June 13/30, Feast of St. Botolph (Old Style)
Abbot and Confessor, of Ikanhoe, England (+680)
Patron saint of all Travelers,
Boston, England (founded 654)
Boston, Massachusetts (founded 1630)
and Patron of Botolph’s Town Tours (founded 2013)
In a society increasingly alienated from religion, among a people who more and more identify themselves as SBNR (spiritual, but not religious), why launch a tour company specifically dedicated to speaking of faith? After all, has not science proved faith irrelevant at best and recent fundamentalist expressions of faith proved it downright dangerous at worst?
But faith is the narrative of the people who first built the two cities of Boston (literally “Botolph’s Town” elided together into Bo’s-To’n). If we are going to properly understand how our fair American city of Botolph began, we have to engage at some degree with this narrative. Faith, especially Christian faith, was the reason for the original pilgrim fathers to flee Boston, England, to come to the New World, and to settle here permanently. Faith was the center not only of their spiritual life, but of their whole community.
And it remains the center of our city to this day. Though the number of people non-affiliated with any church or religion is growing nationally, Boston over the past several decades has been celebrating a bit of a quiet revival, with the population remaining around 600,000 and the total number of churches increasing by over 100. It is this kind of spiritual life and vitality that we wish to reveal in our faith-based tours, not just the historic faith of the founding fathers. For the Christ that St. Botolph confessed is alive and well in His Church and reveals Himself in many unexpected ways.
Come take a tour with us and perhaps you too can become a pilgrim!
June 13/30, Feast of St. Botolph (Old Style)
