103. Saint Boniface: God's Man with an Axe

It's a story as American as apple pie: a man known for his good morals is accused of chopping down a tree, and would one day lead a great nation. 

Oh wait, you think I'm talking about George Washington? WRONG! This is Saint Boniface, my friend. 

Often called the Apostle to the Germans, Boniface was a monk, preacher, missionary, and yes, sometimes a destroyer of pagan idols. 

Join Thom, Taylor, and John as we discuss our new favorite lumberjack. 

Side note:  As I'm typing this, I'm growing more and more paranoid that my writing might sound like AI. This is such an awful time to be a creative. I wonder if we'll have anything to say about that for a bonus episode this week...?

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Transcript

Hey everybody stop it, stop it. You're not supposed to do that. Hey, welcome to
church history for chumps. We've got St. Augustine up front, Thomas do well. We've
got Augustine, Florida in the back, Taylor Treadway. And these are my confessions.
I'm Simon. Dang. That was good. Yeah, thanks.
And you almost ruined it, Taylor. So thank you. I made it better. I made it
better. All right. Like a sign of guacamole. Dude, good. We had the great reunion
yesterday. It's been years, actually.
It's been. Yeah. It's been a long time. You guys can check our Facebook or
Instagram for the photos. Dude, one of my fondest memories was when the three of us
used to hang out at those gospel coalition pastor lunches. And we're just the three
dweeby, like, young guys among all these, like, seasoned pastors. And we're literally
just texting each other in a group chat, just goofing off. Like, oh, did you hear
what that guy said? Oh, my gosh. That was bad. She's like, I didn't have, I didn't
have the ability at that time to not laugh at it was so disrespectful.
Yeah, you might have looked a lot worse than the two of us because we and Taylor
were used to stifling our, our absurd behaviors, but yeah. Dude, I remember
distinctly that was back when Rise and Fall of Mars Hill was dropping.
Yeah. And I remember showing up early specifically to talk to you about it.
Yeah. It was like, it's like what I imagine when everyone was watching Lost in like
the early 2000s. It was like that Christian version of that. But in Christian, like,
I still, I remember, do you remember my reaction? I was like, this just feels a
little gratuitous. I had a same. Mr. $10 word.
Yeah, me and Tommy like agreed on like this feels more like a hit piece.
Voyeuristic is the word. Yeah, voyeuristic. Voyeuristic I can see. I can see that.
Gratuitous, I don't, because I, I had an interesting experience with that podcast
because I was listening to it when everyone was really into it back in what like
2019 or something like that and then like a year ago i went through some pretty
heavy stuff personally and then i like just on a whim decided to start listening
where i had stopped which apparently was like eight episodes short because they went
going for freaking forever and i found like each episode was like not just like oh
yeah taking jabs at these you know stupid little Mark Driscoll, but like very
encouraging and edifying. And so I don't know, I've kind of like, I feel like I've
changed my mind a little bit on whether these extra episodes felt necessary. I think
they painted a good picture. I think they were very gracious, maybe even generously
gracious. He was gracious in one sense of like, you know, he'd have a guest on
that was like, I love Pastor Mark. we had the best church i've ever been a part
of this was fantastic right like they had those guys but then he'd be like and
here's our next guest lesbian atheist activist and i'm like i don't care what that
person has to say about anything especially christianity i don't know i feel like
the majority of the folks they were talking to were like and i mean like even if
they ended up in like not a savory camp, the reason they're relevant was because
they were a part of Mars Hill, like they were first -hand accounts, you know? Yeah,
I'm just saying, like, bring on John Piper, not, you know. John Piper wouldn't be
on a show like that. Or an equivalent. He's too non -shall. Bring on Mark Devere.
Mark Devere. Yeah, he brought on Tim Keller. He had some good people to talk about
stuff. Yeah, that's a crazy video of Driscoll and,
oh, shoot, I'm forgetting, who's the guy who, like...
Is it McDonald? McDonald. Yeah. Driscoll and McDonald talking with Devere, and
Driscoll and McDonald are just, like, teaming up on Devere and being like, wow,
you're an idiot. Like, I can't believe you have these ideas. And then, like, 10
years later, it's like, oh, time. Time really does prove. Age like milk,
bro. Not good. That's right. Man. But follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
We're going to be launching our Crusades episode.
Probably the first week of January. That's right. Yeah, That'll be really exciting.
Buckle up. Are we have a goal? I won't say it's for the year,
but I would say like, you know, probably for the first few months of 2026. We'd
love to be a self -sustaining podcast. So, you know, we've kind of tallied up all
of the costs it takes just to kind of keep things rolling out. And like we, I
think the three of us have an equal agreement that like, we want to keep doing
jump talk for free. We don't want to put it behind a paywall we don't want to you
know like I think that stuff's tacky and honestly like content is just the easiest
thing in the world uh so that's right content creators that do this for a living
you guys are hoax look there's a hustle to and I get a real job I think it's
like it's like it's like it's like you're being blessed with a with a bountiful
harvest it's like if I I don't know.
For the people who can do this full -time, more power to him. I don't think we'll
ever really get to that place with this show. But I also don't think that's
necessary. What was the name of the guy, the British guy that had the orphanages
that, like, didn't ask for money? George Mueller. Yeah, we're like halfway between
George Mueller. Like if George Mueller, you know, asked for money,
but also kept the orphanages open. You know, the whole point of George Mueller was
that he didn't ask for money. So if he did ask for money, then he loses the whole
point of doing what he's doing. Yeah, we're like halfway there. And this podcast is
almost as important as those orphanages. Thank you. That's really what I'm trying to
say. This Christmas, search your heart. You can find us, you can find our Buy Me a
Coffee link. There's a thing. Once you're sure that you're tithing a good amount,
once you've canceled all those subscriptions you forgot about, like, I don't know,
HBO Max or... You don't need to be watching that anyways. Yeah, there's a lot of
unsavory stuff on that. The older we get, the more we're like, I don't know.
Dude, Brandy told me about a movie today. She's like, after church, she was like,
can we watch a movie? And I was like, well, maybe, you know, I might fall asleep
for a nap time. And she goes, well, it's PG -13. And it was kind of,
it was like her way of being like, there's going to be a little bit in it, you
know. Probably some bad words or something. Might get a little unsavory. I know.
You guys are in student housing, so you got to keep the volume at like seven. Oh,
dude. Well, I just blast Wu -Tang clan uncensored on Saturday.
There we go. Cleaning.
Can you imagine?
I have very proper Korean neighbors. I feel like we have fully doxed every aspect
of Taylor's life at this point. It's true. Tommy wanted to say what his kids' names
are. Someone could assassinate me, like, with zero effort.
Someone could just show up. Yeah, and just, yeah, it would be. They know where I
live. They know where I work. They know, like,
I drive a silver. No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah. That's good. Oh, dude, I've been looking for this comment for forever. I told
this guy that we would do a shout out for him and his wife and then I forgot
about it. And that was like six weeks ago. So, Seth, I'm really sorry. But hey,
shout out to Seth. Shout out to Emily Page. Speaking of doxing, here's her first
and last name. Probably not. But yeah, thanks for listening to the show you guys.
Apparently they're longtime listeners, which is always weird to me because I'm like,
I don't know. I feel like I don't know how long we've been a listenable podcast.
So whenever someone's like, I've been listening for a while, I'm like, should you
have been? I've listened to some of those episodes, brother. Goodness. We've got a
lot of locals that have listened to everything, but I feel like we eventually kind
of wear out our welcome with the lump of that boat. Dude, my favorite is talking
to a friend and have them be like, I haven't listened to your podcast in a while.
I'm really sorry. And I'm like, dude, it's not like a requirement for our
friendship. It's okay. Yeah. I feel like they have to admit it, like, somehow we
can see whether or not they're listening.
I've been seeing the podcast reports lately, and your name wasn't on it.
Interesting. You know what? Guilt listening is still a listen. So, gosh.
Taylor's like, I apologize for winning. Tommy, did you catch that Elliot got our
continental breakfast reference last week. Oh, no, I don't know. Elliot said not the
continental breakfast reference. What were you guys even talking about? I was just
sitting here confused. It's a classic key and peel skit. Oh, that one like weird
guy who like, you know, he's like traveling and he, I don't know, he, he like
talks like he's from like the 40s or something, but he, he goes downstairs and
enters the continental breakfast at the hotel and it's, you know, like, from Greece,
where the yogurt flows like water. This isn't the same, like, little character who
gets upgraded to... It's the same guy. It's the same guy. It's like economic plus
or something. Yeah. Economy plus for the discerting passenger. That is,
that is a great skit. I I have to check out the Continental Breakfast. Oh, it's
like your best one in my opinion. That's awesome. That's awesome. And Abby says we
should do a Pilgrim's Progress episode. Well, Abby's the boss. So we can probably do
something like that. We've got some time. We've got the rest of the month. So,
yeah, listener, we're going to be dropping our new crusade series starting in
January. So for the rest of it, we've just been kind of like hanging out. We did
a little pilgrim episode last week we did an episode on a on a recent missionary
controversy the week before and uh this week Tommy's taking the wheel and we're
talking about good old same Bonnie right we're doing history again for once okay we
were doing history before that um yeah dude we're doing we're doing bonifist today
hmm I was gonna try to reveal it in the cold open but oh sorry Well, people have
already clicked the title. Bonnie, Bonnie, oxen free. That's true. Yeah,
actually, I don't have a cold open. I just have on my notes. It just says cold
open. Kind of like the legendary John Simon TGC talk.
But, uh, this is my cold open. We can, you know, I can give it a crack. Yeah, go
for it. All right. I imagine that you are traveled back into the 7th century,
maybe the 8th, I'm not sure. And you are wandering around in the wilds of Germania.
And you hear chanting from around a corner that is interrupted by the voice of an
old man. And you walk into this grove where there is maybe the biggest tree you've
ever seen and etched into the tree is pictures of Thor and other Germanic gods
there's like witchcraft looking stuff going on around the tree they're preparing a
sacrifice and then there's this there's this dude this older older guy um kind of
like like on the down the hill side of middle age you know let's say you know 50
years old something like that and he's he's balding a little bit and he's explaining
to these to these people uh that they shouldn't be worshipping Thor anymore and he's
going to prove it to him by chopping down their tree and he hits it with an axe
one time what do we what do we see but the tree falls all the way to the ground
with one one crack of the axe and mind you this this this uh the trunk of this
tree is like as big around as like a like a Prius you know I mean it's got some
it's got some girth maybe even maybe even like a highlander you know like it's wow
big tree kia soul perhaps maybe even a kia soul maybe it's like the I feel like
we're doing the Dwight mean like could be could be a kid I could see that as a
real possibility very very very, very possible.
This is the most famous story about St.
Boniface, who was a missionary to the Germanic people.
And I've heard variations of this story for a few years. It seems like it's kind
of gained some popularity as, for a couple different reasons.
As an example in history of Christianity triumphing over paganism, as a perspective
on cultural engagement, a perspective on missionary engagement.
And I did some research into the life of this guy, and I was really surprised with
what I found. It was not, first of all,
I found out that there's a lot of stories surrounding the story about the tree, the
cutting down the tree that are just straight up made up. And nobody was pretending
like they weren't. A lot of the ideas or some of the stories that we get from
this come from a retelling of this story that we get in like the 1800s.
Somebody wrote a story. I forgot what the name of it is I'll try to drop that
knowledge later but a guy actually wrote a really cool version of this story that
maybe I'll actually just read it to you now a little excerpt from it so I think
it's kind of neat then the road plunged again into a dense thicket traversed it and
climbing to the left emerged suddenly upon a glade round and level except at the
northern side where a hillock was crowned with a huge oak tree it towered above the
heath a giant with contorted arms beckoning to the host of lesser trees here cried
winfried as his eyes flashed and his hand lifted his heavy staff here is the
thunder oak and here the cross of christ shall break the hammer of the false god
thor i probably should just read this for That would have been, yeah. I mean,
I don't want to diss on what you did. That was great, but, yeah. I'll diss on it.
Withered leaves still clung to the branches of the oak, torn and faded banners of
the departed summer. The bright crimson of autumn had long since disappeared, bleached
away by the storms and the cold. But tonight, these tattered remnants of glory were
red again, ancient bloodstains against the dark blue sky. For an immense fire had
been kindled in front of the tree. Tongues of ruddy flame, fountains of ruby sparks,
ascended through the spreading limbs, and flung a fierce illumination upward and
around. The pale, pure moonlight that bade the surrounding forests was quenched and
eclipsed here, not a beam of it sifted through the branches of the oak. It stood
like a pillar of cloud between the still light of heaven and the crackling flashing
fire of earth. But the fire itself was invisible to Winfried and his companions.
A great throng of people were gathered around it in a half circle, their backs to
the open glade, their faces toward the oak. Seen against that glowing background, it
was but the silhouette of a crowd, vague, black, formless, mysterious.
The travelers paused for a moment at the edge of the thicket and took counsel
together. It is the assembly of the tribe, said one of the foresters, the great
night of the council. I heard of it three days ago as we passed through one of
the villages. All who swear by the old gods have been summoned. They will sacrifice
a steed to the god of war and drink blood and eat horse flesh to make them
strong. It will be at the peril of our lives if we approach them. At least we
must hide the cross if we would escape death. Hide me no cross, cried Winfried.
This is Bonifis, lifting his staff, for I have come to show it and to make these
blind folks see its power. There is more to be done here tonight than the slaying
of a steed and a greater evil to be stayed than the shameful eating of meat
sacrifice to idols. I have seen it in a dream. Here the cross must stand and be
our read so this is a you know sort of fictitious retelling of this story but all
of the elements that are going on here are real the dialogue is not real um but
we actually know a lot about the life of this man whose his name is winfred um
and he receives the name Boniface later in life, which we'll talk about. But we
actually have a lot of really, really good biographical information on him because
there was a man named Willibald who wrote what's called the Life of Boniface.
And it was compiled by lots and lots of eyewitness accounts of people who knew
Boniface told their stories to this guy, Willibald, who wrote it down.
And I feel like I saw conflicting things. Like, Willa Bald was the successor to
Boniface and his work, I think, is Bishop.
But I've seen other people say, no, this is just some other priest who never met
Bonifist, but he just interviewed a his disciples um interesting i i had heard that
he was a um i didn't i didn't necessarily hear successor but like he was uh with
boniface a lot and that he after boniface got no spoilers after boniface is no
longer with us um will evolve spoiler this guy from the Seventh century is not
alive anymore. Okay. All right. Willibald got told to write this down.
Yeah. Either way, no matter who exactly Willa Bald is, he was using eyewitness
accounts for his life of Boniface. And you can find, you can find it online for
free. You just have to look around a little bit, but it's been translated into
English, and I don't know, it's maybe like one chapter book's length,
if you were to read it straight through. But there's a lot of good information
about him. Not tons of early life, for example. We don't know where this guy was
born exactly, but it was almost certainly in England because he, well,
I'll back up. So he's born around 680 in England and he enters a Benedictine
monastery really early in his life despite his parents not wanting to,
not wanting him to. And I think that this may have been even like before he was
13 years old, something like that. He was entering into monastic life. And His
parents were concerned about that. I think they were a little caught off guard with
how pious their little boy was, and he was kind of just throwing them off.
And they tried to stop him. So this is a quote, I'm going to read quote heavily
from the life of Boniface because it's just really good. In his very early
childhood, after he had been weaned and reared with a mother's usual anxious care,
his father lavished upon him more affection than upon the rest of his brothers. When
he reached the age of about four or five, he conceived a desire to enter the
service of God and began to think deeply on the advantages of the monastic life.
Even at this early age, he had subdued the flesh to the spirit and meditated on
the things that are eternal, rather on those that are temporal. Now, I don't know
about you guys.
Sometimes you read stuff like this, and it's like, who told you that he was like
super, super sanctified at age five?
I don't know. I know some five -year -olds. I'm not saying he wasn't. But he most
certainly was something was different about him compared to even like his own
siblings. He seemed to really love God and had this desire to enter into religious
life in the monastery. His father, taken aback at the views he expressed,
rebuked him with violence, and while forbidding him to leave his side, enticed him
with promises of worldly success, hoping by this means to retain the boy's guardian
or rather heir of his worldly possessions. It's like his favorite son is now wanting
to go be a monk, which should basically mean walking away from his family. Employing
all the subtle craft of human wisdom, he endeavored by long discussions to dissuade
the boy from carrying out his purpose and mingled promises with flattery in the hope
of persuading him that life in the world would be more congenial for one of his
age than the austere regime of the monastic and contemplative life. And it just
can't win.
What is the state of England right now? Like, is England? Like,
is it, because I'm, it's Christian, okay. Yeah, I mean, this is after, this is
after, Rome has fallen, right?
This is pre -Holy Roman Empire. Yeah, this is kind of like the Holy Roman Empire is
going to start, I think, towards the end of Boniface's life.
Okay. Because I believe you have So Bonifis is a contemporary of Charles Martel,
King Charles Martel, and Charles's grandson is Charlemagne,
who I think is the first Holy Roman Emperor. Yeah, that sounds right. Which is
basically Germany, for those who are wondering, but the Holy Roman Empire is. Okay.
So Western Europe is basically pretty fractured. It doesn't have the unity that it
had when it was Western Rome. Is that right? My history teacher said was,
and he was quoting somebody, And I can't remember who he quoted. But it's basically,
ask a man who his feudal lord is, and he couldn't tell you. Ask a man who his
bishop was, and he knew. Yeah. So, so, like,
the church was in charge loosely, but, like, barbarians ran the,
you know, they ran the show. Well, there's big chunks of Europe still that really
haven't had much interaction with the gospel, which is kind of what we're going to
see with the life of Boniface here is work in Germania and the Frankish country.
It's kind of confusing because you've got like the Frankish
kingdom essentially which sounds like France but it's actually from what I can tell
really in the area of what we would call Germany now and then you've got the area
also being referred to as Germania and to be honest I don't have my head fully
wrapped around the geography
but you can look up a map let's get a map up Jamie yeah The more his father
attempted to hold him back, the more stoutly and doggedly he determined to pursue
the heavenly ideal and to devote himself to the study of sacred letters. And in
accordance with the workings of divine mercy, it fell out in a remarkable way that
divine providence not only confirmed him in his undertaking, but also changed the
obstinate mood of his father. For at one in the same instant his father was struck
down by a sudden and fatal sickness. While the boy's intentions long frustrated grew
in strength and were by help of God brought to their fulfillment. So his dad dies,
which basically was the barrier between him entering a monastic life. Dang.
When by the inscrutable judgment and dispensation of God, the saint's father fell
sick. He suddenly changed his previous obstinate attitude. And after calling together
all the members of his family sent the boy under the care of trustworthy messengers
to the monastery of Axemchester, which was ruled at that time by Abbott Wolfheart.
So actually it's more like his dad's dying wish that he's like, okay,
Wil, Winfred can go to the monastery. I've been humbled. Yeah. Dude,
it's so crazy to think that I can see why from a worldly perspective,
but nowadays it's seen as so noble. I can't imagine your average,
your average westerner being upset at somebody wanting to,
you know, to enter the monastery so to speak go to seminary yeah i mean if your
six -year -old was wanting to leave your life forever that might bother you well
there's got to be like a like a lineage thing too because if you go into a
monastery you're probably not getting you're not getting married you're not having any
children you're not passing on you know you're not you're not keeping the family
name like i think family name was a big deal back then compared to today and
you're basically saying no it's going to die with me and if you're the only son i
could see that being a very unpopular opinion i i get it i get where his dad's
coming from i'm just saying it's such a crazy comparison to today where if someone
was like my six -year -old just wants to learn about god all the time and go live
a life of servitude to other people and you know the other parents the entrad
cottage core you know there's there's a whole there's a whole subreddit for that pro
you're fine well the other parents are like my six -year -old just wants to play
roblox all day and hisses at me when I ask them to you know take the trash out
right so
we get a interesting glimpse into what it would be like to enter into monastic
life, especially as a young boy in the late 7th century here.
So it's depicted this way. It says that they are surrounded by his friends he made
known to the abbot, his desire to enter the monastic life, and in a manner mature
for his years, presented his petition according to the instructions previously given
to him by his parents. The father of the monastery thereupon took counsel with the
rest of the brethren, and after receiving their blessing as is prescribed by the
monastic rule, gave his content, his consent. In this way, the man of God was,
it's talking about Boniface here, the man of God was bereaved of his earthly father,
and embraced the adoptive father of our redemption. He thus renounced all worldly and
transitory possessions for the sake of acquiring the internal inheritance. In order
that, to quote the words of the gospel, by forsaking father and mother and lands
and the other things of this world, he might receive a hundredfold hereafter and
possess everlasting life.
So I think we've chopped it up about monasticism in the past and kind of, you
know, different views and it's taken different forms over the years. But in this
case, I mean, he really is kind of stepping into a pretty simple life as far as
like possessions go. What do you guys think about that? And do you think their
interpretation of, of what it means to,
to follow Jesus is correct? I mean, you see throughout church history,
there's different versions of this. Like, if you go back and listen to our Desert
Father's episode at the very beginning. We talk about the difference between like a
synabitic community and I forget what the other term was,
but like a synabitic monastic community was one that was like communal and might be
even men and women living together, maybe not even like celibate life.
Like it's just people who have formed a community kind of outside of the mainstream.
At this time in history, I think that the type of monk that he would have been
would have been one who is probably pretty engaged still in the cultural life of
the place that he lived in and discipling people doing some of the normal monk
stuff, but also kind of following behind like the wave of Christianity like at this
time as we're going to see even later in his story it wouldn't be uncommon for
like you live in this like germanic tribe or this small germanic nation and your
king converts and now your whole nation's Christian because he said so um and maybe
even everybody gets baptized uh and it's the monks who then are going to to kind
of, like, root themselves in these places and really teach the people what it means
to be a Christian from there. So the monks, or the monks also baptizing people and,
like, leading liturgies and things like that? They could. So I don't, I didn't,
I didn't, uh, put notes here, but, um, he, I remember reading something that I
think it was around the age of 30 that he was ordained,
so that he could preach and presumably lead the liturgy.
So I think from the age of around six or something like that to 30, he wasn't
doing that sort of work, but I think the monks could be ordained by the bishop to
do that sort of work.
Interesting.
It's almost like entering like military service in a way.
Yeah, kind of. I mean, it's a like to expand on that a little bit. Yeah, yeah. So
like, like, you know, you have to get promoted before you can do big boy
responsibilities. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm sure Six -year -old little Winifred is Is
that really his name, Winifred? Willifred. Willifred. Winfred.
Oh, my bad. I was combining the other two. Winfrey. Yeah, Willa Ball. So Winfred,
Lil Winnie is, you know, probably just like scrubbing the floors and learning how to
read Latin. But, you know, as he gets older, I would imagine his responsibilities
increase and then he's probably copying letters and books and things like that and
then eventually you know as Tommy says at like 30 he gets ordained they've like
considered him like the equivalent of graduated or whatever or military like okay
you're you're now a you're now a general or whatever captain it's also cool because
they're basically like they're, for lack of a better word, they're like, they're like
interns of the community because they're, you know, they kind of swear off their
material possessions and their life is committed to the church, but in committing to
the church, they're also committing to the community around them. So they're not just
learning theology, but they're learning how to teach that theology, and they're
learning how to serve the people around them. So, yeah, that's a great resource for
the church to have, especially in a place that's pretty new to the faith.
One thing that I was mentioning earlier, kind of on that note, Taylor, was that
idea of like your bishop riding through town on a horse and, like, baptizing a
bunch of people.
It'd be interesting to do some research on how this worked exactly,
because I don't think it would have been the case that only the bishop could
baptize people, but your bishop did have to confirm you before you could receive the
Eucharist, which ends up becoming a problem. I think we talked about this on our
Pato Communion episode, the history of Pato Communion, where it's around this time in
history where as the geographical regions of bishops become larger and larger, it
would take longer and longer for a bishop to make it into your town to like
confirm everybody that's been born essentially, you know, since the last time he was
there. Um, so there was this natural thing that happened where, uh,
or natural consequence, I should say, where, uh, people weren't getting confirmed for
sometimes years after they were born, where prior to that in history, you would have
had, you know, young kids, you know, weaned children, maybe even babies receiving the
Lord's Supper. But then it's getting delayed more and more. And so kids are starting
to take it, you know, older and older. So I wonder, the thing that I think would
be fun to look into is like, is that one of the works that these monks would have
been doing is going around baptizing people. I think the answer is yes from what
we're going to see him doing later. I think he may have been ordained by the time
he starts his missionary work, but yeah.
Medieval, I just know nothing about medieval Christianity, like very little.
So this is all new to me.
as he as he grows up he has this really strong desire to take the light of the
gospel to the Germanic peoples in what is today called Germany and it seems like he
gets a chance to go meet the Pope and he so I think he ends up traveling to Rome
to basically get sent as a missionary on this work. So back to the life of
Boniface. After the Pope had read the letters of recommendation and examined the
writing on the parchment, he thereafter met with Boniface on a daily basis and
discussed his plans assiduously until the approach of the summer season when it was
necessary for Boniface to set out on his return journey. When the end of the month
of Nissan, that is April had been reached. Then Boniface, having sought and received
both a blessing and letters from the Apostolic Sea, was sent by the Blessed Pope to
make a report on the savage peoples of Germany. The purpose of this was to discover
whether their untutored hearts and minds were ready to receive the seed of the
divine word. So it's interesting. It's like the, so the Bishop of Rome is sending
him out to like this frontier kind of mission work and the goal is basically like
let's just see if the light of the gospel like even does anything for these people
like let's see if they're ready for it um so he goes and next thing we know he
is just converting like tons of of people. When he had converted to the Lord a
vast number of people among the Frisians, do you guys know how to pronounce this, F
-R -I -S -I -A -N -S, Friesians? Let's say Frisians.
When he converted a vast number of the Frisians and many had come through his
instruction to the knowledge of the truth, he then traveled under the protection of
God to other parts of Germany to preach there, and in this way came with the help
of God to the place already mentioned called Amenberch. Here the rulers were two
twin brothers named Dedik and Devereulf, whom he converted from the sacrilegious
worship of idols which was practiced under the cloak of Christianity. He turned away
also from the superstitions of paganism, a great multitude of people, by revealing to
them the path of right understanding and induced them to forsake their horrible and
erroneous beliefs. When he had gathered together a sufficient number of believers, he
built a small chapel. Similarly, he delivered the people of Hesse, who up to that
time had practiced pagan ritual from the captivity of the devil by preaching the
gospel as far as the borders of Saxony. So this was one of the coolest things I
feel like I learned about this guy. I had this impression that he was just kind of
like this like John Wayne kind of missionary, you know, who would just waltz into a
place and be like, I'm going to like destroy your idols and see, see what you
think about that, huh? Like, look, I didn't get struck down. You got to convert to
Jesus. And, you know, we do have the real story of where he's going to chop down
this tree. We'll talk about that in a minute. And it seems like he is extremely
bold for sure, like in the way that he just is like, you got to stop worshipping
these false idols. Like he's got a very bold preaching style, but his method is
preaching, which I think is really cool as an evangelical to see this guy in church
history really relying on the power of the spoken word to kind of fuel his ministry
here. And he's just going around converting people and even converting rulers through
preaching. And it's having a really good effect. It's very Pauline, isn't it? It is.
I love it. I can imagine that people that are under the yoke of paganism are
there's got to be people that are willing to just throw that off the second they
have a better opportunity right because all these false gods are they're all their
promises are never good enough people people are miserable i think there's there's
going to be people that like know they're miserable yeah well it's it is um I
think it's like T -ball for Boniface here because the people he's talking to are
worshiping the Norse gods and those gods suck.
Like people who worship those gods did not like them.
Like they didn't have like this affinity for them. They were just, it was just
their story. Like it was their cultural stories. it was their myths they were afraid
of these gods but they did not like them i mean they may have liked them in the
sense of like uh like we like them you know like a lot of those cool stories
right um but but they were not i mean these gods did have power to um these
people would have been uh potentially worshipping these gods maybe even even before
Jesus died on the cross. And so the Norse mythology is actually really fascinating
where the vantage point of Norse mythology is that there was a time in the past
where all of these things happened with these gods. Thor and Loki and Odin were out
there doing their thing. And then they all kind of like died. Like they went
dormant, but they're going to come back for Ragnarok, which will be the end of the
world, and then everything will actually get destroyed at that point. So there's like
no hope in Norse mythology. They don't even, they're not even really sure if their
gods are alive anymore, which is actually really fascinating, considering what we know
about what God did to all of the false gods, to the demons,
essentially, at the cross. But I imagine that similar to what we see today that
there is still like demonic strongholds in these places and these people were
probably weren't worshipping these gods for no reason i mean they probably had seen
manifestations of power coming from their their worship of these gods and then this
guy boniface is walking in telling them about the love of jesus and also being like
your gods suck and i'm good And I'm even happy to destroy these idols and watch.
Like, nothing's going to happen to me. I think that maybe there's this idea that,
like, these people really, really, like, cherished these things and it was,
like, traumatic for them. But if you really weren't fond of your gods in the first
place and you have somebody showing up and saying there's a loving God and also
watch, like, you don't have to be afraid of these things, I'm not sure that that
would be as traumatic as some historians have kind of made it out to be. Yeah,
it's like there's two sides to it. It's like, I mean, the human capacity to love
the thing that is also detrimental to us is pretty biblical, that we would have a
strong affection for the very disease that is killing us. But yeah,
I mean, at the same time, To be freed from an idol is literally that. It's
liberation. And to be given a better story in the gospel is a genuine service to
be paid to somebody. So, yeah. You know, dude, when we were in Japan, they took us
to this temple where they, I mean, you just see, I don't know if you guys ever
bidder like a Buddhist temple. But it's just like total ancestor worship, just
everywhere. And just to see, there was hundreds of people there doing prayers to the
dead. And it was like so sad to look.
I remember me and my dad were like, they're praying to nothing.
Like, nothing is listening to them. Well, demons are listening, right?
But I can imagine that like if a missionary walked in was like stop it and like
burn down their little temple like that would not go well so i don't know there's
obviously like a line i think i yep and that's why i'm no longer allowed in japan
that's right blacklisted yeah but yeah i don't know i feel uh i feel i feel i
feel i feel bad for them and i'm trying to think like like that's like the closest
thing i have to equivalent for St. Bonavis rolling into this foreign country.
I think they had the benefit of like missionaries at this time. It was it would be
a little bit more akin to
missionary work in the Americas where it's like very tribal. Like it's not
necessarily like you're walking into like this really like ancient long standing
countries that have like really elaborate systems of government and you're up against
this huge system in some cases all you have to do is apparently walk over to like
where the chieftain lives and talk to him about the gospel and you might just can
you might just convert the whole tribe that way yeah that's definitely a thing back
then like all right we're all christians now line up to get baptized yeah yep it's
fascinating actually see like the different ways that you can enter into the church
and receive grace and how discipleship follows afterwards in these cases.
So having converted many thousands of people from their longstanding pagan practices
and baptized them, he sent to Rome an experienced and trustworthy messenger,
Binan by name, with a letter in which he made known to the venerable father and
bishop of the apostolic sea all the matters that by God's grace had been
accomplished and the number of people who through the operation of the Holy Spirit
had received a sacrament of baptism. So basically he does this big like Billy Graham
crusade through Germania and converts thousands of people through preaching and then
reports back to the Bishop of Rome. All right, here's how it went. So,
I think he travels back to Rome again.
And it's at that point that Pope Gregory II appoints him to be Archbishop over the
whole land of Germania. And it was, from what I could tell,
this was like a little bit of an regular position in that it was like a really,
really massive area that he was kind of given authority over. And so he might not
necessarily have like some of the exact same kind of responsibilities as an
archbishop because the church was just kind of starting to grow here. But he was
given a really, really large geographical territory. And it was actually at this time
that he was given the name Boniface, which I'm not totally sure what the
significance of the new name was at this point, but that's when I believe Pope
Gregory II gave him this name.
So he goes back to Germania, and this is at the time that he fells what is called
the Donner Oak, or the oak of Jupiter or Thor's oak.
This tree that he cuts down, it would have been, it's a,
there's a few trees like this in this area that we know about from history that
are like really, really large trees. In Norse mythology, the world tree is like a
really important part of the mythology. If you've played God of War,
you know a lot about this.
But the world tree is essentially like a picture, if I remember correctly,
like it's like what the world is resting on. And I don't know,
in the god of war games, you use the world tree to travel between different
dimensions. That might actually be a real part of Norse mythology.
If you're interested in more of the Norse myths, I would recommend a book called,
might just be called Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman. It's really good. A lot of
cool stories, really fascinating to see how, like, I think that this religion was
extremely poised to receive the gospel. When we had Brad Mella on,
I think he talked about this, or I may be just remembering a lecture I heard from
him one time, he talked about how like one of the myths in the world, or in the
North, North mythology is Odin is trying to solve the riddle of death. And so he
hangs himself on the world tree. Um, he like,
yeah, he ties a noose around his neck and hangs himself. And he does not solve the
riddle of death. Um, and, uh, at a later time, he ties, he knus around his neck
and hangs himself. And, uh, he does not does not solve the riddle of death. And at
a later time in history, there's some monks that,
and the way that they're depicting the gospel to these peoples is they depict Jesus,
the son of God, as he hangs on the world tree, but he solves the riddle of death.
And he, he, you know is is resurrected um you think you think it was Satan was
making this lie like he didn't know I wonder if this like goes back before Christ
Satan's like forming this lie in their culture and then Jesus happens and he's like
oh dang it he's like they did it against me yeah well it's really interesting to
it'd be curious to know like when some of these myths formed like um one of the
one of the other super fascinating things um that i learned from that norse
mythology book that i read was uh one of their last myths that they have is how
loki gets defeated and uh loki's defeat involves um uh he finally pisses off the
other gods so much that they he so he kills balder uh with a god that everybody
likes uh so they capture him they kill one of his sons and they use uh parents
cover your children's ears they they use the intestines from his murdered son they
enchant them so they're super strong chains and they like tie him to this like
stone inside of a cave and then they suspend this poisonous snake over his face
that drips like it's venom down on his face and the first time that it ever hits
his face he writhes so much it creates a massive earthquake it's the first
earthquake ever that's their explanation for earthquakes is that's loki like writhing
you know in his cave and uh And so his wife, Loki's wife,
holds a bowl over his face to catch all of the drips. But every once in a while
it fills up and she has to go outside of the cave and dump it out. And that's
where you get earthquakes is while she's outside in the cave. But I was like,
holy smoke. So in their mythology, the evil god is bound and there's a big
earthquake at the same time. I'm like, that is crazy that they,
that was part of their mythology. And it's true, you know,
like there's a moment in history where the evil God is bound and there's a big
earthquake and it's called the crucifixion of Jesus.
And, yeah, again, I just think this would have been T -ball for Boniface to go the
places where people have these myths stirring around in their brain and basically
give them the key to kind of unlock the truth.
So he comes to this big oak tree. So this is from the life of Boniface.
What I'm about to read you is like the actual verified history of what happened.
And I think it's still pretty interesting. So now at that time many of the Hesians
brought under the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold spirit,
received the laying on of hands, others indeed, not yet strengthened in soul, refused
to accept in their entirety the lessons of the inviolate faith.
Moreover, some were once secretly, some openly to sacrifice to trees and springs,
some in secret, Others openly practiced inspections of victims and divinations and
incantations. Some turned their attention to auguries and auspices and various
sacrificial rights, while others with sounder minds abandoned all the profanations of
heathenism and committed none of these things. So basically what he's saying is that
while Boniface is gone, there's some of these people who, they're kind of starting
to go back to their pagan ways. And even though large parts of this area have
converted to Christianity, you have people that are like sneaking out into the forest
to make sacrifices
and to kind of worship the old gods. I had read in a couple places,
I think it is, I think it's verified historical fact that at a tree like this,
they would have done a human sacrifice once a year. And so in some of the stories
of Boniface cutting down this tree, there will be depictions of him, like,
rescuing like a young boy from being sacrificed right when he cuts down the tree.
But this is what the history says. with the advice and counsel of these last so
basically those who had remained faithful the saint that's boniface attempted in the
place called gay smear while the servants of god stood by his side to fell a
certain oak of extraordinary size which is called by an old name of the pagans the
oak of jupiter and when in the strength of his steadfast heart he had cut the
lower notch, there was present a great multitude of pagans who in their souls were
earnestly cursing the enemy of their gods. But when the foresight of the tree was
notched only a little, suddenly the oak's vast bulk driven by a blast from above
crashed to the ground, shivering its crown of branches as it fell, and as if by
the gracious compensation of the most high, it also burst into four parts, and four
trunks of huge size equal in length, were seen unwrought by the brethren who stood
by. At this sight the pagans who before had cursed now, on the contrary, believed,
and blessed the Lord and put away their former reviling. Then moreover, the most
holy bishop, after taking counsel with the brethren, built from the timber of the
tree a wooden oratory, and dedicated it in honor of St. Peter the Apostle.
I've got some reflections on that story, but I'd be curious to hear your guys'
thoughts, first correction. I love, so that that is from the life of St.
Boniface. Yes. You can read it on archive .org, and that accounts on page 63,
if someone wants to read it but I love I love how matter of fact it is like I
believe that 100 % and I and I love how even when he says like it it this is
such a far cry from just what we were reading you know a couple months ago the
pseudipographical stuff uh but I love when he said that um you know as as if God
was involved, it split. Like when it's shattered. It's just very like,
I don't know. It's hard to not read that account and go, I believe that, like,
word for word.
There's a lot of witnesses there for this, both Christian and pagans. Yeah,
you got to think the pagans, though. I mean,
they just want to follow what's true and might is right to them. And so if
Bonifist just proved that Thor has no power, so it's like, all right,
I'll follow Jesus, I guess.
He's the top dog. I have a question about, like, so what,
so Bonifist is doing this, like, missionary work in germania is he like fully gone
stag like by himself like what is happening in these when he's going to places that
are converting and that are like accepting and then he just kind of like passes
along like what what's happening behind the scenes after that yeah um so earlier
there was an illusion in something that I had read that oh I think it was talking
about how there was like
yeah so those twin brothers that were rulers says whom he converted from the
sacrilegious worship of idols which was practiced under the cloak of Christianity so
I think that there was
maybe even before Bonifist got there. It wasn't like Christianity had never, ever,
ever, like made its way into this region. Right. But it was, I think, lacking in
solid, like, ecclesial structure. And so a big part of what,
I don't have a lot in my notes on this, but a big chunk of what Boniface did was
a lot of kind of reformation work, too, like in these areas. and really setting up
I might have some notes on later he's working with Charles Martel and Charles's sons
I think to basically set up these synods where like priests from this region would
gather every year to basically make sure that they were teaching the faith of the
ecumenical councils.
And it's kind of - And they needed pastor training conferences. Yeah, that's basically
what they were doing.
So, yeah, it's, I don't, John, I'm sorry. I feel like I don't fully have my head
wrapped around, like, what exactly was the church landscape at this time? It was
really kind of frontier ministry. Sure. But I think that he was,
I think that there were other priests that would have been in this area.
He maybe would have even been appointing them. Like Taylor said earlier, it seems
like he had a very kind of Pauline pattern to his ministry.
But even if they had like decent pastors left over when he was, you know, gone
away from them. It seems like what's going on here is that these people maybe
hadn't quite seen the power of Jesus yet. And they were like, well, we know that
like Thor can do some cool stuff. We've seen that. So let's go back to doing that.
And Boniface is like, gotcha. It like shows up. I almost read it as if like these
would have all been like baptized Christians uh were also dabbling in like arcane
arts out in the woods like just very syncretistic yeah syncretism yeah oh interesting
okay and so he's just like all right like he doesn't come and like he doesn't
attack them but he's like you want to worship thor okay and so he he starts
chopping this tree down and something happens that makes it really really clear to
everybody watching it like oh okay like jesus did that and uh and they are
perfectly happy to follow god after that point there's some cool paintings of this
moment out there in the in the world oh yeah there there is yeah bottom of his
chalry
So I've got some, I think I've got some stuff here that will answer some of your
question, John. Okay. So when the light of faith had illumined the minds of the
people and the population had been loosed from its bonds of error, when also the
devil's disciples and the insidious seducers of the people whom we have already
mentioned had been banished. So I'm jumping ahead a little bit in the life of
Boniface here. This is after he had kind of weeded out some heretics from the
church, Boniface assisted by a few helpers gathered in an abundant harvest.
At first he suffered from extreme want and lacked even the necessities of life. But
though in straightened circumstances and in deep distress, he continued to preach the
Word of God. Little by little, the number of believers increased. The preachers grew
more numerous. Church buildings were restored, and the Word of God was published far
and wide. At the same time, the servants of God, monks of genuinely ascetic habits
were grouped together in one body, and they constructed a monastery in a place
called Orthorp. In the manner of the apostles, they procured food and clothing with
their own hands and contented themselves with constant labor. So we have a new
monastery being set up, we've got churches being planted, where there may have been
churches before, they are being revitalized. It honestly sounds a lot like the type
of ministry that we see going on in our day. By this means,
the report of his preaching reached far off land so that within a short space of
time, his fame resounded throughout the greater part of Europe. From Britain, an
exceedingly large number of holy men came to his aid, among them readers, writers,
and learned men trained in the other arts. Of these, a considerable number put
themselves under his rule and guidance, and by their help, the population in many
places was recalled from the errors and profane rights of their heathen gods. So now
we see that stuff's really picking up speed in this area. People have heard some of
his buddies from back in England are now going to come over and assist with his
work.
While some were in the province of Hesse and others scattered widely among the
people of Thuringia, they preached the word of God in the countryside and in the
villages. The number of both peoples who received the sacraments of the faith was
enormous and many thousands of them were baptized. On the death of Gregory II,
remember that was the current Pope of blessed memory, ruler of the Apostolic Sea,
the renowned Gregory the Younger, ascended the papal throne. Once more, Bonifus'
messengers journeyed to Rome and spoke with the Holy Pontiff of the Apostolic Sea,
presenting to him the pledge of friendship that his predecessor had previously
submission to the Apostolic Sea, both in the past and for the future, and begged
the pontiff, in accordance with the instructions they had received, to allow his
loyal subject to remain in the Brotherhood and Communion of the Pope and Apostolic
Sea. To this, the pontiff gave an immediate reply and granted to St. Bonifus, and
to all those under his care, fraternal and friendly communion both with himself and
the Apostolic Sea. Furthermore, he gave the Arch Episcopal Pallium to the envoys,
loaded them with gifts and the relics of numerous saints and dispatched them
homeworn. So he's given them goodies, give them a goodie bag to, like, kind of like
confirm the archbishopric of Boniface in this area.
Here's a knucklebone of saint,
you know, so -and -so.
So So that's cool. Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, so it kind of sounds
like the image that I typically have of Boniface is that he's trailblazing.
But it almost seems like you said, he's more of a reformer. He's kind of like
helping a lot of the churches that are probably old and syncretistic and
underattended and real pagany and he's kind of helping them like hey you know you
guys need some some solid stuff to get back on the right course and you know just
helping break that that bone back into place yep you know what i i wonder if he
only did this by appealing to the authority of the church
or if he what do you mean okay i don't i don't want to take us too far off the
rabbit drill here, but think, think about it. So he shows up and he says you're
wrong. And they're going to say, okay, why? And he can say one of two things.
Well, the Bible says, or he can say, you're out of line according to church
tradition. And I wonder which maybe both maybe both maybe he peeled to both but uh
i wonder i wonder which one was corrective here well it seems like it seems like
he does both i mean because he's preaching the word of god a lot um but then he
also um so he ends up like in bavaria a little later on and helps kind of get
the church fixed there he uh with the consent of the duke of bavaria his guy's
name is odolo duke odolo lets him create four diocese in bavaria he appoints four
bishops uh in the area and then uh he uh basically makes sure that canon law is
being enforced and then he goes back to to his own diocese.
So canon law would be, you know, a hint that he is basically appealing to the
authority of the church. But, I mean, that's how things worked. You know, like,
that's how you do it. That's how things should still work, in my opinion. And I
know I'm coming from a Baptist, but, like, you can't just, like, show up and
correct somebody and be like, well, you don't actually know how to read your Bible.
And they're going to be like, well, Like, well, says who? And then you have to
point to something. Oh, yeah. Well, point at all the councils and say,
all of these people that are way smarter than all of us, say this. Or just the
fact that you can be like, hey, isn't it weird that you guys are doing all the
same things your pagan grandfathers were doing? Like, instead of pointing to the
positive, point to the negative, be like, look at, look at you guys. You guys look
like jokers over here. That's so funny. I want to see John Simon on the mission
field with the pagans.
It's called Every Day, Big Dog. That's true. I think my reflection on the Boniface,
especially like the Acts story, I think I do like it and I appreciate it because I
think it's a cool way of showing how varied the act of mission work can be and
just how diverse the experience of the gospel interacting with the culture.
Because sometimes we do have the St. Patrick's and we have the St.
Francis's and the people who just like integrate, live, connect, learn the language,
acknowledge the culture and then just like slowly build this like little ember of
the gospel into a fire. And sometimes the gospel just blatantly exposes,
um, not just the fact that it is idolatry, but that the fruit of the idolatry is,
is poisonous. And there's like inherent harm to that. I think that just like the
zeal demonstrated in the axe chopping story can be exaggerated so can the meekness
of someone like st patrick i just like i just hear my my concern is someone who
gets really revved up on this story and it's like heck yeah i'm tearing down all
the idols like and that's the dude who like tries to go on a mission trip to
afghanistan and is like pulling women's hijabs off and liberating them them from
their pagan idolatry. And it's like, oh, you're going to get stoned, brother. You
got to think it's your brain too. Yeah, I think that's it. If there's one thing
we've kind of like landed on from all our discussions on missions over the last few
months, I think it's just every culture is different. Every context is different. And
so Bonifist was kind of poised to roll in and do things his way,
right? And then Patrick did things his way over and here. And this was a miracle,
too. Like, that's what even the story of Bonifist points to. Like, this wasn't
Bonifist, like, calculating the most methodical, like, way of, he wasn't studying
through missiology books like, hmm, should I follow more of a new begin approach
here? Perhaps. Like, he's just like, I'm going to do this. And then God's like boom
miracle knocking this tree over so i mean when you're one with the spirit of god
it's really easy to you know do the right thing crazy as it sounds well tommy has
to tell us how the story ends yep yep i'll uh i'll speed run um through i kind
of alluded to it already but um charles martel we'll definitely talk about him when
we do our crusades uh series but uh he was a frankish king who held back the
umayyad caliphate at the battle of tours he's the grandfather of charlemagne he has
two sons who when charles dies he hands uh the the kingdom over to these two guys
their names are carlaman and pepin and uh boniface works with those guys to
basically confirm uh uh Christianity as the religion of the Frankish peoples and this
is when he establishes these synods. So they have four synodal councils where they
gather, you know, all the bishops would have been getting together. And then they
started to do these every year, it looks like, where they were teaching guys about,
and this is really interesting. I'll just read you one line from
the life of Boniface. It says he urged that the numerous canons and ordinances
decreed by these four important and early councils should be preserved in order to
ensure the healthy development of Christian doctrine. And then they basically just
summarize our hefty heres series. He says, for as at the Council of Nicaea held
under Constantine Augustus, the errors and blasphemies of Arias were rejected. As
under Theodosius, the elder, an assembly of 150 bishops condemned Macedonius,
who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. As in the city of Ephesus, under
Theodosius, 200 bishops excommunicated Astorius for declaring that there are two
persons in Christ. And as at the Council of Chalcedon, an assembly of 630 bishops,
basing their decision on an earlier one of the fathers pronounced an an anathema
against eutychies, an abbot of Constantinople and Diascorus who defended him. So
basically they're like, we already know what the heresies are, we know how to
respond to them, let's get all the bishops from the area together and teach them
about this. It really is kind of like a pastor's conference.
So how does it end, Tommy? Does he ride off to heaven in a chariot of fire like
Elijah. Not quite.
Not quite.
Okay, so he, Bonifist, I'm going to try to figure out how to make this quick or,
because I know we're running. It was a dark and stormy night.
I think he wants to go back to Frisia, which is kind of one of the earlier places
that he had worked, says he had gone over the, all, he goes back to Frisia and he
travels all over that whole land, destroying pagan worship and turning away the
people from their pagan errors by his preaching of the gospel. The pagan temples and
gods were overthrown and churches were built in their stead. Many thousands of men,
women, and children were baptized by him, assisted by his fellow missionary and
suffraging bishop Eobin. So he's running around Frisia doing the thing that he's
always done, putting away pagan stuff and preaching and thousands of people are being
converted. And then there's this one little journey that they're going to do where
they're trying to go to, so he picked a day that he would go and confirm by the
laying on of hands all those who had recently been baptized. That's what I was
talking about earlier. Like, somebody else had baptized a bunch of people. He's going
to go meet with a bunch of them and confirm them so that they can take the Lord's
supper.
And so they set the time for that, and then they're like, okay, we'll meet the
next day. And then I'll read from the life of Boniface again here through the end.
But events turned out otherwise then expected. When the appointed day arrived and the
morning light was breaking through the clouds after sunrise, enemies came instead of
friends. New executioners in place of new worshippers of the faith. A vast number of
foes armed with spears and shields rushed into the camp, brandishing their weapons.
In the twinkling of an eye, the attendants sprang from the camp to meet them and
snatched up arms here and there to defend the holy band of martyrs, for that is
what they were to be, against the fury of the mob. But the man of God,
hearing the shouts and the onrush of the rabble, straight away called the clergy to
his side, and collecting together the relics of the saints, which he always carried
with him, came out of his tent. At once he reproved the attendants and forbade them
to continue the conflict, saying, sons, cease fighting, lay down your arms,
for we are told in Scripture not to render evil for good, but to overcome evil by
good. The hour to which we have long looked forward is near, and the day of our
release is at hand. Take comfort in the Lord, and endure with gladness the suffering
he is mercifully ordained. Put your trust in him, and he will grant deliverance to
your souls. And addressing himself like a loving father to the priests, deacons, and
other clerics, all trained to the service of God who stood about him, he gave them
courage, saying, brethren be of stout heart, fear not them who kill the body, for
they cannot slay the soul, which continues to live forever. Rejoice in the Lord,
anchor your hope in God, for without delay he will render to you the reward of
eternal bliss and grant you an abode with the angels in his heaven above. Be not
slaves to this transitory pleasures of this world, be not seduced by the vain
flattery of the heathen, but endure with steadfast mind the sudden onslaught of death
that you may be able to reign evermore with Christ. Whilst with these words he was
encouraging his disciples to accept the crown of martyrdom, the frenzied mob of
pagans rushed suddenly upon them with swords and every kind of warlike weapon,
staining their bodies with their precious blood. And then essentially what happens
after that is it was just a gang of thieves that had come upon them.
And the thieves get into their stuff and they open up their treasure boxes and
realize that it's just like books and stuff like that. And they're just like, no.
And it's like they get really mad. Oh, can't read.
so they go back to their to their homes and this is really interesting so willibald
says for it was the will of the omnipotent creator and savior of the world that he
should be avenged of his enemies and in his mercy and compassion he demanded a
penalty for the sacred blood shed on his behalf deeply moved by the recent act of
wicked savagery he deigned to show the wrath he had concealed so long against the
worshippers of idols. Essentially what happens is everybody in the area is so bummed
out to hear that this group of guys went and killed Boniface, who they kind of
liked and all of his clergy, that a gang of like a mob of Christians gets together
and they go round up those thieves that killed Boniface and they killed them,
which is a pretty Germanic response to the problem.
But, I mean, also, it's also a just response. These men just murdered a bunch of
people in cold blood, and so a bunch of people in the area get together and go
execute them for the crime of murder.
uh after that happened that says that the pagans roundabout dismayed at their recent
misfortune and seeking to avoid everlasting punishment open their minds and hearts to
the glory of the faith struck with terror at the visitation of god's vengeance they
embraced after boniface's death the teaching they had rejected while he still lived
so kind of a similar situation to the fowling of the tree like you said uh taylor
earlier they they kind of have this like might is right perspective where they're
like dang like they kill boniface and then like god worked it out so that those
guys would be punished for that i want to follow jesus now it's really fascinating
to see kind of like what this culture was like um one last thing there was a
there's some i think verified story that boniface Boniface as he was dying held a
Bible out that like one of these thieves ran a sword or like a spear through and
it goes through the Bible through Boniface and kills him and I think they recovered
that that Bible which is why they have this story. So oftentimes in like iconography
of Boniface you'll see him like holding up like a Bible that's got like a sword
run through it or a dagger but that's but that's pretty sweet there you go yeah
well that's not quite the ending I was hoping for no dude it's really anti -climatic
it's not the right word but it is it's just horrible you have this like uh yeah
like 70 years old at this point yeah yeah this old man bishop who's done an
amazing amount of work as a minister for like a whole country just to be like
slaughtered by a roaming band There's a thing. It's not great. But church history is
kind of like hip hop. When you get iced, everyone learns your name. Oh my gosh.
And that's how I know who King Vaughn is. It's super sad,
but also very true um yeah well i mean it's definitely a beautiful is a beautiful
experience to have i mean like that's a very biblical idea um so in the moment
huge bummer terrible tragedy grave injustice but eternally beautiful beautiful ending
yeah yep yeah randy just heated up some fried chicken behind me and i'm just like
oh that smells That smells so good. Big boy hours. Dude,
I know. I don't need it. I don't need it. Panky out, Spachin at like 9 o 'clock
at night. I know. Randy's a mysterious creature. Yeah,
that's true. All right, well, thanks for walking us through our boy, Bonnie, Tom
Tom. Dude, Tommy, thanks for telling us how St. Bonifish chopped down the first
Christmas tree. yeah oh yeah that's kind of why we wanted to do boniface like so
there's some of the stories of boniface like he cuts down the tree and there's like
a perfect little fir tree like growing out of the stump and uh so he teaches them
to like look how it points to heaven and like we've got a little bonifist
children's book that tells a story that way but i did hear that the night that
bonifist died everyone stood around his grave singing silent at night. You heard
that. You heard that. Yeah.
Apparently there's a bunch of lore made up about this guy. Oh, yeah.
Mine was a lie. I just made that up out the top of my head. I just had no idea
how much of an evangelist he was. That was the cool part for me. Yeah. Yeah, I
agree. That was super cool. All right. Well, let's wrap it up, boys. We got some
more stuff to do. Thanks For listening to you guys. We love you a bunches and
we'll talk to you next time. Have blessed. Follow us on Facebook, Spotify and
Instagram.
Rava -dav -a -d -d -lada