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Rosemary Bogdan discusses two great saints we remember this week: St. Mary Magdalene and St. Bridget of Sweden, role models for all women.

This week we remember two great women of heroic virtue. On July 22, we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. The next day, July 23, we remember St. Bridget of Sweden, wife, mother, mystic, and founder of the Order of the Most Holy Savior, the Brigittines.

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As sinners ourselves who does not have a special feeling of tenderness for the woman known to be a great sinner, out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. She is the saint whose life embodies the boundless mercy of God and whose love for Jesus provides us with a striking example of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. In the words of Jesus, “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.” After the apostles had left the empty tomb Mary “stayed outside the tomb weeping.” (John 20:11) She wanted to stay close to the last she had seen of her Lord. It was then that Jesus spoke to her and said her name. How tender is that moment.

Mary Magdalene is mentioned many times in the Bible. Over the history of the Church there has been much debate about the many Marys and which ones are the same people. St. Gregory the Great thought that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, was the same person as Mary Magdalene. Thus we have the beautiful painting below, titled “Martha scolding her vain sister Mary Magdalene.”

 

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We do know with certainty that Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus, that she was at the foot of the cross, and that she was the first to see the risen Lord. St. Thomas Aquinas named her the “Apostle of the Apostles.”

 

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It is with this title in mind that Pope Francis elevated her memorial to a feast in 2016. All of the liturgical celebrations of the Apostles are feasts and now the Apostle of the Apostles receives the same honor. In the preface of the Mass for the Feast are the words: “He honored her with the office of being an apostle to the Apostles, so that the good news of new life might reach the ends of the earth.” Indeed, as she told the Apostles that she had seen the Lord, she became the first person to proclaim that the Lord is risen.

Mary Magdalene is the patroness of converts, repentant sinners, sexual temptation, pharmacists, tanners, and women.

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Two women of great heroic virtue: St. Mary Magdalene and St. Bridget of Sweden. #catholicmom

On July 23, we celebrate the memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden. Moms will find it especially interesting that St, Bridget’s first vocation was as a wife and mother. She was married for twenty years and gave birth to four boys and four girls, one of whom is St. Catherine of Sweden. After the death of her husband, St. Bridget established the Order of the Most Holy Savior, the Bridgettines.

 

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Recognized as a prophet in her time, she experienced many private revelations including the Twelve Year Prayers of St. Bridget on the Passion of Christ.

To learn more about this novena and its lavish promises, visit my previous article on St. Bridget.

In his statement proclaiming St. Bridget of Sweden co-patroness of Europe, St. John Paul II said,

Yet there is no doubt that the Church, which recognized Bridget’s holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience. She stands as an important witness to the place reserved in the Church for a charism lived in complete docility to the Spirit of God and in full accord with the demands of ecclesial communion.

 

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Saint Bridget’s writings are still in print and available.

Revelations of St Bridget

 

I appreciate two of her quotes:

“The world would have peace if only men of politics would follow the Gospel.”

and

“To write well and speak well is mere vanity if one does not live well.”

More quotes from her writings can be found at AZQuotes.com. 

St. Bridget, wife, mother and mystic, pray that we can live our vocations as faithfully as you. St. Mary Magdalene, may we live in the profound mercy of our God and love Him with an intensity like yours.

How might each of these saints be role models for all women?


Copyright 2021 Rosemary Bogdan
Images (from top): Mary's Rosaries (Public Domain) and By Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Albert Pinkham Ryder (1885), Smithsonian American Art Museum, CC0; Elisabetta Siriani (17th century), Smithsonian American Art Museum, CC0; Simon Webster (2015), Flickr, CC BY NC-SA 2.0; St. Bridget of Sweden line engraving, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; St. Bridget of Sweden line engraving, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons