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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (17. June) was also long the feast day of: Botulph (d. c. 670). B. is a well known English saint not appearing either in the RM or in the "Calendar of saints (Church of England)" page at: http://tinyurl.com/39jchm Whereas the latter is merely part of the Wikipedia and as such not particularly authoritative, a limited consultation of other calendars of churches in the Anglican family has failed to reveal evidence of B.'s being celebrated liturgically now. Nor does he appear in the current Roman Catholic national calendar for England: http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/cn/00/000829a.htm Hence my reluctance to include him in a presentation headed "Today ... _is_ the feast day of" (emphasis added), even construing "feast" in a broad sense of "officially sanctioned commemoration". But it is really only a matter of convenience that "saints of the day" follows the calendrical presentation of the RM with its abundance of saints and blesseds. Saints omitted from that list have on occasion been treated under this rubric. So, as a pendant, here's a notice of B. B. (also Botolph, Botwulf) was an East Anglian abbot who, drawing upon royal connections, established in 654 a small monastery at a place that the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ calls Icanho (today's Iken in Suffolk). His fame was such that in about 670 St. Ceolfrith, the future abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow, visited Icanho to observe the arrangements. B.'s brief Vita (BHL 1428) by Folcard of St-Bertin, abbot of Thorney (one of the places claiming to have some of B.'s relics) tells us about his humility and other virtues. The spread of B.'s supposed relics to Ely, Thorney, and elsewhere led to his adoption as a monastic saint with many church dedications in eastern England from East Anglia north into Yorkshire. His later reputation as a patron saint of travelers resulted in the establishment of churches dedicated to him near city gates. A somewhat longer notice (extracted from his Life by Kenneth Keenan) is here: http://www.st-botolphs.com/botolph/st_botolph_life.htm Illustrated pages on St Botolph, Iken: http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/iken.html http://www.wuffings.co.uk/WuffSites/Iken.html Some other dedications to B.: St Botoph's Priory, Colchester (Essex): http://tinyurl.com/2gb35d http://tinyurl.com/275c9f http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.43 St Botulph, Swyncombe (Oxon): http://photodelusions.wordpress.com/tag/churches/st-botulph/ Another account, with expandable view: http://tinyurl.com/3dxrsb St Botolph, Skidbrook cum Saltfleet (Lincs): http://www.wparkinson.com/Saltfleet/church.htm http://tinyurl.com/2d38uq St Botolph, Cambridge (Cambs): http://tinyurl.com/3yy3qg http://www.stbotolphs.net/ http://www.cugcr.org.uk/botolph.html http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/cambotolph.htm St Botolph, Boston (Lincs), a.k.a. the Boston Stump: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stump http://www.parish-of-boston.org.uk/about.htm Others: http://www.st-botolphs.com/botolph/st_b_other.htm Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html