Converting early medieval, pagan Sweden to Christianity was a long process. The first missionary to Sweden was the German bishop Ansgar, who came to Birka in the 9th century. Over the next two or three hundred years, the Roman church sent several additional missionaries, reminding and further convincing Vikings and others up here in the north to convert to Christianity.
One of them was Eskil, an English monk who arrived some 200 years after Ansgar. Exactly when, we don’t know, but we’re confident that he died here in 1080. Eskil probably grew up under Viking rule in his homeland.
The place where Eskil settled is today named after him – the nearby town of Eskilstuna. There he built a church, founded the diocese of Tuna, and became its first bishop.
Eskil was very successful in his mission. His argument convinced several people, one of them the king himself: Inge the Elder, as he is known in history.
With the support of King Inge, Eskil succeeded in further extending his mission. We know that he travelled south as far as the settlement now called Nyköping. To the west, he covered most of the present Närke region and to the east a reasonable distance beyond the vital trading and business settlement Strigines - that is, the current Strängnäs.
But Eskil also met resistance. Some influential local leaders refused to abandon their old beliefs and continued to hold pagan sacrificial feasts, every ninth year as their tradition demanded.
This resistance to Eskil gained further power when King Inge the Elder was brutally overthrown by his brother-in-law Sven. King Sven the Sacrificer as he is called, pledged his crown in allegiance to the old faith, and fiercely resisted Christianity.
When Eskil found that Sven the Sacrificer planned a large pagan festival to be held in Strängnäs, an essential place in his diocese, he decided he couldn’t passively ignore it. He went to Strängnäs, and preached a sermon on the awful punishment that awaited those who did not immediately stop this idolatry.
As you might expect, this provoked the people of the king, and violent fighting broke out. According to legend, a huge man named Spåbodde threw a stone at Eskil’s head, followed by another man hitting him with an axe. Eskil was severely wounded and - heavily bleeding - he was dragged to the king’s palace to be sentenced.
The king condemned him, and poor Eskil was immediately dragged to a nearby hill to be stoned to death.
Eskil’s body was carried back to his home church in Tuna to be buried by his followers. According to legend, the party camped for the night at the foot of Långberget, the town mountain of present Strängnäs. When they woke up the next morning, they discovered to their surprise that a new spring had sprung from the mountain during the night “with the freshest, most wonderful water”.
That spring is still there today. It is called the source of Saint Eskil, located just outside present Strängnäs city border, at the right-hand side of the road to Eskilstuna.
The hill-top where Eskil was stoned to death, today known as Kyrkberget, is right below your feet. Yes, Strängnäs Cathedral is built on that hill.