Boniface

ON SAINT BONIFACE, APOSTOLIC ARCHBISHOP AROUND RUSSIA,

PROTOMARTYR OF THE CAMALDULESE ORDER.

AROUND THE YEAR 1008.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY BY FRANCISCUS VEROVIUS.

Bonifacius, Apostolic Archbishop around Russia, Protomartyr of the Camaldulese Order (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR F. V.

§. I. On his cult, the author of the Life, and the time of the Martyrdom.

The Camaldulese Hermitage, erected by St. Romuald around the year 970, brought forth very many Apostles and Martyrs of the Church for the various nations of Europe. Of these the band was led by St. Boniface, The memory of St. Boniface and he first adorned the new institute with his Martyrdom, sent by the Roman Pontiff Gregory V as Apostle to the Barbarians of the Russian nation. Him the Roman Martyrology of Baronius commemorates with this brief Eulogy: "On the same day (19th of June) of St. Boniface the Martyr, in the Roman Martyrology who, sent by the Roman Pontiff to preach the Gospel in Russia, when he had passed through the fire unharmed, and had baptized the King and people; slain by the King's raging brother, received the desired palm of Martyrdom." There had preceded the Additions of the Carthusians to Usuard of the years 1515 and 1521, in additions to Usuard and others in these words: "Of Boniface the Martyr, disciple of St. Romuald, who, license being obtained, went to Russia or Slavonia with wondrous fervor and desire of Martyrdom, to announce the Gospel of Christ: and when he had converted very many, beheaded he attained the glory of martyrdom." Hence he is read inscribed everywhere in the martyrologies of others on this day: by some referred to the 5th of June. but Peter de Natalibus, and following him Maurolycus and Wufordus, on the occasion of St. Boniface Archbishop of Mainz the Martyr, referred this Boniface too of whom we treat to the 5th of June.

[2] The cult of this holy Martyr, long neglected in the Camaldulese Order itself, His cult, long neglected indeed almost given to oblivion, so that not even in the Calendars of the Order itself was the name of St. Boniface read inscribed: but Peter Delphinus, the forty-fifth General of the Camaldulese, out of his devotion toward the Martyrs of his Institute, restored the long-neglected cult, and ordered his name to be ascribed to the Calendars of the other Saints. So narrates Augustinus Florentinus, in the History of Camaldoli, Book 2, ch. 7. "In the 22nd year of the Generalate of Peter (of Christ 1502, inasmuch as he was set over the Order in the year 1480) it happened that he migrated to Vallombrosa on a certain day, on which the celebration of a certain Saint of his Religion was held with solemn rite; perhaps of St. Peter, called from a similar passage through fire 'the Fiery,' and lately ascribed to the Roman Martyrology. Whence Peter rebuking the negligence of the Camaldulese, in the Camaldulese Order it is restored in the year 1502 who had been rather imprudent for so many years; ordained, that from that time the memory of the disciples of our holy Father Romuald should be vindicated from neglect and oblivion. Wherefore he charged the Abbot of St. Michael, that he should take care that the holy Boniface and Benedict and John the Martyrs be added to the Catalogue of the other Saints in the Calendar of the Order: from which their solemn Birthday is kept."

[3] Blessed Peter Damian, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, in the Life which he wrote of St. Romuald, where he treats of the Disciples of this Saint, has comprised in a brief style also the virtues, apostolic labors, and martyrdom of St. Boniface, as is to be seen in Tome 2 of February, on the 7th day in the Life of St. Romuald, ch. 8. From this, inasmuch as the Author was contemporary, those things which pertain to our holy Martyr we will reprint below, others being left, since almost all the lives which were written of him in an ampler style [Blessed Peter Damian, contemporary of the Saint, wrote his martyrdom in the Life of St. Romuald] are taken from the writings of Blessed Peter Damian. Bollandus truly admonished the Reader in the preliminary commentary, no. 4, that the Life of St. Romuald published by Laurentius Surius on the 21st of June was in many places polished by him, and that the genuine simplicity of Peter Damian was not preserved, or certainly that it was taken from a faulty copy, but that he himself had published that Life as more sincere and genuine than that which Constantine Caietan published in the second tome of the Works of Blessed Peter Damian at Rome in the year 1608, from the press of William Facciotti, whence it is given below. and that other, who published the same works, revised and augmented with new study and labor, and divided into three tomes, at the expense of Claude Landry at Lyons in the year 1623.

[4] But as to the time at which he attained the palm of martyrdom, Thomas de Minis indeed asserts in the Catalogue of the Saints and Blessed of the whole Camaldulese Order, The Martyr died not in the year 1000 published at Florence in the year 1606, p. 7, that St. Boniface was crowned with Martyrdom in the year 1100, on the 9th of July, by a typographical error for the 19th of June. But if the Life of St. Romuald written by Peter Damian be more attentively weighed, the Birthday of the holy Martyr must be referred to some years after the death of Otto III (which happened in the year 1002). For when the Emperor Otto, St. Romuald's counsel being spurned, had gone to Rome to quell the rebels, returning thence at the beginning of the following year died on the journey. But at the same time St. Romuald, a ship being boarded, sought Istria, and there dwelling for three years on the borders of the city of Parenzo, built a monastery of his Order: then the Venetian sea being crossed, he went to the hermitage of Bisarcum in Italy; where intent on instructing the Monks of his Institute, he tarried for some time. Hence he turned to the territory of Camerino and there in a place, which was anciently called Vallis de Castro, a hermitage of hermits being founded, both on converting the depraved morals of the inhabitants, and on eradicating the foul vice of simony which was common among the Ecclesiastics, he labored for some time; and in those same parts erected a monastery of holy Virgins.

[5] Lastly, some of his disciples being left at Vallis de Castro, he betook himself to the region of Orvieto, and on the estate of Count Pharulphus built another Monastery; and there many tokens of his zeal being given, and some miracles wrought, he converted countless men both to the purpose of a holier life, and to the institute of the eremitic life: "when meanwhile Romuald," says Peter, "hearing that the most blessed man Boniface had undergone Martyrdom, kindled with too great a fire of desire to shed his blood for Christ, presently disposed to go to Hungary." But since that saying meanwhile seems to be referred to the last things said and to those which were done by St. Romuald around Orvieto, or in the Orvietan territory; those things which we saw the holy Father did in various parts of Italy after the death of Otto III require at least six years. That Otto III died in the year 1002, on the 5th of the Kalends of February, Baronius invincibly proves at that year: wherefore to the year of Christ 1008 the martyrdom of St. Boniface must be assigned. but 1008. But what we have adduced from Blessed Peter Damian for determining the time of that death, the Reader will find in the Life of Blessed Romuald illustrated by John Bollandus in Tome 2 of February on the 7th day from no. 53 to 64.

§. II. Of what Nations St. Boniface was the Apostle.

[6] [St. Boniface not of the Russians, whose King Vladimir was converted to Christ in the year 980;] No small difficulty is in this, that St. Boniface is said to have been sent as Apostle to the gentile Russians, and to have converted their pagan King, by passing unharmed through a vast pyre of flames, by this miracle to the Christian faith. The name of the Russians indeed extends most widely: for it comprehends whatever of lands is between the Finnish gulf, Livonia, Sweden, the Volga, the Maeotis, the Pontic sea, the Sarmatian mountains, Poland, Lithuania, and Samogitia. But the inhabitants of these lands, while Basil and Constantine the brothers, sons of John Tzimiskes, ruled among the Greeks, a little after the year 980 from Christ's birth publicly came to the Christian faith, when Vladimir, son of Sveneslaus or, as others prefer, of Stoslaus by a concubine, his brothers Olgo and Jaropolc being removed from the midst, obtained the principate of all his paternal dominions

and had taken Anna the sister of the aforesaid Emperors in marriage, and received Greek masters of religion: and had placed a Metropolitan at Kiev, an Archbishop at Novgorod, and in the other cities Bishops consecrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople. These things from the Annals of the Russian nation Martin Cromer in On the Origin and Deeds of the Poles Book 3, and others who wrote of Polish and Hungarian matters.

[7] Who therefore was that pagan King? since Vladimir was still living at the time, nor of the Scythians, too remote from Prussia, at which St. Boniface must have undergone Martyrdom. What gentile people did Boniface convert to the faith? since the Russians, from the time they subjected themselves to the Patriarch of Constantinople, were always most tenacious of the Greek rites. It is difficult to determine this certainly, since the Authors who unearthed the Annals and Histories of those nations are silent about it. Our Bollandus indeed asserts, after he had noted the same in the notes to the Life of St. Romuald ch. VIII, letter E, that it is more likely that St. Boniface was sent to some other nation of the Scythians: but it is hard to understand how this can agree with what is said in no. 5 in the Life of the Saint. Namely that "They (the gentiles to whom Boniface announced the Gospel) fearing, lest, as after the martyrdom of Blessed Adalbert, the signs of miracles flashing, most of the Slavonic nation were converted, the same should happen likewise to them; for a long time by an artificial malice restrained their hand from the blessed man, and most desirous to die, unwilling to kill him, cruelly spared him."

[8] St. Adalbert Bishop of Prague, whose Acts Henschen gave on the 23rd of April, fell a Martyr in Prussia in the year of Christ 997. but more likely he converted the Livonians or Samogitians to the faith Of this Martyrdom, therefore, and of the miracles wrought after it, and also of the fame of the people converted by them, had pervaded that gentile nation, in which St. Boniface exercised his apostolic office. But it would be strange, if to the Barbarian peoples of Scythia, so great a distance of lands remote from Prussia, so distinct a knowledge of those matters had come, that on account of it they kept their bloody hands from the Saint. It seems therefore more likely that St. Boniface cultivated regions nearer to Prussia and still given to gentile superstition, namely Livonia or Samogitia, of which the latter, bordering on Prussia between north and east, only in the 15th century, Vladislas King of Poland procuring it, bade farewell to all idolatrous superstition, before in part Christian. But Livonia, separated from Prussia by the Samogitians alone on one side, under the beginnings of the 13th century began to be instructed in the Christian faith by Blessed Meinard the Bishop, and at last by Albert, the Society of the Militia of Christ being instituted there, was purged of all worship of idols.

[9] Since therefore to these nations the fame of St. Adalbert the Martyr, and of his miracles after death, could easily have come, it seems more in accord with the history that among some of those nations the holy Martyr had the wrestling-school of his Apostolic labors; to which the fame of St. Adalbert's martyrdom could easily come. and that he converted some Prince of them with a vast multitude of men to the Christian faith; whose descendants then, in course of time, when apostolic men failed, in great part returned to their former state. Blessed Peter Damian too, the writer of this Life, could have comprehended the Livonians or Samogitians under the name of the Russians their neighbors. Nor is it strange that among those peoples no memory of St. Boniface exists, since those Barbarian nations, before their conversion to the faith of Christ, scarcely knew any letters; nor began to weave the Annals of their affairs, except when they had been taught both the sacred Dogmas of the faith and letters alike by Ecclesiastical Men. But let these things be said by conjecture.

LIFE

From the Acts of St. Romuald the Abbot. By the author Blessed Peter Damian.

Bonifacius, Apostolic Archbishop around Russia, Protomartyr of the Camaldulese Order (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

FROM THE LIFE OF ST. ROMUALD.

[1] Romuald with … Thammo a and with Boniface a most renowned man, whom now the Russian Church glories to have as its most happy Martyr, St. Boniface and with other converted Germans, from the town of Tivoli came to the monastery of St. Benedict, which is established on Cassino mount… With all these above-named, therefore, Romuald returned to Pereum, b where he had dwelt before; and there, these and many brothers being gathered and established in single cells, a disciple of St. Romuald with so great fervor he held the rigor of the eremitic conversation both in himself and in others, that their life was held wonderful to all to whom the fame of them could come. For who would not be astonished? Who would not proclaim the change of the Divine right hand, when he had seen men before clad in silken, indeed gilded garments, surrounded by frequent throngs of attendants, accustomed to the affluences of all delights, now beheld them content with a single cloak, c enclosed, unshod, unkempt, and worn down by so great a dryness of abstinence? he is exercised in the rigid institute of the eremitic life But all did the work of their hands, some namely spoons, some spun, some wove nets, some hair-shirts. The conversation of Blessed Boniface, however, far transcended the life of all of them.

[2] He finally had been a kinsman of the King, d and so dear, [before his conversion dear to the King, by the example of his Patron he was kindled with desire of martyrdom;] that the King called him by no other name than "My soul." But he was most excellently instructed in the doctrines of the liberal arts, and especially approved in the studies of musical modulation. He therefore, when he was staying in the royal Chapel, seeing the church of the ancient Martyr Boniface, presently by the example of his namesake provoked to desire of martyrdom, says: "I too am called Boniface. Why then ought I not also to be a Martyr of Christ?" Then too, now made a Monk, he bound himself with so great a frugality of abstinence, that often on the Lord's days and only on the fifth Feria through the week did he eat: but sometimes if he saw a thickness of nettles or even briars, made a monk he lacerates his body with thorns: casting himself there he rolled. Whence when a certain Brother once rebuked him saying: "Hypocrite, why do you do this, to catch the rumors of popular favor, before all?" he answered nothing else: "Yours be the Confessors, mine the Martyrs."

[3] But when after a long life of eremitic conversation he now disposed to go to preach, he strove first to go to Rome, and from the Apostolic See received the consecration of the Archbishopric. e A certain old Monk related to me, he becomes Archbishop: who had accompanied him thither from the borders of Ravenna, that in all that journey the venerable man, although he went on foot with all those who followed him, yet himself continually singing psalms, and far preceding the rest, always walked with bare feet. Having set out for Rome with bare feet he lives sparingly. For the labor of the journey indeed he ate daily, but living each day on half a loaf and water, on feast days, every other food namely being unknown, he added to his daily sustenance any apples or roots of herbs.

[4] But after he was consecrated, he daily observed both the monastic and the Canonical order in celebrating the offices of the Hours. He goes to the Russians barefoot riding in the greatest cold: But when he now sought the lands beyond the mountains, he was indeed carried on a horse, but the venerable Pontiff, as is said, with bare legs always and soles so endured the intolerable cold of the most frigid region, that wishing to descend, he scarcely could disjoin his foot from the clinging iron stirrup, unless hot water first came to his aid.

[5] But coming at last to the Gentiles, he began to preach with so great constancy of fervid breast, that now no one doubted he preaches fervently: but that the holy man demanded martyrdom. But they fearing, lest, as after the Martyrdom of Blessed Adalbert, f the signs of miracles flashing, most of the Slavonic nation were converted, the same should happen likewise to them, eager for martyrdom for a long time by an artificial malice restrain their hand from the blessed man; and most desirous to die, unwilling to kill him, cruelly spare him.

[6] And when the venerable man had come to the King g of the Russians, and with constant mind vehemently insisted on his preaching; the King seeing him clad in squalid garments, he is clothed in squalid garments; walking with bare feet, supposed that the holy man bore such things not for the cause of religion; but rather for this, that he might gather money. He promised him therefore, that if he would withdraw from this kind of vanity, he himself would enrich his poverty with the most ample liberality of riches. Boniface therefore presently without delay returns to his lodging, is becomingly clothed in the most precious Pontifical ornaments, and so is presented again to the King's palace. But the King seeing him adorned with so comely garments, says: "Now we know, that not the want of poverty, but the ignorance of truth, impelled you to a vain doctrine. But yet if you wish what you assert to be believed true, let two lofty piles of wood be raised, separated from each other by a very short interval; and fire being placed underneath, when they shall have been heated, so that one fire seems to be of both heaps, pass through the middle. But if you shall be injured in any part, we will deliver you to be wholly consumed by those very fires. But if (which cannot be believed) you shall escape sound, he passes unharmed through the fire purified with holy water and incense, we will all without difficulty believe in your God." And when this pact pleased not only Boniface but also all the nations that were present; Boniface, thus clothed as if to celebrate the solemnities of Masses, first surveying the fire on all sides with sanctified water and burning incense, then entering the hissing globes of flame, so came out unharmed, that not the smallest hair of his head seemed scorched. Then the King and the rest who had been present at this spectacle, cast themselves in crowds at the feet of the Blessed man, tearfully ask pardon, and with most urgent supplication demand to be baptized.

[7] And so so great a multitude of nations began to flow together to baptism, that the holy man went to a certain spacious lake, and in the very abundance of waters baptized the people. he converts many with the King But the King decreed, that leaving the kingdom to his son, he himself, as long as he lived, would in no way separate himself from Boniface. But the King's brother dwelling together with him, while he was unwilling to believe, in Boniface's absence, was slain by the King himself. But another brother who was already divided from the King's cohabitation, as soon as the venerable man came to him, was unwilling to hear his word; but kindled with too great anger against him on account of his brother's conversion, immediately seized him: then fearing, lest, if he held him alive, the King should snatch him from his hands, in his own presence, a not small multitude of men standing around, he orders him to be beheaded. But straightway he himself too was blinded, and so great a stupor oppressed him with all who stood by, that they could neither feel, nor do any human office at all, but all remained like rigid and immovable stones.

[8] But the King hearing this, struck with too great grief, altogether resolves not only to kill his brother, but also to slaughter with swords all who had been the abettors of so great a guilt.

But when he had at once come there, and saw the body of the Martyr still placed in the midst, and his brother together with the rest of the men standing stupefied without sense and motion; this pleased him with all, that first prayer should be made for them, if perchance the divine mercy might restore to them the sense which they had lost: [therefore he is slain by his brother: but this one and his companions are made blind and immovable:] then if they should consent to believe, the crime being pardoned, they should live; but if not, all should perish by avenging swords. When therefore both by the King himself and by the rest of the Christians prayer had been made at length, not only is the former sense restored to the stupefied men, but moreover the counsel of demanding true salvation is sent in. For straightway they tearfully seek penance for their crime, receive the Sacraments of baptism with great alacrity, and over the body too of the most blessed Martyr build a church. But yet I, if I should attempt to relate all the gifts of virtues of this wonderful man which can truly be said, my tongue would perhaps fail, but the King and people praying, they are restored to themselves and baptized. the matter not failing. Since therefore the virtue of Boniface needs its own proper style, yet for that reason we take care to mention him here summarily with the other disciples of Romuald, that from their praise we may show how great a glorious man their master was: so that while the loftiness of the clients sounds in the ears of the faithful, how exalted their teacher was, may be made known from the school which he held.

NOTES BY F. V.

d Namely of Otto III.