Artigo do dia · 5 de June
Saint Boniface
At Dokkum in Frisia, the entrance into heaven of Saint Boniface, bishop and martyr. A Benedictine monk born in England under the name of Winfrid, he was sent by the Roman Pontiff to evangelize the peoples of Germania, where he planted the faith, raised up churches and monasteries, and reformed the clergy. Already an old man, he returned to the mission among the Frisians, and there, together with many companions, he was slain by the sword of the pagans for love of Christ.
Roman Martyrology
About the saint
There are saints we admire from a distance; Saint Boniface is one of those who shakes us awake. He is one of the greatest examples of apostolic zeal the Church has ever known — that courage of a man who leaves behind the safety of home to carry Christ to those who have never heard of him. In an age when many worshiped oaks and thunder, he crossed the sea, stood up to kings and pagan gods, and did not retreat even in the face of death. Let us get to know the story of this English monk who became the Apostle of Germany, and see what his missionary fire still has to teach us.
Life
Saint Boniface is a well-documented saint, but some figures vary among the ancient sources: his martyrdom is dated to 754 or 755, the founding of Fulda to 742 or 744, the archbishopric of Mainz to 745 or 747/748, and the number of companions killed ranges from thirty-seven to fifty-two. Here we have adopted the most widely accepted dates and forms.
He was born around 672 to 675 in Wessex, England — tradition points to Crediton, in Devon — and was given the name Winfrid. He entered Benedictine life early, studying at monasteries near Exeter and at Nursling, between Winchester and Southampton. He was a brilliant student and soon became a teacher, even writing the first Latin grammar produced in England. Ordained a priest around the age of thirty, he could have settled into a quiet life of prayer and study. But something else burned inside him: the desire to proclaim Christ to peoples who did not yet know him.
In 716 he made his first missionary journey to Frisia, which bore little fruit because of the wars ravaging the region. He returned, and in 718 he went to Rome to seek the Pope’s blessing. In 719, Pope Saint Gregory II officially sent him to evangelize Germania and gave him a new name: Boniface. From then on he plunged into the pagan heart of Europe — Hesse, Thuringia, Bavaria — preaching, baptizing, and later working alongside Saint Willibrord, the Apostle of the Frisians.
The most famous act of his life came around 723, at Geismar, near Fritzlar. Before a crowd of pagans, Boniface took up an axe and felled the great oak consecrated to Thor, the god of thunder. Everyone expected heaven to strike him down on the spot — and nothing happened. From the wood of that oak he had a chapel built and dedicated to Saint Peter, and many were converted. In 722 he had been consecrated bishop for Germania; in 732 he received the pallium from Pope Saint Gregory III and became an archbishop.
Boniface was not only a courageous preacher — he was also a tireless organizer of the Church. He founded and secured dioceses in lands such as Salzburg, Freising, Regensburg, and Würzburg, raised up monasteries and, through his disciple Saint Sturmius, gave rise around 744 to the renowned Abbey of Fulda. Between 742 and 744 he convened synods to reform the Frankish clergy, which had grown lax, and around 747 he took office as Archbishop of Mainz and Primate of Germany. All his work bore one unmistakable mark: a profound fidelity to Rome.
Now an old man, with his see in good order, he could have rested. Instead, he resigned the governance of Mainz in favor of his disciple Saint Lull and returned to the very place he had attempted as a young man: Frisia. On June 5, 754, at Dokkum, while he was waiting for a group of the newly baptized so that he might confirm them, a band of armed pagans fell upon the camp. Boniface forbade his companions to fight back and offered up his life; he was slain along with about fifty-two of them. Beside his body they found a book — a work of Saint Ambrose — stained with blood. He was buried at the Abbey of Fulda, which became a great beacon of the faith, and ever since he has been venerated as a martyr. In 1874, Blessed Pope Pius IX extended his feast to the whole Church.
Why we celebrate today
Saint Boniface is celebrated on June 5 because it was on this day, in the year 754, that he sealed with his own blood, at Dokkum in Frisia, the faith he had preached his entire life — his dies natalis, his birth into heaven. The Church inscribed him in the calendar as an obligatory memorial, and Blessed Pope Pius IX extended his feast to the whole Church in 1874.
For our life
I suspect we have much to learn from Saint Boniface, who is a light for our life of faith. Few of us will ever cross oceans or stand up to pagan gods — but every one of us has our own Germania: the home, the workplace, the circle of friends where Christ is still little known. His zeal reminds us that the faith is not something to keep to ourselves; it is meant to be shared, with courage and with patience, even when it frightens us. And when we look at that felled oak, we understand that sometimes the greatest preaching is a firm gesture of trust in God, in a world that pressures us to back down. May we, in our daily lives, ask for a little of that gentle boldness — to bear witness to our faith without quarreling, yet without being ashamed of it. And we thank God for letting us come to know the stories of these saints, who go ahead of us clearing the way and encourage us to grow along the path of our faith.
Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Mt 28:19 (Douay-Rheims)
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