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by George W. Robinson (Translator), Brother Hermenegild Tosf (Editor), Willibald (Author)
Saint Boniface is the Apostle of Germany. The chief sources from which our knowledge of Saint Boniface is drawn are, first, the writings of Boniface himself, particuJarly his Letters, with the letters addressed to him which have been preserved with his own; secondly, the Life by Willibald. The Life of Gregory, the saint's beloved disciple, by Liudger, also presents a number of valuable notices; and the Life of Abbot Sturmi of Fulda; by Eigil, gives the best and fullest account of the beginnings of the great abbey of Fulda, the special delight of the declining years of Boniface, and the spot which he chose as the final resting place for his body. Other contemporary material includes a few passages in the chroniclers, and in the Lives of Willibald, bishop of EichsUitt, and Wynnebald, abbot of Heidenheim, brothers, and relatives of Boniface, by the Nun of Heidenheim. The Life of Boniface by Willibald, the translation of which we give, was written within a few years of the saint's death, almost certainly not later than 768 at the request of Boniface's successor, LuI, and of Bishop Megingoz of Wurzburg. Willibald, a priest of AngloSaxon origin, is an author worthy of all respect as regards industry and veracity. The chief defects of his work are two: a style inflated and obscure, supported by no sufficient foundation of grammatical knowledge; and the comparative scantiness of the information which he supplies concerning much of the later life of Boniface.3 Fortunately the omissions can be supplied in part from the other sources.
