so great a scholar, he invited him to preach within his own kingdom, to uproot idolatry and to teach the newly converted.
The Pope Ordains and Commissions Willibrord
The English Church, founded by the Roman missionary St. Augustine of Canterbury, possessed a strong loyalty to the papacy. It is no surprise, then, that missionaries from England often stopped by Rome for authorization and a blessing from the pope.
After a time, the man of God had carefully visited several places and carried out the task of evangelization, and the seed of life, watered by the dews of heavenly grace, had born great fruit in the hearts of many souls. Then the king of the Franks, pleased with Willibrord’s burning zeal and the extraordinary growth of the Christian faith, which he sought to expand even further, decided to send him to Rome to be ordained a bishop by Pope Sergius, one of the holiest men of that time. In this way, having the apostolic blessing and papal mandate, he would return to preach the Gospel with even greater confidence and vigor….
The pope, warned in advance by a heavenly dream, welcomed Willibrord with great joy and showed him every courtesy. For he saw in Willibrord a sincere faith, a religious devotion, and a profound wisdom. Therefore, he appointed a day for the ordination when all the people could assemble together.
He invited holy priests to take part in the ceremony, and in accordance with apostolic tradition and with great reverence, he publicly ordained him archbishop in the church of St. Peter, prince of the apostles. At the same time he renamed him “Clement” … and whatever he asked for (relics of saints, liturgical vessels, etc.) the pope gave him without hesitation, so that he was sent back to preach the Gospel loaded with gifts and strengthened with the apostolic blessing.
Willibrord Desecrates a Pagan Shrine
Like his protégé, St. Boniface, St. Willibrord had little patience for the pagan superstitions of the German natives. His dismissive treatment of pagan shrines did much, however, to impress the inhabitants, who expected their gods to punish such violators of shrines.
Now while this energetic preacher of God’s Word was continuing his journey he came to a certain island on the Frisian-Danish boundary, which the natives had named Fositeland after a god named Fosite, whom they worshiped and whose temples stood there. The pagans held that place in great awe, so that none of the natives would venture to touch the cattle that fed there, and would only draw water from the spring that bubbled up there in complete silence.
Willibrord was driven ashore on that island by a storm, and had to wait for some days until the wind died down and fair weather made it possible to set sail again. He cared nothing for the superstitious “sacredness” of that spot, or for the savage cruelty of the king, who was said to condemn to the most cruel death those who violated those sacred objects. Instead, Willibrord used the water from the sacred springs to baptize three people in the name of the Blessed Trinity and slaughtered several of the cattle as food for his companions.
When the pagans saw this they expected the strangers to become mad or be struck with sudden death. But they were astounded and terror-stricken when they saw that Willibrord and his companions suffered no harm at all.
St. Boniface (d. 754)
That St. Boniface was hacked to death by a mob of frenzied pagans while preparing for a confirmation service probably surprised no one. As a man of determination, with an iron will, tact and diplomacy had not exactly been his strong suit. Once, when pagan villagers would not stop worshiping an oak tree believed to be sacred to Thor, Boniface snatched up an axe and chopped it down. When he was not (as the villagers had expected) struck by Thor’s lightning, they agreed to convert, but such tactics were not likely to make him many friends.
Boniface, named Winfrid by his parents, was born among the Saxon tribes in England who had been so patiently won for the Church by the efforts of St. Augustine of Canterbury. Sometime after joining a Benedictine monastery over the objections of his parents, he turned down election as its abbot, departing for mainland Germany to preach the Gospel to his kinfolk there, never to return to his native land again. He worked under the tutelage of the elderly missionary St. Willibrord for some years in the forests of the German interior and took up that saint’s mantle upon the latter’s death.
Like most great missionaries, however, Winfrid knew he needed support. St. Augustine of Canterbury had impressed on the English a strong devotion to the papacy, and of his own initiative Winfrid traveled to Rome and sought the pope’s blessing and commission for his missionary endeavors. (It was the pope who, apparently impressed with this missionary’s eagerness, renamed him Boniface, from bonum facere, “to do good.”)
The pope encouraged him to secure the military protection of the French, whose armies could guarantee his safety among the savage German tribes, and it was probably Boniface’s close collaboration with both Rome and the French kings that set the stage for the later alliance which would emerge in the age of Charlemagne.
Boniface worked patiently in the German hinterlands, building church structures from the ground up, establishing monasteries, seminaries, and bishoprics while presiding over Church synods to enforce strict moral standards on local clergy. Boniface’s pattern of convincing entire tribes to convert, often through extraordinary acts like the felling of the sacred oak, and then leaving until later the work of catechesis and Christian instruction, meant that the Christian religion in mainland Europe was often only superficial, with paganism and barbarism lurking just below the surface.
Yet Boniface, known today as the Apostle to the Germans, was a pioneer, furrowing new ground and planting the seeds so that later generations could cultivate and nurture the growth.
The Pope Commissions Boniface as a Missionary
The fateful meeting between Boniface and Pope Gregory II would forge lasting links between the German people and the papacy, links of faith and charity that would bear significant fruit throughout the Middle Ages. (From Willibald’s Life of Boniface)
When [Winfrid] read a letter carried to him by a messenger, he learned that he was summoned to Rome, and in a spirit of complete obedience, he got ready as quickly as he could…. Eventually he came into sight of the walls of Rome, and giving praise and thanks to God on high, he went quickly to the Church of St. Peter, where he strengthened himself in long and earnest prayer. After he had rested his weary limbs for a brief time, he had a message sent to blessed Gregory [II], bishop of the Apostolic See, saying that he had arrived….
A convenient day was fixed for a meeting, and at the appointed time the pope came down to the Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle, and the servant of God was summoned to his presence. After they had exchanged a few words of greeting, the bishop of the Apostolic See asked him some questions on his doctrine—on the creeds, traditions and beliefs of his church….
They discussed and debated many other matters relating to holy religion and the true faith, and in this exchange of views they spent almost the whole day.
At last the pope asked how successful he was in preaching the true faith to a people so rooted in error and sin. On learning that a vast number had been converted from the sacrilegious worship of idols and admitted to the communion of the Church, the pope told him that he intended to ordain him a bishop and set him over people who up to that time had been without a leader to guide them….
When the holy day for the sacred solemnity arrived, which was both the feast day of St. Andrew and the day set aside for his ordination, the holy pope of the Apostolic See ordained him a bishop and gave him the name of Boniface…. He also offered to him and to all his subjects the friendship of the holy Apostolic
