Revelationes Caelestes (Liber Caelestis)
Revelationes Caelestes
Catalogue updated 2026-06-08
Full Sub Rosa translationRead the full translationOpen reader →Open the chapter reader with the full English translation, source text, notes, and scripture echoes.What is Revelationes Caelestes (Liber Caelestis)?
The collected celestial visions of St. Birgitta of Sweden, recorded between 1344 and her death in 1373, comprising some 700 revelations in seven books covering penance, Marian devotion, political admonition to King Magnus Eriksson (the Folkunga king who endowed Vadstena in 1346), and meditations on the Passion.
Ego sum creator caeli et terrae, unus in Trinitate et Trinitas in unitate, qui loquor tecum.
Our renderingI am the creator of heaven and earth, one in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, who speaks with you.
What it is
The collected celestial visions of St. Birgitta of Sweden, recorded between 1344 and her death in 1373, comprising some 700 revelations in seven books covering penance, Marian devotion, political admonition to King Magnus Eriksson (the Folkunga king who endowed Vadstena in 1346), and meditations on the Passion. King Magnus Eriksson of the Folkunga dynasty gave the royal demesne of Vadstena to Birgitta's new order in 1346, making him direct patron of the text's monastic home. The Revelationes circulated in Old Swedish at Vadstena Abbey from the 1380s and were central to the devotional life of all who supported the Birgittine order. The first printed edition appeared in Lübeck in 1492, consolidating the text's pan-European spread.
Why it still matters
A Christian today can read the modern critical English translation (Oxford University Press, trans. Denis Searby) for structured meditations on Christ's Passion, Marian intercession, and conscience-examination addressed to rulers and laypeople alike.
Common questions
What are the Revelationes of Birgitta of Sweden?
Answer-first notes for readers and search engines
What is the Revelationes (Liber Caelestis)?
The Revelationes, also called the Liber Caelestis, is the collected record of the celestial visions of St Birgitta of Sweden, gathered between 1344 and her death in 1373. Written down in Latin by her confessors, its books cover penance, devotion to the Virgin Mary, meditations on Christ's Passion, and warnings addressed to rulers.
Who was Birgitta of Sweden and when did she write the Revelationes?
Birgitta of Sweden (Birgitta Birgersdotter) was a fourteenth-century Swedish noblewoman and mystic who recorded her visions from 1344 until her death in 1373. Her confessors translated them from Swedish into Latin as the Revelationes. King Magnus Eriksson, whom several visions admonish, endowed her new Birgittine order at Vadstena in 1346.
What is the Revelationes about, and where can I read it in English?
The Revelationes of St Birgitta of Sweden records roughly 700 visions across its books, ranging from meditations on Christ's Passion and Marian devotion to sharp political admonition of King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden. The eighth book serves as a mirror for princes. Sub Rosa publishes a complete modern English translation readable free online.
Revelationes Caelestes (Liber Caelestis) companion
Keep going — one revelation a day
The full 496-chapter Revelationes lives in the Chosen Portion app, served as free daily portions.
Birgitta's revelations arrived over three decades of daily attentiveness, and the Chosen Portion app lets readers receive them the same way — one portion per day.
- Finish the guided path in 8 weeks at roughly 15 minutes a day
- All 8 books, 496 chapters, in modern English — the complete transmitted text
- Daily delivery so a 30-year masterwork becomes a sustainable habit
Kept alongside
Revelationes Extravagantes
The Revelationes Extravagantes consists of 116 supplementary chapters of Birgitta's revelations compiled at Vadstena after her death and canonization in 1391, including four major prayers, the Angel's Discourse, and detailed practical instructions for monastic life. Old Swedish fragments of the Extravagantes from the Danish National Archives confirm their circulation in the Scandinavian region. The text was central to the daily devotional life of the Vadstena community, patronized across its history by members of the Folkunga and subsequent Swedish royal families.
Cantus Sororum (Birgittine Office of Our Lady)
Ordo Cantus Sororum Ordinis Sancti Salvatoris
The Cantus Sororum is the distinctive divine office of the Birgittine sisters, constructed by Birgitta and Petrus of Skänninge as a weekly Marian office cycle based on lessons from Birgitta's Sermo Angelicus. It is the only known medieval liturgical repertory composed specifically for performance by women. The mother-house at Vadstena Abbey — founded and endowed by the Folkunga King Magnus Eriksson in 1346 — was the original home of this office, and approximately 22 notated manuscripts survive from Vadstena and daughter-houses. The Birgittine Database (birgittine.org) catalogs 3,600 entries from these manuscripts covering c.1500–1881.
Sermo Angelicus
The Sermo Angelicus consists of 21 lessons — three for each day of the week — said by Birgitta to have been dictated by an angel and addressed to the Virgin Mary's role in salvation history. These lessons formed the lections for the Matins of the Birgittine sisters' distinctive office at Vadstena and all daughter-houses. The text was composed in Rome c.1353–1354 and became the theological heart of the Birgittine liturgy endowed by the Folkunga royal house. The Museum of the Bible holds an illuminated Birgittine manuscript containing the Sermo Angelicus as part of the sisters' office book.