Boniface was born at Crediton in Devon England in 673. As a child he entered a Benedictine community at Exeter. In 716 he set out for his first missionary expedition to Frisia Germany. This was unsuccessful but he returned two years later, with papal approval, and evangelised much of southern Germany. He was eventually named archbishop of Mainz. He attracted many companions by whose help he founded or restored dioceses in Bavaria, Thuringia and Franconia. He also convened councils and promulgated laws. In his seventies he embarked on a new missionary enterprise in Holland but was killed at Dokkum in Frisia in 754. He was buried at the monastery he had founded in Fulda Germany. – CTS New Daily Roman Missal 2012, p 2736; Christian Prayer 1990, p 1142.
