Claire L. Sahlin, Birgitta of Sweden and the Voice of Prophecy

Medium Aevum, Fall, 2003 by John C. Hirsh

Studies in Medieval Mysticism 3 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2001). xvi 266 pp.; 6 plates. ISBN 0-85115-821-8. $90.00/50.00 [pounds sterling].

One of the most powerful visionaries of late medieval Europe, Birgitta of Sweden is only now becoming widely understood, and so forgiven her mid-life celibacy, her Swedish nobility, her male advisers. Claire L. Sahlin's searching, perceptive, and still much-needed examination, which candidly announces its attention to 'gendered power relations', and 'the dynamics of women's religious authority in the history of Christianity' (pp. x-xi), will do much to speed the process, and to introduce Birgitta's religiousness at full length, together with her historical and cultural context. Certain of Birgitta's teachings, like those relating to mystical pregnancy, the bride of Christ, and her identification with the Blessed Virgin, have long interested scholars, as have the difficulties involved in establishing a text of her Revelations, spoken in Swedish and translated into Latin, though the Swedish versions which remain have been translated back from the Latin.

One of the great advantages of this study is the extent to which it engages the ways and the degrees to which Birgitta was assisted, not silenced, by her male advisers. This is a recurring and contentious issue in the study of women's visionary literature, and the response that such persons served effectively to silence or distort women's voices, except when they functioned as 'amanuenses' and could so be safely ignored, is still widespread. In truth, there are understandable reasons for this reaction: there are indeed passages in many texts which have been distorted by the intervention of an identifiably male hand, and other indications that insensitivity to gender was widespread. This issue is particularly acute here, since Birgitta worked with a total of four male advisers, and with one in particular, Alfonso Peche, formerly Bishop of Jaen, who became deeply invested in interpreting and transmitting her work. Sahlin refers to this issue as 'the problem of finding Birgitta's voice' (p. 25), and refers approvingly to Catherine Mooney's attempt 'to disentangle' the voices of the visionaries from those of their male collaborators. She shows clearly that Birgitta's texts were indeed 'mediated', adding that she has come to 'assume' that the Revelations were 'the result of a complex collaboration between Birgitta and her confessors' (p. 33), and that her collaboration with Alfonso was 'multi-dimensional and based on a dynamic, gender-conditioned partnership' (p. 129). This seems clearly to be an example of visionary insight extended, even deepened, by co-operation with a theologically instructed and personally sympathetic male adviser. The relationship which emerged, as in other such cases, is complex, but seems to have been embraced by the visionary, not only as a means of advancing her testimony, but also as a way of realizing its meaning to the full. The issue for the modern commentator, of course, is not simply to privilege agreed theological collaboration over putatively individual utterance (or vice versa), but rather to interrogate both so as to estimate, not only historically but also critically, the nature of the communication, and also its origins and effects. This project has not yet been sufficiently theorized, nor does Sahlin set out to do so here, but this most progressive and sympathetic reading of Birgitta has made such an analysis at once easier and more necessary.

JOHN C. HIRSH

Washington, DC