Saint Birgitta

Birgitta was the first person in Sweden to be known throughout Europe, the only female saint in the Nordic countries and one of the three female patron saints in Europe. About women, she wrote “in order to be Mary, a woman must first be Martha”. Birgitta died in Rome in 1371 at the age of 68. Birgitta had been authorised to establish a monastic order in 1370, and its main abbey was built in Vadstena. A total of 79 monasteries of the Bridgettine Order were established in Europe. One of them, the Monastery of Naantali, was established in 1438. It became a refuge for Finnish noblewomen and bourgeois women and also served as a home for the elderly. There is a nursery rhyme about a ladybird and a stone church that refers to Birgitta. The ladybird took people’s wishes to the saints of the church and especially to the Virgin Mary. Made in Finland in the mid-15th century, this sculpture is from Sääksmäki Church.

H3510:7