Happy Feast of St. Boniface!

Long-time readers of the blog will know that St. Boniface is very dear to me.  (He even gets a mention in the acknowledgement's of my book.)  I find this prayer, which he wrote, both elegant and humble:

Eternal God,

the refuge and help of all Your children,

we praise You for all You have given us,

for all You have done for us,

for all that You are to us.

In our weakness, You are strength,

in our darkness, You are light,

in our sorrow, You are comfort and peace.

We cannot number Your blessings,

we cannot declare Your love:

For all Your blessings we bless you.

May we live as in Your presence,

and love the things that You love,

and serve You in our daily lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Today's image of St. Boniface, chopping down a tree sacred to Thor in order to build a church dedicated to St. Peter and prove the powerlessness of the pagan gods, comes from Catholic Insight.

The Shield of Faith - An Update

Six years ago I wrote a post about St. Paul's admonition to the Ephesians to "hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the Evil One." In that post, I highlighted the communal value of shields in the Greek-speaking world, as when wounded Odysseus "called... [and] Aias came near him, carrying like a wall his shield, and stood forth beside him" to protect him from the Trojans. At the time, I thought this intercessory quality of faith, by which we are protected by the faith of our brothers, was a novel reading of this passage. Not so, I discovered.

Around AD 740, three monks - Denehard, Lullus, and Burchard - who assisted St. Boniface in his missionary work in Germany, wrote to Abbess Cuniburg in England. One of their requests to her was that "you will not refuse to shelter us against the cruel darts of sin with the shield of your prayer," a clear reference to Ephesians 6:16.

As Christians are suffering persecution around the world, and in many cases dying for the faith, please remember them in your prayers and extend the shield of your faith over them.

Happy Feast of St. Boniface!

Today is the feast of St. Boniface (c. 680-754 or 755), born Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex.  Legend has it this Benedictine monk invented the Christmas tree, but his most important achievements are chronicled on the door of St. Boniface Abbey in Munich:

Sankt Bonifaz, der größte der angelsächsischen Missionare, 

war der Erneuerer der fränkischdeutschen Kirche.

Er wirkte in Hessen Thüringen, 

gründete Klöster 

und die Bistümer Regensburg, Salzburg, Eichstätt, 

Passau, Würzburg, Erfurt, Buraburg, Freising. 

Zur Wiederherstellung der Ordnung hielt er Konzilien ab. 

Als Apostel der Deutschen starb er den Märtyrertod.

Saint Boniface, the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries,

was the reformer of Frankish German Church.

He worked in Hessen [and] Thüringen,

founded monasteries

and the bishoprics of Regensburg, Salzburg, Eichstätt,

Passau, Würzburg, Erfurt, Buraburg [and] Freising.

To restore order, he held councils.

As an apostle of the Germans, he died a martyr's death.

Saint Boniface is buried in Fulda, alongside St. Sturm, one of his followers, who was the first Abbot of Fulda; you should visit them, if you're ever in the area.