The "Notorious" Joanna I, Queen of Naples

Joanna I, queen of Naples (recognized as heir presumptive, 4 November 1330)

Earlier this year I posted about Joanna II of Naples (1373-1445)--today we'll look at the Joanna who preceded her as queen regnant of Naples.

A detail of a fresco, Certosa di San Giacoma, Capri,
featuring Joanna, painted during her lifetime

Born in 1328, Joanna became the heir presumptive to the throne of Naples after her three elder siblings died, followed by the death of her father, Charles, duke of Calabria. Her mother, Marie of Valois, died in 1331. 

On 4 November 1330, her grandfather, King Robert of Naples, also known as "Robert the Wise," named his granddaughter his heir, rather than his nephews. He may have made the best decision possible, but maybe not the wisest?

Following the ceremony of homage to Joanna, her grandfather created her duchess of Calabria (1333) and princess of Salerno (1334). He also arranged for the girl's marriage to her cousin, Andrew, son of one of those overlooked nephews, Charles of Hungary, the king hoping to obviate any claims by the boy's father on the throne of Naples. The two children were married 1333 (at ages five and six--yet one more example of "traditional" marriage . . . ).

Before King Robert died in 1343, he formally arranged for Joanna's succession--but, by the same will, he did not name any role for Andrew. In the event of Joanna's death, according to Robert's plan, she was to be succeeded by her younger sister, Maria of Calabria.

In 1343, Joanna was still too young to rule in her own right; on her regency council was Sancha of Majorca, her step-grandmother (King Robert's second wife)--who was a strong advocate for the young queen before being forced out of the regency council a year later, in 1344. (Sancha, dowager queen of Naples, became a nun at the convent of Santa Maria della Croce in Naples, which was known as the place of the buried-alive [sepolte vive]. She died there eighteen months later.)

The result of Sancha's removal from the regency was conflict among the remaining parties--in addition to Andrew's family in Hungary, there were competing claims from King Robert's younger brother and one of Joanna's cousins, Charles, duke of Durazzo, son of King Robert's youngest brother, who tried to cement his "rightful" claim to the throne of Naples by marrying Joanna's younger sister. 

Despite all the competing claims and strife, Joanna was crowned queen of Naples--by the pope--on 28 August 1344. And, following her grandfather's will, she opposed the coronation of her husband, Andrew. He received the title of "king," but no crown and no role in governing. (Joanna also inherited from her grandfather the title of queen of Jerusalem and Sicily.)

Continued opposition, conspiracy, and maneuvering resulted in Andrew's assassination in 1345. Joanna was, of course, blamed for the murder. (She also gave birth to Charles Martel, Andrew's posthumous child, on Christmas Day, 1345.)

In 1347, Joanna married Louis of Taranto, a first cousin (I'm not even going to try to explain the relationships), in order to secure her crown, but the result was disaster for her and for Naples. Louis of Hungary, the older brother of Joanna's assassinated first husband, invaded Naples, and Joanna was forced to flee, leaving behind her son. (The boy was sent to Hungary by Louis--and died there, in 1348, not yet three years old.)

Joanna and her second husband wound up in Provence, where Joanna was countess. She also traveled to Avignon to meet with Pope Clement VI; she arranged for his dispensation for her second marriage (the closely related couple had married without a papal dispensation), managed to acquire a papal declaration of innocence for her suspected involvement in Andrew's murder, and, in return, sold Avignon to the papacy. (In 1307, the papacy had been removed from Rome to Avignon, where it would remain until 1377. Clement VI was the fourth pope to reside in Avignon--and since the papacy was in the city, it was a benefit for the papacy to have rights to the city.)

In her exile, Joanna gave birth to her second child, a girl named Catherine of Taranto (she would die in 1349, about one year old). After Louis of Hungary left Naples during the plague, Joanna and her husband were able to retake the city--but, in the process, her husband effectively took all power and control from the queen. 

After the Hungarians returned to attempt to reclaim Naples in 1350, Louis agreed to rule with Joanna. Joanna gave birth to a second daughter, Françoise of Taranto, who lived only a few months. Louis and Joanna managed to retake territories, restore order, and remain in power, but in 1362, Louis of Taranto died. 

Freed from her second husband, Joanna ruled alone, with varying degrees of success and calm, despite having married her third husband, James IV of  Majorca, who proved to be deranged, and then a fourth, Otto, duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, who at least tried to protect her rights in Naples against various (and plentiful) male claimants.

Joanna I of Naples, on her throne and with her sceptre,
from the church of St. Mary Magdalen,
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence;
Louis and Joanna issued a charter in favor of the church

In the end, though, one of those determined men, Charles of Durazzo (a different Charles of Durazzo, this one Joanna's second cousin and, also, the husband of Joanna's niece, Margaret of Durazzo, the youngest daughter of Joanna's sister Maria), invaded Naples in 1381, forcing Joanna to surrender and then imprisoning her. He had her killed on 27 July 1382. 

Although Charles of Durazzo claimed that the queen died of natural causes, other witnesses claim she was either strangled while she was kneeling in prayer or smothered by feather mattresses. Having been excommunicated by the Roman pope, Urban VI, for her support of the Avignonese pope, she could not be given a proper burial--her body was thrown into a well.

Two interesting notes: Birgitta of Sweden visited Naples between 1365 and 1372, meeting Queen Joanna. About the relationship between the queen and the future saint, Nancy Goldstone writes, "Joanna was . . . profoundly affected" by Birgitta. Birgitta herself would characterize her relationship with the queen as "one of a mother instructing an obedient daughter," and offered her various prophecies. After Birgitta's death, Joanna joined in with those who sought her canonization. 

Joanna also corresponded with Catherine of Siena, whom she "respected and encouraged," "sympathizing" with her "passionate approach to religion and politics." Unfortunately, however, Catherine of Siena would later denounce the queen for her support of the popes in Avignon over those in Rome. 

I recommend Nancy Goldstone's biography, which I have quoted here, The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily. But if you're not ready for an entire book, Helen Castor's review of Goldstone's biography is, in itself, an excellent introduction and analysis. 

Catherine Jagiellon, Her Mother's Daughter

Catherine Jagiellon, queen of Sweden (born 1 November 1526)

I have already posted about two of Catherine Jagiellon's sisters, Isabella, queen of Hungary, and Anna, queen of Poland. (A fourth sister, Sophia, would become duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg.) 

A miniature of Catherine Jagiellon,
painted in 1563 by Cranach the Younger

Born in Krakow, Catherine was the fifth child (and fourth daughter) of Sigismund I, king of Poland, and his wife, Bona Sforza. 

In 1562, Catherine was married to John Vasa, duke of Finland, thus becoming duchess of Finland. According to some sources, they eloped; at the very least, they seem not to have married with the kind of permission expected for royal marriages. It did not help that John Vasa was Protestant, Catherine, Catholic. John's half-brother, King Erik XIV of Sweden, declared war on John the next year, captured the couple, and imprisoned them in Sweden. 

Although offered the opportunity of returning to Poland, Catherine remained with her husband, giving birth to two children while being held in Gripsholm Castle. Her daughter, Isabella, was born in 1564 but died in 1566. Sigismund, born in 1566, would later become king of both Poland (1587-1632) and Sweden (1592-99). 

In 1567, John and Catherine were released from their imprisonment. An unpopular Eric (who, among other things, was thinking about separating Catherine from John and sending her off to Russia and a disappointed suitor, Ivan IV "the Terrible") was deposed, and John Vasa, duke of Finland, became John III, king of Sweden.

Catherine's Catholicism was always viewed with some suspicion in Protestant Sweden, particularly after her husband attempted a religious reformation, the "Red Book," that would blend both faith traditions and reintroduce some Catholic customs, including the use of Latin in church ceremonies, into the Swedish church, and he allowed Catholic convents to once again receive novices. Catherine's children--Sigismund and a daughter, Anna Vasa, born in 1568--were raised in the Catholic faith, Sigismund sent to a Jesuit institution in the Polish city of Bransberg. (After her mother's death, Anna would convert to the Lutheran faith.)

As an interesting link to an institution we've discussed before, Catherine supported the now-declining Vadstena Abbey, founded by Birgitta of Sweden and once the home of Birgitta's daughter, Catherine of Vadstena, who had been its abbess and who had had St. Birgitta's remains moved from Rome to the abbey.

The king and queen of Sweden would also spend considerable effort trying to gain Catherine's Sforza inheritance, which she should have received after her mother's death. They were not successful.

Catherine Jagiellon, queen of Sweden, died on 16 September 1583. Her son, Sigismund, would become king of Sweden in 1592, but he would be deposed after only seven years of rule at least in part because of suspicions about his Catholic upbringing.

Update, April 2022: For the HistoryExtra podcast episode "The Jagiellonians, the Dynasty that Shaped Central Europe," click here. 

Margery Kempe Tells Her Story

Margery Kempe (in Rome, 7 October 1414)

In the account of her life that she says was completed in 1436, the English mystic and pilgrim Margery Kempe tells of her visit to Rome, where on 7 October 1414, she says she visits the "chamber that Saint Bridget died in" and then "kneeled on the stone on which our Lord appeared to Saint Bridget."

A page from the mid-fifteenth century
manuscript copy of Margery Kempe's
Boke (now BL Add. 61823) 

Margery Kempe's "autobiography," which includes this reference to Birgitta of Sweden, is compelling, challenging, at times deeply moving, sometimes hilarious, and, in the end, unforgettable, as is Kempe herself. 

But I found myself at a complete loss the first time a selection from Kempe was included in the Norton Anthology of British Literature some time in the late 80s or in the early 90s--so much at a loss, in fact, that although I wanted to include women writers in the survey course I was teaching, I freaked out and asked a friend who taught theology to do the brief selection from Kempe for me. She spent an hour talking to a room full of bored students about the "gift of tears," we all got through the period, and then we turned the page. 

But in the years since, I've taught Margery Kempe's book many times--not just a couple of short pages in the Norton anthology but her entire work. With each rereading and each group of students, I grew to love it--and Kempe herself--more and more. 

It horrified me--not to mention my students--when I realized in class one day that Kempe reminded me of my mother: absolutely impossible to deal with, completely unpredictable, a horror and an embarrassment to her fellow travelers, including her husband, always making a spectacle of herself (to use one of my mother's favorite phrases, invariably applied to someone else), and supremely confident in the correctness her own opinions, decisions, and pronouncements. Kempe is garrulous, attention-seeking, and funny, both repellent and endearing. 

Margery Brunham was born in the port city of Bishop's Lynn (now King's Lynn) in Norfolk about the year 1373. She married John Kempe when she was about twenty, and she tells us that she gives birth to fourteen children. (Though my students were always shocked that this mother wrote almost nothing about any of her children--they thought her children would--or should--be the focus of Kempe's life.)

After a terrible period of mental and physical collapse following the birth of her first child, she begins to experience a series of marvelous visions of Jesus, who sits on her bed and comforts her. Other visions follow--she is with St. Anne at the birth of the Virgin Mary, bustling about to take care of the newborn and then looking after her "until she was twelve years of age." She is with Mary in Bethlehem, finding "lodgings for her every night," begging for "fair white cloth and kerchiefs" in which to swaddle the infant Jesus, begging for food for the mother and child.

Margery Kempe negotiates with her husband to end their sex life (at first he refuses, threatening to rape her, but eventually, after she promises to pay his debts, he agrees), she is arrested and examined about her religious views, she undertakes pilgrimages (throughout England, to Rome, to St. James Compostela, to the Holy Land, to Germany), she composes her autobiography, she cares for her dying husband, and, by 1438, she is dead.

It's easy to regard Kempe's book as the rambling, disorganized reflections of a madwoman--as Lynn Staley notes, when the manuscript copy of Kempe's Book was first recovered and identified, "it was taken as a sort of verbal diary, narrated by a possibly hysterical, certainly emotional, woman." But in the intervening years, it has come to be recognized as carefully "authored," the "product of a shaping imagination."

Having read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where the greatest of English storytellers creates a fictional version of himself as a genial boob, gullible, naive, and a terrible teller of stories, student-readers can see the way Margery Kempe also constructs a version of herself, whom she refers to in the third-person as "this creature." 

A page from Wynken de Worde's
1501 pamphlet of extracts from
Margery Kempe's Boke

Margery Kempe's Boke is widely regarded today as the first autobiography written in English, but that is not the way she saw her work.

Kempe identifies her "book" as a "treatise"--well, actually as "a short treatise" or a "little treatise." It can also be read as a confessio--like Augustine's Confessions, a literary and public revelation of what has been hidden--or an account of mystical revelations, or even a travelogue. 

Kempe's work survives in only one manuscript copy, from the mid-fifteenth century, that at one time belonged to the Carthusian monks of Mount Grace Priory (in Yorkshire). A seven-page extract was printed by Wynken de Worde in 1501 as A shorte treatyse of contemplacyon taught by our lorde Ihesu cryste, or taken out of the boke of Margerie Kempe of Lynn. It was reprinted by Henry Pepwell in 1521--at that time, Pepwell decided that Margery Kempe was a "devout anchoress." 

Those few pages were all that had ever come to light until 1934, when the manuscript was "discovered" by Lieutenant-Colonel W. Butler Bowdon among his family archives.

There is a great deal of wonderful critical commentary on Kempe and her book, but I love a comment one of my students, Jordan, made the last time I read this book for class: Margery Kempe's book is about "a lost soul that finds its way."

In yet another marvel of technology, the British Library has made available a digitized copy of the mid-fifteenth-century manuscript; you can access it by clicking here. There are two wonderful paperback editions--I've quoted from Lynne Staley, who has produced a Norton Critical Edition text of The Book of Margery Kempe. I also recommend B. A. Windeatt's Penguin edition (which I've used in class so many times that it's falling apart, but I can't bear to part with it). 

Margaret of Denmark: Queen Regent and Queen Regnant

Margart of Denmark, queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (3 August 1387)

The youngest child of the Danish king Valdemar IV, and his wife, Hedvig of Schleswig, Margaret was born in 1353. Little is known about her childhood other than, at the age of six, she was betrothed to Haakon VI, king of Norway. In Copenhagen, on 9 April 1363, the ten-year-old Margaret was married to the twenty-three-year-old king. 

Margaret of Denmark,
from her effigy at
Roskilde Cathedral

As her biographer Mary Hill notes, "no more is heard of Margaret" for the next three years, but she seems to have spent the years immediately following her marriage at her father's court in Denmark. But by 1366 she was at Haakon's Akershus castle and under the guardianship of the noblewoman Marta Ulfsdottir, who was the eldest child of a woman I posted about just a few days ago, Birgitta of Sweden. 

(Exiled from Sweden in 1357, along with her second husband, Marta Ulfsdottir had taken up residence in the Norwegian court. According to contemporary sources, Marta had been married first to Sigvid Ribbing, between 1334 and 1341, a political alliance to which her mother, Birgitta had objected--although he was a nobleman, and the marriage may thus have been "advantageous," Birgitta referred to him as "a robber." But all that, I guess, is another story . . . )

Back to Margaret of Denmark. In 1370, when she was about eighteen years old, Margaret gave birth to her only child, Olaf; in 1375, after her father's death, Margaret made sure her son was elected to succeed Valdemar as king of Denmark and that she would serve as regent for the country. About her abilities, one chronicler noted that it was "quite astonishing" to see a woman who "became so powerful in a quarter of a year that she lacked nothing in the whole kingdom."

In 1380, after King Haakon's death, Margaret made sure that her son would follow his father as king of Norway and that, until he reached his age of majority, she would be his regent.

Akershus Castle, Oslo,
construction begun by Haakon VI's great grandfather,
Haakon V

In 1387, however, Olaf died, and Margaret of Denmark herself succeeded to the throne of Norway on 3 August 1387 (the date I've used for this post) and to the throne of Denmark on 10 August. She also pursued the longstanding conflict with Sweden, gathering an army and invading.

In March 1388, the Swedes conceded defeat and elected Margaret "Sovereign Lady and Ruler." That wasn't the end of her struggle, however--although Albert of Sweden had been deposed, he returned for one more battle with the woman he had insulted by sending a gift of a dress and an apron (along with a stone on which to sharpen a needle) and by calling her a king without pants. He was defeated on 24 February 1389. (Serves him right.)

To unite the three countries, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Margaret established the Kalmar Union in 1397. Although she had adopted her great-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, as her heir in 1389, proclaiming him king of Norway, and although he was elected king of Denmark and Sweden in 1397, Margaret remained the acknowledged ruler of the united kingdoms until her death on 12 October 1412.

She arranged for Eric's marriage to Philippa of England who, as we have seen, would herself rule the three kingdoms as regent. 

Surviving fragments of a

magnificent cloth-of-gold gown

belonging to Margaret of Denmark,

Roskilde Cathedral Museum

The Encyclopedia Britannica offers a biographical essay on Margaret of Denmark, which you can read here.

There is no recent biography in English, but you can access Mary Hill's 1898 Margaret of Denmark, in its entirety, via Google Books, by clicking here. (Unlike many nineteenth-century histories, this one is not romanticized or fictionalized, though a great deal of it is, necessarily, about men's better-documented lives.)

A modern reconstruction of
Margaret's gown

Birgitta of Sweden: Celestial Revelations

Birgitta of Sweden (died 23 July 1373)

The life of Birgitta Birgersdotter changed radically in 1344. Before that date, she lived a pious but conventional life as daughter, wife, and mother. After 1344, her life was utterly unconventional.

A late fifteenth-century depiction of
St. Birgitta of Sweden

Born about the year 1303, Birgitta was the daughter of Birger Persson, a wealthy landowner and member of a prominent family, who was also a governor and provincial judge in Uppland, a province on the eastern coast of Sweden. Her mother was Birger Perssons's second wife, Ingeborg Bengtsdotter, who had equally illustrious connections, both to the Swedish monarchy, and to Birger Magnusson of Bjälbo, the founder of the city of Stockholm.

Birgitta would later claim that she had begun experiencing mystical visions when she was seven and that she had wished to join a religious order. But her father did not want his daughter to enter a convent, and after the death of Ingeborg Bengtsdotter, about the year 1314, Birger Persson decided to arrange a politically advantageous marriage for his daughter. So in 1316, Birgitta was married to Ulf Gudmarsson, lord of Närke, and she would spend much, though not all, of their twenty-eight-year marriage at his castle at Ulvâsa in Östergötland.

Birgitta happily discovered her husband was as dedicated to his faith as she was. Over the course of the next three decades, Birgitta would live the life of a wife and mother--although one who was also devout and dedicated to performing works of charity. Despite some accounts of her life that focus on her avoidance of "marital pleasure," Birgitta gave birth to eight children, four sons and four daughters. She was also called to court of King Magnus Eriksson after his 1335 marriage to Blanche of Namur. 

Birgitta would enter the second phase of her life in 1344, after her husband's death. Now in her forties, a widow, and freed from childbearing and childrearing, she could devote herself to the religious life that had been denied her earlier. 

She became a practicing ascetic, like many of the religious women we have already seen, denying herself food and subjecting herself to a variety of penitential acts. Her visionary experiences returned; after her death, her confessor recorded some six hundred of her revelations in Latin as Revelationes coelestes ("celestial revelations").  

Not content to join an established religious order, Birgitta founded her own religious community, probably in the year 1346. Originally known as the Order of St. Saviour, it later became known as the the Brigittines, an order that included joint communities of both monks and nuns. Its chief monastery was at Vadstena, in Östergötland, a gift from Magnus of Sweden. 

A detail from a prayer book, c. 1500,
St. Birgitta of Sweden

In 1349, seeking approval for her new order, Birgitta traveled to Rome, accompanied by one of her sons and her daughter, Catherine, about whom I posted earlier this year. Although the order would not receive papal approval until August 1370, Birgitta decided to remain in Rome (though she did undertake occasional pilgrimages, including one to the Holy Land in 1372). She died in Rome on 23 July 1373.

After Birgitta's death, her daughter Catherine returned to Sweden with her mother's body. Birgitta was buried in the monastery she had founded in Vadstena. Catherine continued her mother's work in the monastery and with the Briggitine order, though she ultimately returned to Rome to work for Birgitta's canonization, which took place on 7 October 1391. (While in Rome, Catherine developed a close relationship with a woman we have met before, Catherine of Siena.) 

And as a further note: St. Birgitta of Sweden's daughter, Catherine, was herself canonized, in 1484, as St. Catherine of Sweden. Like her mother, Catherine had been married, but her husband died while she was in Rome with her mother. Birgitta's granddaughter Ingegerd, the child of Birgitta's daughter Margareta, became the first official abbess of Vadstena Abbey in 1388. (Unfortunately, she was accused of forgery, embezzlement, and breaking her vows of chastity and removed as abbess in 1403. Oops. But she remained a member of the community until her death in 1412, and in the end her sins were forgiven.)

For a short biography, I'll link you here to the online Encyclopedia Britannica entry. A longer biography, available here, via the Encyclopedia of World Biograhy, is also quite good. There are many editions of her Revelations and prayers available, but I like Classics of Western Spirituality text, Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Writings.

Philippa of England, Beloved in Scandinavia

Philippa of England (born 4 June 1394)

Philippa of England was the youngest child born to Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, and his first wife, the great English heiress Mary de Bohun--the two were married on 27 July 1380, and since Mary's birth year is uncertain, some historians indicate she may have been as young as twelve years old (Henry was about fourteen). Their first child, a boy, survived only a few days after his birth in April 1382. By the time of her death twelve years later, Mary de Bohun had given birth to five more children--she died in in 1394, giving birth to her seventh, Philippa. Mary de Bohun died five years before her husband would become king.

A detail from the nineteenth-century
stained glass representation
of Philippa of England,
Vladstena Abbey

Once Henry Bolingbroke became King Henry IV, he arranged advantageous marriages for his two daughters. The elder, Blanche, was married to Louis III, count palatine of the Rhine. To further an alliance with the Kalmar Union (the united sovereign states of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), Philippa was married to Eric of Pomerania, the heir to Queen Margaret I of Denmark.

The two were married on 26 October 1406 in Lund Cathedral, Sweden, and spent most of their time after their marriage at their residences in Sweden.

According to his titles, Eric began his reign as king of king of Denmark in 1386, Norway in 1389, and Sweden in 1396, but the reality is that Queen Margaret of Denmark, the daughter of the Danish king Valdemar IV and the widow of the Norwegian king Haakon VI, had formed the Kalmar Union and had been ruling the joined kingdoms as queen regnant from 1388, when she was elected "Sovereign Lady and Ruler"; she continued to govern until her death in 1412.

Queen Margaret's effective rule may well have led to Philippa's successes in Scandinavia. When Eric assumed his full role as ruler, he trusted and relied on her; while her husband was away at war during an extended period from 1423 to 1425, Philippa ruled as regent of the Kalmar Union. She continued her active role in government after the end of her regency, including organizing the defense of Copenhagen against forces of the Hanseatic League in 1428 and embarking on a diplomatic mission to Sweden, where she died on 5 January 1430.

Nineteenth-century stained glass,
Vladstena Abbey

As king, Eric had many good qualities, but he was also hot-tempered, obstinate, and lacking in diplomatic skills. For her diplomacy, her many works of charity for the poor, and her obvious political skills, Philippa earned the respect and love of the people of the Kalmar Union.

Philippa of England was buried in the Abbey of Our Lady and of St. Bridget, more commonly referred to as Vladstena Abbey, founded in 1346 by St. Birgitta of Sweden. 

The Abbey Church

Catherine of Vadstena, Her Mother's Daughter

Catherine of Sweden (died 24 March 1381)

Catherine of Sweden (or Catherine Ulfsdotter) was the daughter of Ulf Gudmarsson, lord of Ulvåsa, and Birgitta Birgersdotter of Finsta--who would become St. Birgitta of Sweden. 

A sculpture of Catherine of Sweden,
Trönö church, Hälsingland

Born in 1332, Catherine would, like her mother, marry before she entered into the religious life. And, also like her mother, Catherine would be recognized as a saint.

At the age of seven, Catherine was sent to be educated at the convent of Riseburg, where she received spiritual training. Although the girl preferred her convent life, when she was about twelve or thirteen, her father arranged her marriage to Egard Lydersson von Kyren, a German noble. 

Unlike her mother, however, who had eight children, Catherine convinced her husband to enter into a chaste marriage, and both took vows of perpetual virginity. After a few short years of marriage, Catherine traveled with her mother to Rome in 1349 to visit relics of holy martyrs and to gain recognition for the new religious order that Birgitta, now widowed, hoped to establish. Shortly after their arrival, Catherine learned of the death of her husband.

She remained in Rome with her mother, assisting her in her charitable work and accompanying her mother on several pilgrimages, including a trip to the Holy Land. After Birgitta's death in 1373, Catherine returned to Sweden and became the abbess of the Brigittine convent at Vadstena abbey, a convent that had been founded by her mother.

As abbess, Catherine insured that the established conformed to the Rule established by her mother. She also returned to Rome, working toward her mother's canonization, and while in Rome, she became a friend of another famed religious figure, Catherine of Siena (whom we will meet next month).

Birgitta had originally been buried in Rome, but Catherine received permission to have her mother's remains moved and reburied at Vadstena. Catherine of Sweden served as abbess of Vadstena until her death on 24 March 1381.

The convent at Vadstena

Catherine was never formally canonized, but in 1484, a century after her death, Pope Innocent VIII gave permission for her to be venerated as a saint. (Although Catherine died on 24 March, her feast day is assigned to 22 March.)

Catherine is also known to have written a devotional work, Själens tröst (Consolation of the Soul), but no copies are know to have survived (despite what Wikipedia may say).

Update, 30 January 2018: Nikos Steves writes to say that he has posted a link to this entry on St. Catherine on the podcast page for his history of of the Virgin Mary, Constant Procession . . . If you'd like to hear his podcast on St. Catherine, please click here.