Seligenstadt Off The Beaten Path

Saint Boniface, the apostle of the Germans.. was an Englishman of a distinguished family of Wessex, and was originally named Winfrid or Wynfrith. His studies were begun at the monastery of Adescancastre 227.. and continued at Nursling, near Winchester. There he won distinction for learning and practical wisdom, and at an early age was made master of the monastic school..

Disregarding brilliant prospects at home, from 717 Boniface gave himself to missionary work on the Continent.. he went to Rome and received a commission from the pope (Gregory II) as missionary to Central Germany. He began his labor in Thuringia and Hessia, the easternmost of the lands of the Franks, where he found not only heathen but Christians and priests who knew nothing and wanted to know nothing of Roman discipline and order. They were probably converts and disciples of Iro-Scottish and British monks, who had long been laboring among the tribes from the Rhine to the Saale and southward to the Alps.. Boniface's success was great and led to a summons to Rome from Gregory II. There he was consecrated bishop and swore fidelity to the canons of the Church...

About 724 Boniface returned to Germany, provided with letters of recommendation to the major domus, Charles Martel, to the clergy, chieftains, and people. Charles Martel granted him protection, and, after confirming recent converts in Hessia, and felling the sacred oak of Thor near Geismar, Boniface went eastward into Thuringia, and established its first monastery at Ohrdruf. He founded many churches, converted the heathen, expelled the anti-Roman priests, and in ten years had won a new province for the Church and the pope.

Being promoted to the dignity of archbishop, Boniface organized his Church by founding.. by building monasteries and nunneries, which he filled with monks and nuns from England and endowed and improved with the help of English money. Bavaria next claimed his attention. Anti-Roman influence was strong there and among the neighboring Alemanni, but, with the authorization of Gregory III, in a few years, Boniface placed men in sympathy with Rome in the sees of Regensburg, Passau, Salzburg, and Freising, and substituted the Benedictine rules for those of Columban in the monasteries..

Under the guiding influence of Boniface two synods were held and measures were adopted concerning the monastic and scholastic discipline..

In 747 the Frankish bishops with Boniface at the head signed in due form a bill of submission in which they acknowledged the papal rights, laws, and power, and promised obedience and faithfulness. By this action the bond between the Frankish empire and Rome was sealed; the "Prince of the Apostles" was to be head and master in the countries north of the Alps.. Boniface received Mainz as his see. Here he was near his old mission field in Hessia and Thuringia, and from Mainz..

In 754 Boniface spent some time in Friesland. The next year he again descended the Rhine with a large following and pitched his camp on the little river Borne, expecting the newly baptized would come thither for confirmation. But the camp was attacked by night by a band of heathen and Boniface and his entire company were massacred. He is buried at Fulda.

An English synod shortly after his death proclaimed him patron of the English Church by the side of Gregory the Great and Augustine. Plus IX in 1875 ordered to invoke his name because of troubles in Germany and England. Many churches in Germany are dedicated to him.

http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.ccvii.htm