Boniface

bone-fass (680-755), "the apostle of Germany." He was born in Devonshire, England, and was known at first as Winfrid. He threw himself into a movement for the conversion of the pagan Germans to Christianity. He traveled extensively, preaching, converting, and turning pagan temples into Christian chapels. He founded churches in Bavaria, Thuringia, Hesse, Saxony, and Friesland. Pope Gregory made him archbishop of all Germany. One means of holding the country for Christianity was the establishment of monasteries and convents, which he filled with monks and nuns from England and Ireland, on the same principle that Hull House has been established in Chicago. In 732 Gregory III made him archbishop of Germany. At the end, Boniface was preaching the gospel in Friesland and was set upon by a heathen mob there. He and his congregation of converts were killed. His bones were buried at the Abbey of Fulda, the most famous of his foundations, where relics of the venerable archbishop are yet to be seen. The most striking incidents in his life are connected with the destruction of an oak at Geismar sacred to Thor and an idol named Stuffo on a summit of the Harz, still called by the name. A number of popes have taken the name of Boniface. The term is akin to benefactor and means well doing.