From the story of his life
An Anglo-Saxon Benedictine, as well as a missionary, and the “apostle of Germany”, St. Boniface is a saint on this day. to which we want to take refuge with remembrance, prayer and thanksgiving.
Around 672, then in the English city of Crediton (Devon), Winfrid was born, while Christian culture itself was in full bloom in England. In Exeter and Nursling, the Benedictine monasteries, as well as in the kingdom of Wessex, he was brought up, becoming a Benedictine monk himself.
He went to Friesland as a missionary in 716, while from Pope Gregory II in 719. He was sent as a prophet to the Germanic tribes. Then he takes the monastic name of Boniface. In 722, after completing successful missions in Thuringia, Friesland and Hesse, the Pope consecrated him bishop. The Frankish ruler Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne… it will help him a lot in his endeavors… especially while founding Benedictine abbeys in Germany, male and female monasteries, as well as the establishment and organization of a number of dioceses.
Interestingly, how in Germany itself… economy, culture and art… They are based on the foundations planted by St. Boniface. In Fulda (Hesse), his favorite endowment was found. He was the first archbishop of Mainz (from 745. ) He reorganized the church and clergy, and anointed Pepin as king of the Franks in 751.
Many monks accompanied him in the spring of 754, when he went north again, and their harvest was large and rich. With fifty-three followers… They camped not far from the seashore, waiting for the newly baptized for the sacrament of confirmation. Instead of the newly baptized, a band of robbers attacked them and killed them all. Here Boniface would seal his versatile activity with blood… the seeds of Christian flourishing in Germanic lands.
Thus, on this day in 754, he was killed in Dokkum (Friesland, the Netherlands), and buried in Fulda. In the middle of the final resting place we find the Holy Scripture, with which he protected his head while he was being killed…
PRAYER
Lord, the holy martyr Boniface proclaimed the Christian Faith by word and sealed it with blood. Let Him intercede for us with You, so that we too boldly preserve our Faith and bear witness with our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sources:
- Holy choir for worship (2017.); Časoslov Rimskog Obreda, Kršćanska sadašnjost, Zagreb