THROUGH HER VISIONARY WRITINGS, some of which arrived in England early in Birgitta's career, and later from her vita which became well known as material in support of her canonization was being gathered, Birgitta came to exercise a profound influence on English spirituality, both of the laity and the religious. Her own pattern of living, her design for a new religious order, and her vision of how the Church should function came at a time when religious renewal was desperately needed. In England, she was seen as a beacon of orthodoxy in the crucial period when religious controversy was rife and the established Church was weak. Birgitta's vision of the role of the Church was an inclusive one, and it came to England as members of the lay world, particularly – but not exclusively – women, were struggling to find a place and a voice for the expression of their faith. In addition, because Birgitta was a married woman who managed a large estate, gave birth to eight children, acted as an advisor to the Queen, and then later, with her husband, took a vow of chastity and turned to a more devout life while remaining in the world, English women and men engaged in secular affairs found someone not impossibly removed from this world whom they could emulate.