Botwine (died 785 or 786) was a Northumbrian saint venerated at Ripon and Peterborough. He is well documented as a priest,Byrhtferth.VitOswaldi v.9 and latter Abbot of Ripon.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (versions D, & E),785Byrhtferth.VitOswaldi v.9Botwine.Ep.T131(Letter to Lull)Northern Annals.First Set 53. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recension E, recorded his death in the 780s (probably for 786) in one of three Ripon abbatial obits derived from a chronicle of Northumbrian origin.Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, p. 171, n. 99; Whitelock (ed.), English Historical Documents, p. 180 Following the death of St Botwine in 786AD, his replacement, Ealdberht was elected and consecrated Abbot. Ealdberht died in 788AD,Historia Regum (NorthernAnnals).FirstSet 53 (786) and was himself succeeded as Abbot by St. Sigered of Ripon.Byrhtferth.VitOswaldi v.9NorthernAnnals.FirstSet 54
The late 10th- and early 11th-century writer Byrhtferth of Ramsey in his Vita sancti Oswaldi claimed that Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York, discovered Botwine's relics at the monastery of Ripon. Oswald made a magnificent reliquary in which he placed the relics of Botwine with Wilfrid, Tiatberht, Alberht, Sigered and Vilden.Byrhtferth.VitOswaldi v.9 This account is described by historian Michael Lapidge as "problematical" on other points.Blair, "Handlist", p. 518; Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 170–71, comment at n. 97 as it is known that in the 12th-century Peterborough Abbey also possessed some relics of Botwine.Blair, "Handlist", p. 518
Notes
References
External links (Peterborough) and (Ripon) at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England