A
miniature in the British Library Yates Thomson MS 26,
Bede's Prose Life of St Cuthbert, depicting Cuthbert's meeting with Boisil
at Melrose
Saint Boswell
Abbé de Melrose en
Angleterre (+ v. 661)
ou Boisil.
Moine disciple Saint Aidan de Lindisfarne. Devenu abbé, il fut bibliste. Il avait le don de prophétie et était réputé pour sa faculté à prêcher et il forma les saints Cuthbert et Herbert. Il mourut de la peste.
Il donna son nom à la ville de St Boswell's en Ecosse.
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/10669/Saint-Boswell.html
Also
known as
Boisil
Profile
Spiritual student of Saint Aidan
of Lindisfarne. Monk. Abbot at
the abbey of Melrose, Scotland. Teacher and
spiritual director of Saint Cuthbert
of Lindisfarne and Saint Eghert. Bible
scholar. Had the gift of prophecy.
Noted preacher.
Born
Northumbrian (in
modern England)
661 of
the yellow
plague
Additional
Information
Book of
Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
MLA
Citation
“Saint Boswell“. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 May 2020. Web. 23 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-boswell/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-boswell/
St. Boswell
Feastday: February 23
Death: 661
Abbot of Melrose,
Scotand, also called Boisil. Boswell trained as a monk under
St. Aidan. As abbot, Boswell served as a biblical scholar. He was given a gift
of prophecy and
was known for his preaching, and he trained Sts. Cuthbert and
Eghert. Boswell died of the plague.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1824
Article
BOISIL (Saint) Abbot.
(February 23) (7th century) A Prior of Melrose Abbey and successor there of
Abbot Eata. Bede describes him as a man of great virtue and as endued with the
gift of prophecy. Among his disciples were Saint Cuthbert and Saint Egbert. The
Holy Name of Jesus, pronounced so as to touch the hearts of all who heard him,
was ever on his lips. He passed away during the great pestilence of the year
664.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Boisil”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 4
September 2012.
Web. 23 February 2025.
<http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-boisil/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-boisil/
St. Boswell
Feastday: February 23
Death: 661
Abbot of Melrose,
Scotand, also called Boisil. Boswell trained as a monk under
St. Aidan. As abbot, Boswell served as a biblical scholar. He was given a gift
of prophecy and
was known for his preaching, and he trained Sts. Cuthbert and
Eghert. Boswell died of the plague.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1824
New Catholic
Dictionary – Saint Boisil
Article
(died 664) Confessor, abbot of Melrose, Scotland.
He is famous as the teacher
of Saint Cuthbert,
and was renowned in his day for his spiritual gifts. He died of
the yellow plague. Relics at Durham. Feast, 23 February.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Boisil”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
18 October 2008. Web. 23 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-boisil-ncd/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-boisil-ncd/
Saints
of the Day – Boisil (Boswell) of Melrose, Abbot
Article
Died c.664. Saint Boisil
was the prior of the famous abbey of Melrose (Mailross), situated on the Tweed
River in a great forest in Northumberland, while Saint Eata was abbot. Both
were English youths trained in monasticism by Saint Aidan.
Saint Bede says that
Boisil was a man of sublime virtues, imbued with a prophetic spirit. His
eminent sanctity drew Saint Cuthbert to Melrose rather than to Lindisfarne in
his youth. It was from Boisil that Cuthbert learned the sacred scriptures and
virtue.
Saint Boisil had the holy
names of the adorable Trinity ever on his lips. He repeated the name Jesus
Christ with a wonderful sentiment of devotion, and often with such an abundance
of tears that others would weep with him. With tender affection he would
frequently say, “How good a Jesus we have!” At the first sight of Saint
Cuthbert, Boisil said to bystanders, “Behold a servant of God!”
Bede produces the testimony
of Saint Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold to him the chief things
that afterwards happened to him. Three years beforehand he foretold of the
great pestilence of 664, and that he himself should die of it, but that Eata
the abbot should survive.
In addition to
continually instructing his brothers in religion, Boisil made frequent
excursions into the villages to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls
on to the paths of truth and life. He was also known for his aid to the poor.
Again, Boisil told
Cuthbert, recovering from the plague, “You see, brother, that God has delivered
you from this disease, nor shall you ever feel it again, nor die at this time;
but my death being at hand, neglect not to learn something from me so long as I
shall be able to teach you, which will be no more than seven days.” So Cuthbert
asked, “And what will be best for me to read which may be finished in seven
days.” To which Boisil replied, “The Gospel of Saint John, which we may in that
time read over, and confer upon as much as shall be necessary.”
Having accomplished the
reading in seven days, the man of God, Boisil, became ill and died in
extraordinary jubilation of soul, out of his earnest desire to be with Christ.
During his life he
repeatedly instructed his brothers, “That they would never cease giving thanks
to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they would always watch
over themselves against self-love and all attachment to their own will and
private judgment, as against their capital enemy; that they would converse
assiduously with God by interior prayer, and labor continually to attain to the
most perfect purity of heart, this being the true and short road to the
perfection of Christian virtue.”
Bede relates that Saint
Boisil continued after his death to interest himself particularly in obtaining
divine mercy and grace for his country and his friends. He appeared twice to
one of his disciples, giving him a charge to assure Saint Egbert, who had been
hindered from preaching the Gospel in Germany, that God commanded him to repair
the monasteries of Saint Columba on Iona and in the Orkneys, and to instruct
them in the right manner of celebrating Easter.
The relics of Boisil were
translated to Durham, and deposited near those of his disciple, Saint Cuthbert,
in 1030 (Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth).
MLA
Citation
Katherine I
Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 May 2020. Web. 23 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-boisil-boswell-of-melrose-abbot/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-boisil-boswell-of-melrose-abbot/
St. Boisil
Superior of Melrose
Abbey, d. 664. Almost all that is known of St. Boisil is learnt from Bede (Eccles.
Hist., IV, xxvii, and Vita Cuthberti). He derived his information from Sigfrid,
a monk of
Jarrow, who had previously been trained by Boisil at Melrose. St. Boisil's
fame is mainly due to his connection with his great pupil, St. Cuthbert, but it is
plain that the master was worthy of the disciple. Contemporaries were deeply
impressed with Boisil's supernatural intuitions. When
Cuthbert presented himself at Melrose, Boisil
exclaimed "Behold a servant of the Lord", and he obtained leave from
Abbot Eata to receive him into the community at once. When in the great
pestilence of 664 Cuthbert was stricken down, Boisil declared he would
certainly recover. Somewhat later Boisil himself as he had foretold three years
before, fell a victim to this terrible epidemic, but before the end came he
predicted that Cuthbert would become a bishop and would
effect great things for the Church. After his death
Boisil appeared twice in a vision to his former disciple, Bishop Ecgberht. He
is believed, on somewhat dubious authority, to have written certain theological works,
but they have not been preserved. St. Boswell's, Roxburghshire, commemorates
his name. His relics,
like those of St.
Bede, were carried off to Durham in the eleventh century by the priest Ælfred. In
the early Calendars his day is assigned to 23 February, but the Bollandists treat
of him on 9 September.
Sources
Acta SS., January, II and
March, III; Acta SS. Ben., Saec, II, p. 850; STUBBS in Dict. Christ. Biog.;
HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biog.; PLUMMER in Bede's Eccles. Hist. (Oxford, 1896);
STANTON, Menology (London, 1892), 318.
Thurston,
Herbert. "St. Boisil." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02625a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph E. O'Connor.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Calendar
of Scottish Saints – Saint Boisil, Confessor, A.D. 664
Article
23
February. The old abbey of Melrose was not the Cistercian house whose ruins
still remain, but an earlier monastery which had been founded by Saint Aidan
and followed the rule of Saint Columba, which was afterwards changed for that
of Saint Benedict. The Roman usage regarding Easter was adopted there, very
soon after the Synod of Whitby. Its abbot was the holy Eata, who was given the
government of Lindisfarne Abbey also, when many of its monks followed Saint
Colman to Ireland. Just before these events occurred the subject of this notice
was called to his reward. He was prior of Melrose under Eata, and it was he,
who, being a monk and priest of surpassing merit and prophetic spirit, as Saint
Bede says, welcomed with joy and gave the monastic habit to a youth in whom he
saw “a servant of the Lord”—the future Saint Cuthbert. The two became devoted
friends, and Boisil, who was especially learned in the Scriptures, became
Cuthbert’s master in that science, as well as his example in holy living.
In 664 a terrible
epidemic called the Yellow Plague visited Scotland and carried off numbers of
the inhabitants. Boisil and Cuthbert were both attacked by the malady, and the
lives of both were endangered. The holy prior, however, from the beginning
foretold the recovery of Cuthbert and his own death. Summoning the latter to
his bedside, he prophesied his future greatness, relating all that was to
befall him in the years to come, and especially his elevation to the episcopal
rank. Then he begged Cuthbert to assist him during the seven days of life which
remained to him to finish the study of Saint John’s Gospel on which they had
been engaged. In this they occupied themselves till Saint Boisil’s peaceful
death.
The church of Saint
Boswell’s was dedicated to this saint, the name is a corruption of Saint
Boisil’s. The old town has disappeared. An annual fair was formerly held on
July 18th, in honour of the saint. His well also was situated there.
MLA
Citation
Father Michael
Barrett, OSB.
“Saint Boisil, Confessor, A.D. 664”. The Calendar
of Scottish Saints, 1919. CatholicSaints.Info.
29 January 2014. Web. 23 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-boisil-confessor-a-d-664/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-boisil-confessor-a-d-664/
St.
Boisil, Prior of Mailross, or Melross, Confessor
THE
FAMOUS abbey of Mailross, which in later ages embraced the Cistercian
rule, originally followed that of St. Columba. It was situated upon the river
Tweed, in a great forest, and in the seventh century was comprised in the
kingdom of the English Saxons in Northumberland, which was extended in the
eastern part of Scotland as high as the Frith. Saint Boisil was prior of this
house under the holy abbot Eata, both of whom seem to have been English youths,
trained up in monastic discipline by St. Aidan. Boisil was, says Bede, a man of
sublime virtues, and endued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent sanctity
determined St. Cuthbert to repair rather to Mailross than to Lindisfarne in his
youth, and he received from this saint the knowledge of the holy scriptures,
and the example of all virtues. St. Boisil had often in his mouth the holy
names of the adorable Trinity, and of our divine Redeemer Jesus, which he
repeated with a wonderful sentiment of devotion, and often with such an
abundance of tears as excited others to weep with him. He would say frequently,
with the most tender affection, “How good a Jesus have we!” At the first sight
of St. Cuthbert, he said to the bystanders: “Behold a servant of God.” Bede
produces the testimony of St. Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold him
the chief things that afterwards happened to him in the sequel of his life.
Three years beforehand, he foretold the great pestilence of 664, and that he
himself should die of it, but that Eata, the abbot, should outlive it. Boisil,
not content continually to instruct and exhort his religious brethren by word
and example, made frequent excursions into the villages to preach to the poor,
and to bring straying souls into the paths of truth and of life. St. Cuthbert
was taken with the pestilential disease: when St. Boisil saw him recovered, he
said to him: “Thou seest, brother, that God hath delivered thee from this
disease, nor shalt thou any more feel it, nor die at this time: but my death
being at hand, neglect not to learn something of me so long as I shall be able
to teach thee, which will be no more than seven days.” “And what,” said
Cuthbert, “will be best for me to read, which may be finished in seven days?”
“The gospel of St. John,” said he, “which we may in that time read over, and
confer upon as much as shall be necessary.” For they only sought therein, says
Bede, the sincerity of faith working through love, and not the treating of
profound questions. Having accomplished this reading in seven days, the man of
God, Boisil, falling ill of the aforesaid disease, came to his last day, which
he passed over in extraordinary jubilation of soul, out of his earnest desire
of being with Christ. In his last moments he often repeated those words of St.
Stephen: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Thus he entered into the happiness of
eternal light, in the year 664. The instructions which he was accustomed most
earnestly to inculcate to his religious brethren were: “That they would never
cease giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they
would always watch over themselves against self-love and all attachment to
their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy; that they
would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and labour continually
to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this being the true and short
road to the perfection of Christian virtue.” Out of the most ardent and tender
love which he bore our divine Redeemer, and in order daily to enkindle and
improve the same, he was wonderfully delighted with reading every day a part of
the gospel of St. John, which for this purpose he divided into seven parts or
tasks. St. Cuthbert inherited from him this devotion, and in his tomb was found
a Latin copy of St. John’s gospel, which was in the possession of the present
earl of Litchfield, and which his lordship gave to Mr. Thomas Philips, canon of
Tongres.
Bede
relates, 1 as
an instance that St. Boisil continued after his death to interest himself
particularly in obtaining for his country and friends the divine mercy and
grace, that he appeared twice to one of his disciples, giving him a charge to
assure St. Egbert, who had been hindered from going to preach the gospel to the
infidels in Germany, that God commanded him to repair to the monasteries of St.
Columba, to instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter. These
monasteries were, that in the island of Colm-Kill, or Iona (which was the
ordinary burial-place of the kings of Scotland down to Malcolm III.) and that
of Magis, in the isles of Orkney, built by bishop Colman. The remains of St.
Boisil were translated to Durham, and deposited near those of his disciple St.
Cuthbert, in 1030. Wilson and other English authors mention St. Boisil on the
7th of August; but in the Scottish calendars his name occurs on the 23rd of
February. See Bede, Hist. l. 4. c. 27. l. 5. c. 10. and in Vitâ S. Cuthberti,
c. 8.
Note
1. Hist. l. 5. c. 10. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler
(1711–73). Volume I: January. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
St. Boisil
(Died AD 661)
Abbot of Melrose
Died: 7th July AD 661
Saint Boisil was a
Northumbrian. As a youth, he was trained in monasticism at Lindisfarne Priory
by St.
Aidan himself. He became a monk and quickly rose to be Prior of
Melrose Abbey, in Tweedale, under Abbot
Eata.
Taking his information from Sigfrid, a monk of Jarrow who had trained under
Boisil, Bede tells
us that the saint was a man of sublime virtues as well as an eminent scholar.
The holy names of the adorable Trinity were ever on his lips and he repeated
the name Jesus Christ with tender affection. He frequently exclaimed, "How
good a Jesus we have!" and wept so sincerely that onlookers were
encouraged to join him.
It was Boisil's evident sanctity which drew the young St.
Cuthbert to Melrose, rather than the more famous Lindisfarne, in AD
651. By chance, the prior was standing by the abbey gate when Cuthbert arrived.
The latter entered the church to pray and, looking on, "Boisil had an
intuition of the high degree of holiness to which the boy.....would rise, and
said just this single phrase to the monks with whom he was standing:
"Behold the servant of the Lord".
Abbot Eata soon gave permission for Cuthbert to enter the community, and Boisil
ensured that he "watched, prayed, worked and read harder than anyone
else". It was thus from the Prior that Cuthbert learned the sacred
scriptures, pupil and teacher becoming great friends. Both were given to
travelling amongst the villages neighbouring Melrose and preaching to the local
people.
In AD 659, Abbot Eata
left the monastery to found a second house at Ripon in Yorkshire. Boisil became
Abbot of Melrose. Two years later, Boisil was able to further demonstrate his
gift of second sight when a great plague swept through the monastery. Cuthbert
was stricken with the disease and drew close to death, but Boisil correctly
declared he would most certainly recover. He also predicted his own death from
the same epidemic, to which he, indeed, fell victim. Shortly before the end,
Boisil made his most famous prophecy, foretelling Cuthbert's rise to Episcopal
glory and they great influence he would have on the Northumbrian Church.
Boisil died on 7th July AD 661 and was buried at Melrose. Miracles at his tomb
soon led to him being translated to a beautifully carved shrine, parts of which
are preserved in the Museum at nearby Jedburgh Abbey. Like Bede, his relics
were carried off to Durham, in 1030, by the thieving priest, Alfred. He is also
remembered in the name of St. Boswells in Roxburghshire.
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20180512004325/http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/boisil.html
