Margareta Clausdotter

Margareta Clausdotter (died 10 December 1486) was a nun and was, from 1473 until her death, abbess of the Bridgettine Abbey of Vadstena.

Margareta, who is said to have been from Söderköping, Sweden, and probably born in a family of German origin, participated in the process to get Saint Bridget's daughter Catherine canonized. She is best known for the chronicle she authored on the family of Saint Bridget (the impulse to write this probably came from the process over Catherine's sainthood), which includes some legends and stories not known from any other sources. Her chronicle influenced later historical and genealogical writers. One story, about "Bengt Lagman", the king's brother who marries a woman of humbler origins, "Sigrid the Beautiful", has been most famously retold in the play Bröllopet på Ulfåsa ("The Wedding at Ulvåsa") by Frans Hedberg and the music written for the play by August Söderman.^[1] The lagman (Lawspeaker) intended by the story is Bengt Magnusson (d. 1294), but the story for the most part disagrees with, or is at least not verified by, contemporary sources.^[2]

Christina Brask translated the Antiphonarium for her.^[3]

Notes

1. Jan Liedgren, "Margareta Clausdotter", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 25, p. 147-149.
2. Yngve Brilioth, "Bengt Magnusson", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 3, p. 194.
3. "Svenska kyrkans sköna litteratur: eller, Den svensk-kyrkliga litteraturen bedömd med särskildt ..."

References

• Brilioth, Yngve, "Bengt Magnusson", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 3 (1922), p. 193-195.
• Liedgren, Jan, "Margareta Clausdotter", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 25 (1985-1987), p. 147-149.