Vigils Reading -St Boniface

THE DESTRUCTION

OF THE SAXON OAK

By Bishop Willibald of Eichstätt

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Many of the people of Hesse were converted by Boniface to the Catholic

faith and confirmed by the grace of the spirit: and they received the laying on of

hands. But some there were, not yet strong of soul, who refused to accept wholly

the teachings of the true faith. Some men sacrificed secretly, some even openly,

to trees and springs. Some secretly practiced divining, soothsaying, and

incantations, and some openly. But others, who were of sounder mind, cast

aside all heathen profanation and did none of these things; and it was with the

advice and consent of these men that Boniface sought to fell a certain tree of

great size at Geismar, and called, in the ancient speech of the region, the oak of

Thor.

The man of God was surrounded by the servants of God. When he would

cut down the tree, behold a great throng of pagans who were there cursed him

bitterly among themselves because he was the enemy of their gods. And when

he had cut into the trunk a little way, a breeze sent by God stirred overhead, and

suddenly the branching top of the tree was broken off, and the oak in all its huge

bulk fell to the ground. And it was broken into four parts, as if by the divine will,

so that the trunk was divided into four huge sections without any effort of the

brethren who stood by. When the pagans who had cursed did see this, they left

off cursing and, believing, blessed God. Then the most holy priest took counsel

with the brethren: and he built from the wood of the tree an oratory, and

dedicated it to the holy apostle Peter.