The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-05
GERMAN CATHOLICS PRAY TODAY TO BONFACE,
 THEIR PATRON SAINT


 Millions of German Catholics, in America and Europe, will offer prayers today to St. Boniface, the apostle and patron saint of the leu tons, whose festival is celebrated an nuaIIy on the fifth of June. Solemn high masses will be held in all the German Catholic churches. The fact that Germany's patron saint was born in England may arouse some prejudice against the observance in minds filled with hatred of all things English but the German Catholics will overlook this circumstance and consider it was the saints misfortune and not his fault.
 St. Boniface's real name was Win frid, and he was born about 6So at Creditor, in Devonshire, the son of a West-Saxon chieftain- He was edu- cated in the monastery at Exeter, where he gained a great reputation for learning. He was ordained to the priesthood about 71o- It was while 1 on a mission to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he formed the de- sign of seeking to Christianize the heather Germans, who occupied the central part of Europe.
 Whatever they may be now-there seems to be some difference of opin- ion on that point-the Germans were certainly barbarianS in Bon1face' day. Next year will mark the twelfth centenary of the beginning of Bon1- faces mission. as it was in 716 that he set out onS his first trip to Ger many. His reception was little more cordial than an English missionary | to the Germans would be given to- day, and he temporarily abandoned 1 the project. In 71S he went to Rome, where he obtained the blessing of the pope for his project, and in the fol- 1 lowing year he made his second as- sauIt on the Teuton organism. He made some converts among the 1 Thuringians, SaxonS and Hessians. After another visit to Rome, Boniface 1 resumed his Iabors in Germany, this time in the capacity of Bishop of the Hessians.
 1 Prior to Boniface's invasion some l of the German tribes had been visited by Irish monks, but these taught a creed which was looked upon as heretica1, and Boniface had many bit | ter controversies with their priests l The missionary was often attacked by the savage Teutons, but escaped per | sonaI harm. In his choice of as- l sistants he always preferred those from his native country, and he was i Joined by numerous Anglo-Saxon ec- c1esiastics, among them St. Walt purgis, famed in German legends. eA
 Boniface everywhere destroyed the lidols and temples of the barbarians and erected Christian churches or their sites. With his own hands he EfelIed a. giant and venerable oak which was held sacred to Woden by the Hessians Far from arousing them to anger, this work of destruc- ton convinced the Hessians that Bon face represented a more powerful god than their own.
 In 732 Pope Gregory III. ordained tBoniface Archbishop of the Germans and he built two principal churches I1A EITitZ Tn he gained many converts among the Bagoarii, or Bavarians- In 744= he founded the celebrated monastery o1 F'ulda, in the Thuringian forest, an6 in the following year the archbishop of Mayence was created. Although old and weak, Boniface now set ou to convert the F'ries1anders, and wa: very successful While on second
 trip to Fries1and, with a, number O. lpriests. Boniface was attacked or