Saint Boniface: Apostle to Germany (June 5, 2024)

Today Wednesday, June 5, 2024, is the Feast [downgraded to a commemoration during the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi in those places following the General Roman Calendar of 1954] of Saint Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and the Seventh Day in the Octave of Corpus Christi.

Saint Boniface, quite in contrast to the putative “popes” of conciliarism, the Apostle to Germany, Saint Boniface, gave no quarter to the pagan religions of the land to which he had been sent to Catholicize, the land which the Roman Empire was never able to conquer. Indeed, he was commissioned by two popes, Pope Saint Zachary and Pope Clement II, precisely to do that which is forbidden and condemned by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his counterfeit church of conciliarism: to seek the conversion of men and of their nations.

Although the entirety of Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection on the life of Saint Boniface, who worked also among the Franks and anointed Pepin as their King, the following excerpt therefore puts the lie to the conciliar notion that neither men nor their nations need to be converted to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order:

The Eternal Father draws to his Son not men only, but nations; thee are on earth no less his inheritance than heaven is for all eternity. Now, the good pleasure that God takes in the Word made Flesh could never be content with merely seeing nations to come, one here, another there, offering an isolated homage of recognition to his Christ as their Lord and Master. No; it was the whole world that was promised as his possession, without distinction of nations, without limits, save the confines of the round orb itself; recognized or not, his power is universal. In the case of many, no doubt, the contempt or the ignorance of this regal claim of the Man-God is to last on throughout ages; for revolt, alas! is always possible and to all. Yet did it behove the Church to profit, as soon as might be, of her influence over baptized nations, so as to gather them together in one public acknowledgement of the Royalty of Christ, the source of every kingly power. At the Pontiff’s side, there seemed to be a fitting place for a mailed chieftain of Christendom—such a one, that is, as should be but lieutenant of Christ, who alone is Lord of lords and King of kings. Thus would be realized, in all its plenitude, the magnificent principality announced by the Prophets for the Son of David.

Such an institution was indeed worthy of the name it was to receive of the Holy Empire: in it we have the final result of our glorious Pentecost, as being the consummation of the testimony rendered by the Holy Ghost to Jesus, both as Pontiff and as King. In a few days, Leo III, the illustrious Pope called by the Holy Spirit to crown this, His divine work, will proclaim, to the joy of the whole world, the establishment of this new empire beneath the scepter-sway of the Man-God, in the person of Charlemagne, the representative of the King of kings. This marvellous work was not prepared on a sudden. Vast regions, destined to form the very nucleus of this future empire, for long centuries knew not so much as the very name of the Lord Jesus; or at best, preserved but confused notions of truth, derived from some earlier evangelization that had been stifled in its birth by the turmoil of invasions—a mere mixture of Christian practices and idolatrous superstitions. At length we behold Boniface arise, endued with power from on high, the worthy precursor to Leo III. Born of those “Angel-faced” Angles, by whom ancient Britain was transformed into the “Island of Saints,” he burns to carry into the heart of Germany, whence his ancestors had sprung, the light which first shone upon them, in the land of their conquest.  (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Boniface, June 5.)

Just a little aside, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s Kingship over men and their nations extends also to the United States of America, which was founded men who rejected His King’s divine rights over a land that had been evangelized by Spanish and French missionaries for over two hundred years prior to the issuance of the Declaration of Independence. Those who think that there is some kind of short-term “fix” to a country and a world steeped in the anti-Incarnational errors of Modernity had better remember that nations which deny the right of the Divine Redeemer to rule as their King through His true Church must suffer the sort of degeneration that we are witnessing at this time and is not simply another “most important election our lifetime” to restore some semblance of order. Sin does indeed maketh nations miserable.

Saint Boniface worked to extend the Social Reign of Christ the King over Germany. Dom Prosper Gueranger explained this as follows:

The powerful action of Boniface, as the precursor of the Holy Empire, was not confined to preparing the German race alone, for its share in so high a destiny. His beneficent influence was now to be exercised, and at a most critical moment upon the France, the eldest daughter of the Church; for she was chosen, in the person of her Princes, to be the first to bear the emblem of Christ’s universal kingship. The descendants of Clovis had preserved naught of his royal inheritance, save the vain title of a power that had now just passed into the hands of a new family, a more vigorous branch of his stock. Charles Martel, the head of this race, measuring his strength with the Moors had crushed their entire army near Poitiers: but in the flush of victory, the hero of the day had well nigh brought the Church of France to the brink of ruin by distributing to his comrades in arms the episcopal sees and abbeys of the land! Unless a situation no less disastrous than would have been the triumph of Abderahman was to be accepted, these usurped crosiers must at once be wrested from the hands of such strange titularies. To effect this, as much gentleness as firmness were needed, together with an ascendency belonging only to virtue, if the hero of Poitiers and his noble race were to be gained over, to respect the rights of holy Church. This victory, more glorious than had been the defeat of the Moors, was won by Boniface, a veritable triumph of disarmed holiness, as profitable to the vanquished as to the Church herself! Of this fierce warrior, he was to make the worthy father of a second dynasty, the glory whereof should far surpass the brilliant hopes of the first race of Frankish kings.

Boniface, now Legate of Pope St. Zachary, as he had formerly been of Gregory III, fixed his episcopal see at Mainz, the better at one and the same time to hold fast to Christ, both Germany, the conquest of his earlier apostolate, and France more recently rescued by his labors. Like another Samuel, he himself, with his own hands, consecrated this new regal dynasty, by conferring the sacred unction on Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel. This was in the year 752. Another Charles, as yet a child, who was one day to inherit that throne thus firmly fixed, attracted the notice of the aged Saint, and received his benediction; it was the future Charlemagne. But to the hand of a Sovereign Pontiff would be reserved the anointing of that royal brow; and a diadem more glorious still than that of a king of the Franks, was one day to rest thereon, exhibiting in his person the head of the new Roman Empire, the lieutenant of Christ, the King of kings. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Boniface, June 5.)

Leaders of men and their nations are meant to be the vice-regents or lieutenants of Christ the King, something that has never been the case in the United States of America and has not been the case in Germany since the time of Martin Luther, unless anyone wants to suggest that Angela Merkel considers herself as a lieutenant of Christ, the King of kings.

Pope Pius XII, writing in Ecclesiae Fastos seventy years ago today, June 5, 1954, described the zeal of Saint Boniface for destroying the temples of the false idols of the Germans:

When by the grace and favor of God this very important task was done, Boniface did not allow himself his well-earned rest. In spite of the fact that he was already burdened by so many cares, and was feeling now his advanced age and realizing that his health was almost broken by so many labors, he prepared himself eagerly for a new and no less difficult enterprise. He turned his attention again to Friesland, that Friesland which had been the first goal of his apostolic travels, where he had later on labored so much. Especially in the northern regions this land was still enveloped in the darkness of pagan error. Zeal that was still youthful led him there to bring forth new sons to Jesus Christ and to bring Christian civilization to new peoples. For he earnestly desired “that in leaving this world he might receive his reward there where he had first begun his preaching and entered upon his meritorious career.” Feeling that his mortal life was drawing to a close, he confided his presentiment to his dear disciple, Bishop Lullus, and asserted that he did not want to await death in idleness. “I yearn to finish the road before me; I cannot call myself back from the path I have chosen. Now the day and hour of my death is at hand. For now I leave the prison of the body and go to my eternal reward. My dear son, . . . insist in turning the people from the paths of error, finish the construction of the basilica already begun at Fulda and there bring my body which has aged with the passage of many years.

When he and his little band had taken departure from the others, “he traveled through all Friesland, ceaselessly preaching the word of God, banishing pagan rites and extirpating immoral heathen customs. With tremendous energy he built churches and overthrew the idols of the temples. He baptized thousands of men, women and children.” After he had arrived in the northern regions of Friesland and was about to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to a large number of newly baptized converts, a furious mob of pagans suddenly attacked and threatened to kill them with deadly spears and swords. Then the holy prelate serenely advanced and “forbade his followers to resist, saying, ‘Cease fighting, my children, for we are truly taught by Scripture not to return evil for evil, but rather good. The day we have long desired is now at hand; the hour of our death has come of its own accord. Take strength in the Lord, . . . be courageous and do not be afraid of those who kill the body, for they cannot slay an immortal soul. Rejoice in the Lord, fix the anchor of hope in God, Who will immediately give you an eternal reward and a place in the heavenly court with the angelic choirs’.” All were encouraged by these words to embrace martyrdom. They prayed and turned their eyes and hearts to heaven where they hoped to receive soon an eternal reward, and then fell beneath the onslaught of their enemies, who stained with blood the bodies of those who fell in the happy combat of the saints.” At the moment of this martyrdom, Boniface, who was to be beheaded by the sword, “placed the sacred book of the Gospels upon his head as the sword threatened, that he might receive the deadly stroke under it and claim its protection in death, whose reading he loved in life. (Pope Pius XII, Ecclesiae Fastos, June 5, 1954.)

An apostate son of Germany, one who is the very antithesis of the spirit of Saint Boniface, wrote the following about those who destroyed pagan temples:

In the relationship with paganism quite different and varied developments took place. The mission as a whole was not consistent. There were in fact Christian hotheads and fanatics who destroyed temples, who were unable to see paganism as anything other than idolatry that had to be radically eliminated. People saw points in common with philosophy, but not in pagan religion, which was seen as corrupt. (Joseph Ratzinger, God and the World, p. 373.)

Was Saint Boniface guilty of being one of these “Christian hotheads and fanatics who destroyed temples,” men “who were unable to see paganism as anything other than idolatry that had to be radically eliminated”? Ratzinger/Benedict not only blasphemed God as he denied the nature of dogmatic truth and esteemed the symbols and the “values” of false religions. He blasphemed the work and the memory of the very saint who evangelized his own German ancestors, the man who is the very patron saint of Germany, his homeland.

Catholicism or conciliarism. It’s one or the other. There is no middle ground. The Catholic Church cannot produce men in her official capacities who speak these things so promiscuously and without any word of correction for the sake of the honor and glory and majesty of God and for the good of the souls for whom Our Lord shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Catholicism or conciliarism. It’s one or the other. There is no middle ground.

Saint Boniface knew that there was no middle ground between Catholicism and any false religion. He knew that he had to evangelize the non-Catholics to whom he had been sent without engaging in what Pope Pius XI referred to in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928, as obstinate wranglings with unbelievers.

Pope Pius XII described the great missionary zeal of Saint Boniface in the aforementioned Ecclesiae Fastos:

Winfred, afterwards named Boniface by Pope St. Gregory II, was undoubtedly outstanding among the missionaries for his apostolic zeal and fortitude of soul, combined with gentleness of manner. Together with a small but courageous band of companions, he began that work of evangelization to which he had so long looked forward, setting sail from Britain and landing in Friesland. However, the tyrant who ruled that country vehemently opposed the Christian religion, so that the attempt of Boniface and his companions failed, and after fruitless labors and vain efforts they were obliged to return home.

Nevertheless he was not discouraged. He determined, after a short while, to go to Rome and visit the Apostolic See. There he would humbly ask the Vicar of Jesus Christ himself for a sacred mandate. Fortified with this and by the grace of God he would more readily attain the difficult goal of his most ardent desires. “He came, therefore, without mishap to the home of the Blessed Apostle Peter,” and having venerated with great piety the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, begged for an audience with Our predecessor of holy memory, Gregory II.

He was willingly received by the Pontiff, to whom “he related in detail the occasion of his journey and visit, and manifested the desire which for long had been consuming him. The Holy Pope immediately smiled benignly on him,“encouraged him to confidence in this praiseworthy enterprise, and armed him with apostolic letters and authority.

The receiving of a mandate from the Vicar of Jesus Christ was to Boniface a mark of the divine assistance. Relying on this he feared no difficulties from men or circumstances; and now with the prospect of happier results he hoped to carry out his long cherished design. He traversed various parts of Germany and Friesland. Wherever there were no traces of Christianity, but all was wild and savage, he generously scattered the Gospel seed, and labored and toiled that it might fructify wherever he found Christian communities utterly abandoned for want of a lawful pastor, or being driven by corrupt and ignorant churchmen far from the path of genuine faith and good life, he became the reformer of public and private morality, prudent and keen, skilful and tireless, stirring up and inciting all to virtue.

The success of the apostle was reported to Our predecessor already mentioned, who called him to Rome, and despite the protest of his modesty, “intimated his desire to raise him to the Episcopate, in order that he could with greater firmness correct the erring and bring them back to the way of truth, the greater the authority of his apostolic rank; and would be more acceptable to all in his office of preaching, the more evident it should be that he had been ordained to it by his apostolic superior.”

Therefore he was consecrated “regional bishop” by the Sovereign Pontiff himself, and having returned to the vast territories of his jurisdiction, with the authority which his new office conferred on him, devoted himself with increased earnestness to his apostolic labor.

Just as Boniface was dear to St. Gregory II for the eminence of his virtue and his burning zeal for the spread of Christ’s kingdom, he was likewise to his successors: namely, to Pope St. Gregory III, who, for his conspicuous merits, named him archbishop and honored him with the sacred pallium, giving him the power to establish lawfully or reform the ecclesiastical hierarchy in this territory, and to consecrate new bishops “in order to bring the light of Faith to Germany;” to Pope St. Zachary also, who in an affectionate letter confirmed his office and warmly praised him; finally, to Pope Stephen II, to which Pontiff shortly after his election, when already coming to the end of his life’s span, he wrote a letter full of reverence.

Backed by the authority and support of these Pontiffs, throughout the period of his apostolate Boniface traversed immense regions with ever-growing zeal, shedding the Gospel’s light on lands until then steeped in darkness and error; with untiring effort he brought a new era of Christian civilization to Friesland, Saxony, Austrasia, Thuringia, Franconia, Hesse, Bavaria. All these lands, he tirelessly cultivated and brought forth to that new life which comes from Christ and is fed by His grace. He was also eager to reach “old Saxony,” which he looked on as the birthplace of his ancestors; however, this hope he was unable to realize.

To begin and carry out successfully this tremendous undertaking, he earnestly called for companions from the Benedictine monasteries in his own land, then flourishing in learning, faith and charity, — for monks and nuns too, among whom Lioba was an outstanding example of evangelical perfection. They readily answered his call, and gave him precious help in his mission. And in those same lands there were not wanting those who, once the light of the Gospel had reached them, eagerly embraced the faith, and then strove mightily to bring it to all whom they could reach. Thus were those regions gradually transformed after Boniface, supported, as we have said, by the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, undertook the task; “like a new archimandrite he began everywhere to plant the divine seed and root Out the cockle, to build monasteries and churches, and to put worthy shepherds in charge of them.” Men and women flocked to hear him preach, and hearing him were touched by grace; they abandoned their ancient superstitions, and were set afire with love for the Redeemer; by contact with his teaching their rude and corrupt manners were changed; cleansed by the waters of baptism, they entered an entirely new way of life. Here were erected monasteries for monks and nuns, which were centers not only of religion, but also of Christian civilization, of literature, of liberal arts; there dark and unknown and impenetrable forests were cleared, or completely cut down, and new lands put to cultivation for the benefit of all; in various places dwellings were built, which in the course of centuries would grow to be populous cities.

Thus the untamed Germanic tribes, so jealous of their freedom that they would submit to no one, undismayed even by the mighty weight of Roman arms, and never remaining for long under their sway, once they were visited by the unarmed heralds of the Gospel, docilely yielded to them; they were drawn, stirred and finally penetrated by the beauty and truth of the new doctrine, and at last, embracing the sweet yoke of Jesus Christ, willingly surrendered to Him.

Through the activity of St. Boniface, what was certainly a new era dawned for the German people; new not only for the Christian religion, but also for Christian civilization. Consequently this nation should rightly consider and regard him as their father, to whom they should be ever grateful and whose outstanding virtues they should zealously imitate. “For it is not only almighty God Who is called Father in the spiritual order, but also all those whose teaching and example lead us to the truth and encourage us to be strong in our religion. . .Thus the holy bishop Boniface can be called the father of all Germans, since he was the first to bring them forth in Christ by his holy preaching and to strengthen them by the example of his virtue, then finally to lay down his life for them, greater love than which no man can show.“

Among the various monasteries (and he had many built in those regions) the monastery of Fulda certainly holds first place; to the people it was as a beacon which with its beaming light shows ships the way through the waves of the sea. Here was founded as it were a new city of God, in which, generation after generation, innumerable monks were carefully and diligently instructed in human and divine learning, prepared by prayer and contemplation for their future peaceful battles, and finally sent forth like swarms of bees after they had drawn the honey of wisdom from their sacred and profane books, to impart generously that sweetness far and wide to others. Here none of the sciences of liberal arts were unknown. Ancient manuscripts were eagerly collected, carefully copied, brilliantly illuminated in color, and explained with careful commentaries. Thus it can justly be maintained that the sacred and profane studies Germany so excels in today had their venerable origins here.

What is more, innumerable Benedictines went forth from these monastic walls and with cross and plow, by prayer, that is, and labor, brought the light of Christian civilization to those lands as yet wrapped in darkness. By their long untiring labors, the forests, once the vast domain of wild beasts, almost inaccessible to man, were turned into fruitful land and cultivated fields; and what had been up to that time separate, scattered tribes of rough barbarous customs became in the course of time a nation, tamed by the gentle power of the Gospel and outstanding for its Christianity and civilization. (Pope Pius XII, Ecclesiae Fastos, June 5, 1954.)

Saint Boniface is indeed the father of the German people. One of his spiritual sons, the now-retired Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, however, was the very antithesis of the zeal that he exhibited for the unconditional conversion of pagans and barbarians to the true Faith as he, Saint Boniface, destroyed the idols and the temples of the false gods. It cannot be the case that the father of the German people, Saint Boniface, and a wayward son, Ratzinger/Benedict, are both correct.

Conciliarism is not Catholicism. It’s that simple.

Saint Boniface observed the First Commandment and sought to convert others so that they could do so themselves as they learned how to love and serve God as He has revealed Himself to men exclusively through the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his conciliar minions violate the First Commandment as they esteem the symbols of false religions and praise their “values” as being able to help “build” the “better world" while they worship "mother earth" and "sister earth" and through the evens of the world through toally natualistic, Judeo-Masonic glasses.

Catholicism or conciliarism?

It cannot be both.

Saint Boniface was faithful to the mission of the Church that was begun on the first Pentecost Sunday when the first pope, Saint Peter, preached to convert the Jews gathered in Jerusalem. The two-headed “pope monster,” Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict,  is unfaithful to that mission.

It’s one or the other. Catholicism or conciliarism.

It cannot be both.

It was a conciliar official, now deceased, who recognized that the See of Peter would be vacant in the case of heresy even though he, the late Mario Pompedda “Cardinal” Francesco, did not believe that the situation obtained at the time that he spoke (in February of 2005 as Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II was dying of Stage III Parkinson’s Disease). Yes, sedevacantism is a canonical doctrine of the Catholic Church, Bishop Fellay:

It is true that the canonical doctrine states that the see would be vacant in the case of heresy. … But in regard to all else, I think what is applicable is what judgment regulates human acts. And the act of will, namely a resignation or capacity to govern or not govern, is a human act. (Cardinal Says Pope Could Govern Even If Unable to Speak, Zenit, February 8, 2005; see also see also Gregorius’s The Chair is Still Empty.)

Gee, nothing about “diabolical disorientation” here.

Unlike what many traditionally-minded Catholics have heard from the theologians of the Society of Saint Pius X, however, Pompedda was intellectually honest enough to admit that sedevacantism is indeed a part of the canonical doctrine of the Catholic Church. Only a handful of Catholics, priests and laity alike, accepted this doctrine and recognized that it applied in our circumstances in the immediate aftermath of the “Second” Vatican Council. I was not one of them.

We separate ourselves from the conciliarists because they offend God by defecting from the Faith, starting with their rejection of the nature of dogmatic truth and their making complex what it is: the knowledge of Him that He has deposited in Holy Mother Church. We must understand, however, that offenses against the moral order are no less of a concern to God than offenses against doctrine. Offenses against the moral order, many of which have been committed by the conciliar “bishops” and their chancery factotums and their insurance companies are not “little things,” unless, as I have noted in other commentaries in recent weeks, that the loss of the Faith in a single soul is a “little thing” and that the clergy responsible for indemnifying the loss of just one soul do not show themselves to be enemies of the Cross of the Divine Redeemer as a result.

Although there are those who tell us that we should “stay and fight” in once Catholic parishes that now in the hands of apostates (or their enablers who refuse to speak out against them), we must recognize that offenses against the doctrines of the Faith and offenses against the moral order are never the foundations upon which God will choose to restore His Holy Church. Truth in the moral order is as black and white as truth in the doctrinal realm. Conciliarism consists of its very nature in a rejection of various parts of the Catholic Faith, and it is this rejection that leads in turn to the same sort of despair and hopelessness in the souls of so many men now as existed at the time before the First Coming of Our Lord at His Incarnation and, nine months later, His Nativity.

We do not need to conduct a “search” for the “true meaning” of the doctrines contained the Sacred Deposit of Faith. We accept what has been handed down to us as docile children of Holy Mother Church.

We must remember at all times because the crosses of the present moment, no matter their source, are fashioned to us from the very hand of God Himself to be the means of our participating in Our Lord’s Easter victory over the power of sin and eternal death. It matters not what anyone thinks of us for refusing to accept the conciliarists as representatives of the Catholic Church or for refusing to associate with those who believe act in a de facto manner as the authority of the Church while looking the other way at grave abuses of the moral order and indemnifying wrong-doers time and time again. All that matters is that we carry our cross as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, looking for no other consolation than that which is given to the souls of the elect upon the Particular Judgment and that is ratified for all to see at General Judgment of the Living and the Dead:

Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matthew 25: 21.)

We never have to “understand” apostasy. We just have to recognize it and then flee from it.

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s prayer to Saint Boniface makes it abundantly clear that the world as it exists today is not that of Christ the King and of His true Church:

Thou wast, O great Apostle, the faithful servant of Him who chose thee as the minister of his word and propagator of his kingdom. When the Son of Man quitted earth to receive the delighted homage of the heavenly hosts, in recognition of his kingship over them, he nonetheless remained King of his lower world, which he has left but for a little while. He counted on his Church to guard his principality here below. Small indeed was the number of those who recognized him on the day of his glorious Ascension as their Master and their Lord. But that faith deposited in these first chosen souls was a treasure which they, like skillful bankers, knew how to work, and how to multiply by apostolic commerce. Transmitted from generation to generation, up to the day of the Lord’s return, this precious capital was to go on yielding, to the absent Lord, more and more accumulated interest. Thus was it with thee, O Winfrid, in that age wherein thou didst bring in to the Church that tribute of labors which she requires, though in very different proportion, at the hands of each one of her sons. Beyond these of others, thy works appeared well-done and profitable to the common Mother; in her gratitude forestalling the Spouse himself, she would, even in this world, call thee by that new name whereby thou art known in heaven.

Indeed, when did riches such as thou didst bring, come pouring at once into the hands of the Bride? When did the spouse appear to be so fully and truly Head of the whole world, as in the eighth century, in which the Frankish princes, formed by thee to their noble destinies, constituted the temporal sovereignty of the Church, and gloried in being, at the side of the Vicar of the Man-God, the Lieutenants of Christ the King? To thee, O Boniface, is the Holy Empire indebted, for the very possibility of its existence. But for thee, France would have perished, debased by a simoniacal clergy, even before a Charlemagne had appeared; but for thee, Germany would have remained a prey of pagan barbarians, enemies of all civilization and progress. O thou that didst rescue both Germans and Franks, receive our grateful homage.

At the sight of thy works, and remembering the great popes and princes of colossal build, whose glory is indeed derived from thee—our admiration equals our gratitude. But pardon us dear Saint, if the thought of those grand centuries of yore, so far removed, alas, from anything of these our days, should make us mingle sadness over ourselves, with joy over thee. Viewed in the light of thy holy policy and its results, O glorious precursor of the confederation of Christian nations, how do we not bewail the fatal errors of those princes and statesmen, so renowned in the seventeenth century, and so foolishly admired by a world whose ruin they were hastening. For by isolating Catholic nations from one another, the ties that bound them to the Vicar of Christ became loosened: princes, forgetful of their true position as representatives of the divine King, made friends with heresy in order to assert their independence of Rome, or mutually to lower one another’s power. Therefore Christendom is no more. Upon its ruins, like a woeful mimicry of the Holy Empire, Protestantism has raised its false Evangelical Empire, formed of naught but encroachments, and tracing its recognized origin, to the apostasy of that felon knight, Albert of Brandenburg.

The complicities that rendered such a thing possible have received their chastisement. Be then God’s Justice at last satisfied! O Boniface, cry out with us unto the God of armies, for Mercy. Raise up in the Church servants of Christ, powerful in word and work, as thou wast. Save France from anarchy; and restore to Germany a right appreciation of true greatness, together with the Faith of her ancient days. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Boniface, June 5.)

Our situation today is the antithesis of that which Saint Boniface worked so hard to establish as the world is ruled not only by men and women who are the descendants of the Protestant heretics of the Sixteenth Century but who have been and continue to be enabled by putative Vicars of Christ, heretics in their own right who work not for Christ the King by for Antichrist himself just as much as they, the world leaders, do.

Entrusting ourselves unto the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in this month of June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we pray for the conversion of the likes of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Joseph Alois Ratzinger, Reinhard Marx, Rainer Woelki, Walter Kasper, and the other conciliar minions to the true Faith before they die, asking Saint Boniface as well to help us to make reparation for our own many sins by giving everything do and everything we suffer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. May every Rosary we pray help to plant a few seeds for the conversion of the apostates as we beg Our Lady for the graces to save our own poor souls.

May Saint Boniface and Saint Norbert help us to remain faithful to the Catholic Church without once making any further concessions to conciliarism or its false shepherds who violate the First commandments so regularly, so openly and so egregiously.

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, miserere nobis.

Cor Jesus Sacratissimum, miserere nobis.

Cor Jesus Sacratissimum, miserere nobis.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Boniface, pray for us.

Appendix A

The Divine Office on the Feast of Saint Boniface

Winfried, afterwards called Boniface, was an Englishman, and born in England, towards the end of the seventh century. From his very childhood, he turned away from the world, and set his heart upon becoming a monk. His father tried in vain to turn him from his wishes by the beguilements of the world, and he entered a Monastery, where the Blessed Wolphard instructed him in all godliness and divers kinds of learning. At the age of twenty-nine years he was ordained Priest, and became an unwearied preacher of the Word of God, wherein he had a gift which he used with great gain of souls. Nevertheless, his great desire was to spread the kingdom of Christ, and he continually bewailed the vast number of savages who were plunged in the darkness of ignorance and were the servants of the devil. This zealous love of souls increased in him in intensity day by day, till nothing would serve him, but, having implored the blessing of God by tears and prayers, and obtained authority from the head of his monastery, to set forth for the coast of Germany.

He set sail from England with two companions (in the year 716) and reached the town of Dorestadt in Friesland. A great war being then raging between Radbod, King of the Frieslanders, and Charles Martel, Winfrid preached the Gospel in vain. He went back to England, and betook himself again to his Monastery, whereof he was, against his own will, chosen to be the head. After two years he obtained the consent of the Bishop of Winchester to resign his office, and (in 719) went to Rome, to seek an Apostolic commission to preach to the heathen. When he arrived at the city he was courteously welcomed by Gregory II., who changed his name from Winfrid to Boniface. He departed thence to Germany, and preached Christ to the tribes in Thuringia and Saxony. Radbod, King of Friesland, who bitterly hated the Christian name, being dead, Boniface went a second time among the Frieslanders, and there, with his comrade St. Willibrord, preached the Gospel for three years with so much fruit, that the idols were hewn down, and countless churches arose to the true God.

Willibrord urged upon him to take the office of a Bishop, but he deferred to seek it, that he might the more instantly toil for the salvation of the unbelievers. Advancing into Germany, he reclaimed thousands of the Hessians from devil-worship. Pope Gregory sent for him to Rome, whither he came in 723,and after hearing a noble profession of his faith, consecrated him a Bishop. He again returned to Germany, and thoroughly purged Hesse and Thuringia from all remains of idolatry. On account of such great works Gregory III. advanced Boniface to the dignity of an Archbishop, and on the occasion of a third journey to Rome, in 738, he was invested by the Sovereign Pontiff with the powers of Legate of the Apostolic See. As such, he founded (the) four Bishopricks (of Erfurt, Paderborn, Wurtzburg, and Eichstadt,) and held divers Synods, among which is especially to be remembered that of Lessines, held in Belgium, in the diocese of Cambrai, wherein he made his strongest endeavours to spread the Faith among the Belgians. By Pope Zacharias, he was named Archbishop of Maintz, and by command of the same Pope, he anointed Pepin to be King of the Franks. After the death of St. Willibrord, he undertook the government of the Church of Utrecht, at first through Eoban but he afterwards was released from the care of the Church of Maintz and established his see at Utrecht. The Frieslanders having again fallen back into idolatry, he once more betook himself to preach the Gospel among them, and while he was busied in this duty, he grasped the crown of martyrdom, being murdered by some ungodly savages, along with his fellow-Bishop Eoban, and many others, in a bloody massacre near the River Born, on the th day of June, in the year of our Lord 755, and of his own age the 75th. In accordance with the wish expressed by himself during life the body of St. Boniface was carried to Maintz, and buried in the monastery of Fulda, of which he had been the founder, and where God has gloriously honoured it by the working of many signs and wonders. Pope Pius IX. ordered the Office and Mass in bis memory to be used throughout the whole Church. (Divine Office, Feast of Saint Boniface.)

The Son of Man, proclaimed King in the highest heavens on his triumphant Ascension Day, leaves to his Bride on earth the task of making his sovereign dominion recognized here below: this is her glory. Pentecost gives the signal for the Church’s work of conquest; now does she awake, aroused by the breath of the Holy Ghost; replenished with this Spirit of Love, she is all eagerness, as he is, to be possessed at once of the whole earth. We have already seen the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, pledging in her hands their oath of fealty to Christ, to whom is given all power on earth and in heaven. Today, we see how Winfrid realizes the fair name of Boniface, of well-doer, given him by Pope Gregory II. Lo! he presents himself before us, surrounded by the multitudes he has snatched, at one blow, from paganism and barbarism alike. Thanks to the Apostle of Germany, the hour is nigh when the Church may constitute in this world, apart the spiritual dominion of souls, an empire more powerful than any that has ever been or is to be.

Appendix B

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., on Saint Boniface

The Eternal Father draws to his Son not men only, but nations; thee are on earth no less his inheritance than heaven is for all eternity. Now, the good pleasure that God takes in the Word made Flesh could never be content with merely seeing nations to come, one here, another there, offering an isolated homage of recognition to his Christ as their Lord and Master. No; it was the whole world that was promised as his possession, without distinction of nations, without limits, save the confines of the round orb itself; recognized or not, his power is universal. In the case of many, no doubt, the contempt or the ignorance of this regal claim of the Man-God is to last on throughout ages; for revolt, alas! is always possible and to all. Yet did it behove the Church to profit, as soon as might be, of her influence over baptized nations, so as to gather them together in one public acknowledgement of the Royalty of Christ, the source of every kingly power. At the Pontiff’s side, there seemed to be a fitting place for a mailed chieftain of Christendom—such a one, that is, as should be but lieutenant of Christ, who alone is Lord of lords and King of kings. Thus would be realized, in all its plenitude, the magnificent principality announced by the Prophets for the Son of David.

Such an institution was indeed worthy of the name it was to receive of the Holy Empire: in it we have the final result of our glorious Pentecost, as being the consummation of the testimony rendered by the Holy Ghost to Jesus, both as Pontiff and as King. In a few days, Leo III, the illustrious Pope called by the Holy Spirit to crown this, His divine work, will proclaim, to the joy of the whole world, the establishment of this new empire beneath the scepter-sway of the Man-God, in the person of Charlemagne, the representative of the King of kings. This marvellous work was not prepared on a sudden. Vast regions, destined to form the very nucleus of this future empire, for long centuries knew not so much as the very name of the Lord Jesus; or at best, preserved but confused notions of truth, derived from some earlier evangelization that had been stifled in its birth by the turmoil of invasions—a mere mixture of Christian practices and idolatrous superstitions. At length we behold Boniface arise, endued with power from on high, the worthy pecursor to Leo III. Born of those “Angel-faced” Angles, by whom ancient Britain was transformed into the “Island of Saints,” he burns to carry into the heart of Germany, whence his ancestors had sprung, the light which first shone upon them, in the land of their conquest.

Thirty years of monastic life, begun in childhood despite the tears and caresses of a tender father, had braced his soul. Matured by this long period of retreat and silence, filled with divine science and accompanied by the prayers of his cloistered brethren, he could now in all security set forth to follow the attraction of a divine call. But first and foremost, Rome beholds him at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, submitting his plans and prospects to him who is the only source of all “mission” in the Church. Gregory II, in every way worthy of the great Popes that have borne that name, was at that time watching with apostolic vigilance over the Christian world. Amidst the rocks and shoals of Lombard astuteness and of the heretical infatuation of Leo the Isaurian, his firm and prudent hand was safely guiding the bark of Peter, towards the glorious sovereignty that awaited the Church, in the coming eighth Century. In the humble monk prostrate at his feet, the immortal Pontiff could not but recognize a potent auxiliary sent to him by heaven; and so, armed with the Apostolic benediction, Winfrid, now become Boniface feels the powerful attraction of the Holy Spirit, drawing him irresistibly to conquests, of which ancient Rome had never dreamed.

Beyond the Rhine, farther than Roman legions ever penetrated, the Bride of the Man-God now advances into this barbarous land, along pathways tracked for her by Boniface; overturning in her victorious march, the last idols of the false gods, civilizing and sanctifying those savage hordes, the scourge of the old world. This Anglo-Saxon, a true son of Saint Benedict, gives to his work a stability that will defy the lapse of ages. Everywhere, monasteries arise, rooting themselves to the very soil, for God’s sake; and by force of example and beneficence, fixing around them its various nomad tribes. From the river banks, from the forest depths, instead of cries of war and of vengeance, is wafted the accent of prayer and of praise to the Most High. Sturm, the beloved disciple of Saint Boniface, presides over these pacific colonizations, far superior to those of pagan Rome, planted though they were by her noblest veterans and manned by the best forces of her Empire.

Lo! another sight: here, where violence has hitherto reigned supreme, in these savage wilds, a novel kind of army is organized, formed of the gentle Brides of Christ. The Spirit of Pentecost, like a mighty wind, has blown over the land of the Angles; and even as in the Cenacle, holy women had a share in its influence, consecrated Virgins, obedient to the heavenly impulse, have quitted the land of their birth, yea even the monastery that has sheltered them from childhood. Having for a while administered only, at a distance, to Winfrid’s needs and copied out for him the sacred books in letters of gold: they have at length come to join the apostle. Fearlessly have they crossed the sea and, guided by their divine Spouse, have come to share the labors undertaken here for his glory. Lioba is at their head; Lioba whose gentle majesty, whose heavenly aspect uplifts the thought from things terrene; Lioba, who by her knowledge of the scriptures, of the Fathers, and of the sacred Canons, is equal to any of the most celebrated Doctors. But the Holy Ghost has still more richly gifted the soul of Lioba with humility and Christian heroism. Behold the chosen Mother of the German nation! Germany’s scornful daughters, athirst for blood, who on their wedding day disdained all other gift save a steed, a buckler, and a lance, are to learn from her the true qualities of the valiant woman. No more shall they be seen intoxicated with slaughter, leading back to the field of battle the vanquished husbands; but the virtues of the wife and of the mother shall replace in them the fury of the camp; family life is to be founded on the Germanic soil and therewith, the “Fatherland.”

This was the thought of Boniface, when he called to his aid Lioba, Walburga, and their companions. Worn out with toil but still more with the incessant wear and fret of petty jealousies (never spared to men of God, on the part of such as would cover their paltry complaints under the cloak of false zeal), our athlete of Christ was not ashamed to come to Lioba, his well-beloved daughter, humbly seeking from her that enlightened counsel and comfort, never denied. Estimating at its true worth the share she had borne in his work, he was desirous that she should be laid to rest in the same tomb prepared for him in his Abbey of Fulda.

But not yet was his labor ended, nor the evening of life at hand. The spiritual weal of his numberless converts must be secured, and at their head must be placed such as the Holy Ghost designated for the government of God’s Church. By his means, the hierarchy was constituted and developed; the land was covered with churches; and beneath the crosier-sway of holy bishops chosen by God, these once wandering tribes now began to life a life of glory to the Most Blessed Trinity in a country, but yesterday, pagan, and wherein Satan had hoped to perpetuate his own domination.

Nor was this our saint’s only work in Germany: in certain isolated parts on the confines, the seeds of Arianism and Manicheeism had been silently taking root by means of an intruded clergy, half pagan and half Christian in their rites; and these would inevitably prove a serious scandal to his recent converts that came within reach of their influence. Even as Christ, armed with a whip of cords, drove the buyers and sellers from the temple, so did Boniface, by vigorous measures, rid the land of these sectarian priests, who, with hands polluted by heathenish sacrifices to the vanquished deities of Valhalla, dared to offer also the spotless victim to the Most High.

The powerful action of Boniface, as the precursor of the Holy Empire, was not confined to preparing the German race alone, for its share in so high a destiny. His beneficent influence was now to be exercised, and at a most critical moment upon the France, the eldest daughter of the Church; for she was chosen, in the person of her Princes, to be the first to bear the emblem of Christ’s universal kingship. The descendants of Clovis had preserved naught of his royal inheritance, save the vain title of a power that had now just passed into the hands of a new family, a more vigorous branch of his stock. Charles Martel, the head of this race, measuring his strength with the Moors had crushed their entire army near Poitiers: but in the flush of victory, the hero of the day had well nigh brought the Church of France to the brink of ruin by distributing to his comrades in arms the episcopal sees and abbeys of the land! Unless a situation no less disastrous than would have been the triumph of Abderahman was to be accepted, these usurped crosiers must at once be wrested from the hands of such strange titularies. To effect this, as much gentleness as firmness were needed, together with an ascendency belonging only to virtue, if the hero of Poitiers and his noble race were to be gained over, to respect the rights of holy Church. This victory, more glorious than had been the defeat of the Moors, was won by Boniface, a veritable triumph of disarmed holiness, as profitable to the vanquished as to the Church herself! Of this fierce warrior, he was to make the worthy father of a second dynasty, the glory whereof should far surpass the brilliant hopes of the first race of Frankish kings.

Boniface, now Legate of Pope St. Zachary, as he had formerly been of Gregory III, fixed his episcopal see at Mainz, the better at one and the same time to hold fast to Christ, both Germany, the conquest of his earlier apostolate, and France more recently rescued by his labors. Like another Samuel, he himself, with his own hands, consecrated this new regal dynasty, by conferring the sacred unction on Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel. This was in the year 752. Another Charles, as yet a child, who was one day to inherit that throne thus firmly fixed, attracted the notice of the aged Saint, and received his benediction; it was the future Charlemagne. But to the hand of a Sovereign Pontiff would be reserved the anointing of that royal brow; and a diadem more glorious still than that of a king of the Franks, was one day to rest thereon, exhibiting in his person the head of the new Roman Empire, the lieutenant of Christ, the King of kings.

The personal work of Boniface was now accomplished; like the old man Simeon, his eyes had seen the object of all his ambition, of all his life-long toil, the salvation prepared by God for this new Israel. He too had now no desire left save that of departing in peace to his Lord; but could the entering into peace, for such an Apostle, be by other gate than that of martyrdom? He understands this well: his hour has sounded: the old warrior has chosen his last battlefield. Friesland is still pagan: half a century ago, at the opening of his apostolic career, he had avoided this country, in order to escape the bishopric which Saint Willibrord, at that early date, was anxious to force upon him: but now that she has naught, save death, to offer him, he will enter this land. In a letter of sublime humility, prostrate at the feet of Pope Stephen III, he remits to the correction of the Apostolic See, the “awkward mistakes,” as he terms them, and the many faults of his long life; to Lullus his dearest son, he leaves the Church of Mainz; he recommends to the care of the Frankish king the several priests scattered all through Germany, the monks and virgins who from distant homes have followed him hither. Then ordering to be placed amongst the few books which he is taking with him, the winding sheet that is to enwrap his body, he designates the companions chosen by him for the journey, and sets out to win the martyr’s palm.

Thou wast, O great Apostle, the faithful servant of Him who chose thee as the minister of his word and propagator of his kingdom. When the Son of Man quitted earth to receive the delighted homage of the heavenly hosts, in recognition of his kingship over them, he nonetheless remained King of his lower world, which he has left but for a little while. He counted on his Church to guard his principality here below. Small indeed was the number of those who recognized him on the day of his glorious Ascension as their Master and their Lord. But that faith deposited in these first chosen souls was a treasure which they, like skillful bankers, knew how to work, and how to multiply by apostolic commerce. Transmitted from generation to generation, up to the day of the Lord’s return, this precious capital was to go on yielding, to the absent Lord, more and more accumulated interest. Thus was it with thee, O Winfrid, in that age wherein thou didst bring in to the Church that tribute of labors which she requires, though in very different proportion, at the hands of each one of her sons. Beyond these of others, thy works appeared well-done and profitable to the common Mother; in her gratitude forestalling the Spouse himself, she would, even in this world, call thee by that new name whereby thou art known in heaven.

Indeed, when did riches such as thou didst bring, come pouring at once into the hands of the Bride? When did the spouse appear to be so fully and truly Head of the whole world, as in the eighth century, in which the Frankish princes, formed by thee to their noble destinies, constituted the temporal sovereignty of the Church, and gloried in being, at the side of the Vicar of the Man-God, the Lieutenants of Christ the King? To thee, O Boniface, is the Holy Empire indebted, for the very possibility of its existence. But for thee, France would have perished, debased by a simoniacal clergy, even before a Charlemagne had appeared; but for thee, Germany would have remained a prey of pagan barbarians, enemies of all civilization and progress. O thou that didst rescue both Germans and Franks, receive our grateful homage.

At the sight of thy works, and remembering the great popes and princes of colossal build, whose glory is indeed derived from thee—our admiration equals our gratitude. But pardon us dear Saint, if the thought of those grand centuries of yore, so far removed, alas, from anything of these our days, should make us mingle sadness over ourselves, with joy over thee. Viewed in the light of thy holy policy and its results, O glorious precursor of the confederation of Christian nations, how do we not bewail the fatal errors of those princes and statesmen, so renowned in the seventeenth century, and so foolishly admired by a world whose ruin they were hastening. For by isolating Catholic nations from one another, the ties that bound them to the Vicar of Christ became loosened: princes, forgetful of their true position as representatives of the divine King, made friends with heresy in order to assert their independence of Rome, or mutually to lower one another’s power. Therefore Christendom is no more. Upon its ruins, like a woeful mimicry of the Holy Empire, Protestantism has raised its false Evangelical Empire, formed of naught but encroachments, and tracing its recognized origin, to the apostasy of that felon knight, Albert of Brandenburg.

The complicities that rendered such a thing possible have received their chastisement. Be then God’s Justice at last satisfied! O Boniface, cry out with us unto the God of armies, for Mercy. Raise up in the Church servants of Christ, powerful in word and work, as thou wast. Save France from anarchy; and restore to Germany a right appreciation of true greatness, together with the Faith of her ancient days. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)