Founder of the Brigittines

St. Brigit of Sweden

St. Brigit of Sweden (1303-1373) was born 700 years ago. Therefore a € 0.65 stamp, depicting a wooden sculpture of St. Brigit of Sweden, will be issued to honour the founder of the Brigittine Order. The sculpture is a detail from the altar screen in the Naantali Convent Church. The altar screen, Heavenly Coronation of the Virgin Mary, is from the 15th century. The stamp was designed by Ms Ilona Ilottu, Mr Petri Salmela and Ms Eeva Sivula at D.O.G Design.

The founding a monastery

Brigit, a daughter of a Swedish noble family, wife of Ulf Gudmarsson, provincial judge, and a mother of many children, had revelations that gave her the idea of founding a monastery. The Constitutions had to be approved by the pope, and therefore Brigit, after her husband's death, went to Rome in 1349 to promote her plan. She lived the rest of her life in Rome. In 1370 Pope Urban V approved the establishment of a monastery for men and women in Vadstena. Brigit died in 1373 at the age of seventy, and she was a highly appreciated seer of revelations and spiritual leader, who had travelled widely, written a lot on her revelations and expressed strong views on the religious life of laymen and the church. She was canonised in 1391. In 1999 St. Brigit of Sweden was declared Patroness of Europe by Pope John Paul II.

Brigittine monasteries

There were up to 79 Brigittine monasteries, situated in Central Europe and in the Nordic Countries. The only mediaeval Brigittine monastery in Finland was operating in Naantali from 1443 to 1591. Today there are three separate branches of the Brigittine Order: the mediaeval, the Spanish and the Swedish. There are five monasteries under the medieval branch, 11 under the Spanish and 40 under the youngest, Swedish, branch, founded in 1911. One of these was founded in Turku in 1986.
Stamp issue: Finland, March 2003

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