Named one of the "Makers of Europe," Saint Boniface was born in Devonshire in southwestern England in 675, educated at Exeter, and at Winchester (county town of Hampshire) he as professed as a monk and ordained a priest. He discerned a call to do mission work and went to the Netherlands where he bombed.
With understandable disappointment, he left and went to Rome to ask for the Pope's advice, and the Holy Father sent him to Germany where he flourished. There he organized churches, built monasteries, and created three dioceses. In 722 he was ordained a bishop, in 732 appointed an archbishop, and in 743 was given a see, namely Mainz, the beer capital of Germany. :-)
The Frankish Church called him to preside of reforming councils and Bonfiace anointed Pepin king. (Pepin's son was Charlemagne who united Christian dominion in the West.)
In 753, with a terrific track record, he decided to take another shot at mission work amongst the Dutch. Back in Frisia and waiting for a group of converts coming to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, he and his companions were murdered by indigenous non-Christains at Dokkwor. Felicitously, his body was buried at Fulda Monastery which he founded near Mainz.
Lessons? Well, besides the fact that he is a model of persistence and devotion, we may also learn that getting a second opinion in the process of discernment can be a blessing.
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