Saint Boniface

Boniface is known as the apostle of the Germans. He was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two outstanding characteristics of Bonaface are his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome.

To restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to convert the pagans, Boniface had been guided by two principles. The first was to restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of praye in the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns followed him to the continent, where he introduced the Benedictine nuns to the active apostolate of education.