As the reputed author of Liber celestis revelacionum, an eight-volume literary corpus with a highly political content, Birgitta Birgersdotter stands out among the many laywomen who were venerated as saints in the later Middle Ages. In the canonization process, initiated immediately after her death in Rome in 1373, Birgitta’s assumed role as a divinely appointed prophet formed her primary claim to sainthood, and the textual work served as the principal evidence. The oldest extant images of Birgitta all derive from the first years of the canonization process when panel paintings and illuminations decorating the manuscripts containing the Liber celestiswere produced in Naples. Highly original iconographical formulas were developed for the two media respectively, most likely under the direct supervision of Birgitta’s confessors who had assisted her in the production and dissemination of her revelations.
This paper will explore the form and purpose of the iconography developed for the promotion of Birgitta’s sanctity. Special attention will be given to the visual strategies by which the images seeks to negotiate her role as an outspoken public figure, an author, and an active political agent in a time when women were prohibited from instructing men in public, in both speech and text. The paper will also examine how the meaning of the original iconography of Birgitta developed as it spread from one medium to another, and in various social, religious, and linguistic contexts in Europe after the visionary had been elevated to sainthood only 18 years after her death.