Background

When Birgitta was in her forties, she began to have visions with increasing frequency, and after her husband’s death she dedicated herself wholly to spiritual life as a ‘Bride of Christ’. Her visions, in which both Christ and the Virgin Mary spoke to her directly, inspired her to found an entirely new monastic order. She criticised the old orders as having been designed for men and considered that women needed a new rule of their own. [1]

Because creating a new monastic order required the blessing of the Pope, Birgitta went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1349. She was accompanied by Petrus of Skänninge (Petrus Olovsson), who was her confessor, and it is estimated that the Brigittine Office or Cantus sororum (’Songs of the Sisters’) was created in 1352–1354. This was based on the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an addendum and preface to the Divine Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Birgitta and Petrus worked closely together to create the new cycle of devotions, the Cantus sororum.

One of the most important components of this work authored by Birgitta was Sermo angelicus, the Angel’s Discourse, dictated to her by an angel as assigned by Christ. It consists of 21 lessons, translated into Latin by Petrus. These lessons were read at Matins early in the morning, three at a time through the seven days of the week. This was the framework on which Petrus devised the new Office. [2]

“The chants came to him from the Virgin, spoken in the wind, filling his heart and breast with warmth so that his tongue would speak of things that he previously could not have expressed.” – Saint Birgitta [3]

Petrus was liturgically better educated than Birgitta and had her full confidence in shaping the new devotions. He adapted texts to existing chants (e.g. hymns), created original melodies (e.g. for responsories and antiphons), eventually creating an entire Marian Office for the use of the nuns in the newly founded double monastery.

Contrary to common practice at the time, the Office of the nuns was to be sung after the divine service of the monks and in the manner of a service for a high festival (solemniter), with candles and incense. One of the most important tasks of the nuns was to sing to the glory of God. It was Birgitta’s wish that her monastery would be filled with an unending song of praise, reminiscent of the eternal song of the angels around the heavenly throne.

The Virgin Mary was given pride of place in the nuns’ liturgy, as it was her that the nuns were to strive to follow in their lives. The Brigittine Office is Marian and examines her relationship with the world from the perspective of the story of Redemption. [4]

• [1] Salmesvuori  2012, 35‒36.
• [2] Vuori 2012, 118‒120.
• [3] Heliga Birgitta. Extravagantes 114.  Se, Vuori 2011, 45.
• [4] Vuori, 2012, 105‒133. Vuori 2011.
• [5] Lundén, Tryggve Lundén 1976a, XXXVII.

• Salmesvuori, Päivi 2012.  Birgitta – från adelsjungfru till kosmopolit. In Setälä, Päivi & Ahl-Waris, Eva (eds.)Heliga Birgitta – Europas skyddshelgon (orig. Pyhä Birgitta – Euroopan suojeluspyhimys, Otava 2003). Stockholm: Societas Sanctae Birgittae.
• Vuori, Hilkka-Liisa 2011. Neitsyt Marian yrttitarhassa – Birgittalaissisarten matutinumin suuret responsoriot. Studia Musica 47. Helsinki: Sibelius-Akatemia. <https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/302480>
• Vuori, Hilkka-Liisa 2012. Det sjungande klostret. In Setälä, Päivi & Ahl-Waris, Eva (eds.) Heliga Birgitta – Europas skyddshelgon (orig. Pyhä Birgitta – Euroopan suojeluspyhimys, Otava 2003). Stockholm: Societas Sanctae Birgittae.
• Lundén, Tryggve 1976a. Den heliga Birgitta och den helige Petrus av Skänninge: Officium parvum beate Marie Virginis. Vår Frus tidegärd I. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Historico-Ecclesiastica Upsaliensia 27–28.
• Lundén, Tryggve 1976b. Den heliga Birgitta och den helige Petrus av Skänninge: Officium parvum beate Marie Virginis. Vår Frus tidegärd II. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Historico-Ecclesiastica Upsaliensia 27–28.