Systrarnas verksamhet, undervisning och uppfostran i Vadstena kloster 1384-1595

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this dissertation is to reconstruct and understand the essential meaning of the teaching and upbringing, which women received at the birgittine mother Abbey in Vadstena during the Middle Ages, from the starting point of source material, contemporary literature and modem research. The method of this reconstructional work can be characterized as hermeneutical existential, which in this case means that the interpretation work is focused on understanding the life conditions and existential situation of the women in the convent and the texts and other cultural artefacts which were produced by themselves or had some connection with their situation. The object of interpretation, the sisters' work and official tasks and their education and upbringing is set against the background of an analysis of St. Birgitta and her aims when establishing the convent activities. In this context, the changes in living and working conditions which their activities underwent are also considered. In forming a judgement on the discipline, the description of the form and scope of education and the sisters' knowledge of Latin, local research findings play just as important a role as those of international research. The plausibility of the conclusions which are drawn and whether the applied method of procedure can form the basis of continued research on womens' education in pre-industrial Sweden are discussed in the closing section. From a broader perspective, the work aims to reconstruct life in a medieval Swedish nunnery, something which is only possible to do with the help of source material from birgittine Abbey in Vadstena.