Eskil

OF SAINT ESKIL, BISHOP OF STRÄNGNÄS AND MARTYR.

IN SÖDERMANLAND, A PROVINCE OF SWEDEN.

11TH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his cult, life, and translations.

Eskil, Bishop of Strängnäs, Martyr, in Södermanland, a province of Sweden (St.) G. H.

Södermanland, a province of Sweden or Suecia properly taken, on the Baltic to the east, The Bishopric of Strängnäs. is situated between Uppland and Östergötland; whose cities are Nyköping, the Seat of the Dukes, and Strängnäs, where the first Bishop St. Eskil established his See, and this afterward remained there, while the orthodox faith flourished in that region. His deeds and martyrdom with miracles, The Acts written by St. Brynolf. St. Brynolf, also Bishop of Skara, is said to have written, whose Life we gave on the 6th day of February. John Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, after the Life of St. Eskil, grieves that it was not permitted him to see the Life and miracles: but he published something from the ancient Lessons, but adorned by himself with a new style. We received that Life as first distributed into 12 Lessons, with the help of the Reverend Father Winimar Monheim of the Society of Jesus, in the year 1675; who says that he himself found it in the Charterhouse of Hildesheim transcribed in a very ancient style and character from nearly two hundred years ago, by the hand of a certain Karstian the Carthusian, a Priest consecrated in the Church of Strängnäs, Some things are given from a Swedish manuscript and Rector of the Schools in it, living in the house of Mary of Peace of the Carthusian Order, situated in the same diocese. Karstian asks the Prior of Hildesheim to deign to bind this history to boards, and to deign sometimes to read it in the refectory, for the edification of the conventual Fathers and the honor of the holy Martyr: at whose request also the Reverend Father Hedensen, a Religious there, transcribed it to be inserted into our work.

[2] The Mass formerly printed. We have a Votive Missal, as it is written, also treating singularly of the Saints of the kingdom of the Swedes, printed about two hundred years ago; in which concerning St. Eskil is prescribed the Introit of the Mass, "Gaudeamus," with this Prayer. "O God, for whose faith the glorious Pontiff Eskil, stoned by the hands of the impious, fell dead, illuminate our minds with the splendor of faith: that we may be able to recognize the way of truth, and to arrive at the life which he merited by a precious death." The Epistle is read from chapter 25 of the second book of Paralipomenon Chronicles, from verse 17, concerning Zacharias son of Jehoiada the Priest, killed with stones in the court of the Lord by the command of King Joash; to whom also in the Life he is likened. The Gospel is concerning the good Shepherd, from chapter 10 of St. John; before which is read the Sequence, here presently to be subjoined. The Secret is of this kind: "We beseech thee, Lord, that the Blessed Eskil, Martyr and Pontiff, may entreat the gift of the saving Victim to be consecrated to favor us unto salvation: that we may both experience the distinctions of his conduct, and receive the supports of his intercession." Finally this is the Postcommunion: "May the venerable intercession of thy Blessed Eskil, Martyr and Pontiff, who for the honor of thy name deserved to be crowned with glorious martyrdom, help us, we beseech, almighty God, through these Sacraments which we have received." Moreover in the Calendar, prefixed to this votive Missal, on the day before the Ides of June June 12 a double feast of Eskil the Martyr is indicated in red letters.

[3] Proper Offices. There are also extant proper Offices of the Saints of Poland and Sweden, often reprinted, in which on the 12th of June three proper Lessons, taken from the Swedish Annals, are proposed, and agree well enough with others to be given below: but the Hymns at Vespers, Matins, and Lauds are proper, together with the Prayer, which can be read there: but it is written Æschilus, as in Vastovius Æschillus: but in the ancient Life and the cited votive Missal, Eskil: and this on account of antiquity we preserve. His memory on June 9, October 6. His memory is celebrated on the 9th day of June in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints; but his Translation is so called in Greven in the Auctarium of Usuard, and in Canisius in the German Martyrology. By the same again he is referred to on the 6th of October, and with the proper Offices cited it is called Translation: nay, even on this 12th of June perhaps some Translation is celebrated, because in the Acts below he is said to have suffered in the spring season, and at the time of Christ's passion. Vastovius says, "on the very day on which the faithful weekly perform the memory of the Lord's bitter death." April 10: John Wilson refers his memory in the English Martyrology to the 10th day of April, and cites first the History of the Goths of John Magnus, book 18, chapter 19, where the martyrdom is described, without the month or day added. Secondly he alleges the Swedish Annals and Breviaries: but what these are, we do not know.

[4] The year of the Martyrdom uncertain What if it be said that he suffered martyrdom on the 10th day of April on Parasceve Good Friday or the sixth day before Easter? But then the year 1063 would not be assigned with Vastovius, but the year 1069, when, by the cycle of the Moon, of the Sun 14, with the Dominical letter D, Easter was celebrated on the 12th day of April. Yet Vastovius asserts that by others his Passion is referred to the year 1026 or 1045: of which also neither combined either Parasceve Good Friday, or Sunday, or even simply Feria VI Friday with the 10th of April or the 12th of June. But as for what pertains to the Translation, the aforesaid Karstian indicates that in his Charterhouse of the Peace of St. Mary, it is celebrated annually in the Octaves of the Angels, The Translation in the Octaves of the Angels in August or on the day preceding the Octaves: and "we use," he says, "in the ecclesiastical office all things as in the feast of the Blessed Clement, Bishop and Martyr, on the 23rd of November": and the feast of the Angels in the aforepraised Missal is prescribed to be kept on the 26th of August. I conclude with the Sequence indicated above.

[5] On this day let us glory, and devoutly venerate the solemnities of Eskil. Who, stoned for the faith, now exalted by Christ, dwells in glory. The rigor of winter passes, a new spring flower blooms, unto the salvation of the nations. Error gives way, the faith of Christ is exalted, the number of the faithful is increased. While the Pagan people honors the gods, the Prelate prays that a sign be given from heaven. Soon snow and hail descending, overturning the gods and altars, The Sequence. utterly destroyed them. The strength of Samson lays low the enemies, the lamp of Gideon shines while the Prelate is slain. All the unbelievers believe, the sick cry out and approach, to whom health is restored. Heal us the sick by prayer, whom vain flesh assails, the world, and demons, O Father, guardian, leader of the Swedes, make us fellow-citizens of the Saints in the supernal court. Amen.

LIFE

From a Swedish manuscript.

Eskil, Bishop of Strängnäs, Martyr, in Södermanland, a province of Sweden (St.)

BHL Number: 2619

FROM MANUSCRIPT LESSONS.

[1] The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the holy Church, which he brought out of Egypt, Sweden long without the faith and planted with his right hand. When this had extended its branches widely throughout the world, still Sweden, a northern region, cold and uncultivated with the torpor of perfidy, sprouted only thorns and briars. Acts 16:6 No wonder, just as the Apostles were once forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word of God in Asia; so divine providence removed the teacher from that land, until it should know some there were to be saved, lest the holy thing be given to dogs, and the despisers be more grievously punished. cultivated by St. Anskar in the 9th century, At last, when the time of mercy upon it came, about the year of the Lord eight hundred forty-five, by divine compassion St. Anskar, Bishop of Bremen, sent there by the Emperor Louis, like a good husbandman by sowing the word of God, made a vineyard out of the thornbush.

[2] but returned to Paganism, Then, the enemy oversowing tares, that vineyard, turned into bitterness, produced wild grapes instead of grapes; because, Bishop Simon, destined for them by the blessed Anskar, having been expelled, and his nephew slain, the people returned to the works of paganism. Again, when the ray of justice was wholly inclining toward the west, at about the eleventh hour, the head of the household, the Savior of the world, wishing to repair his vineyard now drying up, not having the moisture of saving doctrine, commanded his clouds, it received the Doctors SS. Sigfrid and Eskil. that is the preachers, that they should rain a shower upon it. Whence he himself, by his ineffable piety, sent them the Blessed Sigfrid, as it were translated from heaven, who, having left the loftiness of Archiepiscopal dignity, passed over as a pilgrim and poor man to the unbelievers, that he might preach to them the Gospel of Christ: and he gave him as the inseparable companion of his pilgrimage, that distinguished doctor, the Blessed Eskil, sprung from Britain, who had been his Chaplain and kinsman. These two winds, warm and rainy, divinely brought to the parts of Sweden, watered the dry hearts of the unbelievers with the streams of celestial intelligence, and there began again to sprout the revived shoots of the virtues.

[3] But of the happy deeds of the Blessed Eskil we have taken care to hand over some to the monuments of letters with a humble style. This Saint, after the rudiments of infancy, this man, instructed in the divine law, like a sprouting olive, and like a cypress raising itself on high, the allurements of the world being despised, poured himself wholly into the love of God. Instructed in the teachings of the divine law, he avidly drank of its honey-flowing streams, whence afterward he ministered the cup of salvation to many. When he had come to manly age, he was so inspired by God, that he was made equal to the merits of the Blessed Abraham, to whom it was said: "Go out from your land and from your kindred and come into the land which I shall show you, and I will make you grow into a great nation." Acts 7:3

[4] having set out from England into Sweden, He went out, his parents and the bonds of his fatherland being spurned, from Britain, where he was sprung; he proceeded to the kingdom of Sweden, certain that the further he withdrew from his own soil for God's sake, the more he would approach heaven. Grace and justice grew in him with age, and he did all things according to the exemplar which was shown to him on the mountain, namely St. Sigfrid, the mirror of virtues, an imitator of St. Sigfrid whose most holy life he strove to be an imitator of. And since he was the good odor of Christ, the fame of his holiness came to the ears of King Inge, who then held the royal scepter in the kingdom of Sweden.

[5] by him he is consecrated Bishop Indeed, when divine providence willed that a lamp so brightly kindled, set upon a celestial candlestick, should afford light to many, by the consent of all he is elected as Bishop of Sweden in the place which is called Nordhans Kogh; and is honorably consecrated by the Blessed Sigfrid. But after he had ascended the throne of Pontifical dignity, like a morning star in the midst of a cloud, he converts very many. he led back many wandering in trackless ways, having lost their footsteps, and not on the way of good example, by the ray of sacred doctrine to the way of the celestial fatherland. The people worshipped Christ in him, as the radiance of the sun gleaming on a mountain top; at whose distinguished preaching very many of the faithful, kindled with zeal of faith, began to build oratories of the Saints, to overthrow profane shrines, and to cut down groves; in which the unbelievers had long sweated over sacrilegious Sacrifices: whence deservedly may be said that of the Prophet: "That uncultivated land was made as a garden of delight, having now the temple of the living God instead of fanes and shrines." Ezek. 36:35

[6] Then by diabolical contrivance; But the ancient enemy seeing this, and envying that daily his cultivation decreased, and that, the faithful being multiplied, the church triumphed; was contriving to extinguish the life of the Shepherd, that the scattered sheep might lie open to the bites of the infernal wolves. Finally that same adversary, whose breath makes coals burn, inflamed with sharp malice certain perverse men, already wishing to go back behind Satan, the Catholic King Inge being put to flight, against King Inge the defender of the faith. These, seeing that under him unlawful things were not permitted to them, an army being gathered, conquered the King in war and put him to flight from the kingdom. After this, in the likeness of the Israelite people, who, lest they be under the lord Rehoboam, where there was the temple and worship of the true God, made for themselves King Jeroboam, by whose counsel, made idolaters, they adored calves: so these, the Christian Prince being cast off, and the impious Sven being taken up chose an idolater, setting over themselves as king a certain Sven, impious and unworthy of royal honor, called Blodswen, and deservedly so named; because he permitted them to drink the blood of animals offered to idols, and to feed on things sacrificed to idols.

[7] the profane sacred rites are resumed: These things therefore being done, as the Philistines, having captured Samson, entered the fane, and immolated victims to Dagon their god; in like manner, the champion of the faith, namely King Inge, being triumphed over, the multitude of the unbelievers together with their King assembled at Strängnäs in the place of the idols, that, oxen and sheep being immolated, they might pour out victims to their gods: and they made there a great banquet for reverence of the King and veneration of the gods, of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of the libations, acclaiming auspicious things to the new King.

[8] resisting them, St. Eskil At that time the Bishop St. Eskil, perhaps residing at the church, these rumors having been heard, a strong zealot, like another Elijah, who in his days did not fear the Prince; clothed in the breastplate of justice, protected by the shield of faith, and having received the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with his clerics and a few others went forth intrepid to the idolaters; and so standing in the midst, by preaching he rebuked them, that, forgetting the Lord their Creator, they immolated to demons and not to God. But they like asps stopped their ears, lest they hear the law of God, barking at his words. The man of God seeing this, his eyes and hands raised to heaven, asked God to make some evidence of his offense, by which the stony hearts of the unbelievers might recognize that he alone is the true God.

[9] the same being obtained by hail he overthrows them, The prayer finished, soon the ancient sign, made at the prayers of Samuel against the Philistines, is renewed. For with a great crash the Lord thundered: hail, snow, and rain descending destroyed the altars of those immolating and the victims: but upon the Bishop not one drop of rain came. wherefore grievously wounded, When the sons of Belial saw this, filled with fury, they made an assault upon him; and one of them, a soothsayer, Spadbodde by name, struck his head with a stone: but another with an axe broke the shell of his head. Then, the sacred blood flowing from the wounds, the stone on which he stood was drenched; which, as is said, still appears in it as if indelible; just as the sin of Judah, written with an iron pen, is read on an adamantine point, in memory of the execrable deed.

[10] and by command stoned Meanwhile certain Nobles, seizing the holy Martyr falling half-alive on the ground, dragged him to the King: and that he might not say he suffered without cause, they said that he by magic arts, on account of the injury to the new King and the gods, had thus stirred up the air. Immediately therefore by the wicked King (as by Joash against the just Pontiff, namely Zachariah) the sentence of death being passed, he dies a Martyr: led into a mountain beside a valley, where now is situated the cloister of the Friars Preachers; and like Jeremiah and Stephen, for the Zeal of faith and the defense of truth overwhelmed with stones, he finished his temporal life, and began eternal felicity in the heavens. 2 Chron. 25:17 But just as, the jar of Gideon being broken, the enclosed lamp appeared: so, the alabaster of his most holy body being broken, the odor of the virtues was fragrant. For many vexed by various sicknesses were cured by his merits and prayers: as is proved in his holy miracles.

[11] the body growing renowned for miracles But just as in the time of Ahab, the Prophets of the Lord being slain, idolatry prevailing, God reserved seven thousand men, who did not bend their knees before Baal; so then many good faithful did not consent to the profane acts of the faithless ones, lest they stretch out their hands to iniquities. it cannot be carried elsewhere, being immovable These took the body of the Martyr; that they might bury it perhaps in a church. But as they came to the place which is called Eskilstuna, with such a density of fog the air was darkened, that they could not go further; and his body was made so heavy, that they could in no way move it. but is buried in a basilica built there. That same night it was revealed to him who first cast a stone at him, that in that place, for reverence of the Martyr, a basilica should be built, which also was done.

[12] The body therefore being buried there, at the flashing of his miracles, there were made in the folds of the Lord's flock sheep out of wolves, protectors out of persecutors of the Church. This is our Samson, who killed more dying than living. Deservedly do we call this man a blessed Martyr, who deserved to share in the passions of Christ. For he suffered in the spring season, and at the time of Christ's passion, for the cause of divine justice: therefore worthily, like the flower of roses, in the days of spring, reddened with the blood of Martyrdom, he was translated into the celestial rose-garden: by whose merits and glorious prayers may Jesus Christ our Lord, who is blessed unto the ages of ages, give us grace in the present, and glory in the future. Amen.

NOTES. G. H.

p Eskilstuna, in the maps Skilstuna, with Strängnäs and Torshälla makes a triangle.

q In the margin Karstian adds: "There is now there a monastery of the Knights of St. John, and it is distant from our monastery (namely of Mary of Peace) seven miles: and there is still kept there, enclosed in gold and silver, the sacred treasure, namely the body of this most blessed Martyr."

r In the copy is added: "But thou, Lord": which if it had been appended at the end of each Lesson, we could have noted in the margin the old division of the Lessons themselves. Now, since we see the history distinguished into 27 paragraphs, we think no account of such a distinction is to be had: but for some likeness to the old division we have introduced the number twelve. There is also prescribed a Homily on the Gospel, "At that time Jesus said to his disciples, I am the good Shepherd": but it is not indicated whence the Homily is to be taken. Today's Roman Breviary on the 2nd Sunday after Easter takes it from St. Gregory the Pope, Homily 14 on the Gospels. Karstian adds in the margin: "This Gospel and its Homily the secular Priests read here in the kingdom on this feast, and it fits well enough"; whereby he seems to indicate that among the Carthusians another Gospel is read by the Carthusians, perhaps from the feast of St. Clement, "Watch, for you know not," with the Homily of St. Hilary, from his Commentary on Matthew, canon 26 at the end.