Botolph or Botulph (died circa 680, pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable) was an English abbot and saint. Little is known about his life, other than doubtful details in a surviving account written four hundred years after his death by the eleventh-century monk Folcard. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he built a monastery in 654 at a place called Icanhoe. There is no modern town named Icanhoe (which means ox-island), and the location is disputed; it may be in Lincolnshire.

Bede mentions an abbot named Botolphus in East Anglia, "a man of remarkable life and learning, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit". Many churches in East Anglia are named for Botolph, as is the Lincolnshire town of Boston (Botolph's town), from which the Massachusetts city of Boston takes its name. That city has a street named after St. Botolph, pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable.

Cambridge University's poetry journal in the 1950s was called St. Botolph's Review, which Ted Hughes wrote for.

His feast day is either on 17 June or 25 June.

External links

• Life of St Botolph (http://www.st-botolphs.com/botolph/st_botolph_life.htm)
• Catholic Encyclopaedia - Life of Boltulph (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02709a.htm)