Saint Saint Eskil

Saint Eskil (11th century) was an Anglo-Saxon monk particularly venerated during the end of the 11th century in the province of Södermanland, Sweden. He was the founder of the first diocese of the lands surrounding Lake Mälaren, today the Diocese of Strängnäs. He is the patron saint of Södermanland and the Diocese of Strängnäs. Saint Eskil was sent as a missionary bishop to the Lake Mälaren area by Saint Sigfrid of Växjö along with Saint Botvid and Saint David. Botvid lies buried in Botkyrka, today a suburb of Stockholm in the east of Södermanland. All three saints are known to have perished trying to Christianize the people living around Lake Mälaren and both Eskil and Botvid have been made patron saints of Södermanland County. David has been made patron saint of Västerås and the province of Västmanland. They all are sources of several medieval legends. Eskil probably lived during the reign of King Inge the Elder at the end of the 11th century. Alban Butler says that Eskil was a kinsman of Sigfrid. He was an itinerant missionary bishop who made the village of Tuna (present day Eskilstuna) his missionary diocese. Older accounts say he actually lived at Fors, across the river from Tuna. Later, around 1080, he made a 30 km (19 mi) journey east of Tuna to Strängnäs, an Old Norse holy place. Saint Eskil was killed by being stoned and chopped up with an axe, according to tradition, because he disrupted a holy ritual. Saint Eskil's followers decided to take his corpse back to Tuna. The local tradition says that during that journey, his body was placed on the ground and that a miraculous spring gushed from that spot and started to flow out of the mountainside just outside Strängnäs. The spring is known as the Spring of Saint Eskil. Saint Eskil was buried in Tuna. Strängnäs was later converted to Christianity and the diocese that Eskil had created in Tuna was moved or reestablished in Strängnäs.