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In the High Middle Ages female saints were customarily noble virgins. Thus, as a wife and a mother of eight children, the Swedish noble lady Birgitta was an atypical candidate for sanctity. However, only 18 years after her death, in 1391, she was declared saint by the pope and became a role model for many late medieval women, who were mothers and widows. In Power and Sainthood she is seen as a living saint and analyzed from the perspectives of power, authority, and gender.The book will contribute to the discussions of medieval mysticism, medieval women and their collaborators, the performative construction of gender, and the 'new sanctity', which no longer required virginity from women and therefore made the path of sanctity accessible to many more women than earlier. The book investigates how Birgitta went about establishing her power and authority during the first ten years of her career as a living saint, in 1340-1349.