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Each region in the world has a particular saint who has been called its “apostle.” This is typically a saint who either brought Christianity to the region or who helped renew the practice of Christianity.
When it comes to Central Europe, St. Boniface is widely known as the “Apostle of the Germans.”
Pope Benedict XVI, who was from Germany, spoke at length about St. Boniface in a general audience in 2009:
Today, we shall reflect on a great 8th-century missionary who spread Christianity in Central Europe, indeed also in my own country: St. Boniface, who has gone down in history as “the Apostle of the Germans“…He was ordained a priest at the age of about 30 and felt called to an apostolate among the pagans on the continent. His country, Great Britain, which had been evangelized barely 100 years earlier by Benedictines led by St Augustine, at the time showed such sound faith and ardent charity that it could send missionaries to Central Europe to proclaim the Gospel there.
A new name and mission
What’s interesting is that St. Boniface was baptized with the name Winfrid, and only received the name Boniface when the pope sent him to Central Europe:
Having returned home, he did not lose heart and two years later travelled to Rome to speak to Pope Gregory ii and receive his instructions. One biographer recounts that the Pope welcomed him “with a smile and a look full of kindliness,” and had “important conversations” with him in the following days, and lastly, after conferring upon him the new name of Boniface, assigned to him, in official letters, the mission of preaching the Gospel among the German peoples.
Bishop of all Germany
At the time there were no bishops in Central Europe and St. Boniface quickly became its first and only bishop:
The Supreme Pontiff himself consecrated Boniface “Regional Bishop,” that is, for the whole of Germany…The Successors of Pope Gregory II also held him in the highest esteem. Gregory III appointed him Archbishop of all the Germanic tribes, sent him the pallium and granted him the faculties to organize the ecclesiastical hierarchy in those regions.
St. Boniface is essentially responsible for building the Church in Germany from the ground-up, ordaining priests, assigning bishops and establishing dioceses.
All Christians of German descent can trace their spiritual lineage back to St. Boniface, who firmly established the Church in that region.
And today we celebrate...