In the early eighth century, Boniface, an English Benedictine monk, turned his attention to Germany. Kane says Boniface’s “brilliant missionary career stretching over forty years earned for him the title of the Apostle to Germany” and helped make him the “greatest missionary of the Dark Ages.” When Boniface was over 70, he and some 50 companions were killed by Frisian non-​believers.

The Encyclopedia of Religion describes a method Boniface successfully used to make converts to Catholicism: “At Geismar [near Göttingen, Germany] he dared to fell the sacred oak of Thor. . . . [When he] suffered no vengeance from the resident Germanic god, it was clear that the God whom he preached was the true God who alone is to be worshipped and adored.”

[Picture on page 21]

Boniface is said to have demonstrated that pagan gods are powerless

[Credit Line]

Picture from the book Die Geschichte der deutschen Kirche und kirchlichen Kunst im Wandel der Jahrhunderte