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Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz,
Missionary to Germany, and Martyr, 754
5 June |
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 Boniface,
known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who
gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the
Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and
his fidelity to the pope of Rome.
How absolutely necessary this orthodoxy and fidelity were is borne out by
the conditions he found on his first missionary journey in 719 at the
request of Pope Gregory II. Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he
did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy
were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many
instances uneducated, lax and questionably obedient to their bishops. In
particular instances their very ordination was questionable.
These are the conditions that Boniface was to report in 722 on his first
return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German
Church. The pope sent letters of recommendation to religious and civil
leaders. Boniface later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful,
from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles
Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne. Boniface
was finally made a regional bishop and authorized to organize the whole
German Church. He was eminently successful.
In the Frankish kingdom, he met great problems because of lay interference
in bishops elections, the worldliness of the clergy and lack of papal
control.
During a final mission to the Frisians, he and 53 companions were massacred
while he was preparing converts for Confirmation.
In order to restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to
convert the pagans, he had been guided by two principles. The first was to
restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope
of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of prayer which
took the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon
monks and nuns followed him to the continent. He introduced Benedictine nuns
to the active apostolate of education.
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