Bonifacio (Bishop of Mainz) – Wikipedia

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Bonifacio , Latinized as Bonifatius , birth name Whiten (or also Wicked O Winfrid O Winfried ) (Crediton, 672, 673 or 680 – Dokkum, 5 June 754 [first] ), he was an Anglo -Saxon Christian bishop and monk of the Benedictine order, a missionary in Assia and Turingia: he is considered the apostle of Germany, where he lived as an adult and where he made his evangelical mission until his death.

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He was born in 672, 673 or 680 in Crediton in the kingdom of Wessex.

Missionary in Frisian from 716, received from Carlo Martello the task of evangelizing the territories of Assia and Turingia, encountering difficulties also for the unstable apparitions of Irish and Scottish missionaries.

He took the street of Rome for the second time and was appointed papal bishop and tied by Pope Gregory II in 722. Pope Gregory III appointed him in 732 archbishop without a fixed seat and authorized him to consecrate bishops for the new dioceses.

In 723 the missionary arrived near the village of Geismar, the main place of worship of the Germanic divinity Thunraz by the catti and most of the other Germanic tribes. For his conversion activity, he used the Franco’s fortified settlement of Büraburg as a basis on the opposite side of the Eder River. It was he who fell the sacred tree to the pagans in an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity and the people, when he saw that Thunraz did not react, agreed to be baptized.

Bonifacio went for the third time in Rome in 737-738 and was named by Pope Gregory III apostolic nuncio for Bavaria, Alemannia, Assia and Turingia, with the special assignment to give those countries an ‘ more structured ecclesiastical organization. In Rome he also obtained new collaborators for his work: monks from the Montecassino monastery.

Subsequently he settled in Mainz, in 745, and worked for the reorganization of the Church in the lanchi territories under the kingdoms of Carlomanno and Pipino the short (738-747). The religious life of these lands had fallen strongly, the lower clergy was uncultivated and unbridled, the high clergy nambed in material and worldly activities and almost devoid of connection with the Roman headquarters. Carlo Martello, rejecting the attack of the Arabs in France, made himself merit to the Catholic cause but for the rights of the Church and for his discipline he had few concerns: he appointed bishops and abbots not carefully based on their canonical suitability, but only to political aims and , without any restraint, he ordered ecclesiastical assets for profane purposes. Under the direction of Bonifacio some Synods were held who issued healthy measures, then promulgated as laws of the Church and the state together ( capitularia ).

In particular, the clergy was urged to lead a life in accordance with the canons (prohibition of bringing weapons, hunting, secular and concubinated dress), the members of the clergy were subject to the supervision of the bishop, the rule of San Benedetto, pagan and superstitious customs prohibited and the spread of heretical doctrines, insisted on the canonical election of bishops (exclusion of lay people). The rulers of the country not only accepted the reforming ideas of the missionary, but also his direct union with Rome. In 747 during a Synod, the bishops present, under the guidance of Bonifacio, directed a solemn vote of loyalty to the Pope.

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His epistolary contains valuable information on the populations of Germany of the time, defined ( Ep . 76) “ferocious and ignorant” who, although converted to Christianity, continue to practice pagan superstitions, and on the clergy, whose deacons, ignorant of doctrine, ( Ep . 50) “The night, four or five concubines are brought to bed”.

He had to solve dogmatic problems, how to establish ( Ep . 32) If it were valid – and he considered him, however, going against the legislation of the Church – the marriage between a widow and his godfather of baptism or baptism ( Ep . 68) given by an ignorant priest of Latin with the incorrect formula Baptize you in the name of the country and the daughter of the Santa . Bonifacio disavowed this baptism but, taken up by Virgil, bishop of Salzburg, his initiative was censored by Pope Zaccaria.

The death of San Bonifacio , high herger henchel, 1830, Fulda.

The last years of his industrious life were full of loving disappointments: It was the foreign Anglo -Saxon missionary [ not clear ] . Bonifacio then retired and chose as Metropolitan Matrumza. Here, in the abbey that was dearest to him, Fulda, he continued his pastoral and spiritual mission. When Pope Stephen II, in the year 753 or 754, presented himself to the court of the Franks asking for the protection of the king against the Lombards, Bonifacio was about to undertake his last missionary journey in Frisian. And in that region he found death: on June 5 754 he was killed together with 52 companions in Dokkum.

It is difficult to establish what the exact cult is to which the Germanic populations were converted: it is rather difficult to suppose a strictly orthodox adherence to Christianity for populations with rooted pagan traditions at times irreconcilable with Christianity, such as war as a sacred experience, magic , etc. It is therefore thought that the conversions were based on a superficial adherence to ceremonies and sacraments, the pagan beliefs remained submerged, among other things benevolently tolerated by the church and if it was fought with the instrument of confession: in fact there are numerous manuals for confessors of the era called Poenitentialia , where the annotations are frequent regarding the cultural and “folkloristic” substrate of the Germanic populations.

Bonifacio still clashed with Virgil of Salzburg in 748, reporting to Pope Zaccaria I that Virgil would have supported the existence ( Ep . 80) Of “another world, other men under the earth, or another sun and another moon”. Virgil, known to the court of Pippin the short and esteemed for his doctrine as a surveyor, and elevated to the bishop’s dignity by Otilo, Duke of the Bavari, was acquitted in the trial held in Rome that same year.

The question at the origin of the controversial, although not clear from the testimonies that remained there, had to actually consist in the question of the antipodes. Macrobio, in the comment to Dream of Scipio of Cicero, (II, 5), supports the division into three climatic parts of the hemispheres of the Earth: in the Boreal hemisphere there are an arctic area or cold , included in the Polar Circle, a temperate area, the only inhabited area, which extends from the Polar Circle to the Tropic, and a very hot equatorial area or basis , extended by the tropic to the equator; Similarly, things go to the southern hemisphere and therefore a inhabited tempered area must exist.

This theory was confirmed by Martian Capella in his The wedding Wednesday and Philology , (VI, 605), but denied by Sant’Agostino in The state of (XVI, 9), who claims that it is impossible to go from one hemisphere to another and the antipodes do not exist because Christ would not have sacrificed even for the populations who lived it, which would be absurd because it would be contrary to the scriptures. This is likely that this was the topic brought, in vain, to Bonifacio against Virgil.

The relics of San Bonifacio rest in the abbey of Fulda and still are considered among the most important for the German nation.

It is venerated as a saint and martyr by numerous Christian churches: for his work of evangelization it is called the “apostle of Germany”. It is revered by the Catholic Church on June 5th.

On May 4, 1919 Pope Benedict XV wrote the encyclical in Hac Tanta in which he commemorated the evangelization of Germany and celebrated the memory of San Bonifacio.

In Italy, in the archdiocese of Gaeta [3] , on January 24, 2014 the fraternity of San Bonifacio was recognized [4] , which aims to underline the missionary character of monastic and contemplative life.

  1. ^ a b Émile Amann, The Carolingian era (757-888) , edited by A. P. Putaz, Turin, Editrice S.A.I.E, 1948 [1938] , p. 11.
  2. ^ This representation symbolizes the episode of his death: to shelter from the blow of a pagan Frisone, he raised his arm with which he kept the sacred book, which was so damaged by the weapon before he fell on the head of Bonifacio transcending him. ( See saints, blessed and witnesses )
  3. ^ Archdiocese of Gaeta . are Arcidiocesigaeta.it . URL consulted on February 15, 2021 (archived by URL Original on June 2, 2015) . It is Fraternity of San Bonifacio ( JPG ), are Arcidiocesigaeta.it . URL consulted on February 15, 2021 (archived by URL Original on June 2, 2015) .
  4. ^ Fraternity of San Bonifacio
  • ( OF ) The letters of St. Boniface and Lullus , edited by M. Tangl, Berlin, 1916
  • J. Semmler – G. Bernt – G. Binding, Bonifatius , in Lexicon of the Middle Ages , Munich, 1983
  • Life and letters of San Bonifacio , translation, introduction, notes by Enrica Mascherpa, Noci, Bari, 1991.
  • And Deug-Su, The eloquence of silence in the Mediolatine sources. The case of Leobo, “Dilecta” by Bonifacio Vinfrido , Sismel Edizioni del Galluccio, Florence, 2004.

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