18 Facts About Elizabeth Hesselblad

Elizabeth Hesselblad was baptized the following month and received into the Lutheran Church of Sweden in her parish of Hudene.

In 1896, Elizabeth Hesselblad decided to leave hospital work for private duty nursing.

Elizabeth Hesselblad became a nurse and companion to two teenage daughters of wealthy Catholics, the Cisneros family.

Elizabeth Hesselblad developed an interest in the Catholic Church while deep prayer and personal study led her down the path of conversion and on 15 August 1902, the Feast of the Assumption, she received conditional baptism from a Jesuit priest, Johann Georg Hagen, in the chapel of the Georgetown Visitation Monastery in Washington, DC Hagen became her spiritual director.

Elizabeth Hesselblad approached Hagen and asked that she be received into the Church at once, to which Hagen said he did not think she was prepared.

Elizabeth Hesselblad then made a pilgrimage to Rome, where she received the sacrament of Confirmation.

Elizabeth Hesselblad visited the house of Bridget of Sweden there, where Bridget had spent the last half of her life, which made a deep impression on her.

Elizabeth Hesselblad returned to New York City briefly, only to go back to Rome, where, on 25 March 1904, she was welcomed as a guest by the nuns of the Carmelite monastery housed there; the prioress welcomed her after hesitating to accept her due to her weak health.

Elizabeth Hesselblad slowly recovered and held out against her family's pleas to return to Sweden.

Elizabeth Hesselblad petitioned the Holy See to be able to make religious vows under the Rule of the Order which Bridget had founded.

Elizabeth Hesselblad had been a prominent presence in the Church in Sweden before the Protestant Reformation had taken hold there.

Elizabeth Hesselblad professed into the hands of Hagen on 22 June 1906, the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

Elizabeth Hesselblad attempted to revive interest in the order and its founder in both Sweden and Rome.

Elizabeth Hesselblad returned to her homeland of Sweden in 1923, where she was able to establish a community in Djursholm, while she worked nursing the sick poor.

That same year, Elizabeth Hesselblad obtained the House of Saint Bridget in Rome for her new congregation.

Elizabeth Hesselblad's order received canonical approval on 7 July 1940.

Elizabeth Hesselblad's health declined when officials prepared the canonical visit of her order.

Elizabeth Hesselblad received the sacraments thereafter and died in Rome on 24 April 1957 in the first hours of the morning.