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“I am the Creator”: Birgitta of Sweden’s Feminine Divine

“I am the Creator”: Birgitta of Sweden’s Feminine Divine

Bruce, Yvonne

Comitatus Vol.32 (2001)

Introduction: Critical writings about Saint Birgitta of Sweden (1302/3–1373) adopt a curious tone: the literature marvels at her wide-reaching political, ecclesiastical, and secular influence, remarkable for a woman even in an age that saw Saint Catherine of Siena and Julian of Norwich achieve religious authority while maintaining popular appeal. Yet this marvel is checked by hesitation; surely no fourteenth-century mystic could have achieved such authoritative status except as an orthodox agent of the church, and historians have typically been cautious of seeing Birgitta as a forerunner of the Reformation.

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