Abstract
The foundation of the Brigittine Order in England at Syon Monastery in 1415 is just one indication of fifteenth-century English aristocratic interest in St Bridget. Syon’s book holdings show a steady focus on contemplative and visionary texts and their reach extended to Westminister and London where Syon’s noble patrons resided. Bridget’s Revelations were received by fifteenth-century readers in the form of extracts as well as the full text. The anonymous Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God borrowed from Bridget’s visionary work and was widely read by the laity. St Bridget had a formative influence on Margery Kempe and is one of the female mystics of the high Middle Ages who united contemplation with active ministry in the world.
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Notes
Henry Scrope's younger brother, John Scrope, most likely commissioned the Speculum devotorum (A Mirror to Devout People) for his wife Elizabeth (Patterson 2016). The Speculum was a Syon-based life of Christ that contained a number of passages from Bridget's Revelations, thus making a direct connection between the aristocracy, Syon Abbey, and the writings of St Bridget.
Sloane 3548, fol. 118b. Cited by Cumming (1929, xxxviii).
Sahlin (2001, 31–2), her translation of Extravagantes 49. 1–3: “Filius Dei loquebatur ad sponsam dicens: ‘Ego sum similes carpentario, qui prescindens ligna de silua deportat in domum et inde fabricat ymaginem pulchram et ornate eam coloribus et liniamentis. Cuius amici videntes ymaginem, quod adhuc pulchrioribus coloribus ornari posset, apposuerunt et ipsi colores suos, depingendo super eam. Sic ego Deus prescidi de silua deitatis mee verba mea, que posui in cor tuum. Amici vero mei redegerunt ea in libros secundum graciam eis datam et colorauerunt et ornauerunt illa’.'' See Birgitta of Sweden, Revelaciones Extravagantes, ed. Hollman (1956).
Audelay’s verse life is printed in The Revelations of Saint Birgitta, ed. Cumming (1929, xxx–xxxvii).
Watson and Jenkins (2006, I, 222) of the short version of her revelations. The phrase was omitted in the long version.
“Tu quipped eris sponsa mea et canale meum, audies et videbis spiritualia et secreta celestia.” Birgitta of Sweden, Revelaciones Extravagantes, ed. Hollman (Hollmann 1956), Extrav. 47.
One of Catherine’s most famous letters, that to Raymond of Capua describing the execution of the young noble from Perugia, doomed to die by the government of Siena, is letter#273 in Le Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena, ed. Tommaseo (1860).
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Heffernan, C.F. The Revelations of St Bridget of Sweden in Fifteenth-Century England. Neophilologus 101, 337–349 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-016-9516-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-016-9516-2