St.Boniface,

BIOGRAPHY

After entering the monastery, he longed to become a missionary among the pagans. He became a spreader of the true faith among the Germanic peoples. He founded monasteries, centers of Christian learning and faith. Furthermore, he succeeded because he combined his knowledge with deep piety, love for souls, obedience, and devotion to the papal chair. He also became legate for Germany and metropolitan of Cologne. When he was about to administer the sacrament of confirmation in the territory of North Holland, he was put to death with 52 companions by a crowd of armed pagans.

BIOGRAPHY FOR MEDITATION

GREAT APOSTLE OF GERMANY

He was born around 675 in Kirkton, located near Exeter in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in what is now the south of England. Wilfrid was baptized. In his youth, he loved solitude and was raised according to his wishes in the Benedictine monastery in Exeter. He spent 13 years in it and then transferred to a monastery in Nursling, Southampton shire, where he adopted the habit of a Benedictine after taking vows. He began studying divinity at the same time and focused on science until age 40. Likewise, he mastered Latin and excelled in poetic art as well. For a time, he ran a convent school. He compiled a grammar textbook and a poetry manual. He did not receive the sacrament of the priesthood until about the age of 30. Furthermore, he became zealous in the pulpit and in the confessional.

Three loves stood out in his life—the characteristics of the Benedictines: the love of writing, missionary activity, and the Roman successor of St. Petra.

According to some reports, Pope Gregory II gave the name Boniface. In 716, after forty, he went with three companions to the European mainland in pagan Friesland to preach the gospel. He came to the Germanic tribe in what is now Holland and northwestern Germany. The Franks ruled over the Frisians there, who rebelled against them, and in such a situation, missionary activity seemed impossible.

Wilfrid returned to Nursling and was elected abbot. However, he soon renounced his rank, demanding Stephen’s appointment from the Bishop of Winchester and his permission to go to Rome. He longed for the Pope’s blessing to evangelize the Germans. Gregory II left him with him for about a year, and in mid-May 719, he commissioned him to proclaim the Gospel among the Germans, giving him the name of the martyr Boniface.

Boniface came to the Frisians via Thuringia and with the native Wilford (pam. 7. 11.) and was quite successful. Then Boniface was sent by the Pope to Hesse in the Middle Rhineland. He saw that obtaining the ruling circles and installing a bishop was necessary there. He therefore turned to the Pope, who invited him to Rome to consecrate him as bishop for the Germanic regions in the territory of present-day Germany. It happened on the 30th. 11. 722. The Pope also gave Boniface letters of recommendation for the critical Frankish butler Charles Mertel and the Thuringian and Saxon princes. With the help of Anglo-Saxon clergy, Boniface then began to establish monasteries as strongholds of Christianity. He also went to Hesse again, where many Christians turned to superstition, witchcraft, and offering sacrifices to idols.

The villagers of Fritzlar, near Geismar, had a massive oak tree dedicated to the thunder lord Thor as their front deity. Boniface decided to cut and cut it. The people waited in horror to see what would happen, and when Thor proved powerless towards Boniface, the people went over to the side of Boniface. He still built the chapel of St. Petra. Then, in Thuringia, he solved the problems of priests’ insufficient education and shortcomings in faith. He founded two monasteries for youth education. In 725, he begged for more priests and expanded the number of his associates.

Pope Gregory III in 732 appointed Boniface as archbishop, with the authority to consecrate other bishops. Six years later, Boniface visited Rome for the third time, and before returning to the mission, the Pope appointed him as his legate for a wide missionary area. His task also included reforming the Frankish clergy and building church organizations in Bavaria, Hesse, and Thuringia. This was needed because the local feudal lords wanted to install their people in church ranks. Charles Mertel was only partially in favor of him and did not want to understand the church organization subject to Rome. It was not until after 741, when his sons took over, that the situation managed to change, and in 743 the church synods began to be convened, which prepared the ecclesiastical restoration of the Frankish Empire. Establishing an ecclesiastical metropolis in Cologne was decided, and Boniface became the first metropolitan. In 744, an important monastery was founded in Fulda, later responsible for continuing Boniface’s work. In 747, Carlo man, ruling in the eastern regions, gave up his rule in favor of his brother Pippin the Short, who then ruled the entire Frankish Empire and is said to have behaved with restraint towards Boniface. So far, the eighties have come close to this, and he has handed over the archbishopric to Lull. However, missionary zeal did not leave him, so he visited the first regions of his activity. At Dokkum, he prepared confirmation and was ambushed by a group of fanatical pagans who murdered not only him, but also killed the entire group of his 52 companions.

The Christians transported him to Utrecht in what is now the Netherlands, where they buried him in the cathedral there. However, Abbot Storm eventually transferred his remains to the monastery in Fulda.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

I will ask for blessings from others around me today and get used to blessing at least my loved ones.

God, You strengthened Saint Bishop Boniface to proclaim the truths of the gospel and did not hesitate to seal your faith with your blood; through his intercession, help us keep the faith we have accepted, and live by it too. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, He lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit throughout all ages.