BOTVID, ST.

Active in evangelizing Sweden; d. c. 1120. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but his legend seems fairly reliable. Botvid, a native of Sweden, was a pious layman, and he was killed by a foreign slave whom he had converted and freed. His relics were honored, probably from 1129 and translated in 1176. Two offices are known; the older was found in a 13th-century MS and is composed partly in prose, partly rhythmically, with a sequence Almi patris merita. The later was composed by Bp. Nicolaus Hermanni (d. 1391) as a historia rhythmica, with the sequence Celi chorus esto gaudens. The church and village of Botkyrka (Botvidskyrka) are named for him. In iconography he is symbolized by the ax and the fish.

Feast: July 28.

Bibliography: Scriptores rerum Suecicarum medii aevi, ed. e. m. fant et al., v.2 (Uppsala 1828) 377–387. Analecta hymnica (Leipzig 1886–1922) 25:179–181; 42:180–181; 43:104–105. i. g. a. collijn, Redogörelse för på uppdrag af Kungl. Maj:t i Kammararkivet och Riksarkivet verkställd undersökning angående äldre arkivalieomslag (Stockholm 1914); ed., Acta et processus canonizacionis beate Birgitte (Uppsala 1924–31) 81, 486, 619, issued in 10 pts. bridget of sweden, Revelationes, Extravagantes, ch. 72. t. schmid, "Eskil, Botvid och David," Scandia 4 (1931) 102–114. h. jÄgerstad, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:626. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 3:204.

[t. schmid]