Throughout the life of Brigitta or Bridget she saw visions concerning the reform of the Church, messages to kings and popes and many other persons in high places, directing them to work for the Church. It may be noted that Birgitta never wrote in the first person. She always said the she carried a message from a very High Lord. Although she had longed to become a nun, she never even saw the monastery in Vadstena. In fact, nothing she set out to do was ever realized.
She never had the pope return to Rome permanently, she never managed to make peace between France and England, she never saw any nun in the habit that Christ had shown her, and she never returned to Sweden but died, worn out old lady far from home in July 1373. She can be called the Patroness of Failures. In this she was like the Lord, who was also classed as a failure, as He was hung on the Cross.
Birgitta was a successful failure as she was canonized in 1391. Birgitta was the only women ever to found a religious Order, Ordo Sanctissimi Salvatoris. She is the patroness of Sweden.
