Mother Tekla Famiglietti, General Abbess of Saint Bridget's Order, said the Sisters celebrated the proclamation of their founder as a patron of Europe with great joy. The abbess spoke from the Motherhouse in Rome, where the Swedish mystic lived for almost 20 years, and where she died in 1373. Saint Bridget was dedicated to the unity of the Catholic Church. "We seek unity among the Churches," Mother Tekla said. "We are particularly close to our Lutheran brethren. I believe the first exultant letter we received was from Archbishop Hammar, primate of the Lutheran Church in Sweden."
As early as 1991 the three Orders founded by Saint Bridget wrote to John Paul II requesting the proclamation of Bridget as a patron of Europe. A second petition was made by the Scandinavian Episcopal Conference and the Lutheran Church.
"We are happy, not because Bridget needed this title, but because Europe needs Bridget," Mother Tekla explained. "A woman who was a prophet of the new times, and chose the cross, which is the serious and radical commitment posed by Christianity, indignant with the clouding of values by materialism, secularism and consumerism"
Mother Tekla believes the proclamation of the three women as new patrons of Europe is a message for European women that the Church is working to acknowledge their role. "Emancipation means giving woman her dignity, a dignity that continues to be denied in many parts of the world. The Pope has offered these feminine examples to make women reflect on the real values, which resist all changes of time."
