[3] Bridget is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia, Cyril and Methodius, Catherine of Siena and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

In 1316, at the age of 13[4] she married Ulf Gudmarsson of the family of Ulvåsa, a noble and lawspeaker of Östergötland, to whom she bore eight children, four daughters and four sons.

One distinctive feature of the houses of the Order was that they were double monasteries, with men and women both forming a joint community, but they lived in separate cloisters.

[5] In 1350, a Jubilee Year, Bridget braved a plague-stricken Europe to make a pilgrimage to Rome accompanied by her daughter, Catherine, and a small party of priests and disciples.

Save for occasional pilgrimages, including one to Jerusalem in 1373, she remained in Rome until her death on 23 July 1373, urging ecclesiastical reform.

[5] In her pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, she sent "back precise instructions for the construction of the monastery" now known as the Blue Church, insisting that an "abbess, signifying the Virgin Mary, should preside over both nuns and monks.

Other details which are frequently seen, such as Joseph carrying a single candle that he "attached to the wall," and the presence of God the Father above, also originated in Bridget's vision.

[14] Some have questioned whether Saint Bridget is in fact their author; Eamon Duffy reports that the prayers probably originated in England, in the devotional circles that surrounded Richard Rolle or the English Brigittines.

[15] Whatever their origin, the prayers were widely circulated in the late Middle Ages, and they became regular features in Books of Hours and other devotional literature.

[16] During the Middle Ages, the prayers were circulated with various promises of indulgence and other assurances of 21 supernatural graces supposed to attend the daily recitation of the 15 orations at least for a year.

[17] These indulgences were repeated in the manuscript tradition of the Books of Hours, and may constitute one major source of the prayers' popularity in the late Middle Ages.

In 1538, William Marshall enjoined his readers to "henseforth ... forget suche prayers as seynt Brigittes & other lyke, whyche greate promyses and perdons haue falsly auaunced.

In Sweden, adjacent to Skederid Church, built by Bridget's father on the family's land, a memorial stone was erected in 1930.

An hour away from this monastery, the Vadstena Abbey, also known as the Blue Church, contains relics of the saint, and her body is venerated by Lutheran and Catholic believers.

[35] Some 19th-century writers presented her as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation due to her criticism of popes, bishops and other members of the clergy who did not live in accordance with the teachings of their religion.

"[37] Centuries of Selfies (2020) describes how Bridget damaged King Magnus and Queen Blanche by accusing them of "erotic deviations, extravagance and murderous plots",[38] a description particularly noted by Dala-Demokraten as likely to upset Swedish nuns.

[41] Saint Birgitta's Revelaciones, that is, her Revelations written in Latin, appeared in critical editions during the years 1956 to 2002 under the aegis of the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm.