preferred Cologne, but the clergy there feared his disciplinary severity. He aided the sons of Charles
Martel in reducing the Gallic clergy to obedience, exterminating the Keltic element, and consolidating
the union with Rome.
In 744, in a council at Soissons, where twenty-three bishops were present, his most energetic
opponents were condemned. In the same year, in the very heart of Germany, he laid the foundation
of Fulda, the greatest of his monasteries, which became the Monte Casino of Germany.
In 753 he named Lull or Lullus his successor at Mainz. Laying aside his dignities, he became
once more an humble missionary, and returned with about fifty devoted followers to the field of
the baffled labors of his youth among the Friesians, where a reaction in favor of heathenism had
taken place since the death of Willibrord. He planted his tents on the banks of the river Borne near
Dockum (between Franecker and Groningen), waiting for a large number of converts to be confirmed.
But, instead of that, he was assailed and slain, with his companions, by armed pagans. He met the
martyr’s death with calmness and resignation, June 5, 754 or 755. His bones were deposited first
at Utrecht, then at Mainz, and at last in Fulda. Soon after his death, an English Synod chose him,
together with Pope Gregory and Augustin, patron of the English church. In 1875 Pope Pius IX.
directed the Catholics of Germany and England to invoke especially the aid of St. Boniface in the
distress of modern times.
The works of Boniface are epistles and sermons. The former refer to his missionary labors
and policy, the latter exhibit his theological views and practical piety. Fifteen short sermons are
preserved, addressed not to heathen, but to Christian converts; they reveal therefore not so much
his missionary as his edifying activity. They are without Scripture text, and are either festal discourses
explaining the history of salvation, especially the fall and redemption of man, or catechetical
expositions of Christian doctrine and duty. We give as a characteristic specimen of the latter, the
fifteenth sermon, on the renunciation of the devil in baptism:
Sermon XV.
"I. Listen, my brethren, and consider well what you have solemnly renounced in your
baptism. You have renounced the devil and all his works, and all his pomp. But what are the works
of the devil? They are pride, idolatry, envy, murder, calumny, lying, perjury, hatred, fornication,
adultery, every kind of lewdness, theft, false witness, robbery, gluttony, drunkenness, Slander,
fight, malice, philters, incantations, lots, belief in witches and were-wolves, abortion, disobedience
to the Master, amulets. These and other such evil things are the works of the devil, all of which
you have forsworn by your baptism, as the apostle says: Whosoever doeth such things deserves
death, and shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. But as we believe that, by the mercy of God,
you will renounce all these things, with heart and hand, in order to become fit for grace, I admonish
you, my dearest brethren, to remember what you have promised Almighty God.
II. For, first, you have promised to believe in Almighty God, and in his Son, Jesus Christ,
and in the Holy Spirit, one almighty God in perfect trinity.
III. And these are the commandments which you shall keep and fulfil: to love God, whom
you profess, with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as
yourselves; for on these commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Be patient, have
mercy, be benevolent, chaste, pure. Teach your sons to fear God; teach your whole family to do
so. Make peace where you go, and let him who sits in court; give a just verdict and take no presents,
for presents make even a wise man blind.
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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