St Botvid and Regional Swedish Law

Welcome to a guest lecture by Adrián Rodriguez Avila, PhD student at the University of Cambridge

Join us to hear Adrián Rodriguez Avila talk about Saint Botvid, one of the patron saints of Södermanland in the Swedish southeast. 

Sainy Botvid was a layman who converted in England who, according to his legend, was martyred not long after his return to Sweden. Although traces of his cult can be found in a few localities in the Uppsala church province, not a lot of attention has been paid to his figure by modern scholarship.  It seems, however, that he gained considerable importance, at least in the east of Sweden: the Södermannalag -the Regional Law of Södermanland- written around 1325, imposes a hefty fine of 40 marks to whoever breaks the peace on his feast day. The aim of this paper is to investigate how a lay saint gained the notoriety to be codified into the regional law. It will be proposed that his legend -the oldest preserved Latin work in Sweden, perhaps composed shortly after the end of the Viking Age- was a crucial text to promote not only religious but cultural change in Sweden, which may have contributed to the propagation of his cult and figure.

Register (on the right) for the Zoom link, which will be emailed to you the morning of the lecture.