Bishop and Martyr · Feast day June 5
St. Boniface
The feast day of St. Boniface is June 5, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar. Traditionally invoked as patron of Germany and brewers.
Life
Winfrid of Wessex, a monk-scholar who left a safe abbacy for the German frontier, renamed Boniface by the pope who sent him. At Geismar he felled the sacred Oak of Thor before a hostile crowd — and when no god struck him down, the crowd asked for baptism.
He founded Fulda, reformed the Frankish church, crowned Pepin, and in old age went back to the mission field of Frisia, where a pagan war band cut him down as he read the Gospel to converts. The book he shielded with, gashed by swords, is still shown at Fulda.
Patron of
Tradition invokes St. Boniface as patron of Germany and brewers.
Saints with the same patronage
- St. Augustine of Hippobrewers · August 28
Patronages are traditional, not an official list. All patron saints in Bless, A to Z.
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Boniface. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Boniface keeps June 5 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of June.
All the saints of June Born on June 5? A saint for every day
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