The forthcoming canonisation of Mother Elizabeth Hesselblad, the Swedish woman who re-established the Brigittine Order in the 1900s, not only honours a notable figure of the 20th century but will also emphasise afresh the Church’s commitment to religious freedom and to friendship with the Jewish people.
Mother Elizabeth was beatified by Pope St John Paul in 2000. Her canonisation by Pope Francis on June 5 will make history: she will be the first woman to be both a canonised saint and honoured by Israel as “Righteous Among the Nations”.
Born in 1870 and raised in a devout Lutheran family in rural Sweden, Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad was one of 13 children. As a young woman, she emigrated to America where she trained as a nurse in a New York hospital. The faith of local poor Catholics and the dedicated work of their chaplains impressed her. She was received into the Catholic Church, and, returning to Europe, felt a deep inner call to revive the ancient order of Sisters founded in the 14th century by St Bridget, or Birgitta, a noblewoman close to the Swedish royal family.
The Brigittine Sisters are notable for their unusual headdress, a white circlet on top of their veils, with a cross and five red marks honouring Christ’s five wounds. Following Mother Elizabeth’s re-establishment of the order in 1906, it flourished afresh. Two English women were among her earliest novices, Madeline Hambrough and Katherine Flanagan.
A Brigittine house was established at Iver, Buckinghamshire – a thriving community to this day – and there are also Brigittine Sisters at Holywell in Wales and at the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham. Because of their headdress, they are sometimes known as the “hot cross bun nuns”.
Mother Elizabeth founded a convent at Djursholm in her native Sweden, and Mother Katherine Flanagan was in charge there for several years. Significant numbers of Lutherans were becoming interested in rediscovering their Brigittine heritage, and the retreat house, in a beautiful waterside setting, became popular with visitors.
Old anti-Catholic prejudices dating from the Reformation era gradually dissolved and various Lutheran-Catholic dialogues began. These would grow over the years, becoming fruitful during the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, with some notable joint prayer services in Rome and elsewhere.
Most significantly of all, Mother Elizabeth established the Brigittine Order in Rome, eventually acquiring the house in the Piazza Farnese where St Bridget had herself lived centuries before. She ran it as a guest house and retreat centre, and particularly welcomed all Scandinavian visitors each December, celebrating St Lucy and Christmas with Swedish food and carols.
Prominent Swedish visitors to Rome never failed to make a visit, and this provided opportunities for links between the Scandinavian Lutheran tradition and Catholic ideas. It was there that she provided a refuge for Jewish people during World War II, saving them from arrest and transportation to the Nazi death camps.
She displayed a Swedish flag prominently – although the house was simply part of Rome and not in any way Swedish territory – and refused to allow any searches by German forces. If the Jewish people sheltering there had been found, she would have been arrested along with them and faced a possible death sentence.
Madeline Hambrough – whose family lived in Sussex – took the name Riccarda on joining the order, honouring the 16th-century English martyr Richard Reynolds. She became Mother Elizabeth’s right hand in caring for the Jewish families. Meeting daily difficulties in obtaining food for their guests, the Sisters also faced the danger of raids and random police visits – there was a police office just across the piazza from the convent.
Mother Riccarda is regarded as a heroine in her own right and her cause for beatification has been introduced, as has that of Mother Katherine Flanagan. Mother Riccarda’s memory is today honoured at St Mary Magdalene’s Church in Brighton where she was baptised, and the local community is also interested: one of the Brighton seaside buses has even been named after her and was formally blessed by the parish priest, Fr Ray Blake.
Mother Katherine Flanagan – whose family lived at Earlsfield in south London and attended St Gregory’s Church there – is also honoured at Iver, where she lived before going to Djursholm.
In caring for the Jews, Mother Elizabeth specifically insisted on their religious freedom, telling them they should pray their Jewish prayers and not feel obliged to attend Mass or the Sisters’ chapel devotions. The Piperno family, who were among those sheltered in the convent, still maintain links with the Brigittine sisters. Piero Piperno, a teenage boy at the time, remembers: “My mother had become friendly with Mother Elizabeth.
When it was first suggested that the convent might be a safe place to stay, the idea was to say that we were refugees from the bombing. But my mother said that Mother Elizabeth was a woman to whom you had to tell the truth, and so she told her that we were Jews. And Mother Elizabeth warmly respected our family traditions and beliefs.” He recalled the excitement when Rome was liberated and soldiers from de Gaulle’s Free French forces knocked at the convent door and told them that the Germans had gone.
Mother Elizabeth died in 1957. She was named as Righteous Among the Nations in 2004 and is honoured at Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial, where Pope St John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI both prayed on their official visits to Israel.
Hailed as the “second foundress” of the Brigittine order, Mother Elizabeth suffered from ill health for much of her life, but never allowed this to prevent her from carrying out her projects.
Today there are Brigittine houses in many countries, including India, from where a number of Sisters have come to Britain to revive the order here. At Maryvale in Birmingham – an old recusant centre which was also a refuge for Blessed John Henry Newman when he first joined the Catholic Church – they welcome students for theological and philosophical studies, and have become well known locally in their distinctive grey habits and veils.
After World War II, the Brigittine Sisters in Rome worked to send relief supplies to refugees and impoverished families across Europe. The 1960 film Conspiracy of Hearts, starring Sylvia Syms, Lilli Palmer and David Kossoff was based on Mother Elizabeth’s wartime heroism, and won a Golden Globe.
In 2013, Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Institute gave a copy of my book Courage and Conviction, telling the story of the Brigittines’ help for Jews in wartime Rome, to Pope Francis at a private audience.
Mother Elizabeth’s canonisation will be cause for rejoicing in Sweden, where the number of Catholics has risen in recent years following immigration from, among other places, Poland and Latin America.
It will also have significance for Britain, not only because of support given by English women in her restoration of the Brigittine order, but also because Lutheran-Catholic dialogue resonates with Anglican-Catholic dialogue here.
Always a woman of openness and welcome, Mother Elizabeth was also one who understood the significance of honouring history and seeking a sense of continuity rather than emphasising any breach. She rejoiced in the romance of St Bridget’s love of chivalry and sought to restore to all Christians a sense of unity with their rich heritage. The presence of Brigittine Sisters in modern Britain, in traditional Brigittine habits, running guest houses with a message of welcome to all, emphasises that.
Joanna Bogle is an author, broadcaster and journalist. Her book Courage and Conviction is published by Gracewing
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