Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
St. Boniface, bishop and martyr(†754). An Anglo-Saxon monk who was sent by Gregory II to evangelize the Germanic peoples. He founded numerous monasteries and dioceses, conquering vast regions for Christ. While Archbishop of Mainz, he undertook a mission to Frisia, in what is today Holland, and was killed by the sword by a band of pagan Frisians in the city of Dokkum.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Timothy 3:10-17
You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Responsorial Psalm – 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 (R.165a)
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Though my persecutors and my foes are many,
I turn not away from your decrees. R.
Permanence is your word’s chief trait;
each of your just ordinances is everlasting. R.
Princes persecute me without cause
but my heart stands in awe of your word. R.
Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block. R.
I wait for your salvation, O Lord,
and your commands I fulfill. R.
I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you. R.
Gospel – Mk 12:35-37
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’ David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” The great crowd heard this with delight.
Featured Saints
St. Eoban, bishop, martyr (†754). Eoban was monk-missionary who accompanied St. Boniface to Germania and was appointed Bishop of Utrecht, present-day Holland. He received the palm of martyrdom at the hands of pagans in the city of Dokkum together with St. Boniface.
St. Ilidius of Auvergne, bishop (†384). Bishop of Clermont, France, he was called to Trier, Germany, by Emperor Maximus to liberate his daughter from an unclean spirit. He died on the return trip.
St. Dorotheus of Tyre, bishop (†fourth century). Bishop of Tyre, Lebanon. After suffering persecution during the reign of Diocletian, he was martyred by Julian, in Varna, present day Bulgaria, at the age of 107.
St. Luke Vu Ba Loan, priest and martyr (†1840). Beheaded in Hanoi, Vietnam, during the persecution of the Emperor Minh Mang.
St. Franco, hermit († twelfth century). Led a life of penance and contemplation in a grotto near Assergi, Italy.
Sts. Marcianus, Nicandrus and Apollonius, martyrs (†third century). For their faith they were tortured and confined in a prison in Egypt, and died of heat, hunger and thirst.
Blessed Sancho, martyr (†851). Adolescent martyred by the Saracens in Cordova, Spain, for declaring himself a Christian.
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