Winfrith, as a small child, experienced a call to the monastic life. He received an excellent education in the Benedictine abbeys of Adescancastre (Exeter) and Nhutscelle (Nursling, between Winchester and Southampton) and became a Benedictine monk, being ordained priest at about age 30. In 716 he volunteered to assist Willibrord as a missionary to the Frisian Saxons and left England never to return. Frisia was a coastal region along the south-eastern corner of the North Sea and smaller parts of northern Germany. His mission was greatly hindered by their King Radbod.

In 718 he accompanied a group of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to Rome, where Pope Gregory II changed his name to Boniface and entrusted him with a mission to the pagans east of the Rhine. For over 30 years he laboured as a missionary convincing the people of the emptiness of paganism and idolatry. In 722 he was consecrated bishop of Mainz.

He founded the monastery at Fulda, which played a key role in church growth in that part of Europe. In 732 the pope made him archbishop of Mainz. He instituted reforms of the church in France, establishing the Rule of St Benedict for monasteries in the Carolingian Empire (modern-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.)

Boniface is called the apostle of Germany for bringing them the gospel. He set the church in Germany on a firm course of undeviating piety and irreproachable conduct. In his letters and the writings of his contemporaries, he appears as a man of purpose and dedication, an innovator with a powerful though wilful personality.

Boniface was 75 yrs old, when King Radbod died. He returned to northern Frisia, destroying pagan temples, building churches, and baptising thousands of converts. He had arranged to hold a confirmation and baptism services on the eve of Pentecost Sunday at Dokkum on the banks of a river. He was killed there by a group of pagans. Organizer, educator, and reformer, Boniface profoundly influenced the course of intellectual, political, and ecclesiastical history in Germany and France throughout the Middle Ages. Some traditions credit Saint Boniface with the invention of the Christmas tree.

BORN: c. 675, Crediton, Devon, Wessex, Anglo-Saxon England.

DIED: 5 June 754, Dokkum, Frisia