St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr, Pray for Us!
He’s known as the “Apostle to Germany” but he was born in England. He lived in a time that most people know little about: the so-called “Dark Ages” (which, in some ways, really were not so “dark”).
Boniface was born sometime around 675 and was martyred in 755. His birthplace is also unknown, though most people attribute it to Exeter or at least the Devonshire region of England, located on that little leg of western Britain that reaches out toward Ireland. He came from a noble family but early on showed a talent for learning and a desire to pursue the religious life. As the primary form of Catholic religious life in the seventh century was the Benedictine Order, he made his profession, took charge of the monastic school, and was ordained a priest around 705.
Though his natural abilities and supernatural progress might have marked out an ecclesiastical career in England, Boniface long felt a calling to be a missionary and continue to evangelize the Germans. Eventually, he obtained permission.
The region we today call “Germany” had previously been evangelized but the faith had not put down deep roots and many had lapsed. Remember, these were centuries of great social dislocation and upheaval. Historians usually cite A.D. 476 as the year the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed, though it had been fighting back against Germanic incursions along its northern borders earlier. While the Eastern Roman Empire continued in Constantinople (until 1453, when the Muslims conquered the city), what had been Western Europe fell apart. Transportation, communications, and government all disintegrated. People accuse the Church of a power grab but the truth is that the Church was the only supra-local organization in Western Europe that had anywhere near the reach to try to put Humpty Dumpty together (or at least patch him up), a process that would find its first expression in the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in 800.
