st.Botwid-Swedish martyr

Feast Day : July 28

Also known as: Botuid

Botwid was a Swedish layman who converted to Catholicism while on a trip to England. Back in Sweden, he began preaching. He bought a Finnish slave, baptized him, gave him religious instruction and set him free with the request to spread the Gospel in his native land. Botwid and a friend, Asbjorn, arranged to take the slave by boat across the Baltic Sea. On shore at night, the treacherous slave murdered the sleeping men and stole the boat. A search party set out to find the missing men. According to lore, a bird perched on the prow of their boat and sang until the bodies were found. Botwid was buried in Sweden and is revered as an apostle of Sweden..