Abstract
This chapter examines the theological ideas of Saint Bridget of Sweden (1303–1373). What we find in looking on her views of the fate of souls after death, is that Bridget took on the ideas of the Church that had been developing for several centuries in the work of monks and bishops. The afterlife held horrors in store for sinners, and it worked according to a specific understanding on the nature of creation and human spirits. Like Dante and other fourteenth-century writers, Bridget imagined the structures of purgatory and hell in their divine purposes of sin, suffering, repentance, and redemption. For this Swedish mystic, though, repentance and mercy lay at the heart of the judgments to come. God’s divine mercy functioned within the mechanics of painful punishment for sin that remained on the balance sheets after death, offering escape from hell, while repentance and prayers of the church could bring relief from purgatory. Just as she worked within the confines of her culture and Church as a devout laywoman, Bridget began with the rules of purgatory accepted by the people of the fourteenth century. Within that framework, Bridget stressed the role of the Virgin Mary, both in connecting with women like her and in pleading for mercy for sinners. Bridget also stressed the connection of believers to God in prayer and repentance. She also showed us a new devil, one that remains influential to this day.
“But this man’s learned unwisdom and good will are as pleasing to me as the two brass mites of the widow (Luke 21:2) that I preferred to the riches of kings. He possesses all wisdom in his unwisdom.” Rev. VI. 116. P. 177.
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Peterson, M.E. (2017). “Two Brass Mites of the Widow”: Saint Bridget of Sweden and the Terrors of Hell. In: Thuswaldner, G., Russ, D. (eds) The Hermeneutics of Hell. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52198-5_2
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