Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface, originally named Wynfrith, was born around 675 in Wessex, England. He became a Benedictine monk and then a priest. He made two attempts to convert the Frisian Saxons. In 718, he journeyed to Rome, where Pope Gregory II entrusted him with a mission to the pagans east of the Rhine and gave him the name Boniface. In 722 at Hesse, he founded the first of many Benedictine monasteries.

He was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organized significant foundations of the church in Germany and was made bishop of Mainz by Pope Gregory III. He was martyred in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which remains a site of Christian pilgrimage.

Boniface's life and death as well as his work became widely known, there being a wealth of material available. He is venerated as a saint in the Christian church and became the patron saint of Germania, known as the "Apostle to the Germans". Norman Cantor notes the three roles Boniface played that made him "one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe, as the apostle of Germania, the reformer of the Frankish church, and the chief fomentor of the alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian family".

Through his efforts to reorganize and regulate the church of the Franks, he helped shape the Latin Church in Europe, and many of the dioceses he proposed remain today. After his martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a saint in Fulda and other areas in Germania and in England. He is still venerated strongly today by Catholics in Germany and throughout the German diaspora. Boniface is celebrated as a missionary; he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, and he is regarded by German Roman Catholics as a national figure.

Source: (1) Saint Boniface | English Missionary & Germanic Reformer. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Boniface.

(2) Saint Boniface summary | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Saint-Boniface.

(3) Saint Boniface - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Boniface.

(4) Saint Boniface I | Monastic, Reformer, Missionary | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Boniface-I.