St. Boniface was a native of Devonshire, England. His first attempt to convert pagans having failed, he went to Rome where he received the Pope’s blessing on his mission, and then set forth with the papal authority to preach to the German tribes. He thus became the apostle and the first archbishop of the Germans. While engaged in his earnest work he, with other Christians, suffered martyrdom, on June 5, 755. Pius IX extended the Office of St. Boniface to the whole Church.

(Source: The New Roman Missal by Father Lasance).