Himmlische Offenbarungen

XIV Preface of the Cardinal. | Bull of Canonization. XV

teaches. And in that same place he adds and says that God sometimes speaks with us through the angels in images and before bodily eyes, using bodies assumed for a time from the air, just as he did with Abraham, who was able not only to see three men but also to receive them into his earthly dwelling. And immediately after, he says: For unless the angels, when they announce something internal, assumed a body from the air for a time, they would certainly not be seen by our outward sight. It appears that the revelations of this honorable and blessed Birgitta occurred in such ways, as anyone who reads them through can clearly see. In these, one reads that she was instructed in many things sometimes by Christ her bridegroom, and sometimes by an angel. Finally, thirdly, it was said that such revelations agreed in their sayings and words with the Holy Scripture and with the sayings and examples of the Saints and Teachers of the Church. As far as this part is concerned, in my opinion, in the aforementioned articles—which were gathered from her entire book as if they were most contrary to the sayings of Holy Scripture and the Teachers—if one understands them rightly and reads them with true diligence and earnestness, as one is accustomed to reading the sayings of the Saints, nothing is contained that has any meaning against Holy Scripture or the teaching of the Holy Teachers approved by the Church. Nor is anything so far from the examples of the Saints that it might offend pious ears; as I, with the help of Jesus Christ, the Master of Truth and Bridegroom of this honorable and holy lady, will conclude to show by explaining all the articles at length according to my ability.

The Fifth Chapter.

In which is established the fifth sign and the fifth proof to distinguish the revelations that are from the Spirit of God from the false revelations of the evil spirit.

Finally, among other signs by which revelations proceeding from the Spirit of God are distinguished from revelations provided by diabolical mockery, it seems no less powerful that the person of whom one reads that she had revelations is of a proven holiness in the Church of God, which cannot fail in the Canonization the official process of declaring a person a saint of the Saints, nor in the teaching of the faith: this same Birgitta is such a one. For she is of such proven holiness that she has been written into the number of the Saints and commanded by the Supreme Bishops to be honored by all the faithful, as can be seen in two Bulls of her Canonization,

one of which is from Pope Boniface IX, regarded and named so in his obedience; and the other from Lord Martin V. I have deemed it right to include their content here word for word, from which the devout reader will be able to perceive various testimonies of the devotion and holiness of this honorable lady and beloved bride of Christ.

The Bull of Canonization follows.

Bull of Canonization.

Of the blessed Birgitta
From the Kingdom of Sweden,
The Honorable Bride of Christ.

Which was given by Pope Boniface IX.

A small decorative initial letter "I" is adorned with floral patterns and scrollwork. We, Boniface, Bishop, a servant of the servants of God, send our greetings and the Apostolic Blessing to the venerable brothers, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and beloved chosen sons, as well as to the Chapters of the Patriarchal, Cathedral, and Head Churches, wherever they may be.

From the beginning of the world after the fall of the first father, because the entire human race was subject to eternal death, the almighty and merciful God through providence from on high took care that He did not entirely destroy the human whom He had created, but made him a partaker of His divinity. And, after He had sent the first fathers and the prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as heralds of the coming of His Son into the flesh under secret, obscured words and divine revelations, He sent down from His own bosom that same only Son of His, born before all time, when the time was fulfilled, into the womb of the previously chosen Virgin Mother. She conceived through the inscrutable overshadowing of the Holy Spirit when the angel brought the message. Being born of the said Virgin, He began in the meantime to do and to teach, and to show to everyone how the way to life stood open from eternal death for those who would be born again through holy baptism. And when He had gathered the disciples, so that no believer should be terrified of the hardships or burdens of this transitory and fleeting life, or of the pains of temporal death, in order to attain eternal life, He offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice original: "opf"