these were the Middle Ages, after all), and gave birth to eight children. One of the tutors she hired to teach her children, a man named Nils Hermansson, was deeply impacted by the time he spent with the family. He later wrote a hymn, Rosa, Rorans Bonitatem (Rose, whose rare goodness) which is sung in her honour at all Bridgettine convents to this day. Finding stories and music that have survived for 700 years feels like magic, little medieval gifts to lift us on difficult days in our modern times, and in this case it accompanies a lovely piece of modern (albeit vintage) jewelry.

Rosa, rorans bonitatem,
stella stillans claritatem,
Birgitta, vas gratiae.
Rora caeli pietatem,
stilla vitae puritatem
in vallem miseriae.

Which translates to:

Rose showering down goodness,
star dripping with clarity,
Bridget, vessel of grace.
Rain down the mercy of heaven,
drop the purity of life
into this valley of misery.

The image of Birgitta is modeled from a sculpture in Vadstena on the shore of Lake Vattern, the home of the abbey she founded after her husband died.

Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, the hymn is available online, performed by various professional musicians and ensembles – here is one of them. Enjoy!