Birgitta Botolfsdotter, or Botulfsdotter (fl.

Floruit

Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...

 1567) was a Swedish Roman Catholic nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

, abbess

Abbess

An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....

 of Vadstena Abbey

Vadstena Abbey

Vadstena Abbey was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. The abbey started as one of the farms donated by the king, but the town of Vadstena grew up around it...

 during the ongoing Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

.

Birgitta was inducted in to the order in 1492 by the Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Linköping

Linköping

Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...

, who also financed her convent dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

. She became a prior

Prior

Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...

ess, and was in 1534 made abbess for the double convent of Vadstena. She was a controversial abbess; in 1539, she was deposed by the monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

s in the male section of the convent and replaced by Katarina Matsdotter. She left the convent and married the wealthy merchant Nils from the city of Vadstena

Vadstena

Vadstena is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden, with 5,612 inhabitants in 2005. From 1974 to 1979 Vadstena was administered as part of Motala Municipality....

. The reformation had by this time made it voluntary for nuns to stay in their convents or leave them and, if they wished, marry, but it was considered as a great shame if they did. She was likely the perhaps first former nun in Sweden to marry. The couple became one of the greatest benefactors and protectors of the convent. After the death of her spouse in 1566, she was again referred to as "Mother Sister" by the nuns, an honorific of the Abbess.