SOURCE: "The English Cult of St. Bridget of Sweden," in Analecta Bollandiana: Revue Critique D'Hagiographie, Vol. 103, 1985, pp. 75-93.

In the following essay, Johnston investigates the influence of St. Birgitta's writings in England following her death and canonization.

The foundations of the gloria postuma of St Bridget¹ were laid by her familia immediately after her death in Rome in 1373². Her daughter, St Katherine, arranged for the translation of her remains to Sweden where they were enshrined with great ceremony and reports of miracles at Vadstena, the mother house of her new order, the Order of the Savious³. Her confessors, Peter of Alvastra and Peter of Skänninge, composed an account of her life as a preliminary to petitioning for her canonisation⁴. In 1377 Alfonso of Jaen published her Revelations with a preface, Epistola Solitarii ad Reges, defending their authenticity⁵. Her supporters gained their objectives when Urban VI approved the Regula...