Aunt's rod breaks over young St. Bridget, kneeling at night to praise Christ

UPPLAND, Sweden, about 1313 AD — Saint Bridget of Sweden was ten when she heard a sermon on the Passion, the suffering and death of Christ. That same night, according to longstanding Catholic Tradition, she saw Christ crucified. About two years later she was found one night out of her bed, praising him.

St. Bridget was the daughter of Birger Persson, the lawman of Uppland, and she spent her early childhood at Finsta, his estate a few miles from Uppsala. A lawman was the governor and judge of a Swedish province, and Birger Persson also sat on the king’s council. He was one of the richest landholders in the country, and a devout man who set aside every Friday for penance. Schools were not open to girls, so St. Bridget was taught at home, where she was given a careful religious training.

St. Bridget had been having visions since she was seven. At ten she heard the sermon on the Passion. That night Christ appeared to her as though he had only just been nailed to the cross. Christ said to her, “Thus am I tortured.” St. Bridget asked him, “O Lord, who has done this to Thee?” Christ answered: “Whoever despises Me and spurns My love does this to Me.” From then on St. Bridget could seldom think of Christ’s suffering without crying.

Before St. Bridget turned twelve, her mother died. St. Bridget and her sister were sent to be brought up by their mother’s sister in Ydre, in the province of Östergötland.

Tradition tells of one night in her aunt’s house, when St. Bridget was about twelve. The aunt went to the girl’s bed and found her kneeling naked on the floor beside it. The aunt thought the girl was misbehaving, so she sent for a rod to beat her. As soon as the aunt laid it on the girl’s back, the rod broke into small pieces.

The aunt was astonished, and she asked her niece, “Birgitta, what have you done? Has some woman not taught you some false prayers?” St. Bridget was crying when she answered her aunt: “No, lady. I only got out of my bed to sing and praise him who always helps me.” The aunt asked who that was. St. Bridget told her, “Our crucified Lord whom I recently saw.”

From that day on the aunt honoured St. Bridget and loved her more than before. Decades later, when the Church examined St. Bridget’s life before declaring her a saint, the aunt who had once raised a rod to her told these stories of her girlhood to the inquiry.