Himmlische Offenbarungen

XVIII Bull of the Canonization. | Bull of the Canonization. XIX

assembly, as described above, or better to say, is already added. Her origin (for which reason we take this trouble upon ourselves), as well as her life, customs, merit, and miracles—which the blessed God has shown to the world as a reward for her holiness so that the present age may have knowledge of such a famous woman and the unheard-of descendants may not scold it as an unworthy rumor or fairy tale—we have extracted a few from many things, and that which should not remain silent, to magnificently compose them, and we wish to make them known to your love herewith.

Now, this honorable woman took her origin from the father Birger and the mother Sigrid, two married people who came from the most illustrious royal lineage of the Catholic kings in Sweden, and were no less famous for their true faith, constancy of mind, and virtues than for their noble descent. Indeed, while the mother was pregnant with her, she suffered a shipwreck in a bay of the sea, and although the storm in said shipwreck drowned many of both sexes, she came to the shore unhurt. The following night, a person appeared to her in a vision, shining in a wonderful garment; and so that the arrival should not be without the foretelling of such a venerable widow, the person said to her: "You have been preserved for the sake of the good that you have within you. Therefore, bring it up with divine love, for it has been given to you by God." And when the little daughter Birgitta was newly brought into the world from the mother's womb, a priest in the nearest parish church saw a bright cloud, and in the middle of the cloud a virgin sitting who had a book in her hand, and said to him: "A daughter is born to Birger, whose voice will resound wonderfully through the world." When the daughter was born, she appeared for three years as if mute, but soon thereafter she spoke, contrary to the natural course, with stately words—unlike how children are accustomed to do when they want to speak—of what she had heard and seen. As she increased in years, she spent her childhood with wonderful devotion, namely with prayer and fasting, and was otherwise never without good works. Finally, although she desired with all her heart to serve the Lord in the state of virginity, she was nevertheless urged by her parents and given in marriage to Ulf Gudmarsson original: "Blphani von Blphasum", at that time a prince in Närke original: "Nericien", a very noble and Christian youth. And when they were to come together,

although they were fit for husbandly embrace—the man being in his eighteenth year and the bride in her thirteenth—they followed with a shared will the example of the young Tobias and Sarah, daughter of Raguel. They abstained from lying together for a whole year and more, and prayed humbly to God that, if it were good for them to come together, they might not sin in their union, and that God would grant them such fruit as would be for His service. Afterward, they came together in fear and trembling, not for the pleasure of the body, but for the sake of offspring; meanwhile, the devout woman neglected neither fasting nor prayer, nor other godly and customary works. And because she was always especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin, and in the meantime stood almost in danger during childbirth, so that the midwives and surrounding women despaired for her life, a stately but unknown woman clothed in white silk garments was seen to enter the chamber, stand by the bed, and touch all the limbs of the woman lying there. As soon as this woman disappeared, the woman in labor gave birth without pain to a perfect fruit and recovered. And since these married people were still young and fresh, they mutually agreed and maintained eternal chastity; the man being persuaded by the holy exhortations of the blessed woman (for the man's heart could trust in her and needed no spoil: she did him good and no evil all the days of her life). Nevertheless, the devout couple became more and more zealous in the fear of God and love of neighbor, and visited together as pilgrims the threshold of Saint James at Compostella. And when they returned home and had intended to enter monasteries according to the distinction of their gender so that they might attend to devotion more freely, the said prince fell asleep in the Lord in such a purpose. The holy widow, however, who from her youth was devoted to God and was occupied without ceasing in fasting and prayer, as soon as she was released from the married state and became her own master—just like a merchant ship that brings forth its nourishment—was admonished by the Holy Spirit and went out from her fatherland and from her kindred, and took her way toward Rome and from there toward Jerusalem. She visited with highest devotion and reverence all and every place where our Savior Jesus Christ was announced, born, raised, and baptized; where He walked and performed miracles; where He was mocked, crucified, and buried; and where He ascended into heaven. And when she came back to Rome—having previously visited places in her fatherland, or in the surrounding borders, or in Germany, or in France, or in Spain, or Italy, or in other places on this or that side of the sea, where the holy bodies or names...