32 Facts About Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface organised significant foundations of the church in Germany and was made Elector of Mainz by Pope Gregory III.

Saint Boniface was martyred in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which has become a site of pilgrimage.

Saint Boniface is venerated as a saint in the Christian church and became the patron saint of Germania, known as the "Apostle to the Germans".

Saint Boniface is still venerated strongly today by German Catholics.

Saint 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.

Later tradition places his birth at Crediton, but the earliest mention of Crediton in connection to Boniface is from the early fourteenth century, in John Grandisson's Legenda Sanctorum: The Proper Lessons for Saints' Days according to the use of Exeter.

Saint Boniface received further theological training in the Benedictine monastery and minster of Nhutscelle, not far from Winchester, which under the direction of abbot Winbert had grown into an industrious centre of learning in the tradition of Aldhelm.

Saint Boniface traveled to Utrecht, where Willibrord, the "Apostle to the Frisians," had been working since the 690s.

Saint Boniface spent a year with Willibrord, preaching in the countryside, but their efforts were frustrated by the war then being carried on between Charles Martel and Radbod, King of the Frisians.

Willibrord fled to the abbey he had founded in Echternach while Saint Boniface returned to Nursling.

Lutz von Padberg and others point out that what the vitae leave out is that the action was most likely well-prepared and widely publicized in advance for maximum effect, and that Saint Boniface had little reason to fear for his personal safety since the Frankish fortified settlement of Buraburg was nearby.

Saint Boniface had been under the protection of Charles Martel from 723 onwards.

In 732, Saint Boniface traveled again to Rome to report, and Pope Gregory III conferred upon him the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over what is Germany.

Saint Boniface again set out for the German lands and continued his mission, but used his authority to work on the relations between the papacy and the Frankish church.

Rome wanted more control over that church, which it felt was much too independent and which, in the eyes of Saint Boniface, was subject to worldly corruption.

Saint Boniface would have to wait until the 740s before he could try to address this situation, in which Frankish church officials were essentially sinecures, and the church itself paid little heed to Rome.

Saint Boniface himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester, that without the protection of Charles Martel he could "neither administer his church, defend his clergy, nor prevent idolatry".

Saint Boniface baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkum, between Franeker and Groningen.

Saint Boniface's remains were moved from the Frisian countryside to Utrecht, and then to Mainz, where sources contradict each other regarding the behavior of Lullus, Saint Boniface's successor as archbishop of Mainz.

Saint Boniface's remains were eventually buried in the abbey church of Fulda after resting for some time in Utrecht, and they are entombed within a shrine beneath the high altar of Fulda Cathedral, previously the abbey church.

The community that grew around the cathedral eventually became the city of Saint Boniface, which merged into the city of Winnipeg in 1971.

Today, St Saint Boniface is regarded as Winnipeg's main French-speaking district and the centre of the Franco-Manitobain community, and St Saint Boniface Hospital is the second-largest hospital in Manitoba.

The earliest "Life" of Saint Boniface was written by a certain Willibald, an Anglo-Saxon priest who came to Mainz after Saint Boniface's death, around 765.

Saint Boniface engaged in regular correspondence with fellow churchmen all over Western Europe, including the three popes he worked with, and with some of his kinsmen back in England.

Much of this correspondence comprises the first part of the Vienna Saint Boniface Codex, known as.

Saint Boniface sees a hell of purgation full of pits vomiting flames.

Early in his career, before he left for the continent, Saint Boniface wrote the, a grammatical treatise presumably for his students in Nursling.

Saint Boniface wrote a treatise on verse, the, and a collection of twenty acrostic riddles, the, influenced greatly by Aldhelm and containing many references to works of Vergil.

Saint Boniface's death has given rise to a number of noteworthy celebrations.

The dates for some of these celebrations have undergone some changes: in 1805,1855, and 1905 anniversaries were calculated with Saint Boniface's death dated in 755, according to the "Mainz tradition"; in Mainz, Michael Tangl's dating of the martyrdom in 754 was not accepted until after 1955.

The second part of the 19th century saw increased tension between Catholics and Protestants; for the latter, Martin Luther had become the model German, the founder of the modern nation, and he and Saint Boniface were in direct competition for the honor.

Saint Boniface celebrated Mass in Fulda Cathedral with 30,000 gathered on the square in front of the building, and met with the German Bishops' Conference.