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English Correspondence

St Boniface, tr. Kylie, 1911

Letter 45: Boniface Urges All the English to Pray for the Conversion of the Saxons to the…

To all the reverend bishops, venerable priests, deacons, canons, clergy, the abbots and abbesses, placed over the true flock of Christ, to the monks humble and submissive before God, to the virgins consecrated and devoted to God and all the consecrated handmaidens of Christ, and in general to all God-fearing Catholics, sprung from the English race, Boniface, or Wynfrith, an offshoot of the same stock, legate in Germany of the universal Church and servant of the Apostolic See, appointed archbishop without the claim of merit, greetings of the most humble affection and most sincere love in Christ.

We beseech your parental clemency with most earnest entreaties, that you should deign to remember our weakness in your prayers, in order that we may be delivered from the snares of Satan, the fowler, and from malicious and evil men and “that the word of God may have free course and be glorified;”¹ and we beg that with your holy prayers you should seek to obtain that our Lord and God Jesus Christ, “who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of God,”² may turn to the Catholic faith the hearts of the pagan Saxons, and that they may escape from the snares of the devil, by which they are held bound, and be united with the sons of Mother Church. Have pity on them because even they themselves are wont to say “We are of one blood and one bone,” remembering that the way of the whole earth draws near, and that no one in hell will confess the Lord nor will death praise Him; and the way of the whole earth draws near. And know that for this request I have obtained the consent and approval and benediction of two Roman pontiffs. Act now upon this our appeal, so that your reward in the heavenly court of the angels may shine and increase.

May the Creator Omnipotent keep forever the unity and bond of your love strong and effectual in Christ.

Notes

Thess. iii. 10.
1 Tim. ii. 4.