St. Boniface was very bold in his faith and was well known for being very good at using the local customs and culture of the day to bring people to Christ. He was born in Devonshire, England, in the seventh century. He was educated at a Benedictine monastery and became a monk, and was sent as a missionary to Germany in 719 instead of becoming abbot for his monastery.

There, he destroyed idols and pagan temples, and built churches on the sites. He was eventually made archbishop of Mainz, where he reformed churches and built religious houses on those sites.

He was martyred on June 5, 754 while on mission in Holland, where a troop of pagans attacked and killed him and his 52 companions.

One story about St. Boniface tells about when he met a tribe in Saxony that was worshipping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree. Boniface walked up to the tree, removed his shirt, took an ax, and without a word, chopped it down. Then he stood on the trunk, and asked: “How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he.”