So there was this perfectly nice priest who thought he would convert the heathen Frisians. He travelled from England to Rome and the Pope named him Bonifacius in 717 a.d. The heathen Frisians called him Bonifatius. The first time he came to Friesland, there was a major war going on so Bonifatius decided he’d wait for a better time. He went off to Germany and converted lots of heathens there and became sort of famous for being a good converter and church administrator. But he really wanted to convert Frisians so he came back and headed for Dokkum in 754 a.d. The Frisians liked being heathens and really had no interest in being converted and poor Bonifatius and his 52 companions all ended up dead. They were set upon in a field outside Dokkum and were hacked apart by swords and knives. Some of the artifacts from the slaughter eventually made it back to Germany along with Bonifatius’s body. An eyewitness account claimed that Bonifatius had, at the moment of his death, held a gospel over his head to ward off blows from a sword. The story is supported by one of the artifacts, the Ragyndrudis Codex, a testament belonging to Bonifatius that shows deep grooves in the sides that could have been made by a sword.
A well on the slaughter site is said to contain water that produces miraculous cures. There have been a series of pilgrimages from various parts of Europe to the Dokkum fields over the past 200 years. Bonifatius was promoted to Sainthood along the way and there are several memorials, including churches in Germany, Great Britain, and the US – my Indiana family will be interested to know there is a Saint Boniface Church in Lafayette. There is also a small chapel in Dokkum and this lovely church in Leeuwarden built between 1882-1884 and designed by the great architect P.J.H. Cuypers.
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