St Boniface was born around the year 680 at Crediton, Devon. He was educated in Monastery schools near Exeter and at Winchester. He decided to become a missionary for Christ and founded many monasteries; Pope Gregory ll made him a Regional Bishop in Germany and later Supreme Bishop and finally Papal legate to Gaul.
The most well known of his miracles took place on the peak of Mount Gudenberg at Geismar in Germany. A huge oak grew there which the heathens venerated as sacred to the god Thor. Boniface told the locals that he intended to cut down the tree and destroy it. A large crowd of pagans gathered, in the belief that their god would strike Boniface dead. Boniface struck the tree with his axe only once and the huge tree miraculously split into four and fell to the ground. The pagans were astonished and many of them converted to Christianity. Then Boniface took the wood of the tree and built a church dedicated to St. Peter.
