SAINT BONIFACE (704-740-747)

Original name WYNFRID OF WYNFRITH.

Missionary and reformer, often called the Apostle of Germany.

Wynfrid was ordained a priest c. 705 and became a Benedictine monk. 

In 716 he left England to evangelize the Frisian Saxons on the Continent. He went to Rome in 718 and was entrusted with a mission to an area east of the Rhine River by Pope Gregory II, who changed Wynfrid´s name to Boniface. He returned to Frisia c. 719 and in 722 went to Hesse, where the established a monastey. He was the recalled to Rome and consecrated missionary bishop.

From 725 to 735 he was active in Thuringia, but met opposition from "ambitious and freeliving clerics". Ordered by Pope Gregory III to organize the church in Bavaria, Boniface soon established four bishoprics there. He reformed the Frankish clergy (740-747) and was appointed archbishop of Mainz in 751. 

He was martyred by pagan Frisians on Pentecost Sunday.