BRIDGET
'782
BRIDGETT
certainly very active, and if they did not construct
the Avignon bridge they built others at Bonpas,
Lourmariu, Mallemort, Mirabeau, etc. On the other
hand, the famous bridge over the Rhone at Saint-
Esprit was certainly constructed by a separate
association. Many of the official documents con-
nected with it are still preserved.
Falk in Historisch-Poliiisclir BlaUtr (1881). LXXXVII; Idem in Kirchenlei.. II, 1.331. These contributions of Dr. Falk must be read with some caution. LENTHf:Rlc in Ml-moires de VAcademie de Nimes (1889-90), 72-91; Helyot-Badiche, Dictwnnaire des ordres rehg-ieux. III, 237-246; Bruguier- RouRE, Les constructeura de ponts au moyen age (Paris. 1875): Gregoire, Recherches historiques sur les congTCgations de freres liontifes (Paris, 1806); Lefort in Travauz de VAcademie de Reims, LXXI, 372-399 and LXXVI, 206-227; Jusserand, English n'atiiaring Life. tr. (London, 1889), 33-89; Enlart, Manuel ifarcheotogie franfaise (Pans, 1904), II, 264-272.
Herbert Thurston. I '
Bridget of Sweden (also Bikgitta), S.mnt, the most celebrated saint of the Northern kingdoms, born c. about 1303; d. 23 July, 1373. She was the daughter of Birger Persson, governor and provincial judge (iMgman) of Uppland, and of Ingeborg Bengtsdotter. Her father was one of the wealthiest landholders of the country, and, like her mother, distinguished by deep piety. St. Ingrid, whose death had occurred about twenty years before Bridget's birth, was a near relative of the" family. Birger's daughter received a careful religious training, and from her seventh year showed signs of extraordinary religious impressions and illuminations. To her education, and particu- larly to the influence of an aunt who took the place of Bridget's mother after the latter's death (c. 1315), she owed that unswerving strength of will which later distinguished her. In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was vmited in marriage to Ulf Gudniars- son, who was then eighteen. She acquired great in- fluence over her noble and pious husband, and the happy marriage was blessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the great charity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. She enjoyed intercourse with several learned and pious theologians, among them Nicolaus Hermanni, later Bishop of Linkoping, Matthias, canon of Linkoping, her confessor, Peter, Prior of Alvastra, and Peter Magister, her confessor after Matthias. She was later at the court of King Magnus Eriksson, over whom she gradually acquired great influence. Early in the forties (1341-43) in company with her husband she made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Corapostella. On the return journey her husband was stricken with an attack of illness, but recovered sufficiently to finish the journey. Shortly afterwards, however, he died (1344) in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra in East Gothland. Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religious undertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her, and she wrote down the revelations she then received, which were in great repute iluring the Middle Ages. They were translated into Latin by Matthias Magister and Prior Peter. St. Bridget now- founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour, whose chief monastery, at Vadstena, was richly endowed by King Magnus and his queen (1346). To obtain confirmation for her institute, and at the same time to seek a larger sphere of activity for her mission, which was the moral up- lifting of the period, she journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on several pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. In August, 1370, Pope Urban V confirmed the Rule of her congregation. Bridget made earnest representations to Pope IVban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She accomplished the greatest good in Rome,
however, by her pious and charitable life, and her
earnest admonitions to others to adopt a better life,
following out the excellent precedents she had set in
her native land. The year following her death her
remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena.
She was canonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX.
Yiia S. Birgittee, compiled by her confessors Peter of
Vadstena, and Peter of Alvastra in 1373, Annerstedt
ed. in Script, rerum Svecicarum Tnedii (evi (Upsala, 1871-76),
III, Ft. II, 188 sqq.; Vita S. Birgitta; auctore Birgero, archiep.
Upsalensi in Acta SS., Oct., IV, 485 sqq.; Vila auctore Bar-
tholdo de Roma (Rome) 495 pqq.; SchCck. Svensk Liieratur-
historia (Stockholm, 1890), 129 sqq.; Hammehich, Den hellige
Birgitta og Kirken i Norden (Copenhagen, 1863), German tr.
MicHELSEN (Gotha, 1872); Binder, Die hi. Birgitta run
Schweden und ihr Klosterorden (Munich. 1891); Ringseis,
Leben derhl. Birgitta (Ratisbon, 1890); Flavigny, Ste. Btrgitte
de Svede (Paris. 1892); Joann. de Tukrecremata, Liber
revelationuvi celestium S. Birgitte de regno Swede (Rome,
1488, and often reprinted), with notes hy Gi-ndisalvi Duranti
(Rome, 1606); Heoser (ed.). Rerelatnmes selecta (Cologne,
1851); Klemming (ed.). H. BirgiUas uppenbarelser (4 vols..
Stockholm. 1857-62); Certayne reuelacgons of St. Birgitte. mth
an epistle of St. Bernard (London, s. d.); Megerle tr., Birgitta:
von Schweden himmlische Offenbanmgen (2 vols., Cologne,
1664).
J. P. IVIRSCH.
Bridgett, Thomas Edward, priest and author, b. at Derby, England, 20 January, 1829, of Protestant parents; d. at St. Mary's Clapham, 17 February. 1899. His father was a silk manufacturer, and sent his son first to Mill Hill, a Congregationalist College near Lon- don, then to Ton- bridge, a Church of England publir school, where li<- was baptized:it the age of sixteen. and finally, in Oc- tober, 1847, to St. John's Colle;;!'. Cambridge, tlir home of Blesscil John Fisher wlm.M life Father Bridgi It afterwards wrote. In 1850, while an undergraduate, he left the tiniversity. being unable to in- cept the oath of Royal Supremacy which was then re- quired before tak- ing a degree Shortly afterwards, having attended Dr. Newman'; lectures on "Anghcan Difficulties" at the Londoi Oratory, he was received into the Catholic Church bj the Oratorian, Father Stanton, 12 June, 1850, and oi 15 October of the next year made his religious profes sion in the Redemptorist novitiate of St. Trend, Bel gium. He pursued his theological studies atWitten m Holland and was ordained priest in August, 1856 After being five years minister and consultor to th viceprovincial in Clapham, the London house of hi Congregation, he went to Limerick for nine year- where as rector he founded, in 1868, the celebratei Confraternity of the Holy Family for men. Tlu soon consisted of over 5,000 active members, th largest a.ssociation of its kind in any one locality, r the Church. In 1871, he returned to Clapham a rector, where he spent the greater part of his remain ing vears.
I'ather Bridgett was a missionary like all the meir bers of his Congregation, but with advancing ycai he devoted himself to giving retreats, particular! to the clergy. It was not till 1867 that he turned h thoughts to \\Titing — a sermon on ritual deyelopin into his first book, "In Spirit and in Truth". Th work was called in later editions "The Ritual of tli New Testament". It was followed in 1875 by "Oi
Edward Bridgett
