Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 5 2007

Saint Boniface (Latin: Bonifacius; German: Bonifatius; c. 672 – June 5, 754), the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid or Wynfrith at Crediton in the kingdom of Wessex (now in Devon, England), was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He was killed in Frisia in 754.

Born at Crediton, Devon, Winfrid was of a respected and prosperous family. He devoted himself at an early age to the monastic life. Winfrid taught in the abbey school and at the age of 30 became a priest. He wrote the first Latin grammar produced in England.

In 716, Winfrid set out on a missionary expedition to Frisia, intending to convert the inhabitants. This mission failed. Winfrid again set out in 718, visited Rome, and was commissioned in 719 by Pope Gregory II, who gave him his new name of Boniface. He set out to evangelize in Germany and reorganize the church there. On November 30, 722, he was elevated to bishop of the Germanic territories he would bring into the fold of the Roman Church.

In 723, Boniface felled the holy oak tree dedicated to Thor near the present-day town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse. Boniface called upon Thor to strike him down if he cut the "holy" tree. According to St. Boniface's first biographer, his contemporary Saint Willibald, Boniface started to chop the oak down, when suddenly a great wind, as if by miracle, blew the ancient oak over. When Thor did not strike him down, the people converted to Christianity. He built a chapel from its wood at the site where today stands the cathedral of Fritzlar. Later he established the first bishopric in Germany north of the old Roman limes at the Frankish fortified settlement of Büraburg, on a prominent hill facing the town across the Eder River.

From that point on, Boniface destroyed several high places of the pagans. In 732, Gregory II conferred upon him the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over Germany. During his third visit to Rome in 737–38, he was made papal legate for Germany. In 745, he was granted Mainz as metropolitan see.

In 754 he set out with a small retinue for Frisia. He baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkum, between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of his converts, however, a group of armed inhabitants appeared who slew the aged archbishop.

Attributes: ax, book; fountain; fox; oak; raven; scourge; sword

Patronage: brewers; file cutters; Fulda; the Netherlands and Germany; tailors; World Youth Day

Prayer: In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course. Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations." Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful, and he tells us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden light." Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.