Difference between revisions of "Saint Boniface" - New World Encyclopedia

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==Last mission to Frisia==
 
==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 (city)|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.  
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[[Image:Sint-Bonifatiuscrypte Fulda.jpg|thumb|Saint Boniface Crypt, Fulda, Germany]]
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Boniface had never relinquished his hope of converting the Frisians, and in 754 he set out once more with a small retinue for Frisia. There, he baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting at a place between Franeker and [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]]. Instead of his converts, however, a group of armed pagan inhabitants appeared. Enraged and the Boniface's attempt to destroy their native religion, they slew the aged archbishop, justifying their action on the grounds that their law (The [[Lex Frisionum]]) called for capital punishment for those who destroyed their sacred shrines.  Catholic versions of the event claim that the Frisians killed the saint because they believed the chests he carried with him contained gold, but were dismayed when they discovered that the chests only the bishop's books.  
  
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. [[Image:Sint-Bonifatiuscrypte Fulda.jpg|thumb|Saint Boniface Crypt, Fulda, Germany]] 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.
+
His remains were eventually buried in the abbey of Fulda, after resting for some time in [[Utrecht]]. 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.
  
 
==Trivia==
 
==Trivia==

Revision as of 21:42, 8 August 2008


Saint Boniface of Mainz/Fulda/Dokkum

Boniface
Bishop and Martyr
Born c. 672 in Crediton, Devon
Died June 5 754 in Dokkum, Frisia
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Anglican Communion
Major shrine Fulda
Feast June 5
Attributes axe, book; fountain; fox; oak; raven; scourge; sword
Patronage brewers; file cutters; Fulda; The Netherlands and Germany; tailors; World Youth Day

Saint Boniface (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 eighth century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the Netherlands.

He was killed in Frisia in 754. His tomb is in the crypt of Fulda Cathedral.

Early life

Born at Crediton, Devon, Winfrid was of a respected and prosperous family. He devoted himself at an early age to the monastic life, although his father was not entirely approving of this decision. 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. While there, he wrote the first Latin grammar produced in England.

In 716, Winfrid set out on a missionary expedition to Frisia, the coast Germanic land extending from the northwestern Netherlands across northwestern Germany to the border of Denmark. He intended to convert the inhabitants by preaching to them in their own language, his own Old English being similar to 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.

Commission and early missions

File:Reliekschrijnbinnen.jpg
A view inside the shrine of Saint Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen in the Netherlands.

In 718, Winfrid visited Rome, where Pope Gregory II commissioned him to evangelize in Germany and reorganize the churches there along Roman Catholic ines. Having received instructions to make to make his first journey a tour of inspection, he traveled through Bavaria and found a number of churches and monasteries in good condition both spiritually and administratively. In Alamannia, he found similar conditions. Thuringia was considered by Rome as Christian, but Boniface discovered it people to have rebelled and killed the newly converted Duke Gotzbert and his son, Hethan II, probably because of their own overzelous attempts to force the populace to accept Christianity. A great number of the people were outright heathens, or practiced mixture of Christianity and idolatry. He efforts to rectify the situation were only partly successful.

Receiving the news of the death of the Frisian King Radbod, returned to his first missionary land of Friesland. Here he spent three years there under the supervision of the aged Saint Willibrord, traveling and preaching. Multitudes of Christians who had fallen away during the persecution of Radbod reportedly returned to they faith, and many more were converted from paganism.

Taking up his journeys again, he went to Thuringia, where he reportedly converted many, then went into Hesse, where many more were brought into the fold. Two Germanic chiefs whom he had converted helped him establish a monastic cell at Amöneburg at the River Ohm as a kind of missionary cented in which native clergy were to be educated.

Having lapsed in his communication with the pope during his time with Willibrord, Boniface sent one of his disciples with a letter to Gregory recounting his labors of the past years and asking for further directions. The pope expressed satisfaction but invited Boniface to come to Rome to confer personally. The pope questioned him closely to assure himself that Boniface held no heretical notions and required him to swear an oath of allegiance. On November, 30 722, Winfrid was consecrated as a regional bishop, and given the name of Boniface.[1] Gregory then sent Boniface back with letters to the dioceses of Thuringia and Hesse demanding obedience to their new bishop. A letter was also addressed to Charles Martel asking his protection of Boniface as the pope's representative.

Thor's Oak

Thus empowered with papal authority, Boniface came to see himself as a contemporary prophet Elijah engaged in a struggle against paganism. In 723, felled the sacred oak tree dedicated to Thor near the present-day town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse. Echoing the ancient Israelite prophet's model, Boniface challenged Thor to strike him down if he cut the holy tree. Boniface reportedly started to chop the oak down, when suddenly a great wind, as if by miracle, blew the ancient oak over instead. When Thor did not strike him down, the local people immediately converted to Christianity. Boniface then used the oak's wood to build a chapel at the site, where today stands the cathedral of Fritzlar.

Tradition holds us that Boniface soon established a Church of St. Vitus at the present-day town of Wannfried, which was named for him. At Eschwege he is said to have destroyed the statue of the idol Stuffo.

After this he went to Thuringia, where he found the churches riddled with heretical tenets and pagan customs. Apparently, earlier Celtic missionaries had taught doctrines and used ceremonies at odds with the tradition of the Roman church, especially in regard to baptism, celibacy, the celebrating Easter, and, of course, the issue of papal and episcopal authority. The neighboring bishop of Cologne also seems to have laid claim to a part of the district under Boniface's jurisdiction.

Supported by the authority of the pope and the power of Charles Martel, Boniface made substantial progress in overcoming these obstacles. The number of the faithful increased rapidly, including many of the nobility and the educated classes. These supporters assisted him in the building of churches and chapels.

Archbishop

In 732 Boniface wrote again to Rome and stated, among other things, that the work was becoming too much for one man. The new pope, Gregory III congratulated him on his success granted him the honor of wearing the pallium, also making him an archbishop, but still without a fixed see. He also gave Boniface instructions to appoint bishops wherever he thought it necessary. Boniface now enlarged the monastery of Amöneburg and established a new monastery at Fritzlar near the River Eder, which was completed in 734. A magnificent church at Amöneburg was finished in 740.

Meanwhile, in 738, Boniface made his third journey to Rome, intending to resign his office and devote himself exclusively to the mission among the Saxons. Gregory III received him graciously, but would not allow him to resign. Boniface remained in Rome for about a year and then returned to his mission invested with the authority of a legate of the Holy See. In 745, he was granted Mainz as metropolitan see.

After his third trip to Rome, Boniface went to Bavaria and founded there the bishoprics of Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau.

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 much involved in the foundation. The initial grant for the abbey was signed by Carloman, the son of Charles Martel.

Boniface and the Carolingians

St Boniface, Baptising and Martyrdom, from the Sacramentary of Fulda

The support of the Frankish chiefs and the early Pippinid and Carolingian rulers was essential to Boniface's success. In return, Boniface brought the strength of the Roman religious and administrative tradition to the Carolingian kings, and he also provided education for them and their courts. 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, with his seat at Mainz. Boniface had been under his protection from 723 on, Indeed, 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."

Meanwhile, the Frankish Christian leaders desired to defeat their rival, the Saxons, who were not Christians, and thus incorporate the Saxon lands into their own growing empire. Boniface's effective work in weakening the indigenous Germanic faith and destroying its holy sites was thus an important service to the Frankish kings.

Boniface attempted to maintain some independence, however, by attaining the support of the papacy and of the non-Frankish rulers of Bavaria. In the Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian territories, he established the dioceses of Büraburg, Würzburg, and Erfurt. He also organized provincial synods in the Frankish church and maintained a sometimes turbulent relationship with Pepin, the king of the Franks, whom he may have crowned at Soissons in 751. By appointing his own followers as bishops, he was able to avoid subservience to the Carolingians, who were content to give him leeway, as long as Christianity was successfully imposed on the Saxons and other Germanic tribes.

Last mission to Frisia

File:Sint-Bonifatiuscrypte Fulda.jpg
Saint Boniface Crypt, Fulda, Germany

Boniface had never relinquished his hope of converting the Frisians, and in 754 he set out once more with a small retinue for Frisia. There, he baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting at a place between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of his converts, however, a group of armed pagan inhabitants appeared. Enraged and the Boniface's attempt to destroy their native religion, they slew the aged archbishop, justifying their action on the grounds that their law (The Lex Frisionum) called for capital punishment for those who destroyed their sacred shrines. Catholic versions of the event claim that the Frisians killed the saint because they believed the chests he carried with him contained gold, but were dismayed when they discovered that the chests only the bishop's books.

His remains were eventually buried in the abbey of Fulda, after resting for some time in Utrecht. 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.

Trivia

A famous statue of St. Boniface stands on the grounds of Mainz Cathedral. A more modern rendition stands facing the cathedral of Fritzlar. A statue of him was unveiled by Princess Margaret in his native Crediton, located in Newcombes Meadow Park. There is a wooden statue in the Anglican Church - see external link from Crediton. The UK National Shrine is located at the Catholic church at Crediton, Devon, which has a bas-relief of the felling of Thor's Oak and a series of paintings by Timothy Moore.

His feast day is June 5 in the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion and December 19 in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

A cathedral has been dedicated to him in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is called Saint Boniface Cathedral and is a landmark in the city. There are St Boniface Church in Bunbury, Cheshire and in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, both in the UK.


A primary school has also been established, St Boniface Catholic Primary School, in Tooting, London. It was founded in 1903 and has over 320 pupils. There is also an active PTA, the Friends of St Boniface. A secondary school has been named after him: St. Boniface's Catholic College. It is located in Plymouth, England.

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  • Mainz Cathedral

Further reading

  • Talbot, C. H., ed., The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany: Being the Lives of S.S. Willibrord, Boniface, Strum, Leoba and Lebuin, together with the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald and a Selection from the Correspondence of St. Boniface. (NY: Sheed and Ward, 1954, OCLC 254678)

English translation of original source material. Includes the first biography of St. Boniface, written by his 8th Century contemporary St. Willibald.

Notes

  1. However, some sources say that Winfrid had taken this name at the time of his religious profession; and others claim that he received it on his first visit to Rome.


Preceded by:
Gewielieb
Archbishop of Mainz
745-755
Succeeded by:
Lullus

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