St. Boniface and Thor’s Oak
Boniface was a Bishop and a missionary in Saxony, in the early eighth century. In the area of Hessia there had once been a thriving Christian community, but when Boniface arrived all of the converts were gone and only the worshipers of Thor remained. Boniface was having little success in the area and could not convince any of the people to stop visiting Thor’s oak tree, an ancient Oak tree that was deep in the forest in which the people believed Thor lived. He decided to take care of it once and for all. He took an ax and had his monks and the people of Thor’s tribe follow him through the under brush and into the forest until the stood before Thor’s oak at which point he took off his shirt and, without a word, chopped down the six-foot wide wooden god. The people were thoroughly frightened because they believed that Boniface would be punished for even wielding an ax in the direction of the tree, but after the tree had fallen he stood on the stump and cried, “How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he.” He took the wood of the oak and made a chapel. Some people converted on the spot, other were upset with him, but over time the tribe became Christians and worshiped the True God in the chapel built of the wood of the giant felled Oak of Thor.
Quotes from St. Boniface
In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandons ship but to keep her on her course.
Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations."
Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful, and he tells us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.
from a letter by Saint Boniface
