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Vadstena is the mother house of the Brigettine Order, situated on the shores of Lake Vàttem, Ōstergōtland, Sweden. Originally the site of a castle built for Birger Jarl’s Son Valdemār in the mid-13th century, the land and adjoining estates were bequeathed to St. Birgitta by King Magnus EriksSon and his wife, Blanche of Namur, on May 1,1346, for conversion to a monastery. The plans for the foundation, from the general organization down to details of the spices and herbs that were to be grown in the gardens, were conceived by Birgitta herself and recorded in her Revelations, in particular in the book containing the Regula sancti salvatoris. Construction began in 1369, and the main part of the monastery was probably ready by 1374, the year after Birgitta’s death, when her remains were translated with great ceremony back to Sweden from Rome, where she had lived the latter part of her life. From 1374, Vadstena became a place of pilgrimage. The monastery was consecrated as a double foundation on October 23–24,1384, and the Rule allowed for a maximum of sixty nuns and twenty-five priests and lay brethren, with an abbess in overall authority. A fire in 1388 destroyed the wooden chapel, two stone buildings, and pan of the nuns’ living quarters; but rebuilding work was quickly begun, following a large number of gifts and bequests. The great stone church was completed in 1430, to the north of which was the nuns’ convent, and to the South the monastery; these buildings were joined on the west side by a locutorium (“conversation room”) for communication between the monks and nuns. The monastery survived the first few decades of Lutheranism, but was finally disSolved in 1595. The building was used as a hospital and priSon during the following centuries; in 1963, the Order was reestablished and thrives today on the original site.