Bridget and Margaret

In class today we learned about the literary tradition of the Vita, and how it can be accessed to learn about medieval religious women. Some Vitae are more historical then others; each ultimately comes at the person with a bent towards proclaiming the religiousness of the individual. Most want to perhaps entice and/or serve a propaganda for an eventual proposal of sainthood. Lives could be written to promote a culthood within an area or sent to Rome for approval for possible sainthood. What is interesting about Christina's is that it is unfinished, as far as historians are concerned--so it represents a part of the process of history-in-the-making. Why was Christina's life unfinished? What was the purpose of the text? How can we access a life story in the way that we did with Magdalena and Balthasar's letters?

I feel like my life (luckily) is filled with medieval female saints. In Rome I see the monastery of the Brigittines, founded by Bridget of Sweden (photos below). As a queen of Sweden, Bridget could have eight kids and still be considered a saint. But only after founding many monasteries, living with virtue, helping the poor, and dictating her Revelations. In these Revelations, the Lord says: "I have chosen you to be my spouse so that I may show you my secrets." Wow, so much for needing a clergyman to access religion.

This summer I reviewed the translation and introduction to The Life and Miracles of Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297). Like Christina, her story is filled with tragedy, sorrow and triumph. Once the lover of a nobleman and a mother, she's left without support when he dies suddenly.  The son and mom are given a swift kick out (origin of the Disney evil step-mother?) by his family. In 1272, she came to Cortona and began to earn money as a midwife; then her visionary life led her to live in a cell and then a monastery. For twelve years this former lover and mother became the most famous citizen of Cortona, negotiating between arguing factions, telling off the bishop of Arezzo, and proving various citizens as liars. However, in his vita, written by a Franciscan friar, the Lord says: "Concerning that Margaret, I tell you that I love her more than all the women of Cortona" and "I will give her an abundance of grace" (289). Today you can still see Margaret of Cortona in the central church there, and on my office door, prostrate, visible, and clothed (on a postcard) resting before all to see, from 1297 to 2014. I plan to pay a visit to her again this summer. How often can you see a person from the thirteenth-century? Do to her agency, and the cult that continued to be perpetuated after her death, Margaret remains a powerful figure in the modern world.