A man of profound piety, he was always zealous for the welfare of the church, and was a courageous and unselfish defender of the rights of the hierarchy in its struggle against the civil power and clerical usurpers.
Here, during a dangerous illness, he was allegedly honoured by a vision of the Virgin Mary, who, chiding him with his frivolous conduct, saved him from imminent perdition and restored his health, demanding five measures of different varieties of corn as a thank-offering.
He received the pallium (archiepiscopal insignia) from Innocent II through the papal legate, Cardinal Theodignus, who, with many Scandinavian bishops, was present at the provincial Synod of Lund (1139).
On various occasions Eskil was involved in the internal political disputes of rival kings, even to the extent of being temporarily held captive in his own cathedral, for which he was later indemnified by various land-grants.
The Cistercian monks were especial favourites of Eskil, who founded their first monastery in 1144 at Herrevad (Herivadum) near Helsingborg, which was soon followed by one at Esrom in Sjælland (1154).
Hearing of Bernard's death (1153), Eskil made a pilgrimage to the saint's grave and thence to Rome, where all his archiepiscopal privileges were ratified by Pope Adrian IV (Breakspear).
In a dignified letter to the kings and the bishops of Denmark, Eskil expressed his willingness rather to suffer innocently in defence of the Church's prerogatives than to be ransomed.
Subsequent to the solemn translation of the relics of the canonized (1169) martyr-duke, Knud Lavard (d. 1131), Waldemar's father, Eskil crowned the king's seven-year-old son at Ringsted, 1170.
In the spring of 1177, in the presence of the king, numerous prelates and a great concourse of people assembled in the cathedral of Lund, Eskil, having read the papal decree, declared to resign on his own initiative, laid the official insignia on the altar, and all consenting, designated his nephew, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, as his successor.