St. Bridget of Sweden

A Swedish noblewoman who bore eight children before being widowed at forty, Bridget founded the Bridgettine order and spent her later years in Rome, where she labored to bring the popes back from Avignon. Her revelations — written down by her confessors — circulated widely in medieval Europe. One of her daughters, Catherine, is also a canonized saint.

Born into one of Sweden's wealthiest families, Bridget was married at thirteen to the nobleman Ulf Gudmarsson, with whom she lived a deeply devout domestic life. After a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Ulf entered a Cistercian monastery and soon died, freeing Bridget to follow the visions that had come to her since childhood.

In Rome she lived in voluntary poverty, caring for the sick and pilgrims while fearlessly admonishing popes, cardinals, and monarchs to reform. She died in 1373, shortly after returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was canonized in 1391. In 1999, Pope John Paul II named her a co-patroness of Europe alongside Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein.