About 1070 AD, the abbot of Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire, a chap named Folcard of St Bertin, wrote an account of the life of St Botolph, one of the saints whose relics were venerated at the abbey. St Botolph was a popular saint in England and also in Scandinavia. There are still about 40 churches dedicated to St Botolph in England. Botolph himself was an Anglo-Saxon, who introduced the Benedictine rule to England, and founded a monastery at Iken on the Suffolk coast.
No English translation of this “Life” has ever been published. The printed text in the Acta Sanctorum is defective. So for some months I have been creating a critical Latin text and a translation of it. I’ve also included an abbreviated life that circulated, two other texts that Folcard wrote along with the Life about the saints of Thorney Abbey, and a bunch of readings from breviaries – medieval service books – which included a commemoration of St Botolph.
It’s pretty much done, and so I am going to release it today.
- Botolph – Life by Folcard and other lives – 2025 – v1.0 (PDF)
- Botolph – Life by Folcard and other lives – 2025 – v1.0 (Word .docx)
I’ve also uploaded these to Archive.org, here.
As usual, the files are public domain. Do whatever you like with them, personal, educational or commercial.
There is one loose end to the project: I have not been able to collate the York manuscript of the abbreviated life. If this appears, I will upload a revised version.
Glad to help! It’s very dry, but good to have it.