On July 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the long and fruitful life of St. Bridget of Sweden, who raised a large family before going on to found a religious order. In modern times, she has been named a patron saint of Europe.
Bridget was born in 1303, the daughter of a prince and legislator named Birger and his royally-descended wife Ingeburgis. Her parents were notable for their strong faith, and especially for their devotion to recalling Christ's suffering and death. Sadly, Ingeburgis died soon after Bridget's birth, and her aunt stepped in to assist in raising her.
The future saint had a serious temperament even as a child, and came to share her father's and her late mother's devotion to Christ's passion. At the age of 10, she had a vision of the Lord's agonizing death, in which he drew her attention to the wounds inflicted by "those who despise me, and are insensible to my love for them."
At age 16, Bridget married the Swedish prince Ulf of Nericia. The couple joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and made their home an admirable example of the "domestic Church." Out of their eight children, two died in infancy, and another two in the Crusades. Two of the surviving children married, and one of the two who entered religious life was canonized as St. Catherine of Sweden.
While bringing up their children, Bridget and Ulf also helped to care for the needs of the poor. They devoted their own resources to building a hospital, where they worked to care for patients themselves. After Ulf's resignation from the king's council, the couple undertook a long and arduous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
The trip took a heavy toll on Ulf's health, and he nearly died during the return trip. Against the odds, however, he recovered. By the time of his death, Bridget's husband had become a part of the Cisterian monastic order with his wife's consent. Even after his death in 1344, the Cistercians continued to regard him as an example of holiness.
Bridget then renounced her position as a princess. She divided her husband's property among her surviving children, and resolved to devote the rest of her life to penance. She began wearing a hair shirt, and ate only bread and water on Fridays. During 1344 she also founded a monastic community, which would eventually develop into the Bridgettine Order.
During her years as a widow, Bridget experienced many visions of Christ which were compiled into two books of "Revelations." Although the Church never gave a definitive judgment on their content, Blessed John Paul II wrote in 1999 that Church had "accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience," which he described as a "profound union with Christ."
In 1349, Bridget made a pilgrimage to Rome to seek the pope's approval for her community's rule of life. She ended up moving to the Eternal City, and never returned to Sweden during the remaining decades of her life. She did, however, leave her new home on pilgrimages to Assisi and the Holy Land.
St. Bridget of Sweden died in 1373. Two of her children brought her remains back to the headquarters of her religious order in Sweden the following year, and she was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391. In 1999, Blessed John Paul II chose her as one of the three female co-patronesses of Europe, together with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Edith Stein.
— CNA/EWTN News
On July 24, the Church celebrates the life of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a Maronite Catholic priest, monk and hermit who is known for working miracles both during his life and after his death.
On the occasion of his beatification in 1965, the Eastern Catholic hermit was described by Pope Paul VI as "a new, eminent member of monastic sanctity" who "through his example and his intercession is enriching the entire Christian people."
Born into humble circumstances in Lebanon during 1828, Yussef Antoun Makhlouf was the youngest of Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf and Brigitta Elias al-Shediyaq's five children. Antoun, who had been taken away from the family and forced into hard labor, died when his youngest son was only 3.
Yussef studied at the parish school and tended to his family's cow. Engaged in prayer and solitude from an early age, he spent a great deal of time outdoors in the fields and pastures near his village, contemplating God amid the inspiring views of Lebanon's valleys and mountains.
His uncle and guardian Tanious wanted the boy to continue working with him, while his mother wanted him to marry a young woman. Yussef had other plans, however, and left home in 1851 without informing anyone.
Yussef would become "Brother Charbel," after making a pilgrimage on foot to his new monastic home. In this, he followed the example of his maternal uncles, who were already living as solitary monks at the Hermitage of St. Paul in the Qadisha Valley.
Charbel took his monastic vows in November of 1853, during a solemn ceremony which was closed to the public and off-limits even to his family. He subsequently studied for the priesthood and was ordained, returning to the Monastery of St. Maron.
The priest-monk lived and served in the monastery for 19 years, showing great devotion to the life of prayer, manual work and contemplative silence.
Charbel's superiors observed God's "supernatural power" at work in his life, and he became known as a wonder-worker even among some Muslims. In 1875, he was granted permission to live as a solitary monk in a nearby hermitage dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul.
Rigorous asceticism, and a profound union with God, continued to characterize the monk's life for the next 23 years. Deeply devoted to God's Eucharistic Presence, he suffered a stroke while celebrating the Divine Liturgy on Dec. 16, 1898. He died on Christmas Eve of that year.
St. Charbel's tomb has been a site for pilgrimages since his death. Hundreds of miracles are believed to have occurred through his intercession with God, both in Lebanon and around the world.
He was canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI, who had earlier hailed the Lebanese Maronite saint as an "admirable flower of sanctity blooming on the stem of the ancient monastic traditions of the East."
— Catholic News Agency
Did you know?
The feast of St. Charbel Makhluf was added to the Proper of Saints, the part of the Missal that includes prayers for the observances of saints' days, in 2012 at the same time the revised edition of the Roman Missal was launched. The Proper of Saints follows a calendar established by the Vatican and modified by the bishops of each country to include saints of local importance. Any changes to a national or diocesan calendar require the Vatican's consent.