Vadstena Abbey

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The Abbey Church.

The Monastery.

The inner yard of the Nunnery.

Vadstena Abbey (Monasterium sanctarum Mariæ Virgìnis et Brigido in Vatzstena) was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. The abbey started as one of the farms donated by the king, but the town of Vadstena grew up around it.

Though the abbey was founded in 1346 by Saint Bridget with the assistance of King Magnus II of Sweden and his queen Blanche of Namur, who made a will donating ten farms, including that of Vadstena in Dal Hundred, Östergötland, to the abbey founded by Bridget.

The daughter of Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine, on arriving there in 1374 with the relics of her mother Bridget, found only a few novices under an Augustinian superior. They chose St. Catherine as their abbess. She died in 1381, and it was not till 1384 that the abbey was blessed by the Bishop of Linköping. The canonization of St. Bridget in 1391 and her translation in 1394 added greatly to the fame and riches of her abbey. In 1400 Eric of Pomerania was invested at Vadstena by his aunt, Queen Margaret, with full royal rights over Denmark, Norway, and of Sweden.

The Bridgettine literature consisted mostly of translations into Swedish of portions of the Bible or of the legends of the saints. Such writings as are extant have been published for the most art by the Svenska fornskriftsällskapet (Old Swedish Texts Society) of Stockholm. Of these authors the best known belonging to Vadstena are perhaps Margareta Clausdotter, (abbess 1473, died 1486), author of a work on the family of St. Bridget (printed in "Scriptores Rerum Svecicarum", III, I, 207-16), and Nicolaus Ragvaldi, monk and general confessor (1476-1514), who composed several works. When he died, end of the abbey was near at hand. It was plundered by Gustavus Vasa in 1523, and lost most of its lands about 1527. In 1540 the larger part of the books and valuables were taken. The little community struggled on in spite of persecution. John III (1569-1592) restored and enriched the abbey, and Antonio Possevino, as papal legate, reformed it in 1580.

In 1594 it was seized and destroyed by Charles, Duke of Södermanland, afterwards Charles IX of Sweden. The abbess, Katarina Olofsdotter, and most of the nuns, fled to the Bridgettine nunnery at Danzig.

When Magnus Vasa, Duke of Östergötland, died in 1595 he was buried in the abbey church. His sarcophagus can still be seen today.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Catholic Encyclopedia noted that only the chapter house and a few cells of the convent of the sisters remained as part of a lunatic asylum. A general hospital occupied the site of the convent of the brothers. The abbey church is still standing; it contains a few memorials of St. Bridget.