Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Boniface.

An English Benedictine monk named Boniface referred to as the apostle of the Germans, declined the position of the elected abbot to devote his life to converting the Germanic nations. Boniface’s orthodoxy as a Christian and his loyalty to the Roman pope are two distinguishing qualities.

The circumstances Boniface faced on his first missionary expedition, sent by Pope Gregory II in 719, show the significance of this orthodoxy and fidelity. What Christianity he did discover had either become paganism or had been tainted with error. Due to their frequent illiteracy, laziness, and dubious loyalty to their bishops, the clergy was mostly to blame for these latter problems. In other cases, even their ordinations were in dispute.

Due to civilian meddling in the choice of bishops, the worldliness of the clergy, and the absence of papal oversight, he encountered significant difficulties in the Frankish kingdom.

While preparing converts for confirmation during a final mission to the Frisians, Boniface, and 53 companions were slaughtered.

Boniface had been motivated by two guiding principles in his efforts to bring the Germanic Church back to Rome’s loyalty and convert the pagan population. The first was to have the clergy submit to their bishops by the Roman pope. The second was the founding of several houses of worship, many of which were Benedictine monasteries. Boniface was followed to the continent by a sizable number of Anglo-Saxon nuns and monks, where he introduced the Benedictine women to the active apostolate of education.

Source: franciscanmedia.org