Saint Boniface. Bishop And Martyr. Feast Day, Today, 5 June.

Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Boniface.
Bishop and Martyr.
Feast Day 5 June.

Double.

Red Vestments.

Saint Boniface,

by Cornelis Bloemaert, circa 1630.

Date: 26 April 2013.

Source: Het Utrechts Archief.

Author: Cornelis Bloemaert (1603-1684).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Boniface was born in England at the end of the 7th-Century. He is one of the great glories of The Order of Saint Benedict. Pope Gregory II sent him to Germany, where, with a chosen band of Monks, he announced The Good News, as Jesus Risen had commanded His Apostles to do, to the people of Hesse, Saxony, and Thuringia (Collect).

Made a Legate of The Apostolic See, by Pope Gregory II, he called together several Synods, among which was the famous Council of Leptines, in the Diocese of Cambrai, Appointed Archbishop of Mainz, by Pope Zachary, he, by his order, anointed Pepin, King of The Franks.

After the death of Saint Willibrord, the Church of Utrecht, in Frisia, was committed to his care. The Frisians massacred him at Dokkum, with thirty of his Monks, in June 755 A.D. His body was buried in the celebrated Abbey of Fulda, which he had Founded.

English: Imperial Abbey (Prince-Bishopric) of Fulda,

Hesse, Germany. Now, Fulda Cathedral.

Deutsch: Reichskloster (Fürstbistum) Fulda.

Aufnahme des de:Fuldaer Dom.

Español: Catedral de Fulda.

Français: Cathédrale de Fulda.

Photo: 6 April 2004 (original upload date).

Source: Originally from de.wikipedia; description page is/was here.

Author: Author and original uploader was ThomasSD at de.wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

English: Coat-of-Arms of the Bishops of Fulda.

Deutsch: Wappen des Bistums bzw. des ehemaligen

Fürstbistums und Hochstiftes Fulda.

Date: 29 December 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: David Liuzzo.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Statue of Saint Boniface,

by Werner Henschel, (1830),

at Fulda, Hesse,

Germany.

Photo: 30 July 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Frank Schulenburg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

The Monastery of Fulda was a Benedictine Abbey, in Fulda, in the present-day German State of Hesse. It was Founded in 744 A.D. by Saint Sturm, a Disciple of Saint Boniface. Through the 8th- and 9th-Centuries, the Fulda Monastery became a prominent centre of learning and culture in Germany, and a site of religious significance and Pilgrimage following the burial of Saint Boniface. The growth in population around Fulda would result in its elevation to a Diocese in the 18th -Century.

English: Boniface chops down a cult tree in Hessen.

Engraving by Bernhard Rode, 1781.

Deutsch: Bonifacius haut in Hessen einen Opferbaum um.

Radierung von Bernhard Rode1781.

Date: artwork: 1781; file: 2009.01.17.

Source: Eigene Fotografie (own photography).

Author: Artwork: Bernhard Rode (1725–1797). File: James Steakley.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Boniface (Latin: Bonifatius) (circa 675 A.D. – 5 June 754 A.D.), born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth, in the Kingdom of Wessex in Anglo-Saxon England, was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the 8th-Century.

He established the first organised Christianity in many parts of Germany. He is the Patron Saint of Germany, the first Archbishop of Mainz and the "Apostle of the Germans". He was killed in Frisia in 754 A.D., along with fifty-two others. His remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus, which became a site of Pilgrimage. Facts about Boniface's life and death as well as his work became widely known, since there is a wealth of material available — a number of "Vitae", especially the near-contemporary "Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi", and legal documents, possibly some Sermons, and, above all, his correspondence.

According to the "Vitae", Boniface felled the Donar Oak, Latinised by Willibald, the "Apostle of the Frisians", as "Jupiter's Oak,", near the present-day Town of Fritzlar, in northern Hesse. According to his early biographer, Willibald, Boniface started to chop the Oak down, when suddenly a great wind, as if by a Miracle, blew the ancient Oak over.

Saint Boniface Altar,

Fulda Cathedral,

Fulda, Germany.

Photo: 21 October 2006 (original upload date).

Source:Transferred from nl.wikipedia to Commons.

Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. 

Author: AJW at Dutch Wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

When the God ("Jupiter") did not strike him down, the people were amazed and converted to Christianity. He built a Chapel, Dedicated to Saint Peter, from its wood at the site — the Chapel was the beginning of the Monastery in Fritzlar.

Through his efforts to reorganise and regulate The Church of The Franks, he helped shape Western Christianity, and many of the Dioceses, that he proposed, remain today. After his Martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a Saint, in Fulda, and other areas in Germany and England. His cult is still notably strong today. Boniface is celebrated (and criticised) as a Missionary; he is regarded as a Unifier of Europe, and he is seen (mainly by Catholics) as a Germanic national figure.