Saint Boniface

I was born in 675 in Devon, UK, and I received the name Winfrith. As a boy, I studied in the school of a Benedictine monastery. Later I discerned that God asked me to become a monk. I lived for almost 30 years in a peaceful environment of prayer, study and teaching. Then I left the monastery to pursue missionary work in Northern Europe. In the beginning, I had no success, so I went to Rome to ask for direction. Pope Gregory II renamed me Boniface and sent me to Germany and the Netherlands to spread the message of the Gospel. Thousands of people converted. In 722 the Pope made me a bishop in Germany. I founded the monastery of Fulda and was elected Archbishop of Mainz. In 754 I was captured by savage locals with a group of companions near the town of Dokkum in Netherlands, where we found our death.