24 March: Saint Catherine of Sweden

In the footsteps of Saint Bridget

Catherine of Sweden was a member of the royal family of Sweden through her mother, Saint Bridget, and her father, Ulf Gudmarson. Born around 1331, she was entrusted to the care of Cistercian nuns in Riseberg from a very young age. She left the monastery against her wishes when  her father arranged for her to marry the knight, Edgar von Kyren, at the age of 16. Her husband, who was also very devout, agreed to live a marriage of chastity. Throughout her marriage, Catherine took care of her disabled husband. Her father, Ulf, died in 1344.

With her husband's approval, she traveled to Rome with a group of pilgrims during the Holy Year of 1350,  to obtain the Jubilee indulgence, where she joined her mother, Bridget, in her home in Piazza Farnese. On Holy Thursday of the same year, after receiving news that her husband had died, Catherine decided to stay in Rome with her mother and dedicate herself to prayer and penance. She went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land with her mother, with whom she lived a life of great poverty, sharing their possessions had with the needy and evangelizing noble families.

When Bridget died on 23 July 1373, Catherine fulfilled her mother's wishes for her mortal remains to be brought back to Sweden to the Monastery of Vadstena, she had founded. Deeply drawn to her mother's spirituality, she decided to become a nun at the Monastery, where she later served as Abbess. In 1375, at the request of the king and the Swedish Bishops of Sweden, Catherine returned to Rome to seek approval for the Rule of the Order of the Most Holy Savior, founded by her mother. She also gathered testimonies on Bridget for her canonization process. Catherine met Pope Gregory XI and then Pope Urban VI, who approved the Rule of the Order with a papal bull on 3 December 1378. After completing the collection of documents and submitting them to the ecclesiastical authorities, Catherine returned to Vadstena, suffering from illness. She died there on 24 March 1381 and was buried in the Church of the Monastery, surrounded by the veneration of the faithful.