St. Pachomius Library

St. Boniface of Crediton, Apostle to the Germans

VII/VIII Centuries
Born Wynfirth, St. Boniface (c. 675/680-c. 754/755) travelled from his native England to evangelize the Germanic people of Europe. He was educated at Adescancastre (Essex) and Nhutscelle (Nursling). He became the director of the cathedral school in Winchester and wrote the first Latin grammar published in England. Offered the abbacy of Nhutscelle in 717, the year after he had left England, he refused and chose to stay in Europe, although his first mission in Frisia had not been successful. Gregory II made him a bishop in 722 and gave him charge over Germany. Under the protection of Charles Martel, Boniface preached successfully in Hesse, Bavaria, Westphalia, Wüttemberg, and Thuringenland. He besought and received missionaries from England to assist him. After the death of Martel (741), Boniface presided over five reforming councils convoked by Martel's heirs, Carloman and Pepin. When the latter entered a monaster in 752, Boniface crowned Pepin king of the Franks. Two years later, Boniface resigned as archbishop of Mainz, an office he had held for ten years, to preach again in Frisia. He was martyred on Pentecost and buried at Fulda, which he had established in 753.
Karen Rae Keck

ABOUT:
- Saint Boniface of Crediton Homepage. --- Saint Boniface Info
- John Cyril Sladden: Boniface of Devon, (1980). Exeter: Paternoster, 1980.
- Willibald the Priest: The Life of St. Boniface. By one of the saint's disciples. Talbot translation, 1954. --- MSBP
ASSOCIATED PEOPLE:
- St. Virgil of Salzburg
  
  Heinz Löwe: Ein literarischer Widersacher des Bonifatius, Virgil von Salzburg, und die Kosmographie des Aethicus Ister, (1952). Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1952.
- Pope St. Zachary I
WORKS:
- Selected Letters. Talbot translation, 1954. --- MSBP
- Oath of Loyalty to the Pope Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon, was strongly in favour of canonical order and central administration -- unlike some of his missionary colleagues who hailed from Ireland and with whom he was often in conflict. Robinson translation. --- MSBP

0 Germany;
Return to St Pachomius Library.