Saint Boniface, Martyr
S. Bonifatii Martyris
Saint Boniface was an early martyr long venerated at Rome, who is traditionally said to have suffered for Christ at Tarsus in Cilicia during the persecutions of the early Church.
Saint Boniface is one of the martyrs of the early Church whose memory has been kept at Rome from ancient times, where a church on the Aventine hill bore his name. The Church honours him on the fourteenth of May among the witnesses who gave their lives for Christ in the age of persecution.
What is reliably known
The Church remembers Saint Boniface as a martyr venerated at Tarsus in Cilicia and at Rome, but the detailed story that has come down under his name belongs to a later and legendary kind of writing, and its particulars cannot be confirmed by sober history. It is enough, and it is honest, to hold fast to what the tradition affirms: that a Christian named Boniface bore witness to Christ unto death, and that his memory was cherished by the faithful of Rome, who built a sanctuary in his honour.
Where history is silent, the Church does not invent. She venerates Saint Boniface not for a tale of marvels but for the one thing needful that the martyrs share: fidelity to Christ even unto the shedding of blood. His feast invites the faithful to that same constancy, in whatever measure God may ask of them.
His witness today
The age of the martyrs lies far behind us, yet the communion of saints is unbroken, and the Church on earth still asks the prayers of those who have already won the crown. In Saint Boniface she venerates one of the countless early Christians whose names she keeps even when their stories are lost, trusting that they live now in the peace of Christ and intercede for their brethren still on the way.
The Collect
Patronage
He has long been venerated at Rome, where an ancient church on the Aventine was dedicated in his honour.
In the Modern Calendar
This feast does not appear in the universal calendar of the modern Roman rite.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Boniface the Martyr?
His feast is kept on 14 May in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Fourth Class feast. (This is a different saint from Saint Boniface, the bishop and apostle of Germany, whose feast falls on 5 June.)
Who was Saint Boniface?
He was an early martyr venerated at Tarsus in Cilicia and at Rome. Beyond the fact of his martyrdom and his ancient veneration, little can be affirmed with certainty, since the surviving account of his life is legendary rather than historical.
Why is so little known about him?
He belongs to the early centuries of persecution, from which few reliable records survive. The Church honours him for the certainty of his witness to Christ without claiming details that history did not preserve.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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