Boniface

Apostle to the Germans · c. 672–754

Wynfrith of Wessex had longed to be a missionary since monks visited his home when he was five. A successful Benedictine monk and scholar, he failed on his first mission to Friesland and was elected abbot in his absence, but he left England for good, bound for Rome. Pope Gregory II confirmed his call and changed his name to Boniface.1

You seem to glow with the salvation-bringing fire which our Lord came to send upon the earth.2 Pope Gregory IIto Boniface

Boniface had two goals: to reform the corrupt churches already in the Germanic lands, and to win the unconverted tribes to Christ. He destroyed idols, baptized pagans, founded churches and Benedictine monasteries, and opposed worldly clergy, though his severity toward rivals earned him a reputation as “difficult, prickly, and tactless.” He was martyred in Frisia in 754.3

His Legacy

Before commissioning him, the pope required assurance that Boniface would use the Roman, not the Celtic, form of baptism. Boniface’s mission therefore did more than spread the gospel: it brought the German churches under the obedience of Rome and prepared the way for the alliance of the papacy with the Frankish kings. Eight centuries later the Reformation would break out in those same German lands.4

Medieval Theologians

Notes

  1. Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, eds., 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), “Boniface.” Summarized. ↩
  2. Galli and Olsen, 131 Christians, “Boniface.” ↩
  3. Michael J. Vlach, “Historical Theology I: A.D. 100–1600” (course notes, TH 507, The Master’s Seminary, Fall 2007), “Boniface”; Galli and Olsen, 131 Christians, “Boniface.” Summarized. ↩
  4. Galli and Olsen, 131 Christians, “Boniface.”; “The 100 Most Important Events in Church History,” Christian History 28 (1990), “Timeline.” Summarized. ↩