Blog # 10 Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface « Catholic Insight

Saint Boniface was an English benedictine monk and played the main part in converting the pagans of Germany. The story begins with St. Boniface forsaking a great promotion and life of comfort for the dangers of the hostile heathen woods. Eventually Boniface encountered a group of pagans. This group of pagans worshiped a massive tree dedicated to the norse god Thor. They offered sacrifices and bowed down before the Thor oak in order to appease the wrath of their god. Then a strange man came from a far land preaching about a new god who is greater than a tree for He created all the trees, and the ground, and the heavens. This strange man's name was Boniface. Boniface then began to mock the pagans' false god claiming Thor to be a phony and then offered a challenge to the aggravated tribesmen. The heathen priests told Boniface that Thor would surely cast a lightning bolt and smite him. Boniface responded by taking out an ax and with one fell swoop the tree split in two and went crashing down to the earth. The heathens knew not what to do for their entire world view came crashing down with that tree. Then Boniface built a church out of the wood of the Thor oak and thus the Germans converted to Christianity. My History professor retold this story but in a much less mythical way claiming that the Saint just chopped down a tree and died. Here we have two different versions of the story. One wrapped in myth and the other wrapped in opinions. We don't have much hard evidence for either side of the story but clearly there is a huge difference in the results. One tale is beloved and retold with awe amidst the christian religion while the other is shared among grumpy professors and passed off without any significant meaning.


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