slain with
him, on the 10th of July, 1086, as AElnoth, a contemporary author,
testifies, who has specified the date of all the events with the utmost
exactness. His wicked brother Olas succeeded him in the kingdom. God
punished the people during eight years and three months of his reign
with a dreadful famine, and other calamities; and attested the sanctity
of the martyr, by many miraculous cures of the sick at his tomb. For
which reason his relics were taken up out of their obscure sepulchre,
and honorably entombed towards the end of the reign of Olas. His
successor, Eric III., a most religious prince, restored piety and
religion, with equal courage and success, and sent ambassadors to Rome,
with proofs of the miracles performed, and obtained from the pope a
declaration authorizing the veneration of St. Canutus, the proto-martyr
of Denmark. Upon this occasion a most solemn translation of his relics,
which were put in a most costly shrine, was performed, at which AElnoth,
our historian, was present. He adds, that the first preachers of the
faith in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were English priests; that the
Danes then zealously embraced the Christian religion, but that the
Swedes still continued more obstinate, among whom Eschil, an Englishman,
received the crown of martyrdom, while he was preaching Christ to
certain savage tribes.

ST. HENRY, ARCHBISHOP OF UPSAL, M.

HE was an Englishman, and preached the faith in the North with his
countryman, cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, the apostle of Norway, and
legate of the holy see, afterwards pope Adrian IV., by whom he was
raised to this see, in 1148. St. Eric, or Henry, (for it is the same
name,) was {181} then the holy king of Sweden.[1] Our saint, after
having converted several provinces, went to preach in Finland, which
that king had lately conquered. He deserved to be styled the apostle of
that country, but fell a martyr in it, being stoned to death at the
instigation of a barbarous murderer, whom he endeavored to reclaim by
censures, in 1151. His tomb was in great veneration at Upsal, till his
ashes were scattered on the change of religion, in the sixteenth
century. See John Magnus, l. 1, Vit. Pout. Upsal. Olaus Magnus, l. 4.
Bollandus, and chiefly his life published by Benzelius. Monum. Suec. p.
33.

Footnotes:
1. Stiernman, in his discourse, "On the State of Learning among the
ancient Swedes," observes, that Sweden was chiefly converted to
Christianity b