The cycle consists of 17 paintings depicting fragments of St. Bridget's life and her revelations. Some of them also include people from her immediate family. They were incorporated to the decor of the church when the abbess was Dorota Firlejówna (1632-1660). She introduced stalls (wooden or stone benches, usually very richly decorated) to the chancel. Their original 17th century arrangement was as follows: the chancel was circled by the stalls from two sides of the main altar so that they reached and encountered it on both sides. On the right side there were eight pictures, nine on the left.
The current arrangement has functioned since renovations from the beginning of the 20th century. The images were taken out from the old stalls and placed in new ones. At that time, their sizes were adjusted to new dimensions, which in practice meant reducing them. The images that did not fit in reduced choir stalls were arranged on the sides, front and back of the benches in aisles of the church.
The first picture of the series presents an event in which Bridget's parents took part, even before her birth. This is a dramatic scene of a sinking ship and survivors during a sea storm. On the distant shore there is a kneeling pregnant Ingeborg – a mother of St. Bridget and over her, in the clouds Jesus Christ speaks with words: ECCE SALVATA ES PROPTER BONUM QVOD GESTAS IN VTERO TUO ('Here you are saved for the good that you carry in your womb'). Behind Ingeborga, we can see a castle that two flanking walls with bastions are crowned with battlements. The picture is signed with the words: NAVFRAGA MATER EIUS PROPTER IPSAM SALVATUR (Her mother being a shipwreck survivor is saved because of her).
Bridget's parents were devout, charitable, willing pilgrims to holy places. When before the St. Bridget's birth they were returning from Kildare in Ireland they found themselves in great danger due to the sea storm. Ingeborga was miraculously saved from that danger. During dreaming the next night, like in reality, she saw a glowing figure who told her: You are saved for the good that you have here in life, so raise it with God's love, because it is God's gift to you.
In this image two simultaneous events are showed, which have taken place at different times. Both however are emphasizing that it was a divine intention, for St. Bridget to accomplish her mission on earth.
The next scene of the cycle does not yet reveal the Saint herself, though it happens after her birth. In the foreground we can see a bishop, an elderly man kneeling in deep prayer. This is Benedict, a parish priest of Rasbo, who on 14 June was praying that Ingeborga would happily give birth to her baby. In heavens where he is directing his gaze, he sees Mary with a book in her hand speaking to him: NATA EST BIRGERO FILIA, CUIUS VOX ADMIRABILIS AUDIETUR PER ORBEM ('A daughter was born to Birger, her voice will be heard in the whole world').
The painting is also signed with the words: CAELITUS ANUNTIATUR NATAE GLORIA (The glory of the born is announced from heaven). When Bridget was to be born the guardian of the nearby church, who in the future became the Aibona bishop, had a wonderful vision. Praying at the time of her birth, a cloud appeared to him, and in the cloud he saw Mary holding a book in her hand. Then she told him that a daughter was just born to Birger and she would preach the joy of salvation.
This scene is set against the landscape with a clearly marked silhouette of the church. This church has a very characteristic stepped finished top of the facade with pinnacles sticking out beyond the plain. The top is decorated with three rows of blends separated from each other by stretches of ledges. The facade has an entrance portal, above which there is a tracery window. The iconographic comparisons show that this is a church of the Bridgettines in Lublin before going up a tower to the church's building body.
The event took place when Bridget was a seven-year-old girl. The picture shows an inscription: CORONATUR A B [EATA] V [IRGINE] (She is crowned by the B[lessed] V[irgin] Mary). We see her keeping guard on the prayer. A bed in the background and St. Bridget in a nightly dress kneeling before something called an altar stone, as witnessed about the time of a day. In the picture we can see the Virgin Mary standing in the clouds speaking to her with words: VIS NE HABERE ISTAM CORONAM ('Do you want to have this crown?') and passes to the Saint's direction a crown with seven multicoloured jewels in it. Bridget answers VOLO ('I want'). On the painting this text is shown in a mirror image. Acceptance, even zeal, is reflected both in prayer and on her face. It was the first revelation of St. Bridget, which she revealed to her confessor in Rome at the end of her life. She told him that the Virgin Mary had appeared with a precious crown in her hand, decorated with seven precious jewels. Mary asked her if she wanted to receive it. When Bridget agreed, the Mother of God put it on the visionary's head.
At the end of her life, when she was seriously ill, she had another vision. St. Agnes visited her and explained her the meaning of this crown and the symbolism of the expensive stones that it was decorated. The stones has signified the nuisance of life, which are primarily caused by other people. But they are to be better and more aware of holiness. Jasper was set by the one who spoke of her abusive things. Sapphire set the one who used to say favourable words to her and behind eyes backbited her. Emerald however the one who said these things about which she did not think, or did not say. The pearl set in the crown who criticised religious men in her presence and the topaz was symbolized by person who spoke sarcastic words, while Bridget blessed him. The diamond set the one who made her body harm, and the last jewel-ruby put a slanderer.
This is Bridget's next vision. She had it when she was ten. The image was signed with the words: CUM CHRISTO CRUCIFIXO LOQVITUR (She is talking to the Crucified Christ).
The Saint is kneeling before the Crucified Christ. From the mouth of St. Bridgit some words are uttered: DOMINE, QVIS FECIT TIBI ISTUD ('Lord, who did it to You'? - a mirror inscription), Christ answers: QVI ME CONTEMNUNT ('Those who despise me'). This vision happened at night, after she heard a sermon about the Passion of the Saviour in the church. She saw the Christ as if crucified and complaining: 'I am so scourged'. What she understood as if it had just happened and she replied: 'O, Lord! Who did it to You? Christ answered: 'Those who despise me and do not care for my love do it to me'.
This event has significant influence on the Passion piety of St. Bridget, which will become the main theme of her spiritual reflections. In her ecstatic states, the Saint saw and experienced the crucifixion of Jesus twice more. The discussed image depicts the first such vision. The scene is set in the church: the dark background of the interior is brightened by the light coming out of the big window, which closes the perspective of the composition. As in one of the earlier images, these two events which took place in different times, were portrayed together.
In this painting Bridget was portrayed in a rich attire: in an ermine coat and in sophisticated hairstyle. In this way the artist wanted to emphasize her high social origins, and by contrast with next paintings, where Bridget was dressed in a monastic habit, wanted to point to the two stages of her life: the first when she led a secular life and the second when she lived as a nun.
This is the last scene in which the Saint is presented in the rich attire of a lay person and again during one of her revelations. The painting is signed: IN SPONSAM A CHRISTO ELIGITUR (Chosen by Christ for a bride). Bridget is in the church, the arcades in the background proclaim it. She is kneeling at the altarpiece depicting Mary with Child. During her prayer Jesus appeared to her directing the following words that are written in the picture on the banderole: TU ERIS MEA, VIDEBIS SECRET CELESTIA ('You will be my bride and you will see heaven's mysteries').
Christ's figure shot here is interesting. He is shown in a dynamic pose, the right hand rejecting as if to indicate its direction, while the left indicates the beginning of the banderole, which ends at the height of Bridget's eye. Whereas she is spreading her arms helplessly, surprised looking at Christ.
In this image we can see one of many revelations (since 1346), which Bridget received in the Cistercian monastery in Alwastra, where she joined after the death of her husband. Previously she settled the property matters. She shared out her goods among heirs and the poor. This image shows an important moment in her life when the Saint decides to give up her secular life. Then he finds in the person of Peter Olafson a spiritual guide and a secretary. He and father Peter of Skanninge, translated the visions of Bridget's written in Swedish into Latin.
The picture was signed: INSTITUTUM ORDINI SCRIBIT (is writing the Rule for the Order). This is the first image on which we see the Saint dressed in the habit of the Bridgettine's Order. To the end of the cycle she will be shown in this way. In fact, she never wore the dress of the established order. In tradition, however, it is adopted presenting her in the abbess's habit.
St. Bridget's life was divided into two stages: secular in Sweden, when she was a wife and mother, and life in Rome after her husband's death. The second stage resembled the rhythm of monastic life: common prayers, meals, studies, penitential practices, pilgrimages, visiting churches for gaining indulgences.
In this image, a crucifix is standing on the table next to the Saint. Bridget is writing the words given to her by an angel who is bending over her behind the back of her chair. In the upper left corner of the picture we see a window through which light rays are emerging behind heavy clouds. They are falling down on the centre of the room. This is a divine sign of the custody of the newly established order.
Bridget received a commending to establish a new Order. It was in the spring of 1346, during a mystical rapture when she received a revelation concerning organization of the Order. The Rule of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour wrote in the monastery in Alwastra, Sweden. She went to Rome at the end of 1349 for approving it by the Pope.
This painting is signed with the words: A DEO PATRE ITERVM FIL[IO] TRADITUR IN SPONSA GLO[RIAE] ( God the Fathe is passing on (Bridget) to the Son as a bride of glory). The Saviour is giving his hand to the kneeling Saint. God the Father is standing behind them, who blessing is saying these words: SPONSAM ASIGNO TIBI ('I give You the Bride'). Christ responds: EGO ASSUMO EAM ('I accept Her'). Bridget is portreying here as a nun, but on her head she has a royal mitre with a cross. Divine persons have differen halos: God the Father has it in the form of a triangle, Christ in the shape of a luminescent rim.
In her Revelations, Bridget does not say anything about spiritual marriage with God. Although she is named wedded, but it may mean she has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and that she led life in the sanctifying grace. We can not even speak of religious consecration by which the person who makes such vows is married to Christ. Bridget never made a monastic profession, although she always desired religious life with all its spiritual effects. In the picture, however, the moment of marriage in the sense of entrusting is clearly shown. God the Father gives Bridget to Christ.
The painting is signed by: CAELESTIS CELITUS ILLI OSTENDATUR (God is appearing her from heaven). Bridget is wearing a dress of her order, but also with the prince's mitre on her head is kneeling humbly bowed embracing the cross. Next to her the Christ is standind as the Salvator, Mary in the crown on Her head, and St. Agnes, shown here with her attribute - a lamb and a palm of martyrdom. Behind this group in the background you can see heaven, in the middle of which there is a gate in a shining rim. Three stairs lead to it.
Above the gate we can see a figure of God the Father in the papal tiara on His head. On both sides the saints in the clouds: St. Paul - with a sword, John the Evangelist - with an eagle. The two highest placed half-length saints, as a result of cutting the image while matching it to the new stalls, are now deprived of their attributes. However, they are presented in an iconographic tradition. You can recognize John the Baptist in the robe of the hermit and St. Peter, who is shown as a gray old man with a short, curly beard. The pair of the lowest placed characters depict a bishop and a monk.
The presence of Saints around the gates of heaven justifies another vision in which it is said that these four saints are giving advice to Bridget concerning improvement of her life. John Evangelist symbolizes obedience, Peter faith, Paul patience, John the Baptist sweetness. Mary ends this vision with words: 'Every man who is humble and obedient, persistent in faith and patient I lead to my Son'.
The picture is signed with the words: FLORES MEI FRUCTUS HONORTUS ('My flowers are fruit of fame'). Bridget is kneeling frontally, plant twigs are growing out of her breast with unwound calixes of the lily at the end. In these flowers there are half-length images of people, which are signed with the names: CAROLUS, BIRGERUS, BENEDICT, GVDMARVS, MERITA, ST. CATHARINA, INGEBVRGIS, CAECILIA. These are the names of her sons and daughters. In the highest two flowers we can see two groups of people.
These are nuns and monks of the Bridget Order. The figures of children are composed without the chronology of seniority, at a similar distance from their mother. Only nuns and monks are shown at the height of the triumphing Mary and Christ. With their hands folded to prayer they are looking at the Mother of God, while Bridget's children are looking ahead. Only St. Catherine is holding a book in her hand, and Birgerus in one hand a sword, and in the second a rosary.
Bridget's figure assumed the form of a trunk, which roots are firmly rooted into the Earth. The arrangement of her hands in the orant gesture seems to form a unity with the twigs that grow out of her breast. Such an image can be found in one of the vision of the Saint, where Bridget is compared to the vine matrix, meaning the founder of a new order, from whom the useful branches will grow out. The caption also says: FLORES MEI FRUCTUS HONORIS.
This image is supplemented by another inscription, placed on the banderole held by Christ: HANC RELIGION AD HONOR MATRIS MEAE PER MULIERES PRIMUM ET PRINCIPALITER STATUERE VOLO ('I want to establish this convent in honour of my Mother, to be the first major among women'). Mary accepts this gift and promises this Order, dedicated to Her by Her Son, to defend it with a peculiar grace and to fill it with a bless of the Holy Spirit.
This is one of the two narrowest images that are currently in the benches of aisles. It shows St. Bridget, who was ordered to go to Rome. In the picture she is already on her way to the Eternal City. She is holding a pilgrim's cane and a cross, which she always had during her numerous pilgrimages. According to her biographers, she stared at the cross during the mind prayer. In this image, however, she is looking into heaven where Jesus is showing to her in the clouds. An inscription streching between the Christ and the Saint is complementing the image: D[OMINI] 1349 VT IN EXTRAVAGANTI CAP [ITE vel ITVLO] (from the command of Christ she is heading for Rome, of Anno Domini 1349, as [it is given]).
The Christ indeed sent Bridget to Rome to receive approval from the Pope of the rule of the new order she had prepared in Alwastra monastery. In addition, she wanted to receive an anniversary jubilee, which Pope Clement VI announced in 1350. She also wanted to influence the Pope to return for the good of Church from Avignon.
The pilgrimage, i.e. lonely travelling along the road, was at that time regarded as the image of the monk's life, a kind of exile, the state of strangeness on earth in the literal sense. The convent was a symbol of the inner desert, and the exodus was the commandment to leave oneself, to leave selfishness with the awareness of the insignificance of earthly existence. In the context of the entire cycle, this image belongs to a group of paintings, depicting the second stage of the Saint's life, which she led similar to monastic.
The picture with St. Catherine is not much different from the previous one. She is presented like her mother, with a pilgrim cane and a crucifix. Likewise, like St. Bridget she lifts her eyes to heaven. But Catherine sees only the great light coming from the open sky. The picture's caption says: COMES PEREGRINATIONIS FIlIA E[I]VS S [ANCTA] CATHARINA (Travel companion, her daughter St. Catherine).
In these both paintings, the mother and daughter are shown as nuns, pilgrims with a single vocation - a journey to God. Both are looking in the same direction, but their visions are different. Bridget sees Jesus as the one who had a grace to talk to the Divine Persons and Saints. Catherine, like other Bridgettines, is following the example of her mother. This thought could be visualized in a plastic way that each of them was depicted in a separate image, and the seemingly almost mechanical repetition of the composition is used to convey the idea of imitation.
These two painting show that Bridget and then also her followers - the friars of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, undertake an ascetic pilgrimage through the life in a convent. In life of Bridget and Catherine it was the time when they went to Rome. There led life modeled on monastic. These paintings undoubtedly refer also to their numerous pilgrimages, which they considered to be an important factor in spiritual development. In the distance, in the landscape in the image with St. Catherine we can see the outline of the building, which shape resembles the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Indeed, at the end of St. Bridget's life, Catherine and her mother went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This image is the largest in the series, and was originally placed above the door to the monastery. Currently located at the top of the bench in the aisle of the church. This is the only image without a signature.
The composition of the scene is symmetrical and static, what gives the impression of calm and tranquility. Kneeling on both sides of the cross, St. Bridget and St. Catherine with a cheerful smile are looking at the cross, holding flowers in their hands. Adoration takes place in the garden, which in the picture was taken in an awkward perspective.
Apart from the observation of a lack of painter's skills, it can be noticed that in this way he emphasized the virtues of garden, its closure - a small garden surrounds the hedge, unity and exclusion from the world. In such perspective nothing covers the second plan, everything is arranged in order, this impression strengthens the geometric arrangement of beds. And besides - and what is most important here - in this way it is clearly emphasized that the garden is set on a square plan. The square was a symbol of order in chaos. In the garden we can also see a circle that is formed by beds, with a cross placed in its cental point.
The circle by its circular shape is the most perfect form: it has no beginning or end. God was compared to a circle. This shape is also a symbolic sign of participation in glory, so the saints were depicted with halos. Saints Bridget and Catherine are kneeling on flower beds, but if you look closely at them, it turns out that with this miserable perspective the painter managed to surround these two figures by a circle. The artist thus showed the idea of their presence both in a paradise reality, where they live after death, but also on earth, as they remain here as a model to follow by nuns. The garden in art was often used as a symbol of the convent surrounded by the wall of the monastic rule. This scene is taking place when saints receive crowns, adore Christ the Crucified, and the faith is confirmed not only by words but also by actions, what is proved by the lily helding together by Bridget and Catherine at the feet of Christ. This image represents the Order of St. Bridget. In the garden we see not only lilies and roses, which are the largest flowers here, but also narcissuses, violets and tulips, which presence can be considered as an indication of virtues practiced in the Bridgettine's Order, e.g. violets symbolize humility.
Bridget is kneeling at the altar on which the candle is burning. Her face is distorted in pain, and the hands are helplessly spread. Above, in the clouds a pair of angels are raising a childlike figure that the painter presented in proportions of an adult. The caption below is: MORTEM BEATAM SVI FILII SPECTAT CAWLVM PETENTIS LIB [RO] 7 REVEL [ATIONVM] CAPIITE vel ITVLO 13 (Sees the happy death of her son heading to heaven, Book 7 of Revelations, chapter 13).
The inscription clearly says that this is an illustration of the Revelations' fragment about her son Charles's death. In the form of a naked child, we see the soul of Charles. In this way people's souls were often depicted in art. The son is still glancing at the desperate mother while she is looking at the altar. Bridget is dressed in an usual dress of a nun, without the prince's mitre, and her head is clearly marked with a luminous nimbus.
Charles, Bridget's eldest son, was violent, non-obligatory and indifferent to faith. When he stayed with his mother at the end of February 1372, he fell ill with heart and died on March 12. Bridget, although she loved her son, did not show any pain. The Saint's pain, shown in the image, refers not to the fact of his death. She poured tears when she realized that the life that he led on earth would not provide him eternal life.
In the signature indicated in the picture relating to Bridget's writings, a court process over the soul of her son was described. We learn from it that after his death, the mother helped him with merciful deeds and long prayers to entreat for him the God's mercy. Eventually, Charles obtained that great Lord's mercy what is seen in the painting. For devil's complaints that such soul should be his property, the angel replied that the tears and constant prayers of his mother caused that God commiserated with him.
In this image Bridget is burning her forearm with a melted wax of a candle. At her feet, and in front of the mensa of the altar a whip and scrolls of chain with thorn ends lie. The Saint looks at the crucifix on the altar. The painting on the top of it is filled with angels holding wreaths, a bouquet of white and red roses and a palm of martyrdom. The stage is signed: IGNE ALIISQVE INSTRVMENTIS CORPVS CASTIGAT (With fire and other methods she is tormenting the body).
Every Friday, in commemoration of the Passion of Jesus Christ, she fasted on bread and water. Having waxed the candle, she burned the waxed drops on her naked body, so that she always had painful burns, and she had a fever as a result. In the mouth she usually kept very bitter herb. Bridget, when she conducted actively in various spheres of political and court life also devoted herself to very strict ascetic practices, especially fast. She fasted almost half a year.
In the picture she was shown looking at Crucified Christ. It demonstrates that she did these practices in order to have her share in the sufferings of Jesus. In this image the Saint is shown only by herself, without the association of another nun. The point is to make this kind of penance in thesilence of heart, without spreading all about your suffering, without ostentation.
The painting expresses the idea that Bridget was a martyr – was pouring blood on faith, what found its artistic expression in the symbol of pink roses being carried by angels.
The Saint is portrayed in a dress of a nun, but also in a red prince's mitre. She is bending over the group of poor men. One of them has bandaged legs, the other cuffs on the shoulder. Bridget is handing out coins which are passed on a tray by another nun standing behing her. The signature is saying: PLVRIMOS SANAT ET ELEEMOSYNIS SVSTENTAT (Heals many and gives alms). While she was leading secular life she set up a little hospital with her husband, in which she looked the needy after, without denying any work there. Also in Italy, she was constantly concerned about the poor, even though she was often herself in financial trouble after she distributed her fortune. She practiced poverty to become even more conformed to the poor Christ.
The accompanying nun is probably her daughter St. Catherine, who her mother was bringing up along with other siblings, implementing them to the service for the poor. As a young child, she was led to a hospital where her mother gave her an example of merciful ministry: she cherished the ulcers and wounds of the sick, helped them with donations and good words.
In the image they are depicted as nuns, whom Bridget had commanded to have none of the smallest thing, and they must not touch money with their hand. That's why the nun standing behind Bridget gives her money on a tray.
The paradigm of a founder of the Order, also became an inspiration for the Bridgettines gathered in Lublin monastery. The information, which was found after the monastery's visitation in 1596, informs about functioning the infirmary. There was also a brotherhood of the Poor under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, set up by the church. The rectors were obliged to celebrate a mass once a week for the living and died members of the fraternity.
This is the penultimate picture of the cycle. Around the head of Bridget lying on the bed there is a shining nymph. She is holding a simple wooden cross in her hand. A nun kneeling beside accompanies her. In open heaven we see Jesus and Mary and the half-lenght. Some words written on banderole are emergin the mouth of Christ: VENI SPONSA MEA, CORONABERIS ('Come, my bride, and you will be crowned'). The picture is signed: SANCTE MORITVR ROMAE A [NNO] D [OMINI] 1373 AETATIS SVAE 70 DIE 23 IVLII (She dies in holiness in Rome in the year 1373, July 23, aged 70).
Bridget's health deteriorated gradually, and from 17 July she felt physical torment. All the time, however, she was obtaining visions of Divine Persons' , preparing her to death and indicated her the exact date of death. On this day, in the early hours of the morning, she received the Holy Communion during Mass that was celebrated in her room. The death occurred at the residence of Piazza Farnese. At dying Saint, there was a large group of people: her daughter Catherine, Birgerus - her son and friends of Roman families of the Orsinis, the Colonns. In the picture the painter limited himself to depict only one Bridgettine.
As the sources say, the sisters of her youth, the Franciscan tertiaries, wore her in her habit, a dark brown dress, a scapular, and the rope with the knots of St. Francis. In the picture however, she is wearing a Bridgettine's habit. The author of this image did not try to reconstruct the circumstances of Bridget's death accurately: only one person is keeping her company - a nun who represents the entire Bridgettines' community. In Order of the Most Holy Saviour, consideration of the ultimate things was considered a very important mean of spiritual progress. For this reason, in the monastery there was always an open tomb, and a catafalque in the church. They were supposed to constantly remind the sisters of death. Each day they had a prayer which element was the gesture of throwing a little earth into the tomb and reciting 'De profundis' psalm by sisters and the abbess.
The last picture of the cycle shows the event that took place after the death of the Saint. The nun sitting on the clouds it is St. Bridget. The caption below says: ABNEPTEM SVAM DISPONIT AD MORTEM SANCTAM MIRACVLOSVM VICTVM SVBMINISTRAT (she is preparing her granddaughter for holy death, providing miraculous food).
The hagiography of St. Bridget exactly describes this scene. The Saint's eldest son Charles had a daughter, also named Bridget. When she was seven years old she was sent for studying to the Cistercian Vretum monastery. When deadly sick, she saw St. Bridget, her grandmother, who told her: confess daughter. She replied that she had already confessed, then the Saint added: 'Confess I say and then you will able to wear your coat and crown and rejoicing yoy will not be able to comprehend your dream'. After this event, the dying asked to prepare her wil strawberries for eating.
When the nuns standing around her heard it, they explained her that there was a time of winter and wild strawberiies can not be found. But she insisted, and pointed to a place where they were supposed to look for: 'search near the Monastery, flick snow back and you will pick them up with overflow, because my lady told me, the Saint Bridget. Indeed, and where never the wild strawberiies were found, now, in winter, they gathered a lot of them. After this event, she died and was buried in Vadstena.
The nun sitting near a bed of the dying is probably one of the nuns of the Order. But she is wearing a bridget's habit, not a cysterian. She is holding a tray with wild strawberries in her hand as proof of the miracle, while in the arcade clearance we see nuns, also in bridget's habits, looking for wild strawberries under the snow. The presentation directs the message to the nuns, who in Lublin church looked at this picture every day. They knew that as spiritual children of the Saint they can always count on their mother's presence. The strong link between Bridget and the nuns of her Order portrayed here, is felt even after her death.
It was one among many miracles performed by Bridget after her death: miraculous healing were recorded, and during the storm she rescued sailors sailing to the grave of St. Saturn.