Boniface (I) Article from Wikipedia Saint Boniface (Latin: Bonifacius; 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 is the patron saint of Germany. He was killed in Frisia in 754. His tomb is in the crypt of Fulda Cathedral. Early Life and First Mission to Frisia Winfrid was of a respected and prosperous family. It was somewhat against his father's wishes that he devoted himself at an early age to the monastic life. He received his theological training in the Benedictine monasteries of Adescancastre, near Exeter and Nursling, on the western edge of Southampton, under the abbot Winbert. 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 AD, Winfrid set out on a missionary expedition to Frisia, intending to convert the inhabitants by preaching to them in their own language, his own Anglo-Saxon language being similar to Old Frisian. His efforts, however, were frustrated by the war then being carried on between Charles Martel and Radbod, king of the Frisians, and he returned to Nursling. Thor's Oak and the Conversion of the Northern Germanic Tribes 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. For five years Boniface laboured in Hesse, Thuringia, and Frisia, and 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. He did this with the Prophet Elijah in mind. 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. The felling of Thor's Oak is commonly regarded as the beginning of German Christianization north and east of the old borders of the Roman Empire. 1 www.bayern-bilingual.de
Boniface and the Carolingians Boniface and the Carolingians The support of the Frankish mayors of the palace (maior domos) and later the early Pippinid and Carolingian rulers, was essential for Boniface's work. Monasticism went from the Celts to the Anglo-Saxons and thence to the Carolingian kings. Boniface had been under the protection of Charles Martel from 723 on. From the Anglo-Saxons, Boniface joined the papacy and the Carolingian kings and provided education for them. The Christian Frankish leaders desired to defeat their rival power, the non-christian Saxons, and to incorporate the Saxon lands into their own growing empire. Boniface's destruction of the indigenous Germanic faith and holy sites was, thus, an important part of the Frankish campaign against the Saxons. In 732, Boniface traveled again to Rome to report, and Pope Gregory II conferred upon him the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over Germany. Boniface again set out for what is now Germany, baptized thousands, and dealt with the problems of many other Christians who had fallen out of contact with the regular hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. During his third visit to Rome in 737 38, he was made papal legate for Germany. After Boniface's third trip to Rome, Charles Martel erected four dioceses in Bavaria (Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau) and gave them Boniface as archbishop and metropolitan over all Germany east of the Rhine. In 745, he was granted Mainz as metropolitan see. In 742, one of his disciples, Sturm (also known as Sturmi, or Sturmius), founded the abbey of Fulda not far from Boniface's earlier missionary outpost at Fritzlar. Although Sturm was the founding abbot of Fulda, Boniface was very involved in the foundation. The initial grant for the abbey was signed by Carloman, the son of Charles Martel. The saint himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester, that without the protection of Charles Martel he could neither administer his church, defend his clergy, nor prevent idolatry. He also organized provincial synods in the Frankish church and maintained a sometimes turbulent relationship with the king of the Franks, Pepin, whom he may have crowned at Soissons in 751. St Boniface balanced this support and attempted to maintain some independence, however, by attaining the support of the papacy and of the Agilolfing rulers of Bavaria. In Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian territory, he established the dioceses of Würzburg, and Erfurt. By appointing his own followers as bishops, he was able to retain some independence from the Carolingians, who most likely were content to give him leeway as long as Christianity was imposed on the Saxons and other Germanic tribes. 2 www.bayern-bilingual.de
Last Mission to Frisia He had never relinquished his hope of converting the Frisians, and 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. According to their own law (The Lex Frisionum), the Frisians had the right to kill him, since he had destroyed their shrines. Boniface's hagiographer reports that the Frisians killed the saint because they believed the chests he carried with him contained gold and other riches, but were dismayed when they discovered that there were only the bishop's books contained within. His remains were eventually buried in the abbey of Fulda after resting for some time in Utrecht, and they are entombed within a shrine beneath the high altar of Fulda cathedral. The forcible conversion of Germany up to the Elbe River was completed by Charlemagne, who destroyed the Saxons' independence, though not that of the Frisians, in the last decades of the eighth century. 3 www.bayern-bilingual.de
Boniface (II) Boniface - The Man BONIFACE was born at Crediton in Devon in 675 and baptized with the name Winfrith. The name means, "Friend of Peace", possibly because his father was a Saxon and his mother British, to show that the two peoples had come together. He had convinced his parents to send him to a monastery for schooling because he admired the monks who had visited his home. Through diligent study he rapidly learned all that this local monastery could teach him and was transferred to the monastery at Nursling for further schooling. There he became such a well-known teacher that students circulated notes from his classes. He found in his heart a burning passion for foreign mission. Finally, his abbot let him leave, and in 716 he set out for the land of the Frisians. Another English Missionary, Willibrord from Northumbria, had already preached the Gospel there for several years. But wars and the hatred of the pagans were big obstacles for the young Winfrith. Some months later, having failed, he returned to his monastery in England, to devote two more years to preparation for his apostolic work. After failing in his mission to Frisia, and after two years of further preparation, in 718 Winfrith once again left his monastery, this time for good. He would never return to England. He set off for Rome to ask the leader of the worldwide church for his commissioning and blessing. On May 14, 719 he threw himself at the feet of Pope Gregory II, who gave him the new name "Boniface". He then crossed the Alps and embarked on 35 years of missionary work in various parts of Germany, as well as a return visit to Frisia. In 722, he was consecrated by the Pope as Bishop of the whole of Germany to the east of the Rhine. On his return to Germany as Bishop, Boniface decided to tackle the heathen superstitions head on. Boniface returned to find that his problems had worsened. People were attracted by Christianity but unable to give up their old religion and superstitions, perhaps out of fear of being different or of how their old "gods" would react. Knowing that the people needed a reason to let go, Boniface called the tribes to a display of power. As the people watched, Boniface approached the giant oak of Geismar, a sacred tree dedicated to Thor, the god of thunder, with an axe. Finally with a crack, the tree split in four parts that we are told fell to the ground in the shape of a cross. There stood Boniface, axe in hand, unharmed by their old gods, strong in the power of the one God. After six years, the Pope made him Archbishop of all Germany, based at Mainz. 4 www.bayern-bilingual.de
Boniface (II) After his success in Hesse, he returned to Thuringia to confront the old problem of the decadent remnants of the Church there. Unable to get help from the suspect clergy in Thuringia, he called to England for help. Nuns and monks responded to his call enthusiastically for many years. We still have many of Boniface's letters, including correspondence with his helpers in England. Reforming the Church was the biggest challenge in Thuringia and he had many thorny questions to answer. When a rite of baptism had been defective was it valid? What should he do about immoral clergy? Still remembering his first lesson, he appealed to Rome for answers from the pope. All his appeals to Rome helped him -- but it also helped forge a much stronger bond between Rome and Europe. Boniface was called upon to lend his own support to Frankish Church which was also sadly in need of reform. He set up councils and syonds and instituted reforms which revitalized the Church there. As well as expanding and growing the churches in Germany, Boniface was equally concerned to ensure that the political authorities and rulers become firmly committed to Christianity. He crowned Pepin as King of all the "Franks" (the people of France and Germany), whose son Charlemagne was to become the first "Holy Roman Emperor", a title which continued for the following 1,000 years. Boniface was constantly traveling around, encouraging churches, appointing good leaders, and negotiating with politicians. His journeys and letters show his energy and spirituality. Many of his fellow-workers came from his native England. Whenever tired, he withdrew to the new abbey he had founded at Fulda in central Germany for rest and refreshment. At the age of 73 Boniface took the gospel to Frisia, where his efforts had failed nearly 40 years earlier. He set off with 52 companions on an evangelistic mission. At Pentecost, on June 5, 755 near the modern town of Dokkum in the Netherlands, they were all massacred by heathen brigands. Although his companions wanted to fight, Boniface told them to trust in God and to welcome death for the faith. All of them were martyred. Boniface was himself struck down by a sword that pierced the bible he had raised to shield his head. As requested in his will, his body was taken back to the monastery he had founded at Fulda, in central Germany, where a magnificent Cathedral now encloses his tomb, and where all the Roman Catholic Bishops of Germany hold their meetings every year. 5 www.bayern-bilingual.de