CATHERINE OF SWEDEN, St. — Daughter of the great Swedish St. Bridget (q.v.), born in 1331 or 1332 and died on 24 March 1381. Very young, she married Egard of Kürner, yet took a vow of chastity; upon his death she became the inseparable companion of her mother, with whom she had already joined in 1349 on the journey to Rome. Together in 1372 they went to Jerusalem. When Bridget died in Rome the following year, where she had returned,
Catherine accompanied her mother’s remains to Sweden and assumed leadership of the central Brigittine house at Vadstena. In 1375 she was again in Rome to promote her mother’s canonization and the confirmation of the Order she had founded; there she met the other Catherine, the Sienese saint, united with her in support of Urban VI. In 1380 she returned to Sweden, where she died shortly afterward.
One of her ascetical works, *Consolazione dell’anima*, has not come down to us. Sixtus IV permitted the celebration of her feast on 24 March, and Innocent VIII the translation of her relics. Julius II transferred her feast to 2 August, and Leo X, by the brief of 21 March 1512, to 25 June “until her canonization shall be achieved.” Her name was inserted in the *Roman Martyrology* on 22 instead of 24 March owing to an error by Baronius.