FACTOID #151: The five countries with the highest coffee consumption are also the five countries whose citizens trust one another the most. Coincidence? Probably.
Botolph or Botulph (died circa 680, pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable) was an Englishabbot 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.
Botulph, the saint whose name is perpetuated in that of the American city of Boston, Massachusetts, was certainly an historical personage, though the story of his life is very confused and unsatisfactory.
According to him Botulph was born of noble Saxon parents who were Christians, and was sent with his brother Adulph to the Continent for the purpose of study.
Botulph, returning to England, found favour with a certain Ethelmund, "King of the southern Angles", whose sisters he had known in Germany, and was by him permitted to choose a tract of desolate land upon which to build a monastery.
Botulph was born of noble Saxon parents who were Christians, and was sent with his brother Adulph to the Continent for the purpose of study.
Botulph was much honoured in the North and in Scotland.
Botulph really did build a monastery at Icanhoe is attested by an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 654: Botulf ongan thæt mynster timbrian æt Yceanho, i.e.
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